Harvesting Gigantes beans

[Plot70]

If you look at the data sheet for the gel packs they sell for placing inside sealed electronic equipment it should tell you.
Not all of them do tell you and you have to buy 150 at a time if you want plug and play gel packs.
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTerm=silica+gel
I have just had a look else ware. Some claim up to 40% but wiki claims 37%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silica_gel

[Mark Rand]

Typically 10-20% of the silica gel, but can be as much as 40% if completely saturated.

[Plot70]

You just need an electric oven and a set of herb scales and then you can re-use the gel packs.

[Andraste]

A quick update (especially noting that Mark Rand has confessed on the seed buying thread to having been tempted to try these).

I followed the advice of ameno & waited until the beans could be heard rattling in their pods [insert little angel smillie here]. I've never grown a bean intending to store the dried bean before - they really do rattle!

I picked all the 'brown' & rattling pods just over a fortnight ago. I was quite pleased with the quantity of beans (about 3-5 per pod on average) & the size didn't disappoint - around 1.5" up to 2" long & pretty fat.

OH didn't realise they need soaking first (thinking they wouldn't be dry enough to soak until they'd been through the low oven) so they took about an hour to boil lol - they were lovely though - not quite as buttery as a butter bean but milder with softer outer skins than a broadie. We've also had some in a stew since & they took on the flavour of the stock very nicely.

Unfortunately we haven't had ideal weather for on-the-plant drying here. It's been very wet & far too warm most of the time.

I picked more at the weekend (no rattles as the pods were damp) but left some as the pods are still green! Upon opening up the pods at home, some beans have started to rot in the pods as it's been so wet here (little brown areas on the surface of the bean). I also made a fatal mistake of not shelling them immediately & leaving them in a carrier bag in the kitchen where they could stay nicely damp & warm up, so a few had started to sprout! I considered potting them up to try & overwinter like a broadie but the plants grew big quite fast from a spring sowing so I didn't bother.

I'm not optimistic about the quality of the remainder that will be picked at the weekend - I do wish I'd picked them all on Sunday but didn't think to check the beans themselves whilst at the plot.

In terms of store-ability, our first picking would've been ideal (if we hadn't eaten them all). The 2nd (and next) pickings I don't think would stand up to long-term storage but I'm confident we'll have eaten them all before it comes to that. With the way the weather's been here this year I've also wondered if I might have been better picking everything at once, separating the 'green' pods for eating soon & the dry pods for storing?

We're definitely growing these again next year (OH suggested true butter beans instead but I think Gigantes are better suited to UK conditions). I might sow a few weeks earlier in the hope that they crop faster. We grew 9 plants & I would increase to 15 next time to have more beans to store.