Most veg growers find they have a few oversized beans growing on their bean plants at this time of year. If that’s you then you may want to consider drying them out for beany stews later in the year. Borlotti beans are brilliant for this, but there’s nothing stopping you drying out other beans as well.
The best way to dry beans is to leave the pods on the plants for several weeks until they have completely dried out. Unfortunately, this is difficult to do during wet weather. So we would recommend cutting off bean pods, leaving a little of the stalk on them if you can so that you can easily tie them into bunches and hang the bunches in a dry place for a few days until they’ve completely dried out. Alternatively you can lay them on something like a drying rack or suspended BBQ grate to give them as much air circulating around as possible.
Once they’re completely dried, pod them and put the beans into an airtight tupperware tub or kilner jar – as long as they are completely dry they will store like this for months ready for you to use in cooking as and when you want. Soak them before you cook them!