We grow edible dry beans. Many times people will ask us, "How do you dry them?" We don't. They naturally dry on the plants. The plants dry out and die. The pods become crackly dry. And the beans inside the pods dry and harden.
Once the beans are dry enough, we harvest them. With some varieties, that means hand pulling the plants and loading them on hay wagons.
We've found a very short window each day where the harvesting conditions are perfect--the dew is just gone from the plants, but conditions are not yet extremely dry. In the heat of the late afternoon, the crackly dry pods will break open and spill the beans on the ground when the plants are pulled. Too much waste.
When the hay wagon is full, we bring it to the combine and run the plants through to separate the beans from the plants and pods.
For a short video on how the combine works, click here.
Why do you harvest your beans by pulling them and then running them through the combine instead of using the combine only?
ReplyDeleteGood question (one I have pondered long and hard myself). We only do it with the beans that are low-growing, vine-like, and laying on the ground. The combine would waste too many beans, as it tends to do better with plants that are at least 12" tall.
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