Yep - we do navy and pintos every year as well as dried crowder peas and black-eyed peas. Baked beans too of course.

Dave

Oh yes, I do too. I can baked beans sometimes, kidney beans usually.

I'm still trying to figure out where in the world I can get dried garbanzos in bulk so I can make hummus from my own home canned beans!

Annie

Ha ha I wonder if there are any subjects that haven't been discussed here.

I have to admit that I am cooking my black beans and they have a pint of annies salsa in the pot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning dried beans.

I do! Canning dry beans is a wonderful "winter" canning project. I just canned navy beans last week and will be canning pinto beans within the next week or so.

I don't can beans because of the extra labor involved and because I think the freshly cooked dry beans are a little better than canned ones. Drying is such a simple, effective method of preserving beans that I choose not to add the complexity of canning. Canned beans aren't bad, mind you. I enjoy them. But using the quick soak method, I can get dried bean on the table in not much more than 2 hours, start to finish, so that's what I do.

I am with all of you who enjoy beans. Over at the Bean Forum there are some real beanophiles (Ruthie is one) who take beans very seriously. Beans are great! So are bean people.

Annie, I thought I was being thrifty by using 1 lb. or 2 lb. bags of dried garbanzos to make hummus. You're trying to go one better. I suggest finding an ethnic grocery store, probably Indian or Middle Eastern, as a source for bulk quantities of garbanzos. I'll check into that. I think any savings from buying a bulk quantity on-line would be negated by shipping expense. Of course, there is also the option of growing garbanzos. :)

Jim

I also can pintos mainly, but will NOT ever can 9 lbs. at one time ever again. I really got into trouble - had to freeze a lot of them (way over my head) and cook some pronto for supper. Actually, my "TO DO" list for today involves starting the soaking. We love them.

Also - today, someone gave us some of their excess red and green peppers - in exchange for some of our excess limes and mandarins (wonderful way to make new friends) - so made salsa, which I will freeze this time - to go with the beans - of course - when they are finished.

Incidentally, yesterday I decided to try making a softer salsa (more for dipping), so took my dehydrated peppers, tomatoes, onions - all from my garden this past summer - then pulsed in the blender with some lime juice and spices. I added a little tomato juice with Clear Jel to thicken. Not too bad!

It's hard to beat fresh salsa tho.

Bejay

Annie, I get bulk dry garbanzos and many others in a local nutrition store here. Beans,rices and many other bulk products are normally less expensive there than in the markets.. and also are fresher.

As I use up the purchased cases of cooked canned beans I have stored in the basement, I plan on canning my own. We love beans and even use them as a regular side dish with many meals.

Jim, Michigan is second only to North Dakota in producing dried beans so I'm accustomed to being able to buy dried beans locally in 20 pound bags at a relatively inexpensive price.

However, about half of the beans grown in Michigan are navy beans, so I can get a ton of those, along with cranberry beans, black beans, kidney beans or pinto beans. I haven't found a local supplier yet for garbanzos, but I'm looking.

Others I get from Arbrogast farms, just about 25 miles away in Howard City, Michigan.

Buy locally, you know, even while thinking globally! (grin)

Annie

I've never made hummus - what goes into the recipe beside garbanzos - and what is it served with?

Bejay

Black beans & garbanzo here. Lots of them.

I'm with Jimster here, quick-soak and two-three hours later, beans on the table.

My daughter, home from college, is on a hummus 'kick' - and I can't find any dried garbanzo in town. But we have perfected a recipe - 4 cans of garbanzo beans, two drained, two with their water. 1/3 - 1/2 cup your best olive oil, 1/3 - 1/2 cup lime juice, sprinkle salt (to taste) tablespoon-ish hot sauce, and a whole head of chopped up then fried-'til-crunchy garlic. Whir up in food processor, eat (with friends, obviously....).

Linked is a plug for a local bean outfit - here on the high desert plateau, they do 'dry - land' farming so the quantities are low, 200 hundred lbs / acre is a good yield, but the flavor is extraordinary. Anasazi beans are sweeter and even faster to cook.

Garbanzo's need to be soaked overnight - a quick soak just doesn't do it. One snack around here is to soak and cook them in salted water, then eat them cold.

Here is a link that might be useful: bestest-ever pinto beans in the whole world

Well I cook dried beans all the time too. I usually soak them overnight but I do a quick soak from time to time also...but...I can them also because there are times when I decide at the last minute that beans would taste good...now I also buy canned beans for situations like that as well when I don't have my own...but I do appreciate mine when it's a spur of the moment thing..

I mix anasazi with pinto can it and then open a jar, blend it up, and I have refried beans.

Annie,
This is a local place here in Eugene....
Plenty garbanzos here!!

Good quality, small locally owned and operated...and I HAVE to drive within one block of their small retail store every single day...dang it! LOL

Their specialty is beekeeping and honey supplies, but they have a huge inventory of bulk dried foods, spices, soap and candlemaking supplies etc. Oh so much fun to stop in, but the online catalog will keep ya busy for awhile too!

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Glorybee -- Garbanzo bean source

Canning beans sounds like a great way to also keep the jars in use during the off season. Empty several jars and then fill them again. By the time summer comes, you get them empty again.

I can pintos in pints. My boys say they don't like beans, but they never know. . .I screw the bottom "works" from my blender onto the opened pint of canned beans. Then I blend away (undrained). This sort of thick bean liquid is what I add to a couple of pounds of browned ground beef. Stir in a package of taco flavoring (with no additional liquid) and you have the perfect meat sauce for your favorite Mexican meal. The meat is "stretched" with good nutrition! I do about 16 pints at a time, several times each year.

I bought a 25 pound of pinto's for food storage and then felt that they had to be a little more accesible. So, I quick soaked them and canned. I put up 32 pints/around 10 pounds of beans in a day. It was a ton of work, but well worth it, they tasted great. I made two sauces, one tomato and one molasses. I'm hunting now for a refried beans canning recipe, anyone know of one?

Here is a link that might be useful: canned beans

Refried beans are very dense and may not be appropriate to home can. Freezing mighht be a better option.

I don't can refried beans...I love them and make them often with my canned beans. Just can the beans and it takes seconds to mash them ...not really any longer than heating the beans.

Just a comment from a family of dedicated bean-eaters, which include teenagers doing lots of sports, with a serious, serious appetites. I don't keep track of our annual consumption, but we buy pintos in 20 lb sacks and they don't last long.

I'll quick-soak 2 -3 lbs of dried beans, rinse, add salt, some sort of fat - butter, olive oil, salt pork - and simmer for 3-4 hours until they're tender - yield is about 4-5 qts. It's pretty easy to fill qt jars and either freeze, or they keep in the fridge for at least a week, and the reheated beans taste wonderful.

These days, with a daughter playing soccer and a son running track, that big pot of beans never makes it off the stove. Two days, its finished.