How to save and store heirloom garden seed, especially bean seed is extremely easy. If you've read anything on my website, you know I'm a huge believer in heirloom gardening. Just one of the many benefits of heirloom gardening is your ability to save the seed from year to year, saving you money and making you more self-sustainable. (Check out my podcast Intro to Heirloom Gardening to find out while you'll love them as much as I do)
Our Tarheel green beans have been passed down in my family for over 100 years and I'm so excited that I've been able to pass them along to you guys in my annual spring giveaway. And I got a little giddy when some of the winners emailed me to say they'd enjoyed them so much they wanted to know how to save the seed.
The first thing to know about seed saving is you can only save the seed from heirloom plants. So this tutorial is on the assumption you've got good old-fashioned heirloom plants.
Beans, for the most part, don't cross pollinate so they're the simplest seed to save. To save the seed, allow some of the pods on all of your plants to mature past the eating point. Let the bean inside the pod get large. The bean will turn from green to white and become limp and rubbery. This is good for seed saving!
I also think for the amount of space they take up, they're the most prolific plant in my garden. From just two rows, I got enough beans to can 80 pints of green beans. I had enough shelled beans to can 3 quarts of white beans. And the remainder is for seed. I don't know any other plant that can be harvested in two ways and with such a large yield.
Depending upon your weather, allow the beans to stay on the vine until they're shriveled, dry, and brittle. If you're going to get a frost or the wet season has moved in, then let them mature as long as possible. If a rain storm is coming in, pull up the vine and hang upside down in a dry place for a few weeks to give the beans more time to mature and dry.
Shell the beans from the pod. Place the beans on a cookie sheet with a rim, leaving enough space that they don't touch one another and air can circulate around them. Check every three days for any seeds that may be molding. Throw them away.
Make sure you choose beans from multiple plants. You never want to save seed from only one plant, diversity is best. Choose the plants that are the healthiest and show the traits you desire. If a plant is sickly, doesn't produce much, or has some other malady, don't save any seed from it. Always save double what you think you'll need. If the weather changes after you plant or some other unseen problem, you'll have enough to replant. Trust me on this, I had to plant three times one year, more is better.
Once they are completely dried, store them in a glass jar in a cool dark place. To tell if they're dried, try to nick it with your fingernail. It shouldn't leave a mark. Depending upon how dry your beans were to begin with, and the humidity level where you live, this can take a few days up to a few months.
Some folks store their's in the freezer, but the year I tried this, not a one came up. It might have been the weather conditions, but I'm not chancing again. I don't like to replant. 🙂 My father sometimes just tosses the shriveled pods in a five gallon bucket and stores them in their laundry room if they run out of time to shell them all. I prefer to shell and dry mine as shelled beans to save room. Plus, I've eliminated the chance of them molding inside the pod or some bug getting into them when they're stored in glass.
Properly stored, bean seed will stay viable for at least three years, most times, many more. Be sure to mark each year on the container you store your seed in so you rotate it, always using the oldest first.
Some seeds require a process called fermentation, here's How to Save Heirloom Tomato Seeds.
For further information on heirloom gardening, check out these articles as well!
List of Heirloom Varieties to Grow in Your Garden
10 Unique Heirloom Vegetables to Grow in Your Garden
Natural Weed Control & Heirloom Flowers
5 Reasons You Need Heirloom Seeds
Heirloom Seed Saving & Gardening
Want to grow a year’s worth of food?
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Thanks! Sharing on FB. I have been thinking that I need to learn how to do this.
Thanks for sharing. It really is easy and with the threat of GMO’s, it gives me peace of mind. Plus, it’s free and makes us more self-sustainable, two of my favorite things. 🙂
Great post, and your photos are awesome!
80 pints of green beans? Wow! That’s great.
(I’ll be sure to share this.)
Thanks so much, Holly. Yes, 80 pints. They last us a full year til next harvest and during the winter, we eat green beans at least once a week. It’s our main go to vegetable during the winter.
[…] Tarheel beans produce a lot per plant. They do require stringing, but the flavor is worth the extra work. I like to let some of the beans mature. I mix the shelled small white bean in with the fresh snapped green pods. They are excellent fresh, canned, or in true Tarheel fashioned, leather britches style. Beans are strung on a string and left to dry. You then soak them when ready to eat and cook as usual. (Learn how to save and store heirloom seed) […]
[…] How to Save and Store Your Heirloom Garden Seed […]
Thank you for all the wonderful ideas you put on your posts! They are so informative and inspiring. I have just decided to double the size of my garden this year, I’m so excited.
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We have beautiful bean plants full of blossoms and non of them are being pollinated by bees. We have cucumbers and other food that is fine but none of the beans. My husband was going to pull out the plants but I wanted to see if you had any ideas of how I can get bees in my plants to do their magic? Thanks for any help you can give me. Also I want to pressure cook my old dry beans that I’ve stored and are going to be hard to soften up when cooking if I don’t do something with them soon. Do you have a guide of how long to pressure different kinds of beans? I have garbonzo, white, and pinto. Thanks.
This is something I know very little about, but would like to learn. Thanks for sharing. I’m pinning this!
There’s certainly a great deal to know about this issue.
I like all of the points you’ve made.
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[…] tomato seeds is a tad bit different than saving bean seed (you can learn how to save bean seed here). It requires a fermenting […]
[…] Depression was beans. They’re a prolific crop. With just two 12 foot rows, we have enough Tarheel green beans to can 80 pints of green beans, 2 cups of dries bean for seed for next year and a giveaway on the […]
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I’d love to swap seeds with you for some tarheel beans!
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[…] When my mom was growing up sometimes they didn’t have groceries or food in the cupboard. In fact, sometimes they didn’t have anything at all. My Grandmother did can Tarheel green beans, but they didn’t have a large garden beyond that living in town. Both sides of my family came from North Carolina and relied on the heirloom green beans we’ve saved and continue to grow and pass down to this day. (Learn more here on How to Save Heirloom Garden Seed) […]
“Our Tarheel green beans have been passed down in my family for over 100 years and I’m so excited that I’ve been able to pass them along to you guys in my annual spring giveaway.”
As I must have missed the spring giveaway, now can I get some of your Tarheel Green Bean seeds?
Would love to start my family’s Tarheel heirloom seeds.
Many tnx for your help. ca
Charlotte,
I’ll be doing another giveaway this coming spring!
Haha…80 pints of beans ( that’s a LOT) from only 2 rows. Wow!! But… 10 foot or 100 foot rows? I’ve had little 10×10 gardens (at present) and 50×100 gardens. People always forget to add that one minor detail. Lol.
Linda,
Our rows are about 12 feet in length.
The beans you have dried hard for seed – could they be cooked as a dried bean then? I always thought shelled beans referred to using the dry bean but I see you show it differently in the photo so I am slightly confused
– I hope that makes sense. Thanks
Melissa,
Yes, I use our seed dried beans for cooking beans all the time. I just make sure to keep enough saved for seed and planting come spring.
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[…] bloggers who have a little more experience than I do. Mellissa K. Norris has a great article about how to save and store seeds to use next year and Common Sense Homesteading has an article about starting seeds and pest […]
Does this process work the same for sugar snap peas? Thanks!
Id recommend to freeze for 2-3 weeks at least to kill any weevils.
Please keep posting on seed saving techniques!!! Thanks!
Thanks for the tip, Christine. I haven’t had that issue, but it’s a possibility and that’s a great way to avoid it.
Will there be another Spring giveaway this year? I’d love to be able to plant some of your heirloom seeds to pass down through the generations in my family, as yours has. 🙂
Yes! And I can’t share details yet, but when my book comes out in February, there will be a way to get your hands on the seeds, too.
YAY! I can’t wait! Continuously reminding myself that patience is a virtue!! 🙂
Is there any way of where I could purchase the tar hill beans? My mother in law lives in the mountains of North Carolina also. I remember her saving greasy beans. I wonder if there the same as the Tarheel beans?
I don’t sell them, but I do give them away. I gave away packets as a bonus when my new book launched this spring, so I have to finish filling those envelopes (I ran out) when we harvest this September. Here’s book info http://madefromscratchlife.com/bonuses/ but if I have any left over, I would be happy to send you some if you send me a self-addressed-stamped envelope.
Great ideas on the seeds. I’ve been saving seeds for 15 years and all are now sealed in pint mylar bags & vacuumed sealed. I love getting seeds from the produce I grow every year. I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of Tarheel green beans, I grow Blue Lake cause my mom did. Your information is very good.
Thank you.
Do you sell a book on how to save and store heirloom seeds? The pictures and descriptions of things are awesome and I want to learn more.
melissa I haven’t been able to find the link to the seed storage container you showed on August 29th. Could you please send me more info on where to find it on Amazon. Thanks Stacy