If you have ever been interested in saving seeds, but didn’t know where to start, beans are a very simple jumping off point. We are saving two types of beans this year. One we grew intentionally for drying to use in soups over the winter and the other because it performed incredibly well and we want to plant it again next year. They were actually so prolific that we missed picking tons of them and they ended up drying on the vine, which further pushed our decision to try to save the seeds.
The first thing you need to do is let your bean pods dry. You can either let the beans dry on the vine or pick them and let them dry some place out of the way. Some of our beans dried on the vine, but as the weather turned cold, we picked the rest and let them dry on the counter.
Once the pod dries and starts to turn brown, you can open it up and remove the seeds.
We then placed the seeds on a coffee filter and will let them sit out to dry for another week before placing them in an envelope. Make sure to label your envelope with they type of seed and store it in a cool, dry, dark place.
That’s it! You now have beans saved for eating later or planting in the spring!