Beans Get Stubborn With Age

It's a cook's nightmare: The table is set, hungry diners hover, and the beans aren't done. They've been cooking for six hours but still haven't softened, and never will.

For those of us who have forsworn canned beans in favor of the real thing, the unpredictability of dried beans' cooking time can turn a nourishing meal into a game of chance. Lentils or black-eyed peas are usually a safe bet, often done within an hour. Soaking beans overnight may shorten the cooking time a bit, but only if they have the potential for softening at all. And most any kind, from navy to kidney, can occasionally be recalcitrant.

Various culprits have been offered: salt, acidic additions such as vinegar, hard water. But there is only one relevant factor: the age of the bean. Unlike fresh vegetables, dried ones don't show their age, so you don't know whether you're buying a lively, nutritious foodstuff or a useless has-bean.

Out of caution, I often prepare bean dishes the day before or work out a backup scenario, such as pasta. But the best solution is to lay up a good winter's supply of beans I've grown myself the previous summer. I like to plant several different kinds for variety's sake -- say, black turtle beans, white cannellinis and some dark red Vermont cranberry beans, always saving some of the seeds to plant the next year. Beans are sown when the soil is good and warm, and it is not too late to put in a bed of them now. Pole beans, grown vertically, take up the least space, but for drying I often choose the bush type, whose pods ripen all at once rather than in a long succession.

Dry beans are harvested when the pods are crisp and tan-colored. They can then be hung in clusters in an outbuilding, spread out on a table or stored in large baskets until there is no hint of moisture left. You can then put the pods in a feed sack (an old laundry bag will do) and stomp on them to release their seeds, which will collect at the bottom of the bag. Pouring them into a container or tossing them with your hands while a breeze (or a fan) is blowing will winnow out the last of the chaff. Store them in sealed jars in a cool place.

Though an extremely easy crop to grow, a year's supply of beans does require a lot of garden space -- at least 100 feet of garden row -- and I find there are never quite enough of them. Just as well. Those not eaten might find their way into some dark corner of the cupboard, to be fished out hastily some day long hence, too old and stubborn for a good soup.