Taking a lovingly large bite out of a freshly picked and cooked Hopi Blue Dent corncob the other night convinced me that it was not a cob for fresh eating. So began another experiment. My small crop of blue corn is now husked and drying inside; once the kernels are dried out, I hope to run them through a grinder, turning them into blue cornmeal. Progress, if any, will be duly noted in future pages.
I planted green beans between mid-May and June 1 this year. By the last week of July, their production had somewhat slowed, and my time for freezing/canning them began to move towards tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. I let the last pods hang on the plants to dry. By August 12th, half of them cracked open (by my hands) to reveal dry beans. The Tavera variety are particularly beautiful – white and rose mottled. Having shelled them and set them to dry 
a little while longer atop the washing machine, I hope to cook some and save some for planting next spring.
A more experienced beanie than I could tell you when to save the beans, but my experimentation extends beyond once bunch. I started a second round of string bean plants the last week of July. They are flowering as I type, and these I suspect to be even more successful drying beans. It makes the most sense in my head right now that one harvests dry beans at the end of fall harvest, whereas one eats fresh string beans during the true summer months . . .
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