One of the corners of my home office is filled with beans, for example borlotti beans, brown beans, cannelini beans, ying yang beans and green beans.

I shared a picture on my Instagram a while ago and loads of people reached out to me with questions about my storing methods. "Do you just keep them in bags like that?"

I realize how it looks! But I'm the only one using this office space and I don't mind that one of the corners is completely occupied by beans. This is how I store the harvest from last year.

Read more about beans on the blog

Simple solutions

Storing dried beans doesn't have to be harder than this! Sure, it might look a lot nicer to remove the beans from the pods, keeping them in glass jars on a shelf. But it's ok to keep them in the bags too, as long as no mice decide to come for a visit. I had this issue last year when they got to almost all of my dried fava beans I kept in a crate on my office floor.

So, you can absolutely try storing dried beans and peas in paper bags in dry conditions and room temperature. Whenever I want to use the beans in my cooking, I just go get a bag and then I spend some time together with my children, picking the beans from the pods.

This is a lovely little bean I really enjoy. I don't remember what it's called though!

Last year was a really good year for beans and I got a nice and large harvest. I still have a lot of beans in these bags and I won't have to grow and dry as much this year. That's what I think now at least. But I haven't sown this year's beans and I know that my fingers will start to itch when it's time. Beans are after all so important to my garden, so I can't really get enough!
/Sara Bäckmo