Growing Soup Beans

We have a Seedy Saturday seed exchange here and I have tried several different seeds over the past several years.  I tried several bean varieties last year - pinto, black and white.   I only had a few of the white beans so I used them all for seed this year.  They were labelled as Cherokee Trail of Tears so I have been calling them that until I went on the internet and found that Trail of Tears beans are black.

Here are the beans in the garden earlier this summer.

 

They are a bush-type bean.  They grow green pods with a pinkish blush on some of them. 

 

As they got more mature, they turned pinker. 

 

I pulled them out before they were completely dry so they could dry indoors.  Last year I left my beans too long in the garden and a number of them split and spilt their seeds in the garden.

 

I tied them together and hung them in the greenhouse.  After they dried, I shelled the beans.

 

 

I set them on a tray to make sure they are completely dry.  Notice the shape of the beans - they are more roundish than regular white soup beans.  I'll have to do more research to see if I can find out what they are.