At the southern part of Chester County Pennsylvania, lies the beginnings of the United States as we know it. Here is the battle of Chadds Ford, fought under the first flag of the United States, by all accounts the hand stitched Betsy Ross flag was used during the battle in the vicinity of New Street and 926 just south of West Chester. It might amaze you that the battle was on 9/11/1777! So after the battle for many years folks were picking up all sorts of items over the last two hundred years. The British & Americans abandoned much of the battle kit right on the 1000+ acre's of battlefield. The surprise - many small wrought iron bean stoves were recovered.

But the story doesn't end there, years later nutritionist find Beans to be the perfect nutrition. Think about it England sent their boys and officers over seas for months to hike the American countryside with backpacks and guns and bean pots... Now we know Beans are shelf stable, cook well, rehydrate well, and have the right ratio of protein and carbs, and with a little sugar & spice - priceless.

So Hiking and beans cannot be denied! (add a little BBQ sauce)

To start off you are going to need a dehydrator - after trial and error I recommend for beginner Backpackers , I recommend a Nesco from Amazon or Walmart. The kit should have one Yogurt tray or more.

Now there are two ways to work with beans... Dry beans take a soak overnight, some brits (my dad) used to soak the beans in their canteens on a hike all day and pour them out at the end of the day rehydrated, too much work.

Now I looked around there are many videos - this is close to what I do... so view this..

Here is another method that is more familiar!

Part of the issue here is the low quality dehydrator, Nesco has a fine sive tray that reduces the time for the beans 8 hours is optimum.

Serious this video could have been cut to ten minutes... Not a fan of ziploc - but watch what he uses at the end of the video... wow.

Note to self- bring Beeno so Grinder feels comfortable...[IMG:http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg275/MarkSwarbrick/Fun%20Post/pokewstick_zpsf4e5580f.gif]

Refried before the dehydrator.... Rasty you need to see this.

Huge! for medium - not beginner.... wow

its nice to get up in the morning and getting 6 positive notifications.....

And Socks yes you are right! but I found the overall technique from dried beans to table and his method of adding fat worthy of adding to the thread. After watching some non English videos of moms making traditional - I went back to that video for several reasons.

Rasty , thanks for the lard tip.