The Black Bean Harvest in El Horno

When we arrived in El Horno to visit coffee co-op member, Don Salvador, we were greeted by a flurry of activity in his front yard. Family members were bringing in piles of dried bean plants and these were being hand-threshed right in front of us. It was great to be there for this process, and I explained to Don Salvador that we had done a lot of bean threshing ourselves this past fall. I was pleased that they more or less followed the same process.

The black bean plants have been pulled and piled upside down to dry in the field.

Then the piles of plants are gathered and brought to the yard of Don Salvador's house.

Piles of dried plants in front of Don Salvador's house.

Piles of dried plants.

Then the piled plants are threshed with a stout stick to shatter the dry husks and remove the beans.

The resulting beans and chaff accumulate on a piece of plastic netting, to be later winnowed. and eaten. Yum.