It is going to depend on the specific variety. Are these varieties that are normally left to dry on the vine like pintos and such or are they varieties that are usually eaten fresh shelled like limas?

Dry beans that aren't completely dried on the vine can still be canned using the canning dried beans instructions. Shellies that have been too long on the vine need to be re-hydrated first by soaking and then canned using the fresh beans canning instructions.

Or you can always save them for seed for next year but you will need to dry them fully first.

Dave

Thanks, Dave. These are varieties not normally dried. I've got Rattlesnake, a Blue Lake, Yellow Wax, and another bicolor that I can't remember, all pole varieties. Probably turn to mush in the canner? You may be onto something about saving the seeds for next year, they are all heirlooms but I'll have to research if cross-pollination is an issue since they were all planted next to each other. I could kick myself, beans were one of the things I really wanted to can up this year and I just let them go. Life happens, I guess! Lori

Most pole bean varieties will continue to produce pods throughout the growing season if you pick regularly. Since yours are maturing you would need to pick off ALL the large beans, and then the vines are likely to resume flowering and producing more young beans. So you could have another chance to pick and can snap beans yet this year.

Meanwhile, enjoy the mature ones now as shellies or in soup, or preserve them as digdirt suggests.