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Also look out for weevils... A lot of times, eggs from the field they grew in find themselves in the bag, and you won't know they are in there until they hatch and start eating away, at which point you will see them. They can be washed off, but it's quite a nuisance.
the life expectancy is quite long but they can be harder to cook with as years go by. At 10 years I would toss them. It isn't like they are a gourmet or pricey food.
Exactly. I have 2 lbs of pinto beans going right now and they were quite inexpensive.
A few years ago I found a large-ish tupperware container of pinto beans left behind by an old roommate. He moved out in the 90s so the beans were at least ~20 years old. I soaked them and cooked them. Normal taste and texture.
Ladies and Germs--Here is what a Prepper and Survivalist says about storing beans and cooking old beans.
Nor'Eastah
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Living in the east, it's anything but dry here. I would think at your OR cabin it might be humid some of the time, also. If you want to keep the beans for a long time, they must be kept dry. Here in the east, the only way to 100% guarantee they are dry, is to vacuum seal them. I dunno why you say people won't do that, as so many of them have vac sealers. Even mylar bags with O2 absorbers are not as good. That vac seal keeps everything out.
As for cooking, if you run across 'resistant' beans, just put them into a pressure cooker. Another thing most people have, stuffed away in some cabinet, unused. They'll use their crock pots, but that's just cooking. If overnight soaking does not make them swell, try the pressure cooker.
Most preparedness-minded people don't eat beans very often (OK, I love Boston baked beans). They buy the beans, pack 'em up as well as they know how or can afford, and expect them to last 25-30 years, till SHTF. I can't tell you the horrors I've found in dried beans, rice, oatmeal, etc that were not properly packaged. You can't just leave it in the plastic bag from the store, throw it into a 5 gallon bucket, and expect it to last decades. Now I do it right.
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Also look out for weevils... A lot of times, eggs from the field they grew in find themselves in the bag, and you won't know they are in there until they hatch and start eating away, at which point you will see them. They can be washed off, but it's quite a nuisance.
Pre storage, you could put the dry beans in the freezer for a while to kill the bug eggs.
A few years ago I found a large-ish tupperware container of pinto beans left behind by an old roommate. He moved out in the 90s so the beans were at least ~20 years old. I soaked them and cooked them. Normal taste and texture.
The thing is, it may be your local weather.
Maybe things keep longer on East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
Pre storage, you could put the dry beans in the freezer for a while to kill the bug eggs.
While I have never kept beans for over 2 years (although I am in the process of correcting that ) all of the beans I got from the store and just dropped into a Sterilite storage container and kept for a year or more, I never had any problems.
I don't recall ever hearing of weevils, or other kinds of bugs in dry pinto beans, have you?
(I will admit my experience with long term storage is limited.)
The thing is, it may be your local weather.
Maybe things keep longer on East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
I do live in an exceedingly dry place. That said, I think the tupperware had as much to do with the preservation of the beans as anything else.
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) all of the beans I got from the store and just dropped into a 
