Is it possible to skin dry beans?

I love Rancho Gordo beans. We're lucky enough here in Portland that a few markets carry them. My favorites are the Yellow Indian Woman and the pink Rosa beans.

Wow, Rancho Gordo looks amazing. Great to see so many heritage varieties available for cooking.

They are sort of a dusty rose colour bean. I don't know what kind, but it's a kind they don't seem to sell in local shops anymore.

Actually, it's weird. These days it's a challenge to find any dry beans that aren't chickpeas, lentils or an already mixed packet of beans and spices. Five years ago, I remember the big grocery store chain had a huge display of a dozen or more kinds of dry beans, but now it's all canned food and boxed pre-fab, add water and microwave, food-like products. Grocery chains apparently don't like dry beans anymore, but thankfully we have small mom and pop grocery shops lovingly stocked with all manner of dry beans. Amazing, even big box grocery is encouraging me to buy local or grow my own... who would have thunk it?

I guess the point of that long rant was that I can't find any beans that look like the ones I found when organizing the pantry, so I haven't a clue what they might be.

I found the bean in the back of the cupboard. They may have been there five years, perhaps quite a bit longer. I know, I know, one shouldn't eat really old stuff from the back of the pantry, but they smelled okay so I cooked up a handful. The inside of the bean tasted fantastic! Perfect texture, not too sweet, not too bitter. Really nice.

But the skin was terribly tough and bitter. Inedible.

Germination test was poor, so I won't be growing these in the garden. Since I can't stand the idea of tossing food out, not if there is some hope of salvaging it, I figured why not ask how to skin them.

Also I dried a huge batch of scarlet runner beans this year, but they also have that nasty taste in the skin when I cook them. Tasty innards though.

I think you'll have an easier time removing the skins during cooking. I find the skins remove easily when I sprout my beans. I wasn't purposely removing the skins, but I do when they peel off while cooking them. I've been buying very fresh beans lately.