Problems with Cooking beans

[Guest guest]

Did anyone ever have a situation where, despite soaking beans a really

long time (48 hours) and then cooking them a lot - they didn't really

all soften up enough, as much as they could?

I had that happen today - didn't add salt to them while they were

cooking

until the very end. So that wasn't the issue. Am not sure what the

issue

is - maybe they were just too old - they probably had been there a long

time - over two years for sure. Maybe longer.

Am now wondering whether I should throw out all my old beans and

start fresh.

Also, I noticed when the beans got to about the 36 hour point and then

later the 48 hour point, they released some small white bubbles which

just lingered around. I changed the water each time and washed them

off, as I previously had done a few times before this happened.

Is this normal or okay?

Mara