Dried Beans

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are a nutritious and versatile food. They fix nitrogen in the soils (for next years crops); they store well with no preservatives or processing; they are an excellent source of protein and dietary fiber with a low glycemic index. You can also make dozens of delicious recipes from them, ranging from good old baked beans to soups and stews, not to mention gluten free dishes.

We have introduced edible beans into our crop rotations. Alas the efficiency aspect takes some specialized equipment to produce at scale, and keep the cost of production down. As we improve our production methods, we will be offering more beans and bean products......

Last spring we found some small scale bean harvesting equipment from 1967. This significantly reduced the pulling labour, but cleaning is still primarily a manual task.

As with our cereals, we focus on landrace open-pollinated varieties that have been grown for generations.

Beans and the Three Sisters

Last year we started trialing an ancient Meso-American technique dating back 6000+ years. The Three Sisters are dent corn, beans and squash grown together. The maize provides the pole for the bean; the bean fixes nitrogen from the air, replenishing that used by the maize, and the squash provides a smother crop, keeping the weeds down and the moisture in.

Together they provided the complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids and all eight essential amino acids, as long as the maize went through a process called Nixtamalization. More on that later....

 

Dried Beans

As we refine the efficiency of our bean agronomy, and begin it to scale it up, we will begin experimenting with milling bean flour.

Interested in growing some great beans... check out out bean seeds for some ideas.

Soy Bean...

When we think of Soy beans, we rarely think of the 'original' varieties domesticated some 9000 years ago. The heritage varieties, having seeds of yellow, green, brown, black, or bicoloured have a wonderful history and provide for a wide variety of culinary delights..

Fermented soy beans form Miso, Tofu, and Tempeh, and a traditional breakfast cereal called Natto.

The edamame pods are simply Soy that have been harvested early, as in string beans. Try them stamed with a touch of rock salt.