BEAN YEAR

Here’s the section from bean year letter 1 that covers pinto and Anasazi beans. BEAN YEAR BOX 2 launches this Friday!

Phaseolus vulgaris – The Common Bean

That Phaseolus vulgaris is now the most commonly eaten bean species in the world is astounding. It is a testament to the history of horticultural work done by the people of the Americas but it is also alarmingly commonplace, an incredible global connection. If you had to pick 1 ingredient as possibly definitional to who we are as a global species, the common bean is a good candidate. The humble pinto bean is the most commonly eaten bean in the US. Similarly, and through a history that itself deserves to be further explored, the red kidney bean is the most commonly eaten bean in India, which is the nation that eats the most beans per capita. Both are Phaseolus vulgaris. And that range is what I have selected to represent this pivotal plant. 

Pinto Bean

As mentioned, this is the #1 bean in North America. 

Are there caveats? Yes, soybeans. In total acreage, the US grows 25X more soy beans than all other dry beans combinedincluding peas and lentils. However, in the US, humans rarely eat soybeans directly. They are livestock feed and for oil. 

But for beans humans eat, Pinto is the champion. 

These are new crop dry farmed pintos grown at 7,000 feet in the 4 corners region. 

New crop beans are just better. American commodity farming prioritizes storage. Beans can sit for years in a warehouse before they’re sent to a grocery store shelf, and their quality degrades a little every day. Flavor is lost and texture is ruined. Many of the most lauded bean eating cultures in the world will not eat dried beans more than a year old.

Dry land farming means growing crops with as little water as possible. There are obvious environmental and resource use benefits, but some stress also encourages the plants to produce more chemicals that make our food taste better. Each bean has a more concentrated bean flavor. 

Similarly, growing crops at high elevations stresses the plants so that they generate and concentrate more chemicals, which againis flavor. 

It is interesting how ubiquitous Pinto beans are, but I personally have rarely cooked them from scratch. In my life they are more often the pre-made refried beans alongside enchiladas, in pupusas, or in burritos. 

Cooking fresh dry farmed high elevation pinto beans will change how you feel about them. 

On a personal note, I was recently discussing this project on line and commented that I was struggling to find any faults with it. I have worked in ingredient sourcing and logistics for industrial food manufacturing for over a decade. Before that I did botany, landscaping, and environmental management jobs and my degrees are in Environmental Science and land use Geography. If economics is the dismal science, then environmental science is the bleak science. I know too much about how we create the world and it is easy to find fault and lose hope. But these pinto beans, in particular, they’re fine? They are delicious, which should always be the first consideration with our food. All food is good. Conveniently they’re good for us. Growing and harvesting is extremely efficient, mostly done by tractors or combines, no stoop labor, and post harvest processing and cleaning is similarly automated. Since they’re a dry good, bulk transportation is efficient. The greatest problem I can come up with: is it efficient for me to send you these pintos when you could buy them yourself? If you were going to go out and buy just these beans, then no. But would you? People can curate their own BEAN YEARS but hopefully the wide range of beans I’m offering, with this personal commentary is worthwhile. So despite my general disposition of cynicism, “they’re fine?” is basically the most laudatory I get about anything. They’re good beans.

Anasazi Beans

These beans were not found in an ancient pot. It’s not appropriate to call them Anasazi Beans either. 
The story of these beans is a great example of the “phone game” that occurs with ingredients and traditions. 

I will suggest 2 articles that cover the history. 
Tastingtable.com “What Are Anasazi Beans And What’s The Best Way To Cook Them?”
agroinsight.com/blog/?p=1925 ANASAZI BEANS

I’m also including these beans to show more of a range of traditional “painted” beans. There is such a range of beautiful beans. 

These beans are dry farmed at high elevation just like the Pintoby the processor who popularized this bean in the 1970s, Adobe Mills. 

Said to have a thinner skin, they cook very similar to pintos.