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Beans simply tick all the boxes: they are good for the environment and farm income, they benefit neighbouring plants and our health. And most are really pretty.
To grow, plants need nutrients and one of the most important is nitrogen. Beans don’t have to rely on growers and gardeners spreading chemical fertiliser, they make their own by ‘fixing’ nitrogen from the air with the help of a special type of bacteria living in their rood nodules.
Beans and other legumes such as peas and lentils not only produce their own fertiliser, they also share it with neighbouring plants. Native Americans utilised the beans’ generosity and developed the ‘Three Sisters’ planting technique: planting beans together with maize and squashes (milpa system). The beans provide nitrogen to the maize plants which act as ‘bean poles’, and to the squashes. Their huge leaves shade the soil and conserve soil moisture for everyone. The modern name for ‘in field easy fertiliser production’ is ‘companion planting’: many organic and regenerative farmers will grow grains together with beans or lentils.
… good for the environment
The benefits for the environment are considerable: chemical fertiliser is fossil fuel based, and its production is energy intensive. Farm Carbon Toolkit, a public interest company helping farmers to establish and reduce their carbon footprint estimates that “approximately 50% of the GHG emissions associated with N fertilisers are attributable to the production process”[1] – and that doesn’t even include transport. Using legumes to produce nitrogen fertiliser reduces the need for fossil fuels in farming considerably.
… good for farmers
Farmers benefit too: they can reduce or eliminate their chemical fertiliser bill, they save fuel, because they don’t have to spread it in the field, and they get to harvest beans!
… good for our health
Beans are an excellent source of protein and fibre. And they are cheap. Add some carbs such as pasta, potatoes or rice. Chop in a few vegetables and – if you have it – add a tiny amount of meat, cheap cuts are excellent. Done! You’ve created a delicious and nutritionally well balanced meal. Nothing new in this, you’ll find recipes for bean-carb-veg combos pretty much everywhere in the world.
Mexicans are famous for their bean dishes, in Cuba black beans and rice – Moros y Cristianos – are a staple, here, baked beans come with ‘a full English breakfast’ or on toast as a fast lunch or dinner option. Americans add molasses or maple syrup and call it Boston baked beans. Italians have countless recipes for vegetable and bean soups. Rajma Dal, a bean curry, is famous across India, and can you imagine Chinese, Japanese and East Asian cuisine without soya sauce, edamame, tempeh or bean curd?
Get cooking!
Beans are easy to cook – use a pressure cooker or, even better, a slow cooker, make a big batch and you are set up for several meals. Bean dishes freeze well, too.
And there are so many recipes to explore, so many beans to try – home grown or exotic heirloom varieties – the choice is yours.
Where to buy dry beans?
Hodemedods are based in Suffolk, an area where traditionally a lot of beans were grown. The company not only sells British grown beans, peas and lentils, they also work with farmers to help them overcome the challenges they face: Integrating beans into a rotation is easy – if you grow fodder beans. Growing beans for human consumption is far more difficult and not a lot of farmers are still doing it. Special equipment is needed for harvesting and cleaning, and not a lot of varieties are suitable for British soils and climates. Fava beans grow well but were mostly used as feed crop until in 2012 Hodmedod started a Fava Bean Revival. Today, a limited amount of flageolet beans is grown in Norfolk, too. Other varieties are imported from France.
Mexico and Bolivia have the best growing conditions for an amazing variety of beans. To try them check out the new kid on the block:
Since June, the company offers 23 heirloom varieties from Mexico and the US. To quote the Guardian food writer Felicity Cloake: “Imported from the legendary Rancho Gordo, these are possibly the most beautiful dried beans I’ve ever seen. And I can’t tell you how delicious they are, because you’d hardly believe it with something so simple”.
Why import beans from Mexico, shouldn’t we eat local, you may ask. For one, nowhere can more bean varieties be grown than in Mexico and Bolivia, countries which the great plant researcher Nikolai Vavilov identified as the ‘centres of genetic diversity’ of beans.
Different beans need different climatic and soil conditions, elevation, too, plays a role. By growing them, small farmers in the Americas are not only producing wonderful food, they are also preserve the genetic diversity of heirloom beans:. Their tiny fields are a living genetic seed bank which we need for breeding new varieties adapted to our rapidly changing climate.
Farmers will only continue to grow these beans in future if more people eat them and they can make a living. The Heirloom Bean Company wants to give these farmers and small farmer cooperatives market access, and they are committed to Fair Trade principles: they pay a fair price that allows producers to make a living. Apart from importing beans from Mexico via Rancho Gordo, the Heirloom Bean Company is now in contact with small farmer groups in Bolivia. It’s early days, but the heirloom beans on offer already should keep you busy cooking for a while yet.
[1] https://farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk/toolkit-page/fertiliser-production/
Marianne Landzettel is a journalist writing and blogging about food, farming and agricultural policies in the UK, the US, continental Europe and South Asia. She worked for the BBC World Service and German Public Radio for close to 30 years. Follow her on X at @M_Landzettel and m.landzettel on Instagram. Images by kind permission and (c) M. Kunz
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