Bean Facts of Life: Where do beans come from?

Obvious answer, right?  Beans come from plants.

But how often do you actually see shelled beans (black beans, chick peas, navy beans etc.) in fresh form?  Chances are, if you cook with beans, you're using either canned or dried.  So when I saw a sign saying "black beans" at the Farmers Market, I was intrigued.  I bought about a pound and a half, and then tried to figure out what to do with them.

First of all, how long do you cook them?  Dried beans take hours to cook - you have to soak them for several hours, then at least another hour of cooking time.  Logically, fresh beans wouldn't need as much time because they haven't lost their moisture.  Sure enough, that's the case.  I found cooking directions by googling "shell beans".  You shell the beans (open the pods & take the beans out), and boil the beans in water for about 45-60 minutes, and they're ready to use in any recipe that calls for cooked beans.

So I started to shell the beans.  The pods weren't all that attractive, but inside were beautiful little black beans...

...that took an awfully long time to shell.  About 20 minutes later, I had 1-1/2 cups of black beans, which I put into a pot of water on the stove.  I tested them after 40 minutes, then kept them in for another 10 (50 minutes total).  Interestingly enough, the beans had turned purple during cooking.

The beans were tender and flavorful, but frankly, I couldn't tell the difference between these and cooking beans that started off dried. They cooked in less overall time, but I'm not sure the savings was worth the time spent shelling them.  I did save some of the uncooked beans to plant in my garden next spring - dried beans might be pretty cheap, but if I can grow black beans myself, for free, it would be worth the time spent shelling them.

Local Garlic

I love cooking with garlic - in stir-frys, salads, soups, sauces, pastas, you name it.  My family spreads roasted garlic on bread, and one day, I'm going to try out some of the chocolate-garlic recipes I have in my garlic cookbooks.  But it bothers me that most garlic in stores is from China.  That's right - China grows about 75% of the garlic sold in the U.S.

I'm not strongly on the locavore bandwagon - I support the idea in general, but the issues of where and how food is produced are more complex than just the country listed on the label.  There's also the issue of cost - in an ideal world, I'd buy local and shun internationally transported foods, but I need to be able to afford to eat.

But garlic... why on earth does that need to be imported?  It's not like buying peaches in January - it's a basic root crop, that can be grown in a variety of climates, and stored for a pretty long time. I might be willing to increase my carbon footprint for a persimmon or mango, but not for something as ubiquitous as garlic. So when I was at the local farmer's market, I decided to seek out some locally grown, organic garlic.

There was some sticker shock - the best deal I could find was 6 heads for $5, which was at least twice what I'd pay at the grocery store. Was it worth it? You bet. Besides the satisfaction of supporting regional small farms and not having used 7000 miles of fossil fuels to transport it from the other side of the planet, this was excellent quality garlic! The cloves separated easily and the peel fell right off to reveal perfect, smooth cloves.  I might not be ready to give up bananas or mangoes, but I can do my part and buy local garlic.