Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Thursday August 04 2022, @08:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-yet-amount-to-a-hill-of-beans-in-this-crazy-world dept.

Ancient crop provides flavor for humans, forage for livestock:

Tepary beans are among the most drought-tolerant legume crops in the world, but at one time, they were almost an endangered species in the U.S.

Waltram Ravelombola, Ph.D., a Texas A&M AgriLife Research organic and specialty crop breeder at Vernon and in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, is one of a few scientists funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service grant to bring tepary beans into modern cropping systems and diets.

The legume — pronounced tep-uh-ree — is an ancient crop native to the northern part of Mexico and the southwestern part of the U.S. The beans can be multiple sizes and colors, like pinto or black beans, but they offer drought tolerance other legumes don't, Ravelombola said.

Teparys can be consumed as beans by humans or as forage by livestock, providing better nutrition content than cowpeas and guar. Like cowpeas and guar, tepary can fix nitrogen in the soil.

Yet currently, Ravelombola said, no large supplies of seed exist to be planted.

[...] However, getting the beans to the point of widespread commercialization won't be an easy process.

Ravelombola said it will take at least eight growing seasons; there could be more than one growing season per year, depending on climate. [...]

Anyone ever eat one? It surprises me that a niche market for them never developed over the decades, or that they didn't find their way to a different part of the globe.


Original Submission

This discussion was created by janrinok (52) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 04 2022, @09:34AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 04 2022, @09:34AM (#1264899) Journal

    I did a search to see if these beans were available on the market. https://www.nativeseeds.org/ [nativeseeds.org]

    Our Mission

    Native Seeds/SEARCH seeks to find, protect and preserve the seeds of the people of the Greater Southwest so that these arid adapted crops may benefit all peoples and nourish a changing world.

    They have a variety of crop seeds available, including 16 varieties of tepary beans, https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans [nativeseeds.org]

    First grown in the Southwest during ancient times, tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) mature quickly and are tolerant of the low desert heat, drought and alkaline soils. They are among the most drought and heat tolerant crops in the world. Tepary beans are high in protein and contain soluble fiber helpful in controlling cholesterol and diabetes. Generally white tepary beans have a slightly sweet flavor and brown tepary beans have an earthy flavor. Tepary beans can be used in place of any standard dried bean. Soak the dried beans before cooking. They are best planted with the mid-summer monsoon rains characteristic of the Southwest, unless otherwise stated. They generally do not tolerate wet conditions and clay soils. Teparies are most productive with some drought stress as they mature. They generally do not require support, though many will climb if given the chance. Approx. 7g/50 seeds per packet unless otherwise stated.

    Anyone ever eat one?

    Maybe. I suspect that eating out in Mexico or the US southwest, you might get some of these with your meal. Not in a chain restaurant, but in those little Mom & Pop family restaurants. I've never asked what kind of bean was in my refried beans!

    I need to learn whether I can grow them, and when is the right time to plant. I've shot an email to them info@nativeseeds.org to see if I should attempt growing them with my fall crop.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2022, @10:56AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2022, @10:56AM (#1264901)

    I can't help but read "temporary beans" and think of farts.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2022, @11:24AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2022, @11:24AM (#1264903)

      Was reading it therapy beans and thinking of farts. Cathartic farts, come to that.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Thursday August 04 2022, @11:30AM

      by Opportunist (5545) on Thursday August 04 2022, @11:30AM (#1264904)

      Another form of vaporware.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 04 2022, @01:21PM (8 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday August 04 2022, @01:21PM (#1264912)

    It surprises me that a niche market for them never developed over the decades

    It shouldn't. The "free market" demands maximal return on investment (dollars to dollars), if you're not getting it your operation will be bought out by another that is. If these beans are even 10% less productive in terms of Return on Investment over an average crop cycle, as compared to any given alternative, you can expect them to be driven to extinction by the small group of maximally profitable crops. Our monetary system is driving the high risk / high short term yield monoculture cropping system so prevalent around the globe today.

    Yes, we have no bananas, because monoculture is subject to blight.

    Are pesticides and chemicals the answer? Short term, max profits, they're right.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by ChrisMaple on Friday August 05 2022, @01:48AM (3 children)

      by ChrisMaple (6964) on Friday August 05 2022, @01:48AM (#1265002)

      The whole idea of a niche market is that some people want specific peculiar things, and they're often willing to pay a premium price.

      Claiming that participants in the free market must always strive for some optimum property like maximum ROI, is assigning to the free market properties it doesn't have.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 05 2022, @02:23AM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday August 05 2022, @02:23AM (#1265011)

        Claiming that participants in the free market must always strive for some optimum property like maximum ROI, is assigning to the free market properties it doesn't have.

        Every mom & pop shop squashed by Super WalMarts in the next town over would beg to differ.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 3, Touché) by ElizabethGreene on Friday August 05 2022, @02:46AM (1 child)

          by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 05 2022, @02:46AM (#1265020) Journal

          I'll see your mom & pops run out of business by Wal-Mart and raise you mom & pops that are in business selling on eBay or Amazon.

          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 05 2022, @12:49PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday August 05 2022, @12:49PM (#1265092)

            Yes, mom & pop selling on eBay are definitely seeking maximal ROI through minimizing the I.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Friday August 05 2022, @08:04AM (1 child)

      by deimtee (3272) on Friday August 05 2022, @08:04AM (#1265061) Journal

      There are plenty of "niche" sellers out there. DDG "heritage seeds" for the people selling old-fashioned and odd seeds to hobby growers and "niche" farms.

      Tepary beans are available here in AU from seed sellers, eg https://vegetableseeds.net.au/product-category/vegetable-seeds/beans/tepary-bean/ [vegetableseeds.net.au] Makes sense, they sound very suited to our climate.

      --
      If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 05 2022, @12:52PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday August 05 2022, @12:52PM (#1265093)

        Agreed, not everyone plays the game. I understand that Mexican farmers still grow many kinds of corn, and there are niche players in the US that also do... But it is a tiny niche, like less than 1% of US grown corn.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Monday August 22 2022, @01:37PM (1 child)

      by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Monday August 22 2022, @01:37PM (#1267946)

      I agree with your point, and in addition our market is skewed because of lobbying. In particular, as far as I understand it (and I'm happy to be corrected) in a lot of the US farming lobbies have gotten legislation passed to give them effectively unlimited water access at taxpayer expense. So in areas where a "free market" would give tepary beans an advantage if irrigation carried any costs, instead irrigation costs are unfairly offloaded from farmers and in an unlimited free water market other legumes are more profitable.

      Before anyone chimes in with libertarian fantasies, this kind of problem is fundamental to capitalism. As long as any government, however small, exists, groups will be motivated to lobby it for beneficial policies. Even if you temporarily convince voters to vote to dismantle ${YOUR_LEAST_FAVORITE_REGULATORY_AGENCY}, sooner or later enough people would vote to put an equivalent back, and then get to work corrupting it again. Unless you're going anarcho-primitivist, the best we can do is what we are doing, fighting an eternal battle against corrupting influences.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 22 2022, @03:54PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday August 22 2022, @03:54PM (#1267972)

        My take on farmers in the U.S. is that mechanization has put a lot of free time on their hands, at least as compared to life 200 years ago, and a fair number of farmers / ranchers have put that free time to use in becoming politically active, and what's the whole point of becoming politically active? Getting laws passed to your financial advantage, of course. The whole; hard working generational farming family sympathy campaign goes into supporting passage of those bills, both for the family farmers and the industrial giants who tag along also gaining benefits from the farm friendly bills: around here that means property taxed at 10% the rate of other land uses, super-cheap water, various other tax incentives and sweetheart deals to convert Ag use land into ecological preserves 99+ years in the future with property taxed at 0%, lump sum and/or recurring buyout payments in present day, and free use of the land for farming and ranching (for the 'former' owners) as usual in the meantime.

        My favorite "agricultural use water rights" story comes out of San Antonio Texas in the late 1990s. 100% compliant under the existing water use laws and incentives, a man started a fish farm outside San Antonio - it made business sense: the water was essentially free, the land was cheap, and the fish grew quickly in the climate. I believe the business was built up into multi-millions of annual profit before the first drought hit and somebody noticed that the fish were using more water than the entire city of San Antonio did for all purposes residential, commercial and industrial. So, they bought him out and closed down the fish farm before anyone died of thirst in the city.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by rufty on Friday August 05 2022, @04:31PM

    by rufty (381) on Friday August 05 2022, @04:31PM (#1265130)

    I tried growing tepary beans a couple of years ago, sandy soil in the UK. Just a few as an experiment. From memory, it was a bit of a wet year, and I don't think they liked that. The plants were very "vetch"-like. And the beans quite a bit smaller than I'd expected. Overall, will probably try them again next time I see some that aren't too pricey.

(1)