2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

A couple of days ago I got this pretty neat box of limas from @Pulsegleaner. 4 Liberian limas he had ordered and he passed some of the seed to me. No names to these beans. I'll just tag the photos Liberian Lima #1 - #4. I have no idea what the length of maturity of these beans might be. It would be nice if they were short enough that I could even start them early and get seed from them.


Liberian Lima #1..................................................................Liberian Lima #2



Liberian Lima #3.............................................................Liberian Lima #4

 

[Pulsegleaner]

To be clear, the limas all came mixed up; I just sorted them out as I went.

And there are technically more than four, I just held on to the others (all together, the others made up maybe 2-5% of the total beans, so it wasn't like there would have been much to go around at this point). With one exception, all of them are also very small seeded limas.

Oh, that reminds me, my beans from Ghana arrive yesterday. The hyacinth beans actually ARE quite different from any I have seen before (for one thing, they're quite a bit smaller).

Also (and this might be of interest to @Zeedman). after a little back and forth, Jibril (the owner) confirms that my eyes are not playing tricks with regards to his mung beans, nor are they broken. Wherever in Nigeria he got them from, their crop has a LOT of yellow seeds mixed in with the green ones. Whether they are true "golden" mungs or the mustard colored kind (like your race @Zeedman) I don't know yet (the picture is not good enough to tell). But when I place another order, I'll add a package and check.

 

[Dahlia]

I don't know how most of these larger beans would taste. Most bean sprouts are done with mung, adzuki beans and chickpeas. I think for myself I just as soon stew beans and make soup out of them.

I do make a magnificent chili with pressure cooked pinto beans! It's so good! I will take your bean sprouting advice to heart!

 

[Dahlia]

I've only ever tried mung beans as sprouts, which are yummy, but I've never tried P. vulgaris beans that way. Might be something neat to try. I tried sunflower seed sprouts and they were surprisingly tasty, with quite a strong flavor. You never know what might taste good as sprouts.

I guess I'll have to experiment this year and get back to ya'll!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I guess I'll have to experiment this year and get back to ya'll!

Actually, that could be very dangerous. Common beans have a lot of phytohaemagglutinins in them when they are raw (which mung beans do not). And I doubt sprouting them drops it much. THATS why they tell you to cook beans at such a high temperature (i.e. don't make them in a crockpot on low). Eat them raw, and you'd risk seriously poisoning yourself.
Peas are safe as sprouts, though as are cowpeas. Since they are pretty closely related, I wouldn't risk eating raw lima, runner or tepary bean sprouts either. Stick to the side of the Phaseolus genus that used to be Vigna. That leaves you urds (though I do know some people are allergic to urd beans, and can't even touch them.) mothe (those would make really tiny sprouts, since they are smaller than mung beans) rice beans I guess.

 

[meadow]

Has anyone ever tried to grow sprouts from the more common type beans?

I'm fond of sprouted lentils.

Kidney beans require boiling for a certain amount of time to deactivate a toxin (crockpots won't do it) so you sure don't want to eat those as sprouts.

eta: What @Pulsegleaner said! Pulsegleaner, it is sticking in my head that there is one bean in particular that is dangerous to eat raw (or maybe it is just certain parts) and I keep thinking it is runner beans. Do you know if they particularly more toxic than most other beans? (I'm especially curious because some of the large white ones are so delicious as Pizza Beans (HA!) but I'm hesitant to have them as a regular part of our diet)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm fond of sprouted lentils.

Kidney beans require boiling for a certain amount of time to deactivate a toxin (crockpots won't do it) so you sure don't want to eat those as sprouts.

eta: What @Pulsegleaner said! Pulsegleaner, it is sticking in my head that there is one bean in particular that is dangerous to eat raw (or maybe it is just certain parts) and I keep thinking it is runner beans. Do you know if they particularly more toxic than most other beans? (I'm especially curious because some of the large white ones are so delicious as Pizza Beans (HA!) but I'm hesitant to have them as a regular part of our diet)

It's kidney beans they specifically warn about, since a lot of people try and cook those in crockpots. But since there is little different genetically between kidney beans and other common beans* (I think). I wouldn't want to try it with any of them.)

*That might actually be an interesting experiment, to see the difference in phytohaemagglutinins between those beans that descend from Mesoamerican stock and those that descend from Andean stock (i.e. the two places where the common bean was domesticated originally.)

 

[flowerbug]

...
eta: What @Pulsegleaner said! Pulsegleaner, it is sticking in my head that there is one bean in particular that is dangerous to eat raw (or maybe it is just certain parts) and I keep thinking it is runner beans. Do you know if they particularly more toxic than most other beans?

i wonder if you are thinking of hyacinth beans?

 

[Dahlia]

I'm fond of sprouted lentils.

Kidney beans require boiling for a certain amount of time to deactivate a toxin (crockpots won't do it) so you sure don't want to eat those as sprouts.

eta: What @Pulsegleaner said! Pulsegleaner, it is sticking in my head that there is one bean in particular that is dangerous to eat raw (or maybe it is just certain parts) and I keep thinking it is runner beans. Do you know if they particularly more toxic than most other beans? (I'm especially curious because some of the large white ones are so delicious as Pizza Beans (HA!) but I'm hesitant to have them as a regular part of our diet)

I like the lentil sprouting idea! I'm going to look into that.

 

[meadow]

It's kidney beans they specifically warn about, since a lot of people try and cook those in crockpots. But since there is little different genetically between kidney beans and other common beans* (I think). I wouldn't want to try it with any of them.)

*That might actually be an interesting experiment, to see the difference in phytohaemagglutinins between those beans that descend from Mesoamerican stock and those that descend from Andean stock (i.e. the two places where the common bean was domesticated originally.)

Runner beans are Phaseolus coccineus. Just some quick searching doesn't turn up what I'm (possibly) remembering. The cautions don't specify if their toxicity is on the level of most common beans, or if they rise to the level of kidney beans.