Carol Deppe on Beans (Audio Interview)

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Why beans are important: beans and grain the two crops that can be stored a LONG time, over a year all we'd have are the grains and the grain legumes, the beans, peas, favas, garbanzos, lentils... (6m); On homescale, grains aren't so easy to handle and process, beans are and provide carbs and protein, you need to be able to grow storable crops, and carbs and proteins, and can be grown on only modestly fertile land (7m30); beans fiber, ruffage, digestion issues (10m15); preparation (11m); cut the plants instead of pull them to avoid getting rocks in the beans (15m45); full description for soaking and preparing (16m15); cook them for at least half an hour before adding any spices, esp salt and vinegar, until they're almost completely soft, then finish em, and don't add cold ingredients once you've started (18m); always add fat and something acidic like vinegar at the end (20m20); soaking NOT necessary for dried peas, lentils, cowpeas, can just toss in (25m); every variety has a different optimal time to soak and cook, so don't mix them (33m); garbanzos take about a day to soak and an hour to cook; trialing beans to know if they cook well (34m); all the different kinds of beans - tepary, cow pea (e.g. black-eyed pea), lentils, fava, garbanzos - there are lots of varieties, and green vs. dried vs. shelly, what we want in each kind of plant (38m20); why she grows beans on late or full-season corn only (water), usually a green bean or shelly not dry bean, nmatch the corn and bean varieites, corn should be sturdy and at least 6' tall (46m); timing of planting corn and beans together to get almost the same corn yield with fewer plants (49m); dealing with the harvest (~55m); storage and more recommendations for bean and pea varieties (61m20); overwinter favas, plant garbanzos in the spring and neither need water (63m30); threshing - the fan technique in DETAIL (65m30); more on storage (76m30); how much she puts away - tries to have about 50lb, often has 100lb with all the varieties and breeding projectes, tries to keep it to no more than 20lb of 5 different species, so doesn't do all the harvest and threshing work at once (79m); thumbnail sketch of bean breeding - the need for space has a lot to do with where you live, crosses don't show up in first generation, grow different varieties and you they won't cross, put two of same species on opposite sides of the garden, don't have to be perfect... "If I remove more junk than I create each generation, that's good enough" (81m30)