When it comes to seasonal vegetables, dried beans don’t come to mind. They are hardly in the same category as a sun-ripened heirloom tomato. But, like any other locally grown fruit or vegetable, beans are harvested fresh in the pod and then dried. And this does make a difference, which is just one of the reasons Bryan Sox (Bean Man) and wife (Bean Girl) Kim, got into the business of growing them.
That, and their health. In 2009, Bryan and Kim began a backyard vegetable garden to provide them with healthier options for their diets; in 2010, they added pinto, red and black dry beans. According to Bryan, they always noticed that beans from the store seemed to turn out different in their consistency and taste. After some research, they discovered that in commercial dry bean farming, beans are harvested annually then placed in the back of the storage line, meaning the beans sold in the store could be as old as five or six years as processors move the oldest beans out first to packing houses, which sell the beans to the public. If you’ve ever tried to prepare beans that just won’t soften, they have probably gotten too old. Bean Man’s beans expand more during soaking and don’t get mushy, and consumers can taste the cleanliness.