{"id":29719,"date":"2023-09-25T12:19:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T19:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loghouseplants.com\/plants\/?page_id=29719"},"modified":"2023-09-25T12:22:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T19:22:34","slug":"a-hill-of-beans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/loghouseplants.com\/plants\/library\/a-hill-of-beans\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hill of Beans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oregon\u2019s legume legacy amounts to more than a hill of beans<\/h1>\n
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By\u00a0Heather Arndt Anderson<\/a>\u00a0(OPB)<\/span><\/div>\n
Sept. 25, 2023 6 a.m.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The past, present and future of beans in the Beaver State<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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When you think of the foods of Oregon, you probably think of marionberries, craft beer and salmon. Maybe you think of\u00a0tater tots<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0corn dogs<\/a>. Unless you\u2019re a crop scientist or an ag history nerd, you probably wouldn\u2019t think of beans as an especially Oregonian crop, but make no mistake: some of the best-tasting \u2014 and most expensive \u2014 heirloom bean varieties have been quietly growing in Oregon for more than a century.<\/p>\n

Oregon is the fourth-largest producer of green beans in the U.S., most of them going directly to the frozen foods market. Dry heirloom beans, on the other hand, are rare; they\u2019ll never be the most productive plant in a field. They\u2019re grown almost out of altruism, not just for their beauty and impeccable flavor but a duty to preserve a small piece of history.<\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s earliest imported beans<\/h2>\n

Though\u00a017th-century Northwesterners likely encountered the \u201cThree Sisters<\/a>\u201d of Indigenous American agriculture (beans, squash and maize) through trade, beans weren\u2019t really grown in the region until the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver in the 1820s. Peas and beans were not nearly as important a food as meat and biscuits on a 19th-century sailing vessel, but unlike salt pork and hardtack, uneaten beans could be planted once the ship arrived at its destination.<\/p>\n

Cut to the 1840s, when settlers driving westward on the Oregon Trail would manifest beans\u2019 destiny to become a pioneer staple, inextricable from life on the frontier. The Dutch oven that jangled in every wagon carried dry beans to simmer or bake in dying coals along the emigrants\u2019 path. Though their long cooking time meant otherwise economical beans consumed a lot of precious water and fuel, inventive cooks found ways to cook beans down to a paste that could be smeared on bread, not unlike hummus.<\/p>\n

Once they arrived,\u00a0settlers would have had a few beans to choose from<\/a>\u00a0for their farms and kitchen gardens. Scarlet runner beans, with their bright vermilion blossoms and large purple-speckled black beans, were as popular then as they are now.<\/p>\n

By the 1860s, beans were still mostly being grown in California and shipped up to Oregon by rail. Multiple pleas for local legumes appeared in The Oregonian, with letter writers either wondering why more beans weren\u2019t grown in Oregon\u2019s ideal climate or\u00a0recommending specific varieties (like the Royal Dwarf white kidney bean)<\/a>\u00a0for cultivation.<\/p>\n

As immigrants settled in Oregon, some brought beloved bean varieties to their new homes, like the borlotti-type\u00a0Volga German Siberian<\/a>\u00a0that traveled with German Mennonites fleeing Russia in the 1890s. At around the same time, the North Italians who established Portland\u2019s truck gardens and produce stands arrived with pink borlotti beans (a cranberry bean variety that originated in Colombia, not Italy). Bayo beans, a pinto-like bean originally from Mexico, became a standard sold in Portland markets.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A] small portion of the wheat belt of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is well adapted to the production of beans,\u201d noted\u00a0one agricultural bulletin in 1913<\/a>. With the intent of reclaiming eastside lands whose arability was compromised by weed infestations, the top three varieties then promoted by the United States Department of Agriculture were Little Navy (also sold as Prize Winner, Banner Leafless or Prolific Tree), the Lady Washington and the pinto-like Red Miner.<\/p>\n

If picked early enough, most dry bean varieties have an edible pod, but green beans are grown specifically for their fresh, unripe pod (the beans inside the pods are just seeds). West of the Cascades, green beans, too, were planted nearly as soon as the soils were turned on new land claims. The green and bushy Oregon tree bean was one vigorous variety that promised to bring profits to anyone who grew it.<\/p>\n

Early vegetable canneries that cropped up in the Willamette Valley at the turn of the 20th century put up green beans like Kentucky Wonder, and growers soon introduced even more prolific and flavorful green bean varieties. Soon, however, one green bean would come to rule them all: Blue Lake.<\/p>\n

Introduced to the Willamette Valley in the 1920s, within a decade Blue Lake was the\u00a0top-selling product of Eugene Fruit Growers Association<\/a>. By World War II, Alderman Farm in Dayton, Oregon, employed 300 year-round workers and upward of 3,000 (largely teenaged) pickers during the green bean harvest. Women and teens were recruited to pick up the slack when the war both drove need for food and left a gaping hole in the labor pool. Mexican braceros,\u00a0Japanese internees<\/a>, conscientious objectors and even German and Italian prisoners of war were sent to the fields of Blue Lake.<\/p>\n

In 1951, Tractor Farming Magazine noted that Urie Alderman\u2019s 3,000-acre farm and freezing plant comprised \u201cone of the largest individual food-producing units in the country,\u201d but by the 1970s, machine harvesters were standard tools of the trade, and seasonal pickers were no longer needed \u2014 which was fine, considering that the spread of malls and fast food meant teens had other, less back-breaking summer jobs on offer. Before the decade was up, there were no new commercial Blue Lake bean fields planted in the Willamette Valley, but remarkably, Oregon is still the 4th-largest producer of green beans in the United States today.<\/p>\n

Unlike green beans, most of the beans we call \u201cheirloom\u201d are sold dry. Some of these living legends grew in private Oregon gardens for generations, just waiting to be rediscovered by commercial growers. They\u2019re being marketed anew today.<\/p>\n

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Bean harvest at Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company near Sweet Home, Ore., on Sept. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Sarah Kleeger, left, and Mark Luterra head into the fields to harvest beans at Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company near Sweet Home, Ore., on Sept. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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(Left to right) Sarah Kleeger and Jocelyn Stevens harvest Brighstone (CQ) beans at Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company near Sweet Home, Ore., on Sept. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Mark Luterra pulls Brighstone beans during a bean harvest at Adaptive Seeds, near Sweet Home, Ore., Sept. 7, 2023. Brighstone beans are pull beans and grow low to the ground as opposed to stalk beans that grow up in the air. Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company specializing in public domain, open pollinated seeds grown in the region.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Sarah Kleeger drags a tarp full of Brighstone beans down the bean plot near Sweet Home, Ore., Sept. 7, 2023. Kleeger is co-owner of Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company specializing in public domain, open pollinated seeds grown in the region.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Mark Luterra, left, and Sarah Kleeger rake through Borlotto del Valdarno bean stalks during the harvest process at Adaptive Seeds near Sweet Home, Ore., Sept. 7, 2023. The pitchforks they use are precise enough to shake out any beans with just a few taps on top of the piles of beans. Adaptive Seedsis a certified organic seed company specializing in public domain, open pollinated seeds grown in the region.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Mark Luterra uses his patented “Winnow Wizard” machine to remove dust, straw, dirt and other contaminants from a batch of Wolverine’s Orca beans in Sweet Home, Ore., on September 7, 2023. Luterra invented this machine in 2018 and currently has a manufacturer in Wisconsin building more machines for sale to other farmers.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Dust, straw, dirt and other contaminants are removed from a batch of Wolverine’s Orca beans in Sweet Home, Ore., on September 7, 2023. The winnowing machine, \u201cWinnow Wizard\u201d is patented by Mark Luterra, who invented this machine in 2018 and currently has a manufacturer in Wisconsin building more machines for sale to other farmers.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A variety of beans grown at Adaptive Seeds near Sweet Home, Ore., Sept. 7, 2023. The term “heirloom beans” refers to any bean with a historical or family name attached to their unique make up. Adaptive Seeds is a certified organic seed company specializing in public domain, open pollinated seeds grown in the region.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Andrew Still displays Whipple beans, grown at Adaptive Seeds near Sweet Home, Ore., Sept. 7, 2023. The term “heirloom beans” refers to any bean with a historical or family name attached to their unique make up. Whipple beans come from the Whipple family in Douglas County, Ore. Adaptive Seedsis a certified organic seed company specializing in public domain, open pollinated seeds grown in the region.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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(From left to right) Cat Sandoval, Kari Coleman, Jocelyn Stevens, Mark Luterra , Andrew Still (he\/him) and Sarah Kleeger pose for a crew portrait at Adaptive Seeds in Sweet Home, Ore., on September 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bean harvest at Adaptive Seeds, a certified organic seed company near Sweet Home, Ore., on Sept. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Caden Perry \/ OPB<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n