| Bolita bean | |
|---|---|
 Bolita beans in front of a white backdrop | |
| Species | Phaseolus vulgaris (L.) |
| Origin | New Mexico and Colorado |
The Bolita bean is an heirloom variety of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) endemic to New Mexico and southern Colorado. [1] It is a small, round, and sweet bean that is traditional to New Mexican and southwestern cuisine. [2]
The name Bolita bean comes from New Mexican Spanish where they are called frijol bolita, literally "little ball bean", due to their shape and size. [3] [4]
The origins of the common bean have long been a topic of scholarly debate, with Mesoamerica being proposed as a possible origin of domestication. This notion is, however, clouded by a lack of consensus among experts, who remain divided over whether the common bean arose from single or multiple domestication events. It has been noted that two distinct gene pools emerged over time, namely the Andean gene pool, which spanned Southern Peru to Northwest Argentina, and the Mesoamerican gene pool, which extended between Mexico and Colombia. [5]
In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan farmers cultivated various varieties of corn, beans, and squash for over 2,500 years, highlighting the long-standing importance of these crops to the region's inhabitants. [6] [7] However, the oral tradition of the bolita bean suggests that Spanish explorers, who journeyed from other regions of Mexico and the Spanish Empire, are likely to have brought Bolita beans with them as they traveled up to the Rio Grande Valley, where they settled. [8] [9]
Today, some Spanish descendants of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico and the San Luis Valley of Colorado still grow their own family cultivars of the variety in home gardens, while some specialty retailers have grown a more conventional variety on a small-scale production catering to high-end markets and tourists. [10] However, the bean has become more obscure in recent decades, as older generations that once prized it for its flavor and tolerance of the harsh cold desert climate of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, have opted to use pinto beans for convenience in traditional recipes. [11] [12] Due to this, it has been put on the Slow Food: Ark of Taste list of culturally intangible foods. [13]
The Bolita bean is small and round, with a creamy texture and a rich, complex flavor. They have thin skin that makes them easy to digest, and they cook faster than pinto beans. They are an excellent source of protein and fiber and are low in fat, making them a healthy choice for a variety of dishes. [14]
The beans are versatile and can be used in a variety of dishes. They are a popular ingredient in chili, soups, as refried beans, or as a bean cake. [15] They can also be used any way a pinto or black bean would. The bean is slightly sweeter than that of the pinto bean and has a tendency to absorb the flavor of added condiments and spices more so than other varieties of beans. [16]
Bolita beans are well adapted to high altitudes and dry-land farming where they are still grown by a few Hispano farms to this day. [17] They require well-drained soil and full sun exposure to grow. The plant grows up to 24 inches in height and produces pods containing 4–6 seeds each, maturing in about 100 days after planting. [18]
A bean is the seed of any plant in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying, but fresh beans are also sold. Most beans are traditionally soaked and boiled, but they can be cooked in many different ways, including frying and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes throughout the world. The unripe seedpods of some varieties are also eaten whole as green beans or edamame, but fully ripened beans contain toxins like phytohemagglutinin and require cooking.
The pinto bean is a variety of common bean. In Spanish they are called frijoles pintos. It is the most popular bean by crop production in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, and is most often eaten whole, or mashed and then refried. Prepared either way, it is a common filling for burritos, tostadas, or tacos in Mexican cuisine, also as a side or as part of an entrée served with a side tortilla or sopaipilla in New Mexican cuisine.
Phaseolus is a genus of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica.
Legumes are plants in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, but also as livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces on two sides.
Phaseolus acutifolius, also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from Arizona through Mexico to Costa Rica. The water requirements are low. The crop will grow in areas where annual rainfall is less than 400 mm (16 in).
Phaseolus coccineus, known as runner bean, scarlet runner bean, or multiflora bean, is a plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. Another common name is butter bean, which, however, can also refer to the lima bean, a different species.
A lima bean, also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans.
Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, along with other Phaseolus species, is as a member of the legume family, Fabaceae. Like most members of this family, common beans acquire the nitrogen they require through an association with rhizobia, which are nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The cuisine of the Southwestern United States is food styled after the rustic cooking of the Southwestern United States. It comprises a fusion of recipes for things that might have been eaten by Spanish colonial settlers, cowboys, Mountain men, Native Americans, and Mexicans throughout the post-Columbian era; there is, however, a great diversity in this kind of cuisine throughout the Southwestern states.
Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean, although immature or young pods of the runner bean, yardlong bean, and hyacinth bean are used in a similar way. Green beans are known by many common names, including French beans, string beans, and snap beans or simply "snaps." In the Philippines, they are also known as "Baguio beans" or "habichuelas" to distinguish them from yardlong beans.
The black turtle bean is a small, shiny variety of the common bean especially popular in Latin American cuisine, though it can also be found in the Cajun and Creole cuisines of south Louisiana. Like all varieties of the common bean, it is native to the Americas, but has been introduced around the world. It is also used in Indian cuisine, Tamil cuisine, where it is known as karuppu kaaramani and in Maharashtrian cuisine, where it is known as kala ghevada. It is widely used in Uttrakhand, where it is also known as "bhatt". It is a rich source of iron and protein. The black turtle bean is often simply called the black bean, although this terminology can cause confusion with at least three other types of black beans.
An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, heritage fruit, or heirloom vegetable is an old cultivar of a plant used for food that is grown and maintained by gardeners and farmers, particularly in isolated communities of the Western world. These were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but are not used in modern large-scale agriculture.
The navy bean, haricot bean, pearl haricot bean, Boston bean, white pea bean, or pea bean is a variety of the common bean native to the Americas, where it was first domesticated. It is a dry white bean that is smaller than many other types of white beans, and has an oval, slightly flattened shape. It features in such dishes as baked beans, various soups such as Senate bean soup, and bean pies.
Domesticated plants of Mesoamerica, established by agricultural developments and practices over several thousand years of pre-Columbian history, include maize and capsicum. A list of Mesoamerican cultivars and staples:
Edible flowers are flowers that can be consumed safely. Flowers may be eaten as vegetables as a main part of a meal, or may be used as herbs. Flowers are part of many regional cuisines, including Asian, European, and Middle Eastern cuisines.
The cranberry bean is a variety of common bean first bred in Colombia as the cargamanto. It is also known as the Borlotti bean, Roman bean, romano bean, saluggia bean, gadhra bean orrosecoco bean. The bean is a medium to large tan or hazelnut-colored bean splashed or streaked with red, magenta or black.
Pea beans are several types of common food plants producing beans:
The Appaloosa bean is a cultivar bean variety of the species Phaseolus vulgaris.
Dragon tongue bean, or dragon tongue shelling bean, is young green bean of cranberry bean, pinto bean in the species Phaseolus vulgaris.
Soon Jai Park, Ph.D. (1937–2018) was a Canadian federal research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Harrow, Ontario. He was internationally known for his dry bean breeding program that expanded bean production in Canada – taking beans that are usually grown in Africa, India, Korea, Japan and Brazil, and breeding them so they could thrive in Ontario and Western Canada to give farmers new crops to grow. He developed more than 28 bean varieties during his 25 year career
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Bolita Bean at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject