Adding Anasazi Beans to Your Home Storage

One of the items a lot of families store in their home storage for bulk and nutrition is dried  beans. Beans are a great source for protein, fiber, and several other minerals and nutrients that your body needs just to get by from day to day. A nutrient-dense whole food, dried beans are great for long term as well, because they can be packed away for years and years. Some people aren't up for storing too many beans, though, as they tend to produce a lot of intestinal gas that can make home storage, shall we say, uncomfortable.

One of our favorite beans to keep in our home store are the pretty burgundy and white Anasazi beans. These beans have also been called Cave Beans or Appaloosa Beans, and have been identified as a “cousin” of the pinto bean. The Anasazi Beans, though, can help a bit with the intestinal disturbance mentioned previously, because they tend to have less of the gas producing ingredients than typical beans kept in food storage. In some claims, there is as much as an 80% reduction in the amount of gas producing irritant in the Anasazi beans.

My favorite reason for keeping them, though, is actually because they take a lot less prep time and a lot less water than standard beans like pinto, kidney, black, and white beans do. Anasazi beans take between 30 and 60 minutes to cook tender for use in any recipe that usually calls for canned or cooked beans. We have used them in our kitchen to make everything from refried beans to Chili, and from casseroles to baked beans. Although they are a bit bigger than the standard white bean or navy bean used to make baked beans, the flavor in the recipe was just as good as if I had used Navy beans. Making the Anasazi bean the most versatile bean in our storage and kitchen.

Another great benefit of Anasazi beans are that they are an heirloom variety of beans which can be planted in your vegetable garden and grown for additional food for the future. Although legend has it that archaeologists discovered ancient beans, hundreds of years old and sprouted some, which allowed the ancient bean to be rediscovered, it is unlikely that this is their true history. It is more likely that they have been grown and preserved over centuries then regrown. Even “seed viability specialists” are known to have stated that it is likely that seeds of this type cannot be stored for growth for more than 50 years as that seems to be the “outside edge” for growing seeds that have been stored. This is good encouragement, though, for someone to grow their own vegetable garden because you can easily reproduce your crop year after year as well as set up some for future food storage. This is a great rotating crop for extending your food storage for years to come.

If you are looking for a great addition to your dry bean storage, grab some Anasazi beans and give them a try. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of their flexibility, flavor, and versatility. Enjoy!!!