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University research on diseases and weed control is
shared with growers during tours of fieldbean plots. Current
research by plant pathologists seeks to control white mold,
which causes significant losses each year in commercial
plantings.
Minnesota supports a healthy industry that grows and
packages beans used for soups, chilis, tacos, and burritos.
Farmers harvest about 250 million pounds of beans each year
and most of it is exported. Plant scientists with the
University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station have
studied this specialty crop since the 1950s. Researchers
tested hundreds of varieties, identified the best performers,
worked on field practices, improved processing, and helped
create products and a new industry in the 1970s.
Some of the market classes of beans grown here - and
their main uses - include:
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Adzuki - salads, soups, vegetable burgers, confectionary
uses in Japan
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Pinto - chili, bean dip, refried beans, burritos, export
markets
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Navy - soups, baked beans, export to England
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Kidney - chili, salads, baked dishes
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Great northern - soups, stews, cassoulet, export to
England
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Black turtle - Cajun dishes, soups, beans and rice, export
to Central and South America
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Cranberry - specialty bean dishes, soups, spreads
Minnesota now leads the nation in production of dark red
kidney beans, with four times the harvest of the next
competitor, Michigan. About 165,000 acres of fieldbeans are
grown, in the Red River Valley and on irrigated sandy soil
between Elk River, Park Rapids, and Wadena. The crop adds
diversity to consumers' diets, to farm income, and to
Minnesota agriculture.
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Red-banded cranberry beans, like other fieldbeans, are
harvested in September by combines that separate beans from
pods. The black turtle bean's blossom is tiny, but Minnesota
beans show up big in markets from the Far East to Great
Britain.
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Forage Legumes
