The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D.,
Ph.D. (4/15/2014)
In
the Old Testament story of Jacob and Esau, Esau sold his birthright, as the
oldest brother, to Jacob for “a pottage of red lentils.” As the story goes, Jacob dwelt in the tents with
the women while Esau had the smell of the field and hunt. Famished from a hunt, Esau sold his
birthright to Jacob for the stew of lentils (Gen. 25:27-34.) The account is about 4,000 years old. Peas, lentils, and chickpeas were used for
food as early as 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic Age, and probably
earlier, in Central Asia and the southern and
eastern Mediterranean basin. The
Neolithic age is the spread of time when our ancestors moved from being hunters
and gatherers into cultivated agriculture and husbandry.
These
ancient legumes: peas, lentils, and chickpeas, aren’t to be confused with Phaseolus vulgaris which is Latin for the
common bean. Actually, phaseolus is the Latin for small boat
which the open pod resembles. The kidney
beans we eat today come from Mesoamerica or what is now Central America and Peru Columbus
Ironically,
of the three ancients, some peas (Pisum
sativum) have come down to us as sugar snaps which developed by serendipitously
crossing peas with Chinese snow peas in 1979 at a horticultural research
facility in Twin Falls, Idaho. Along
with snow peas, the French call sugar snaps mange
tout, “eat it all,” meaning that the pod as well as the peas is eaten. They are one of the premier delights of
backyard gardening and the first in our quadriplex of backyard delights. Grown in the backyard or in a tub on a deck, they’re
sweet, crisp, and munchy, unlike the starchy and flaccid substitutes found in
grocery stores.
By the way, Pisum sativum is Latin for a cultivated pea
which implies that wild peas were domesticated during the Neolithic period. Also, it further implies that they eaten as
wild peas long before their domestication.
They were probably eaten dry, ground into a pea meal.
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The
rest of our quadriplex is now a triplex, not of peas but of bean, our old Latin
friend, the Phaseolus vulgaris, the
common bean, only ours aren’t so common.
The first that comes to mind is La Comtesse de Chambord, a rare, small,
thin rice bean. About four inches long,
it’s sweet when eaten raw and immature much like snow peas and sugar snaps and is
used in salads. It’s tasty when blanched
or sautéed. Also, when mature and dried,
the bean can be cooked much like rice only with a richer and nuttier
flavor. Since it’s not produced
commercially, it can only be found in the backyard. They’re easy to grow and are bountiful
producers.
After
La Comtesse de Chambord, the Beurre de Rocquencourt takes its place as the
premier wax bean. Although its
forbearers haled from Central America, it was introduced into France from Algeria
Finally,
there is the haricot vert which is French for green
bean. The interesting thing about the
word haricot is that it may come from
Aztec ayacotli indicating the origins of the bean. The French green bean or haricot vert is longer, slimmer, and better tasting than the
ordinary American green bean, something like 7 inches long. Now and then, they can be found in upscale
grocery stores, but they’re never as good as home-grown. My favorite is the Maxibel.
For
an investment of about ten dollars, gardeners can have the world at their doors,
horticulturally and culinarily.
Copyright
© Dana Prom Smith 2014
Dana Prom Smith and Freddi Steele edit
Gardening Etcetera for the Arizona
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