Cook's Illustrated

All About Heirloom Beans

here are more than 30,000 varieties of beans in the world, but only a handful are cultivated using commercial farming techniques on an industrial scale. In the past 200 years, bean breeders identified certain varieties of the common bean ( that were easier to grow, transport, process, and sell than others. Black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, and even green beans are part of this “commodity bean” monoculture that

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