How many cans or bags of beans did you buy?

[Gondwanaland]

It was not only toilet paper, but panic buying of cans and bags of beans that were cleaned from many shelves. How many cans or bags of beans did you buy?

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/892258093/sourdough-is-a-social-media-star-but-those-beans-would-look-great-on-instagram?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20200721&utm_term=4690777&utm_campaign=the-new-normal&utm_id=51790990&orgid=

Remember the early days of the pandemic when shoppers were going crazy raiding grocery shelves for flour, yeast and beans? Since then, people have been baking lots and lots of sourdough and banana bread ... but not so much the beans. Now some are complaining on social media about having "bean remorse," and want to know how to put their stockpiles to use. Luckily, Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, authors of the 2015 cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes For Health And Healing, have a few ideas.

Sourdough Is A Social Media Star — But Those Beans Would Look Great On Instagram

Remember the early days of the pandemic when shoppers scoured grocery shelves for flour, yeast and beans? Since then, we've seen ample evidence of people baking sourdough and banana bread on social media ... but what about all those beans?

Bean sales shot up 70% in March, says Tim D. McGreevy, CEO of USA Pulses, a not-for-profit lobbying group representing the dried pea, lentil and chickpea industry. He adds that the trend has diminished but not entirely stopped. In June, orders were still 30% higher than normal.

I went out, I bought pounds of beans and put them proudly on my shelf. ... I had this survival story in my head and now I've got it on my shelf, and I don't think I'll use them until the actual end times.

Kyla Wazana Tompkins

"I went out, I bought pounds of beans and put them proudly on my shelf," says Kyla Wazana Tompkins, a Pomona College professor and former food writer. This, in spite of the fact that Tompkins does not even really like beans. "I went to this primal brain space. I had this survival story in my head and now I've got it on my shelf, and I don't think I'll use them until the actual end times."

Tompkins is hardly alone. An inquiry on this reporter's Facebook page yielded dozens of stories of bean buyers' remorse. That pains Steven Sando, the proprietor of the high-end heirloom bean company, Rancho Gordo. Back in March, Sando found himself bombarded with orders — more than 17,000 of them, he says. As a result, there's a waiting list for 20 different varieties of beans on his website. His staff, he says, is struggling to meet demand for items still in stock, such as flageolet and yellow eye beans.

"The thought of them sitting in a dark pantry makes me ill," he says.


Cookbook authors Catriona Rueda Esquibel and Luz Calvo in their Bay Area backyard.
Miki Vargas/Luz Calvo
They're a way to honor our ancestors. And they make you feel good when you eat them.

Luz Calvo

But no bean goes unwasted in the well-stocked pantry of Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel. The couple estimate they've got at least 15 pounds of beans on hand right now. Their 2015 cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes For Health And Healing, draws on family culinary traditions and documents how the two nourished themselves while Calvo was being treated for cancer. Cooking beans, they say, can deepen a connection to community.

"They're a way to honor our ancestors," Calvo says. "And they make you feel good when you eat them."

Still, although beans may be a delicious, meaningful part of foodways from around the world, they do somewhat lack the Instagram charisma of a pillowy loaf of homemade bread. "Maybe there's not the brag factor of sourdough," Calvo concedes. Esquibel adds that while cooking beans is spiritually sustaining, there's little in the way of mastery to show off about. "Like, 'Oh, I conquered a pot of beans,' " she says.

The sheer ease of bean cookery is a plus, as far as Sando of Rancho Gordo is concerned. A movie lover, he has a method for timing them that's perfect for quarantine: Boil your beans for 15, turn them down, then put on the movie All About Eve. When Bette Davis says, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night," that's when you add salt, he says. And when she says "Funny business, a woman's career," start checking them because they're probably done.

But to slightly misquote another classic movie — Casablanca — it doesn't take much to see the problems of us little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Bean consumers, here's looking at you.

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No more than I usually do (in fact sometimes less than usual due to others snatching them up), but my usual is quite a bit. Several pounds a week (as a vegan, they're pretty much the backbone of most meals I eat).

[DesertBerean]

Oh yeah the yeast! I had some stocked up but still can't get more!

[QuantaFille]

I coincidentally bought a huge bag of rice at Costco just before the panic buying started. Shortly before that, I had bought a case of TP there also. I try to keep some stuff on hand so I was able to wait out the worst of the panic buying.

[Cow Poke]

I coincidentally bought a huge bag of rice at Costco just before the panic buying started. Shortly before that, I had bought a case of TP there also. I try to keep some stuff on hand so I was able to wait out the worst of the panic buying.

Just good common sense in these uncertain times.

[shunyadragon]

Beans beans the more you eat
the more you toot.

Bean horders are real tooters.

[seer]

My son and his family (three kids) live in my house (two family house). We loaded up on canned beans and pasta and canned fruit, and TP, paper towels and diapers early on. Used most of it.

[Cow Poke]

Beans beans the more you eat
the more you toot.

Bean horders are real tooters.

You left out a part!

Beans, beans
the musical fruit
the more you eat
the more you toot.

Come on, Shuny, step up your game!

[shunyadragon]

My wife is an impulsive unpredictable horder. She bought a case of Almond milk, ten bags of drieded cranberries, and a case of expensive sardines from Cosco. No beans, and no TP.

[Cow Poke]

Does she use almond butter? Like peanut butter, only from almonds?

I tried that, but I find it ... um.... "pasty". And it just gets gooey and runny in the jar in the pantry.

[shunyadragon]

Does she use almond butter? Like peanut butter, only from almonds?

I tried that, but I find it ... um.... "pasty". And it just gets gooey and runny in the jar in the pantry.

Actually we use a lot of seseme butter, seseme seeds, and oil, because we often cook Chinese. Prefer peanut butter.

[Cow Poke]

Actually we use a lot of seseme butter, seseme seeds, and oil, because we often cook Chinese. Prefer peanut butter.

Hmmm, I may have to try sesame butter.

[shunyadragon]

Hmmm, I may have to try sesame butter.

It is a little thin to put on bread, but I guess ok. We put it on noodles and soup.

[mossrose]

You left out a part!

Beans, beans
the musical fruit
the more you eat
the more you toot.

Come on, Shuny, step up your game!

Really, folks. You all have it wrong.

It's

Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel!
So let's have beans at every meal!

[rogue06]

Really, folks. You all have it wrong.

It's

Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel!
So let's have beans at every meal!

That's the version my mother always said

The other version is the same except for a slight difference. It started with "Beans, beans, good for your heart..." I'll let you guess which word was used that rhymed with "heart."

[mossrose]

That's the version my mother always said

The other version is the same except for a slight difference. It started with "Beans, beans, good for your heart..." I'll let you guess which word was used that rhymed with "heart."

Poop!