Bean there done that ;-)

Black Beans are one of our Favorites

Legumes are a main portion of our long term food storage.  "5lbs per person per month" is the direction from our Church Leaders.  Beans are packed full of life sustaining nutrition.  We especially love black beans, but often use red kidney, garbanzo navy, pinto and lentils.  We try to incorporate beans into many meals.  We often will use beans in place of meat or to reduce the amount of meat included in a recipe.  If properly packed and stored legumes have a shelf life of over 30 Years! There many great benefits from using legumes in our diet.      

 

Nutrition - Beans can provide a large portion of the required protein, fiber, iron, calcium and minerals our bodies need.  They are low in fat and take on the flavors of spices and dishes well.  Each type of legume has it's own nutritional profile.  1 Cup of Black beans for example has 15 grams of Fiber and Protein and also provide Iron (20%), Vitamin C (5%) and other vitamins and minerals. If you eat beans with rice or corn you will have the right combination for proper protein synthesis.

Cost - Beans are a very low cost item with a lot of nutrition.  They can either take the place of meat in dishes or just a good addition to them.    A great way to help make your grocery budget stretch is to incorporate dry bean to your diet.  You can buy canned beans for convenience but using dry beans is even more economical, one pound bags are typically under one dollar but will yield 5-6 cups of cooked beans (or about  2.5-3.5 cans of beans).  6 Cups of beans for less than 1 dollar!     

Cooking  - We will post a lot of bean recipes in the future, watch for them.  We try to incorporate beans in meals, but also try out various side dishes rather than the usual sides.  We often will reduce the amount of meat in a recipe in favor of more beans, Chili for example.  Beans can be added to any rice dish, stew or soup.  We often will add several types of beans to recipes making 3-4 bean chili, soup etc.    

Varieties - There are around 1000 types of Legumes worldwide.  We suggest trying our some new verities with your family, try out various recipes for each type.     

Clover root; Nitrogen nodules (clover is a legume)

Beans in the Garden -  Many beans grown in the garden can be picked early(green beans) and if left on the plant will dry to be harvested as dry beans.  It is fun to look through seed catalogs at all the various varieties. Legumes are nitrogen fixers or they accumulate nitrogen from the air into nodules on the roots.  These nodules then make the nitrogen bio-available in the soil and for surrounding plants.  Many gardeners will "inoculate" their legume seeds to jump start the process. Beans plants either grow as a bush or climbing vines.  We have a permanent trellis on the south-side of our house for climbing beans. 

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Slow and Steady Wins the Race, but you need to start the race first.

 

When you start to look a everything suggested for living a provident life (food storage, financial health, physical health etc.) it can be very easy to become overwhelmed and have no idea where to start.

Moving towards a more sustainable life is not an overnight thing.  There are many aspects we may implement.  Because these things are typically long term processes/goals it is easy to become overwhelmed and loose momentum.  We have to find ways to accomplish our long term goals along the way. 

By taking your goals and tasks and make them smaller, you will have easy tasks that can be completed in a day or over a week.  The smaller tasks need to be easy to accomplished and also help you progress towards your longer term goals.  

Below is an excerpt from an article from the March 2009 Ensign:

 "Sister Jeffries notes that “the beauty of this system is its appropriateness for families just starting their storage programs, as well as for those living in small homes and apartments, where space is at a premium. President Hinckley clearly recognized that change and adaptation are needed so that all of us might benefit from the Lord’s inspired program.”

A New Approach

In the spirit of President Hinckley’s remarks, Church leaders decided to closely reexamine their approach to self-reliance, looking for ways to reinforce the concepts of home storage and financial preparedness. As a result, the Church published the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, outlining new guidelines for home preparedness that give Church members a simplified, four-step approach to building their home storage.

They are as follows:

1. Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months.
   
2. Store drinking water.
   
3. Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount.
   
4. Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples.
   

Of the new guidelines, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton says, “Our objective was to establish a simple, inexpensive, and achievable program that would help people become self-reliant. We are confident that by introducing these few, simple steps we can, over time, have more success.”

By doing these things we prepare our families for future uncertainty.  Our families may experience disasters in one form or another, from job loss to natural disaster or anything in between. Following this council will make our families more secure and provided for no mater what comes upon us, and makes our life more rich and healthful along the way.  

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their … supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.