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FOOD FACTS

Vegetables

Beans

Beans

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Introduction

Varieties

Principal varieties of green beans for fresh market are Improved Tendergreen, Contender, Provider and Strike; for processing are Bush Blue Lake 247.

Yellow (wax) beans varieties for fresh market are Cherokee Wax and Honey Gold; for processing are Eureka and Gold Rush.


Nutrition

A source of folacin and Vitamin C. One cup contains only 35 calories.


History

Green and yellow beans are part of the haricot category which have been cultivated as long ago as 7000 BC in the Americas.

Haricots, soy and flat beans have all been sources of food for humans since prehistoric times.

Columbus discovered beans growing in Cuba and, about 15 years later, Jacques Cartier found them near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

Beans formed a mainstay of aboriginal diets, particularly in what is now Canada and the south-west United States.