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Legumes have played a vital part in almost all
the cultures and ancient civilisations whose history
we are familiar with today.
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Evidence
abounds on their cultivation, preparation and consumption:
from the royal tombs of ancient Egypt to the classical
Greece of Homer's Iliad and even in the Old Testament.
The use of legumes as a basic dietary staple can
be traced back more than 20,000 years in some Eastern
cultures, while the common bean, the lima bean and
the pinta, or cranberry, bean were cultivated for
the first time in the very earliest Mexican and
Peruvian civilisations more than 5,000 years ago,
being popular in both the Aztec and Inca cultures.
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Although
historians are unsure as to whether beans were
first introduced into Europe after the discovery
of America, what is known is that their cultivation
dates back to that particular time in history.
These ancient cultures already knew that the secret
of legumes lies in their diversity and immense
nutritional value. The Italian writer and academic,
Umberto
Eco maintains that the cultivation of
beans in Europe during the Middle Ages was of
enormous importance, "saving" the Europeans from
the tragic fate of malnutrition and possible extinction…
"Without beans, the European population would
not have duplicated itself in just a few centuries,
and we would not be the hundreds of millions that
we are today…"
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Introduction
of Peas, Lentils, and Chickpeas in the United
States
Text
copyrighted by and used with the permission of
USADPLC |
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AAccording to oral history, the first U.S. lentils
were grown in the Palouse region of Washington
State. These lentils arrived on the Palouse with
a Seventh Day Adventist minister named Schultz,
a Russlanddeutscher who brought the seeds from
his homeland. Reverend Schultz's seeds eventually
reached Farmington, Washington, farmer J.J. Wagner.
Farmer Wagner planted a single acre of lentils
in 1916, which grew well in the rich, volcanic
soils of the Palouse. Savvy and shrewd, Wagner
knew a good market when he saw one and started
producing lentils for the vegetarian Seventh Day
Adventist community, who were always looking for
good protein sources.
J.J. Wagner developed a good business selling
his lentil crops to Seventh Day Adventist academies
and colleges across the United States. Fearing
that he would lose his corner on the market, Wagner
refused to sell any lentil seed to the local seed
company. However, Wagner reputedly sold seed to
the local seed company. By 1937, the local seed
company contracted the first commercial acreage
of lentils. By 1948, that acreage grew to 3,000
acres. The late 1990's saw U.S. farmers planting
over 150,000acres of lentils in Washington, Idaho,
Oregon, Montana and North Dakota. |
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