A Bible Garden: Beans

January. Snow as light as air swirls outside. It's funny how such fluff can weight a roof. But more, it becomes the harbinger of spring. With the wind, in blows the seed catalogs.

I'd love to grow a Bible garden. In northern New York, pomegranates and apricots are out of the question, but much of the Palestinian produce can be grown here.

I'll start with beans.

The beans grown in Bible times did not resemble our bush beans--rather our vines. One source believed the bean to be Faba vulgaris--horse bean or fava beans.

English: Vica faba or broad beans, known in the US as fava beans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2 Samuel 17:28, this was one of the foods brought to David as he fled his son, Absalom. In Ezekiel. 4:9, Ezekiel ate these beans ground into a coarse bread while he lay, tied up, on his side to illustrate the bondage of Israel's sin.

So why should we incorporate beans?

1. They are a good source of fiber
2. They are 20% protein
3. They supply B vitamins and iron
4. Their fiber and protein and B vitamins help give us energy
5. They are low in fat
6. They can help lower cholesterol
7. They are easy to grow
8. They are good for the soil with their nitrogen-fixing bacteria

Fried broad bean (probably Vicia faba) as a snack, seasoned with garlic, salt and chili. Produced in China. Bought in an Asian supermarket in Germany. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm sure there's more. Why not plant a variety of beans and remember our Biblical heritage.