TEPARY: THE BEAN THAT LAUGHS AT DROUGHT

Enlarge Image Image Gallery CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Once the yearly flash floods bring water and trace minerals to the mouths of arroyos such as the one pictured here, Papago gardeners plant tepary seeds in the enriched earth .... The tepary bean's plant doesn't seem to differ much-in appearance, at least from those of our more common legumes . . . . The traditional crop displayed in a beautiful Native American basket .... And here's a ""modern"" bowl of hearty and delicious tepary bean soup. PHOTO BY PETER RUSSELL

by Sharman Russell

With the summer sun baking your garden soil, you might want to try cultivating . . .

Most modern gardeners have likely never heard of the tepary bean. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Indeed, even a search through MOM's seldom stumped editorial reference library couldn't provide much information on the legume.] The truth is, however, that this little-known plant-Phaseolus acutifolius--is among North America's oldest agricultural crops: The naturally heat-, drought-, and pest-resistant bean has been identified in strata that are at least 8,000 years old! It served as a staple food for generations of prehistoric native Americans, and-by 1701-was the principal crop raised at the mission Nuestra Senora de los Dolores in New Mexico. In fact, it was there that (according to one legend) the bean got the name by which we know it today . . . because, when the arriving Spanish asked a group of Papagos what they were planting, the Indians responded, "T pawi, " meaning simply, "It's a bean."

However, while the original residents of the Southwest have long taken advantage of the tepary's hardiness (the Papagos and Pimas, among other tribes, still raise the bean), it enjoyed little respect from the Spanish-who believed it to be a degenerate version of their own favored legume, P. vulgaris-and is all but unknown to today's commercial and backyard growers. There are a number of good reasons to change this policy of neglect. For one, the tepary has produced yields of up to 700 pounds per acre without irrigation . . . whereas most conventional dry beans won't even survive in arid areas without supplemental watering. (And when both crops are irrigated, the t pawi's yields can equal or exceed the national average of 1,400 pounds per acre for the more popular legumes.) With water shortages and summer rationings occurring all too often over the past few years, the tepary could prove to be an excellent choice for many southwestern gardeners . . . and perhaps for folks in other regions, as well.