Tananarive – MASS COMMODITIES

Black Eyes Beans

socita — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 13:00:01 +0000

The black-eyes pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea.
The common commercial variety is called the California Blackeye; it is pale-colored with a prominent black spot. The American South has countless varieties, many of them heirloom, that vary in size from the small lady peas to very large ones. The color of the eye may be black, brown, red, pink, or green. All the peas are green when freshly shelled and brown or buff when dried. A popular variation of the black-eyes pea is the purple hull pea; it is usually green with a prominent purple or pink spot. The currently accepted botanical name for the black-eyes pea is Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata, although previously it was classified in the genus Phaseolus. Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana is the wild relative and Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis is the related asparagus bean. Other beans of somewhat similar appearance, such as the frijol ojo de cabra (goat’s-eye bean) of northern Mexico, are sometimes incorrectly called black-eyes peas, and vice versa.

Flour Beans

socita — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 06:13:41 +0000

The black-eyes pea or black-eyes bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea.
The common commercial variety is called the California Black eyes; it is pale-colored with a prominent black spot. The American South has countless varieties, many of them heirloom, that vary in size from the small lady peas to very large ones. The color of the eye may be black, brown, red, pink, or green. All the peas are green when freshly shelled and brown or buff when dried. A popular variation of the black-eyes pea is the purple hull pea; it is usually green with a prominent purple or pink spot. The currently accepted botanical name for the black-eyes pea is Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata, although previously it was classified in the genus Phaseolus. Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana is the wild relative and Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis is the related asparagus bean. Other beans of somewhat similar appearance, such as the frijol ojo de cabra (goat’s-eye bean) of northern Mexico, are sometimes incorrectly called black-eyes peas, and vice versa.

Peeled Split Beans

socita — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 05:40:28 +0000

White Lima Beans

socita — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 13:21:59 +0000

Phaseolus lunatus is found in Meso- and South America. Two gene pools of cultivated lima beans point to independent domestication events. The Mesoamerican lima bean is distributed in neotropical lowlands, while the other is found in the western Andes. They were discovered in Peru.
The Andes domestication took place around 2000 BC and produced a large-seeded variety (lima type), while the second, taking place in Mesoamerica around 800 AD, produced a small-seeded variety (Sieva type). By around 1300, cultivation had spread north of the Rio Grande, and, in the 1500s, the plant began to be cultivated in the Old World.
The small-seeded (Sieva) type is found distributed from Mexico to Argentina, generally below 1,600 m (5,200 ft) above sea level, while the large-seeded wild form (lima type) is found distributed in the north of Peru, from 320 to 2,030 m (1,050 to 6,660 ft) above sea level.

Red & Pink Cowpeas

socita — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 13:20:08 +0000

The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus Vigna. Due to its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall, it is an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inputs, as the plant’s root nodules are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, making it a valuable crop for resource-poor farmers and well-suited to intercropping with other crops. The whole plant is used as forage for animals, with its use as cattle feed likely responsible for its name.
Four subspecies of cowpeas are recognised, of which three are cultivated. A high level of morphological diversity is found within the species with large variations in the size, shape, and structure of the plant. Cowpeas can be erect, semierect (trailing), or climbing. The crop is mainly grown for its seeds, which are high in protein, although the leaves and immature seed pods can also be consumed.
Cowpeas were domesticated in Africa and are one of the oldest crops to be farmed. A second domestication event probably occurred in Asia, before they spread into Europe and the Americas. The seeds are usually cooked and made into stews and curries, or ground into flour or paste.
Most cowpeas are grown on the African continent, particularly in Nigeria and Niger, which account for 66% of world production. A 1997 estimate suggests that cowpeas are cultivated on 12.5 million hectares (31 million acres) of land, have a worldwide production of 3 million tonnes and are consumed by 200 million people on a daily basis. Insect infestation is a major constraint to the production of cowpea, sometimes causing over 90% loss in yield. The legume pod borer Maruca vitrata is the main preharvest pest of the cowpea and the cowpea weevil Callosobruchus maculatus the main postharvest pest.

Green Mung Beans

socita — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 13:18:02 +0000

The mung bean (Vigna radiata), alternatively known as the green gram, maash (Persian: ماش‎), moong (from Sanskrit: मुद्ग, romanized: mudga), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family. The mung bean is mainly cultivated in East, Southeast and South Asia.[5] It is used as an ingredient in both savoury and sweet dishes.

Small Red Beans

socita — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 12:58:34 +0000

Small Red Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are most famous for their role in the New Orleans staple dish red beans and rice. Small red beans, like all beans, are native to Peru, but this particular cultivar eventually spread to the Caribbean, becoming its most ubiquitous bean.

Small red beans made their way to New Orleans around the turn of the 19th century when the Haitian revolution drove many rich white land-owners, most of them French, to flee to Louisiana. They brought with them red beans from the Caribbean.

Small red beans are members of the larger family of legumes, a genre of plant species used for their edible seeds and pods, which boast a high nutrient density with low-maintenance production and storage. They contain high levels of protein, essential minerals and fiber while maintaining a low level of fats. Known as an inexpensive source of protein, they have become dietary staples in many cultures.

Cloves

socita — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:28:27 +0000

The Clove tree originates from the Moluccas archipelago. Charred kitchen remains containing cloves have been found in Syria and are dated to around 1,700 BCE. The attestation of their use by Ayurvedic medicine is almost as old. Pliny the Elder alludes to a pepper-like spice called garyophyllon, which is traded for its fragrance. However, there is no evidence that it is cloves. The first mention of its presence in Europe dates from the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine I made a gift of it to Saint Sylvester, then bishop of Rome (pope).

During the Middle Ages, the Arabs ensured the clove trade without knowing its exact origin (which the Persian geographer of the 9th century Ibn Khurdadhbih located in Java). Portuguese navigators discovered the Moluccas in 1511, then were driven out by the Dutch a century later. Anxious to maintain a commercial monopoly on the precious spice, the latter eradicated it from all the islands except Amboyna and Ternate, and systematically burned their surplus production.

It was the Frenchman Pierre Poivre who put an end to the monopoly of the Dutch East India Company in the 18th century by introducing clove trees to Mauritius, then to Guyana.

In 1812, the Omani Saleh ben Haramil al Bray introduced cloves to Zanzibar. The sultan of the archipelago will employ between 1830 and 1872 nearly 7000 slaves in the exploitation of the spice.

Black Pepper

socita — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:27:15 +0000

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is drupe (stonefruit) which is about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter (fresh and fully mature), dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit), or white pepper (ripe fruit seeds). Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India, and the Malabar pepper is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical regions. Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spicy from the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills.

Cocoa Beans

socita — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 12:52:49 +0000

The cacao tree is native to the Amazon rainforest. It was first domesticated 5,300 years ago, in equatorial South America, before being introduced in Central America by the Olmecs (Mexico). More than 4,000 years ago, it was consumed by pre-Hispanic cultures along the Yucatán, including the Maya, and as far back as Olmeca civilization in spiritual ceremonies. It also grows in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, in Colombia and Venezuela. Wild cacao still grows there. Its range may have been larger in the past; evidence of its wild range may be obscured by cultivation of the tree in these areas since long before the Spanish arrived.