Before I was a wife and mother I was a farmer’s daughter. My dad, grandfather and uncle started out growing dry land Lima beans in the Los Angeles area of California.
My grandfather Federico Beltran is the one on the left. This was taken in the Baldwin Hills area. They were taking the Lima bean vines to the stationary harvester for threshing.
This is my dad Fred Beltran with his mule team working ground in Southern California.
When the farmland in Southern California was sprouting more houses than beans the family moved to Crows Landing and the irrigated lands of the Central Valley.
Growing up in a small farming town (Crows Landing, CA.) meant that most, if not all of my friends parents were in some way connected to agriculture. None of us had dads that wore suits to work or worked in an office. That concept was completely foreign to me. My dad worked long hours, but those hours were flexible. Because of that he rarely missed school events or sporting events when we were participating. We got to see our dad at work everyday and everyday was a “take your child to work day”. I used to love riding around in the pickup with my dad to check the irrigation water and riding in the big bean truck to deliver the Lima beans to the warehouse at harvest. I really tried to like hoeing weeds in the bean fields when I was a kid, but I complained so much that for his piece of mind my dad thought it was better if I helped mom at home. I learned to make an awesome fried egg and bacon sandwich that I would take to my dad and brothers when they were cutting beans early in the morning before harvest. Almost all of my male cousins that lived in the city came to work on the farm in the summer and they must have liked it because they kept coming back.
I cherish those days and memories. Although no one in my family directly grows beans any longer, my brother is a bean broker and my husband works for a major crop protection company. The majority of my farmer friends are bean growers.
Per our first introductory blog, I will primarily be blogging about the 4 major bean varieties grown in California, large and baby Limas, garbanzos and black eyes. I will also be blogging about light and dark red kidneys, cranberries, pinks, black beans, pintos, small reds, navy, great northerns and small white varieties of beans. I will be providing recipes, cooking methods, storage tips, nutritional and other information about beans. You will also be meeting many of the California farmers that grow this important crop, which is so vital to our good health! I am looking forward to this new adventure in my life as “California Bean Blogger!”
I will always be a farmer’s daughter and so very proud of that title!
-Marilyn
