 Hello everyone, my name is Scott Swanson and I'm your host for the second week in a row. I'm pretty honored to do that here. I'm your host for today's 11th and final Field to Fork webinar for the 2023 season. It's brought to you by North Coast State University Extension. And if you've missed any of our previous webinars, they are archived on the Field to Fork site. I'm going to drop that link in the chat right there right now. So if you've missed any of them, you want to go back and check them out. That's the link you go to. And this is our eighth year we've done the series and we are so glad you joined us today. We've archived all the webinars on that page. And now, since today is our last one, we hope we'll see you for next year's webinars. And we use your suggestions in planning the schedule. So if you've filled out those surveys before, know that your suggestions will help plan next year's schedule. We have a special request. So this program is sponsored in part with grant funding from the USDA's agricultural marketing service. So we ask that you complete the short online survey that will be emailed to you right after today's webinar. And as a thank you, we will provide prizes to the lucky winners of of the random drawings. So be sure to complete the address on the follow up form, including city, state and zip codes. We can mail those out. The next slide is our NSU policy. And now we can get started. So welcome to today's webinar. I am pleased to introduce today's speaker. The reason I'm the host today is because our normal host Julie is our presenter today. Julie garden Robinson is a professor and food nutrition specialist at NDSU extension. She manages the field before program and develops educational materials and does research in the areas of nutrition, food, safety and health. She has written a column called Prairie Fair for more than 25 years. It runs in many states in the Midwest and is available online. Julie, take it away. Well, thank you, Scott. And thank you for being the host while I was out of town last week. And thanks to all of you for joining. I just added up and this year this we've had a record setting here. We have had 1734 people attend in person and many more that watch the archive. So we appreciate all of you and happy to see so many different states represented. So let's get started. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the health benefits of gardening and there are many. How many fruits and vegetables do you really need? So we're going to talk a little bit about nutrition. And we're going to have a focus on pulse foods. Now, what are they? How do you prepare them? And why should we be trying to eat more of those? So that's where we're headed today. And then we'll also take your questions. So again, if you have questions, you can pop them into the chat. And Scott will ask me the questions and I will try to answer at the end. We've provided a whole bunch of resources this time, like more links to information. I've done a lot of work in the area of pulses and so you'll have a lot more to explore after today's webinar. So I think I kind of answered my own question is gardening a healthy activity and it's a resounding yes. Growing fresh produce makes it more likely that you want to eat it. And gardeners also show a higher level of nutrition knowledge and they're more likely to continue healthy eating habits throughout their lives. And it's not only adults, it's also children. So if you have kids or grandkids or neighbor kids and you invite them over to help you garden or maybe you work in a community garden, it's a great place to introduce kids to both nutrition as well as a lifelong adventure in gardening. So again, we increase our intake of fruits and vegetables, which is really important because many of us shortchange ourselves on fiber and also some key vitamins and also minerals. And by eating more fruits and vegetables and I'll add pulses, you can reduce your risk for many nutrition related diseases. And we also can boost our immunity. And I'll just give you a quick preview. I'm currently working on a brand new program called Nourish and that will be available online as well as in North Dakota County's live coming up probably in the fall. So that will have a big focus on nutrition as well as fitness. So let's talk a little bit about fruits and vegetables. I want you to think about yesterday and how many servings as in cups of fruits and vegetables did you eat? Let's just think back to yesterday or this morning. What did you have for breakfast? And you can have vegetables for breakfast by the way. Did you have some fruits and vegetables this morning? And juice does count. And how about for lunch? And what's your plan for dinner? And as I said earlier, you can include driedable beans, the cooked version as a vegetable. And again, that does have some benefits. So in general, a cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice or two cups of raw leafy greens is considered a cup. You may remember five a day. That was based on five servings. Well, in nutrition, we regularly change things up a little bit. So now our recommendations are in terms of cups. And I'm going to show you shortly how many cups of fruits and vegetables that all of us need. So when you're thinking about nutrition, and especially fruits and vegetables, it's really a good idea to take a cue from nature. Think about all those colors. I'm not going to bring us to fall because we have to enjoy summer. So we're going to think about colorful flowers and the beautiful greens of grass and trees and everything. We want to think about having our plate filled with colorful fruits and vegetables. The more color, the better, even though white vegetables such as potatoes are also very good for us. They're high in potassium. But think about building a colorful plate. And I'm not talking about artificial colors, so not jelly beans and skittles and things like that. We actually want more fruits and vegetables, because many of us do short change ourselves. In fact, some of the statistics that I've read show that only about 10% of adults meet the daily recommendation. So this is one of the handouts that I've included as a possible follow up. If you want to read more about food and color, it's called what color is your food. And it happens to be one of the most popular things that we have created in extension. We've distributed thousands of copies. We don't have paper copies right now, but it's all of our stuff is available on our website. But this one's kind of fun because it just talks about some of those health benefits associated with the different pigments, everything from lycopene in tomatoes and to anthocyanins and various berries. Be sure also to check out the field of fork resources. We have single page fact sheets on almost all of these specialty crop fruits and vegetables. So everything from raspberries to tomatoes. We also have several about growing herbs and using herbs. And I don't have the backside of these publications, but each one of these has at least two, if not three or four recipes to try that my students have helped test in our lab here just on the hall for me on campus at NDSU. So if you're looking for more information, you're just going to start growing some things. If you're in North Dakota, Minnesota, where it's still kind of cool out. These pieces are a good place to start and learn a little bit more. And of course, my previous speakers also provided resources with their topics. So currently, what is our nutrition based on? It's based on choose my plate. As you can see, half of our plates technically should be filled with fruits and vegetables. And then about a quarter of our plate grains and another slightly less than one fourth of our plate protein. And the proteins can be anything you like in terms of animal or vegetable protein, it all counts. And then dairy or another calcium source. So think about this model as what is based on the US dietary guidelines for Americans, which is changed up about it. Well, exactly every five years, we had a little delay during the pandemic. But certainly think about this next time you're having a meal, maybe you're having a snack right now. Try to make half your plate fruits and vegetables. And as I mentioned earlier, our recommendations are now in cups instead of in serving. So we got to put the five a day out of our mind. And think in terms of cups, because we eat cups of food, we don't, you know, often think of as servings of food. So find your yourself on this little chart. So for example, if you are 31 to 50, that's two and a half cups, 51 plus, this is for vegetables, two cups of vegetables per day, men, three cups, three cups, and two and a half cups for 51 plus. And why is it less when we get older? Well, it's fine if you want to eat two and a half or three cups. That's totally fine. But typically, as we get older, we need a little less food. And now these are the fruit recommendations. Again, one and a half to two cups for women, depending on age, and two cups across the board for men. And yes, you can count fruit juice, that is okay. So if you wanted to have two cups of juice. But in that case, you aren't necessarily getting all the fiber that you need. So if you prefer juice, think of, you know, eating other foods that are richer in fiber than most juice, you can get juice with a lot of pulp in it. So that's basically fiber. But that, those are the recommendations. And I want you to think about that, maybe write them down and track yourself for a few days and see how you're doing. If you're gardening this summer, you are having ample opportunity to grow some of your own food and meet these recommendations. Now I'd like to talk a little bit more about being outdoors and physical activity and nature, gardening, all those sorts of things. I've been enjoying some walks finally outside as it's warmed up a bit in Fargo, North Dakota, where I live. But researchers have done quite a bit of work looking at physical activity and nutrition and gardening and just being outdoors in general. So there is a positive link or correlation between having a park in the neighborhood and physical activity levels. That makes sense. And certainly that's a very inexpensive recreational service that is provided by many communities to have nice nicely groomed parks available for us. And getting out and getting physical activity, which means at least 30 minutes a day, I can be walking, it can be in shorter stints of 10 or 15 minutes at a time. That physical activity can actually reduce health issues and maybe even medical costs across the community. So there's a lot of benefit and I hope that you're out getting some physical activity. I just wrote my Prairie Fair column about sun safety. So I also have to mention that when you're outside, be sure that you're also using sunscreen or wearing a brimmed hat. One thing we don't often think about when we're gardening, because we like to get nice and warm and all that and have fun planting things, but also think about the safety of your skin. Skin cancer is a growing concern. So SPF 30 sunscreen when you're out enjoying some physical activity and also wear a brimmed hat. Those baseball caps that everyone likes to wear do not protect the tops of your ears or your neck. So set a new standard, I guess, when you're walking around and wear one of those bucket type hats with the brim and also wear your SPF 30 sunscreen and take other precautions. How about other aspects of gardening? Well, when you're out there bending and stretching and carrying things around, carrying things around, maybe bags of soil, you're actually helping your muscles. You're improving your muscle tone. And when you put your weight on your bones, your legs as you're walking around, you're also taking some steps to reduce your risk for osteoporosis, which is a bone thinning disease. So many, many benefits. You may feel a little stiff after being indoors in the winter if you live in the colder climates. So if you're going to stretch yourself out a little bit before you really delve into the heavy duty lawn work and gardening. But in the end, when you're all your body's all acclimated, it's very good for you. And it can definitely build your muscle endurance. Gardening and outdoor activities also are good for your heart. It's an aerobic exercise. So when you're pulling those weeds, reaching for plants and tools, just walking around your yard, you're actually helping yourself with heart health. So it's all good. All good news when you're outside and doing some of these things. Well, next, I am going to move into our discussion of pulses. And pulses, when I ask the question, you know, what is a pulse? Not everybody knows the answer to that. We happen, if you live in the Fargo area, actually all of North Dakota, and certainly certain pockets into Montana, into Minnesota, and other states, we grow a lot of pulses. Pulses are a type of legume. It means that there are seeds that grow inside their pods. So unlike other legumes, which include green beans, pulses refer to the dry edible seeds within a pod. So pulses in the large definition, global definition includes dry beans, dry peas, chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, and lentils. So we'll be focusing on these types of pulses and why they're good for us and how to make them. And I have a recipe book with all sorts of recipes that show you how to do it. Why are pulses really being looked at on a global level? In fact, 2016 was the international year of pulses. So there was a global look at pulses then and that's continued now. And pulses are important because we're having an expanding world population and pulses are seen as a potential way to ensure food security, to feed all this population all across the world. And as we'll hear a lot more about, pulses are linked to human health. And I'm really not going to talk about growing them because I am a nutrition person. I'm not necessarily out in the field growing these things. I like to garden, but I'm not a plant scientist. But pulses are important to sustainable agriculture because they're able to biologically fix nitrogen and also free up the soil bound phosphorus. So they're good for the soil. They're healthy for the soil. And even your garden, if you're growing some pulses, maybe you want to try my neighbor likes to grow some dry edible beans in her garden. And she gave me some seeds just like Jack in the Beanstalk and they grew huge. I had to put up a support for them. So again, they're growing very widely in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and beyond. And so we have two commodity groups that promote different types of pulses. So we have the Northern Pulse Growers Association, which concentrates on our chickpeas, split peas and lentils. And we have our North Harvest Bean Growers, which focus on the types of beans that we grow in our area. But they're all part of this big family. There are many, many types of beans. So again, just to bring this home, I guess, if we look at legumes, that's like the big family. And in that family, we have soybeans, peanuts, pulses, green peas and green beans. So those are all legumes. So yes, a peanut is related to a green bean. And then under our pulse umbrella, the global definition, we have our dry beans, dry peas, chickpeas and lentils. And all these are good for us unless of course you experience allergies to soy products or peanuts or I think those are the two that would have certain proteins that elicit an allergic response. So these are some of the many types of dry beans. So we have black beans, cranberry beans, great northern beans, kidney beans, navy beans, pink beans, pinto beans, small red beans and many others. But these are very common. I'm sure that you could, I see a question already, why are peanuts not considered pulses when since we eat the dry seeds? I'm not sure. I think it's because we typically don't have to cook them like we have to cook our dry beans. So peanuts are a legume. But I guess that would be a reason why. Okay, I'm not going to get distracted by the chat now. So let's look at dry peas. Dry peas are either yellow or green. And many of you are probably very familiar and some of you may even really, really like split pea soup. I'm one of those people. Some people don't like it. And that's okay. There's other things to eat. But both of these types of dry peas come in split or whole. Yellow peas tend to have a more mild flavor while green peas are slightly sweeter. And we have chickpeas. It's really interesting if you go in a grocery store and you want to make some hummus, for example, hummus is made from chickpeas. And you go in a grocery store, you can buy chickpeas in a can. And on one side of the can, and in some cases, they'll have garbanzo beans listed. And on the other side, they'll have chickpeas. But this is the main thing that we use to make hummus. And hummus a few years, well several years ago now, wasn't very widely known. People really didn't know what hummus was or tahini, which is the sesame paste that's used to give hummus its characteristic flavor. But chickpeas come in a couple of varieties. These are the common ones, kabooly, round and beige, like the ones shown on your screen. And desi, which are smaller and darker. I'm mainly used to seeing the type on the screen. But if you go into specialty places or even international grocery stores, often we can see some different types of foods. And it's always good to explore different kinds of foods. And lentils. Lentils are quite pretty when you take a look at them here. There are the red lentils. They're going to be black, brown, green, French green. Red lentils can also be found in split form. So if you've never tried lentils, it's worth a try. We have some really delicious recipes that my students and I have worked on through the years. And I think you'll be enticed to try some different foods in your recipes. So now let's turn our focus into what's in a pulse. Okay, we've seen the different colors and that kind of thing. Nutritionally, what comprises a pulse? Well, they're very high in fiber. They're one of your best sources of dietary fiber. And many of us are short on fiber. They're also a very good source of protein. And they provide many vitamins and minerals. And some of us may be a little short on some of these components of pulse products. They're also very low in fat. They're low in saturated fat. Saturated fat is the type of fat that is more linked with heart disease and raising our cholesterol and that kind of thing. And they're also moderate in calories. So they're a good addition to our diet. And as I think about summer grilling, I'm looking forward to it. If you enjoy having baked beans as a side or some kind of a bean salad or a bean salsa, that's a good way to round out a menu and also get plenty of fiber along with whatever kind of protein you like to grill, whether it's a steak or a hamburger or a piece of chicken. So a good side dish for your summer grilling activities. So this is one of the charts that's actually in one of the handouts that will be linked for you to explore. And our handouts have a lot of recipes. If you're a person who likes to cook, not only do we like to provide ways where you can immediately sample a really tasty item in your menus, but we also provide nutrition and a lot of background. So if we take a look, you can see they're very similar in calories, total fat, really low. As I mentioned, there's never any cholesterol in plant-based foods. And that's sometimes it's kind of tricky when you go to the grocery store and they used to say no cholesterol on a vegetable oil or any kind of oil. Well, there never was any cholesterol in a vegetable product. So that was kind of a tricky way that they were marketing things. Very low on sodium until you add your own salt. There are carbohydrates. So if you're watching carbohydrates or following a diabetic diet, you have to factor this in. But the two that I really want to point out are fiber and folate. And they're excellent sources of fiber. And folate is a B vitamin that you may be familiar with folic acid. Folic acid is the synthetic version, man-made version of folate. Folic acid, the man-made version, is actually absorbed better than the natural version. That's one of the rarities in the world of nutrition. But folate, having enough folate is certainly linked with helping prevent certain neural tube birth defects like spina bifida have been shown through much research. So a good idea in particular for pregnant women to have some beans and to have foods that are fortified with folic acid, for example, and of course to take a supplement. So fiber and folate are some of the hallmarks, but there's also minerals and other vitamins. So this chart is actually from one of our publications. Not many foods have this much fiber in a serving of the product. So if you're short on fiber, here's where you should go. What is the recommendation? What depends on whether we're male or female. So it's anywhere from 21 grams per day to 38 grams per day. And of course, fresh foods aren't listed. There's not a nutrition label, you know, slapped on the back of an apple, for example. So you do need to look up that information if you are following a certain diet. But in general, men need more. So men are at that 38 grams per day or a little less than that women as low as 21 grams. But if we just go back one slide, you can see that if you had a cup, for example, of one of these types of pulses, maybe it's some navy beans, you're getting 10 right in that serving. And I think this is all based on a half a cup. So not only do you get fiber, but there are two kinds of fiber. There's insoluble fiber that helps prevent constipation. So if that's an issue for you, here's a potential solution drink plenty of water, of course. And then there's also soluble fiber. And this means that it's it will dissolve or break down it's soluble. And that can help lower blood cholesterol levels. So this is good on a couple levels, both the digestive level and also our blood cholesterol. So definitely worth taking a look at. So protein, whoops, I went too fast. There we go. In terms of protein, there's also ample protein in say a half a cup of any of the pulses. I mean, they're pretty similar seven to eight grams. And most of us would need around 60 grams a day or so. And the minerals are plentiful. There's iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc. But I will add a caveat that maybe the minerals aren't quite as well absorbed from some of these foods as meat. In the case of iron, our best absorption of iron would be from heme iron, a meat, or chicken, or any of those animal based foods. But you still get iron, you still get potassium, you still get some calcium, but different foods have a different level of absorption. So yes, provides mineral. But keep in mind, as I note on the second bullet, that some of the absorption could be impaired a little bit by the phytates. The other thing to remember, and maybe you're familiar with the word phytochemicals, such as the fancy word for plant chemicals, phyton means plant. Phytochemicals, which include antioxidants may reduce our risk for certain kinds of cancer. So there's been quite a lot of research done on the relationship between beans and the phytochemicals, these specific nutrients and lowering our risk for certain types of diseases. And all we have to do is eat more. So I talked a little bit about vitamins, but the B vitamins are really essential for brain development and function and the recommendation for women of childbearing age is at least 400 micrograms of folate per day. And that can help reduce the risk of neural tube birth defects. So, you know, if you know someone or you yourself are thinking about having a child, folate is one of those non-negotiable nutrients. You need it because the baby's cells depend on it. So it can come from dietary supplements, it can also come from fortified foods like our wheat products, flour and so on have folate or folic acid. And then folate, the natural form is found in beans. So eating a variety of foods and also a supplement, I guess, if you're pregnant or thinking about it is very important. So what's unique about pulses is that they have a good place in special diets. They are naturally gluten-free. And gluten is a type of protein that sometimes is misused. I've seen gluten-free on water. Now, gluten is found in certain cereal products like wheat and barley oats, some oats. And if you have celiac disease, you definitely have to omit gluten from your diet because it can have some far-reaching effects. And not everyone needs to be gluten-free. Some people have gluten intolerances and they also need to watch out. You know, they might experience different bloating and different things like that. So they probably want to moderate as well. But in general, most of us can consume gluten-containing foods. That's most of our breads, for example. Pulsas also have a good role in diabetic diets because they're high in fiber. Certainly in vegetarian diets, they serve a huge purpose in providing protein. Pulsas in some research studies have been shown to help with weight management. And that's back due to how much fiber they contain. And as we've talked about, they're also very heart healthy. So let's talk a little bit more about the gluten-free diet. As we said, pulses are naturally gluten-free. So if you know someone that is needing to avoid gluten, beans are a good option. And they can be tolerated by those with celiac disease or any intolerances to gluten. In fact, if you go to certain grocery stores, there are many products from pulses that are now available, which is really good for all of us. So we have this variety of foods. Pulsas can be ground into a flour and they can be used as a substitute in gluten-free baking. And they also add fiber and protein along the way. How about the diabetic diet? You may be familiar with the word glycemic index. They're low in terms of their glycemic index. And they're also a good source of fiber. So in other words, pulses would raise blood sugar levels at a much slower rate than foods with a high glycemic index. Like some of our, maybe some of our cereals would raise or pastas and things like that would raise blood sugar levels much more quickly. And in other words, if you know someone with diabetes, keep in mind that they can be incorporated to help with blood glucose management. And how about people who follow a vegetarian diet? What's unique about pulses is that they contain eight of the nine essential amino acids. When we say things are essential, that means our body can't produce them. So they methionine and tryptophan are a couple of the amino acids. These are lacked in pulses. But when you combine a pulse with a grain food, such as when rice and beans are served, for example, you get the complete protein in one meal. So they create complementary proteins. So they have almost all the amino acids. But if you want to complete your whole group of amino acids, which are essential for making proteins, healing wounds and all these sorts of things, then you can just combine those foods. And it can be over the course of several hours. It doesn't have to be within five minutes of eating rice. You have to have some beans. No, it doesn't work that way. How about for weight management? Well, they're high in protein, as I said, and protein builds satiety means this, we feel satisfied and fiber makes us feel full. They're also pretty moderate in calories, as you saw in my chart, and they're very low in fat. So something to think about. As we review, why are they heart healthy? They contain little or no fat. They contain little or no, probably no, trans fat. Trans fat is the bad, really bad fat. That's kind of a man made fat. It's found in some foods, but in really trace amounts. But many, many years ago, when early scientists, nutrition researchers discovered that you could hydrogenate oils to make them into solid things, kind of like Crisco. Unfortunately, that process led to the creation of trans fats. And trans fats, if you ate too much, can raise our LDL, the bad cholesterol and lower or reduce our levels of HDL, which are, which is the good cholesterol. So the advice nowadays is to try to eliminate or minimize the amount of trans fat in your diet. They're also, these pulses are also high in soluble fiber, and that reduces blood cholesterol levels or can, and it also can contribute to reduce blood cholesterol and blood pressure. So what is unique about pulses? Well, you can't count them for both groups at the same time, but you can count eating your pulses as either part of your vegetable group. Let's say you really don't like broccoli that much, but you like these brown beans or black beans. That can count as your vegetables, your two cups or whatever your recommendation is. So one cup of whole or mashed pulses equals one cup of vegetables. But if you decide I'm eating enough vegetables, because I'm growing all of these rutabagas or whatever it happens to be in your garden, a quarter cup of cooked pulses counts as an ounce of protein. So if you had three fourths of a cup that would count as a three ounce serving of meat, if you want to think about it. So they serve dual purposes. So two and a half to three cups of vegetables per day and five to six ounce equivalents of protein. That's the typical recommendation daily. And in my world, we really recommend that you eat a variety of foods. If you choose to follow a vegetarian diet, there are some things that you have to be careful about because you could be missing some nutrients such as vitamin B12. All right, now let's go on to purchasing pulses. Pulsars come in various forms, canned, come in plastic bags. I don't know if they still have bulk foods anymore. They used to have bulk foods. They also come in the dry form. And one tip that I have for any of you who like to make chili, for example, either white chili, your red chili, whatever that you might use some beans in, be sure that you rinse the pulses, the beans, any kind of pulse before you use them because that liquid that is used in the canning process is quite high in sodium. And simply by draining and rinsing off your beans or other pulses, you can reduce the sodium in that product up to 40%. And that's another nutrition issue right now is that most of us do consume too much sodium. Salt is inexpensive. And it's used by a lot of food manufacturers to add flavor. It's not really flavor, but it's kind of we have a collective salty tooth. So anything we can do to cut down on sodium is probably good for us. And the other thing to remember when you're purchasing pulses is that they must be cooked before eating and certainly before using them in recipes. So why do people not always want to take the time to enjoy pulses? They do need to be soaked. So dry beans, whole peas, chickpeas all need to be soaked before cooking. On the other hand, dry lentils and split peas don't need to be soaked. So I have some slides I'm going to show you. And these are all in your handouts that we've provided. So for example, maybe you want to cook some beans, so you could cook them when you have some time, then you could freeze them into recipe-sized portions so then you don't have to cook them later. So to start with a pound of dry pulses, a pound of navy beans, you add 10 cups of water, refrigerate six to eight hours overnight. And I emphasized refrigerate because you can actually grow some pretty nasty bacteria if you just leave stuff out on the counter. It's called Bacillus Sirius and that is a toxin producer. So be sure that you're refrigerating when you're soaking. Then you drain them, discard the soak water because that's where a lot of the sugars are that may cause gas. And we'll talk about gas in a little bit. Then rinse them with fresh, cool water. Then there's another method called the hot soak method. And in this method, we place the pulses in a large pot, 10 cups of water for every two cups of pulses, heat to boiling, boil for two or three minutes, remove from the heat. Then you let stand for four to 24 hours. You know, if you're going to let them stand for 24 hours, I would definitely put those in the fridge. Four hours is not going to hurt you. And then you drain, discard the water, rinse, and finish your process. Then there's a quick soak method. So this is six cups of water for every two cups of pulses. You're going to bring to a boil, boil for two to three minutes, remove from the heat cover. Let's stand, drain, rinse. I don't expect there's not going to be a test, but I just wanted to let you know that there are these methods and that we have all of these covered in our additional handouts. One thing we discovered, as we were testing many recipes, we did a lot of bean projects. I was working with our bean breeders on campus for several years, still work with them. If possible, use filtered water or softer water, water with the hardness removed. Because what we found is that we couldn't get the beans to soften, because that hard water actually didn't work well when cooking or soaking. So if you're having that issue and you just can't get these beans to get soft, that might be your water. So here's how to cook, dry, dry chickpeas, beans, and whole peas. Again, rinse the pulses, soak, using one of the methods, then you drain and rinse, add to a pot, come with water, two cups for every one cup, heat to boiling, and simmer until tender. So this is, you know, that's a fair amount of work. You can certainly buy canned beans and I'll also have some other methods. So again, here are the times that usually we'll take for cooking, one and a half to two hours, whole peas, 30 to 45 minutes, beans, one to two hours. So it does take a little time. So if you do have some time, to do this, you can certainly do as I said in, and freeze in recipe size containers. One thing to remember is, well, it's not, it's never a good idea to leave a stove on when you leave, you probably learn that from your mom or your grandma. But if you're at home, you do want to stir them because you could have scorching or sticking to the bottom. And just keep them at a simmer. If you boil them too hard, you're going to have split beans. And instead of cooking them with high fat ingredients like bacon, try something like a drizzle of olive oil before you serve your black beans as a side dish and maybe some spices. So again, the best advice, and I know many of the different types of beans and bean soup mixes come with many kinds of beans. If possible, cook only one type of bean at a time, because as you noted, some have different cooking times. And I guess another best practice tip is to keep the beans covered with water during the cooking process. You might have to add more water. And don't overcook. And try to explore the different kinds of beans. Now let's talk a little bit about cooking lentils and split peas. These are a little quicker. They don't require soaking. Because they're grown where they are, close to the ground, you want to rinse the pulses, remove any stones, and you have your method there, two and a half cups of water for every cup of dry. And then you're going to bring them to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. So it's a faster cooking process, 15 to 20 minutes. And again, check every five minutes because they can get dried out. So how about yield? So if you start with one cup of dry chickpeas, you're going to end up with two cups of cooked. If you start with one cup of dry lentils, you're going to end up with two and a half cups of cooked. And how about the dry split peas or whole peas? One cup yields two. And on down the line, one cup of dry beans, two to two and a half cups of cooked beans. Because they absorb water, they get bigger. And so it increases the volume. Okay, well, if you have an instant pot or a similar device, a pressure cooker, they can certainly speed the preparation time. They can also be used for sautéing, browning, slow cooking, yogurt making on a lot of different ways. So what I would advise here is that you actually follow the manufacturer's directions. They will tell you how to do this. Dry beans, peas and whole dry peas may not require soaking. So again, follow the manufacturer's directions. And you'll also want to add a little bit of vegetable oil. You can add salt if you want to add in that flavor, help them keep their shape. And that's the main reason I talked about rinsing dry beans. They add the sodium and other additives so that when you pour your beans out of the can, you're going to have beans that have that shape that you're looking for. So how can you use this? How can you use all these different pulses? And here's where we have a lot of recipes for you if you want to try. You can use them for snacks, appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, even desserts. We have some bars and cookies if you are so inclined. And there's other new products that people are making with pulses. So for example, if you've never tried to make hummus, really simple to make. They also can be roasted. So if you've ever tried roasted chickpeas, if you haven't tried them, I guess I should say try them. They can be made in an air fryer in the oven. And you can even add some cooked pulses into smoothies if you're so inclined. You can also put spinach in smoothies. So lentils can certainly be part of, they can replace a part of a meat or be in addition to a meat. So if you want to make some tacos, extend the meat, for example, you could add some black beans or other kinds of pulses, if you like. And that can also reduce the cost of the meal while adding some fiber and protein and vitamins and minerals. And I know some people do not think that beans ever belong in chili. They belong in chili in my house. But certainly give them a try. They also work well in pasta dishes, pasta sauces, even rice dishes. So there's a lot of ways to use them. Certainly good in salads. And those roasted chickpeas I mentioned are the air fried chickpeas. That can also work well as a crouton. So for example, lentils and chickpeas can be simmered with spices, add a little canola oil. You can also pair baked beans with many, many different menu courses. And we even did a study. We just had a graduate student finish a project where she used blended beans as part of the fat in chocolate chip cookies. I think she replaced about half of the fat. And they were really, really good. We tried them at the food service on campus and the students loved them. And as I noted earlier, pulses also can be used in flour. You can buy that product in the grocery store and they can be used in gluten free baking. So there's other brand new products and some of my co-workers on campus do a lot of research in the area of serial science. So they've worked on different types of pasta. You can even use chickpeas and pizza crusts. There's even chips and different sorts of snack foods. And if you ever go into the freezer aisle, I don't know how popular these are at present, but there certainly were a lot of meat replacers that gained popularity. And pea protein is used a lot in those products. And there's also plant-based milks, as you probably have noted. And one of those is actually a pea milk. And I mean, so worth checking out. I kind of prefer the original dairy milk. And air fryers are popular as well. So you could certainly air fry some chickpeas. And we're really lots of different products. But if you're looking for kind of a snack food made from pulses, air fryers does work pretty well. And here's a picture of some split peas. You can also use your air fryer to roast vegetables, chicken, reheat leftovers, such as a little bit extra information there on air fryers. And I'm going to skip that. So keep in mind when you're, anytime you're doing food preparation, food preservation that you are washing your hands, 20 seconds is a rule. We all heard that repeatedly during the pandemic. And if you're buying canned pulses, remember not to use cans that are dented, leaking, cracked or bulging. Certainly little dents are not going to be a problem. And those can be sold in the grocery store. But look, if the dents are sharp and in the seams, that may not be a safe product, there could be some leaking that you can't even see. I mentioned that there are some sugars within beans. And some people are hesitant to try increasing beans in their diet because of intestinal gas or stomach discomfort. And the best advice here is to slowly increase beans and fiber in general, any fruits and vegetables could actually cause gas. Drink more water as you increase fiber containing foods. And then the method that is recommended to reduce these sugars more efficiently is the hot soak method. The longer that the beans are soaked, the more gas producing compounds are released. And then you drain that water away and rinse the beans. So try adding more, but do it slowly. If again, you're having issues with beans, remember to change the water several times if possible. And then again, rinse canned beans that will not only reduce the sodium, but it also will reduce some of these gas forming compounds. If the beans come with a sauce like some of our our sizzling beans or some of these sorts of things that you might serve alongside a grilled menu, you don't want to rinse those because it'll rinse off the sauce. So you're gonna just have to go with that. And then there also are some gas reducing enzyme tablets available over the counter or in pharmacies. So we are at the end here and I will have five minutes for questions. Um, keep in mind gardening is a healthy activity. We talked about several aspects of being outdoors and how gardening can be helpful. Also remember that many adults and children don't eat enough fruits, vegetables and fiber. And I guess my last point here is that pulse foods will count as a vegetable or as a protein food and they're very rich sources of many nutrients and they can be used in a wide range of ways on our menus. And again, I thank all of you who've been very faithful and joining us nearly every week. If you missed any, they're all archived thanks to Scott's work. And we also ask you to do the survey and I have a stack of prizes for our last group that we will be sending out in the next couple of days. And you have my email address and also our website. So with that, Scott, I'll take any questions that may have appeared. Um, I think you answered the first one about the peanuts. So the next one was what is a cranberry bean? It's just a specific variety of beans and it usually has a little bit of a colorful cranberry appearance. So it might have some pinkish red spots, but used the same as any of them. They all have kind of a neutral flavor and they all are prepared very similarly. All right. This is more of a comment, but maybe you want to add to it that this person knows in some culture they eat boiled peanuts and they're pretty tasty. Yes. In fact, one of our professors downstairs is from Georgia and he always gets, he brings in boiled peanuts. So thank you for the comment. I saw a TV show on that actually just there and I think they were down in Georgia too. All right. What are the health risks with immature kidney beans? We used to be more concerned with health risks because there are some anti-nutritional factors associated with with undercooked beans. But as long as you cook the beans to the to the degree of doneness, tenderness, you're not going to have those anti-nutritional factors causing an issue. So cook them, follow the soaking and cooking rules and so on and you'll be fine. Okay. This one, maybe they got it answered when you were talking, but I'll ask anyways, so did you have any bean cooking recipes for insta pots? And then she and then else mentioned maybe slow cooker instructions. Yes. In fact, one of the handouts that we're putting up for you is how to use an instant pot or multifunction cooker and we don't want to use the title of them. There's several recipes on that handout and it will be with the archives. So I gave you a long list so you can page through them, but we tried a bunch. In fact, one of the recipes that we tried was from a student that was with me most of the summer from Brazil and Brazil and other South American and Central American countries are noted for their use of beans on their menu, rice and beans. And so we have one of her recipes, Brazilian beans, which was really, really good. So you don't want to try that. And most, most recipes can be adapted for use in a slow cooker instant pot different ways. We also have a slow cooker handout and I don't think that's on our list. I don't know that I had beans in there necessarily, but maybe Ada can add our slow cooker handout to your list. And I certainly encourage you to explore. I think I have over 300 publications on our website, most of the recipe. So you have thousands of recipes to choose from. All right. So what type of bean is used in red bean ice cream? I am not sure. It's probably one of the red beans. I am guessing. All right. We'll move on to a couple in the Q&A. Is there any research behind including baking soda or jalapeno pepper in the beans while soaking or cooking to reduce the gas forming compounds? That used to be a method I remember growing up. My mom used to do that. That isn't currently a recommended practice because when you do add baking soda, you are adding a lot of sodium. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It might help with softening the water a little bit, but it isn't a generally recommended practice. So if you find that you like to do that and it seems to work for you, keep doing it. But the recommendation now is the soaking and using filtered water, if necessary, to help with that hardness of water that can be a problem with case hardening of the bean. Okay. Another one here in the chat. What is the difference of Morton's iodized salt versus iodized sea salt in terms of the amount of salt intake per day? Okay. So sea salt versus table salt. It's all the same compound. If you used volume for volume, say a teaspoon of sea salt versus a teaspoon of table salt, sea salt is typically a larger granule. So you'd get less sodium because of that volume issue. So in some ways, using sea salt because of that granule size could help with reducing the amount of sodium in a recipe. I'm glad you mentioned iodized because that's probably the most important thing is that you are choosing iodized salt. This isn't about iodine today, but iodine is getting to be one of the minerals that people are getting a little short of. Because a lot of sea salt does not have iodine added, and iodine has many functions in our body. You may have seen people that have a goiter, especially in other countries where they don't have iodized salt. It can affect the thyroid and causes swelling and so on. So you do want to use iodized salt. Sea salt, it might help with reducing sodium, but if you add a lot of salt to anything, you're going to increase the sodium in your recipe. So use more herbs, I guess that would be my bottom line. A couple of quick comments. One, she loved the topic today, and they wished they could get more kids to eat more beans. They're required in school meals, but we throw a lot of beans away at the end of the menus or at the end of the day, their menu, the days that they're on the menu. She thinks it's maybe the texture of the beans and the policies, but she's going to check out the ideas for more ways to incorporate them into the menus. So I'll give you a, and we're about out of time, but we did a whole bean project with our preschool, which happens to be right under my office. And we had the kids grow various dry edible beans and all sorts of vegetables when a couple of summers. And what we found is if the kids were involved, they loved beans. We had them tasting all kinds of things, including bean based salsas and hummus. And if there's a way, I know this is harder in school, but if they're involved in taste tests, and some places have even gone to serving hummus, which is the pulse dip, but they don't call it hummus, they call it carrot dip. I know they've done that in some school system. So sometimes if you just give it a slightly different name, they might be more likely to eat it, but we have a lot of recipes on our site that you might want to try. All right. There was another comment about the link I just dropped in there. They thought we should share that, some of our publications on using more pulse foods in your diet. And then somebody wanted to comment too, that they know an individual that makes brownies with mashed up black beans, and she says they're really tasty. Yeah. Well, we have that recipe too. So there's a lot of them. We have a lot of recipes, just be a little bit more adventuresome with eating and try to incorporate more vegetables in general, including beans and other pulses. All right. Well, I think that covered it, and we're definitely over there in time a little bit. So thanks, Julie. Yeah. Thank you, Scott. And thanks to all of you for joining us, especially if you've been coming faithfully every week. Be sure to give us some feedback, because I look at all your ideas for speakers and topics. And that's how we come up with this list. And then I go looking for the speakers. So we thank you again, and please explore our resources.