Caution: May Contain Nuts

I have discovered a positively fool proof method for ascertaining if your dried beans are organic!

Step 1: purchase beans (if you can convince your already hard-working husband to wade into the busiest, grungiest outdoor market in town to purchase these beans, so much the better)

Step 2: put off moving the beans from the plastic carry bag to a sealed plastic container (coming up with a water-tight excuse for this such as “I had to make a cake for Friday night!” or “The kids had a really bad day” will be good for your morale in the long run)

Step 3: When you notice little bugs flying in and out of the bag, ignore them. After all, they’re probably just curious… and curiosity killed the cat so it has a fighting chance with winged insects too, right?? Logical, that’s me.

Step 4: when you finally decide to open the bag of beans, don’t bother to see what the insects have done to them. Simply soak overnight as usual.

The next morning:

The Evidence (or 'maybe a little TOO organic')

Step 5: After an overnight soak, observe the presence of small holes, larvae, and drowned insect carcasses. Congratulations! Your beans are pesticide free (hence the presence of pests!) If you are so unfortunate as to have whole, still edible, non bug eaten beans, I’m sorry, you are not a winner. Your beans were sprayed with pesticide.

(If you’re wondering if we still ate the beans, the answer is YES!)

(And by “we” I mean the dogs)

Lesson learned: ask if the beans have been treated with pyrethrum, the most common African treatment for dried beans and, ironically- ORGANIC! That or actually put the beans in a sealed container so the bugs can’t eat them……

The Worms Crawl In....