Friend of the Bean Award from Northarvest

Bean Day with Northarvest

I just got back from Bean Day with Northarvest. What is Bean Day, you ask? Well, National Bean Day is on January 6th every year, but this is a different bean day. Every January, Northarvest hosts Bean Day, a fantastic celebration of beans and bean research that is held in Fargo, North Dakota.

Northarvest Bean Day slide

I was honored to be a speaker at the event this year. It was a great day (obviously it was great – how could it not be when it is about beans?)! I wanted to give you a quick sneak peek into what happens at bean conferences.

Bean Day Swag

First of all, as you may imagine, there is awesome bean swag. From bean stickers to bean recipes to great, nerdy bean information, there was no shortage of bean-themed goodness.

Cool beans stickers
Bean swag from Bean Day

Bean Day Food

Plus, someone had these bean cookies made. I was impressed by all of them, but especially the pinto bean cookies! Bravo to the cookie artist that managed to get the pinto coloration and mottling.

Bean cookies

Of course, we have beans for lunch. There were three different kinds included in lunch – baked beans and a fresh, two-bean salad with black beans and black-eyed peas. Yum!

Beans for lunch at Bean Day

And trust me, bean people know how to party! We live life on the edge, as you can see in this game of Jelly Bean Roulette.

Jelly Bean roulette

Thank You for Hosting Bean Day, Northarvest!

I want to give a huge shout-out to everyone who made this event possible! I know a lot of work and planning went into this, and it showed in how smooth, fun, and interesting the event was. There was great information shared all day long from numerous bean growers, processors, and researchers.

Northarvest Bean Day 2023

Also, thank you for making my dream come true and surprising me with a bean award after my presentation!

Friend of the Bean Award

Northarvest Bean Day Presentation

Want to watch my presentation? Northarvest posted in on their YouTube channel – here you are! You can also find the other Bean Day presentations on their channel.

More Fun Bean-y Things

In addition to research, Northarvest has also created several fun and creative bean outreach resources. Check these out!

While chatting with bean colleagues at Bean Day, someone mentioned how delicious kidney bean brownies are. Of course, I was intrigued! I normally use black beans for brownies and couldn’t wait to try this. Spoiler alert: absolutely delicious! Check out the recipe for Killer Kidney Bean Brownies here.

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