Bean Collaborations

My life revolves around beans and other pulses, and I’d have it no other way. Hence, bean collaborations bring me endless joy. I work with several groups, organizations, and companies to promote beans through presentations, food photography, videos, and more. Send me a message if you are interested in a collaboration. Here are some of the organizations I help support.

US Dry Bean Council

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the US Dry Bean Council to share about the amazing benefits of beans with an ever-expanding group of folks! In fall of 2022, I joined them for presentations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic – read about those adventures here, and check out some of the beans I saw while there. In early 2023, we were in Colombia for BeanCon23. I also joined the Todo con Frijol team to create a video series called Data Frijol, to share some of the science and nutrition about what makes beans so wonderful. And the bean party continued at IFT FIRST 2023 in Chicago and with presentations in Mexico with Alianza Leguminosas.

PS BeanCon24 will be in Mexico – come join the fun!

BeanCon stage - 1

Beans Is How

Beans Is How has an ambitious and critically important mission, as stated on their website: “A campaign to double global bean consumption by 2028. We can help fix the future with beans.” A fantastic group of folks from around the world is championing the ability of beans to help solve many of the global challenges we face. I had the honor of helping them with their Theory of Change, as well as their Proof Points document (which demonstrates the evidence we have about the many wonderful benefits of beans) and other work. Plus, we were at AIM4C as a team to talk beans! Here is an article we wrote together on Nutrition Connect, linked to on this post about World Pulses Day.

Beans Is How campaign

Colorado Dry Bean Committee

I help the Colorado Dry Bean Committee with outreach efforts and have the honor of working with growers, processors, and others around the state to support local, delicious, sustainable, and nutritious bean production. This includes running in-person events and sharing information via their website and social media platforms.

Pinto bean field in Colorado

Nebraska Dry Bean Commission

I partner with the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission to share about the incredible story of beans in the form of photos and videos posted on their Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels.

Nebraska bean field with the bluffs in the background

Colorado State University Extension – Nutrition, Food Safety, and Health Team

Some of my projects with CSU Extension include:

  • Bean resource creation. This included recipe development, photographs, and design for a 2022 Bean Appetit calendar and making handouts with tips and information on how to cook beans.
  • Online Extension bean class. I developed and taught the Extension class, Beans: Good for You, Good for the Planet. We just published the paper demonstrating the impacts of this class, and it also shares about the Extension Bean Toolkit and results of our Food Habits Survey with nearly 1,000 people.
  • Bean Cuisine Citizen Science. Thanks to the help of amazing team of citizen scientists, the Bean Cuisine is complete! The publication is out, and I’m working on a website post and video to share more.

Interested in hearing more or in offering or joining a bean class? Send me a message!


Food Photography Samples

You can see examples of food photography in my recipe posts. And here is a photo from a tempeh photoshoot, just for fun.

Project Umami Tempeh - Black bean and sunflower seed