Homemade Beans.

Sprouts, starting to sprout. 

Homemade Baked Beans.

Homemade baked beans were not exactly my favourite dish as a child. I was always told that I would like them in the future and here I am, baking beans. You start, as pictured above, by soaking your beans. These beans are navy beans but another kind or even a combination of beans can be used. The beans need to be covered with water and soaked overnight. You can use a quick soak method but I don't recommend it. I find the beans are always easier to cook and digest when soaked overnight.

The beans are then combined with onion, garlic and other desired vegetables. Some use carrots, celery, peppers and even apple. Molasses and Maple syrup or honey is then added along with tomato paste, mustard powder, any additional seasonings and water. I do not exactly follow a recipe. I use a recipe for approximate measurements then always make my beans a little different depending on what veggies I have to use up.

You dollop butter on the top to keep the beans from drying out since you cook them for a long time.

I usually bake my beans in the slow cooker on a day when it would be most appreciated. This time I baked my beans on top of the wood stove since we would be using the wood stove anyway to heat the house. One day and one night of baking filled my home with the most pleasant sweet molasses and maple smell.

Here they are bubbling away.

Scientific Experimentation.

With all the sprouting, soaking and general food prep in the kitchen my counters often look like they're covered with 'Science' Experiments. Here I'm sprouting some alfalfa, soaking some raw cashews and navy beans.

The cashews will be drained and dried for straight up eating and the beans will be turned into baked beans. I might as well make the baked beans on top of the wood stove since I don't need them for any specific time and I will have the wood stove on all day anyway. I can't wait for their smell to invade the house.

My early morning date. Always on time, every morning.

This photo is from late fall.

He insisted on sleeping on these onions all day. I kept checking them fearing his body heat would not allow them to properly breath and dry. They were fine to use after a few days of being used themselves as pillows, however I did have to brush them off before storing them covered in cat hair.