You recall when I was back in Kajiado? Well, I returned with a strange variety of beans, one many of the people I meet have never seen or hard of: Christmas Lima beans. I’ve decided to introduce the Limas to Busia by farming them and teaching more farmers about them because I believe they can change people’s lives as later you will come to learn.
Personally how I came about them is quite interesting. It happened that I had gone to inform this dear friend of mine I had gotten acquainted with on my short stint there that I was leaving, and I found him and his wife preparing garden peas they had just harvested for lunch under the shade of a bougainvillea tree. So we started talking about various types of beans as we sipped sweet goat-milk tea from a giant flask. Then the guy told me of this weird bean the size of a grown man’s thumb he had that was said only a handful of grains could fill up a pot large enough to feed a family of five. Even he himself didn’t know how they were called or where they originated from.
I was curious. My entrepreneurial mind was intrigued. I wanted to hear more about the beans. When my friend said he had a few grains, I asked for a sample, he dashed into his house and came out holding five giant white beans with purple-reddish blemishes. I was astonished. I had never seen anything like them. They were beautiful. He let me have the five beans that I came back home with.
I prepared a small garden in a clearing where a couple of eucalyptus trees had recently been felled and planted one of the five seeds and stored the rest. Days later a big bean shoot came out that soon grew into a giant bean plant with tendrils clasping anything on their path and growing up the nearby trees. Weeks later, numerous beautiful tiny white flowers emerged followed by small light green pods that grew into bigger pods, seven to eight centimeters long. Inside these pods were about three pale beans with pinkish color. They pods matured turning into brown color and inside were now white purple beans that I harvested.
Curious to test the beans, we boiled about exactly a handful (you can check the video on my TikTok account: Money in Agribusiness @lazarusmarson) and added only salt and they were delicious with a normal bean taste, ending my skepticism on whether they were edible. We shared as a family and even mom agreed they were good.
After that I felt encouraged and motivated to plant more and get seeds for even bigger farm. I wanted to be the pioneer of Limas in my region. I did some research on them, learning about their origin in South America, Lima, the capital of Peru and many other things about them. From that moment I knew I wanted to farm Limas.
So with the remaining beans from my first harvest, I prepared a slightly bigger field and planted about quarter a kilo of seeds and two months later they’re about to flower (I think they were delayed by delayed rains). Soon I will have enough seeds that are adapted to this environment ready to be planted on a larger farm for market and introduction to the local community. And just to add, what interested me even more about this bean is the fact they can do with very little water, and that if you manage the plant properly, then you continue harvesting. I’m still harvesting my first plant.
Reach out if you want to know more about the Christmas Lima beans, who knows you might be my future customer whether you might want them for food or for seeds.