BAKED BEANS: Britain eats more than any other country — but who knows how, when and where the beans got canned? Available to Purchase

Beans have been a staple in man's diet dating back to the Bronze Age. Many varieties are native to America. Domesticated possibly by the Incas of Peru, beans were grown by Indians in South and North America. The native Americans soon came to believe that beans could be cultivated in poorer soil than corn, could be dried for storage, and contained a high energy content. The early settlers gained their knowledge of bean cultivation from the Indians — knowledge that held the settlers in good stead throughout the long, cold winters. The ancient Greeks consumed large amounts of pulses and even had a God of Beans and held a ‘bean feast’ in honour of Apollo. A similar tradition was followed by New England housewives in the nineteenth century, who had ‘bean festivals’ every Saturday night.