ABSTRACT
The tepary bean grows as a wild plant in arid and semiarid regions, from west Texas to Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and in Mexico it occurs in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango. Seed colors in wild plants include white, black, greenish white, grey bay, dark yellow, mahogany, purple-mottled, and coffee. The species is raised from tropical central Mexico south to El Salvador and has been introduced into semiarid African countries. Tepary beans when appropriately prepared are as tasty as other beans. Well-cooked tepary beans are light and mealy with a rich bean aroma. Historically, dry tepary beans were also roasted, ground into a meal, and rehydrated into a gruel simply by adding boiling water. Tepary beans are considered to be an ideal replacement food to repair the damage caused by a diet of hamburgers, fries, soft drinks, and other fatty, sugary, overly refined, fast, and "prepared" foods.
