|
|
The soybean, a member of the pea family, is the most important world source of vegetable oil, supplying more than fifty percent of the world’s oilseeds. Native to eastern Asia, the plant was the first domesticated in northeastern China about eleventh century B.C. During the following millennium, its cultivation spread to Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in the Orient where animal protein is and still is a luxury. Consumed in many different ways throughout the Far East, soybeans have become a prominent part of the human diet. Fresh, fermented or dried, they are eaten as vegetables. The dried beans, rich in digestible nutrients, are processed to produce soy milk, a valuable protein supplement for feeding. Soy sauce, a dark brown liquid prepared from fermented soybeans, is a foremost flavoring in eastern Asia and a principle ingredient in some pungent Western sauces such as Worcestershire.
Long overlooked in the West, the versatile soybean did not achieve commercial status in the United States until the past century, when it was first utilized as a forage and later as an oilseed crop. During the past sixty years, it has made a phenomenal rise to prominence and is now this country’s most important cash crop, having overtaken wheat and corn. Production comes mainly from the mid-western and southern states; Illinois and Iowa are the leading producers. The United States is now the world’s largest producer of soy beans.
The soybean is a leguminous, subtropical annual, now grown extensively throughout the middle latitudes of the world. It is an erect plant, twelve to forty-eight inches tall, depending on the cultivar. The leaves are pale and usually trifoliate. The stem, leaves and seed pods are covered with rough, brownish or grayish hairs; the flowers are small, white or light purple. The pods, two to three inches long and about one-half inch wide, commonly contain two to four small, smooth, globose seeds.
Soy food products have become a common substitute to meat products in the United States. Today tofu is readily consumed in this country. Tofu is similar to cheese but made of soy milk. There are soy burgers and soy “meat” products meant to be substituted for actual meat.
Today soy beans are roasted and eaten as soy nuts. They are often roasted similar to peanuts and actually look somewhat similar to them as well. Soy nuts tend to have a natural bland taste. Often, they are salted or covered in different flavoring such as garlic, barbeque flavoring, and many others.
Soybeans will continue to be a very important product in our diet. They are packed with protein and nutrients which make them a necessity to the diet of vegetarian, vegans, and anyone who want to eat healthy.
|
Feedback!
| "Great soy nuts, packed beautifully, and delivered in amazing speed. Everyone should be this good to the customer, both in quality and in care. It makes for repeat business, indeed." |
| -- Liz |
Leave online feedback to share your thoughts with other customers!
|
|
|
|
![[Delivery Van]](/images/van.gif) Order now, we'll ship Monday, Sep 8.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
...only took us 79 years to figure it out!
Gifts
