Bulk Soybeans
My cooking hobby has taken a vegetarian turn of late. Currently I'm playing around with mostly soy products including Soy Milk, Tofu, Tempeh, and Okara. As such, I need larger quantities. Unfortunately soybeans are not carried by Costco or even your typical grocery store. Larger bulk buys provides me with the freedom to experiment and bring down the cost as much as possible. I've been checking out the local food co-ops (as in 50 miles away) and well as basic internet searching and while I have some decent sources, I'm still not satisfied.
My plan is to buy by the bushel (roughly 50 lbs. depending on grade) directly from the farmer. A good portion of soybean production ends up in a grain elevator to be ground into meal or for soybean oil production. I'm still hunting for the right provider. There are a couple through mail order though the shipping charges are a bit much. One farm is located in Iowa about 350 miles away and with gas prices today it's about break even to have them shipped. I'm trying to find a local (Northern Illinois/Wisconsin border) organic soy bean farm that will sell by the single bushel. Illinois was ranked 15th in organic soy bean production (2000-2005) and the odds are good that I'll be able to find something more local.
Since I'm planning on this "large" purchase, I started to familiarize myself with soybean grading. I was reading through the EP95 Soybean Grading Procedures document from Kansas State University and came across an interesting tidbit. While I was aware of foreign matter (animal filth, bug parts, and the like) allowed limits in most bulk operations across all the food industries , I was a little bit surprised that the EP95 document listed a maximum count limit of 1 for Castor beans and 0 for glass (I'll leave off the other foreign matter bits) across all soy bean grades (1 thru 4).
Yes, you read that right, You can't have any bits of glass, but it's ok for 1 Castor bean in the grading test sample. While glass in your food is certainly harmful, so are Castor beans, which contain ricin.
My plan is to buy by the bushel (roughly 50 lbs. depending on grade) directly from the farmer. A good portion of soybean production ends up in a grain elevator to be ground into meal or for soybean oil production. I'm still hunting for the right provider. There are a couple through mail order though the shipping charges are a bit much. One farm is located in Iowa about 350 miles away and with gas prices today it's about break even to have them shipped. I'm trying to find a local (Northern Illinois/Wisconsin border) organic soy bean farm that will sell by the single bushel. Illinois was ranked 15th in organic soy bean production (2000-2005) and the odds are good that I'll be able to find something more local.
Since I'm planning on this "large" purchase, I started to familiarize myself with soybean grading. I was reading through the EP95 Soybean Grading Procedures document from Kansas State University and came across an interesting tidbit. While I was aware of foreign matter (animal filth, bug parts, and the like) allowed limits in most bulk operations across all the food industries , I was a little bit surprised that the EP95 document listed a maximum count limit of 1 for Castor beans and 0 for glass (I'll leave off the other foreign matter bits) across all soy bean grades (1 thru 4).
Yes, you read that right, You can't have any bits of glass, but it's ok for 1 Castor bean in the grading test sample. While glass in your food is certainly harmful, so are Castor beans, which contain ricin.
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