Beans Ahoy!

Everything old is new again. South Carolina’s Josh Johnson grows classic favorites like purple hull peas and speckled butter beans at his Old Tyme Bean Co. But it’s how he farms as much as what he farms that makes him special.

Johnson is part of a new wave in farming called regenerative agriculture. Rather than rely on a guidebook to say when it’s time to spray or prune or anything else, you rely on common sense. A mixture of molasses and simple elements like boron keep the pests away — Johnson hasn’t had to use pesticide on a crop in four years now.

The gist of regenerative farming is simple — these folks do things the way their great, great grandaddies did. Everything old is new again.