In the kitchen with Captain Ken

By E. M. Morrison

Morris, Minn. -- It's Station Day at the West Central Experiment Station. At one research site, growers from western Minnesota are inspecting navy beans. There's something unusual about these particular field trials, though. These beans are destined for Captain Ken's oven.

AURI is sponsoring research -- the first of its kind -- to discover the cooking traits of five common varieties of navy beans. The study could help Minnesota growers market navy beans for specific commercial uses.

The project began with a group of farmers in Grant County who were exploring ideas for adding value to their dry edible beans. At one of their first meetings, somebody brought out a package of Captain Ken's frozen baked beans. Bret Oelke, an extension educator in Grant County, remembers telling the group: "Captain Ken's is an employee-owned company. That's like a co-op. We should talk to those people!"

Firehouse beans
Captain Ken's Foods, Inc. is a small Minnesota company selling gourmet bean and chili products. The company was founded 30 years ago by Ken Freiberg, then a captain in the St. Paul Fire Department.

Freiberg, now 84, began making baked beans for his fellow firemen. Soon, folks from the neighborhood were stopping at Firehouse Number 14 to sample Ken's beans. They became such a hit that Freiberg opened a stand at the Minnesota State Fair in 1964 and two years later ventured into the retail market. Now Captain Ken's makes a whole line of retail and food service products, including beef chili, chicken chili and au gratin potatoes.

But the baked beans are still the number one retail seller, says company president Jack LaMont. Captain Ken's makes those beans the old-fashioned way "in 30-pound batches." White navy beans are soaked overnight, then baked in a slow oven with molasses, brown sugar, bacon, and spices. "We use all natural ingredients -- no preservatives, additives, or thickeners."

Captain Ken's processes about 400,000 pounds of navy beans a year. Although the company tests each shipment of raw beans for moisture and quality, "We have no idea what variety of navy beans we are buying," LaMont says. "We just buy navy beans."

Firm commitment to bean cookery
Is a bean just a bean? Or are there cooking differences among varieties?

That's the question the Grant County Bean Growers asked Captain Ken's. Until now, the company had no way to know the answer, says Michael Sparby, manager of AURI's Morris office. But later this year, Captain Ken's will conduct cooking trials to evaluate each test plot variety for size, texture, appearance, firmness and cooking time.

Cooking time is particularly important, LaMont says, because the faster a variety cooks, the cheaper it is to process.

Firmness of the cooked beans is a ticklish issue. Ken's beans are baked, not canned, so they have more texture than other brands. That's part of their old-fashioned appeal, LaMont says. "There's a range of firmness the finished bean must fall within, not too soft or too firm.

"We pride ourselves on our high quality. Anything we can do to improve quality, we look at seriously."

'Selling wholesale gets old'
For growers, this research may be the first step in developing higher-value specialty markets for navy beans.

"The market for dry beans is limited," Oelke says. "You can't just take them down to the elevator." By growing a bean with the cooking qualities that end users want, "we can add further value to the crop. More and more, we'll want to take a look at end uses for crops, rather than just marketing a commodity."

Growing beans for a specific end user could also stabilize prices. Like other commodities, dry edible bean prices fluctuate sharply. For example, "In 1996 the price was 29 cents a pound," says LaMont, who contracts for beans a year in advance. "In 1997 it's 19 cents a pound. At 19 cents, the growers are losing money. At 29 cents, I'm losing money. Maybe there's a middle ground there for both of us."

That middle ground may lie in a direct relationship between growers and processors, says Dean Olhoft, a Norcross farmer and bean grower. He says cutting out the distributor could boost margins for both: "The processor would buy for a little less and we would be getting a little more."

Close cooperation between growers and processors is the wave of the future, agrees Sparby, who set up initial talks between Captain Ken's and the bean growers. "It's exciting to see growers partner with end users. The potential for partnerships and alliances is huge."

It's all part of a change of thinking by farmers, adds Olhoft. "We're looking for value-added opportunities. Buying retail and selling wholesale gets old. Farmers would like to sell retail, too."

Navy bean growers are testing for the right varieties to sell directly to processors like Captain Ken's, a maker of frozen bean and chili products.