Every day, nearly 14 percent of the U.S. population eats beans, according to government statistics. Many West Virginians, especially those in the southern coalfields, are probably already starting to laugh at the percentage. Multiple, maybe by seven (98%) if you count dinner plates in the Mountain State and while you're at it, change that "given day" to every day. To say that “brown beans” – the typical reference for pinto beans, in fact, are a staple – is to understate it. The prevalence on mountain plates even defies comparison or relevance to other regional foods. Namely, people in Philadelphia don't eat cheesesteak sandwiches, and people in Buffalo don't gnaw on hot wings on a daily basis, either. Maybe (but I doubt it) South Carolinians eat grits as often as we eat beans, but I'll put our consumption in pounds (tonnage?) of beans against theirs in grits any day of the week. So how does something that hasn't grown to any significant extent in West Virginia evolve into "our food?" Like many things for mountaineers, we got them from the Indians, but not the ones that come easily to mind. They are Indians like South American Indians. Phaseolus vulgaris, pinto bean and cousins, originates from an ancestor of the common bean domesticated in or near Peru 7,000 years ago. In fact, "pinto" is a Spanish word for painted, coined to describe the mottled or seemingly painted spots on this variety of beans. They crossed the Central American isthmus into Mexico, then (fortunately) took a turn east toward the Appalachians. and northward, but no further than West Virginia for all intents and purposes. (Navy beans, also aptly called "Northern beans," are the preference up there.) History tells us that W...... middle of paper...... in the modern times. Mountain housewives do not, as often as their mothers and grandmothers, put a pot of beans on the stove to cook all day. However, the taste for “pintos” can never be completely satisfied among mountain people. When she married my Louisville, Kentucky-born bride over 27 years ago, the only stipulation was that she learn how to “cook a pot of beans.” Today, usually as a winter dish, my family eats pintos with ham hock which are, in my opinion, the best pot of beans you will find west of Huntington. Much to my satisfaction, my three children – all born in Louisville like their mother – have a taste for pintos. Oh yes, for those of you who could accept that 2% of West Virginians don't eat beans on any given day. , perhaps considering babies, don't be in too much of a hurry. Mountain moms have been known to crush pintos and feed them to infants..