C4
EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 13, 2019
r
u
o
Y
HummuS
habit
for
could
be good
the
Earth
AP Photo/Anna Meyer
By WHITNEY PIPKIN
Oregon Public Broadcasting
P
ORTLAND
—
Hummus is hav-
ing a heyday with
American
con-
sumers, and that
could be as good
for the soil as it is
for our health.
Formerly relegated to the
snack aisle in U.S. grocery
stores, the chickpea-based
dip has long starred as the
smooth centerpiece of Mid-
dle Eastern meals and,
increasingly, plant-based
diets. Occasionally, it even
doubles as dessert. Last
year, Americans spent four
times as much money on
grocery-store hummus as
they did a decade before,
according to the latest con-
sumer surveys, and a grow-
ing number of snacks and
fast-casual concepts also
feature the fi ber- and pro-
tein-rich chickpea as their
pièce de résistance.
Part of a subcategory
of legumes called pulses,
chickpeas — along with
lentils, dry peas and several
varieties of beans — have
been a critical crop and
foodstuff for centuries in
Middle Eastern and Asian
countries. The crops are so
promising that the United
Nations deemed 2016 the
“Year of Pulses” to expand
interest in these ancient
foods and their potential
to help solve dueling mod-
ern-day conundrums: hun-
ger and soil depreciation.
Some American farm-
ers were already well on
their way to embracing
pulses, seeing the role they
could play in improving
soil health and setting the
stage for better harvests of
cash crops like wheat. Last
year, U.S. farmers planted
more chickpeas than ever
to satisfy the growing
demand for plant-based pro-
tein alternatives — which,
in turn, could help restore
soils depleted by decades of
intensive farming.
Unlike corn or wheat,
these pulses fi x their own
nitrogen from the atmo-
sphere, leaving extra stores
of the nutrient in the soil for
future crops to consume.
For this reason, pulses can
play a vital role in crop rota-
tions, especially those that
don’t rely on chemical fer-
tilizers. What’s more, if
managed well, these crops
can be part of a farming
system that sequesters car-
bon from the atmosphere
and helps mitigate climate
change.
“I see this diversifi cation
and these legumes as a way
to get away from the use of
synthetic nitrogen,” says
Casey Bailey, a farmer in
Fort Benton, Montana, who
grows organic chickpeas as
the lynchpin of a rotational
planting program. “They’re
a tricky crop to grow, but
I’m a huge proponent of try-
ing to fi gure out how to do
it.”
He sells about 2,000
pounds of chickpeas each
month to Little Sesame, a
fast-casual concept serving
hummus bowls topped with
seasonal vegetables at a pair
of locations in Washing-
ton, D.C. Chef-owners Nick
Wiseman and Israeli-born
Ronen Tenne soak the dried
chickpeas for hours before
cooking and blending them
(with tahini, garlic, olive
oil and lemon juice) into
daily batches to satiate the
city’s lunch and after-work
crowds — often without
adding meat.
“We don’t say it much,
but 80% of the menu is
always vegan,” says Wise-
man. “It’s awesome to see
people who would probably
eat meat every day come in
here and be satisfi ed with-
out it.”
For Wiseman, the cherry
on top of opening a second
location this year is getting
to buy more kabuli chick-
peas from Bailey, whom
peas a dozen years ago,
after a retailer looking to
sell more of the health-
ful legumes reached out
to him on LinkedIn, mak-
ing him a pioneer in Mon-
tana’s grain-heavy Golden
Triangle region. But the
word was spreading that
the chickpea could pull in
more money per pound than
other legumes while reduc-
ing the need for chemical
inputs compared to crops
like wheat.
High in fiber and protein,
chickpeas are playing a starring
role on menus at fast-casual
restaurant chains, where hummus
bowls abound. Chickpeas are
also good for soil health — and
growing demand could help
restore soils depleted by decades
of intensive farming.
he’ll visit this summer
during a road trip in Little
Sesame’s 1978 Volkswa-
gen van. Creating markets
for such legumes — par-
ticularly those grown with-
out chemicals such as desic-
cants used to dry chickpeas
in the fi elds — is a growing
interest for Wiseman.
“These [chickpeas] are
helping restore the grass-
lands of the West, which
are this huge carbon sink,”
Wiseman says over a bowl
of hummus topped with
snap peas and Aleppo chili
oil at his Chinatown loca-
tion. “They’re a very pow-
erful plant.”
Bailey planted his fi rst
few hundred acres of chick-
When Tim McGreevy
started working in 1994 as
the CEO of the USA Dry
Pea & Lentil Council and
the American Pulse Asso-
ciation — a trade group
that trumpets the power of
chickpeas, lentils, dry peas
and beans — the coun-
try was harvesting about
30,000 acres of chick-
peas annually, primarily in
the hilly Palouse agricul-
tural region of Washing-
ton, Idaho and Oregon. By
last year, that number had
swelled to 859,000 acres.
“That’s a pretty big dif-
ference in 25 years,” says
McGreevy, who also grows
chickpeas on a small farm
in Eastern Washington.
Last year, in particular,
Bailey says, “it seemed like
the entire state of Montana
was chickpeas.”
While about half of the
country’s chickpea harvest
is still shipped overseas, a
growing number of chick-
peas are going to domes-
tic markets as demand
increases. Trade disputes
also are making interna-
tional markets less reli-
able. In 2019, U.S. farm-
ers reduced for the fi rst
time in years the number
of acres they planned to
plant in chickpeas, down to
519,000 acres. Volatile trade
riffs with countries, such as
India in 2018, left much of
that year’s harvest sitting
in silos, where an oversup-
ply has continued to depress
chickpea prices this year.
“The saving grace — and
why I’m still optimistic —
is the domestic market con-
tinues to grow for all pulse
crops,” says McGreevy. He
thinks the lower price could
also spur even more inno-
vation of chickpea-based
foods. “Chickpeas have, in
particular, shown signifi -
cant growth in sales over
the past decade.”
Americans spent nearly
$800 million on hummus
from retail stores in 2018,
McGreevy says. That’s
compared with just under
$200 million in hummus
sales a decade before and
only $5 million in the mid-
1990s, placing the popular
dip among food retail’s fast-
est-growing sectors.
Sabra Dipping Co., an
Israeli company that’s been
partnered with PepsiCo
since 2008, has led hum-
mus’ parade into U.S. mar-
kets over the past decade
and is still one of the sector’s
largest players. A Sabra pro-
duction plant in Chesterfi eld
County, Virginia, where the
company also has encour-
aged more farmers to grow
chickpeas, was expanded
in 2014 to produce more
than 8,000 tons of hummus
a month in anticipation of
market growth.
The chickpea invasion
has gone beyond the dip
aisle, too, with crunchy
roasted versions from com-
panies like Hippeas and
The Good Bean compet-
ing with potato chips as a
healthful alternative. The
U.S. Dietary Guidelines
suggest Americans eat 1½
cups of cooked pulses per
week, McGreevy notes.
High in protein, dietary
fi ber and essential amino
acids, pulses can play an
even larger role in diets
focused on reducing meat
consumption.
Hummus already looms
large on American snack
tables, replacing ranch
dressing as a healthier,
cut-vegetable accompani-
ment. And, now, it’s stag-
ing a takeover of the main
meal, too. Hummus-based
bowls are the centerpiece
of chains like New York
City’s The Hummus & Pita
Co. and a staple ingredient
at the ballooning number of
fast-casual Mediterranean
concepts, such as Cava and
Roti. Chickpeas are crop-
ping up on menus in Asian
noodle dishes, French fries,
soft-serve “ice cream” and
dessert-like frostings.
But perhaps the easiest
way to wade into the chick-
pea fray is to fi nd a really
good bowl of hummus —
which doubles as the Arabic
word for chickpea — and
shovel it in.
High hopes for your next vacation: Cannabis tourism grows
By SUSAN G. HAUSER New
York Times News Service
PORTLAND — Sam
Rosenbaum has Stephen
Colbert to thank for his
career switch from accoun-
tant to cannabis tour opera-
tor. The newly minted MBA
was watching an episode
of “The Colbert Report” in
2014 when the comedian
spoke of a “cannabis green
rush” coming to Colorado,
which had recently become
the fi rst state to legalize rec-
reational marijuana.
“The part about bus tours
kind of jumped out at me,”
Rosenbaum, 34, said. “I
came up with High 5 Tours
and registered it the next
week.” It was a prescient
move. One year later, when
Rosenbaum’s home state
of Oregon voted to legalize
cannabis, High 5 Tours was
the state’s fi rst cannabis bus
tour.
Rosenbaum is not alone in
his attempts in growing the
world of cannabis tourism.
Eleven states in the
United States so far have
voted to allow people 21
and older to buy regulated
amounts of cannabis prod-
uct for consumption on pri-
vate property. Sales systems
are not yet in place in Mich-
igan and Maine, and in Mas-
sachusetts a gradual licens-
ing of dispensaries began in
November. In Vermont, as
in Washington, D.C., pos-
session, growing and sharing
cannabis are legal, but not
buying or selling.
But in six other states
(Alaska, California, Colo-
rado, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington), business is
booming at cannabis dispen-
saries and related businesses.
As for cannabis tourism,
it is totally hot in Colorado
and California and emerg-
ing in others. Travel entre-
preneurs like Rosenbaum
are organizing marijuana-in-
fused experiences, including
painting classes, bus tours
and food classes.
In the Mile High City
The pioneers of cannabis
tourism, Colorado Cannabis
Tours and My 420 Tours, are
in Denver.
The Original Colorado
Cannabis Tour includes vis-
its to two dispensaries, after
which onboard consumption
of purchases is encouraged.
Visits to a growing facil-
ity and a glass-pipe blow-
ing demonstration round out
the $89 bus tour, which lasts
precisely four hours and 20
minutes.
Colorado Cannabis Tours
is also behind the Puff, Pass
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Tourists share cannabis cigarettes during a tour on the Green
Line Bus in Los Angeles.
& Paint class. Mike Eymer,
the company’s chief exec-
utive, teamed up with art-
ist Heidi Keyes to create the
fi rst class in 2015. For $49,
the tour includes teacher
guidance and art supplies,
including a canvas to take
home. Cannabis is BYOC.
The concept has since spread
to other states.
“There are really some
amazing paintings that come
out of it,” Keyes said. ”With
smoking, you’re able to con-
centrate better. The colors
are more vibrant and peo-
ple are more willing to think
outside the box.”
My 420 Tours offers the
Blaze & Gaze Graffi ti Walk-
ing Tour ($29), a post-con-
sumption 2½-mile walk-
ing tour of Denver’s RiNo
Art District, and the Sushi
& Joint Rolling Class ($79).
“It’s our plan to copy and
paste this model across the
country,” said Danny Schae-
fer, the chief executive of My
420 Tours.
Heavy on the
regulations
California has also rolled
out the green carpet for tour-
ists. West Coast Cannabis
Tours, in San Diego, offers
various tours and classes,
including an exclusive tour
of a 32,000-square-foot
growing facility ($99). Todd
Green, who started the com-
pany when only medical
marijuana was legal, said,
“Now that it’s recreational,
people are coming out of the
woodwork.”
But regulations abound,
especially for bus tours. In
Colorado, Oregon and Cal-
ifornia, passengers on tour
buses are allowed to con-
sume what they have just pur-
chased at cannabis dispensa-
ries, which is almost every
tour’s fi rst stop. However,
in Washington and Nevada,
laws prohibiting smoking in
moving vehicles limit opera-
tors to tours that are strictly
educational. Seattle Kush
Tours, for example, offers
a 3½-hour tour for $99 that
informs passengers about the
new industry through stops
at a dispensary, a growing
site and a glass-pipe blowing
demonstration. State law also
prohibits the use of cannabis
in a Seattle cannabis cooking
class. Hemp is the substitute.
In Las Vegas, Matthew
Miner, chief executive of
Herbology Tours, offers for
$109 a daily 3-hour Herbol-
ogy 101 tour. Well-informed
guides share literature and
knowledge during stops at a
dispensary, a kitchen where
cannabis edibles are made,
and even a cannabis art
museum, Cannabition, which
it says features the world’s
largest bong. “It’s a really
cool experience, within lim-
itations, because we can’t
smoke at any lounges … yet,”
he says.
West Hollywood, as well
as some cities in the San
Francisco Bay Area, have
circumvented state restric-
tions by allowing cannabis
social clubs or consumption
lounges. Alaska will soon be
the fi rst state permitting con-
sumption lounges attached
to dispensaries. And in late
May, Colorado’s governor
signed a bill allowing can-
nabis “hospitality spaces” at
dispensaries and at BYOC
clubs.
The lack of smoking
lounges has been a frustrat-
ing issue for Mitchell Knot-
tingham, who owns Juneau
Cannabis Tours in Alaska
but has yet to launch his
fi rst tour. Knottingham said
he got involved in things
early in order to be ready
when lounge approval came
around. That may happen as
early as mid-July.
And in Portland, Rosen-
baum’s bright yellow High
Five Tours bus takes off
every day at 6 p.m. on a
dispensary tour ($79) that
includes stops at food carts
and a brewery. Every Fri-
day, following the tour of the
Columbia River Gorge ($89),
he treats his passengers to ice
cream sandwiches. It’s been
more than two years since he
worked as an accountant. He
hasn’t looked back.