The bean results are in. So for all you bean counters here is how it went. In the end we harvested 3 five gallon buckets of beans. Not bad considering we started with only about 1 or 2 gallons of beans. The problem was most of the money went to labor so in the end we lost money. Blame it on lots of rain rotting the beans before they germinated or just a bad idea but it didn't work so great. The trees are fine though, can't see much of a difference probably b/c the soil was already high in nitrogen and not depleted yet. But they did get the area around them well cleared and they were well looked after. We'll have to come back after a year and see how they are compared to the surrounding trees.

To celebrate the harvest we had a big bean feast down at Carl and Margarets. They cooked up the beans and we digged in. Probably the most expensive beans we've ever had. But hey, it was an experiment.

Conclusion: Don't pursue beans to subsidize the plantation directly. We gave Marcus (our beans guy) the numbers and he still thinks he can do better so we developed a contract. So next year he'll get to pick any land he wants and put the beans on it between the trees. We provide the land, the beans, the fertilizer, one worker to help harvest and then we split the beans 50/50. He is convinced it will be good and wants to go for it so we're all game.