This January 6 food holiday celebrates the many varieties of beans from kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans to black-eyed peas and garbanzos that are available dry, canned, and frozen.

An excellent source of plant protein, beans also provide important nutrients like iron and zinc.

January 6 is Bean Day to honor Gregor Mendel, the scientist whose experiments with pea and bean plants laid the foundations of modern genetics. Mendel died on this day in 1884.