Nuñas: Popping Bean
(Phaseolus vulgaris)
From findings discovered in a cave in Peru, experts say that nuñas may have been available 11,000 years ago. This discovery indicates Nuñas were around well before the Incas, and perhaps before the common bean ('frijol', Spanish). Because of their age, Nuñas have been called "a kind of witness of the first steps of plant domestication." Today, Nuñas are grown in the highlands from Ecuador to southern Peru.