Bean Count Contest

How many beans in this jar?

The Rules

• The jar of beans is at the plant-based booth at the Davis Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 8:00-1:00 in the non-profit/community area.
• It is free to guess (estimate) the number of beans in the jar. You can update your guess by submitting another one.
• The contest will end at 2:00 pm on December 16th. It will then take a few days to carefully count the beans.
• The 6 guesses that are closest to the actual count will win the prizes. The winners will be notified and the results will be posted on this web site.
• In January-February 2024 there will be another contest (with different beans!).

The Prizes

1. $50 gift certificate at the Davis Food Co-op at 620 G Street.
2. $30 gift certificate at Trader Joe’s at 885 Russell Blvd.
3. Cool Beans - bean cookbook by Joe Yonan, published by Ten Speed Press in 2020.
4. The Great Vegan Bean Book - bean cookbook by Kathy Hester, published by Fair Winds Press in 2013.
5. 1st choice of 14 Vegetable Pillows OR a $20 gift certificate at the Co-op or Trader Joe's.
6. 2nd choice of 14 Vegetable Pillows OR a $20 gift certificate at the Co-op or Trader Joe's.

The Guesses (aka Estimates)

Bar Graph of Guesses

    <250: **
    <500: ******
    <750: ***************
   <1000: **************
   <1250: *******************
   <1500: ********
   <1750: *****
   <2000: ****
   <2250: *********
   <2500: *****
   <2750: *
   <3000: ***
   <3250: ****
   <3500: *
   <3750: ***
   <7000: *
  <13250: *
  <80250: *

Here are all the guesses - with people's names abbreviated to the first 3 characters of their first and last names (for privacy concerns, I guess).

In guess numerical order

In alphabetical order by name

Two guesses that I didn't include were: a billion and a googleplex! 😊 Other fun guesses were 666, 1111, and 80,000. Estimation is a difficult art.

The Final Count

Black	614
Cannellini	161
Fava	36
Chickpea	214
Kidney	302
Mung	3178	!!!
Pinto	195
Soy	444
Total	5144

The Winners

Off by	Guess	Name	Prize
1544	3600	August	$50 gift certificate at Co-op
1621	3523	Ta Thawinrak	$30 gift certificate at Trader Joe's
1644	3500	Neil Heaton	Cool Beans
1645	6789	Leslie Crenna	The Great Vegan Bean Book
1744	3400	Ananya Momandeya	Vegetable Pillow or $20 gift certificate
1944	3200	Elmer D Flores	Vegetable Pillow or $20 gift certificate
2133	3011	Sean Malone	$15 gift certificate
2139	3005	Addie	$15 gift certificate
2144	3000	Nick Cornes	$15 gift certificate

I added 3 more prizes in part because it wasn't quite fair (as I belatedly realized) to include the many many tiny mung beans that surreptitiously hid themselves at the center of the jar and made it impossible for anyone to make an accurate educated guess at the total. Even the first prize winner was way off - by 1544 beans!

The next bean count contest in January-February 2024 will have different beans and a smaller jar. Come visit the booth, check it out, and make a guess.

The Beans

• Black - Native to the Americas and beloved in Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and the American Southwest. Earthy and meaty, they turn everything they touch an inky purplish black.
  
• Cannellini - A large white kidney-shaped bean used throughout Italy. Creamy-but-firm texture.
  
• Chickpea (aka garbanzo) - An ancient bean and perhaps the most versatile one in the pantry. The main ingredient in hummus and falafel.
  
• Fava - One of the oldest beans in Europe, where it is especially beloved in Middle Eastern cooking.
  
• Kidney - Named for its shape, this deep crimson bean is popular in India, Latin America and the United States, particularly in Lousiana where it is de rigeur for New Orleans red beans and rice.
  
• Mung - A small, sweet green Asian bean common in Indian cooking. Also used sprouted in Vietnamese Pho.

  (Note that because these beans are so small they navigate to the interior of the jar and are hard to see.)
  

• Pinto - This mottled pinkish bean is the most popular in the United States and parts of Mexico where it stars in frijoles refritos, borrachos (drunken beans), tacos, and burritos.
  
• Soy - Ubiquitous the world over, this Asian bean is popular not as a dried bean but made into products such as soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, and more.
  

Questions?