Developer Diary & Agronomy Notes
The journey of building a specialized culinary and botanical companion from scratch.
The Lost Varieties of the Kitchen
Standard grocery aisles reduced thousands of bean varieties to three generic commodity bins: black, pinto, and navy. When we first cooked an artisanal batch of fresh heirloom Ayocote Morado in an unglazed earthenware pot, the difference in broth viscosity, creamy interior texture, and complex savory notes was an epiphany. We started cataloging every landrace we could find.
Altitude, Clay & Starch Gelatinization
Why do bean cooking times vary from 45 minutes to 3 hours? We mapped the food science variables: starch gelatinization rates, pectin cross-linking with calcium ions in hard water, acid inhibition, and water boiling point depression at altitude. The Bean Sommelier was born to calculate precision cooking windows so cooks never end up with cracked skins or chalky centers.
On-Device Morphology & iNaturalist
Dried heirloom beans exhibit distinctive signatures: hilum eye shapes, speckled marbling, aspect ratios, and seed coat striations. Using on-device CoreML vision coupled with real-time open taxonomy from iNaturalist, Frijolio turns your iPhone into a field guide for farmers markets, seed swaps, and spice bazaars.
Decentralized Passports & GitHub Sync
Preserving biodiversity requires open collaboration. Instead of locking your records inside a closed database, every bean in Frijolio can be exported as a flat .json passport. Users can propose corrections or submit regional landraces straight to our open-source GitHub repository.