sweetgreen | open source: chickpeas

Did you know that you can get 18% of your daily protein intake from just 100g of chickpeas? Did you also know that to get the best chickpeas in America you have to travel all the way up to Ulm, Montana where Timeless Seeds, a farming movement pioneered by rebel seedsman Dave Oien, is headquartered. This group of renegade growers rejected commodity industrial wheat farming in the 1980s and traded pesticides and synthetic nitrogen for crop rotation and soil health.
We love chickpeas because they are a type of plant-known as legumes-which are both good for you (hi, protein) and good for the planet. How? These legumes (which also include lentils and peas) have bacteria on their roots that convert nitrogen into ammonia-the chemical used in fertilizers. Essentially they take fertilizer from the air and put it into the ground. Which means these they produce their own fertilizer for healthier soil and better tasting food. Pretty cool, right?
Open Source is a new series from sweetgreen bringing you along on our journey to 100% transparency in food. Learn where every spice, seasoning, and salad ingredient comes from, who grows it, and what the future of real food looks and tastes like. Along the way you'll meet small farmers who are thinking differently, big farmers challenging the status quo, and the biggest issues facing the food industry today.