PEACEFUL BEANS
Mung bean (Green bean) hull is not a new natural material in vietnamese meditation community. However, not everyone understands its structure and how supportive it is for meditation and yoga.
In vietnamese cuisine, green bean sweet soup helps to refesh your body. In terms of nutrition, green bean hull contains flavonoids which support to reduce the risk of cancer and can be used to purify the body. In terms of its hard shell, due to the tough and round structure after dehydration, mung bean hull becomes very flexible yet sturdy. In addition to that, its weight is immensely light, thus this material is very suitable for making pillows and cushions.
When La Touche was in the first steps of Zafu (meditation cushion) and Zabuton (meditation mattress) R&D, we knew that sitting for a long time would cause back pain but we did not really understand the importance of the stiffness of the meditation cushion. At the begnining, we used natural kapok as our main material to make Zafu. However, after numerous inputs and iterations with the support from many meditation masters, we understood that it is different between being comfortable and beeing fully supported by the product. The lightweight and soft structure of kapok makes it more suitable for relaxing pillows and Zabuton which supports the knee comfort, but not suitable for a Zafu. A good Zafu does not only need comfort, but also needs the “stiffness” to support the spine. Therefore, with a tough, round, hollow structure, green bean hull can do what other materials cannot, which is retaining the flexibility to adjust the height and thickness while still ensuring enough hardness to support the spine straight, thus reduce back pain during long meditation sessions and sittings.
At La Touche, we collect mung bean hull directly from farmers in suburban area. Normally farmers consider this hull as agricultural scrap, by collecting and turning mung bean hull into useful natural material, we also want to support these farmers with their monthly income. We conduct research on this material by doing many experiements to find the best way to clean the hull. After being taken to La Touche’s home, the hull is carefully washed by our own formula which is completely free of chemicals, then it is industrially dehydrated, sieved to remove the pointy parts of the hull and stored in a clean dry place. To produce around 1.5kg of clean hull, we need around 10kg of raw hull. Cleaning hull is also the most time consuming process because to ensure the hull is clean, we have to wash at least 10 times and dry by dehydrator twice. We recommend our customers to dry the green bean hull under the sun one per month. In addition, we also encourage customers to replace the new hull material every 2 years to ensure product quality.
