Last updated on May 21st, 2023 at 04:19 pm
This is a guest post from Samantha Russo of Live Love Bean. I haven’t tried the beans myself yet (although I am going to order some, ’cause they sound super cool), but I loved the idea, and I love that she is a local small business owner trying to do something awesome. This is *not* a sponsored post. Just so you know (I’ve never published a sponsored post).
If you’re like me, then every time you give a gift you start to spiral into a dark thought process about the millions of tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans every year, the millions of pounds of wrapping paper that are torn apart and discarded and the sheer volume of gifts that people receive and cast aside, never to be picked up again.
But more than that, you also want to give someone something that is unique, well made and that supports a small business. Something that is actually going to be used, gives the receiver a sense of pleasure and involvement and maybe also teaches them something.
This feels particularly important when we are giving gifts to our children. How else do we teach our kids about sustainable living and interacting with nature in a hands on way?
So how do you achieve such sustainable gift perfection in such a disposable world?
Introducing Live Love Bean magic beans.
Live Love Bean is my small, family-owned and operated business from the Northern Beaches of Sydney and our mission is to change the face of eco-friendly and sustainable gifting.
Whether you need a gift for your children, a birthday party, a house-warming, Christmas, or even sustainable corporate gift to raise eyebrows, we believe we have ticked all the right boxes for you to be able to gift guilt-free and still maintain your status as the best gift-giver in the family.
What are magic beans?
Magic beans or message beans are hand-engraved Jack Beans (Canavalia ensiformis) that sprout to reveal a message.
How do I grow magic beans?
Just plant your bean, add water and sunshine and voilà! – perfectly green and juicy bean sprouts that have grown to reveal a message.
What makes magic beans eco-friendly and sustainable?
We use recycled paper cards and stickers, recyclable aluminium growing pots and readily-renewable coconut coir to build our all-in-one growing kits.
We use little to no plastic in our creation and shipping process and use compostable shipping bags for all of our online orders.
The beans can be planted and grown in the packaging they are bought in which means nothing else needs to be purchased for the growing process. The beans sprout to reveal your message within 5-10 days and the message stays on the bean for 6-8 weeks, at which point, if you no longer want to grow your bean, it can be happily donated to the compost bin.
However, if you would like to continue growing your bean, you will end up with a wonderfully hardy climbing bean vine which develops purple flowers around 3-4 months and long bean pods filled with Jack Beans around 4-5 months.
Young fresh Jack beans are also edible, so your plant can be transferred to the vege patch and become a food source for your family. Commonly eaten in African and Asian countries, they must be cooked prior to consuming.
Looking to solve the perennial problem of unique corporate gift ideas, we also provide custom wholesale beans with company logos and messaging which reduces the number of water bottles, pens and other plasticky items that inevitably end up in landfill.
And the best part of our beans – our closed loop sustainability model means we can harvest our produce and continue to engrave them for our customers for years to come!
Final Thoughts
As plastic pollution grows and waste management and recycling solutions decline, it is more important than ever to make considered choices in a country that spends nearly $20 billion dollars on buying gifts every year.
We hope that the simple wonder of a product such as our magic beans can have a small impact on the gift and corporate gifting industries, change the way people think about how they show someone they care and get people involved in nature and all that it has to offer.
Author bio: Samantha is 34 years old and is the product designer and engraver at Live Love Bean, a company specializing in creating and engraving magic beans with her husband Chris. Samantha holds degrees in Communications and Media, as well as a Master of Publishing and left her position at a medical company approximately three years ago to pursue an entrepreneurial life and a passion for creativity.
