Hi Martha,

Keep eating the string beans if you enjoy them.  Kids, too.  Shouldn't be
any problems.  If you like the taste and chewy texture...eat away to your
heart's content.  If you tried to soak the fresh pods, though, they'd
probably rot.  Best way to sprout is to use the dried, and therefore
inedible as-is beans.

Regarding kids.  I raised two, a boy and a girl on all raw.  No doctors, no
sickness, no dental problems...nada.  Only doctor calls were when my son
busted some bones clowning around on his horse...and we just went into town
to make sure the bones were set properly...that's it.

All the problems you mentioned in the socialization sector can be quite
real, of course, but not at all insurmountable.  I home-schooled my kids for
many reasons, only one of which was because they were so totally different
in their eating habits from any of their friends.  The main reason was to
avoid the brain washing I and everyone else I know got in private and public
conventional schooling.  Both flowered intellectually on the natural
schooling routine (daughter to college at 13 and son at 9), and weren't
troubled with illnesses the way all their contemporaries were.

The whole routine is almost disgustingly simple, which is one of the big
advantages in the natural life-style, I suppose.  It does help , obviously,
to be living in a rural setting, where you're not constantly reminded of how
different your kids are from all the others in a neighborhood.  To see their
friends (most of whom they knew thru their equestrian competitions) they'd
have to mount their horses and ride quite a distance to visit them.  Those
circumstances are surely ideal for minimizing the distractions and peer
influences of being raised in and urban or suburban environment.

Keep plugging along, things will work out just fine.

Too bad we don't have some Hygienic communities around for optimal family
raising. As you know, it's been tried. Maybe someone on this list might know
of a group somewhere in the states.

Take care.

Peace,

Ric