beans and peppercorns

Hi all you vibrantly healthy WAPFers!

Question for veteran bean cookers: When I soak beans and then cook them they always split apart and get waterlogged. Does anyone have some tips for keeping beans intact?

Also, does anyone know why most of her recipes call for crushed GREEN peppercorns? What is the significance and/or what is wrong with black peppercorns? I think I may have heard that the black ones can be irritating to the digestive tract, but am not sure. So I'm just curious, if there are any peppercorn gurus out there...

That's all for now!
Thanks! Tweet