I was trying to find a place buy fresh dried beans when I stumbled upon it. They recommend Rancho Gordo and the Seed Savers Exchange. I ordered several varieties from both sites and I'll let you know how they turn out when I get them. I hate it when supermarket dried beans take absolutely forever to cook (yes, I do soak them) because they are so old and have been sitting on the shelf forever.
I also found this article on preparing them. I have never tried her salting method with beans but I have a batch of supermarket-bought cranberry beans soaking now so I can give it a whirl.
Why all this bean talk? I guess I'm ready for winter food. I love winter food. I love hot, bubbly stews and roasted vegetables with goat cheese and big ol' roasts. My lord, how I love a good roast!
I bought a 20 pound box of tomatoes from our friend Del's farmstand in New York last weekend and I have been busy roasting them for our winter's stock of tomato sauce. Nothing smells better than tomatoes sprinkled with chopped onions and minced garlic and drizzled with olive oil in the oven. They smelled so good that I scrapped my dinner plan and just tossed some of them still warm from the oven with pasta and a big spoonful of ricotta. So good.
9 comments:
You will love the beans from Rancho Gordo! Everthing I've tried has turned out great.
Once again, you have the most interesting links! Thanks!
I'm thinking you must have ordered some of these:
Ojo de Cabra Bean (Goat's Eye)
Absolutely delicious bean, similar to Good Mother Stallard in that it needs only onions and garlic to make it shine, but unique in its own right. This bean, with a little salsa and some fresh tortillas is about as grand as it gets.
with that name and description, how could you possibly resist?!
Oh goodness that recipe sounds heavenly. I'm going to try that sometime very very very soon.
I got some fresh, yes still in the pod fresh, cranberry beans in my CSA basket last week and I made pasta fagioli. They were fun to shell and the soup was soooooo good. I brought some to my Papa and he said he hadn't seen fresh shelled beans since he was a child, he's 90. Fresher always tastes better.
Shoot, you should have asked! We get our dried beans from a lady up in Exeter ME. I have her number around here somewhere. She puts together a Minestrone mixture that is to die for. 8-) I'll send you the recipe sometime. Anyway, she also has single style packs of beans.
Ann, I would love her contact info. I really try to eat local whenever possible and Maine is local-ish.
I'm going to return the favor and give you an interesting food link:
http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/09/26/pawpaws-and-their-festival/
a food blog by Barbara Fisher, who lives and cooks in Ohio. She's very much into using local foods, organic foods, and just plain good cooking. Oh, and in this linked article, she has a picture of a goat %)
If she didn't mention MA grown Baer's beans then I will- gosh they are GOOD.
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2007/10/03/spilling_the_beans_about_a_special_crop/
The bean cooking link isn't working for me sadly. I most often just use my pressure cooker- no soaking whatsoever and beans are done in half an hour, fab! Little ones are done even quicker. If I do want to soak then I do the boil 5 minutes and soak for an hour method- leaving stuff soaking overnight just creeps me out (err that's my dorky biology background).
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