The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Grower's Guide: Steve Sando's 50 Favorite Varieties

181 Pages·2011·101.94 MB·English

by  Steve Sando

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The RANCHO GORDO
HEIRLOOM BEAN
GROWER'S GUIDE

The RANCHO GORDO
HEIRLOOM BEAN
GROWER'S GUIDE
STEVE SANDO'S
50 FAVORITE VARIETIES
TIMBER PRESS
PORTLAND· LONDON
Photographs by Emma Alpaugh unless otherwise indicated.
Design: Jane JeszecklJigsaw, www.jigsawseattle.com
Copyright © ~Oll by Steve Sando. All rights reserved.
Published in by Timber Press, Inc.
~Oll
The Haseltine Building
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450
Portland, Oregon 97~04-35~7
www.timberpress.com
The Quadrant
~
135 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RJ
www.timberpress.co.uk
Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in -Publication Data
Sando, Steve.
The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Grower's Guide: Steve Sando's 50 Favorite
Varieties / Steve Sando. - First
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60469-10~-3
1. Beans- Heirloom varieties- West (U.S) ~. Cooking (Beans) I. Title.
SB3~7.S~6 ~Oll
635'·65-dc~~
A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.
Dedicated with love to my two sons,
Robert and Nico
J
L.N662
• •
6
Contents
Introduction: My Love Affair with Beans 9
1.
Heirloom Beans: Some Basic Bean Botany 13
2.
Beans of the New World and Beyond 19
3.
Growing the World's Most Delicious Beans
33
4.
50 Heirloom Beans You Should Know
45
5.
Cooking Beans, Rancho Gordo Style
147
155
Recipes
Resources 172
For Further Reading 174
Conversion Tables 175
Acknowledgments 176
Index 177
About the Author 180
7
THALASSA SKINNER, CULTURE MAGAZINE
8
Introduction:
My Love Affair with Beans
BEANS: WHO KNEW?
I started out growing heirloom tomatoes in the Napa Valley. After sever
al careers behind desks and microphones, working outside and growing
vegetables from seed was about the most thrilling thing I had ever done.
My two small boys helped, mostly by getting in the way and reminding me
how much I loved them-only making for a better workplace, in my mind.
The whole process overwhelmed me, but I have the distinct memory of
one afternoon toward the end of summer, sitting cross -legged in front of a
cherry tomato plant. My youngest son, Nico, was sitting on my lap wearing
nothing but droopy diapers. In the heat and silence, the two of us ravaged
the poor tomato plant and ate every last ripe, red tomato. This was the pay
off. After our "session," I looked and Nico's mouth was still full of blood red
tomatoes and the dried juice and a few assorted seeds covered his cherubic
torso. He couldn't speak yet, but everything was telling me this was a good
career move, if I could somehow make it work.
Farmers markets in Napa are not a year-round thing. They start in
March and end in November. Despite being in California, Napa has pipe
freezing cold winters and mostly mild springs and the soil is just not ready
to produce great tomatoes until August. At the same time I was consider
ing how to make this career move work, I was discovering dried heirloom
beans, mostly from the Seed Savers Exchange and Native Seeds/SEARCH.
Both groups are nonpronts and offer beans as seeds as well as by the pound.
I remember eating my nrst bowl of Rio Zape beans and thinking I'd just
tasted my future.
When I started out, I wasn't allowed to sell at my local Napa farmers
market. Due to local politics, the management wanted to keep the market
small and clubby. I had mostly tomatoes and the beans came later, but I
didn't understand the politics or the culture of small town farmers markets.
I thought I should be able to grow something locally and then sell it, but I
guess it's more complicated than that. Unable to sell in Napa, I made my
way up the Napa Valley to Yountville and their considerably smaller farm
ers market where I sold my tomatoes and later the beans. Now, you really
need a large market to sell beans because most of the customers are there
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