Cooking Light: Heirloom Beans

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Why are time-honored varieties of beans finding fresh flavor in home kitchens? "I think heirlooms taste better,"says Steve Sando, whoese Ranco Gordo in Napa, California, grows and sells nearly 30 varieties of distinctive beans. "Runner beans tend to be buttery. Christmas limas have a distinct chestnut taste, and the bean broth is beefy. Some types are like potatoes in texture; others are creamy. They are not bred for uniform growth, uniform size, or disease resistance. They've been saved [from extinction] because they taste good."

What's more, Sando says his and other growers' methods are god for the soil. "The beans are initially cleaned right in the fields by the combines, and the pods go back into the soil as green manure," he says.

Rancho Gordo Blog

(This article was taken from the March 2009 edition of my Cooking Light magazine. pg 100.)