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I love beans & farmers & good food and over the last few years, cooking at home. This month we have a little extra offering: my favorite dried beans from California. is a third generation farming family based on the Pacific coast from Pescadero to Montara since the 1930s. They grow a variety of fresh vegetables, but are best known for their beans. 

It's an organically certified, dry farmed property.

I asked Deborah Iacopi what some of the impacts of climate change on dry farming are and she said, "Oddly, the biggest impact to our dry farming has been the deluge of rain we’ve had in the past two years.  While drought conditions in California have persisted for several years, our fields contain a lot of clay which fortunately holds a lot of moisture.  However, because we experienced an unusual amount of rain last year and this year — it has prohibited us from planting when we typically would.  Our beans must be harvested no later than October so you can imagine the impact of not being able to plant in time."

These are Gigante Beans. The OG recipe I still use is a sprouting method. Soak the beans overnight and in the morning put them in a colander and rinse daily until an ever so slight sprout tail comes through (1-3 days). Don't worry if they sprout a ton or you get scared and don't complete the experiment. Most important thing is to remember to rinse daily. Then cook with water (about 2" over the beans), oil (very important), some dried herbs, and a bit of kombu (for 30 min max). 

- Rebekah.

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