My Urban Pantry

Rancho Gordo beans and farmer/grower (?) Steve Sando are darlings of the magazine and slow food world. Last year I was on a trip to California for work and on the plane I read an article about him and passively thought it would be cool if I ever saw such things as heirloom beans in ‘real life’ as half the things I read in magazines are unobtainable without a massive amount of freight to Orlando. Well, the last day of our conference was a half day and we spent the afternoon at the Oxbow Market where, low and behold, both the book and the beans beckoned to me from the shelf of the Fatted Calf. Sadly, they languished on the shelf in my cupboard until today when I had both the time and a pile of country ribs to slow cook for supper. I cooked Good Mother Stallard brown beans completely vegetarian with only a bit of onion and garlic to fortify the pot liquor and adding a teaspoon or so of salt, hand crushed cumin and a healthy pinch of cayenne to bring up the heat.