Yesterday our team got the first jars of 2025 Classic Piment d'Ville packed up. These chiles were harvested on October 2. You really won't find a fresher chile powder. We're not quite done with the harvest yet and have hopes for at least a handful of sunny days to bring more chiles in.
A big thanks to everyone who came to our farm a few weeks ago to purchase beans and for those of you who have already stocked up on the 2025 harvest of beans! Don't worry - we still have plenty more.
And because it's coming soon, do you have the chiles you need for your Thanksgiving spread? Make sure you aren't staring at the bottom of an empty jar! We've also got some great recipes to help liven up your meal.
Try Our Dry Beans!
had an incredibly bountiful dry bean harvest this year. And with the help of 3 other farmers, we were able to augment our supply of Southwest Gold, Rosso di Lucca, Zolfini, and Tiger's Eye. While we did sell out of Anazape and Tolosa beans, there are plenty other varieties still available that we should have for sale for the months to come.
If you are new to our farm, we rotate our chile fields with heirloom dry beans in order to give them break from growing chiles and to improve soil health. Lucky for us, they taste great with chiles!
Here's a guide to better understand the flavor differences between our beans varieties:
Anazape: Rich - Creamy - Californian - Use like black beans
Brown Tepary: Earthy - Toasty - Indigenous Southwest
Tan Tepary: Nutty - Sweet - Indigenous Southwest
Rosso di Lucca: Rich - Creamy - Italian
Tiger’s Eye: Tender - Rich - South American
Tolosa: Meaty- Rich - Spanish Basque
Zolfini: Dense - Buttery - Italian
A Fall Tepary Bean Salad
Our most under appreciated crop is our Tepary beans. People who have tried them love them, but most folks seem to be a bit too unsure of these beans to give them a try. In order to turn you all into Tepary bean converts, I'm going to create seasonal Tepary bean salad recipes. There's already one for a Cowboy Caviar-style summer salad. And there will be more to come. Here's what I put together for autumn.
My cousin recently came to visit and I made this Fall Tepary Bean Salad for her first night in Boonville. We loved it so much that I made it again this weekend. The salad's base is chicories/radicchio topped with our Tan Tepary beans, roasted delicata squash, and chopped apples, and finished with a scattering of toasted pistachios, pomegranate, and aged goat cheese. I made a apple cider syrup dressing to go with it. There's something about a salad that is a mix of fresh and cooked vegetables that I really enjoy and Tepary beans are the perfect addition to this one. Get the recipe for the Fall Tepary Bean Salad here.
How to Build Community
As we head into a season focused on celebrating around a bountiful table, it’s impossible for me to stop thinking about the effects of delayed SNAP payments nationwide, how government workers are furloughed or working without pay, and how increased grocery prices are hitting the wallets of lower and middle income households. New work requirements for SNAP eligibility also went into effect last weekend making a currently unfunded program even harder for individuals to access. There’s no better time than now to support the organizations near you that help provide food assistance. Check out this page from Civil Eats to learn about the current state of federal food assistance programs.
I spent many years in Boston working for organizations that provide direct food relief as well as larger organizations that distributed funding to the direct service orgs. While going to the grocery store and filling up a bag of canned goods to drop off at your local food pantry might feel incredibly satisfying to you, I advocate that you should instead give money directly to the food assistance programs! That’s your local food bank, food pantry, community organization planning for holiday meals, or any other group that’s getting food to people through mutual aid.
With monetary donations, these orgs can purchase the things they need instead of having to figure out how to distribute a variety of non-perishable items. Also, these orgs love buying fresh food for people! And with $50, they can buy a few cases of fresh produce to distribute instead of relying on things like canned fruit. It’s healthier and gives the organization ownership over their purchases since they know what their community needs!
