As cold, snow, and injustice sweep across the country this weekend, it can be hard to find bright spots in our everyday life. I can be a very cynical person, but am lucky to have a spouse who reminds me that building community can occur with even the smallest gesture and striving to maintain radical optimism are indeed radical acts that build a future (and a present) we can be proud of.
I believe that one of the most powerful things we can do is build this community through shared meals around a kitchen table.
Next Sunday kicks off Bean Month here at Boonville Barn Collective and we think its a great chance to take a beat, cook a meal, and share it with your neighbors. Read on about how we're here to help you with that.
While we're known for being a chile farm, acreage wise, beans have become a big part of what we do. They are important in our crop rotation and help improve the available nutrients in our soil. And even better, they taste great with chiles.
We hope that you find time to build community around the kitchen table in February and try and find those shining people and positive actions amidst the cold and dark. If our chiles and beans make it into the meal, even better.
It's Almost Bean Month
Last February was the first annual Bean Month. During the month of February (plus the first week of March) we will highlight 1 variety of beans each week, share about the bean’s history, and provide recipes to help you cook and eat a pound of beans by the following Sunday. This will be a 5 week endeavor because I had too hard of a time cutting out one of our beans to keep it just to February. We’ll start with Zolfini beans, end with Tepary beans, and eat a lot of beans in between.
The goal of Bean Month is to get you comfortable cooking a pound of beans and understand how to create meals with them throughout the week. It’s also a way to guide you out of the winter doldrums by building some community around the simple bean. And it’s a chance to try out new recipes and get you out of a cooking rut. The majority of the recipe we will use are free online and I’ve tried them all to know what bean works best.
We’ve created a Bean Month Bundle so that you will be ready to cook along with us. All of these beans are also available by the pound. If you’ve already got beans in your pantry from this year or from previous years, you’re set! If you’ve been stashing beans in your pantry and haven’t cooked them, this is the time to start. They will only take longer to cook with age and there’s no better dry bean than a fresh dry bean. Don't hoard the beans!
We’ve created a Bean Month Bundle so that you will be ready to cook along with us. All of these beans are also available by the pound. If you’ve already got beans in your pantry from this year or from previous years, you’re set! If you’ve been stashing beans in your pantry and haven’t cooked them, this is the time to start. They will only take longer to cook with age and there’s no better dry bean than a fresh dry bean. Don't hoard the beans!
How to Cook Dry Beans on the Stove
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If you are new to cooking dry beans or haven’t cooked them in awhile, follow our recipe for How to Cook Dry Beans on the Stove. It's really quite simple. Here are some of my tips for cooking our dry beans. Everyone's got their own opinion of how to cook dry beans, but following these tips work for me.
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- I don’t soak any of our beans. I don’t think fresh beans need the extra time in water. From start to finish, it’s been taking me about an hour to cook a pound of our 2025 crop of beans on the stove.
- The only bean I use a pressure cooker for is the Tepary bean (40-45 minutes on high pressure!). I think this gives them a more consistent texture and helps cut down a lot of the cooking time.
- I start cooking beans with a 15 minute boil, then simmer till they are finished.
- An electric kettle of hot water next to the stove helps keep the pot full of plenty of water.
- I generally cook a pound of beans pretty plain so that I can use them throughout the week in any kind of food. If you are cooking beans for a specific dish, you can add aromatics like herbs, garlic, onion, and dried chiles.
- I like to salt my beans halfway through cooking them.
- To test for doneness, sample 5 beans in a row. If they are all cooked, you’re good to go.
- Cooked too many beans and don’t know how to eat them? You can portion them out and freeze them in their cooking liquid and thaw them as needed.
