Rancho Gordo Beans and Bean Club

[Mudkat]

You got me thinking about this one. I'm cooking up some rib meat, bacon, beer, and pinto beans right now. Delicious!

[jecucolo]

As I tell my wife " I may be crazy but it just might be a lunatic your looking for"!

[fzxdoc]

I just returned from traveling and my Rancho Gordo delivery was waiting for me. I think I'm going to like cooking with these beans. The club order came with 6 different types of heirloom beans, along with a packet of crimson popping corn and a couple sticks of Sri-Lankan "true" cinnamon as lagnaippes.

There's a handout describing the goodies and a recipe for Shrimp and Bean soup, along with a link to lots more recipes on the website.

I think I'm going to like this. Will keep you all posted.

RonB , I plan on eating these beans, not growing them. I guess if you wanted to grow some heirloom beans, Rancho Gordo might be a good contact.

Kathryn

[Mudkat]

Whoa! Shrimp and bean soup? Sounds great!

[Mr. Bones]

Hail yeah!
I'm in fer shrimp n beans!

[fzxdoc]

And P.S., if interested, here's a great article from The New Yorker about Steve Sando and his famous Rancho Gordo beans:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/the-hunt-for-mexicos-heirloom-beans

Kathryn

[fracmeister]

Well, after being on a wait list for a year or more, I've been ushered into the Rancho Gordo Bean Club to the tune of $40 quarterly. For that I get 6 varieties of beans and grains not often available on the website to non-members plus free shipping on any one order per quarter.

I signed up and didn't tell my husband yet. He'll think I'm nuts for subscribing to a quarterly bean club, I'm thinking (although I was a proud member of a bacon-of-the-month club for quite a while. He didn't say anything about that. )

Anyway, if there are Rancho Gordo aficionados out there, tell me I made a wise move. I know they have heirloom bean varieties that are not usually available which has piqued my curiosity, but are they worth the investment?

Good thing is that I can quit at any time if we get inundated by beans or don't like what we get.

Kathryn

Been members for many years. Love it.

[fzxdoc]

Good to know, fracmeister .

K.

[mnavarre]

Fantastic beans. The Pinto, Peruano, and Pinquinto are better than anything I've gotten from a store, And I live near a few stores that probably go through beans in tons per month. The Cassoulet beans are fantastic and the Sangre de Toro beans are... AMAZING. Actual Magic Beans. If they have them, buy them. Multiple pounds. You will not be sorry.

[Craigar]

Interest piqued...I will have to check on this one.

[Craigar]

Interest piqued...I will have to check on this one.

Ha! Sold out! This must be an exclusive membership.

[fzxdoc]

Craigar , get on the wait list if you're interested. Apparently the available slots for the current Bean Club sold out within minutes of the New Yorker article release. I waited for just over a year before getting the invite to join. You of course can order the beans from their website anytime, but the club gives access to beans grown in low yields for a variety of reasons as well as some of the beans available on the site too.

For example, this bean shipment included these varieties. All but the Raquel is available on the site right now for purchase. The shipment also included crimson popping corn and canela (real) cinnamon as extra goodies. Plus shipping is free for the club box and for one future order within a designated time period.

Raquel
Cassoulet
Eye of the Goat
San Franciscano
Cranberry
Pinto


mnavarre , thank you for the bean recommendations. I ordered the Marcella and the Flageolet varieties with my free shipping pass. Next time around, I'll order the varieties you like. Right now I've got 8 lbs of beans to eat within the next 3 months. No problem. The first tryout will be an Italian chilled bean salad. I'm waiting for the Marcella beans for that. I ordered the Marcella variety after reading this excerpt from that New Yorker article. It sounded like a bean with a good history to it.

A few years ago, he (Steve Sando, owner of RGB) was looking through a list of orders on his computer when he found one from Marcella Hazan, the doyenne of Italian cuisine in the United States. He sent her an inscribed copy of his first cookbook, "Heirloom Beans," published in 2008, and they struck up a correspondence. Soon he had tracked down Hazan’s favorite bean: the Sorana, a type of cannellini that grows along the Pescia River, in Tuscany. This is a bean so tender, with a skin so vanishingly thin, that Rossini once accepted several pounds in exchange for correcting another composer’s score. Sando found a farmer to grow it in California and renamed it the Marcella. When the Times ran a piece about it two years ago, after it went on sale at Rancho Gordo, the orders crashed the Web site.

Kathryn

[Craigar]

Thank you, Kathryn! fzxdoc

[Steve R.]

Thanks for the heads up, fzxdoc. I went ahead and got on the waiting list.

[MeatMonster]

Interested to see how some of your varieties work in the Pit recipies, for instance ditching cannelloni beans etc. In the Bourbon Baked beans and seeing how others do! Can you find the killer bean mix!

[MeatMonster]

P.S. that's one exclusive bean club!!! Waiting list and all.

[Willy]

Thanks SO much for this thread. I've ordered the tarbais beans (cassoulet) and will order others. 6$/# from RG vs $30/# from D'artagnan is quite a difference. Please keep us posted as you enjoy your bean adventure and thanks again.

[ColonialDawg]

I love Rancho Gordo and was a club member right after it started but ended my membership a little over a year ago. I just couldn’t keep up with all the beans I was getting! I love beans but my wife and kids are not really into them. That being said it is totally worth the cost if you are a bean lover. I have tried a wide variety of beans from Rancho Gordo. I’ve never been disappointed and still order from them whenever I need beans.

My favorites:
Midnight Black Bean - best black beans I have tasted - awesome flavor, makes excellent refried beans
Rio Zape - versatile, awesome. If you like refried beans, these beat pinto beans all day
Ayocote Morado - best charro beans you will ever eat; I reheated some leftover charro beans and carnitas and made a super flavorful chili by mixing the two
Pinto - you haven’t had Pinto beans until you have had the ones from Rancho Gordo
Sangre de Toro - these make great red beans and rice, but sadly it appears they don’t have them any more

I also highly recommend their Pinapple and Banana Vinegars, Mexican Oregano, White hominy (Pasole anyone?), and if they ever start carrying their granulated Piloncilo again, get some. The Stoneground Chocolate is also very good.

So, I’m a huge Rancho Gordo fan. I have 5 bags of beans in my pantry right now.

[EdF]

Very nice sharing. Thanks!

[fzxdoc]

Thanks, ColonialDawg for all the great info. I've got 5 bags of beans in my pantry too. Ate one last week. Cassoulet beans. So creamy and yummy.

Maybe I got your slot in the Bean Club.

Kathryn

[ColonialDawg]

Maybe you did! If my family liked beans as much as I did, I would have kept the membership for sure.