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Cranberry beans


Wilfrid

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I've never had them from California, but I bet I know who's got some. RG, are they pretty high altitude grown? The only reason I ask is because the ones I've finagled my co-op into buying are high plains, and they cook tender amazingly fast.

I was remiss about beans, and RG's quite totally right. How do you choose a favorite child? Butter beans, a bowl of pinto-charros, a wonderful pot of Boston Baked, Navy bean soup, ah, the confusion.

One last bit about Anasazi. They have been found in abandoned food caches all over the Anasazi lands--i.e. Grand Canyon, Chaco, etc. I guess you could call that a keeper. :rolleyes:

I had to go back and correct the spelling. The cocktails my friendly neighborhood doctor's been giving me is shit for spelling. I tend to write them the way they are pronounced, which sounds closer to the wrong spelling.

Oh, andie, Choctaws. My very good friend in Weatherford TX , Annie Mae Wallace, used to give me those. Her husband was from Ozona, and related to Bigfoot Wallace. She is 5 Civilized Tribes, and one of the best geneaologists I've ever known. I think I'll call her this pm, and see what's up in her neck of the woods. Thanks!

Edited by Mabelline (log)
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I've never had them from California, but I bet I know who's got some. RG, are they pretty high altitude grown? The only reason I ask is because the ones I've finagled my co-op into buying are high plains, and they cook tender amazingly fast.

I'd love to do a side-by-side comparison one day! My initial thought is that it's the freshness of your source rather than where the beans are grown but I know different vegetables are affected by soil, daylight hours, etc.

So comon over and bring some of your Anasazi and let's do a taste test!

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

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"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

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I bought some fresh beans at the farmer's market this morning. I was told they were cranberry beans. From the above discussion, I guess I bought some "red tomato" beans. We shelled them and they taste ok raw, but would probably improve with cooking. My son helped shell them, and asked what it was called what we were doing so he could tell his friends!

My question is how long do I cook them? I've only ever cooked dried beans, so I have no idea how long these will take. I'd like them to be ready more or less at the same time as the rest of our meal. Do they take 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour?

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Oh, andie, Choctaws. My very good friend in Weatherford TX , Annie Mae Wallace, used to give me those. Her husband was from Ozona, and related to Bigfoot Wallace. She is 5 Civilized Tribes, and one of the best geneaologists I've ever known. I think I'll call her this pm, and see what's up in her neck of the woods. Thanks!

I have been digging through some of my gardening stuff, hoping to find some remaining for seed. Unlike some beans, these remain viable for quite a long time and will sprout easily and don't seem to require as much water so are ideal for arid area farming. I think I sent some to seed saver's exchange several years ago but can't recall when. They also had an unusual flower, unlike any other bean I had ever seen. The flowers were large, like the scarlet runner but purple and white, almost a pansy purple, if you know what I mean. I never bothered to put up trellis or netting for them, I just planted them along the fence and let them cover it.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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  • 3 months later...

As a displaced New Englander I miss the availability of canned shelled beans, which are found in every Maine grocery. I have had good luck with growing the French horticultural as a shelling bean in Illinois, but was never able to get a decent crop of cranberry beans. The Horticultural is larger, and is the type found in our farmer's markets. Picked young and tender and treated like a string bean, the flavor of these beans is intense.

My old seedsman called the cranberry bean a Vermont cranberry bean. Is that a possible origin?

I have read that dried cranberry beans lack the firmness to make a good baking bean. I have a related question: I have always soaked and parboiled beans for beanpot baking, but have recently been advised to soak overnight with soda, then rinse them and pop them right into the beanpot and bake without parboiling. Does that work? I have visions of hard bullets baking for 24 hours and never getting soft. I will be using red kidney beans.

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
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My thoughts and comments:

French Horticulture is a cranberry bean, sometimes known as October bean.

Vermont Cranberry looks like it's been dipped in purple tea.

I'm from California so I don't know much about baked beans except the aficianados I've encountered insist on Jacob's Cattle or Vermont Cranberry. The Jacobs Cattle have a new potato texture and will not fall apart but the VT Cran are dense and velvety and exude a superior liquid.

I always think baking soda is a bad idea. Try and get your beans from a reliable source, picked within 2 years of purchase, and you can just soak 6-8 hours.

Again- baked beans are a regional treat and you're likely to get a different answer all over New England. Never trust someone from Califiornia!

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

Twitter @RanchoGordo

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

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My thoughts and comments:

French Horticulture is a cranberry bean, sometimes known as October bean.

Vermont Cranberry looks like it's been dipped in purple tea.

I'm from California so I don't know much about baked beans except the aficianados I've encountered insist on Jacob's Cattle or Vermont Cranberry. The Jacobs Cattle have a new potato texture and will not fall apart but the VT Cran are dense and velvety and exude a superior liquid.

I always think baking soda is a bad idea. Try and get your beans from a reliable source, picked within 2 years of purchase, and you can just soak 6-8 hours.

Again- baked beans are a regional treat and you're likely to get a different answer all over New England. Never trust someone from Califiornia!

So, cranberry bean is the family name and there are different varieties within the family, one of which is the Jacob's cattle bean? I ask because I'd been calling the locally grown cream and scarlet-striated beans cranberry beans for years until I ran across this blog entry, which dubs them Jacob's cattle beans. (A local green grocer has them labelled as romano beans, which I assume is really wrong.) And now I wonder if I've ever eaten a true cranberry bean.

Cranberry or not, the Jacob's cattle beans cook up into earthy delights. Besides enjoying them in both Hazan recipes referred to upthread (especially that mussel soup), I often heat them in a skillet with diced pancetta and a dollop of crème fraîche. They're great chilled in salads, too.

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So, cranberry bean is the family name and there are different varieties within the family, one of which is the Jacob's cattle bean?

Yes to the cranberry and no to the Jacobs cattle. The photo in the blog is a cranberry bean of some sort. Jacobs Cattle are pictured here.

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

Twitter @RanchoGordo

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

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rg~

I know I can order by mail but how about you come down to the Central Coast Wine Country and get some of our little gourmet shops to carry your beans? i can't find any interesting ones on the shelves here :hmmm:

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rg~

I know I can order by mail but how about you come down to the Central Coast Wine Country and get some of our little gourmet shops to carry your beans? i can't find any interesting ones on the shelves here  :hmmm:

You make me blush!

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

Twitter @RanchoGordo

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

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I'm from California so I don't know much about baked beans except the aficianados I've encountered insist on Jacob's Cattle or Vermont Cranberry. The Jacobs Cattle have a new potato texture and will not fall apart but the VT Cran are dense and velvety and exude a superior liquid.

Soldier and yellow eye beans are good, too, but harder to find here in Seattle.

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I actually have a framed picture (culled from a Seed Savers Exchange catalog) on the wall of my office depicting a dozen or so beans, several of which are cranberry. I obviously need to do some homework, though. I apparently didn't know beans about them until RG clued me in.

Judy Jones aka "moosnsqrl"

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M.F.K. Fisher

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Soldier and yellow eye beans are good, too, but harder to find here in Seattle.

It's funny. I find Jacobs Cattle like new potatoes and Soldier and Yellow Eyes like russets. But all three kind of potato-like!

I like baked beans but really love these potato types with just sage and pancetta, maybe with a drizzle of olive oil at the end.

I obviously need to do some homework, though. I apparently didn't know beans about them until RG clued me in.

If you even know what a cranberry bean is you are ahead of the game!

I can talk beans for days....and I have!

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

Twitter @RanchoGordo

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

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