Heirloom Beans by Rancho Gordo (Steve_Sando)

[rotuts]

wonder what's going to become of the RG Bean Club ?

 

https://www.eater.com/2020/3/13/21178965/beans-hoarding-coronavirus-gordo-rancho

[weinoo]

On 2/16/2020 at 1:03 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Silvia Flor de Junio made fantastic broth which burned my hand and tongue.  (Treating the affected members with ice cream at the moment.)  Some bean varieties are OK, and some are really not.  Then there are those that make the whole experience worthwhile.

 

Which are really not?

 

[rotuts]

lima's  for starters

 

and these are not the smaller , fresh  ' butter beans '  of the South

 

which Ive never had , unfortunately. 

 

also ones w ' eyes '  have always been suspect to me 

 

can't the beans make up their minds on their color choice ?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, weinoo said:

Which are really not?

 

 

Sadly, as far as I can remember, I've not been thrilled with any of the varieties from the Xoxoc project.

 

[mumkin]

For whatever reason, most of my RG standards tend not to be Xoxoc Project beans either, but I think the Ayocote Blancos and Moros have done me right. I don’t keep a bean log, though, so I couldn’t tell you any more.
 

Looks like I only have 7lbs of dry beans in my pantry—hardly a cache, certainly not a hoard. I’d best get on that. 

[MokaPot]

I bought a small, white bean from Rancho Gordo. I can't remember the name of the bean and possibly they don't even sell that particular bean any more. The bean stayed hard, no matter how long I cooked it. I read the comments sections (on Rancho Gordo) and, IIRC, someone else posted the same thing.

 

On the other hand, the garbanzos did cook normally and I enjoyed those.

[TdeV]

I have sent a message to Steve at RG to ask whether our club shipments will continue. Will post the results here if he has time to answer.

[Shelby]

I just went to the RG website.  Eight different varieties of bean are sold out.  Still showed 23 varieties for sale.  I hope they still ship our club orders.  When is our next one due?  Beg. of April?

[TdeV]

From RG:

 

Dear Bean Club Member:

Beans. Who knew?

No doubt you've heard about the run on beans thanks to this current health crisis. We normally get about 150 to 200 orders a day. The number keeps rising and this last week it seems we've hit a crescendo and we haven't had a day with less than a thousand new orders.

The popularity of beans was on the rise before this but now it's a new level of pressure. We're working on the weekends and we're starting a second work shift tonight.

I've made the decision to postpone the next Bean Club shipment until early to mid-May. Most of our staff have families and I can't burn them out. They're also experiencing the same shortages in the stores and school closings that we all are. Their one advantage is access to beans and wild rice.

We're giving you your free shipping code early and I'll be posting the contents of the next shipment on the Facebook group so that you can plan accordingly.

New bean club shipping code: [redacted]

If you don't need it right now, we'd appreciate your holding off ordering until we have a clear idea of how this "new normal" is going to work. We have huge harvests of product. It's the logistics of getting them to you that is the issue and we're working non-stop on that.

This will sound arrogant but the less you contact us, the easier it will be for us to deal with this avalanche. If it's not an emergency, please consider holding off calling or emailing. Of course, if you have a problem that needs our attention, we're here.

I wanted to end in saying that I get no joy from these sales. They're often made out of fear and confusion, but the silver lining is that more and more people are cooking at home for themselves and their close friends and families. For most of us in Bean Club, this is second nature, but it's nice to see others finally understanding our love of a warm pot of something good to eat and share.

Stay healthy!
Steve Sando 

[heidih]

I think we all send cyber hugs to Steve. 

[TdeV]

I don't use Facebook so could someone post the contents of the next RG bean clup shipment to this thread, please?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

I don't use Facebook so could someone post the contents of the next RG bean clup shipment to this thread, please?

 

I don't do Facebook either and I'd love to remain abreast of bean news.  My son and I were joking the other day:  as it happens his favorite variety is royal corona.

 

[rotuts]

I favorite beans

 

are their lentils 

 

green , black and the like

 

I have a " nice supply "  of their BeanClub Boxes  

 

do to my CoPilot : Sloth.

 

and BroadBent  has sent all those packets 

 

their very best friends :   aged , smoked 

 

Pork-ish   '' ends "

[SLB]

I'm happy to post it here, unless Steve registers an objection.

 

 

[mumkin]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

I think we all send cyber hugs to Steve. 

I certainly do. And because I've never managed to make it into Bean Club, I just ordered 10 more pounds of beans, because FOMO. And also FML

[weinoo]

Quote

 

Many canners and packagers are hiring staff or adding shifts to meet the surge in demand. Typically, Rancho Gordo receives 150 to 200 orders a day for its specialty beans. On March 14, the company received 1,669 orders. The next day, it recorded an additional 1,450. “We’re not set up for this at all,” Mr. Sando said.

 

“I’m taking no joy in this, to be honest,” Mr. Sando said. “It’s born out of fear. I mean, I love the sales. But food should be something you feel good about.”

 

 

A Boon Time for the Bean Industry - NY Times

[kayb]

Saw that. I guess people think of dry beans as "hard times food." 

 

 

[TdeV]

9 minutes ago, kayb said:

I guess people think of dry beans as "hard times food." 

 

Little do they know what awaits them!

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, kayb said:

Saw that. I guess people think of dry beans as "hard times food." 

 

 

Really, really hard times. 

[teonzo]

I wonder what Greta Thunberg thinks about dried beans.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[TdeV]

Why, @teonzo?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

A Boon Time for the Bean Industry - NY Times

 

Hence the toilet paper shortage.

 

[teonzo]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

Why, @teonzo?

 

Pollution, the over-consumption of dried beans will cause even more global warming.

 

There will be another global crisis in December 2020 - January 2021: maternity centres will be overflowing and there will be a huge lack of midwives.

 

 

P.S. I googled for the correct spelling of Thunberg, I found that her second name is Tintin. Now I know why we she is always so angry.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Katie Meadow]

I ordered a variety of beans and lentils just before the onslaught;  so most beans were still available, and the order shipped relatively quickly. Now I look on the site and almost everything is sold out. Tonight I made a pot of red beans. In the past I have used the dark kidney beans from Purcell. This time I used RG Domingo Rojo and they were fabulous. They hold their shape and make an astoundingly rich liquor. Because they are on the small side, I expected them to cook more quickly than some other beans, but that wasn't the case; they were about average for time. I cooked them in a ham broth and used a Cajun blackening spice my husband bought recently, which turns out to quite useful.

 

I'm having a long-grain rice crisis, as in there is none to found, but red beans and rice demanded that I use almost the last of my precious store. Not much to do with RG or even beans, but I broke down and bought some pricey Carolina Gold rice with my order of grits this morning from Geechie Boy Mill. A splurge and something to focus on for ten minutes. Geechie Boy has probably lost some restaurant business, so they still have all colors of grits.

[TdeV]

From Rancho Gordo today

 

An Update on the Next Delivery

The good news is that we're on track to get the current Bean Club order out by mid-May. We have a night crew dedicated to Bean Club and things look very good. 

Normally, we have a nice little break in January after the wild Holiday ride. That's the plan anyway but it hasn't been the reality for a couple of years. In order not to burn out the staff and to give you more reliable shipping dates, we are rearranging our shipping schedule for Bean Club. Your shipments will arrive in February, May, August, and November. We hope this works out for you. I know most of you won't notice the difference. 

And that's all we have! Stay safe and keep cooking. 

 

Steve Sando 
and the Rancho Gordo staff