I just couldn't resist going back on the waitlist for Rancho Gordo beans earlier this year when beans of all kinds were in short supply in all stores, even many Amazon vendors. Even on the Rancho Gordo website store, at one point they were down to only 6 beans and one type of lentils available. I bought a few bags every few weeks, and now it's become habit to make a pot of beans and rice for dinner a few times a week.
I was pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago when I got the email that there was a space for me in the Bean Club if I still wanted it. Of course I did! I now have the 4th quarter of 2020 box in my pantry and already know what I'll be doing with those Super Lucky 2021 Black Eyed Peas that were included in this shipment!
A few days after that box came, I started getting emails from Rancho Gordo telling me many of the other beans I was on the waitlist for had arrived, but were in short supply, so I quickly made up another order of over a dozen more bags of beans. I didn't click to but at the time, giving myself time to think things over, am I sure I wanted another 2 dozen bags of beans on top of what I already had in my pantry PLUS what was in the club box? Of course I did, and the next afternoon I went to send the order in, only to find that 4 of the beans were already sold out! Well, that was fortuitous. I didn't have to choose between them and just got the dozen bags that were still on my list. Let's see if any sell out before they fulfil my order.
Since then, I've been on sort of a bean information kick, not only reading loads of back posts in the private Bean Club Members only FaceBook group but actually got 2 books from the library out on beans - one is about the history of beans (Beans: A History), a cookbook (Grains, Rice and Beans), but also saw that one of Steve sando's own books (He's the owner of Rancho Gordo), Heirloom Beans: Recipes from Rancho Gordo, was on sale for Kindle for only $2.99, so bought that. I haven't looked at the recipes - I just wanted to know about all those beautiful heirloom beans he sells.
And here's another surprise I just read about yesterday (Saturday) - Steve was interviewed by CBS's Sunday Morning TV show and it aired this morning! It's very short, just a few minutes, but was so nice to see beans, especially Rancho Gordo ones, getting favorable press.
Now to make room around the apartment to store another dozen bags of beans! And after that, talk myself out of ordering from other heirloom and specialty bean sites I've been reading about, and from buying a wooden bean spoon, machacadora (bean masher), and a clay bean pot.
