As I prepare to leave my home and my seed packets for a week, taking Youngest to visit colleges, I’m adding two jars of Good Mother Stallard beans to my bags. They are Hostess Gifts, and I will present them along with the recipe below. What better gift to give in Frozen February, than the results of last summer’s bountiful harvest?
From “The Ranco Gordo Newsletter”: “They’re great for so many reasons but I think it’s their “pot likker” that gets me the most.”
Good Mother Stallard Bean Stew
Yield 2 to 4 servings
Time At least 2 hours
Ingredients
* 1/2 pound Good Mother Stallard (or other good dried beans)
* 2 1/4- inch slices of pancetta, diced
* 1 diced carrot
* 1 diced onion
* 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
* A few handfuls of arugula, or another tender green
* Salt and pepper to taste
Method
* 1. Cook the beans until tender, about 2 hours. Check them frequently — they absorb liquid more quickly than most dried beans.
* 2. Sauté the pancetta in a bit of olive oil until just golden. Add the diced onions and carrots and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the rosemary.
* 3. Add the beans and about a quarter cup of their liquid. You can add more depending on how thick a stew you want. When the mixture is heated through, add the arugula and continue cooking until it’s wilted. Adjust the liquid to your taste, season with salt and pepper and serve.
Source: The New York Times
WORDS FROM OTHERS
“When God blesses the harvest, there is enough for the thief as well as the gardener.”
— Polish saying
Amy in the Garden 
We have a wonderful restaurant named “Dish” here in the Vail Valley that serves inventive, organic, and when available, local produce. The chef also prepares Rancho Gordo beans. At dinner last summer when dining on one of her delicious bean dishes, we asked about the beans…..the chef spoke of the freshness of these beans and then gave me a warning about “supermarket beans”….apparently, it is not uncommon for the beans found in grocery stores to be 2 years old. Yikes!
I am sending you hollyhock seeds harvested from my neighborhood. As I walked the dog last fall, I pinched off the seed pods from the plants that had self-sowed along the road. I froze them for a bit to kill any bugs that might have been in the pods. I have no idea if they will germinate, but you can give these a try too. One is a very unusual black color and the other pink. Both do well in my Zone…2/3. Have fun!
My dear friend, so wonderful to hear from you! Thanks for this comment, and I’m so excited to receive seeds from you! They sound fabulous. Is there really such a thing as Zone 2/3? I am astounded. How long is the growing season? In inverse proportion to the ski season?!
So your seeds will have traveled miles, only to return to their birthplace. I love that.