Growing Frijoles Negros

To this day beans and rice is a favorite meal of mine.  It's such a simple dish, but so filling, healthy and satisfying!  As a youngster, my favorite was Red Beans & Rice and sausage with cornbread on the side. Before you served the beans over rice, it was very important that you would mash up a bunch of the beans.  This thickens the dish and makes what I call a bean "gravy" or roux. 

You might say that beans are beans, but my Mom and everyone I knew were partial toward a specific brand of Red Beans and bought them with the sort of brand loyalty that you would thing only exists with diehard Chevy or Ford folks.  Camellia Red Kidney Beans.  They came wrapped in a clear cellophane bag so that you could inspect every perfect, shiny red kidney bean inside the bag.  

At one point I was going to attempt to try to grow our own red kidney beans.  Up to this point, I haven't done it, but if I might buy some Camellia Red beans and see if they'll germinate.  For the past several years, though, I've planted Black Beans.  They are called Black Turtle Beans, to be specific.  Black Beans or frijoles negros are a special dish in Latin America and Mexico.  Mainly, Tricia cooks them like you would refried beans.  As a treat, we put the refried black beans in a fresh flour tortilla, fold and eat.  It's a simple, tasty meal.

So let's go out to the garden, where our black beans are slowly ripening.  I only have one row of them and the dry, dry month of October is not doing the yield any favors, but my goal is to grow them and watch them closely as they mature.

The black beans have lots of pods, and they are ripening.  My goal is to allow them to mostly ripen on the stalk until they are almost totally dry and the pods have turned yellowish-brown.  You don't want the pods to get dry and crack open, though, as you'll lose the beans when the pop onto the ground.

Each day I check the beans and pick those that have dried.  I carry them to our fancy black bean dryer apparatus for the finishing touches on drying.  I lay them in the sun on our expanded metal patio table.  The sun completes the drying process and the table allows maximum air flow.

When the pods are dry and 'crinkly' to the touch, we pop open the pods and collect the black beans in a bowl.  We just started the harvesting process and have a lot left to go, but here's what we have so far.

We'll eat most everything we pick but will save some for planting for next year.  The Black Turtle Beans I buy are non-hybrid and come from rareseeds.com, so they are perfect for seed saving.  Perhaps 2025 is the year that I'll grow Red Beans!

Experiment in Drying Beans - Red & Black

Yesterday I posted about sunflowers, but realized at lunch today that I never hit the "publish" button; therefore, there will be two posts today.  This one tells of an experiment in drying beans.  Since today is Monday and traditionally "Red Beans and Rice Day," it is appropriate to start with red beans.  I knew shortly after planting that my red kidney bean harvest was not going to be great.  Only about 60% of the beans germinated - bad seed.  I'll try a different seed next year. 

However, I'm not one to give up easy.  I planted other beans in their place, but still watched the red beans.  The point of making dried beans is to dry them on the stalk.  They will load up with pods, mature, ripen and die.  The pod will turn brown.  You know it is time to pick them when you shake the pods and they rattle.

Dried and ready for picking

When you pop open the pod, big fat red beans reside inside.  They were hard and dry and their appearance confirmed it was time to pick them all.

Dried Red Kidney Beans

I picked a small bucket of the dried red kidney beans and brought them inside to shell them.  I like shelling beans.  There's something about transforming ugly, brown pods into shiny beans that excites me.  I'm weird like that.

Dried bean pods

As a kid I remember my mom buying Camelia Brand Red Kidney beans to make Red Beans & Rice.  They came in a clear cellophane wrapper that showed off the beautiful red beans inside.

When the shelling was complete, I had a small bowl of dried kidneys - about half a pound.  Tricia is going to have to supplement some store bought beans to make a good pot of RB&R.  I'll not save any of these seeds.  We'll eat them.

Red Beans with Criolla Sella Peppers behind them

A second, more successful experiment was with drying black beans - also known as turtle beans.  The germination was 100% and they grew and loaded up with pods.  I picked them when they were dry and we shelled them around the island in the kitchen.  The black, shiny beans were pretty, I think.

I had a big bowl full of dried black beans.  This will be enough to eat as well as save about 100 or so for seed.

For seed and for eating

I put them on the scale and the small patch of beans produced a pound and a half of beans.  Not bad for the little experimental patch I grew.

Tricia will make a nice pot or two of refried black beans - one of our favorite side dishes on taco night, along with sliced jalapenos and limes.  Mmmmm...

Red Beans & Rice

Red Beans & Rice!  This is a family favorite dish that we all love.  Tricia likes that we love it because it is so simple to prepare.  I have never planted red kidney beans, but I'm going to figure out how we do it so that we can grow our own.  Until then, we start out with the best - Camellia Red Beans from New Orleans (Since 1923).  We pour them into a colander and wash them because everyone may not have washed their hands like Momma told them to.

Washing the red beans

We soak our beans overnight after adding an ice cube of pure lemon juice into it.  There are several reasons for soaking beans.  First, soaking helps to remove some of the complex sugars from the beans that are indigestible.  Soaking the beans helps to minimize gas -not a nice thing to think about - but a good benefit. Second, soaking reduces the cooking time.  In addition to being a quicker meal, the expedited cooking time preserves some of the nutrients.  Third, beans may be dirty as discussed above.  Finally, soaking helps break down phytic acid.  Among other things, phytic acid inhibits enzymes we need to digest our food.


Soaking the beans

We let them sit and soak overnight.


Soaking red beans

In the morning, your beans will be all swollen up and most of the water will have been absorbed.  Drain off the water that remains and place the soaked beans in a dutch oven or large pot.  We add a bunch of cut up onions and start the beans simmering.

Simmering red beans

We always like to add some bell pepper and some homemade smoked sausage for some extra flavor.  Some people add ham, pork chops, tasso, etc. 

Adding some good stuff to the pot

We chop up the sausage and remove the casing (optional, of course) and chop up the bell pepper.


Chopped up

Add this all to the simmering pot of beans along with some salt and cayenne pepper.  We use our homemade ground criolla sella pepper.  Continue to simmer.  Now would be a good time to make some homemade cornbread to accompany this meal.  Red beans & rice and cornbread go together like bacon and eggs.

Adding in sausage and peppers

We're almost done.  A nice step at this point to thicken the red beans is to take a wooden spoon and mash up a bunch of the red beans against the side of your pot.  This makes the red beans nice and thick and creamy.  Continue to simmer until the beans are cooked.


Almost time to ring the dinner bell

And here is a nice bowl of red beans and rice topped with some fresh green onions right out of the garden.  Some people will slap a piece of fried chicken on top or serve with a big piece of cornbread.


Good, simple eating!

Traditionally, this dish was always served on Mondays.  Monday was laundry day and you could let your beans simmer all day while you did laundry.  When you were finished with laundry, your pot of beans were ready.  Additionally, the Sunday meal was always a huge one and this easy dish allowed a rest from the day's cooking on Sunday.  Leftover meats (like sausage & pork chops) would be thrown in the pot to enhance the meal.

We like this meal so much, though, we eat it on any day of the week!