We grow these beautiful and wonderful tasting Santa Maria – Pinquito Beans heirloom beans in the back yard. They are good for the soil, and good for health.
Eat more Santa Maria – Pinquito Beans!
For the past two growing seasons I’ve been planting Santa Maria Beans in the garden. We have five raised beds, and whenever we harvest potatoes, or pull up tomatoes, or peppers or squash plants at the end of the season we plant some Santa Maria beans to help fix nitrogen to the soil, and to help add biomass, and help regenerate for the next growing season.
Green Manure, is planting something like Santa Maria Pinquito Beans and letting them get to a certain stage, and then turning them under. It adds more biomass to the soil, fixes the nitrogen and helps with making healthy regenerated rich soil. It’s a good thing.
And the added bonus is some pretty damned good eats.
Recipe for Santa Maria Pinquito Beans
Pick through two cups of beans.
Rinse, well, and put into a large pot with a good five inches of water covering the beans. Bring to a boil and turn off heat. Leave lid on pot and let sit for a couple hours. Drain off water, and refill with fresh water. Bring to a boil and simmer for two hours. You’ll end up with a pot of rich beans of condensed flavors. Lordy it’s good!
While the beans come to a simmer, add:
1 cup of chopped onions
3 cloves of garlic
one ham hock or a big chunk of heirloom salt cured country ham
1/4 to 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt.
Serve with mess of corn bread.