The Black Turtle bean - often just referred to as a black bean is distinctive because of it's savory and rich flavor making it particularly favored in vegetarian dishes.
Store in dry storage, in a plastic bag or glass jar.
**Please pick over these beans before cooking as they have been mechanically harvested and the occasional pebble may have jumped in the mix.**
These beans are an excellent source of protein and fiber and is the bean best known for it's use in Mexican and South American dishes.
These beans are grown by Morningstar Meadow farms in Glover, Vermont. Seth specializes in growing dry beans for us and does an excellent job on his hill farm. He learned much of what he knows from Jack Lazor at Butterworks Farm. Mentoring is a rich tradition up here in Vermont.
Certified Organic
After 12 hours of soaking and then an hour of cooking, these beans still had their shape while also being thoroughly cooked -- which our guests appreciated. I served them at room temperature with lots of salad dressing, chopped bell pepper for color and crunch, and chives.
I made the most amazing black bean soup with these beans. I did find that I needed to cook them the full hour (but they had also been in my cabinet for a few months), but I truly did not miss the meat at all in this vegetarian soup and my kids ate it up. We topped the soup with sour cream, chopped grape tomatoes, cilantro, and butter stir-fried frozen corn (from FTY). The recipe: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/black-bean-soup-cuban-vegetarian-recipe/
Over this past winter, I switched to cooking with dried beans instead of canned. I had been using the grocery store brand dried beans (they're cheap!) but decided to try these black beans as an experiment to see if it was really worth buying fresher dried beans. Let me tell you, I'm now convert to using these beans and other dried beans from local producers over the bags of generic beans at the supermarket. Visually, you can tell the beans have been handled less roughly and so there are fewer broken pieces or "dusty" beans. They do require a lot less soaking and they cook much faster. The flavor and texture is also superior to the grocery store varieties. Really glad I gave these beans a try! They may be a little more pricy than what you can get at a supermarket, but the difference really isn't that much. I see these beans as a very affordable "luxury" that add so much enjoyment to my cooking and flavor to my food.
So tasty! Best beans I ever had.
Cooking time is less then 40 minutest and it didn't need soaking in my experience,
Having made beans from the store several times I am quite impressed with these. They held their shape up well and didn't need a cooking time nearly as long. They've caused me to wait until my next order to make beans instead of buying them at the store.
As for flavor I'm still working on trying different types so I can describe them. They were sort of bland but was likely due to how I cooked them. On the chance that they are naturally mildly flavored I'm giving them 4.
These are really good beans. I soak them and then cook them with a small hunk of fennel - usually an end piece from the odds & ends bag I have in the freezer.
I can easily go through 1 or 2 bags per week. Black beans with pesto and toast is a great dinner and some mornings I have beans with a poached egg.
Save the broth, just add another cooked grain and maybe a sliced carrot or something, and you will have a delicious soup.
