table talk / By Bob Doran

Does Paul Giuntoli grow the best beans in the state?

And along with that is helping figure out why people buy what they buy. To that end, UC Davis master’s student Ann Prentiss was at the Arcata Farmers Market last Saturday roping in shoppers to fill out a survey. In part it gauged reactions to a collection of heirloom beans arrayed in bowls on a folding table, but there were also questions about what people look for at the market — the importance of the appearance of produce, for example, or what role knowing your local farmer might play in deciding what to buy.

While the market polling would go into her thesis project, she had also come up to observe and assist with Giuntoli’s bean harvest. As we were discussing what Paul had said about the importance of timing, the Journal‘s cassoulet-eating publisher happened by.

“It’s like when they harvest grapes,” interjected Ms. Hodgson, whose vintner husband, Bob, runs Fieldbrook Winery. “We’re on 24-hour notice that the grapes are coming. They’ll tell you it might be next week, but then they’ll call and say ‚ÄòWe’re picking tomorrow morning.’”

“It’s the same with the beans,” said Prentiss. “What happens is when they’re just ready, you cut them and put them into what are called windrows: They dry in rows in the field. But you have to be careful; if there’s moisture underneath, they can rot. If you wait too long to harvest, the bean [pods] shatter and half of your beans end up on the ground.”

Many farmers are hesitant to get into bean farming because of the equipment involved. “You have to undercut them, and that requires one machine or an attachment for your tractor,” said Prentiss. “Then you have to come through with a thresher. That’s the prohibitive thing for small farmers, that capital investment in machinery. You can do the threshing by hand, but it’s labor-intensive.”

When she mentions a plan to pool equipment among small bean farmers in something like a cooperative, Hodgson notes that there’s similar thought amongst a nascent association of Humboldt vintners who are considering working together to purchase capital intensive equipment used in winemaking.

Then talk returns to the joy of beans. “For those of us who are South Beach Diet fans, this is it,” said Hodgson. “Beans are so healthy.” Of course Prentiss concurs wholeheartedly. “There are not many foods that are as nutritious as beans. They’re a complete protein, they have minerals, fiber, they’re cholesterol-free, low fat. You really can’t beat them,” she concluded.

While working on this column, I was in and out of my kitchen simultaneously working on a cassoulet, an approximation of the one Judy was eating the other day. Her version was a remembrance of a long-lost recipe she’d found in a Williams-Sonoma catalog next to an ad for a baking dish designed for cassoulet. It took me about 30 seconds to find the recipe online. I’d share the recipe here but there’s no room. (Just type Williams-Sonoma cassoulet into Google and you’ll find it.) Of course I didn’t have all the required ingredients, but I made do, as we all must.

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