Black Beans from Alvarez

This week we were able to begin using black beans from Alvarez Farms in our tamales. They're organic, locally grown, and we can buy them directly from the folks who grow them. This thrills me.

Most of the local, organic beans I've seen at markets retail for about $6 a pound. These retail for about $2 a pound. The Alvarez guys harvest them in the fall, and sell them mainly in the winter and spring, before the chiles and tomatoes really get going.

One of the reasons I don't use more organic ingredients is because I have to either buy them retail, in small quantities, or go through a distributor where I have to place a minimum order. I don't like working with distributors. For me the most important purchasing criteria is buying an item directly from the producer. As a small-scale producer, I want to work with small-scale producers. That's much more important to me than whether an item is organically grown.

On some level I feel that if I'm buying something from a huge natural foods distributor, I may as well buy it from the wholesale foodservice grocery right down the street, and not have to drive thirty miles and pad my order with all kinds of things that I wouldn't otherwise buy in quantity.

So it was very exciting to me to make this connection and start using these beans. I'm going to start using their garbanzoes as well, in my felafel.