Bean bardo

I own an Instant Pot for one reason: beans. It is too large for the amount of beans any rational being makes at once, but that doesn’t stop me. You throw some beans in, add water and a single bay leaf, and let it rip for 25 minutes. Strain and you have beans, essentially perfectly done, no soak needed. The goal is to reduce beans to the complexity of any other grain, from lentils to rice to couscous. My bean club membership would turn into a full-on crisis if not for this device.

We will now discuss the bean club.

Rancho Gordo is a New Yorker-profiled company that sources heirloom beans from Central & South America. After that profile dropped, I signed up for their bean club, wherein a box of amazing beans gets plunked on my front porch every quarter.

There are two problems with the bean club. The first is that I find myself making about four bags of their beans every quarter. I end up with about five bags of their beans every quarter. One does not need to do much math to realize that there are problems here. I now possess a wall of beans, and increasing quantities of shame regarding it.