Saving heirloom beans || I fagioli dell'Orto Felice
/My family's organic farm, L'Orto Felice, rescues and protects ancient varieties of beans
Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
Endless memories of my mother and I, taking her car on a random afternoon, to drive to somewhere in the valleys ("le valli") where she had heard that there might have been an old lady or an old man, keeping few, precious seeds of an ancient variety of beans - once endemic - now disappeared.
Cesarins, Militons, eye-beans, some of them don't even have a name anymore, but I remember looking at my mother from the car, discussing with old people, wrinkled as old elves, trying to convince them to give her a small handful, or sometimes just a half dozen of seeds.
They seem to understand each other, and every time, after timeless negotiations, nods, shakes of the head, they would decide to trust her, probably seeing in her eyes the same, crazy flame of a mission, that of seed keepers.
She will then convince my dad to consecrate a tiny piece of his land to those new beans, shout at his employees that systematically forgot to water them, pray that they grow.
During harvesting, the house would be full of beans. Literally. One could almost find beans in his pockets, in every hidden corner of the rooms. Multicolored every-shaped beans. My brother and I would go crazy. We hated Mom's "bean" period. It was impossible to do anything on the living room table, full of sieves, bags, cups of beans. Careful, ruthless hunts to "Il tonchio", a gluttonous tiny butterfly that threatens the precious gems, then meticulous classification.
And above all, perfumed soups, bean salads, fagioli in umido...how wonderful it was, to see the coloured beans turn into delicious dishes. Try them and discover the differences in taste, consistency, aroma.