FREE: Rio Zape beans - a delicious ancient heirloom

The listing, Rio Zape beans - a delicious ancient heirloom has ended.

These are great beans! Special enough to be listed on the Slow Food USA - Ark of Taste!

They can be used as you would standard pinto beans except, even served alone, the difference in flavor is quite obvious. Freshly harvested, the beans are a violet-purple color with slashes of dark burgundy. As the bean dries further, the background becomes a maroon-brown color. The dark color is retained during cooking and produces a nice, dark "gravy" all on its own.

Rio Zape is a pole bean with vigorous vines that produce great numbers of well filled pods. The immature pods make excellent string beans, or let them dry on the vine for delicious dry beans. 95 days for dry beans.

A note on the heritage of this bean: it is often referred to as a bean of the ancient Anazazi people of the Four Corners area of the Southwest. I was curious, though, since I had never heard of the Rio Zape. It turns out that it is in the heart of Mexico (about 900 miles south of the Four Corners) smack in the middle of the territory that was settled by the ancient Mogollon people.
It turns out that the "beans found in a cave" story may actually be true of these beans - sort of: a team of archaeologists were studying the caves along the Rio Zape (see picture #3) and analyzing the remains of various food crops they found. Among a them, the researchers found 4 distinct types of bean. No 'beans in a sealed pot' but they compared the results with local food crops -- and it turns out the locals are still growing this one -- so this is truly a bean with an ancient pedigree!

I am offering 18 beans (count 'em) - and I trust that some lucky bidder out there will get a chance to plant a small plot (a 6 ft row?) and try them out. Bring the past alive. Save seed. Grow more. Pass it on!

As a special offer: if the bidding really gets up there - say over 2000, I'll include some interesting recipes for using these beans (digital delivery)