[olygirl]

Lately I've been buying canned beans as my co-op only carries dry beans in bulk which are risky due to contamination. Where can I find gluten-free organic dry beans? Thanks!

[Lisa]

I find most of my dried beans in the grocery store. Some mixed dried beans contain barley, so be careful to read the labels.


Organic dried beans?...don't know. I sometimes think that "organic" on the product is just another reason to raise the price.

[Magdalena Rose]

olygirl, on Nov 25 2007, 02:22 PM, said:

Lately I've been buying canned beans as my co-op only carries dry beans in bulk which are risky due to contamination. Where can I find gluten-free organic dry beans? Thanks!

ya know... I am on the same quest. I used to eat the whole foods dry beans until I found out that they were processed in the same facility as wheat. I recently started eating green beans that were still in the pod. I am also going to try and grow my own since I have a yard. I am going to start researching further and try to find a good source;)

[lpellegr]

Yes, be careful. I found barley in lentils from Whole Foods, and they admitted that they were processed on the same equipment. I have also heard that Goya should be avoided, but I don't know if this applies to the dry beans.

[janetw]

I live in the south and buy all of my dried beans at Ingles. Their store brand is Laura Lynn and they have a pretty good gluten-free list. I've emailed them a few times with questions and usually receive a response from their R.D. and would say they take nutrition more seriously than some of the larger chains.

http://www.ingles-ma...s.com/ask_leah/ (You can find a link to the gluten-free list here)

They have organic dried beans. I do think the organic beans are better. They are usually smaller and taste more like the beans my grandparents used to grow and dry.

[Mango04]

Organic beans are much better than conventionally grown beans, for the environment and nutritionally. I know Bob's Red Mill sells a 13-Bean Soup mix, but I don't know if it's organic.

[Magdalena Rose]

Mango04, on Feb 24 2008, 01:30 PM, said:

Organic beans are much better than conventionally grown beans, for the environment and nutritionally. I know Bob's Red Mill sells a 13-Bean Soup mix, but I don't know if it's organic.

Do you know if Bob's bean soup is gluten free?? I almost ate some beans from them but thankfully called first and they said that the beans were not packaged in a gluten free facility... so I did not eat them.

[lorka150]

Mango04, on Feb 24 2008, 04:30 PM, said:

Organic beans are much better than conventionally grown beans, for the environment and nutritionally. I know Bob's Red Mill sells a 13-Bean Soup mix, but I don't know if it's organic.

Last time I checked, the 13-Bean Soup Mix from Bob's was not in the gluten-free facility.

[ztu]

does anyone know of a brand of dried beans (organic or conventional) that are for sure safe?

GOYA dry beans are cross-contaminated http://www.goya.com/...ngs_gluten.html (isn't their documentation method great though? so useful!)
Eden foods had their dry beans tagged as gluten free, but when I emailed them they did some investigating and realized they were cross-contaminated in processing. They changed the designation.

I'd love to be able to buy safe dried beans--they're so much more economical!

please help!

[tmbarke]

OH WOW!
good to know.
I guess reading just beans as the ingredient isn't natural at all.
I just checked my small red beans and it says they are processed here in Michigan in a coop elevator.
I checked out the site and it leads me to believe that all they process in that plant is beans - not barley or wheat or rye....so I just emailed them and asked.
I pray they give me good news cuz I was planning on making chili!
I thought I'd be safer by doing it all from scratch since the beans I looked at had something bad in it and the jars of beans were the same price as a bag of beans.......soooooooo....I opted for the control of my ingredients now and later.......but this concerns me!
If it pans out, I'll spread the word and I told them so.
the site is www.coopbeans.com

Lets keep our fingers crossed!

[ztu]

Hey everyone--just an update (I'm super excited)--after deciding to avoid Arrowhead Mills, because they use a shared facility and because people in other posts seem to have trouble with them, I saw Rancho Gordo mentioned on a Gluten-Free Girl post about beans.

http://www.ranchogordo.com/index.htm

They sell gourmet, heirloom beans, so they're definitely more expensive than other dried beans, but I'm not gonna make a fuss if I can be sure they're gluten free. At ~$5/lb (dry weight), and $8 flat shipping, it's still a lot of food-per-dollar. Double checking with the company (this is how paranoid I am, these days), I emailed:

'susanranchogordo@gmail.com' said:

hi brian and thanks for your email.we harvest all of our own beans up here at our sacramento ranch.we only harvest beans,so our products are gluten-wheat-barley-free.thanks,susan at RG

--
Susan Sanchez
Rancho Gordo
1924 Yajome Street
Napa Ca 94559

I placed an order--hopefully they're good!

[Lynayah]

ztu, on 22 October 2009 - 11:30 AM, said:

Hey everyone--just an update (I'm super excited)--after deciding to avoid Arrowhead Mills, because they use a shared facility and because people in other posts seem to have trouble with them, I saw Rancho Gordo mentioned on a Gluten-Free Girl post about beans.

http://www.ranchogordo.com/index.htm

They sell gourmet, heirloom beans, so they're definitely more expensive than other dried beans, but I'm not gonna make a fuss if I can be sure they're gluten free. At ~$5/lb (dry weight), and $8 flat shipping, it's still a lot of food-per-dollar. Double checking with the company (this is how paranoid I am, these days), I emailed:



I placed an order--hopefully they're good!

TZU: Thank you for this post. I'm wondering how your order went -- were you happy with the beans? I'm probably ordering some this week.

[Lynayah]

Thank you for the Rancho Gordo tip!

Update: After reading about Rancho Gordo here, I ordered beans from them, and I am in heaven. I am able to eat them without a problem and they are delicious. The pinto and black beans are particularly good -- lots of varieties there to experiment with.

I also bought the Rancho Gordo cookbook HEIRLOOM BEANS by Steve Sando. I've become REALLY good at making truly outstanding beans from scratch, thanks to this cookbook.
(If you buy it, be sure to read the entire introduction sections in the pages before the recipes -- great information there).

There are also good tips on making beans on the Rancho Gordo website.

Note: They sell heritage and heirloom beans which have been harvested much more recently than store-bought varieties -- did you know that dry beans in supermarkets are often ten years old?

Anyway, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL INFORMATION! I finally found somewhere where I can buy beans without worry . . . I love, love, love the comfort food of beans, and I love the satisfaction I get from making a pot from scratch . . . very happy here!

[dilettantesteph]

Thank you so much! I've been looking for a bean source for ages. I'm so glad I read this post!