While spring is near, we’ve been fighting colds on and off no matter how much vitamin C we’ve ingested, so Josh decided that we needed some comfort food by way of a local bean. Rockwell beans are native to our island and primarily grown around Ebey’s Prairie in the preserve and a PNW favorite to many here on the island.
Upon searching Grandma Smith’s Rockwell Bean recipe was the only prep guide I could find which called for cured salt pork, which we didn’t have. Instead we had two meals worth of Rockwell beans stored from our CSAs with Prairie Bottom and Willowood Farms and we had some pigs feet from a half pig purchase from our neighbor’s farm last year. We decided to put the combo together for a little culinary slow food twist of our own.
I’ve eaten a lot of things most people probably wouldn’t: sweet breads, pig head tacos, and when I worked in Haiti, goat, in a variety of ways, including kabrit tèt bouyon (goat head stew), however I don’t believe I’ve ever had pig feet. Josh swears I have, but I doubt it.
Either way, the beans turned out to be a tasty addition to our morning fresh egg scramble. I can see why they are a local favorite. And I’m eager to try Grandma Smith’s recipe for the next batch.
In this video we share how we prepared our Rockwell beans and Josh talks about how and why he uses the pig feet.
life in the sound 