NAPA, Calif. — Grapevines carpet the landscape. There seems to be no one without at least a few rows of cabernet or syrah. But in Steve Sando's backyard, all that is growing are beans: black zebras, red limas and parralenos, a chocolate-colored bean that Sando, the founder of bean company Rancho Gordo, discovered on a trip to Puebla, Mexico.

In all, Sando has 15 heirloom varieties on trial. If he's lucky, one will grow well enough and taste good enough to be sold commercially.

Sando admits he can be a little obsessive. His first love was jazz; one room of his ranch-style home is lined, floor to ceiling, with thousands of CDs. Next, it was online marketing. Now his passion is heirloom beans with romantic names such as Good Mother Stallard, Mayacoba and Yellow Indian Woman. Sando began selling heirlooms in 2001, and they soon became favorites at such top restaurants as CityZen in Washington and the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif.

This month saw the publication of his "Heirloom Beans" (Chronicle Books), a cookbook that he hopes will get beans the respect they deserve.

Beans, even heirloom varieties, are no easy sell. In America, according to food historian Ken Albala, beans have long been stigmatized as a cheap protein for people too poor to afford meat. Canned ones tend to be mushy, while dried varieties take hours to cook, something that doesn't jibe with the American apotheosis of the 30-minute meal. "If I'm not there to sell them, they tend not to sell that well," Sando said. "People don't really want to buy beans. But they do like the stories, and that's how we sell Rancho Gordo beans."

Rancho Gordo is a fourth career for Sando, 48. And though it wasn't intentional, each of his previous jobs helped prepare him for his 21st-century bean crusade. Out of college, he was a salesman for clothing company Esprit, which taught him how to market a product. Next, he talked his way into a job as the host of a radio show called "Mr. Lucky" in Milan, where he played American jazz and, in mangled Italian, explained how to make classic cocktails. (Part of the schtick was holding a cocktail shaker up to the microphone and playing a tape of cocktail chatter so it sounded like a real party.)

Back in the States, his Mr. Lucky persona led Sando to start writing a music catalogue of his favorite CDs. Soon, he was publishing the 'zine online, which led to seven years as a Web designer, which taught him about online sales, which led to severe burnout, which led to a new interest in food and agriculture.

Sando's first idea was to grow heirloom tomatoes. And though he'd "never even grown a houseplant," he planted 30 varieties in his backyard. Most tomatoes can't be harvested until late summer, however. So when a fellow farmer came to him for help with marketing heirloom beans, he agreed.

"I thought I'd do it till the tomatoes ripened," Sando remembered. "And then I realized: This makes so much more sense."

Beans are relatively inexpensive to grow: When the beans are ripe, the water supply is cut off and they are left to dry on the plant, then collected with a combine. High-quality beans were an untapped niche; the dried beans on supermarket shelves can be up to seven years old, Sando said. Rancho Gordo sells all its beans within one year of harvest.

Equally important to Sando was that beans are a North American food with a distinct culinary heritage, a way to rediscover American traditions rather than simply copy European cuisines. Indeed, Sando never tires of pointing out that many beans that Americans think of as European have roots in North America. The flageolet bean, a must with leg of lamb in France, originally hails from Mexico. The borlotti, or cranberry bean, a foundation of many northern Italian dishes, is from Colombia.

Sando quickly realized he had no knack for agriculture, but he did have marketing skills. He soon contracted with several growers in Northern California to produce the beans and concentrated on making over their image from a Depression-era staple to a chef-worthy ingredient.

For inspiration, Sando turned to one of his obsessions, old Mexican movie posters, from which he took strong lettering and bright colors. The Rancho Gordo mascot, a sexy woman licking her lips, is meant to tease and be a little mysterious. (The name Rancho Gordo, which translates to "Fat Ranch," actually means nothing at all. It was a Web address Sando had registered when he once considered writing a book about how to lose weight eating Mexican food.)

Heirloom beans' biggest selling point is their flavor. Rio zape, purple-black-colored beans that first turned Sando on to bean cooking, have a chocolaty coffee flavor. Vallarta beans, Sando's first sale to the French Laundry, have a thick skin but are creamy and buttery inside.

"Steve isn't selling 30 varieties for the sake of it. There are nuances to each one," said CityZen chef Eric Ziebold, who has Rancho Gordo's flageolets and pigeon peas on his menu.

In the past five years, Sando has collected seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, which preserves rare seeds, and traveled Mexico in search of new beans to bring to market. He finds many in Oaxaca, which is to food in Mexico what Bologna is in Italy, Sando said. He also has added hot sauces, dried corn, grains such as quinoa, and chili peppers to his line.

The business has developed something of a cult following. In 2007, Rancho Gordo had 150 acres under cultivation and sold 150,000 pounds of beans, up from 300 in 2001. This year, Sando predicts he'll sell 250,000 pounds.

If Sando has one message, it's that beans are versatile and easy to cook. Though he says he's "obsessed" with Mexican food (his collection of cookbooks includes dozens on Mexican cuisine), his new book also offers recipes inspired by India, Italy and Morocco.

They all start with the same instructions: First, soak the beans in enough cold water to cover them by an inch. Sando soaks his for two to six hours, but with fresh, dried beans - something that's not as oxymoronic as it sounds - that's not always necessary. CityZen's Ziebold, for example, skips the soak and simply simmers them until they are tender.

Next, heat some oil or other fat and saute carrots, onions and celery, a classic mirepoix. Sando likes to use one of the clay pots he has collected from Mexico, Colombia and Morocco (yet another obsession) because they heat evenly and add flavor. Then add the beans and water and bring to a boil, which helps break down the beans and makes them creamy. Turn down the heat and let the pot simmer until the beans are done. Sando's beans generally need to cook for one to two hours, far less time than older beans.

Despite Rancho Gordo's growth, Sando worries that there's a limit to how much the market for beans can expand. Although food mavens love the taste and diversity, some people will never be willing to spend several hours cooking.

And so, characteristically, Sando has a new plan: tortillas. Next spring, he plans to open a retail shop in Napa that sells homemade tortillas made with heirloom corn, such as Oaxaca's blue corn and Hidalgo's red. If it's a success, he could start opening shops nationwide.

"If I can get people excited about corn and tortillas in the same way we have about beans, we could begin rethinking what it means to eat like an American," he said.

Or, at the very least, give customers another good way to eat those beans.

Here are recipes for a White Runner Bean Salad and Refritos (refried beans), which belong with lots of different dishes; try a grilled cheese sandwich with a nice layer of refritos and maybe some pickled onions, for example.

If you decide to make the beans authentically, with lard, be sure you use unprocessed lard, not the processed white bricks that pass for lard in supermarkets. Olive oil may be substituted, but aficionados say its use is not authentic. For this recipe, you'll need to reserve some of the beans' cooking liquid. It's adapted from "Heirloom Beans," by Steve Sando and Vanessa Barrington.

The White Runner Bean Salad is one of many versions of the classic white bean salad existing in Italy. This one was inspired by a Marcella Hazan recipe and adapted from "Heirloom Beans."

REFRITOS