Zursun and the Idaho Lentils Lola Weyman Found

Zursun Idaho Heirloom Beans has sold American-grown lentils since the late 1980s. John and Lola Weyman started the company in Ketchum in 1985. Under Jim Soran it was based in Twin Falls. Its lentil story begins in the Palouse, the wheat country on the Washington-Idaho line, which for decades grew most of the nation's lentils until Montana and North Dakota passed it in the mid-2000s. Lentil and chickpea varieties, soaking, storage and altitude are covered in the chickpeas and lentils complete guide.

Lentils on the Palouse

Lentils reached the Palouse in 1916. Washington State University tells it this way: a Farmington farmer, J. J. Wagner, asked a local Seventh Day Adventist pastor to order seed from Europe, then planted two test rows to see whether lentils would grow in the semi-arid climate. HistoryLink, the Washington State encyclopedia, adds the details: Persian-type lentils, in a pair of 60-foot rows in his orchard. HistoryLink says he sold his first crop to B. L. Gordon, a Spokane wholesale house, for 9.25 cents a pound, and planted about an acre the next year. It dates the first commercial crop to 1937, worth $30,000.

Over the following decades the Palouse grew most of the country's lentils. HistoryLink puts the peak in 1980, when 163,000 acres were harvested for 163 million pounds. It records that in 2005 farmers in Montana and North Dakota each planted more lentils than Palouse farmers did, and that from then on the Northern Plains dominated U.S. lentil production. As late as 2008, WSU was still describing the Palouse as growing over 95 percent of the nation's lentils, though HistoryLink's acreage figures show the balance had already moved east. By 2021, HistoryLink reports, Washington's lentil crop made up only 12.7 percent of the national total.

Ketchum, 1985

Zursun's history page puts its founding in Ketchum, Idaho, in 1985, five years after the Palouse peak. Its legacy page tells how the lentils came in. In the Palouse, "Zürsun founder Lola Weyman discovered several farmers growing little-known lentil varieties. During the late 1980s Lola began distributing these American-grown lentils," with orders coming from America, Canada and Europe.

The legacy page names the lentils that followed. Black Beluga lentils, which it describes as Montana-grown, were "originally named for their resemblance to Beluga caviar." Petite Crimson lentils are "smaller and quicker cooking than the standard Red Chief," and French Green is an American take on the Lentille du Puy. A profile in Edible Idaho South, reprinted on Zursun's site, reports that Weyman worked with Bakker Brothers, a Magic Valley seed company, to find and develop bean and lentil varieties, and that before she sold the business she had placed her beans in stores such as Williams-Sonoma and Dean & Deluca.

Twin Falls, 2004 and after

The Edible Idaho profile says that in 2004 Weyman developed lung cancer and sold the company to Jim Soran. The history page calls him "a second-generation bean industry professional with deep family roots in Idaho agriculture." His father started Soranco Bean Products in 1947, when, in Soran's words, "there were 45 bean warehouses in the Magic Valley." Soran spent four months learning the varieties Weyman knew by heart. He is frank about where he started: "I knew pinto beans, and I knew black beans." He describes the work just as plainly: "What we do is simple. We take the beans and take the dirt off of them."

The same profile, written while Soran owned the company, listed the range at 41 heirloom bean varieties, nine lentils, two colors of peas and more than a dozen grains, shipped from Twin Falls to nearly 250 outlets. It reported that about 20 percent of the growers were in the Magic Valley and that North Idaho growers supplied the lentils. The history page says the company is now owned by Farmer Bean & Seed, LLC, a dry bean wholesaler with more than twenty years in the domestic and export trade.

Palouse and Zursun, one timeline

Set side by side, the dates show Zursun starting in the decade after the Palouse lentil peak. The company's Black Beluga, which it describes as Montana-grown, comes from the state that later passed the Palouse in lentil acreage.

The petite golden lentil

Zursun describes its petite golden lentil (shop Zursun Petite Golden Lentil) as "lemony-colored and delicate," with "a sweet flavor and smooth texture." It suggests cooking it with "pungent Indian spices" and serving it over steamed rice or next to meat. Zursun's cooking guide says lentils do not need soaking and are best seasoned during cooking.

Three pulses from two makers

Rancho Gordo makes two pulses that cook alongside the golden lentil, a black caviar lentil and a garbanzo. The Rancho Gordo producer guide tells that company's story. For the pot, the three sort by texture and by how long they cook.

The garbanzo needs the longest pot of the three. Rancho Gordo says chickpeas are not native to the Americas. It grows them in California and credits the new-crop harvest with faster cooking. That fits the hard-to-cook research in the dried beans storage guide, where beans that are old or stored hot and humid harden and take longer to cook. In Denver, the cooking at altitude guide explains why anything simmered at elevation takes longer.

How to cook the golden lentil

Zursun publishes its own recipe for the lentil. Sort and rinse one cup of petite golden lentils and bring them to a simmer in four cups of water with two thin slices of unpeeled ginger and half a teaspoon of ground turmeric. Cover with the lid slightly ajar and cook 30 to 45 minutes until tender, stirring now and then, then salt and remove the ginger. For the finish, heat three tablespoons of oil and let a teaspoon of cumin seeds sizzle, then add a teaspoon of ground coriander and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne, stir once, and pour it all into the lentils. Top with chopped parsley. Steamed rice alongside is optional.

That finish is the same move the toasting and blooming spices guide describes. Three of the spices the recipe calls for have Burlap & Barrel versions: Wild Mountain Cumin (shop Wild Mountain Cumin Seeds), Red River Coriander (shop Red River Coriander) and New Harvest Turmeric (shop New Harvest Turmeric). The heirloom bean cooking guide covers the garbanzo. Reading a bag for age is covered in the dried bean buying guide, and tahini, the other half of hummus, is covered in the tahini sauce recipe.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.

Sources & Further Reading

• Zursun Idaho Heirloom Beans: Our History
• Zursun Idaho Heirloom Beans: Our Legacy
• Edible Idaho South profile of Zursun, reprinted on the Zursun press page
• Zursun: Petite Golden Lentil, product page
• Zursun: Golden Lentils with Cumin Seeds
• Zursun: Cooking Dried Beans
• Trista Crossley, Lentil Farming in Washington, HistoryLink.org Essay 21303, September 2021
• WSU Insider, August 2008: A History of Lentil Farming on the Palouse
• Rancho Gordo: Garbanzo Bean, product page
• Rancho Gordo: Black Caviar Lentil, product page
• The Pantry Dispatch: Chickpeas and Lentils, from Field to Pot: The Complete Guide
• The Pantry Dispatch: Do Dried Beans Go Bad?
• The Pantry Dispatch: Cooking at Altitude