Q In a gift shop, I found heirloom beans called Jacob's Cattle Beans. I cooked them, liked them, but now about 4 cups are left in the refrigerator. Any thoughts for a main-dish salad? It's hotter than a pancake griddle here, so grilling or using the stove is not an option. Is there history to this bean? And where might I find other heirloom beans? These are like eating roast chicken -- so tasty.

A You have entered one of my favorite realms -- heirloom beans. Prepare for adventure because they are legion in number, no two types are alike, some are stunningly good and they can have great names. Forget pinto and chickpea and think Lazy Wife, Black Valentine, Bertie Best Greasy Bean, African Cave and the oh-so-appealing Tobacco Worm.

Some heirlooms show off wild patterns of spots, speckles, yin/yang patterns, stripes and dapples. The trick to keeping their patterns: Don't stir them a great deal when they are cooking and simmer them very gently, at the barest bubble.

Here is the key to bean salads: Any dressing you can put on a green salad will work with room-temperature beans. Of course, I can't leave it at that, so below is a recipe I use with heirlooms, or canned black beans or pintos. The idea came from the Middle Eastern treatment of bulgur wheat. Dress your Jacob's Cattle Beans this way and you should enjoy them. Serve the salad with whole-grain bread to make a complete protein, and some fresh berries or peaches for dessert.

Jacob's Cattle Beans remind me of delicate meat crossed with green beans, only sweeter. An odd juxtaposition, but this bean can be pretty rich.

As to where to find more heirloom beans, I just saw three types of Jacob Cattle Beans and a flock of other heirloom legumes at the Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. That group sustains heirloom vegetables, and sells seeds and the beans for cooking. Here is the Seed Savers site and two others for ordering a variety of beans: www.nativeseeds.org, www. purcellmountainfarms.com and www.seedsavers.org.

For fun, take a look at the www.beckyandthebeanstock. com blog to track Becky's goal of eating a different heirloom bean each week for all of 2008.

As for Jacob Cattle's history, Slow Food USA has taken Jacob's Cattle Bean (one of 26 different beans) onto its Ark of Taste, a project described as "saving cherished slow foods, one product at a time." It claims the bean is a Prince Edward Island heirloom, and that legend says it was a gift from the Passamaquoddy Indians of Maine to Joseph Clark, the first white child born in Lubec, Maine. I can't find any reliable commentary on where the name came from.

Now that you've waded through all that verbiage, at last here is the recipe you asked for.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts "The Splendid Table," American Public Media's national food show, splendidtable.org, Send questions to table@mpr.org.