Season of Mellow Fruitfulness

Fickle weather and foul winds drive us indoors to cook wholesome things. But we must not forget in twelve week’s time, the ground will warm up again and seeds need sowing.

I am a convert to Heirloom or Heritage seeds. The end results may look a little less straight and supermarket shiny but the TASTE is sensationally different.

Once upon a muddy time, the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand, with its tree bereft paddocks, at the beginning of the 1900’s, invited Mediterranean workers to seek the kauri gum residual lumps. The gum workers would probe the soil with a long wire then bag them up. Gum was valuable and traded into everything from varnish to flooring products. And, workers needed feeding with quality food.

Here, I have my Dalmatian bean pods drying on the vines, long after harvest has finished. I will wait for a windy, clear day to crack open their crusty ‘J’ shaped husks. Then, I will place them in an unsealed envelope to air and wait until one month before the longest day before harvesting. This is because beans like a warmer soil to unfurl.

All to do now is to rake leaves and more raking and more leaves. I’ll leave you to it!