Thursday 6 May 2010

buckets of beans



The garden is coming along nicely, apart from having lost most of the brassicas I put in, cabbages and swedes, not too bothered about the swede as we didn't eat that many last year and ended up giving most away to english friends. The days I put them in where fruit days and ordinarily would have been fine, but the temperature suddenly shot up into the 30's which finished them off, I tried shading them etc. but it looks like they are dead.



The beans and peas are going great guns and we've harvested tonnes of broad beans. I have tried to get some of our neighbours and friends to eat broad beans raw, trying to explain that they are delicious when eaten raw, young and small, anyone would think that we were trying to get them to eat dog poo or something. Tonight our friend who is always trying to ply us with rice pudding and making us eat all sorts of portuguese delicacies, literally spat out a broad bean in front of me, suggesting that it was the most appalling thing she had ever tasted. I said I felt rather insulted as i was constantly having to taste her food and feign deliciousness, purely out of politeness. Obviously doesn't work the other way round.

5 comments:

Raquel Martins said...

Hi Rick and Sarah,

I’ve come along your blog and I liked it a lot. It’s just wonderful what you’re doing there. I’m Portuguese and living in the Azores. I would love to live like you, but it’s not possible due to money issues. Nevertheless I’m also renovating an old house and trying to grow vegetables in the free time. I’ve learned a lot from your website and it’s always nice to find new posts.
To these one in particular I would like to ask how you eat the broad beans (also called fava beans right?). It’s when they are in the size of the ones in the picture? Or smaller? You mean eat the bean itself? Isn’t it advisable to cook all leguminous before eat as they have some poisonous substance that have to be boiled to be edible?
Congratulations and keep on with the good work!
Take care,
Raquel

Rick and Sarah said...

did you get my email?, if not in reply to your comment, first, thank you for looking at blog and i'm happy you are enjoying it so much and hope to continue to inspire you to grow more. When I say the bean, i mean the bean not the pod, you can eat all green beans and peas raw, the pods of broad beans (favas) are probably used for something in italy, but generally not eaten raw, the pea (ervilha) pod can be made into wine and the feijão de corredor (we call it a runner bean!), the long ones either flat or round can be eaten raw. We cook lots of risotto's with our produce, the portuguese cook favas with chorizo, onion, tomatoes and rice, wgich is like a risotto. Good luck and experiment

Raquel Martins said...

No, I didn't receive your e-mail. Anyway, thanks for the explanation and I'll try it. I would also like to say if you need some help with portuguese or something, please feel free to ask. My english is far from perfect, but sometimes maybe I can give you a help with some issues, as I'm portuguese.
Here's my e-mail: pmraqu@gmail.com

Have a nice weekend looking at your happy pigs!

Rick and Sarah said...

Thanks for the offer Raquel.... i would love for our blog to also be in portuguese, my husband (rick) and I are very keen on the clever use of words and ryhming etc. all of which would be lost in translation, i can put up more recipes if you like?

Raquel Martins said...

Yes, that would be wonderful. I'm always looking for recipes because I love to cook but when I make experiences it doesn't always goes good, so I prefer to make it safer and folow some recipes. I still didn't forget the orange jam you have there, but as I don't have oranges of my own I still didn't do it. But I'll try one day =)