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Tag Archives: Broad bean hummus

Broad Beans, Sunflowers and White Flowers

We have harvested all our broad beans and frozen lots of them (we’ve eaten lots fresh too.) Some of them were a bit big and tough looking so I took the advice of a lovely fellow allotmenteer, peeled their grey coats off (rather tedious) and made Broad Bean Hummus. It’s delicious and worth the work!

Yesterday we bought a bunch of bright sunny Sunflowers, a bunch which reminds me of some lovely holidays in France where there are fields and fields of glorious yellow. We added the daisy, blown over by the hoolies over the last couple of days, the Verbena Bonariensis, likewise.

The white flowers are Cosmos and Dahlias from the allotment. Sadly, I’ve had to rescue the last few Cosmos flowers prior to pulling them up. The leaves went silver and then brown, then dead. We’ve grown Cosmos at home for many years and have never had this problem. The ones in the garden now, from the same batch, are still flowering and gorgeous so it’s a puzzle.

Mandela Memorial, Lunch and Tree Planting

10 Dec

1 We listened to the Memorial for Nelson Mandela this morning. What a man – and how loved and respected he was. I loved Obama’s speech and the quoting at the end of the last two lines from Mandela’s favourite poem. I put it all here as it is so appropriate.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Beautiful.

2 I made a bowlful of Broad Bean Hummus (garden ones, frozen) to take for a shared lunch today. My Oat and Linseed Flowerpot loaf worked out well too.

Broad bean hummus

Salad dressing in one of N’s beautiful bowls

Oat and Linseed flowerpot loaf

3 Our shared lunch with our good friends, N&G, was a precursor helping them plant the last few trees of their small woodland. I just love the whole idea of this – to have the forethought to plant for generations to come. There are Sessile oaks, Silver birch, Rosa Rugosa, Ash, Sweet Chestnut, Gean Cherry, White, Goat and Scarlet Willows, Italian Alder, Elder and Hazel – all planted for particular purposes – for the birds, for insect life, for food, for shelter and for love. It’s going to be a magical place with a stone circle in the middle and the hands and laughter of many friends in the planting. What a joy to be part of this project. Thank you to you both.

Our first tree planted

Kaia helping with the digging

Part of the very young woodland

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 10, 2013 in Beauty, environment, Food, garden, literature, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday2013, trees

Tags: Broad bean hummus, Invictus, Mandela, Nelson Mandela, Obama's speech, woodland

Wesley’s Wise Words, Hummus and Dahlias at Dusk

11 Aug

1 A good friend sent me this quotation from John Wesley:

2 We harvested all the the rest of the broad beans today and blanched and froze most of them, just saving back enough for supper and for delicious Broad Bean Hummus for lunch.