Just harvested the Broad Beans (US-Fava?).
Planted last November.
Aquadulce Claudia (overwintering species).
Gonna let them dry, rather than freeze them.
Apparently a very old method. They last pretty much forever dried, and when ready to eat, soak for 24hrs before cooking.
Haven’t tried it yet but, hey, if it works for lentils…
Also, free photo of a dog’s bum:
(His nose-end was parked in the cooler part of the shed).
Dunno if you like them, but egyptian falafel is made with dried broad/fava/lima beans…
I’ve added them fresh/undried to my falafel, and it’s a big step up in flavor.
Off-topic, but I spy your copy of Parable of the Talents!!!
Oh, fantastic, I can now make my own falafel!
Thanks, TIL.
I have to warn you, they’re so good when fresh and hot you’ll have a battle to not scarf em all, and also, cold falafel will make you sigh wistfully while imagining how good they used to be.
I’d been meaning to read “Parable Of The Sower” for years now.
In a quiet moment, I ordered both “Sower” and “Talents” from Abebooks, and also the “Dawn” trilogy (not yet started), for a bargain price.
“Sower” had me in tears in places.
And then “Talents”, a dystopian vision featuring (thankfully not starring) a fictional president who wants to “make America great again”, well, fuckin’ell.
I’ve been a long time waiting to read Octavia Butler.
Damn, she was light-years ahead of her time.
I’m actually going to print out those recipes!
That looks good! I keep meaning to try some falafel recipes
Happy bumblebees on the echinacea
Shishito peppers. First time growing them.
(With a bonus onion from the Egyptian walking onions)
Anyone know what this might be? I thought it might be a marigold, but I don’t think the leaves are the same. I didn’t plant it in any case; for now it’s a wildflower until I find out it’s something more noxious. (I don’t think its ragweed.)
& then there is this one:
I thought it was, perhaps, lily of the valley or similar. Waited for the blooms to show, &…
there was no there, there.
I do have a field guide for wildflowers, but it is arranged by bloom color (then by bloom shape/arrangement), & the first of these doesn’t have any, while the 2nd had invisible blooms, or they were blink-&-you-missed-it.
the set of pics after the first one, looks like a ground orchid. not exactly and orchid, but called that, they grow in damp soil and have tiny, orchid-like flowers from pink to yellow to violet. they come and go from seeming nowhere. cute little wildflowers, and like most - gone before you know it!
Thx!
See also: tulip trees
The top one could be a variety of arugula; I started a nature journal a couple of years ago, and it looks like the leaves of an feral arugula that I recorded across the street from my house.
a little nibble of a leaf would confirm that idea. but only a nibble - don’t want to take too big a risk. wild arugula would be a gift!
i note a frilly-leaved dill or fennel underneath that leaf, as well.
Well, it’s not wild; it’s feral. Escaped from somebody’s garden.
hmmm… while similar, it doesn’t look like any of the arugula we grow. leaves are way too big.
like i said, one taste will tell!
eta: i love arugula! in fact, i’m having homegrown arugula right now! (fresh poke bowl with arugula, spinach, rice and seasoned, fresh blackfin tuna.)
It’s hard to tell the size from a photo, unfortunately.
The first one definitely looks like ragweed. It’ll make a flower, but you might not want it come August. 
