Time for Beans

9th of May is the classic day for putting beans out into the open because the ice saints (11th - 15th of May) who can bring the last frost of the year will be over by the time the beans poke out their fleshy shoots. This year I will sow six different species: on the very left you see what is dubbed the "holy bean" because to the matters-of-holy-adept, its black pattern looks like an angel with a halo. It is followed by the "Lazy Housewife", an uncomplicated South-African specimen, apparently for those with little time to spend on bean-rearing. Then comes "Canadian Wonder", a classic Kidney bean, followed by an old Dutch brown bean which I collected in an outdoor farming history museum in Arnhem last year. The second to last is the pretty but rather demanding Borlotti bean and eventually we have the Lemon bean, with the handsome colour of brimstone butterflies.

In Germany we say : "Beans want to hear the bells ring" referring to their need for not sowing them too deep (a small finger's breadth does the job). Another proverb indicates bean's liking for a sufficiently warmed up soil: "Put beans in the soil when a virgin can cross the garden naked".

Thus: Let the bells ring, get the naked virgins into the open, it is time for the beans to start their year!

Becoming a little bit of a farmer?

CASFS University Farm in Santa Cruz/California

Northamerica has its first school dedicated to teach you how to start becoming an urban farmer! It is newly opened this year, called Richmond Farm School (in Richmond/Canada) and part of Kwantlen Polytech University, who co-authored this project together with the municipality of Richmond. It is a half-year programme, consisting of various practicals and theory. The graduates have the option to lease 1-5 acres of municipal land (so-called incubator plots) to start off an urban farming enterprise, with ongoing support from the programme. All in the name of rebuilding local food systems, reducing food miles and adapting to growing urban demand of food. You can read a good portrait (including programme outline, prices, time frame) on City Farmer News.

The whole thing reminded me of the beautiful farm at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at the University of Santa Cruz/California which I visited two years ago. They have a similar programme in place where apprentices spend half a year (literally day and night, if they opt to stay in the on-farm apprentice housing) on the 22-acre farm, also having practical as well as theoretical lessons in sustainable farming and connected issues. Graduates not only become farmers but often disperse into the worlds of working within (local) food networks, academics, writing, politics, ... you name it. To me, mainly because of the immersion into it, this (more than 40 years old) programme seems to be a bit more in-depth, also because it offers about 1000 hours of teaching, as compared to 350 (formal) hours with the Richmond Farm School (both costs around 5000$). But to be fair: the latter just started up and might (and hopefully will) grow considerably in size.

Let's hope projects like these will keep sprouting, budding and spreading, yielding people and farms that are able to feed us better than our current food systems can!

Picnic series, #1! - Jadebusen

This is Jonas together with our picnic case, napping at the Jadebusen dike (erotic name for a rather romantic area in Northern Germany where the sea has eaten a "busen" (translate: bosom) into the land). Featured: salmon pasta salad, aubergine dip, pistacchio dip, baguette, those two apples you see there. Red wine of course.

This is the first of my picnic series, a little celebration of the combination of two very good things: food and the outsides! While wandering the web for the actual meaning of this word I classically stumbled across a vast array of definitions. Well, who cares. Much better is the fact that there used to be the Picnic Society (unacademic wikipedia quote):

Early in the 19th century, a fashionable group of Londoners formed the 'Picnic Society'. Members met in the Pantheon on Oxford Street. Each member was expected to provide a share of the entertainment and of the refreshments with no one particular host. Interest in the society waned in the 1850s as the founders died.

Sad ending? No! At least in New York some people have revived this idea, meeting in Central Park around food and this simple, beautiful idea. Feels like this could be a good addition to things like Eat Ins, Flashmobs, or Surprise Dinners. Sounds like a plan?

Asparagus rise

A German asparagus memorial (yes, we like them white and earth them up for that purpose. I'm all for the green ones though)

The asparagus in the allotment plot that I'm taking care of for my travelling housemate behaves a bit like a chamaleon. It has spring colors and fits perfectly into the shades of green and yellow all around it. I always have to squat in different angles to spot all the little upcoming stalks. And only once I thought I have them all in my bag ready to come home with me, there is the most beautiful one standing upright under the elderberry tree, like it wonders why I didn't put it with its buddies yet. So I take it home, too, and they all rejoin in a dish which originates from Nigel Slater's wonderful book "Tender". Straight-forward, grounded cooking (although admittedly a bit towards the fatty side at times, you have to like that British way of adding lots of flavor). His idea of joining asparagus with cardamom, a bit of cinnamon, thyme and cumin into a pilaf, joined by fava beans and a mint joghurt made my belly really happy.