Reportedly Victoria Beckham puts her svelte figure down to a diet of frozen grapes, steamed fish, raw vegetables and edamame beans. For several years these immature soya beans have been dubbed a ‘superfood’ and are the snack of choice for urban, barfly hipsters while they wait for their sushi and discuss their omega 3 to 6 balance. Who knows what inspired John Walter Symons, a cider-making veg grower and one of our founder farming co-op members to sow a field of edamame on his Devon farm this year. Most of our crops are meticulously planned before the seed is even bought, but the first we heard of this was when a few bean-laden plants appeared on my desk last week. Always up for a challenge, I spent the evening researching and cooking, and they got a firm thumbs up from all, so John’s fresh edamame beans (most are sold frozen) will be on our extras list for the next couple of weeks at £2.75 for 200g, including a recipe. They are best lightly boiled, salted and eaten out of their pods as a snack; no-one will get me eating frozen grapes or claiming superfood status for anything, but they must be better for you than a pork scratching.
Meanwhile we’ve had a wonderful growing year and as the days draw in, contemplating winter’s approach with a shelf laden with your own preserves is hard to beat. We’ve a good range of kits to make this even easier, so for those of you with squirrel tendencies, this is the time to get your preserving pan out.
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