In the midst of death we have life

You know you have days when you think to yourself (though, come to tink of it, how could you think to anyone else??) - "I wish I'd done this yesterday!"? Well, this is one of those days.

I've just come in from the gareen, having harvested what I believe will be the final runner beans. Here they are, on the right. You could be forgiven for thinking I've taken leave of my senses (yet again, I hear you cry!), but I haven't. No, really, I haven't.

In the midst of death, we have life. Those dead-looking papery beans that you wouldn't give a second glance in the greengrocer's, contain next year's (and possibly the next, and the next) seeds. In this case, some of them are somewhat slimey, because I didn't collect them yesterday in the dry, but this evening after copious amounts of rain.

I wanted you to see how awful and unattractive they look, so that you don't despair when it comes to harvest your own next year - you know you'll want to give it a go - it's free, organic food!!

I mentioned the beautiful colours the other day, but I've taken this photo so that you can see how different they look to the small beans you find inside the runner beans when you're eating them. Those tend to be either greyish, if very small, or this lovely pink when they're middle sized. As they grow larger, and riper, they develop the delightful speckling that you can see, and the colour goes through a purply pink to the deep coral. They are beautiful - nature is a marvel!

Just for those of you who think size really does matter, here are some against a couple of tape measures. I've used a couple so that you can see inches or centimetres, whichever is your preferred measure. You see, I might have lost my mind, but I'm still considerate :)

I'm going to go and enjoy some of the beans with some sprouting brocolli and tiny Charente carrots, tossed with some potatoes and drizzled with toasted sesame oil and fresh lime juice. Yum!

carrots and cancer prevention

I was sent a link to this article in The Independent, and logged on to read it. You might find it interesting, so I've copied it below to save you the trouble of having to follow a link - though the following is what I've copied from my e-mail - it looks good, but doesn't seem to work properly. Bizarrely, if you click on it it will tell you it couldn't find the page, but if you then click on the back arrow, it will take you there!!

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health- news/carrots-cooked-whole-better-at-fighting-cancer-1706917.html


So, here is the article:-

Carrots cooked whole 'better at fighting cancer' By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Carrots boiled whole before being cut up are better at fighting cancer and are tastier than when they are sliced before being cooked, a study has shown. It may require a bigger saucepan but cutting a carrot after boiling it could boost its health-giving properties by a quarter. Researchers at the University of Newcastle found that "boiled-before-cut" carrots contained 25 per cent more of the anti-cancer compound falcarinol than those that were chopped up first.And the sugars which give the carrot its distinctively sweet flavour were also found in higher concentrations in the carrot that had been cooked whole, so the vegetable tasted better as well as being healthier.The health benefits of falcarinol were first discovered four years ago when Kirsten Brandt, who led the study, found rats fed on a diet containing carrots or isolated falcarinol were a third less likely to develop tumours than those in a control group."Chopping up your carrots increases the surface area so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are being cooked," said Dr Brandt. "By cooking them whole and chopping them up afterwards you are locking in both taste and nutrients. We all want to try to improve our health and diet by getting the right nutrients and eating our five-a-day. "The great thing about this is it's a simple way for people to increase their uptake of a compound we know is good for you."The team presented their results at a conference in Lille, France, yesterday. They also carried out a blind taste test on almost 100 people comparing the taste of "boiled-before-cut" versus "cut-before-boiled" carrots. The response was overwhelming with more than 80 per cent saying that carrots cooked whole tasted much better.

But .... if we all start to cook our carrots whole, what does that do for the greenhouse effect? If it takes, say, ten minutes to cook sliced carrots, and only about seven for diced, how long is it going to take to cook whole carrots? Fifteen, Twenty minutes? ... obviously it will depend on the thickness of the root, and its length, but you see what I mean? And will the root end be soggy compared to the stalk end, being so much thinner?

I shall try cooking them whole and see what I think about the flavour, then decide whether it's worthwhile to me. That's all we can do, really, isn't it? Decide for ourselves. I tend to think my diet's pretty healthy, and don't plan to get any cancers, although I can hear you all saying "Don't tempt fate!". It's so long ago that I ate meat that I should be relatively safe on the CJD front too. We'll see. Let me know what you think!