Of Things Leguminous

Out in the garden last weekend, I took a few snaps of our current leguminous crops.

The Golden Podded Peas are indeed golden. They are quite tasty when young and can be eaten whole like snow peas. As they get older, however, they tend to get a bit starchy and so I'll be leaving these to dry. The flowers are a lovely purple colour, so they are a very pretty pea.



The chick peas are flowering .....


And the first few pods are appearing ...


The broad beans, looking luscious, just before they were strip picked and cleared to make room for some new veges.


Legumes are such a good food for us. Just as they prepare the soil to support good growth, so do they help cleanse and prepare our bodies for good health.

Beans are the same shape as our lymph nodes, spleens and kidneys and they help keep these healthy.

Beans love to grow in amongst corn. Beans and corn together provide all the amino acids we need - that is, they are a perfect protein.

Alfalfa is also a legume and it is a fantastic lymphatic cleanser and body alkaliser.

All of these are good reasons to include legumes in your diet, but they are also very yummy and children just love to pick and munch them. Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Happenings in the Garden

After surviving (cross fingers!) two exams today, I wandered out into the garden to clear my head late this afternoon. Here are some of the things happening . . .

Here is the first purple asparagus spear of the season. It may just find itself being eaten tomorrow night! This is the fourth season for the purple asparagus in our garden. Given how much it produced last year, I'm already thinking of preserving some.


And here is the first Greenfeast pea flower of the season. The Red Flowering Peas are yet to produce any blossoms, but when they do, I'll post a pic.
Some beautiful broad bean flowers . . .


And the first of the Solomon's Seal rhizomes that I planted a while ago is off and running.

Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) is a magic herb. Its tincture, made from the root, can be used to heal ligaments and tendons. Somehow, this amazing plant knows how to shorten stretched ligaments and tendons and lengthen short ones, bringing the body part (eg, ankles) back into perfect alignment.

Some people refer to Solomon's Seal as the "herbal chiropractor". Matthew Wood calls it the Indispensible Muscular and Skeletal Remedy.

Some blackcurrant cuttings I took a few weeks ago (from the prunings off the blackcurrant) now have little roots attached to them. I'm hoping they'll develop further and I can obtain some more big blackcurrant bushes.

Marshmallow seeds I planted back in Autumn have sprouted when I had almost given up on them (shame on me!). Here are some of the little darlings I hope will soon grow into rampant plants.

Marshmallow (Malva sylvestra) is great for treating dry irritating coughs and as a mild astringent for gastroenteritis.

Happy Gardening!

love and light
naturewitch