November

“Beans are one of the oldest of cultivated plants. They were one of the foods brought to David and his people in the wilderness,1 and there is evidence that they were cultivated around the Mediterranean from 5,000 years ago and in Asia earlier. Until the Columbian Exchange that brought haricot, runner and ‘French’ bean types to Europe from the Americas4 of the genus Phaseolus, any mention of ‘beans’ meant broad beans (also called faba or fava beans)....Dried broad beans in this country have yet to recover from their previous ubiquity. As a nation, we are happy to import other peasant staples, but remain sceptical about our own.”