It is broad-bean-picking time. We mainlanders marvel at these legumes and treat them like little pieces of gold. The moment young broad beans reach Dolac market, we buy them. Here, people seem pretty over the whole broad-bean business. Many do not like them, some cannot even digest them well, and there do not seem to be that many recipes in which the bean gets top billing. Maybe that is a sweeping generalisation. Or maybe it is true that we value what we do not have.
And here I am now on Mediterranean soil, where a broad bean starts growing the second it sees dirt. You poke a dry bean into the ground, leave it alone, and four or five months later you are harvesting. When it is young enough, you can eat the whole pod. The plant is brilliant for the garden too, enriching the soil with nitrogen wherever it grows.
Lucky for me, the little guy decided that picking and shelling beans was excellent fun, so we made a cracking team and got the job done through play. We cooked the beans and made pesto: broad beans, ground toasted sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, olive oil, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper. A few we ate simply boiled, with nothing on them. That sweet, creamy goodness just spreads a grin across your face.
