Broad Bean Sermon

Now's the time for gathering lots of sweet and tender broad beans! Unfortunately they rarely make it into the kitchen, as I tend to graze on the raw beans straight from the pod while I work in the garden, 'marvelling at their tiny emerald perfection'.



Les Murray accurately described the appeal of broad bean pods in The Broad Bean Sermon when he wrote of 'knobbly, frown-shaped' and 'boat-keeled' specimens:

.... beans upright like lecturing, outstretched like blessing fingers
in the incident light, and more still, oblique to your notice
that the noon glare or cloud-light or afternoon slants will uncover

till you ask yourself Could I have overlooked so many,
or do they form in an hour? unfolding into reality
like templates for subtly broad grins, like unique caught expressions...



Delish!