food

When Roger bought two colonies of bees over from Leeds to Wales we hadn’t quite anticipated them taking badly to the Welsh weather, but they did. Apparently moist and mild winters are the worst things for bees, and last winter was fucking “moist”. So we lost the colonies. Fortunately, there’s a man who breeds queens in Capel Bangor (there’s something I love about the phrase “a man who breeds queens in Capel Bangor“) so we bought a new colony and started again. This year’s honey crop is not as big as we’d hoped, therefore – we only really started this spring. It wasn’t worth borrowingRead More →

Those of you with vegetable patches might be interested in this useful recipe for runner bean soup, which I have just tried and which is a very tasty way to use up all those slightly overgrown stringy green beans that hide behind leaves at the top of the plant. Lots of runner beans A couple of onions Some olive oil Some stock Fresh mint Salt & pepper Cut the tops and tails off the beans, strip the stringy bits at the sides with a potato peeler, then cut them into little bits. Chop and sauté the onion in the olive oil. Add the beans andRead More →