Lessons From The Land

Yesterday we had our first significant harvest of the year from the veggie garden – the fava beans (known as broad beans in the UK) are finally yielding their first, delicious beans, packed full of vital green. Popping one of those first beans of the year in your mouth is like tasting spring sunshine! Perfect fried with a bit of oil and garlic as a tapas. Mmmm.

We always plant these magnificent beans in the autumn; they are solid and dependable, weathering the winter storms and frosts with dignity and always first to deliver in the spring. Inevitably an attack of black aphids comes along at some point, but they seem to casually weather this storm too. If you delve below their surface and enter their leafy, stalky world, there’s a whole world of nature’s rebalancing wisdom in there. The aphids are closely followed by jewel-red ladybirds and other beetles who voraciously chomp down on the aphids and, somehow, a delicate balance is struck. Who needs pesticides when you have nature? Also, this year we experimented by putting diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of the bed, as this is said to possibly help deter pests. I’m not sure whether this has made a difference but, certainly, the plants look super vibrant this year, and I think we’ll be feasting on beans with every meal for the next couple of months!

It helps that the organic fava bean seeds were a gift from one of our extended ‘Pomba family’, who loves coming here and is enjoying her own journey of growing a garden at home. So, the seeds themselves were imbued with love, which has got to be the best start for a plant.

I love how I connect with others through a shared love of growing vegetables these days. I was a complete beginner when I first arrived here four years ago. I knew nothing about gardening and I made (and continue to make) so many mistakes, but every year I see some kind of improvement and feel more confident. I’ve learnt to never berate myself when things don’t work out, and to instead always celebrate the victories. Eating a meal from your own produce is the best reward ever. So, what I’m saying is that, if I can do this, anyone can! I haven’t read any books on gardening, apart from one planting manual that I sometimes refer to. Instead, I prefer to listen to locals around here who garden (we have crazy micro-climates here, to the more local the better) and follow my intuition.

So, big gratitude to the fava beans today, and all the creatures that live amongst them!