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Last autumn Christine Smallwood, good friend of Hodmedod and a writer with a passion for Italian food, sent me a small packet of Cicerchia (Lathyrus sativus also called 'grass pea') to try cooking with.
Cicerchia is widely eaten in Southern Italy and North Africa and, because of it's hardiness and determination to grow even in the most unforgiving years, has a reputation as a useful famine food for man and beast alike.
I cooked most of the packet, but I couldn't resist the temptation to grow a few plants in my garden; yesterday the first of its beautiful blue-pink flowers opened.
The weather is unlikely to be good enough for me to harvest any peas this autumn and I think there's little prospect of them being commercially grown in the UK - but who knows!
If you fancy finding out more about this amazing legume you might want to dip into this little pamphlet produced by Biodiversity International - fascinating stuff.
Have you driven or cycled past our front door and wondered what goes on behind it? Last June we opened our big Bean Store doors for a chance to shop with us in person and have a look behind the scenes. It was such a success we're now opening monthly through the spring and summer.
On the Essex coastline, where arable fields meet salt marsh and sea air, Frinton Farms is quietly doing something remarkable. What began as a traditional arable operation has, over the past decade, evolved into one of the UK’s only producers of pumpkin seed oil and snacking seeds – supplying Hodmedod with nutrient-rich pumpkin seed oil, golden linseed and roasted seeds.
Hodmedod's pop-up Shop! will be open again on Saturday 7th February alongside Barleybird's annual Seed Swap.
 to try cooking with.
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