Pulses, Grains & Seeds from British Farms

Whole Yellow Peas, Organic

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£2.19

Whole Yellow Peas are the same peas used for Split Yellow Peas but with the skin left on. Rarely found, they have an excellent flavour and firm texture, especially good in curries.

Split Yellow Peas

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£1.49 £1.69

Split Yellow Peas are one of the most used pulses in British cooking, with a satisfying flavour and smooth texture, they add body and depth to soups, stews, dhals and dips.

YQ Wheat, Organic Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£1.89 £2.69

Whole organic wheat grain from the revolutionary YQ population, grown by Turners of Bytham in Lincolnshire.

YQ wheat grains can be cooked and eaten whole, or milled at home (we recommend using a Mockmill) for flavoursome and nutritious flour.

The YQ (Yield and Quality) wheat population was bred at Wakelyns Agroforestry by Professor Martin Wolfe and the Organic Research Centre. The population is a crop of extraordinary diversity that's emerged over time from a wide range of carefully chosen parent varieties, leading to fields of millions of genetically distinct individual wheat plants rather than the usual genetically uniform monocultures.

British Red and White Quinoa

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£3.99

A blend of Somerset red quinoa and Essex white quinoa. Like our red and white Wholegrain Quinoa our blended Red and White Quinoa is easy to cook and great in soups and stews or for baking. But its contrasting colours really comes into their own in salads and side dishes.

Hodmedod's red and white quinoa is grown by Emily Addicott Sauvao in Somerset (red) and Peter Fairs in Essex (white).

Rye, Organic Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

Sorry, not available right now £2.69

Closely related to wheat and barley, rye has a deep, distinctive flavour and can be eaten as a whole grain, ground into flour, or sprouted. The flour is traditionally used to make robust, close-textured breads.

Emmer (Farro), Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£2.69

An ancestor of durum wheat, emmer was among the first cereals cultivated in the Fertile Crescent. It has a deliciously nutty flavour and can be eaten as a whole grain (farro) or ground into flour.

The grains make great alternative to rice, as a side or in risotto (farrotto?), or can be milled at home (we recommend using a Mockmill) for flour that makes superb bread and pasta.

Two other grains are occasionally used for farro and emmer or farro medio sits between smaller einkorn (farro piccolo) and larger spelt (farro grande). 

Our emmer is grown by Jeremy Dickin in Lincolnshire.

Naked Barley, Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£1.99 £2.69

Long before we ate modern wheat, naked barley sustained us. Well suited to our climate, Bronze Age farmers would be very familiar with this nutritious, malty cereal. Unlike most barley, where the inedible husk is tightly stuck to the grain, the husks fall off the naked barley grain when it's harvested and threshed, leaving the tasty and nutritious whole grain intact and ready to cook or mill.

The grains can be cooked and eaten whole, or milled at home (we recommend using a table-top Mockmill) for flavoursome and nutritious flour.

Spring Wheat, Organic Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

Sorry, not available right now £1.49

Wheat is one of the most common foods but whole wheat grains - sometimes known as wheatberries - are surprisingly rarely used. They're a versatile, tasty and nutritious ingredient that brings the full flavour of wheat, whether used whole or freshly milled.

The grains can be soaked, cooked and eaten whole, but our current spring wheat is best suited for milling at home (we recommend using a Mockmill) an makes a flavoursome and nutritious flour.

Our current batch of wheat is from a crop of Mulika variety, a spring wheat variety well suited for bread-making, being relatively hard / high in protein. It works best with a long fermentation for sourdough baking.

Olive Green Lentils, Organic

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£4.50

Organic lentils are back! Our current batch were grown on the Kingclere Estate in Hamshire. These whole lentils are simply superb for salads, stews, soups and more.

Naked Oats, Organic Wholegrain

Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

£1.99

These oat groats are 'naked' because the hull naturally falls away from the grain without threshing. They're a superb alternative to brown rice, quicker to cook and with a creamier texture and richer flavour.

Our naked oat groats are grown on farms that also grow and harvest wheat, barley and other cereals. As such we can't be sure there won't occasionally be wheat or other cereals present. If you're looking for gluten free oats we do, when available, have oat flakes grown and processed on a farm that doesn't grow or handle other cereals.

Ayocote Negro

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Ayocote - or ayeócotl in Náhuatl, the indigenous language spoken in the area, now part of Mexico, where the beans were first domesticated four or five thousand years ago - are beans of the Phaseolus coccineus species, more commonly known as runner beans in the UK.

Mexican seed banks contain over 800 varieties of ayocote, each suited to very specific climates and altitudes. The beans are traditionally grown as part of the Milpa or Three Sisters system along with corn and squash.

The UK is almost unique in eating runner beans as a green vegetable. In the rest of the world the dried seeds are preferred – and are indeed among the most delicious beans you can eat. 

Eye of Goat Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Eye of Goat (Ojo de Cabra) originated in Mesoamerica, probably Mexico or the southern US. They’re a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti, cannellini and haricots.

A thin skinned, creamy textured bean that really soaks up flavours, Eye of Goat are best cooked simply to show off their virtues. Have a look at the Rancho Gordo website for recipes and to discover the work of our bean hero Steve Sando.

Good Mother Stallard Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Good Mother Stallard is a beautiful bean; to look at and to eat. An heirloom variety from the US dating back to at least the 1930s and named after Carrie Belle Stallard from Virginia. They’re a climbing variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti and haricots.

A thin skinned, creamy textured bean that really soaks up flavours, Good Mother Stallard are best cooked simply to really show off their virtues. Have a look at Rancho Gordo for recipes and to discover the work of one of our bean heroes, Steve Sando.

Gogmagog Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Gogmagog are beans of the Phaseolus coccineus species, more commonly known as runner beans in the UK. The UK is almost unique in eating runner beans as a green vegetable. In the rest of the world the dried seeds are preferred – and are indeed among the most delicious beans you can eat. 

In Greece large white beans like ours are called Gigantes - giants, ours aren't quite as big and they're not Greek so we've named them after the famous Welsh giant Gogmagog (probably more correctly Gawr Madoc (Madoc the Great), Albion's last giant. We're a long way from Wales, but we do have the Gog Magog hills just down the road in Cambridgshire.

Our Gogmagogs were grown by Edward Lea at Green Acres Farm in Shropshire, a really labour of love, like all our rare beans they dry on the plant before being picked and podded and sorted by hand. Cook simply in stock or follow a Greek recipe for Gigantes plaki (baked beans), they're incredibly creamy and tender.

Hidatsa Shield Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Named for and probably grown by the Hidatsa tribe who raised corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers in the Missouri River Valley of North Dakota. They’re a climbing variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti, cannellini and haricots.

Hidatsa Shield Beans hold their shape well and have a firm creamy texture when cooked. Great for home-made baked beans or as a substitute for other white beans like cannellini.

Canadian Wonder

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Canadian Wonder, the classic red kidney bean, is an old variety (1873) that's never really fallen out of favour. The pods make excellent green beans (and that's what they're usually grown for in the UK), but if the weather permits they can be grown on for delicious dry beans. Like all legumes, the bean seeds are at their most nutritious when fully dry, they hold their shape when cooked and are perfect for chilli, stews and salads.

Our Canadian Wonder beans have the favourable climate of Cornwall on their side, grown within sight of St. Michael's Mount at Tim Westwell's small farm, Trenow Fields. Philip Kadner, the horticulturist at Trenow, is in the process of taking the farm through organic conversion with the Soil Association, he's keen to establish as diverse a system as possible with an emphoasis on fruit, vegetables, herbs and protein crops like beans, hemp and buckwheat.

Tim's vision for Trenow is that is should become a beacon for agroecological production in the area, demonstrating an alternative to monocultural horticulture, rejuvinating the soil and integrating the health of the local community with the health of the land in harmony with nature.

Mayocoba Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Mayocoba or canary beans are widely grown in Mexico and were probably domesticated there (almost certainly somewhere in Mesoamerica) four or five thousand years ago. They’re a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti and haricots.

A thin skinned, creamy textured bean that really soaks up flavours, Mayocoba are best cooked simply to really show off their virtues. Do have a look at the Rancho Gordo website for recipes and to discover the work of our bean hero Steve Sando. 

Swedish Brown Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Bruna Bönor or Swedish Brown Beans are traditionally grown on the island of Öland, just off the east coast of Sweden. Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus mentioned bean production on the island in 1741, probably the same brown beans that are grown today. They’re a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti, cannellini and haricots.

In Sweden Brown Beans are traditionally used to make a kind of sweetened baked bean. They’re great for home-made baked beans or as a substitute for other white beans (such as cannellini).

Borlotti

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

These borlotti beans are a multi-purpose bean that can be harvested as a green pod to be eaten as a vegetable, as semi-dry beans for quick cooking and as dry storing beans. In the UK borlotti are often grown as a French bean, and sometimes to be eaten semi-dry, but much more rarely for drying, though doing so is increasingly feasible. The beans are at their most nutritious when fully dry, they hold their shape when cooked and add a creamy depth to soups and stews or when blended for dips.

These borlotti beans have been grown for us by Greengrow workers’ co-operative
at Berry Farm, Suffolk. Berry Farm is a small, co-operatively owned and managed mixed holding in Suffolk’s Waveney Valley. The farm is dedicated to social, environmental and economic sustainability. Improving the farm’s ecology and sharing its beauty with visiting school and educational groups is as important to the farm as growing high quality seasonal food. Though not certified as organic, the farm works to organic and permaculture principles.

Soldier Beans

Hodmedod

Sorry, not available right now £4.99

Soldier Beans have been grown in New England for at least 200 years and take their name from the distinctive marking around the hilum (the scar that marks the beans attachment to the pod). They’re a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, the same incredibly diverse family of beans from the Americas that includes borlotti, cannellini and haricots.

Soldier Beans hold their shape well and, unlike a lot of marked beans, the distinctive ‘soldier’ remains after cooking. Great for home-made baked beans or as a substitute for other white beans (such as cannellini).