I harvested two of the more beautiful broad (fava) beans I’ve grown yesterday, both of which originate in Canada. Red Cheek and Fingerprint favas. The diversity of forms, colours and sizes in these beans doesn’t cease to amaze me! I will definitely be trying to maintain these forms within my grex of broad beans (selection for a wide diversity of different forms every year and all planted close together so that they will cross promiscuously)!
Read legendary Will Bonsall’s article on fava beans where he talks about the diversity of forms and his collection of 250 varieties he maintains for Seed Savers Exchange: https://www.mofga.org/resources/beans/favas
Daily Archives: October 22, 2022
Dad’s potatoes – life goes on!
I harvested the last potatoes yesterday. This variety is Sharpe’s Express, an English variety from 1900 developed by a Mr. Sharpe in Lincolnshire. Although an early variety, I planted them late in June just before I left for my Dad’s funeral. He had told me that he grew this variety during the war and having a few seed left it felt right to plant them <3 Historically, this is a variety commonly grown in Norway and rated by many as the best tasting of all varieties. Surprisingly, they didn’t get blight. I got these as virus-cleaned mini tubers as part of KVANN’s (Norwegian Seed Savers) potato project.