Broad Bean, Aubergine

 Before I start with Waffle of the Day, I’m having issues with Blogger regarding publishing comments. I’ve tried various ‘catch you out’ style techniques to try and make Blogger behave but it’s not having it and it’s becoming one of those irritations that make me want to move the blog to a different platform. If you’ve sent a comment, then, and it’s not been published, it’s not for my want of chuffin’ trying. Soz and all that. I might get Lord Malarkey on the case in his guise of Tech Guy. 

Onwards…

More from the entertaining gardening book I found in the village book swap shelter. 

‘For many centuries in Western Europe, the aubergine was thought to be deadly to Christians.’

Well, I suppose that very much depended on what you were planning to do with it. All I know about aubergines and Christianity is that the churchy Alpha Course I was forced to attend before Lord M and I were married was very fond of dishing up variations on an aubergine for the vegetarians at the communal post-lecture supper. It really did feel like death by aubergine by the time the course finished. Mind you, although I was born into Christianity, I have since made my escape. Perhaps that’s why it didn’t affect me. 

‘The word ‘aubergine’ derives from the Sanskrit word ‘vatin-ganah’ (seriously? That’s a far straying derivation…) meaning ‘go away wind’ or anti-flatulence vegetable. It is said that aubergine is excellent for treating intestinal gas.’

Isn’t that just the sort of information that makes you want to hang around the aubergines in the supermarket to impart to aubergine buyers? That’d be a bit of fun, wouldn’t it? ‘Flatulence, is it, sir? An aubergine is JUST what you need.’ 

I wonder if you eat it or shove it where…no, let’s not go there…

Conversely…

‘Broad beans should NOT be eaten in the evening because they are difficult to digest, and have been known to cause nightmares. In the Middle Ages it was thought that the souls of the dead lived inside the humble broad bean because it disturbed people’s sleep. The Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, would not eat broad beans under any circumstances, so convinced was he that they were possessed by evil spirits.’

I tell you what IS possessed by evil spirits. The job of trying to teach the Pythagoras theorem ( you know, the one with squares, and sums and a hippopotamus) to bottom set Year 8’s who could never get beyond the hippopotamus and had the brain capacity of a broad bean á la Baldrick’s School of Bean Maths. 

In other news, the four baby swallows from Brood Two have taken to the wing today. It was a bit of a palaver, and at one point a blue tit became involved and soon wished it hadn’t. I have sown some primula seeds that I managed to save from the plants I bought earlier in Spring - fingers crossed for some freebie plants for next year. 

And I have completed a patchwork mandala for ‘Darling Buds’…

It’s the same pattern on the back as the front because I’m a bit OCD like that.