Runner Beans "Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco" or "Firetongue"

Runner bens have been the most successful crop of the year. There wasn't enough time to run back and forth with watering cans, but they did well anyway, climbing up their support all the way into the trees. In fact, there are still some lonely pods hanging too high up to reach, waiting and drying up patiently to become seeds for next year.

I cannot remember how I acquired these seeds, but they were most likely an impulse buy.

They are called "Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco" or "Firetongue" because of their bright red pods.They start green as any other beans pods, but as they mature, red splotches appear, eventually fusing together, turning the pod dark red.

I turned the first little harvest of pods into a stir-fry and the latter ones were blanched and frozen for later. I loved checking on them, watching them grow, checking on the size of seeds in the pods and eventually picking and cooking them.

Succulent Presents

This September it has been  year since I started in my new job. It has been incredibly stressful and
there were times when I really had enough and I was thankful to have so many incredible colleagues by my side. Some of those people, however, decided to move on and leave and I felt that giving them a little something to remember me by was only appropriate.

I love giving presents, when I have enough time to make them or buy them - or in this case grow them! Some of these little Haworthia plants are especially significant to me, because I grew them from the offsets of a plant that was given to me by my best friend for my 16th birthday good 12 years ago.

I re-potted each one separately into simple plastic bowls from Sainsbury's Mono series. I also gave each person a card with the instructions about how to grow the plant. Everybody was really pleased with the present and I hope that the plants will live for a long time and create many more offsets. In the meantime, I am growing more - just in case. :)