Many years ago I visited a friend at his family's house in Wales. I'd guess the parents would now be late 80s/early 90s in age. They were farmers and his mum offered some bacon for breakfast, saying it might be too salty because she hadn't had time to 'put it to soak to get the salt out'. It was dry...

No I hadn't tried that, Manda, as I'd never heard of it before but certainly will be giving it a try. Thanks so much for the suggestion.
A particular bugbear is soggy stuff in shops & cafes that has been stored in plastic wrapping in the chillers. I think by law they have to, but yeuch.

Excellent - great news! A lot cheaper than a new sofa!

Thanks, Ladies - I'll know what to try for next time.

And are you still licking the juice out of the crease in your elbows?! I tried making these once when we were dieting and we just couldn't find a way of eating them without standing in the bath - much like a mango, as El Tel used to tell us. I'll have to study your technique if you can eat them dain...

I suppose that might be the case in the spot they're in, and I could have a go at pollinating them by hand and growing some flowers in amongst next time.
Would they form a pod at all if they hadn't been pollinated? I always assumed that pods only formed behind pollinated flowers.

I have just taken a very meager harvest from my broad beans - only one bean per pod!
When I've tried growing peas and beans in the past I've also found very few per pod, whether few or many pods on the plants.
What a I doing wrong?

As a learning point, how did you get on with these?
I saw on Beechgrove recently that George cut back his ranging squash plants so am a bit more sure of my ground on that now.

Thanks for this, Michael.
The recipe sounds good so I'll give it a try.
I couldn't really see what purpose the yeast was playing in the other recipes, so I'm pleased to know it's not necessary.

These sound interesting. It wasn't completely clear from your post what went into the batter so I had a wee scout around online to find recipes for them and a few other things with chickpea (gram?) flour. We're reducing carbs, hence the pitas and interest in the chickpea. Although not veggie, I don'...

I have't tried but I'm told a blend of eating and crab apples make a good cider. The recommendation was 1 sweet, 1 sharp and 1 crab in the blend.

I used to live in Worcestershire in the middle of an orchard full of Pearmains. My recollection is of a very strong, sweet, overall fruity (hints of pear and said strawberry) apple, not wassy at all. They are quite good cookers as well as eating fresh from the tree. There used to be someone at the B...

I've loved hearing about Lucas - he really seems to have settled in well. I think you've both got the measure of each other.

Let us know how it goes - fingers crossed for you.

I've only just seen this so sorry for the delay. You can get leather renovating polish, which I've used to good effect on a pair of very worn and grotty shoes. I was put onto it by a lady who renovated old briefcases for a luxury leather-goods company. I also used to work for Jaguar, and they used t...