Sunday, September 21, 2008

Cranberry Beans

On the outside, these look a little like dragon's langerie beans, but the pods are not edible and they need to be shelled. the pretty markings on the beans fade during cooking. I added these beans to a soup of mixed greens and hemp seeds and pureed everything in the blender.

Labels:

Friday, September 05, 2008

Honey at Lavra

Buckwheat Honey, acacia honey, clover honey, and several I could not identify. Does anyone know what the almost white honey is? I never saw that before.

The Lavra Monastery in Kyiv, established in 1029, is the cradle of Orthodox Civilization in Europe. There is an enormous campus of churches, belfries, and cloisters, all almost as gorgeous as this. Breathtaking.
Immediately outside the complex is a market where you can get icons, many varieties of local honey, honey infused with hazelnuts, pinenuts, and fruit, and honey wine. The wine is sweet and sour. It is much stronger than it seems to be at first. The winemaker was very sweet, as is perhaps appropriate. He kept wanting to top up our glasses.
I could not bring any honey home, because even without the current ban on any liquid in hand-baggage, it would really be just too much of a provocation to the evil eye to pack honey. I mean, that would just be asking for it, you know what I mean?

Labels: