Farro has been bought and it was cooked and enjoyed yesterday. And it will be eaten often; research has been done, it is very good for you, it is tasty and it is versatile.

I wanted a nice, simple salad for lunch, so after a good rinse I added my farro into a pot of salted, boiling water and cooked for about 30 mins until it was soft, but still had a bit of a bite. Cooked it like pasta, in Molly’s words.

To this I added some cooked broccoli, green beans, fresh cherry tomatoes, a shallot, some spring onions, sweetcorn,some pecan nuts, seasoned with salt and pepper and generously drizzled with that fabulous olive oil from Lara. A sprinkling of parmesan was a bit of afterthought, but extra flavour nevertheless.

It was enjoyed by myself and Florek, who said he wouldn’t have it every day, but he liked it enough.

While enjoying an evening glass of sangiovese riserva I took out the remains of the salad out of the fridge and had some still, even though I wasn’t at all hungry!

Then, at school in the afternoon I was given a bag of homegrown lemons by Steve. I gave him a chunk of my carrot cake last week, for which I use candied orange peel. He said I should try making candied lemon peel and that he could help sourcing the best lemons. I didn’t need any more encouragement and the wonderfully fragrant peel has been soaking since last night. To be continued! ..:-)