Hodmedods
You only need to say the names to evoke the magic: No.2 Meadow Botanical Blend; Organic Blue Peas; Red Poppy Seeds; Krivet pasta flour; Flamingo peas; Olive Green lentils; Red Fox Carlin peas.
These sexy little numbers may sound like some mystical invocations from the pages of C. S. Lewis, but they are, in fact, ancient varieties of peas, pulses and grains curated by the inspirational U.K. collective called Hodmedods.
A hodmedod is something that is round, or curled up, so it might be a shell, a hedgehog, a curl in a head of hair, or maybe even a bean or a pea. Hodmedods the company was established a dozen years ago by Josiah Meldrum, Nick Saltmarsh – who wins the award for best ever name for a dude in an agricultural company – and William Hudson, way over there in East Anglia.
The trio began their quest with British-grown fava beans, and have since expanded their range, and the range of farms they source from, in an organically exponential fashion. Hodmedods have all the good gear and – here’s the good bit – all you need to do is to walk into any branch of Holland & Barrett – there are actually more than 60 of them scattered on main streets and shopping centuries throughout Ireland – walk over to the shelves containing grains and pulses, and start to read the labels of the foods which H&B sells “In partnership with Hodmedod’s.”
The Hodmedod’s fava beans, you will learn, are grown by UK farmers who practice “diverse arable rotations.” The packet of Hodmedod’s Carlin peas will tell you that they are also known as “pigeon peas or black badgers,” and that they have a chestnutty flavour. The packet of Emmer tells you that it is an “ancient form of wheat” and an excellent substitute for brown rice.
All this queer gear, in a Holland & Barrett, on an Irish High Street? Right? Right!
Hodmedods is important because their work is a wild celebration of bio-diversity. And their work makes you ask this question: if I can get Sussex-grown coriander seeds, then why can’t I get Wexford-grown coriander seeds? If I can enjoy lentils from the Kentish Weald, then why can’t I source lentils from County Carlow?
In short, where is our Irish agricultural bio-diversity?
For most of human existence, farming was all about creating and maintaining a unique farm organism, a place apart with its own characteristics thanks to soil, landscape, climate, location, contour and history. Farms were self-sustaining, and self-perpetuating. Every farm was its own agricultural empire.
Nowadays, there isn’t an awful lot of bio-diverse agriculture being practised in the developed countries of the West. Instead, what we have created in our countrysides are monocultures, inherently unstable systems of intensive food and animal production that are dependent on chemical interventions to sustain them. We lack an agriculture of true diversity.
Hodmedods are still ploughing ahead, and have recently established a non-profit they have called Barleybird. Its aim is “to achieve systemic changes to the way food is grown, distributed and eaten.” The philosophic underpinning of Barleybird is the practice of Agroecology. The term Agroecology dates from the 1970’s but the the science and practice are as old as agriculture itself. Susanna B. Hecht, in the book “Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture” defines the practice as “a more environmentally and socially sensitive approach to agriculture, one that focuses not only on production, but also on the ecological sustainability of the production system.”
Where Hodmedod’s go, we have to hope others will follow. For now, a trip to H&B will get you some of the magic foods Josiah and the team source from enlightened farmers. And life is so much better with Carlin peas.
We visited Hodmedod’s HQ in Suffolk to buy the bags photographed here, using their Click and Collect service. Hodmedod’s produce are now available throughout Ireland from Holland & Barrett.
We grew puy lentils successfully but harvesting was problematic. on a small scale, it took forever so we didn’t repeat our experiment . It would be interesting to try again if we had a machine to shuck all the little pods which each contained two or three lentils. We also tried chickpeas - not so successful but I’ve since discovered chickpeas don’t like to be watered which is not possible in Ireland!
Thank you for this lovely article- how heartening to hear about them. Will be off to Holland and Barrett immediately!