One of my favourite things about late summer is harvesting runner beans and eating them in unapologetic, excessive amounts.   My own runner beans are still sulky at the moment and will be very late to produce a crop – if they do at all.  But my brother’s beans are prolific (no sibling rivalry to see here) and so I have been lucky enough to ‘help’ him with his harvest. But whilst the humble runner bean definitely lifts my spirits, it is apparently the Broad bean that is the real smile-maker. 

Shucking these beans never fail to make me smile. How can you fail to be cheered by gently prising the podgy little beans from their snugly duvet-like pod.  But now ‘bean boffin’, Nadia Mohd-Radzman from Cambridge University insists these serotonin-boosting beans could actually help alleviate low moods and anxiety in other ways too. The lowly legume has been found to contain levodopa, a chemical which is used to treat a rare condition that makes sufferers unable to experience pleasure.  Therefore levodopa, and now the legumes, are being linked to lasting improvements in mood and emotions.

But research shows that broad beans didn’t do much for the health and well being of Pythagoras.  Well known for his ‘Theory’, lesser known facts about the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician include those of his diet. Pythagoras believed that when you die your soul gets transferred into another animal and as a result, he stopped eating meat.  A little surprisingly maybe, Pythagoras is actually considered to be the father of vegetarianism.

But his veg and fruit diet excluded beans, as he believed that bean seeds looked very much like human foetuses and therefore eating them would amount to cannibalism.  

He also forbade his followers from eating them and believing beans could contain the souls of the dead, even refused to walk through bean fields, believing souls passed through the bean plants and roots on their way to the Underworld.

It was a little ironic then that Pythagoras met his demise after being chased by an angry mob to the edge of a bean field.  He refused to enter the field and was therefore captured. 

And staying with ‘strange ways to die’ (as you do), did you know that although sharks are quite rightly feared by humans with there being no shortage of gory stores to back up that fear, sharks kill only about five to 10 people a year.

To keep it in perspective, you are more likely to die in a lawn mower accident. I’m guessing it’s a numbers game as more people mow their lawn than swim in shark-infested waters but it’s worth remembering when you cut your grass.

I'm not sure about sharks, but it’s been a good year for slugs and snails – as any gardener will tell you.  My favourite way of dealing with them was seen at an organic nursery where they used to let their three ducks out into the veggie garden every morning to carry out ‘slug patrol’ – it was very effective and also a joy to watch.  Whilst I appreciate that’s not feasible for most gardeners, I was talking to an ‘older and wiser’ gardener last week, and they shared their own slug-swerving secret.

Hair.

Cut hair – human or dog. Sprinkled throughout beds and borders, or just around vulnerable plants, slugs and snails will apparently avoid the area as the hair sticks to them.  So the next time you go for a haircut or get your dog trimmed, bag the hair and spread it around the veggie patch. Just make sure you wash the veg thoroughly – nothing worse than finding hair in your dinner.