Broad Beans with Bacon

Broad beans, as it is written, must be picked at dawn (some say on your knees); the broad bean does have something sacred about it, something to do with initiation, something almost sexual. It is the tender nickname by which the boys of my village named their young penis – fève.

Between the first broad bean of May Day and the bean in a toga with its black ribbon, what a stepladder of flavours!

Joseph Delteil, author and poet.