Hodmedod

Hodmedod

Food and Beverage Services

Brampton , Suffolk 1,097 followers

Hodmedod, Britain’s pulse and grain pioneers, work with British farmers to produce quality plant-based wholefoods

About us

Hodmedod works directly with British farmers to source and supply a range of quality ingredients and foods. We’re particularly interested in searching out and developing the production of less well-known foods, like our British-grown Quinoa, Fava Beans and "Black Badger" Carlin Peas. By supporting farmers as they change the way they work, and by offering the whole foods they grow to as many people as possible, we believe we can help to create a diverse and agroecological food system built on networks of transparent relationships. We sell a growing range of British pulses and grains in quantities from 500g to tonnes. As well as selling whole grains, pulses and other seeds we also offer flours, canned pulses, flakes, puffs and roasted snacks. We supply individual retail and catering outlets, wholesaler, distributors, manufacturers and bulk buyers. Please get in touch to find out more. Nick Saltmarsh, Josiah Meldrum and William Hudson founded Hodmedod in 2012 in order to bring fava beans and other British crops to a wider UK market. Since then we've won a hat full of Great Taste stars, the BBC Food and Farming Award for Best Producer, featured in dozens of recipe books, appeared on menus in the world's best restaurants, at festivals and in community cafe's. We’re stocked in the best delis, bakeries, farm shops and wholefood shops. We’ve spoken at hundreds of festivals, conferences and workshops (about everything from alternative grain economies through lentil agronomy to food and social justice). We've popped up on TV with the likes of James Martin and Jamie Oliver, featured in the Times, Guardian, FT, Mirror, Metro, Telegraph (everywhere...) recorded far too many podcasts and published our own journal 'Sheaf'. We’ve organised a dal festival. We’ve been a part of numerous research projects and mentored other, similar, start-ups… It’s been a whirl! Where next?

Industry
Food and Beverage Services
Company size
11-50 employees
Headquarters
Brampton , Suffolk
Type
Privately Held
Founded
2012
Specialties
British food, fava beans, pulses, peas, quinoa, beans, flour, grains, seeds, advocacy, organic, and agroecology

Locations

Employees at Hodmedod

Updates

  • Hodmedod reposted this

    View organization page for Barleybird, graphic

    39 followers

    BOOK NOW to learn about agroecology with Barleybird. We’ve loved hearing Gaina’s news from Hodmedod's sister not-for-profit Barleybird these last few weeks as she begins leading its first workshops and training events. The Introduction to Agroecology course Gaina designed and delivered at Maple Farm got BRILLIANT feedback (below) and there’s still time to book for the next Intro to Agroecology, this time hosted Wakelyns on the 21st/22nd October. Gaina says: We had an amazing time last month hosting our first Introduction to Agroecology course. Over this 2 day course, our students were learning about core principles of agroecology & regenerative farming including techniques to improve soil health and biodiversity, how to reduce reliance on synthetic inputs and practical ways to integrate agroecology into their work. ⭐ “Thank you for such a wonderful opportunity. How fantastic to be able to spend two days with you all. look forward to ongoing conversations and actions” ⭐ “I can’t wait to carve a bit of time to look through all of this again and read the reading list. It really was such a brilliant few days, I learnt LOADS! I feel it should be mandatory training for everybody - a human right to have this knowledge! And I feel so much more connected to my own allotment, landscape and food as a result. Absolutely brilliant, thank you!!! Particularly enjoyed the focus on soil, something I have always wanted to learn more about.” Want to deepen your connection to the land and food systems? We are running our 2nd Introduction to Agroecology course 21/22 October 2024 at @wakelyns (intended for those who live or work, in or around, the Suffolk & Essex Coast and Heaths National Landscape.) To learn more head to our website or to register your interest contact hello@barleybird.org https://lnkd.in/eUkJ2F-J

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  • Hodmedod reposted this

    View organization page for Barleybird, graphic

    39 followers

    🌱 Still time to BOOK NOW for our introduction to Seed Saving - Part 1 🌱 📅 Saturday, 28th September 2024 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM 📍 The Studios, Brampton, Beccles NR34 8DQ Calling all growers and garden lovers! 🌼 Join us for a hands-on day with Gaina from Barleybird and Kate, our seed-saving expert, to learn the art (and science) of saving seeds. Seed saving is a key aspect of Agroecology Principle 2: Input Reduction, as it helps farmers and growers reduce dependency on purchased seeds and external inputs. By keeping and planting seeds from their own crops, farmers can increase self-sufficiency and maintain plant varieties that are well-adapted to local conditions, all while minimizing reliance on commercial seed suppliers. What you’ll learn: 🌿 Why saving seeds is crucial for sustainability 🌻 Which plants you can and can’t save seeds from (and why) 🌸 Pollination, selection and the principles of plant breeding 🌾 The stages of seed saving — from cleaning to storage Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned grower, this fun and informative event will deepen your skills and understanding of seed saving. https://lnkd.in/eW_J838V

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  • View organization page for Hodmedod, graphic

    1,097 followers

    Back when we started in 2012 there were no organic pulses being grown in arable rotations for food in the UK. None. A set of species so essential for organic systems and with such huge potential for human health were only being grown for animal feed. We changed that by working directly with a group of farmers to understand the barriers and find new (delighted!) markets. #organicseptember is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate those organic farmers and the work they’ve done with us over the last decade or so. In the face of the climate emergency, diet-related disease and declining wildlife we urgently need to change our food systems to agroecological approaches. Certified to rigorous standards, organic food can be trusted to benefit the health of soils, wildlife and people. Organic September highlights the principles of health, ecology, fairness and care that underpin the organic movement. Pulse crops are vital in organic arable rotations and provide nutritious, versatile and delicious food. Our current range of organic pulses includes: 🫘 Split and whole fava beans from the Balcaskie Estate in Scotland 🫘 Carlin peas grown by Mark & Liz Lea at Greenacres Farm in Shrophire 🫘 Whole blue peas from Mains of Haulkerton in Scotland 🫘 Olive lentils produced by John & Alice Pawsey at Shimpling Park Farm in Suffolk https://lnkd.in/eEmVHMwD #organic Soil Association #lovepulses #pulses #beansishow

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  • View organization page for Hodmedod, graphic

    1,097 followers

    We sell baked beans, one of Britain’s best loved foods, made with our UK grown fava beans. But if we could grow borlotti beans at any kind of scale we’d definitely use them too… They’re an absolutely delicious bean, but fiendishly difficult to grow for a dry bean harvest at any scale beyond garden or allotment. Every year we work with a few smaller scale growers who harvest (between them) a few hundred kilos of what we call Rare Beans. We’ll have a few more later this month.

    View profile for Josiah Meldrum, graphic

    Director at Hodmedod

    There’s so much about what we eat and how it’s grown and made that we just completely take for granted - but that when you start thinking about is utterly bizarre. Like how the foods we in the U.K. tend celebrate as defining parts of our culture are more often than not the product of late 19th and early 20th century industrial processes and access to global resources through colonialism: things like boiled sweets, golden syrup, chocolate digestives, custard powder, jam, KitKats, canned soup, Dundee cake… baked beans. Most baked beans available in the U.K. (not Hodmedod’s) are made with small white beans (variously called haricot or navy) grown in North America - generally around the Great Lakes. Often the beans have been bred to better suit canning and have thicker skins which split less easily and cotyledons (the two halves of the seed) that are less likely to break up under the heat and pressure of canning into glass or steel. I often (always!) talk about how the UK needs to up its game and eat more pulses - and encouraging people to do that is very much Hodmedod’s purpose - but in one department our islands are consistently world beating: Baked Beans! We eat more per capita than anyone else. Around 2.5 million cans are sold EVERY DAY in the UK. 🤯 Yet this seemingly quintessentially British food is near entirely imported; tomatoes, spices, beans - even the recipe originated with Indigenous people from the east of North America; folk like the Iroquois, Narragansett and Penobscot. And our preferred way of eating them (on toast)? Not a spontaneous cultural quirk but a marketing strategy to shift more baked beans… designed by Heinz in the 1920s 😂 So last week, with the launch of this years Hodmedod ‘rare’ beans (rare because they’re near impossible to grow here), I thought I’d have a go at making my own baked beans with delicious Norfolk-grown Borlotti. For me the creamy beans, the way some burst to thicken the sauce, and the near meaty flavour make Borlotti perfect - the best - for baked beans. I soaked a bag (or was it two 😬), pressure cooked them with some stock, olive oil, onion, garlic, a big teaspoon of harissa & a bay leaf. Once they were cooked I put in a little bit of passata and about a tablespoon of tomato puree. I let it cook down gently then took a ladle of beans and sauce out and blended them with a couple of teaspoons each of balsamic vinegar, honey and tamari. I mixed the bean paste back into the main saucepan of beans, let it reduce for 5 or 10 minutes, adjusted the seasoning and ate it old school - on Wakelyns Bakery toast with a bit cheddar grated on top. The BEST baked beans. Hodmedod have more RARE beans coming… get on the mailing list 😉

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  • Hodmedod reposted this

    View profile for Josiah Meldrum, graphic

    Director at Hodmedod

    For more than a decade we (Hodmedod's British Pulses, Grains & Seeds) have been working to get carlin peas back into the centre of plates and agricultural rotations. 🫛 Because they’re delicious 🫛 Because they’re nutritious, and 🫛 Because they’re good for the soil. We have a small group of farmers growing them, and a dedicated and ever growing group of customers who love them - many of whom buy direct through our website, through independent retailers and - more recently - from Holland & Barrett or from supermarkets like Waitrose & Partners who stock carlin peas as beautifully canned in glass jars for Bold Bean Co They’ve won prizes along the way (not least Great Taste stars and a Soil Association BOOM! award) and the re-discovery of these incredible peas is well underway (apologies if you’re anywhere north of the Wash where they never went away… I fell in love with them in my teens buying them souced in vinegar from a stall on Preston’s Flag Market). So it was an absolute pleasure to introduce Susan Low, Amelia Christie-Miller and some of the Bold Bean team to James Bucher who grows carlin peas for us at his farm at Knettishall in Suffolk a few weeks ago. Susan’s just shared reflections below (I’m not sure I’m a rock star of anything 😂) and I know she’ll be publishing more in coming months. Really lovely hopeful stuff! #lovepulses #beansishow #peasareourbeans

    View profile for Susan Low, graphic

    Freelance writer and editor specialising in food & drink susanlow.com @slowdownandeat susan.v.low@gmail.com

    A couple weeks ago I had the chance to hang out with a few of the dedicated and visionary people who are helping to fuel the 'bean renaissance' here in the UK – Amelia Christie-Miller of Bold Bean Co, Josiah Meldrum of Hodmedod's and farmer James Bucher of Hall Farm in Knettishall, Suffolk. I was already a full-on bean convert but my visit to see where and how carlin peas (a 'heritage' pea/bean that's making a deserved comeback) are being grown regeneratively, and the difference they can make to soil (and human) health bowled me over. Read more in my latest post... https://lnkd.in/eHmH3re9 #beans #beanrenaissance #regenag #regenerativeagriculture #carlinpeas

    Post | Susanlow

    Post | Susanlow

    susanlow.com

  • View organization page for Hodmedod, graphic

    1,097 followers

    Organic Red Poppy Seeds separated from oats that would otherwise likely be sent for aberobic digestion after harvest are now available for delicious cakes and bakes: https://lnkd.in/eKjzC82D More about the how and why below 👇

    View profile for Josiah Meldrum, graphic

    Director at Hodmedod

    Should we be eating more weeds? (And if we do, are they still weeds?!) Leaving aside questions about weeds as social construct, we definitely need more diversity in our diets and in our fields. Humans eat around 200 plant species - sounds a lot, but there are over 7,000 edible species and over 250,000 more potentially edible species. And of the 200 we do eat, more than half our plant-origin calories and protein comes from just 3: wheat, rice and maize (and within those three species an ever diminishing number of varieties). At the same time farmers spend a lot of time - and money - removing weeds from their fields, something that’s harder to do if you don’t use herbicides, and the removal of herbicides is a critical part of regenerative organic farming. For the last 5 or 6 years I’ve been fascinated by the idea that we (Hodmedod's British Pulses, Grains & Seeds ) might find a home for edible weed seeds harvested alongside the intended crop - and that we could introduce this wild diversity into our diets. We’ve been thinking about them as accidental intercrops. Sometimes wild species growing in crops suppress yields, but generally not to the extent you might imagine. And they can bring significant benefits - supporting diversity above and below ground, potentially helping the crop access nutrients, attract pollinators, even offering structural support. A couple of years ago we bought wild mustard seeds from some organic bean crops . The beans had done badly, but by buying the mustard too we were able to make a decent return per hectare - certainly comparable to a good year for beans. This year we’ve separated poppy seeds from organic oats (they’re actually 2023 harvest - but there’s been a fair bit of thinking and fiddling with this first crop). It’s looking like there’ll be an excellent poppy harvest with our marrowfat peas this year. Harvests aren’t huge, but these are high value foods and the return to farm, though modest, could make low imput systems a little more attractive. And, of course, there’s nothing new under the sun. Recent analysis of Tollund Man’s stomach (his 2,500 year old body preserved in a peat bog) has shown that what were once thought to be weed seeds accidentally included in his cereal porridge are more likely seeds of plants that grew as weeds in the fields, were removed after harvest, and then saved and intentionally reintroduced as an ingredient - because of the ratios they’re present in. Are you ready to eat the weeds that aren’t weeds?! https://lnkd.in/ebe6SPfs (Oh, and if it sounds like we’re removing diversity by removing these seeds - they’d be removed from the field anyway as part of the harvest process, we’re just finding ways to eat them) #organicfarming #nutrition

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  • View organization page for Hodmedod, graphic

    1,097 followers

    Fava beans - they really do make you feel happier 😊💪

    View profile for Josiah Meldrum, graphic

    Director at Hodmedod

    About 15 years ago Nick Saltmarsh William and I had one of those revelatory moments - a realisation that changed our lives. Despite working in what you might call (we wouldn’t) the alternative food sector for years - for various NGOs, farmers coops, food wholesalers and retailers - we’d completely overlooked dry beans and peas (pulses). In particular those that could be grown here relatively easily - fava beans (small dry broad beans) and dry peas of various varieties. We weren’t alone. Fava beans have been grown in the UK for at least a couple of thousand years, and for much of that time they were absolutely central to the diet of our islands - not least because they’re such a great overwinter store of nutrition. But for the last few hundred years they’ve mostly been used for animal feed. Why? As we industrialised and urbanised fava beans became stigmatised as poor people’s food. At the same time we got better at keeping animals through the winter and beans and peas of all types became less important. Where we did eat them we chose varieties from the ‘new’ world that had higher status - but that just don’t really grow here very well. But fava beans really should be at the centre of agricultural rotations and in the middle of our plates - good for our own and for planetary health. In 2012 we set out to create a route to market for them: Hodmedod's British Pulses, Grains & Seeds - to get them eaten and to celebrate the extraordinary global cuisine and culture that has grown up around them over the last 6000+ years. We also wanted to encourage farmers to grow them - to find ways to make them work economically and agronomically (as an overlooked crop there’s been underinvestment in breeding and agronomy). Over the years we’ve met and worked with some amazing people - folk like Roger Vickers Pietro Iannetta and Donal O'Sullivan working on crop science farmers like Balcaskie Estate willing to grow particular varieties in particular ways and people like Wildfarmed up for talking to us and working with us on intercropping at scale. But perhaps most exciting is how the narrative is slowly shifting. Back in 2012 we were almost certainly the biggest buyers of U.K. fava beans who planned to sell in the U.K. for food not feed (most are exported or fed to animals). We’re probably still the biggest buyer, but we’re definitely buying more than a few tonnes at a time. And now uk fava beans are snacks (our own first, but now the likes of graze and lots of own brands), they’re in cans, they’re in prepared foods (such as THIS™ meat alternatives) ready meals and meal kits. This morning they even hit the BBC News with Amelia Christie-Miller from Bold Bean talking to the Today Programme about bean recipes in a piece about research Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) are carrying to better understand the amazing health benefits of fava beans. Fava beans make you happy! #fact 😂 (And here are a few more recipes: https://lnkd.in/e8SgjH_6)

    Recipes for Pulses, Grains, Seeds, Flakes, Flour, Ferments...

    Recipes for Pulses, Grains, Seeds, Flakes, Flour, Ferments...

    hodmedods.co.uk

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