Broad Beans

Is there anything as wonderful as that very first time when you can proudly take something home and call it a crop?

Well maybe, but it still feel pretty special! At last visit the broad beans had plenty of pods and didn't look half bad. Visiting last night I had plants literally groaning from the weight of the pods and looking as though they could barely keep upright in a couple of cases.

Having done my investigations on the best methods of harvesting I started with the lower pods that were actually trailing on the ground and was surprised to find half a wheelbarrowful by the time I finished. A couple of the plants that looked really unpromising I got rid of, but left the roots in the soil as they are laden with nitrogen. The rest I have left as I am expecting a further crop from further up the plants.

Elsewhere it was definitely time to liberate the raspberry canes I had inherited. The grass is so high around them that I only know where to find them because I already knew they were there! As I did not want to disturb the canes themselves this was a tedious case of pulling the grass little by little by hand rather than digging. I have got rid of some suckers however that I do not really need and are coming up in totally the wrong place. Still a lot of work to do, but one side of them at least looks like someone cares about them!

Cabbages are still doing well, but I have pulled up a few plants from the edge of the net cage that must have been too close to the edge and were peppered with munch marks. If plants are too near the net, then the pesky varmits that want to munch them will still get through.

I also decided enough was enough and started to strip the surface off a couple of metres of my jungle and get close to joining up a couple of the beds that are in existence. All very depressing and the beginnings of a bad back!

Top pests of the day are therefore snails....grrr..... and from the plant world, bindweed. I hate bindweed. It is everywhere.

Still, once home there was the crop of broad beans to gloat over. I podded them, boiled them for a couple of minutes and squeezed them out of their shells to leave just the bright green inards. You can of course eat them with their 'skin', but I prefer without. I made a risotto which was finished with the broad beans and some cream and it was completely delicious! Yum! It did look like an awful lot of pods for a small amount of return though...

It has inspired me to clear more growing space....