Let's get down to business

Broad Beans

Note the time people, I can't sleep and thank god for blogging....

We had a delicious risotto for dinner yesterday with our own broad beans and runner beans in it, as well as other yummy stuff. So, I thought it was about time I started writing about actual growing, harvesting and eating stuff from our plot.

The Broad Beans we grew were Masterpiece Green Longpod and they were/are brilliant. They were started off in modules and then when ready, I planted them out - 3 rows of 4 plants each. (We also gave some left over to Bill at the far end of the field - he wasn't there at the time and we later saw that his father Bobby had planted them in his own plot, cheeky!) As they grew we erected some simple supports out of bamboo canes and string; it seems to have done the trick.

The only problem we had with them was Green Aphids, Andrew can easily kill any nasty bug, I can't, but found that the soapy water spray was an excellent solution (excuse the pun) in effectively annihilating the blighters for me. Other than that the only problems have come from the wind burn - our site is very open to the elements - and the abundance of produce! That was easy though, they freeze really well, we LOVE them and our family has taken some off our hands too. Oh and tasty tip - pinched out growing tips are yum, so green, if that makes sense, stick them in your salad. Now Tesco doesn't sell that wee treat.