Ends and Beginnings

I have just harvested the last of my broad beans. The plants were beginning to die off, and had attracted some kind of aphid. However, the beans themselves, once podded, were fine.

I now have a large bowl of beans – probably enough for a week’s worth of dinners, if I hadn’t already been eating them with almost every hot meal!

However, just as the broad beans end, my sugar snaps have begun. In a week they seem to have gone from nothing to being covered with pods.

As the sugar snaps are definitely best eaten young, and I have had my fill of broad beans (for now), I am going to blanch the beans, remove the outer skin, then freeze them. Then when I need a taste of sunshine in November, I’ll know what to cook.

I understand that I should cut the bean plants off at ground level, leaving the roots in the earth to rot, as they are a valuable source of nitrogen for the soil. I’ll probably plant some more salad leaves there, as my remaining lettuces are bolting.