I have had a really busy couple of weeks and as a result I failed to post my harvests last week which means double helpings this week.
My broad beans are in peak production at the moment. As always I’m really loving them, as usual the kids are enjoying the podding process more than the eating one and as usual my partner is raising his eyes as I serve them up at yet another meal. Still, at least I love them and will be very sad when they finish in a few weeks.
I think there must be something about spring vegetables that divides people as featuring parsnips in a meal is similarly controversial in my family as using the broad beans. A shame really as I have been pulling quite a few:
Ditto the radishes which feature in my salads but no one elses.
Fortunately everyone eats silver beet (provided it is cleverly disguised either by pureeing it into chicken saag or cutting it superfine and mixing with ricotta and hiding it in cannelloni etc). The plants are bolting and I’m grabbing the leaves while I can.
The other things I am harvesting a lot of at the moment are leaves. This is partially because I love them, partially because the rest of the family tolerate them but mostly because I finally gave into the kids requests for guinea pigs and they love lettuce! Think 4 year olds and jelly at a birthday party and you get the idea of their love of leaves.
Those were my harvests, for more head over to Daphne’s for Harvest Mondays.
I can’t wait till my broad beans are ready to pick, they have a way to go yet but yours have got me contemplating menus featuring them!
We class parsnips as a winter vegetable and will be harvesting ours soon.
Oooh, those fresh beans look so good. I feel a bit guilty about still having a stash of peeled broadbeans (favas) in my freezer, but now that soup season seems to be upon us I think they’ll get used up.
What a wonderful collection. Our parsnips are yet to be harvested, but their leaves are massive and I’m so sad we didn’t grow broads beans as my husband has just discovered that he loves them!
Broad beans and parsnips – two of my favourite veg, but two that I can seldom eat at the same meal!
Looks great! My broad beans are juuuuust cropable now, but I will have nowhere near the basketful you have harvested. Parsnips are also featuring in my harvests now, but there is no parsnip dissent in my household. Your lettuce selection looks fab too.
Those broad beans look magnificent. I didn’t plant any this year, and now I’m regretting it.
I froze most of my fava harvest as I was inundated with things that I couldn’t freeze and they could. I’m looking forward to eating them this winter. I’ll have to find some good winter recipes.
In winter I particularly like them with rice dishes.
I am the only parsnip lover in this house, but I’m happy about that, more for me!!
Broad Beans are on my ‘to plant’ list for next year, yours look perfect.
I have to admit to growing quite a few veg that only I like – that way there’s no competition when they ripen.
I’m still waiting for my broad beans to kick in properly and give me a meal but they aren’t too far off – a week, maybe? In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed a few raw while wandering around the garden.
And thanks for the wild rocket seed, I’m loving it! I prefer it to the one I’d been growing.
My parsnips are done and dusted but I have some great soup and mash in the freezer for later.
My silverbeet is doing okay. I also planted a couple out where the chooks could help themselves and they just love it. By the way, I’m sure you’ve research it but (apparently) you mustn’t feed guinea pigs iceberg lettuce – all the others are okay, though. I only know this because it was a topic of conversation in the lunch room at work a few weeks ago!
Fortunately for our guinea pigs I’ve never managed to successfully grow an iceberg lettuce (much to my daughters disgust as she loves them) – glad you mentioned it though as I was thinking of trying again. Glad you’re enjoying the rocket – I am a big fan – I had a rocket, pear and parmesan salad with dinner tonight.
Gorgeous favas! Ours always succumb to disease of one sort or another… We especially love them in Paella — a great way to stretch what we grow, and wonderful counterpoint to everything else in the dish. And maybe roasting the radishes might transform them enough to tempt others at your table?
I too like them with rice. I often make a chorizo and tomato stew and serve it with broad beans and rice. I’ve never tried roasting radishes – I will have to now that you’ve recommended it.
I’m in the middle of my broad bean harvest right now too, although I’m jealous that you still have a few weeks to go, I think next week will be the end of mine, and I’m loving them so much! I did a really bad job of tying them up this year though and had a lot of wind damage in these strong winds we’ve been getting. Are yours in a sheltered spot? I’m thinking of fencing them in next year rather than relying on layers of string, which seems to keep breaking.
Mine are pretty sheltered – my whole garden is fairly enclosed which does protect things somewhat. I did stake them after we got the first lot of wind and I have found that has helped considerably.
CGCG – I use soft ties to enclose my broad beans. You can buy it in a ball from the hardware shop and it might be called ‘garden ties’ or ‘tree ties’. It’s made of soft stretchy fabric cut into very long strips. It can be used year after year and I find it invaluable.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been growing my BBs in raised beds. I hammer in tall stakes in each corner and a few extra along the long length and one in the middle of the short sides then weave the long flexible ties around the perimeter of the block of beans, wrapping it around each stake as I go and working my way up the stakes so there are about six or seven ‘layers’. I should have done a couple through the middle of the block this year because of those high winds but still, the plants were all contained within the perimeter of the binding and didn’t flop too much.
It’s easy to harvest the beans through the ties which might be more difficult to do if they were enclosed in a proper fence.
A pity I can’t post a picture as I’m not sure if I’ve explained this properly! But hopefully you get the ‘picture’. 🙂
I’m going to look out for flexible ties – I usually use pantyhose but I didn’t go through as many pairs this winter (I switched to leggings) so I lacking ties for my cucumbers.
AND, I’ve discovered that the chooks don’t find their way through the ties. I’m enclosing almost everything in stakes and ties. It really works well for beds that are narrow, so you can harvest through the ties. Doesn’t work so well for large areas as you can’t access them, but you can divide the larger beds up into sections. I made ‘cages’ for my tomatoes today out of stakes and ties – I reckon I’m onto something!
I also use them for stuff I plant in pots until they are big enough that the chooks don’t dig them out. Again.
A miracle solution – I am definitely sold!
Beautiful beans, haven’t grown BB for a while and forgot how lovely they look, there are too many veg I want to grow and not enough space and time 🙁
I know exactly what you mean – I have exactly the same problem!!!!
Your basketful of broad beans looks very good – I’ve seen recipes for broad bean hummus, would that tempt the rest of your family to help you eat them? The first sowing of broad beans I made for next year has been nibbled by a mouse. Why do they have to eat just a part of almost all the seeds, instead of eating one whole one and leaving the rest to grow?
Oh yum I do like the idea of broad bean hummus. I will try that with my next batch and even if they don’t enjoy it I reckon I will. Don’t get me started on rodents, they were the bane of my gardening year last summer. If the mice weren’t digging up and eating seeds they rats were eating anything vaguely near ripening. Arrrrrgh!!!!!