Caught out

I grow a variety of beans, some such as borlotto and a heritage French bean (Hewitt), I use as dried beans during the winter. These are left on the plants until the pods turn yellow then removed, shelled and placed somewhere sunny to further dry out for a few days. Stored in clean jars with a screw top lid they will keep through the winter for use in stews. All you have to do is remember to soak the required quantity in water overnight before cooking them. If they are not soaked long enough you will notice, it will be like eating a bullet!

This brings me neatly to my other French beans. During the summer, you often have to be ruthless. A crop is nearly over and you need the space for the next one so out it comes. However at this time of year, space is not a problem as the summer crops are cleared and sometimes it can have a nice result. I thought my climbing French beans were over and not needing the ground for a follow on crop I left them in place; I had others things to get on with and decided I would cut them back later. You know what is coming. Yes they began to produce again, just a few plants but it was a welcome surprise and somehow they tasted all the better for being unexpected. What is even more surprising is that they survived the frost. The same cannot be said for the courgettes, cucumbers, squashes and pumpkins. All the plots where these have been grown now have plants with blackened withered leaves interspersed with a few prominent fruits. We got caught out by the first frost, lulled into a false sense of security by the unseasonably warm weather.

It is manure time again. Nice steaming piles are being delivered by our friendly farmer and deposited on the plots. Some dig it in. I tend to use the lazy method and spread it on top of the beds, allowing the winter rain and snow to wash the juices into the soil for me. Come the spring I just scrape back the straw covering that is left and plant or sow into the lovely crumbly mixture beneath. Like all allotment sites, we cannot get enough and it must be good stuff because a thousand flies can’t be wrong can they?