What we've mainly 'bean' eating

It's a bit of a monsoon out there today, so perhaps this could be an opportunity to do something with the most recent pickings of beans. That is the climbing French, 2 varieties of dwarf French, black-podded, Brittlewax and 2 varieties of runners. The best, in my opinion are the climbing French 'Cobra' with their long, crisp and stringless pods, full of flavour. The flowers are pretty good too. We miss visiting the plot for a day or two and there are even more beans waiting. The plan is to cook some down - possibly by steaming - until they are still slightly crisp. Then I will add garlic and tinned tomatoes (I wish it could be some of my own large toms, but they are very slow to ripen) and pop them in the oven for a short while, making sure the beans still retain a bit of bite. Once cooled they can go into the freezer in small containers. Hopefully this will be more successful than frozen runners, which are, in my opinion, pretty grim. What other plotters do with their vast walls of runners, I can't imagine. I'm thinking of having only one wigwam of of them next year, as the 'Cobra' are so good.

Along with the beans, we are also eating our way through the courgettes. Again, a couple of days away from the plot and the round ones double in size, but they have a good, sweet flavour - we had one, last night, stuffed with left-over spag bol (including some of the pasta, chopped up small), with the addition of a bit of cumin. A week or so ago I made soup from 3 white 'Snowball' turnips (not including the root-fly affected parts!), courgette and onion, with some Swiss vegetable bouillon powder. Once cooked down and liquidised, the result was very tasty and it looked good - a pale, creamy green. Yesterday I repeated the recipe, using the excess pulp from the courgette that I was using for the meal, but as there was none of the courgette skin included, I added a little green cabbage, mainly for the colour. The white turnips add a bit of bulk to what would be a rather watery mixture, and they also have a good, peppery flavour.

On the plot, the sweet peas have continued to flower for weeks. As they deserved a bit of attention I've tidied the plants up a bit, removing dead foliage and seed pods, and given them another feed, with the hope that they'll continue to produce more flowers. Our house smells wonderful.

I don't hold out much hope for the one 'Blue Hubbard' winter squash, as I keep forgetting to feed it, and it is still rather small. Still, on one of the arches, the small squash plants are gradually making their way up to the top, with a bit of help and a lot of tying-in, and the small squashes are beginning to form. As planned, the golden flowers look good alongside the blue Morning Glories. Somewhere amongst all the foliage is a Black-eyed Suzie too.

The rain has been very welcome, as far as the plants are concerned. But now I'm looking forward to a bit of hot, sunny weather, and the chance to spending a warm, summer evening, sitting under the heavily laden grape vine, with a glass of wine and a good book.