It doesn’t seem so very long ago (May 3rd to be precise) that we planted our runner beans on our allotment.
It took a little while to build the supports from the canes and a whole ball of twine to knot them all together but, once we were satisfied that the whole structure wouldn’t collapse in a slight breeze, we popped the little beans into the ground beside each cane.
Now, Brian (as you will no doubt soon deduce for yourselves!) does tend to err on the side of caution and decided to put one bean on either side of each cane, just in case we got failures…makes sense. But as the beans started to grow it soon became clear that there were hardly any beans that didn’t germinate and so two beans started to climb each and every cane.
In just 12 weeks these little beans have now grown to be 7 feet tall and are producing a lot of beans!
Today, we were able to get our first picking and have a taste of these prolific vegetables! Having topped and tailed them, we took the ‘strings’ from the sides using a potato peeler (makes for a very quick and neat job!) and then used our ancient Spong bean slicer to slice them ready for cooking.
The smell of them cooking was a delight, a very fresh smell to fill the kitchen…and they tasted superb! Homegrown definitely does taste better…from plot to plate within the hour!