This basket contains Runner beans, "Kew Blue" beans, "Kentucky Wonder Wax" beans, an "Elyburg" lettuce, some spears of "De Ciccio" broccoli, four "Boltardy" beetroot, some "Kelly" carrots, and five different types of tomato - "Orkado", "Clou" (yellow), "Primavera", Primabella" and "Maskotka".
We now have tomatoes in sufficient quantity to be able to cook "properly" with them, as opposed to just snacking on them. After last year's disaster, this is a big relief!
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| "Maskotka" tomatoes, and my first ripe chilli, a "Cayenne". |
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| More Maskotka and a few Primabella |
Likewise, we also have enough beans for me to be able to freeze some. We can't keep up with eating them fresh, and we do enjoy having some available in the depths of Winter. On Saturday I picked this batch, weighing about 500g.
The Kew Blue are doing very well, but the Kentucky Wonder Wax are producing only a very small yield.
At a little over 700g (from one seed tuber in one pot), the yield is OK but unremarkable. The tubers are clean and unblemished again. We haven't eaten them yet, so I can't tell you what they are like in terms of taste and texture. I'll report on that next time.
Bringing the week's harvest full circle, this is what I picked on Sunday afternoon:
I've never liked frozen green beans. Do you have some tricks for freezing them?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a great expert on this subject, Lynn, but if I have a lot of beans I do freeze some. In the past I have blanched them for about 2 mins, refreshed them in ice-water and then frozen them in a single layer on baking trays before bagging them. Some people tell me that it is not necessary to blanch the beans, so this year I am trying some without blanching.
DeleteVery nice, the harvest is getting very colorful now. You can eat your colors and be healthy.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to freeze some runner beans I haven't enough french beans for the freezer though as my last batch of plants died. Lovely harvest as always Mark.
ReplyDeleteYou really are raking in the harvests now. I'm glad to see your tomato harvests. You deserve a good tomato year.
ReplyDeleteA fab looking colourful harvest. I like the idea of 'kelly' carrots.
ReplyDeleteI love colorful harvests like that - red, orange, purple, yellow, green... fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI've read that the reason you should blanch vegetables before freezing them is that it stops an enzymatic process that causes rot and destroys nutrients. Freezing doesn't stop the process it just slows it down. I freeze some beans too, but I don't like them revived as a side dish, too mushy, but they are great in vegetable soup.
Those carrots look delicious! They're so chunky and thick.
ReplyDelete... and what a lovely harvest Mark.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week.
All the best Jan
Beautiful harvests. It must have been hard being away from your garden for so long. This is truly the best time of year with so much variety in the harvest basket!
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