Well it is getting close to that time when there’s not a huge amount to harvest in the veg patch. Once all my parsnips, sprouts and leeks are up (inevitably this month) then it’ll be all about the kale and leaves which is great but not hugely diverse. So I’m feeling a little smug that I’ve got a couple of things kept back that I harvested earlier in the autumn. First off I have some squashes which will go very nicely with the kales and will keep for a couple more months easily.
More excitingly I have just podded some dried beans…I had let some of my French Beans grow super big and just left them to dry out on the plant. I pulled them off their dying stems about two weeks ago as it started to get a little wetter and left them to fully dry out inside, and now here I am with a couple of kilner jars full of beans, ready to be soaked and cooked up into a stew or soup in January or February. I’m really looking forward to trying them as I’ve never dried my own beans before – I’ve always bought packs of beans in the shops and not really given much thought to the process of them growing on the bean stalk, swelling and then being dried out. In fact I’ve almost been so detached from the process that I didn’t really think of borlotti beans or haricot beans as being from the same plants that I grow in my veg patch. Ridiculous! But there we are.
I definitely recommend drying out your own beans next year…so easy to do and it’s so satisfying to know you still have some homegrown produce up your sleeve.