The beauty of the bean

From Aquadulce to Enorma, with Stanley in between, after enjoying and sharing, over 110Kg of Aquadulce broad beans, grown over the winter, we are now just about to taste the first of the summer beans, Stanley a green fine bean, before we head into the delights of the Enorma, one of the best cropping runner beans.

The broad beans sown in the autumn, came to fruition in the polytunnel at the end of April, they had beautiful flowers and we looked forward to seeing the pods develop and grow.

And so they did, to produce amazing full pods full of sumptuous beans

Many over a foot long

The autumn sowing outside came on fast behind, which followed suit and were very productive. 

After a short hiatus our spring sown fine beans were hot on the heals of the broad beans, with a hard act to follow they were certainly up for it. Sticking for maximum uncomplicated production, targeting the village community, our fine beans were the Stanley green bean which were looking good, after numerous delicate pale yellow flowers, the beans appeared a little magically.

The current climate of sunshine and showers was perfect, and our newly formed beans began to swell and after just a few days they were on the list for produce for sale.

Well I can certainly say that they tasted as good as they looked, squeaky to bite into and so flavoursome, the next fork sort for another one - lovely.

Now as a regular accompaniment to our evening meal, we have also been able to dabble in the harvesting the odd few Enorma runner beans that dangle through the rich foliage and beautiful red flowers. 

The small beans are now developing and hang like grapes, and with over 300 plants we are hoping that we will have plenty for local people and in addition we can supply The Sheppey Inn so that they can offer fresh, flavoursome, local runner beans as part of their Sunday lunch menu.

Whilst we wait for them to mature we benefit from the perks of the job, the odd one or two that mature that little bit quicker.

They too provide that taste of English summer we recall from our youth, with a squeaky freshness that only local grown produce with no food miles can achieve. Bring on the main crop, a beautiful addition to roast vegetables, risotto, curry, bean salad and as a traditional side dish, just to a name a few - lovely to look forward to.