It’s been a disappointing year for my broad beans. These were my own kept beans, that much was exciting, but I believe I sowed them in too shallow a container for them to really thrive. It also felt like the slugs and snails weakened them in April. Rather than limp on I decided to pull the plug now and plant something else shortly.
That’s a nice heap of stalks for the compost. And the troughs, no doubt full of leguminous nitrogen, will be good for something else.
I was able to thin out the beetroot a lot. These were multi-sown so I twisted out the larger roots from the clusters of three.
This year I’m going to eat the tops. I’m slightly ashamed that last I threw them away. I’ll chop them up, steam them, and fry them in garlic like I do with kale and cavallo nero.
Here’s everything tidied up before it went into the fridge. We had the broad beans steamed with some basmati rice yesterday for lunch.
At night on the same day I went back for the chamomile. This had grown unruly and the leaves had dipped which meant apparently they were ready for cropping.
You don’t have to wait for them to be dry to turn them into tea. You can just go right on ahead and steep them in boiling water when they are fresh.
Real purty.