Broad bean update

A fine evening in the back garden

Before the rain arrived I took a walk to see how everything is doing. Two weeks of heat has really brought on all the veg, flowers and fruit in the garden and the forecast of a week of rain ahead will really help to swell all crops that are now looking for moisture. On the downside heavy rain will ball some roses and give slugs lovely conditions to be on the move both day and night. If you have anything tasty just transplanted get ready to protect it!

 

 

Oldambaster Broad Beans

My early crop of broad beans are a new variety(well, new to me) called Oldambaster. I posted about transplanting them out a while back. Since then they have been growing really well.They are tall and strong, and are currently covered in pure white flowers that are pollinating well and beginning to go to bean.I haven't staked them and they are not falling over, despite nasty wind some weeks ago. With the volume of flowers I'm hoping for a generous crop.Cropping will start from the bottom up, and the tastiest are the young beans not yet at full size. 

 

If you leave them too long the scar on the bean goes brown, this means they get tougher and less sweet. Probably boiling them and mashing them for a "mushy peas" style dinner accompaniment is the best use of them at that stage. People do all sorts of things with them but if you eat them young and sweet a quick cook followed by serving with some butter and salt is all you need. I have main crop broad beans ready to transplant out this week. They are a mixture of "Crimson flowered" "Express" and "Witkiem".

 

You can still sow main crop Broad beans if you didn't get around to it yet. Thompson and Morgan claim that the"Express" variety of broad bean is the fastest maturing one you can grow. They also advise you to pinch out the tops of the plants when the plant is flowering to produce larger and faster crops. I saw Monty Don advising the same thing so it might be worth a try.