The harvest for Birds Eye peas is in full swing. Click this link to watch the piece on TV last night:
http://www.itv.com/yorkshire/peas-and-good-will17836/
Birds Eye peas are frozen within 2.5 hours of vining – to keep all the flavour and goodness in.
Also on the clip is Rachel Green, cooking a pea risotto in the middle of the harvest field!
Every vegetable gardener has to decide when broad beans are ready to harvest.
A lot depends on how the individual likes to eat them – small, sweet & tender, or large with flavour!
broad-bean-pods-filling
If the pods have swollen and the beans inside are properly formed, but still really small and sweet, the whole pod can be cooked and eaten with the beans inside.
It is always a balance between yield and sweet tenderness. (more…)
It is worth putting string round broad beans & tying to a stake if they are growing on fertile soil, as they grow tall and tend to fall over in heavy rain or wind.
LodgedBroadBeans When the broadbean plant blows over it ‘lodges’ with other broad bean plants and stays close to the soil. Some of the leaves will be hidden from bright light so the broad bean pods will not be fed so well which means that they will not grow and fill with good sized broad beans.
lodged-Optica-broad-beans The beans in the picture lodged at a late stage in their growing period, so will provide a decent harvest. But if the lodging had happened at flowering time, the broad bean pods would not have filled properly.
broad-bean-plant-OpticaThe Midwinter broad beans are in flower.
flower-of-midwinter
The flowers are a deep purple.
Midwinter_bean-flower
The midwinter strain of broad bean was developed by Malcolm Allison. The plants are looking very strong and healthy, exhibiting their hybrid vigour.
strong-midwinter-beans
The bottom leaves of one plant appears to have rust, but so far it is not having any visible effects on the plant.
vigorous-midwinter-plants
Malcolm has warned that this strain of broad bean will not yield well. But we look forward to harvesting the purple Midwinter broad beans that will result from these flowers!
Gardeners often pinch out the tops of broad beans to curb black fly.
We very rarely pinch out the tops. But if blackfly are a problem, the tips may be pinched out when the first pods are set.
To pinch out the tops:
Watch the video below to see how it is done.
These plastic sticks to support runner beans were a big expense 4 years ago – but it is so good to be able to get them out of the shed & put them up in no time at all.
preparing-for-beans
Our hazel sticks:
Bamboo canes:
What sticks do you use to support your beans?
Broad beans are getting blown about in this windy weather & need protection to stop them being knocked down. Beans will grow tall if they are on fertile soil and tend to blow over in heavy rain or wind.
When the broadbean plant blows over it ‘lodges’ with other broad bean plants and stays close to the soil. Some of the leaves will be hidden from bright light so the broad bean pods will not be fed so well which means that they will not grow and fill with good sized broad beans.
To protect broad beans from the wind:
broad beans protected by polythene
tie-bean-to-stake
The beans in the picture lodged at a late stage in their growing period, so will provide a decent harvest. But if the lodging had happened at flowering time, the broad bean pods would not have filled properly.
It is well worth taking the time to protect broad beans from the wind.
These 3 super veg are extra healthy and very easy to grow in the garden!
Kidney beans
ripe-bean-seeds
Broccoli
broccoli-spear
Spinach
spinach-Dec12th
These 3 Super Veg can be sown now and will grow in the Garden over the summer.
Farming Friends & TopVeg have collaborated to create a How To Grow Pea Shoots card.
If you would like a pdf of the grow card for How to Grow Peashoots, please complete the contact form asking for the grow card for peashoots and we will email it to you.
Everyone is talking about peashoots at the moment. They are really good value at this time of year when there is a gap in vegetable garden produce. Time from planting peas to harvesting peashoots can be four weeks!
Thank you Sara of Farming Friends for designing this How to Grow Pea ShootsCard.
Growing peas just for shoots is a quick way to grow fresh veg.
Pea shoots are the leaves & stem from the top 2 to 6 inches of a younger pea plant, & include two to four pairs of leaves and immature tendrils. They sometimes have small flower buds amongst them.
Two or three cuts of shoots are taken from each batch of seeds.
pea shoots
How To Grow Pea Shoots:
1. plant in early spring or late summer as peas grow best in cool weather. Young pea plants can withstand a little frost, though frost may damage the flowers and pods. As a winter crop, peas tolerate temperatures down to 28°F (-2°C) in the seedling stage, but top growth may be damaged when the temperature falls below freezing.
2. choose varieties suited for this such as:
3. plant:
4. clip off the growing points plus one pair of leaves to encourage branching, when plants are 6 to 8 inches tall. These clippings are the first pea shoot harvest.
5. every three to four weeks – clip the top 2 to 6 inches of each plant.
6. keep harvesting until shoots taste bitter, late in the growing season. Three cuts per batch of seed is average.
7. wash and spin dry harvested pea shoots as you would lettuce.
Use pea shoots:
Pea-shoots are a good source of vitamin K, C and are especially high in vitamin A.
Growing pea shoots is an easy way to produce fresh vegetables full of vitamins.
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