Moon phase: Week 3 (waning)
We rather let the plot go unattended in June and early July, thanks to a combination of wet weekends and other time commitments, so some of our summer crops are past their best. However all was not lost...
The broad beans were getting a bit big for our liking but were still plump and juicy, so after blanching and peeling (the latter took a lot longer than I anticipated!), they went into making a chicken, new potato and broad bean salad with pesto dressing - scrummy!
The peas, on the other hand, were definitely on the turn. I collected them all, though: the still-edible ones went into a risotto (along with some leftover pancetta), whilst the dried-out pods produced a good crop of saveable seed. I'm not sure I want to grow lots of this variety (Waverex) next year, but I can hopefully sell/swap a load of them for something more interesting :)
The garlic was looking yellow and starting to flower, which some books say is the right time to harvest it, though the Garlic Farm guide recommends doing it earlier in the cool UK climate - which rather assumes the summer has been good enough for them to have put on some decent growth. Anyway I dug up all the garlic, both early and late varieties, and hung them in my conservatory to dry.
Note on moon: this week just happens to be the best one for harvesting for storage (rather than immediate use) - serendipitous or what?