Freezing Broad Beans, Harvesting Onions and Garlic

Congratulations Johnny of Plot 28

There you go, the only football reference in the entire site! Fantastico!

Saturday

I didn’t get a lot of time on the plot so concentrated on plot 29’s deep beds where I’d cleared the garlic and shallots, Ran over them with the Mantis, added some blood, fish and bone before sowing some dwarf French beans, beetroot and carrots.

Had to leave earlier than usual as my cat had a vet’s appointment. He’s now on injections every two weeks but it’s no trauma to him, as he really likes our vet and is too busy enjoying the fuss to notice the jab.

Sunday

Onto plot 5 where I harvested the onions and garlic from the top end of the plot. Not the best I’ve grown by a long chalk but the strange disease that hit them has taken its toll.

Roughly broke up the soil with a fork and ran over it with the Merry Tiller. Scattered some more blood, fish and bone before running over with the Mantis to mix it in and really break up the soil to a fine tilth.

Sowed more carrots and dwarf French beans as well as a row each of turnips and Swedes.

Sweetcorn

The alliums may have not lived up to my hopes but the sweetcorn on both plots is looking really well. I honestly think they are the best on the site. Tall, strong and a very dark green,

Storing the crop.

Back home we had a blanching session – the broad beans now reside in the freezer, That involves a few hours with large pans of boiling water and other pans of cold water.

When blanching you want the water to get up to boiling as fast as possible when you add the crop so I use a large jam pan. After it has hit a rolling boil again, time for three minutes then plunge into cold water.

Add the next batch in the blanching basket (a bit like a sieve) then move the cooling beans into another large pan of cold water. After a minute here, into iced water to really cool them down quickly, Finally drain and chill down in the fridge before bagging and freezing.

I’ve got this down to a fine art and we ended up with eleven good portions of broad beans. I’ve got another two bags to do on Monday.