It’s time to start buying any winter veg you want to be planting this autumn (Unless you’ve been organised and actually bought seeds and got them ready to plant out now!)

Winter Vegetable plants bargain from Dobies – 50 plants for only £9.95
Only 1 week left!
Last order date 21st August
50 Plug Plants (10 of each variety): Sprouting Broccoli Late White – Tender
white shoots from mid-March; Sprouting Broccoli Claret – Enjoy the large purple
shoots from early April; Cabbage Excel – Crisp, tasty hearts in the early spring
but enjoy as tender greens in autumn; Cabbage Spring Hero – From early May start
to pick the solid heads of Spring Hero; Cauliflower Mayfair – Firm white curds,
crop from April.

I’ve also been eating lots of freshly picked veg including yellow tomatoes from a neighbouring plotholder’s greenhouse and some delicious runner beans. And a courgette!
I’ve sliced the courgette (A diamante round one) into fairly thin slices and gven them a thin lick of oil, and put them on the grilling machine grill we have. Then turned until they’re done and put a tiny drop of pesto and sandwiched the slices up and then gave it another minute. They looked amazing and tasted fantastic! I’ve eaten runner beans, lightly cooked, and thrown into a dish with some pesto and tomatoes and that was really nice too!
I’ve now got to freeze some runner beans – which you do apparently by preparing as normal, blanching in boiiling water for 2 mins and then cooling as quickly as you can. Use ice packs in a bowl of cold water after you’ve dashed them under the cold tap. Then dry and pack into portions. The portion size is important as if you don’t dry them completely, or freeze separately you’re likely to get blocks that you can’t split up and will have to cook too many at once. Small portions best and put inside bags and then boxes to help eliminate freezer burn.
Some people swear by just cutting and freezing them, so I might try both methods and compare!
I’ve also been told of a chutney for runner beans (tomatoes, onions, runner beans, and normal chutney recipe adapted and it’s delic!)