Last weekend – during a brief dry spell! – I managed to harvest the borlotti beans which had been left on the plants to ripen. With the relentlessly wet weather but frosts on the way it seemed like the time to get them in. I’ve mentioned before how superior the fresh borlotti beans are in terms of taste and so earlier this week was the ideal time to make the Italian classic ‘paste e fagioli’ a Tuscan disk of beans and pasta in a rich, thick tomato based sauce. Borlotti beans are at the heart of this disk made using a soffritto of carrot, onion and celery with white wine and Italian herbs added. Fresh Borlotti beans are introduced along with a tin of chopped tomatoes and some vegetable or chicken stock. Once simmered for about 30 minutes a handful of Tuscan Kale – Cavalo Nero is thrown into the casserole and some of the beans mashed a little to thicken the sauce. Finally add some pasta – something small like farfalline (small bows). Server with olive oil, parmesan and warm crusty bread!
Elsewhere on the allotment, peas have been sown in modules in the greenhouse for planting out under cloches late in November. The variety is Meteor which is one of the earliest pea varieties to mature in the early summer. Typically this is sown in the early spring but good results can be had with a late autumn sowing as long as the tiny plants are protected over the winter. I’ve grown peas overwinter successfully for a few years now and it gives you a very early crop the following year. The broad beans sown earlier in modules – also in the greenhouse at the moment are emerging and it will soon be time to plant them out before they get too used to the comforting warmth under glass. The salad leaves in the greenhouse are going great guns as are the peppers which I left in as they were still producing plenty of young fruit which may not fully ripen – but as you can see from the photo it is possible to pick ripe peppers from the greenhouse in November.
The onset of frosts in the last few days has put paid to much of Kirsten’s flower bed – the dahlias had been flowering profusely up until now filling the house with lovely autumn colours – but most flowering plants are now shutting down for the winter. The frost also revealed which of the outdoor lettuce are hardy – and which aren’t! The lovely red Grenoble Red lettuce seems to have survived the frost and – perhaps surprisingly – the lighter oak leafed lettuce, which has such thin and delicate leaves that you would have expected it to just collapse in the cold. I do grow some varieties which are truly winter hardy – Winter Density which is a Cos variety and does very well over the winter and also for the first time this year I’m growing a winter butterhead variety – Winter Imperial. The last job for this week will be to pack away the Winter Squash which have been sitting by the window in the kitchen ripening. They will be stored away in the cool garage for use over the winter – some more delicious meals to anticipate there and hopefully, before too long, to be able to share with friends once again!
