June Harvests and Hedgehogs

Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Tracey in My Veg Plot

Last June an unexpected guest arrived in our garden which prompted me to make this post – Hedgehogs – Gardeners Friends or Pest Control.

One year later, almost to the day, ‘Hedgy’ as he’s now known (not very original I know) has emerged again from underneath our workshop, pulling up the long grass down by my vegetable plot, collecting it all up and disappearing back under the shed. I’m glad to see him back on the plot as my french beans had slug trails on a few days ago, I hope he doesn’t mind slugs for lunch.

Hedgy our Garden Hedgehog

Today whilst watering my plots, I harvested the following vegetables:

A handful of Broad Beans – Aquadulce Claudia,
Rest of the rogue Peas – Meteor,
A handful of Perpetual Spinach leaves,
6 Yellow Mange Tout,
Couple of Shallots.

Top Tips for Storing & Preparing Fresh Hand Picked Vegetables

Perpetual Spinach leaves can be stored in a plastic bag for up to a week in the fridge.

Broad Bean Harvest

If you pick broad beans off the plant so that the bean pod flesh has been exposed, they may go black inside the pod. At this point just shell the beans and discard the pods, the beans are ok to eat. Broad beans shelled are best eaten on the day of picking so leave them on the plant until eating.
If you do not wish to string and hang your shallots or store in an onion bag, you can wrap them in tin foil and put into a plastic box to store in the fridge. By wrapping and storing in a box this will omit any onions smells on your fridge.
Mange Tout can also be stored in the fridge in a plastic container or in bags and can last for 1-2 weeks,
If any of your peas make it to your fridge (mine don’t make it out of the garden!) then you can store them in their pods in the fridge for a week or if you have a large crop they can be shelled and frozen. Lay them out on a baking tray and put them in the fridge, once frozen they can be bagged and put bag into the freezer and then won’t come out in a big frozen lump.

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Spinach, Mange Tout, Peas, Beans Harvest

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