Just a very quick post to share our first big harvest from Raised Garden Bed Number One – butter beans, green beans and zucchini.  (Doesn’t get much better than walking ten steps to pick veggies for dinner 😊)

The butterbeans are in full swing, while the green beans are just starting to catch up in production.  We harvested just over half a kilo of beans (see basket pictured above).  There would have been more, however as fast as we were picking the beans, the toddler was eating them 🙂

The zucchini plant has also worked out really well.  Big fuss-pot that I am, I find bitterness in zucchini really off-putting, so I’ve been watering the plant really well and taking care to pick the fruit while it’s still young, before the seeds (and bitterness) have a chance to develop.

As for eating…the green beans are sweet and crisp enough to eat raw, but I’m finding the butterbeans need a touch of steam to bring out their buttery flavour.

The zucchini has been surprisingly good – even the non-zucchini-eater in the household has been enjoying it (much to my amazement)!

I’ve got a few recipes up my sleeve to try, but I think I’ll be starting with ‘Steamed beans with hazelnuts and lemon butter’ (Grow Harvest Cook, M.Kirton & M.Sinclair, p.61)*.  That is, if the kids actually leave me any beans to cook…

*No, nobody’s slipping me any commission money – it’s just a really good book 🙂