First frost and green beans

The last few days have been much cooler and I have turned the heating on in the evenings. Earlier this week at my allotment I saw the evidence of cold nights, a late sowing of french beans had been caught by frost. It must have been a light frost because although the leaves were shrivelling the beans were still alright. I managed to pick a couple of handfuls

which we ate with macaroni and pesto.

At home I am finishing the last of my tomatoes which have been ripening on the kitchen window sill and now the beans are finished, it is coming to the end of the summer vegetables. Time now to enjoy different vegetables and flavours as we move through autumn into winter knowing that we can grow the tender summer crops again next year.

Of course in the supermarkets there is continuous summer with imported tomatoes, beans etc available all year round. A lot of these green beans are grown in Kenya, where although there is drought, precious water is used to grow beans which we then import, often by air, just so we can eat beans in the winter - how crazy is that. Val at The Woolly Shepherd posted about this a couple of weeks ago and I was thinking about the effect our food choices have on others as I prepared our meal.

I hope this winter more of us enjoy the seasonal vegetables that are grown nearer home and leave the tender summer vegetables until next summer.