The next harvest from the WELSHIE garden.

It's one of my favourite harvests. The runner beans!

They don't take too long to grow and take up very little space for a vegetable that can provide weeks of food. I have mine set up in a wigwam/tee-pee configuration. This only works when you know that all sides will get plenty of sunshine. You can also use a longer frame, but I find this uses up too much space in my small allotment plot.

Examples of 2 very simple set ups:

I personally only have 5 plants in my wigwam, and find this is more than enough to provide a family of 3 (2 adults /1 child) with beans for at least one meal a week. Which reminds me, while I'm down here, I better dig up some potatoes to go with my beans.

As always, I try and get 1/2pint involved in the garden. He loves helping and can already identify several different verities of vegetables and loves to get his hands dirty.

Building up his immune system while building up his knowledge. It's a win-win!

With my runner beans just starting to be ready and my main crop of potatoes in full swing, there was plenty to go around. My beans will last right till the end if summer. The great thing about runner beans is it seems the more you pick, the more that grow back.

So it was just a quick wash for the spuds to remove the dirt, but leave the skins. Gently boil them for 20/25 mins till soft. Top and tail the beans and slice in to thin strips. Then boil for 10mins. While they are cooking, put a juicy gammon steak under the grill and hey presto a fresh, healthy, nutritious meal that takes less than 30mins to prep and cook.

From garden to plate and all eaten in an hour. It's why we all grow our own vegetables, it just doesn't get much better than this.