Serves 4

Preparation/cooking: 20 minutes

Ingredients
450g runner beans
salt and black pepper
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp chopped summer savory or thyme, plus more to serve
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Method
String and slice the beans and cook them uncovered in rapidly boiling salted water for 3 minutes until they are just tender. Plunge into cold water and drain.

Put the cream, garlic clove and savory or thyme in a saucepan. Add salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave for 10 minutes for the flavours to merge. Take out the garlic.

Add the beans, put back on the heat and stir to heat them through. Scatter more savory or thyme and plenty of parmesan over the top.

Lilac (8), Willow (7) and four-year-old August grew all the runner beans and some of the courgettes.

Core group member Antonina, co-owner of St Kew Harvest Farm Shop, explains:

“Lilac, Willow and August wanted to share their harvest grown at their home at St Kew. 

 

So I paid them £8.60 for lots of runner beans and courgettes and three large marrows which they have grown from seed all by themselves. 

 

They’ve been following our blog, and got concerned about the beans being eaten!”

The Swiss chard, beetroot and potatoes also come from our own plot at St Kew Highway. 

Our expert growers have provided most of the rest of the vegetables.  Jeremy Brown cultivated some of the cucumbers and the flat-leaved parsley.  Jane Mellowship supplied the salad packs.  Mark Norman grew the courgettes and the remaining cucumbers, which feature in our Recipe No 7 – Cucumber raita.

We have a new local supplier – Polmorla Market Garden, Wadebridge – which provided the freshly-picked runner beans.  Unlike the rest of the box contents, these are not grown organically.

Oops!

The boxes also contain bunches of celeriac leaves, picked in ignorance as they were mistaken for mature flat-leaved parsley. 

These could be used as a garnish on salads or soup.  However they are rather coarse and have a distinctive, strong flavour.

It emerges that I may have caused irrevocable damage to our celeriac crop as a result of this inadvertent act of horticultural vandalism.  This is one of the downsides of relying on enthusiastic amateurs like me. 
S-o-o-o embarrassing!

As expert grower Jeremy Brown explains: -

There are runner beans to plant out and French beans to sow.  We also need to sow some more rows of carrots.

Everything needs weeding – the carrots (yet again!), the parsley and celeriac…  But the onions are okay. 

The early potatoes also need weeding and ridging up.  The peas need supporting and tying up.

Just turn up to join the team on our site at St Kew Highway between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. 

If you can’t manage Sunday, why not come to our new mid-week volunteer session every Thursday morning at the same time?  Or ring Jeremy Brown on 07971762227 if you’d like to help out another day.

Mid-summer celebration for members

Don’t forget it’s our mid-summer barbeque next Saturday 20 June in St Mabyn from 6 p.m. onwards.  Please contact Charlotte Barry if you can come at charlotte.barry@btinternet.com so we have an idea of how many people to expect. 

Everyone is asked to bring some food for the barbeque, a drink and a seasonal side dish or pudding.  Don’t forget to bring your own plate and cutlery as well!