It's hard to remember that only a few weeks ago Church Meadow was too waterlogged to set foot on- now the clay has baked hard in the June heat, making planting just as much of a challenge. It seems incongruous that we are now sweltering in the sun to plant out Brussels sprouts for Christmas!

Without doubt, June’s star performers have been the broad beans. Six rows, planted in early November, have been giving us boxes and boxes of bean pods every day. And they do need picking every day, to make sure we catch the beans while they’re still quite small and tender (not too 'broad'- surely a misnomer?!). The overwintered plants grew up tough just as we had hoped, with not a hint of blackfly, whereas the beans we planted in spring hardly germinated- we won't bother next year.

Our early broad beans were productive even before the beans developed- their flowers are very attractive to bees at a time when there are not many flowers around, so they may have been a vital ingredient in Village Greens honey! Once the bean harvest has finished, the plants will also give us a seed crop (as we'll save the overgrown pods and dry the beans for next year's planting) and a green manure (when we plough them in to feed the soil). Come to think of it, they're probably not badly named at all, as they certainly have a 'broad' appeal!