Broad bean sprouts

broad beans

Come back to France to see that the vegetable garden is in excellent condition. All the broad beans are growing nearly a meter tall and flowering well. 

garlic

Garlic and onion have grown tall, flat leave kale that I left to over winter produced flower stalks like sprouted broccoli. Great I can enjoy fresh greens from the garden.

sprouted flat leave kale

From reading James Wong's gardening book, I learned, for the first time in many years of broad bean growing, that the young leaves at the tip of broad bean can be eaten like pea sprout. 

tip of broad bean

Indeed tasted good, mildly sweet like pea sprout, tender yet with good texture, so won't shrink to nothing like pea sprouts. Great spring greens to serve in a period when not much is available yet. 

cooked tip of broad bean

 

Removing the tip of broad bean when flowering is going well helps to reduce the chance of attack by aphids in warmer months, fingers' crossed.