Looking over the plot at the weekend, it occurred to us that we have hardly bought any vegetables this summer. Considering that one of us is a vegetarian, that’s not bad going.

With a little bit of finger-counting, we totted up our food bills for the season, and reckoned on having bought a kilo or two of carrots, three or four heads of broccoli, and some potatoes since the end of spring.

Plus, of course, limes for gin.

The rest of the time we have been feasting on more beans than we can cope with and starting on the tomatoes, which are taking an age to ripen in the weak and feeble sun we have had this summer.

Totting them up, we’ve harvested around £44.92-worth of vegetables so far, with more to come. Apart from picking off the feathery tops to feed to the chickens (they love them) we’ve done nothing with the maturing carrots – either early or late varieties – and we’ve yet to touch this year’s potatoes or beetroot.

The runner beans are still going strong, six weeks after we picked the first ones. There are new red flowers on the vine, so I’d guess we’re going to get some more come along in the next few weeks, but the ones that are still there, waiting to be used, are getting a bit stringy and sharp now, so perhaps we’ll make a batch of bean soup with those so they can be blended and we won’t notice that they’re past their best.

Can you think of anything else we can do with the runners, other than steaming and eating them au naturelle? Leave suggestions – clean ones, please – in the comments below.

Related posts:

1. What food is in season right now? Part 2: summer
2. Food from the garden
3. What food is in season right now? Part 1: winter