Scroll through for some snaps of the week- life on the beans, spuds out of the ground and tunnels full of life!

Hi everyone,

In all the flurry and heat of planting out a big block, training and side-shooting tomatoes and weeding, we took our eye off the courgettes for a couple of days. I don’t know why we’re so surprised every year, but they got, shall we say, slightly large. We’ve sorted them as best we can, but there are definitely many that are much bigger than I would usually be putting in boxes at this time of year. However, a big courgette is still delicious, and I think a good way of using up these big beauties is a simple summer soup, creamy enough to be satisfying but light enough to fit lunch on a hot day. If you open up your courgette and it’s a bit seedy, just scoop out with a spoon and use the flesh as normal.

Heat some oil in a large pan and fry 1cm cubes of courgette with garlic, salt and pepper until softened and brown. Pour in vegetable stock and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. Remove a bit of the soup mixture with a ladle and blend the rest until smooth. Stir in single cream, flat parsley and fresh basil, then divide into bowls, topping with a little bit of the chunky courgette mixture. Serve with crusty bread or a green salad. You can read the full recipe here.

Our potatoes are nearly ready, so we should be digging those up and sharing them out in a fortnight’s time, and pattypans and round courgettes are close. After multiple failed germination attempts, slug attacks and I think some anti- legume sorcery somewhere along the line, we finally have flowers on French bean plants! I’m not guaranteeing anything, because even these flowers have been hard won, but with a little luck we’ll have some beans soon.

Lauren and the Tir Awel team x