Monty’s summer veg patch

“Beans, peas, the first tomatoes and salads all tumble from garden to kitchen with increasing rapidity. Supermarket shopping seems a dreary process in comparison”

I love July most for its harvests. These days, an allotment or a vegetable patch in the back garden is the nearest that most of us get to experiencing a harvest. But it remains a magical word, bringing with it all the resonance of fulfilment and completion. Around the time of my birthday, at the beginning of July, our summer vegetable harvests begin. The first is new potatoes, which emerge white and gleaming from the soil, almost blinking in the sunlight. No potatoes ever taste as good as this first, shy crop of the year.

Next comes the garlic crop that has been growing since October. I harvest ours when the leaves start to fade, lifting them carefully with a fork so as not to damage the necks, and dry them in the sun for a few weeks