Allotment Fare on the Table

Strawberry & Raspberry Pavlova.
This is my first attempt at making a Pavlova even though it is one of my favourite desserts.D.Michelle makes them and my sister Kathleen has made them for years.With eggs freely available from the hens who continue to lay their 4 a day and with the fruit from the plot I decided to have a 'go'!
I Googled for recipes and found one on the BBC Good Food site, I was also informed it is an Australian dessert and originated from Sydney!
Link to recipe hereThe recipe was simple and crisp on the outside and soft in the middle just the way I like (love) Pavlova!


I dug up one tuber of our first early Homeguard but was disappointed to find them very small,sort of large marble size!
We have had weeks of dry windy weather which did not help so I will leave them another two weeks.The rain we are having at the moment may help to swell the crop.
I pulled up one beetroot, the only decent sized one from our first sowing of them.
We have great looking broad beans about 3 ft tall with lots of huge pods but not a lot inside!
I cut the tops off of them not because of greenfly which are noticeably absent this year due to the cold I think.Hopefully they will now put some energy into filling out the pods.
I did'nt waste the small spuds, I cooked them and put them into a salad with the beetroot, broad beans and an onion.I also put in some flowers from the thyme, I used mayonnaise to bind but Olive oil would be nice too.
I blanched the Broad Bean tops the same as Spinach and they were very tasty!
I would use just the leaves for the next lot as the stems were a bit tough. This is another first for me, it was something I had read about but not actually done before.

Broad Bean Tops Update
I used the 4 egg yolks left over from the Pavlova with a drop of milk to make an omelette with more Broad bean Tops.
This time I washed them, pulled the leaves from the stems, chopped roughly and blanched the same as Spinach.Use more than you think you will need as they wilt down quite a lot.I added them to the egg mixture and it all turned out lovely...waste not ,want not!