Three veg-centric recipes you can harvest from your garden today

In the gardening calendar, the warmer days of early May herald the start of the main vegetable growing season and the time to put your favorite crops in the ground or in pots begins in earnest.

But it's between late August and early September, when the summer harvest is in full swing and the fall harvest is just beginning to arrive, that cook, writer and market gardener Kathy Slack loves his garden the most. "There's not too much work to do apart from weeding and watering, and the harvests are spectacular," she told The Independent.

Whether you're a complete novice or were born with green thumbs, his first book From the Veg Patch takes you through a full year in his vegetable garden, celebrating his ten favorite things to grow and the most exciting ways to eat them.

Here are three excerpts from the book for beans, zucchini, and beets in season.

Roasted Holda beans with goat cheese, herbs, and flowersRecommended

Helda beans are like runner beans 2.0. They're flat and long like runners, but smooth-skinned and stringless – a scarlet runner after a facelift. They grow prolifically, reliably and without worrying about pests, but if you don't grow your own they are easily found in stores, often sold as flat beans or string beans.

Toasting the beans can be cooked, wonderfully, on the grill of a barbecue over medium-high heat or in a frying pan.

I almost always serve this dish at barbecues, scattering generous handfuls of herbs (and edible herb flowers if I can find them) on top with crusty bread alongside. It's a blousy, casual dish that says Lazy Summer Lunch.

Serves 4

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:< /p>

700g Helda beans, or other flat beans, such as baby runner beans if you can't find Helda, trimmed and stemmed

6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon of runny honey

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

2 spring onions, finely chopped

A small bunch of mixed green herbs ( parsley, mint, dill, sorrel, chives, basil)

< p>125g soft and creamy goat cheese

Flowers edibles (chives, nasturtiums, pot marigolds), to finish (optional)

< p>Method:

Place a frying pan over high heat and let it heat through , or prepare your barbecue (see intro). Toss the beans in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place them in the hot skillet or on the barbecue grill and cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip them and cook for the same time on the other side, so that they become marked with lines of fire. black char on both sides. Depending on the size of your griddle or grill, you may need to do this in batches to achieve even charring. Once cooked, transfer to a heatproof mixing bowl.

In a bowl, whisk together the remaining olive oil and honey, vinegar and spring onions, along with a pinch of salt. Tear the herbs and add them too. Mix, then check the balance of flavors and adjust as needed. Pour the vinaigrette over the hot beans and gently toss everything together.

Arrange the dressed beans on a serving platter. Spread chunks of goat cheese on top, drizzle over petal confetti to finish, if using, and serve.

Zucchini Cake with Lime Buttercream

It's a very simple cake that's not as weird as it looks

(Kathy Slack)

I'll put plants in puddings with the slightest encouragement. And an abundance of zucchini, their bright trumpet blossoms winking at me like orange hazard lights in vegetable beds, is all the invitation I need. It's a very simple cake, not as weird as it looks, and the answer to so many situations. Forget the buttercream and just dust it with icing sugar for eleven; or smooth buttercream frosting and decorate with flowers for a rustic party cake. The version below falls somewhere in between.

Servings: 8-10

Time: 1:15, plus chilling...