Bumble bean

I eventually succeeded in getting this shot although the bees have been dodging around my broad bean plants for a while.

The flowers of the broad (or fava) bean give off a heady scent but  that's not the only way they attract pollinators. Each flower sports a velvety black landing pad along with a set of delicate guidelines to direct the insect to the nectar source and pick up the pollen. It's only bumblebees with long tongues that can reach the nectary but that doesn't stop other bees, including honey bees*, from piercing the bottom of the flower to siphon out the nectar that way - indeed bumbles do this too because the performance required to reach the nectuary via the official route is quite taxing.

Some wonderful close-up images of the process can be seen here.

The extra shows my veg basket today: broccoli and kale sprouts, sea beet and Swiss chard, which, when combined with the hens' eggs,  means that we're calculating food metres not miles.

*See Melliseus's comment below.