The tomatoes ripen

At last, at last...I've begun harvesting tomatoes. Just a handful so far, but I'm hoping the numbers will increase over the next week or so.

The Sungold variety have been first off the mark and it is only today that I have picked the first two of the Gardener's Delight. Very tasty too.

I got rid of the two pots of courgette plants on the doorstep today having witnessed them progressively ailing over the last week or so. That leaves two in the ground outside - one very tiny that has never produced anything and the other which has been a decent cropper and might yet produce a thing or two.

I also dug up the remaining lettuce and was told by Susan that I must at least pick what I grow. The point is well taken - I didn't take great care of the lettuce and we consumed barely any.

The weather has not been good today, being very breezy and showery. We have the fire on now. Time marches on.

We're all going on a summer holiday (except for one who's staying behind)

I've well and truly nettled one of my arms after a session in the garden in my short-sleeved shirt. Good job I don't keep bees.

We're doing the things you have to do preparatory to a week's holiday in Switzerland. Little does my 23-year-old daughter know that she will be the keeper of the courgettes and tomatoes while we are away. A crash course awaits.

The courgettes have been cropping well, but it is only now that the first of the tomatoes have appeared, both Sungold and Gardener's Delight. They'll have to be fed and watered while we are away if they are to come to anything.

So it's Switzerland here we come. It's probably not fashionable to go in summer rather than winter, but we don't care. We're devils, us.

I'm dreaming of courgettes

After a long day's toil in the field, the first of the harvest produce has been brought home.

May this courgette be the first of many. Already I am dreaming - like other gardeners - of the use to which I can put these veg when they come rolling in day after day. I even made a courgette cake last year, but don't think I will be repeating that.  It tasted perfectly nice, but you had to be told it was courgette.

And here's an idea planted by someone, somewhere along the line:

Have you ever eaten the courgette flower?  It is wonderful, stuffed with ricotta cheese.

Pride and joy

Well, it's looking good so far with a few of the crops.

My two courgette plants standing in pots either side of the front door are thriving, one especially so, and the tomatoes are going on well in their growbags. Might have to think about staking them soon.

It has to be said, though, that the two courgette plants I planted out on the garden veg patch aren't doing so well, despite copious amounts of rain over the last week or so. Perhaps an indication of how duff the soil is. A moment of sadness this morning when I came across a dead frog next to one of them. It certainly wasn't there last night. Wonder what the cause of death was?

Looking good - courgette on the doorstep

Sungold tomatoes on the left, Gardener's Delight on the right

60th birthday ruminations

It was a landmark day for me yesterday - my 60th birthday. Yes, I was born when King George VI was on the throne. In fact, I came into this world just one hour before the monarch officially opened the Festival of Britain at noon. Wikipedia describes the "Festival Style" as combining modernism with whimsy and Englishness. I leave it to others to judge if I fit in.

My cousin Jennifer marked the big occasion by sending me three packets of seeds and a recipe book from Limekilns Parish Church, a coastal village not far down the road from her home in Dunfermline. There are some seriously good cake recipes in there. Mmm...I'll be trying some soon. The seeds are also very welcome and I will be particularly interested in having a go at growing peppers.

Talking of seedlings, I'm pleased that my beetroot and courgettes have started to show. The beetroot was a spectacular failure when I transplanted the seedlings last year, but that was on the back patch where the sun don't shine. I shall choose somewhere else this time.

The garden is totally parched and a bit of dustbowl after weeks without rain, although they are telling us to expect showers by the end of the week. Let us hope so.

Thinking & eating

I had a very serviceable cheese & chutney sandwich today, combining bread and courgette chutney I made. Not my own cheese, haven't reached that stage yet.

The courgette chutney was part of a batch I made during the summer and it occurred to me today, not for the first time, that it was a bit bland. I cobbled it together from two or three recipes using up what ingredients I had to hand. While I'm happy with the colour and consistency, it's just a bit tasteless. More spices would definitely have helped.

This bit of musing set me off thinking about the courgette cake I made during the the summer. Again OK, but you wouldn't have known it contained courgettes unless you were told.

I think the moral of this is that I need to up my cookery skills. And now that we've got a new gas cooker, that's what I'll do (when we eventually get the thing working).

Something to bear in mind

I have had a very successful courgette harvest this year, losing count of the number produced by the single outdoor plant which survived. They've gone into innumerable meals and into chutney. Sometimes we haven't known what to do with them.

So I was tickled when I came across this story on the First Post website about a new use for a courgette:

WOMAN FIGHTS BEAR WITH COURGETTE

A US woman fought off a black bear which attacked on the porch of her Montana home by hurling the nearest item to hand at it - a courgette. The woman’s dog was attacked by the bear first. She kicked the animal and it retaliated by swiping at her leg, ripping her jeans. She retreated into her house but the bear followed – until a vegetable to the nose sent it running.

Power of veg!