Most of the summer my night and early morning routine has included filling watering cans and soliticiously making sure the tomato plants had enough to drink. That reminds me we have had warm, even hot, days this year, hard to remember now when it feels more like late October than early September. Last night I went to bed in my winter pyjamas. I am back in socks, long trousers, jumpers and even a coat.
But each day, despite the gloom, we harvest. That watering has paid dividends. The basil has been bushy for weeks; the lemon balm is suddenly looking promising after months of being undersized and weak; the thyme, planted last summer, is absolutely settled and expanding; and the parsley, recovered from its infestion of white fly, is green and plentiful. The green beans are nearly over – though I ate one last night – the peppers are ripe and hot.
But its the tomatoes who are the stars. We have about eight plants; different varieties; some small, some large; some yellow, some red. And all delicious.
Just look.
Big Red and Beautiful
I love this one so much I can hardly bear to eat it. Maybe I’ll photograph it being cut in half and incorporated into salad when I do. It is becoming redder and redder sitting in the kitchen.
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Turning
Some of the Crop
Lovely Toms
Isobel (and Cat)'s Blog 
I have invited your tomatoes over for Sunday lunch. Waiting to hear if they are still available. Might already have had a better offer.
They are fully committed to reducing food miles, and are therefore pledged to be consumed within a hundred yards of cultivation.
oh how lovely, Isobel. i can almost smell them from here. 🙂 the summer has been long, sunny and hot here, too, and tomatoes everywhere are thriving. we only had a small plant of some cherry tomatoes that didn’t survive the intense heat, but i remember enjoying them while they were still growing voraciously, a few at a time.
Remove the word ‘too’ from your comment to paint a more accurate picture of our very uneven summer. But it was mainly dry. However that has changed and we habevhad a month’s. Rain in a matter of days.
lovely! am extremely envious as mine are all still green.
I am bringing them in as they start to turn and ripening them indoors away from snails.
We didn’t do tomatoes this year but have been lucky to have a farmer bring us some here and there. CH had a tomato and mayo sandwich yesterday for lunch. I like them with salt and pepper. The picture of the tomato turning is so pretty with the color.
Now that is lucky! How is CH doing? I am about os use some of my tomatoes, though not my favourite one, in some sandwiches to take with me tomorrow.
You can’t beat a real tomato!
Quite. 🙂