Tomatoes

Over the past few weeks we've been picking blackberries, bilberries, cowberries and cropping a few select things from our garden. We've had some good crumbles and our freezer is filling up nicely too.

I've been really enjoying feeding Tomas the odd handful of fruit as we pass down the garden path on our way out somewhere - blackberries and raspberries mainly. He pops them in like sweeties. And I was surprised one day to come home and find Tomas sat on the wall with James chewing the end of a spring onion like a pro!

Just been out in the garden to survey the tomatoes we are growing. I have now realised that the toms that I thought might be ripening and were stuck on yellow ('not enough sun to get them red' I thought) are actually supposed to be a yellow variety - and so I am a little late in getting to some of them, but there are loads on the vine yet to come, so I'm ok. They are tumbling toms for pots, and the plants are so tight and cabbage-y that the toms themselves are actually hard to pick because they are curled so snugly into the plant. I am definitely going to grow these again next year, they've been no trouble and look like producing a good harvest.

The purple variety are looking a lovely muddy red, which I expect to darken to purple over the next couple of weeks.

One of my plants has been knocked over by torrential rain - they are staked outside our door rather than being in a greenhouse, so that makes them a little bit vulnerable to whatever the weather throws at them. So I've some little green ones that need to be cuddled by a banana in a dark place to make them lovely.

And as for these oh-so-expensive seeds - they have come to pretty much nothing. Well, I've got about 20 teeny, tiny tomatoes on the plants, but the plants look yellow and sad, and nothing like the hundreds and thousands that they were supposed to produce. And ok, so we might not have watered them every day. Or given them a feed once a week. But basically, if you can't tough it out, then there is no place for you in our garden - we've not got the time for faffing!

Everywhere I walk or drive now I have one eye on the road ahead and one on the trees and hedgerows. Looking out for scrumping opportunities. And there are several, some crab apples and a couple of eaters. Do we just help ourselves to trees overhanging public places? Or knock on some doors and ask if the owners of trees plan on using them all? Or just wait until we can scrump my mum's Bramley and be legit?