Tag: astounding fruit and vegetables

Figs, figs, figs

London figs (Harrow)
Figs, Septermber 16
Figs yesterday, September 15
Update: Another three, September 18

The figs bleed a white sap, similar to the latex that oozes from a rubber tree. Once they are soft and starting to change colour, I pick them and leave them in a bowl in a sunny position, where they continue to ripen.

Homegrown figs

Tess with champion fig, mid July
Figs on the tree
Split fig
Figs in a bowl, harvested mid-July
Fig today, ripened this week (2nd week of September)
Fig for breakfast, not as good in July but ripening in latest warm spell this week.

The tree is very happy in a sun-trap walled corner and still has about thirty figs but they might not all ripen. We’ve taken three ripe ones this week and now all depends on this latest warm spell. We planted the tree in virgin soil that had been under concrete till 2018. It has grown from a small houseplant into a huge and still spreading plant, a kindly monster.

Snaps and claptrap

Weeds are good. I like them. We have to stick together. The camera can’t quite capture the delicate primrose colour exactly.

Primroses growing wild in the back garden

In other news, our lemon tree has been freed from its greenhouse prison to romp about in the sunny outdoors. It is bedecked with flowers like jasmine only more grown-up and sensual. The one lemon is still a work-in-progress, hidden by two sentry leaves and lots of tiny lemons have got started and are hoping to hang around a bit longer.

Freed lemon tree gambolling and frolicking in the open air

Yam, sweet potato, cassava, bitter melon

Clockwise from top left: piece of a large yam, two sweet potato, two cassava*, one large bitter melon. The skin of the cassava is slippery like a soapy sort of candle wax is coming through it from the inside. Bitter melon lives up to its name; one way to use it is in stir fry with beaten egg, garlic, onion and tomato – if you dare.

* Warning: Cassava is poisonous if not prepared properly. It contains a form of cyanide, which can lead to various disorders, paralysis and death. On no account should it be eaten raw. Ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Potential_toxicity

The road to strawberry jam

A series of photos showing jam-making with strawberries from our garden.