Passionfruit

One passionfruit, 99p from the greengrocer on the corner. It has an unprepossessing shell-like skin, mottled brown turning purplish when ripe, as here.

Featured image: the same fruit cut open, spectacularly colourful interior spilling out seeds coated in liquid pulp in shades of amber or mustard. The soft inner peel is a pastel rosé wine colour under a thin white inner layer.

Alternative caption: “Look what I nearly stepped in!”

Jackfruit

And now for another episode of Fruit is Stranger than Fiction…

Jackfruit outside a local shop today (Global Foods, 64 Bilton Road, UB6 7DJ)

“That’s just average for jackfruit, you should see the really big ones.”

Tess

Christmas Dinner for Farage

Bitter Melon for the No Deal fanatics

Figs, figs, figs

London figs (Harrow)

Figs, Septermber 16

Homegrown figs

Figs in a bowl, harvested mid-July

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Split fig on a sideplate

Dock, Cherry, Love-in-a-Mist, Gerbera and Lady

Pet weed: Dock

Cherry

Love-in-a-Mist

Gerbera and Lady

Roses

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

If life gives you one lemon

Lemon tree wintering in the greenhouse. Last year it gave us one lemon and it's working on this new one for 2020. pic.twitter.com/1EAi4fiYPu

— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) March 6, 2020

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

The road to strawberry jam.
It's easy to make, all you need are strawberries, obviously, jam sugar and a jam jar with an airtight lid (sterilised). If I made jam every day, I'd have a lot of jars but this is only the second one this year.
1. Remove the stalks, check and clean. pic.twitter.com/SIwmgNoW3y

— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) June 28, 2019

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