Yesterday (September 1st and officially the first day of autumn for the Met office) our neighbour Alice–beekeeping teacher–arrived with a basket of summertime goodies.
She and Meredith had been collecting honey from her many hives and our ONE in the garden.
There has been precious little “summertime” this year, so the honey harvest is modest
and the basket a reminder of what might have been–peches de vignes, tomatoes and delightful looking little red chilis, the last–“tres forts–attention!” warned Alice.
This year our tomatoes were “carried off“–as they used to say about people who caught the plague–by mildew.
According to Alice, this has happened to many gardeners–but not to her tomatoes because she saw the signs and acted to stop the rot.
The unusually wet weather with little drying sunshine is the cause.
Result–in our case–a quick demise of the entire crop; we were away when the plague struck.
Alice advised keeping a few seeds from the largest tomato, for planting next year which we’ve done, but not before a bit of coarse “look at the size of it!” acting.
It’s now in the fridge–a tasty sauce waiting its turn in the limelight, which maybe tonight as part of the stuffing for one of its cousins.
Robin Ellis 