We are the Champions

I’ve made some tomato chutney this week. I followed this very simple recipe, using half measures of the ingredients, so 500g of tomatoes and I used white wine vinegar plus a little balsamic. That produced one normal sized jar plus these two little ones. The chutney looks rather seedy but these little tomatoes are delicious (I think they’re the Rubylicious) so that should be a nice treat later in the year.

It seems to have been a mixed year for tomato growers with some of us having a bumper crop and others having a miserable one. Our tomato-based diet included this lovely pasta sauce last night. We used all Crimson Plum (Roma style) tomatoes so it was very rich.

We have finally had some rain now - after more than 8 weeks - not tremendous amounts but the ground did get totally wet. In fact another downpour woke me up early this morning. And this dark cloud managed to get me as I was heading back to the car after watering in hot sunshine on the plot the other day. We’re still waiting for the corn cobs to fill out …

And I think the squirrel has her eye on that too!

The allotment definitely looks like a late September plot rather than an August one. What a sorry state. On the plus side, I’m not sure our plot has ever been so weed-free at this time of year before! There are a few more spuds in there plus some beetroot. I’m not sure there are enough beans to bother storing them.

We’ve enjoyed a few more cucumbers and the aubergine still has fruits to pick. I thought the courgette plants had given up but noticed a couple of baby green ones the other day. And of course there are pumpkins plus at least one butternut.

I had an enormous yellow courgette in the fridge that I couldn’t bear to compost so I made a simple soup with it - I scooped out most of the flesh so it turned out very yellow and very tasty with crème fraiche stirred in.

Hmm, that yellow matches our hallway which I’m still decorating so plot visits are less frequent. We’ve had such problems with hanging some shelves and our beautiful lamp, but they’re up now and the cupboard doors are finished so just the laminate flooring to do now… That’s today’s rainy day job.

And the song title is because our quiz team actually won the quiz last weekend. So unusual that it deserves a mention 😊

So here’s Queen - a bit over the top for winning a tub of sweets and a little cash perhaps 🤭