Fruit

My goodness but we're doing well for fruit this year.  The plum tree is so laden that one of the branches has snapped right off! It's still a bit attached and the plums are ripening so we have left it for now. We are hoping to pick the plums (which are also being much enjoyed by the chickens, the ducks and the wasps) this coming weekend.  We will also have lots of bramley apples to pick. That tree is also quite well covered in apples. We've already picked a good few bramleys - one of the allotment people gave us a couple of baskets of blackberries. I have made an apple and blackberry pie and combined the rest in packets with some bramley and some sweet apples and put them in the freezer for winter pies.

The sweet apples were being seriously attacked by the wasps, so I have collected the rest of them. This is what was left after I got rid of the waspy ones:

The pink ones are very sweet and juicy.  The little green ones are also juicy, but slightly tarter.  They're the ones from the tree that we thought was dying last summer.  It's still struggling, but looking much healthier.

This year, for the first time, we had peaches on the white peach tree. One went rotten. We ate one straight from the tree. And have been waiting patiently for this one to ripen - watching carefully so the wasps didn't get to it first!

And this year, for the first time, we have successfully grown miniature watermelons in the greenhouse on the allotment. Here is today's lunchtime dessert:

We are also extremely pleased with the pumpkins (which I know are used as a vegetable but which are also a fruit, strictly speaking).  This one weighed 3.5 kg:

and it was extremely delicious. We picked a smaller one a couple of days ago. That was 2 kg. And there are four or so more still growing.

As a reminder to myself: the capsicums that were plonked outside on the allotment because there was no room in the greenhouse are doing much, much better than the ones being carefully tended in the greenhouse. The latter are being eaten by something, are very straggly and are not fruiting.  The outside ones look robust, happy - and have several fruit on them!

I am waiting with interest to see what happens to my little chilli plants, which are in the greenhouse at home. They are supposed to be a mild chilli, small and a reddy black colour. They are small and so far jet black.

Autumn is upon us. The nights are distinctly chilly. The mornings are misty. And we are coming towards the end of the summer veg and beginning to move into the autumn offerings.  Although - the zucchinis are still producing abundantly. It's been years since I've had such a good zucchini harvest!