Bank Holiday ramblings

Spent most of the time in the kitchen today... I made another batch of Tomatillo salsa.

Tomatillo salsa going into the oven

Tomatillo salsa -- the finished article

I also cooked a nice Autumny Apple and Butternut Squash soup. I'll do a separate Blog-post about this later on. I'm planning to finish the day by cooking a Mexican-ish Pork and Black Bean casserole, so you can see I'm giving Jane a rest from cooking today. [Actually, not so -- she made fresh bread!]

Emma, Dave and Lara (the Button family) came over for lunch today, so we demolished the soup with the home-made bread that Jane had made. Lara ate some of the soup, but was more interested in the raw fruit and veg I had assembled for her delectation...

Lara's lunch

After lunch Lara made a tour of inspection in the garden.

Lara is obviously impressed by the Cavollo Nero

Lara makes a close inspection of the newly-planted Chicory

Lara admires the Chillis

After the Button family had left, there was time for a few jobs in the garden. The Sungella tomato plant needed some attention. You can see that although we have had plenty of fruit off this plant already, there is still a lot left. I have had to lean the plant against the French Window to stop it falling over.

Sungella still laden with fruit

Taking a closer look at the plant I noticed that a big side-shoot had appeared at the top, just near where I had "pinched-out" the plant to stop it growing any taller.

A big sideshoot on the Sungella plant

I have followed recognised good practice and removed this sideshoot. I don't want the plant putting energy into creating leaves at this late stage of the season -- I want it to concentrate on ripening its fruit.

Sideshoot  gone!

The sideshoot removed

I also pinched-out the flowers forming on the Basil plants on the Dining Room windowsill, for the same reason. If you remove the flowers the plants will put on some more leaf.

Basil flower removed

I also had a close look at the Dwarf Beans, to see whether I could pick some from the new batch. Not ready just yet, but nearly.

Delinel French Beans -- nearly ready