Ahoy me Blighty

It’s such a shame about the UK Weather. Tomatoes have finally shown blight.

“A small miracle it’s only just happened really considering the downpours we've had the last month”. I'm lucky enough to live in one of the drier parts of the country. Still looking out of my window you would not think it was. Until of course you read the paper or watch the news and thank the gnomes that its not too bad here compared to the rest of these isles.

I have lost a beefsteak plant to blight completely. All the stems where blackening, the leaves mottled and the fruits had decided to rot. So this year’s beefsteak harvest was two (Which I ate, in my shed, while dodging another downpour). I cut the beefsteak plant at the base and hurled it rotten tommies and all into the non compostable bin. They will go into the household rubbish. Don’t want to put them in the recycling bags as I figure they may end up somebody else’s blightened compost if I do that. It’s a shame about the beefsteaks as this was the variety my wife was most interested in to make those "tomato au farce" which are so popular in France.

It’s not all bad though.

The other plants have had little damage so far and I have been careful in removing any foliage that looked suspect as soon as I have seen it. I have also removed any baby fruits now not as I'm sure that even if the blight does not take hold they are stopping the sized fruits from ripening. They are still being fed the nettle tea I made a couple of times a week even if it is raining all the time.

I have had a couple of kilos of the little sun gold cherries which are like sweets without the conscience. I used a bag of them last week to make a fresh pasta sauce with one of my onions, a couple of cloves of the Provencal garlic and basil from my planted herbs. The sauce went really well with the homemade pumpkin ravioli. Its not a difficult dinner technically but time consuming with the pasta making and rolling, the pumpkin roasting and filling preparation, the cutting out and all the washing up it made. I had no complaints when it came to the eating so I was happy.





Another half kilo of them went to work which I put into a bowl for people to snack on.

The rest are on the kitchen windowsill waiting to be munched.


The Alicante variety has been fantastic. They are a good size. Very tasty as they are, in salads and were used in the chicken dinner the other night.

Being a little a little over cautious maybe, I have been cropping them when they start to turn pink and then finishing them off outside on a covered window ledge by my garage.