18. A Foraging we will go...

We had another good harvesting day at the allotment a week ago. Finally, two tomatoes were ripe and ready for picking - only another 999 to go! I was particularly proud of this chilli pepper, although it was the only one on the plant. And we also found a potato that hadn't been dug up a few weeks earlier. I have a few chilli plants, but the one that seems to have the most is one I kept from last year. I plan to keep this years that I have grown from seed and see if they are also better in their second year. Although I also have some romano pepper and sweet pepper plants, I haven't got any peppers growing on any of them. I don't know why, but I have never been able to get any decent peppers, whether they have been in a greenhouse or on a windowsill.

We also went foraging along the paths of the allotments and got a full tub of blackberries, and another tub of plums. There are also loads more of each still to ripen. We also met a really nice man, who said we were welcome to go to his allotment if we wanted more blackberries, as he was over run with them! He had a basket on the front of his bicycle that was full of tomatoes, peas and potatoes, that put my small tub of produce to shame. Still, it was good to see someone else working an allotment, as a lot are vacant and full of weeds.

Later that day, we took the dog for a walk along the canal near our house, and picked two more tubs of blackberries. What was good to see, was the three other couples that had had the same idea as us. I can't believe that people pay money for blackberries in supermarkets, when there are so many growing wild on public property, just waiting to be put into a jam or crumble. As Matt has fallen in love with our breadmaker, the blackberries were straight into the breadmaker, with some preserving sugar, and put on the jam setting. Of course, it had to be tested, on a slice of toast the next morning. Delicious!