Sweet peppers are starting to ripen... the red ones (bellboy) - need to find a way to turn this round without snapping it off as the back of it is still very green
the yellow ones (luteus)
but these ones (sweet long), according to the picture on the label are supposed to be dark green
I suppose I should have thought something was amiss because they started out a light green / yellow colour so it was probably unlikely they would ripen to dark green.
It's not just restricted to sweet peppers, I think I have previously mentioned that one of my cayenne plants doesn't seem to be producing cayenne chillies... don't think they are supposed to be orange / yellow and they are the wrong shape
The jalepenos on the other hand which should be chunky and are ideal for stuffing, look more like cayenne
I previously suspected a bit of label swapping as I bought all my peppers as little plants, but who knows. As long as the chillies are hot and the sweet ones are sweet, it doesn't really matter that much.
... just the regular kind though, pears and plums to be precise. Both trees have now been stripped of fruit.
I read somewhere that you are supposed to pick pears when they are slightly under ripe, which is how I prefer to eat them anyway. So these have been picked at the perfect time.
The plums on the other hand are probably a bit over ripe. I'll know for next time to give them a squeeze rather than look at the colour of them. I can't remember what variety they are but for some reason I thought they wouldn't be ready until they are red. A few of them should still be okay to eat now, but most of them will go into a preserve of some kind.
I made a small batch of jam with some of them a week or so ago, so maybe I'll try a chutney recipe with these ones.
When growing something for the first time I'm always a little bit cautious about when to harvest, so with regards to my cape gooseberries I thought I'd go with how they look on top of desserts in fancy restaurants.
I know that the outside is supposed to be light brown, a bit see-through and feel like paper, so this one looked about right.
You can also see that the fruit inside is orange and when I gave it a squeeze it was firm with a little bit of give. There is also a very sweet smell coming off the plant. So I picked it and was not disappointed.
The taste was amazing!
There are a few more that are ready to be picked now, but also lots of green ones
and even some new flowers appearing
I have no idea how long it is supposed to produce fruit for but hopefully for a while yet.
... and it's a bigun!
I did actually let this one grow on purpose, unlike previous specimens which caught me by surprise.
I didn't notice any smaller ones on any of the plants so I think this might be it now.
I'll leave the plants in the ground until I need the space just in case there are a few late arrivals.
First ripe chillies were picked this morning.
According to the label the orange ones claim to be cayenne... don't think that's correct though. All my chillies were bought as little plants this year so I guess someone was having fun label swapping. I'm not too fussed what they are as long as they are hot.
I haven't successfully grown beetroot for a couple of years; I think they just failed to grow... all leaf and no root, so I was glad to see these ones sitting proud of the soil. There are still a few more in the ground so hopefully they will root up too.
I was surprised when the beefsteak tomatoes started to ripen so soon.
They are not the biggest beefsteaks I have ever seen... only slightly bigger than the regular tomatoes, but last year most of this variety had some sort of deformity so I can cope with them being a little under-sized... good things come in small packages after all.
