Ripening

6 September 2009

I took this photo on Friday and already that tomato is much redder, almost pickably ripe. Though most of the other tomatoes are now light rather than dark green, no others have quite turned the corner to orange yet. It shouldn’t be long though! The vines have all fallen over and any attempt to lift them up again shows you why: there’s an awful lot of heavy fruit hanging off those branches.

This little aubergine is finally starting to swell too. The plant had been looking a bit sorry for itself in the hot weather, but now the aubergine is coming. These are only meant to be little ones anyway, so it’s not like it’s got a tonne of growing to do! Come on, hurry up. I want to pick you, put you on the window sill and watch you rot.

That is of course, assuming this vapourer moth caterpillar doesn’t find you and eat you first. Not much chance of that happening really though. He’s been sitting on my sweetcorn silk for the past three days and has barely moved, apparently not doing much other than leaving me a little collection of caterpillar poo on the leaf below him. I just have the idle hope that he’ll, I don’t know, vapourise before he actually does any damage to the plant.