But never being a family known to stop at one type of plant, we have, of ucourse, a good sampling of other produce.

Our Marketmore cucumber, grown from seed, has just produced its first three eatin’ sized cucumbers.

Our basil is as tall as a small child, and there will need to be pesto makin’ on the Family Foodies’ “to do” list this week.

And, we harvested our first baby potatoes – only three so far, but sweet and delicious!

But the pride of the garden has always been our tomatoes.  And, yesterday, at about 3 pm, I took pictures of tomatoes ripening, in anticipation of being able to pick them today or tomorrow.

At 7:30 pm, the Man of the House walked in with the ripening Paul Robeson, the one in the picture right above this paragraph, and showed me the devastation. I was so distraught, that I couldn’t bring myself to photograph it. It had been pierced, with a beak we believe, and most of its juicy insides were consumed. We did, however, cut out the bird-eaten part, and tasted the unstolen side. It was delicious, even though not fully ripe.  It made us long for the ability to eat a fully ripe Paul Robeson. It was a most bittersweet evening.

Apparently the long hot June means that the critters who live in our neighborhood really really want our tomatoes.  Some summers, we have limited thievery, but this summer our first two sun golds were snatched, and we have had to start picking BEFORE the tomatoes are all the way ripe, because somehow the critters know when the tomatoes are just about ripe….

Well, the plants have been quite productive, so we are hoping and praying for (1) rain, and (2) less thievery.  We have not had success with cayenne pepper, and haven’t quite decided to try fox urine, and aren’t entirely sure that we could actually make netting work given the location of our garden.  So we continue to hope and pray and pick earlier than we want to. But, maybe, with time and rain, we can let the tomatoes ripen all the way on the vine.

So I approached my other half with the idea of giving the cucumber a bit of a helping hand.  I mean this is a modern 21st century we live in. This things happen, and sometimes nature needs a little help in taking its course. So together, we sexed the cucumber up. I suppose we’re the flower equivalent of do-it-yourself human turkey basters. You know, get the male, introduce them ‘quite directly’ to the female and hope for the best. And do you know what, it worked. We produced beautiful gorgeous cucumbers, we were blessed.

These days we’re fortunate enough not to rely on mating cucumbers, as we have some regular bee visitors to our balcony that like nothing better than doing that for us. However, with the summer on its way out I’ve spied a couple of female flowers that were looking for love.

Once you take a closer look inside the flowers (i’m sure there is some technical horticultural jargon to explain this) the difference between female and male flowers is pretty obvious.  But I’m British and will not explain this bit.

Aside from the above, the female flower is recognisable as they flower on the end of a mini cucumber so to speak… like so…

The female of the species

The male flower doesn’t have a mini cucumber ready for fertilisation but is attached directly to the plant …

This chap was having a bad day, the flower normally opens up.

To transfer pollen from the male to female, it is generally recommended to use a paint brush of sorts. We haven’t got one of those so we used a cotton wool bud. Sometimes, the male flowers fall off and if they’re still looking quite lively  i have been known to just introduced them directly. No faffing about, job done…  most of the time. 

Cucumber sex. Nearly.

And here are some I produced earlier… 

Organically homegrown 'Marketmore' cucumbers

Caught this little fella growing away under the table today. Note male flower to the left.

Et voila. Tesco, schmesco...

Huge, juicy and sweet, I’m very impressed with my Oregon Thornless blackberries. I didn’t expect to get a huge harvest from these in the first year, but I’ve had two big bowls full so far and there’s more to come. I made an American style single crust apple and blackberry pie – where you basically roll out the pastry, dump the fruit in the middle and bring the sides up leaving a small hole in the top, lazy persons pie – which was delicious, and that’s all that counts in my book. I’m filling the freezer up fast!

Also been eating my first cucumbers which are lovely. These are a variety called Marketmore and they grow very well outdoors, provided they get plenty of water. I’ve trained mine to grow over a small wigwam of canes to save space and keep them off the ground. The skins get a bit tough if they’re left for too long, but otherwise they are hugely successful.

And finally my beans are ready and growing like there’s no tomorrow. As you can see they have a red tinge to them which develops more the bigger they grow. This variety (heritage Bird’s Egg) is meant to also be good for growing the beans within, so I’m leaving any that have gone beyond a certain size, and once I’ve had my fill of the young green beans, I’ll leave the rest to develop and dry, and harvest the beans for winter casseroles and home made baked beans, yum!

Also still harvesting lots of potatoes, beetroot and courgettes of course! Am I sounding smug? I feel it.