Purpletigron

Mater, D and I mooched over to the regional award-winning Farmers Market yesterday. There were more craft stalls than I recall, but we concentrated upon food. Glorious displays of purple cauliflours, fluorescent yellow spiralling Romanesco calabrese, purple and gold Victoria plums, blush and green Discovery apples, and the red and purple hues of late-season berries. Also, huge quantities of pies, cakes, breads, and Mediterranean snacks. We came home laden with fruit, the vegetables for the last ratatouille of the year, and calzone-like pies filled with pumpkin, aubergine, leeks and spinach. Urp.

Four very over-ripe bananas and improvisation on the theme of the banana bread recipe from Laurel's Kitchen (insert flax egg :-) turned out deliciously light and moist.

Then into the garden to finally prune the rosemary, which finished flowering many weeks ago, and was trying to engulf both the path and the dustbin. It looks extremely neat surrounded by soil improver - composted green waste, which is a lovely dark, rich loam colour. Not sure I've actually pruned it sensibly, but there you go - we've saved the nicest tips for cooking, and attempts at rooting some others are also underway.

Today: Rest, as I'm still feeling viral, a little light pottering in the allotment whilst N re-plasters her lounge, and then dinner. There's a cry coming up for Chinese takeaway, so I get to find out whether they do 'bean curd' in N's local, I suspect...