The First Of The Season

Summer has arrived, and with it my first crop: the wild strawberry.

Smaller than its cultivated cousins, it packs a mighty strawberry flavour in its tiny form. I pick a handful each day, and the best thing about them growing on my patio is that I can harvest them when they are at their sweetest. Perfect for sprinkling onto my morning cereal, or adding to vanilla ice cream, or eating out of the hand like little sweets.

With all the hot weather we're having in the UK, I regret not planting a few outdoor tomatoes. With the poor summers we had the past couple of years, and the bitterly cold winter we just experienced, I left tomatoes off my "To Grow" list, thinking we'd never get enough sun for them to crop successfully. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

Still I have my beetroot to look forward too, the few carrots that managed to spring up are doing well, and soon my next crop will be ready to harvest: those potatoes I grew in a bag.