Picking chillis and tomatoes

Despite the reduced temperatures, strong winds and torrential rainfall, my chillis are beginning to ripen in significant quantities. How they must yearn for the tropical lands of their forbears!

This is the key to the numbers in the photo below:
1 – Chilli “Ohnivec”
2 – Chillis “Nosferatu”
3 – Chillis “Red Jalapeno”
4 – Pepper “Piment d’Espelette”
5 – Tomato “Tiger”
6 – Tomato “Banana Legs”
7 – Tomato “Japanese Purple”

Some of those fruits (especially Nos. 3 and 4) are seriously distorted as a result of the weedkiller problem, and are not good examples of their types. Some of the tomatoes are similarly affected. Look at the one with the long pointy “nose”, in the photo below:

The tomato to the left of the yellow one is my only “Gardener’s Delight” one so far. Normally by now “Gardener’s Delight” would have produced masses of regularly-shaped cherry-sized fruits, but this is the plant which has been the most badly affected of all, and there are only about 6 fruits on it all told.

The “Tiger” tomatoes have impressed me though. Their colour is almost like tarnished copper, with green streaks of verdigris:

I’m not sure if they are typical of their kind, but these ones are very firm even when ripe, and their flesh is dark, rich and sweet – almost like a plum!