Jo Stafford

I’ve got snacks from every continent, just the one empanada though, can’t have South America over-represented

Sending strength to you and your family. I’m glad you made it to lit fest. I thought of you when I saw there was a park run related one. My events start on Sunday, I love lit fest.

It’s a seedy, sometimes juicy existence

In summer I keep my neighbours in home grown heirloom tomatoes and in autumn I am rich in apples and foraged walnuts, mushrooms and quinces that they give me. I feel so fortunate.

So readable and funny. I really enjoy them. I think it’s worth giving one a try.

It really is an excellent #tomato year.

Absolutely, it’s unimaginable

Ok, I’ll send you some varied home made easy slop upgrade stuff. Let me get some ideas together. Do you eat meat?

The uncertainty is a real worry

What do you like to eat? I can cook well but often don’t have the motivation. I’m sure I can give you some easy, tasty ideas.

I don’t know how we get past this if our summers are going to be shorter and hotter like this year.

The allotment kept me going through grief and lockdowns(a cracking combo), and I am proud. Even though there’s more bindweed still than I’d really like. This week I finally made a “profit” in terms of value of produce against what it cost to grow.

It’s my 6 year allotmentversary. On this day I sent Andrew this photo (he was in A&E after a motorbike accident) and told him this was totally fine! It’s not as lush today as usual, the drought has been hard, but it’s better, and I did it all myself (he died the following January). #allotment #widow

It took me 2.5 hours to sort out the chaos of 40 tomato plants in my tiny yard this morning. It turns out they do quite well if you abandon them for 2 weeks with auto irrigation. Rewarded with the first ripe Artisan Golden Bumblebee. #tomato

Juvenile Heermann's gull (very dark all over) in flight, flying over very very shallow water. Flying to the right maybe two feet off the ground. It's shadow is to the right. Just below the shadow is a reflection on the sheen of water.

Got this really cool, ghostly picture by accident the other day in Dillon Beach, CA. It is a Heermann's gull with both it's shadow and reflection.

#birds

Home from a lovely European adventure mostly by train to the Hungarian Grand Prix via Paris and Vienna. Now I can settle down and watch the race. It’s fair to say you go to F1 to see it, feel it and smell the burning rubber, but the race can be hard to follow. #F1

Out of office on. It’s full time motorsport (tv then travel then live) for the next couple of weeks. #F1 #F2 #F3

You know you spend too much time in Spain when you're refreshing your languages to try and be polite in upcoming holiday and you think "what's French for por favor?". There will definitely be Spanish, my default foreign, accidentally slipping in with attempted French, German and Hungarian.

I hope these Jersey Devil tomatoes stop expanding and start ripening soon! #tomato

Post work door-to-door courgette distribution to the neighbours successfully completed, it's still early enough in the season that they answer the door to me when I'm trying to get rid of excess produce.

Pitched my tent in a field at Silverstone, lounging under a tree and there’s a bunch of some kind of Hairstreak butterflies at the top of the ash tree in mature hedgerow above my head. I don’t have my binoculars. This is a tragedy. People are looking at me funny, wondering why I’m staring at a tree.

We have lift off from the garden ant nests and the hundreds at gulls in the sky above are having a great day #FlyingAnts

Yeah I do give away a lot, the foodbank collects from our allotment site in summer as well. Luckily cauli is very versatile so you could have a lot of variety when you have cauli every day! I've never managed to grow one bigger than tennis ball size so it's not been a problem I've had.

Oh don’t get me started on those! I just can’t cull plants, so I have many cucumbers to come. There’s that trend of sliced cucumber salads with different flavourings that use a whole one. Good luck with the pickling!

Bright green lettuce in a big patch, with remarkably neatly spaced Swiss Chard in the background. There are orange and yellow French Marigolds growing between them all

4 Courgette plants loving life, bright yellow flowers and baby courgettes appearing. The white courgette plants have white patterns on the dark green leaves, the dark green courgette plants have brighter green leaves. I'm going to be eating a lot of courgettes.

Colleague "you eat a lot of salad". Wait until she sees how much courgette I find myself eating #allotment #growyourown

That’s an onboard view that makes the heart stop a bit. #f2 all hail the halo

That’s what I said.

Luckily I will have enough courgettes to make you 5 on any one day

Courgette martini Courgette and martini may seem unlikely bedfellows, but blended with lemon and shots of gin and vermouth, this is a delicious take on a cocktail classic

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cour...

I do, it’s a favourite. As are courgette martinis.