Whilst out on a foraging expedition 'somewhere in England' recently I came across these fruit, just waiting to be picked. They are most certainly from the quince family, I was thinking that they were
Japonica or Japanese quince? they appear to be round, apple shaped quince as opposed to pear shaped quince. I had a look on the internet last night and I'm not sure, there are lots of varieties. They are destined for the cooking pot, quince jelly, quince cheese and even a few slices to jazz up an apple pie.
Does anyone out there have any ideas as to which variety these are? 
Update on the
sloe gin... after just one day the colour is starting to come out of the sloes. Each day the bottles are gently agitated to help dissolve the sugar. The colour will gradually deepen to a dark cherry.... by about Christmas time... I think.
Now, hold on to your hats... I must make it clear once more, dear readers, that Matron does not do flowers - because you can't eat flowers. Having said that, I have been growing some ginger in pots in the greenhouse and I thought you might like to smell these! These
ginger roots I brought back these ginger lillies from the island of Madeira a few years ago. The variety is Hedychium Gardnerianum for those that are interested. The perfume is just completely wonderful at the moment. The whole greenhouse is filled with a heady, tropical perfume! I just go in there for long periods and breathe deeply. Ahhhhh!
Well... ginger is edible, after all!
This Swiss Chard will continue to provide colour right the way through Winter and into Spring next year. I have planted a Rainbow Lights selection so I also have yellow, orange and white chard.
This is one of the flowers on my Jerusalem Artichokes. Most of them are 12 feet up in the air on top of the tall stems, but here is one nearer the ground. I look forward to digging them up later, after a frost has sweetened them a bit more.
I am looking forward to enjoying this Lemon/Lime cross on Christmas Day with my gin and tonic!
A small show of my greenhouse chilli Numex Twilight. These little finger chillis are fiery hot and come in a rainbow of different colours which ripen to red.
Which one of us does not have a maze of spider webs all over the place at the moment, they are beautiful if you look closely.
We've had a bit of a warm spell in London over the past few weeks so these runner beans that I am saving for seed have started to produce more beans! These will be left on the vine as long as possible to produce seeds for next year.
The last colour in this lovely Autumn display is........
White with black spots!
