Do you think I look like a fancy tomato? 

Why garden in gardening clothes? My expectations of all things to do with gardening are changing. This year I have discovered that you don’t have to have a garden to grow your own fruit and veg. You don’t have to dig to grow potatoes. Carrots don’t have to be orange and tomatoes don’t have to be red…or smooth… or even taste of tomatoes. Therefore I conclude that you don’t have to dress like a gardener to garden. If tomatoes can dress up as fancy tomatoes and pretend to be something else then so can I 

Tomatilloes claim by their name and inner appearance to be something like a tomato and yet on the outside they wear a Chinese lantern fruit cloak. This week I harvested the first of this strange looking crop. The round green fruit beneath the cloak of disguise did indeed look very much like a green tomato, it also had the texture of a green tomato, but it was very sticky and tasted like a lime! It’s all a bit Willy Wonka and got me thinking about other possibilities beyond fancy tomatoes …onions that taste of bananas perhaps, or beetroot that taste of kiwi but look like strawberries.....

However, if like me you prefer your tomatoes to taste like tomatoes then you don’t have to stick with growing round, red ones. There are plenty of crazy tomatoes with less confusing appearances such as yellow, green, black, stripy or crinkly ones, that like the best fancy dress outfits, attract plenty of attention but don’t spoil the feast!