I’ve often thought I was born in the wrong generation. I should have grown up in the sixties; my tastes, music and fashion all take their influences from there.

So when Agent Soph suggested a ‘Lazy afternoon‘, I immediately broke into my best Ray Davies impression. If the singing wasn’t bad enough, then my dance moves certainly took things to a catastrophic level.

‘All right! We’ll go to the allotment! Just stop with the dancing.’ Agent Soph pleaded. So with a bonus chorus of ‘Lazy Sunday Afternoon‘ by The Small Faces, we took the camera and tracked up to our little garden of Eden.

Every time I manage to get Agent Soph up to the allotment, I’m like a nervous fifteen year old on a first date. My game plan is simple: show off the growing successes and quickly pass over the failures. From an enlarged courgette to a bulging squash, I’ll try everything to hopefully win over this fair maiden and her cooking talent. I’m not ashamed, I’ll try every cheap trick to woo her. ‘You know I once passed Monty Don at the Chelsea Flower Show?’.

At this time of year, Agent Soph has a lot to put up with. A husband who’s lost to his allotment mistress, vegetable gluts that need to be cooked up, stored or preserved. Yet time after time, Agent Soph continues to surprise me with her culinary skills, tasty new recipes and baked goods. One year I will convince her to go on The Great British Bake Off, her blueberry banana bread recipe should be shared with the world!

As for me, it’s the time of year when I can afford to take the foot off the pedal a bit. It’s late summer and things are looking a little messy and overgrown, but that’s the way it should be. We need these respites to savour a lazy afternoon in our gardens, and harvest the goods we’ve worked so hard to grow.
So today, while Agent Soph snapped away with the camera, I harvested supplies for the week. From borlotti beans to reddening peppers, these goods will all find a home in one of Agent Soph’s culinary creations.

To all you allotment widows, cuisine Gods and Goddesses, I say to you: a gardener is only half a gardener without you to turn our produce into something wonderful.

Now, who wants to hear my version of ‘In The Summertime‘ by Mungo Jerry? ..Anyone?.. Guys?