Tony

Tony stands guard on an adjacent allottment, though it's clear from the holey cabbage at his feet that the cabage white butterflies have long since learnt to ignore him.

We finally managed a visit to the allottment late this afternoon. The harvest was a good one: one rather chewed cabbage - despite my expensive anti-butterfly protection, four courgettes and far too much black kale - Cavalo Nero.

The caterpillars have munched their way through much of the kale and a few productive minutes had to be spent separating caterpillars from stems - they hide in the curly leaves. It doesn't boil down as much as spinach or chard and I think I've picked too much. Still we enjoyed it chopped into smaller section and boiled for 4 mins. It made a very good accompaniment to our pumpkin pasta squares and hot pepper sauce. We'll probably be eating it for the rest of the week unless I manage to give some away!

More photos on my Flickr gallery.