We are about to leave for Greece and our customary late season break from the hillside, as the energy in the garden wanes and it demands less as things slow. Quite willingly we have made a place that requires our applied energy, not simply in the doing, but also in the time it takes to honour the micro-seasons and the cycles within cycles. September slows but, in order to go away, the rush has been on to prepare for leaving. Last year we returned to find the pumpkins, which we’d run out of time to harvest, were already nibbled by rodents, so this year they have been stripped from their vines and put on the steps in the Kitchen Garden for a last bask in the sun. The harvesting in the polytunnel continues with peppers and chillies and the final chapter of tomatoes, or blight may have them whilst we are away.

It is not simply a case of picking; the spoils also have to be processed. The largest tomatoes go through the tomato mill and are made into passata or a simple, reduced sauce with olive oil and garlic and then bottled. The plum tomatoes are peeled and bottled whole for winter use while the cherry tomatoes have to compete for room in the dehydrator with the last plums and the surfeit of pears on the shelves. Those plums which haven’t been stewed for the freezer become prunes, while the pears become an amplified version of themselves as delicious leathery slices to nibble on in the dark months .