Yesterday evening one of the tomatoes we’ve been watching for the past few days was ready to pick. We were having supper in the garden so we ate it very fresh – just minutes from plant to table! I sliced it and added chopped garlic, oregano, salt and olive oil. What a treat! And there are many more to come over the next days and weeks. We picked some more cucumbers – there’s at least one ready every day now – and our first small courgette. The courgette plants aren’t doing as well as usual, but there are flowers coming now so perhaps they’ll improve.
This tomato soon became a salad:
This morning I made the three cucumbers in the photo above into a chilled soup. The very simple recipe for this is on my Mediterranean food blog.
Another treat today was when some friends gave us some of the first figs from the tree in their garden. Figs at this time of year are known as figues fleurs in French and borrauds in Occitan. They are fruits which have spent the winter on the tree and mature in summer. Later we’ll have the main crop which develop during the summer and are ready for eating in autumn.
olivesandartichokes 
Just how I love my tomato salad – and you can´t get fresher than that!
My courgettes are doing fairly well despite the weather and no rain, but my cucumbers are struggling. The tomatoes are ripening well but there are not as many as usual. My figs are very small and with no rain may just stay that way!! Love the way you have done the tomato. Diane
How wonderful to have your first tomato already! My plants haven’t even set any yet.
I have never seen such beautiful figs, nor have I heard of figs that stay on the tree over the winter. The birds don’t get them?? I’d love to have a few twigs to try and start that kind of fig here… wow. We have Celeste, Texas Everbearing (Brown Turkey), Kadota and a few other varieties and I love them all. My big tree did not do well this year (too hot too early and *much* too dry), but I’ve been happily picking in a friend’s yard this week… Mmmm!! Thank you for sharing… beautiful!!
I think all varieties of figs will overwinter, but only if it’s not too cold for them. There’s then another crop of fruit that develops over the summer. The birds don’t eat them because they’re not ripe in the winter, they’re just small green buds. I’m glad you’re enjoying your friend’s figs even if yours aren’t producing much this year!