End of Nonexistant Summer?!

I am finding it very hard to motivate myself to blog at the moment!We have come to the end of the summer season and looking back we are still waiting for it to happen.We have officially had the coldest summer on record and growing veg has been a real challenge this year.
This time last year we were looking for ways to use up our tomatoes which were ripening at an alarming rate.
I read a number of articles and readers letters especially in Garden News that banana skins help tomatoes to ripen, at this stage we will try anything!

Some of the cooking done over the last few weeks using produce from the plot.
Broad bean, chive and smoked salmon bread, lovely but very filling.Would be good for a picnic or a starter with a salad.

Our cauliflowers are developing heads at last ,not very big but who's complaining?I planted 6, 2 of them had tiny heads which turned a pinkish colour, hardly from the sun?!

Courgette and blue cheese soup with bacon and cheese scones.
Jam making has been ongoing, sometime ago matron gave a recipe for easy Strawberry jam.The fruit is left overnight with equal amounts of jam sugar and some lemon juice and cooked the next day.It worked out beautifully for strawberry and raspberry as they need very little boiling to reach setting point which means the fruit stays red and there are large pieces of fruit in the jam.
I then tried it on blackcurrant, plum and gooseberry and it works just as well for all of them.
Broad beans and peas have been frozen and beetroot has been cooked and put into jars.
I did not exactly pickle it just cooked (I prefer to wrap in tinfoil and roast in the end of the oven while cooking another dish) 3 or 4 at a time and sliced into jars with red wine vinegar to be used immediately.
Aldi our local discount store has had jars of pickling vinegar quite reasonably so I will use that for the next lot.