As I sniffle through a miserable early autumn cold, I realise there are a lot of things to do on the allotment that have been neglected this week… including pulling down the last of the achocha. When I put a couple of spindly seedlings in a spare corner near the hedge in late May, I didn’t hold out much hope for them – it looked a cold, dry start to a poor season for exotic crops, and I confidently expected them to be killed by a late frost or munched by a passing mollusc.