At last I have a small crop of cherry tomatoes! These, plus the herbs which always grow in the garden, call for a celebratory salad on this hottest of days. In Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, by Richard Fariña, the protagonist sets out carrying a jar of feta in his bag. A modern version of the latter is a key ingredient here.

• Ingredients: Two or three sliced spring onions, a handful of mixed tomatoes, half a cucumber, chunked or sliced, 50-100g Feta cheese, a few fresh oregano or pot marjoram leaves, fresh flat leaved parsley, maybe a few basil leaves?, slices of red pepper, avocado, fennel and green chili, a handful of olives, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper.

• Method

Take a large, pretty bowl and start by stirring up some olive oil and lemon juice down at the bottom. Then add the pepper and salt, spring onions and so on, until everything is in the bowl and then gently toss it around and leave for a few minutes to let the oil take up the flavours of the tomato and scents of the herbs. Decorate with oregano flowers freed from their woody stems, and depending on how you feel about authenticity, a few basil leaves.

Serve with home made flatbread smeared with feta. This is my favourite, Graceburn, made in Kent.