harvest

A bit infatuated with our garden as you can tell from the amount of photos. We utter daily words of gratitude for this place and pray to the gods that we will not be required to leave at least until the children have finished high school! There is already now so much food in our garden - apricots, apples, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears, chestnuts, berries, grapes, figs, olives - not all producing fruit just yet..eggs and honey, tomatoes, lettuce, silver beet, basil, parsley, oregano, chives, thyme, rosemary, kale, potatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, Italian beans, string beans, sunflower seeds..and the plan is to plant more variety - we have a big long fence line on which to espalier and more lawn space to dedicate to vege garden. We plan to save our seeds and some of the flowers have already sprouted again. The californian poppies, cosmos, nasturtiums, calendular, salvia, and sunflowers have provided delicate colour - purples, orange, yellow and so many shades of green, not just for our own visual feast but for our beloved bees who haven't had to go far to forage.


Golden delicious hanging over the neighbour's fence.


Martin's splendid shed. Inside he has propped up the work bench with two stacked Langstrop hives, empty, with no intent to use and then one evening he brought a swarm home that he'd removed from someone's garden. Left them in a bucket over night with the aim to set them free in the bush the next day but they had already moved on in to the shed. So now they fly in and out, we go in and out, everyone respectful of each other...One afternoon I went to fetch a spade from the shed and the door was shut. The bees were hovering in a great cloud, waiting to be let in....


Going to keep all the seeds from these big mamas. Anyone harvested them for eating purposes? How did that go?



Our four new hens appear to be in fact quite old and/or completely traumatised from extended time in cages. So freaked out they were it has taken them a week to venture out of their chateau, into their yard and only today have they worked out that scratching at the ground leads to leisurely snacking. Once they start bathing in the dirt all will be well. They have no idea that they have landed in paradise.


Chestnuts!


There will be saucing, and perhaps even some sun-drying and most definitely tomato, red onion feta and basil salad.



The spuds are gooood. 14 kg of creamy, sweet nicola, born of 8 sprouted ladies I brought home from work in springtime.