3 lessons this weekend, in the veggie garden, and in life

I have been feeling the inspiration growing in my mind since yesterday’s harvest in the butternut patch. And this morning, after a “Tête-À-Tête” with my technical advisor working side by side, I can no longer delay, The dishes will have to wait until I have penned the three things my veggie patch tutored me on today.

1. The sweet things in life will take over.

It was the first enlightenment of the weekend, while harvesting butternuts. I was looking forward to placing a supply order with Fruit & Veg City for the hundreds of butternuts I have been carefully watching since the first tentative flowers.

We even repurposed yards and yards of netting to protect the butternuts from the critters that come during the night. This seemed to pay off as you could see the vegetables slowly ripening without damage.

If I had blogged 2 years ago, you would have known that at the time, I was looking forward to some butternut infused kudu steaks, seeing as the kudus decided it was not for my consumption. So it was particularly precious to see the fruit vegetables of my labour appearing before my eyes.

I did have a good harvest, but came to the realisation that I was only harvesting around the edges. There was no harvest from the centre of the patch? Why? Because the gooseberries had taken over.

And that is the lesson. I left the gooseberry that survived from last season, in one small corner of the patch. You know, for the occasional sweet treat. Over delicately infused mascarpone and a sweet aniseed flavoured syrup. Or a handful of fresh vitamins as you stroll through the garden.

Lo and behold. Believe me when I tell you gooseberries Self-Propagate. Profusely.

Lesson 1: You have to appreciate the sweet things for when and where they are appropriate. And not allow them to dictate how your life develops (or does not develop…..)

PS – the first harvest kitchen experiment was 100% homegrown. Except for the cheese. Mable has to come to the party for that to happen…

2. Sometimes you have to action a tough call.

So here I was, blissfully appreciating the greenery of the carrot tops, making my vegetable patch appear vibrantly verdant.

Carrots have to be thinned out. And I hear my inner hippie voice say : “NO! Live and let live!”. But that can’t always be. By allowing the unrestrained sowing of carrot seeds to persist, the carrots are too close together, and they have no space to develop.

So you may sacrifice a few tentative carrot sproutlings in the early stages. But it is for the greater good. The rest of the carrots can grow to be big strong (and useful) suppliers of nutrition.

Lesson 2: Man up, put on your big girl panties (whichever is appropriate in your case 😊 ) and thin out those babies. If you are fortunate to have a few chickens on the loose, they will very much appreciate those very same timid sproutlings. And the circle of life continues.

3. Sometimes you have to wait.

Inaction is probably my biggest tyranny of strength. And by that I mean, I cannot sit idly by and wait for things to happen. If they don’t happen, and my action won’t change that, I change the target. So it is tough for me to utter the words “wait”.

• 

• 

But take the case of the Ombidi here. Ombidi is a collective noun in one of the local languages, for types of veld food. I understand from my technical advisor, that it is plucked, boiled, then dried to save for a later date. Or first dried then boiled for use? I don’t recall, and I have not tasted it (yet).

But the point is this:

Lesson 3: The plant is ready to eat. But if you harvest it now, it wont have prepared for the future yet. So you wont have a harvest to eat next year. So take a knee soldier. Appreciate it, care for it, and it will care for you over the longer term.

(I’m sure I can apply that analogy to the greed behind Fishrot and other pervasive corruption in our society today, but this is a glorious Sunday. I’ll deal with those cheats next week.)

I hope you take from today’s blog, the little things that can make your garden sustainable, and share the lessons that will make our society honourable. And eat your beans.