Reflections on the bounty of mother earth

It is a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I feel abashed for not writing over the last few weeks. What with COVID, holidays, family visits, back to the office and all that, I could find a dribble of excuses. But I do not fancy petty reasoning, so I will not.

With Pink in the background, for inspiration for today, related to living off the land, I am turning to my photo album.

Except that the network is so terribly slow, so my iCloud is taking time to download.

This blog may take some time.

The self-sufficient kitchen has kicked off big time.

What I have been peddling as rocket, turns out to be Japanese Mustard. With the tiniest seedpods.

Perhaps next weekend, I will try my hand at making mustard. In the meantime, we are enjoying these piquant bites in our salad, as plucked just before dinner.

Basil pesto – If you are interested, I will be happy to hawk my wares to you.

Here I am displaying my first “food” harvest. Eggplant of two types. Black Beauty and Eastern Fingerling. You should be able to tell which is which.

And I do not recall buying multi-coloured green peppers, but here they are. Black, palest yellow, and the usual green. And they taste as sweet as a red green pepper.

Although not quite ready, I also tried my first ground nut yesterday (otherwise known as Peanuts). They are going to be a hit.

And then there are the butternuts. The golden tanned skins are begging to be picked, and it is an internal struggle of patience vs eagerness. Do I wait until the vines have properly dried, or do I pick them now already?

We are preparing the ground for alternating rows of Salamanca beans and Roma or Plum tomatoes, ending with a row of Artichokes. We will report back in about 3 or so months.

Now that the greengrocer-shed has kicked off so successfully, Johannes, my intuitive horticultural technical advisor, has decided we are going to expand beyond the shed, with an open field of corn (Rundu Mielies) interspersed with ground nuts (which makes an excellent ground cover) and the occasional watermelon.

There are many reasons to appreciate the progress on our farm. My top 3 must be:

• My justified black thumb reputation is finally being archived in the chronicles of the long gone past.
• Should society collapse (it was touch and go there for a minute with Capitol Hill) I will be able to feed our household, and trade for other essentials.
• Soul satisfying earth beneath the soles of your feet. It was Gabril Khan, (apologies for all the previous times I attributed this quote to the famous cricketer, who I had met (funny story there….), rather than the Lebanese poet) Khalil Gibran who said:

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.

And then there are the chickens. But I will leave the welcoming of Hank, Hanna, Hester, and Henriette (also known as lady Hank) for a next article.

And so, quite easily, I have completed 521 words. Just goes to show, sometimes you may not know where you are going, but as long as you start, you will get somewhere.