Last Days

In just one week winter will be officially here, and yet everything about us cries, "Not yet" (me included). The weather recently has been more along the lines of Spring than a season heading into winter, and yet we're not complaining.

After church today, DH and I decided to take a walk along the riverbank. Each time we do something like this we remark, "We should do this more often."

We should.

Autumn is not only about changing colours and cooling temperatures but harvest too. For two years we painstakingly grew and planted kumara slips only to have rather miserable harvests where the majority of the kumara were so skinny that they weren't even worth cleaning or peeling. This year when we noticed that there were sprouts looking suspiciously like kumara in the garden we decided to leave them. We had nothing else we were wishing to plant at that time and it did make that section of garden look lush and productive (even if we literally expected no return).

So they stayed. Until last week when I decided that I wanted that space for my broad beans. I began to dig and was pleasantly surprised to find a kumara in the ground (albeit chopped in half by the spade I had used to remove the vine). DH took over the task and we ended up with a nice little crop of kumara.

For pretty much zero labour and no messing about with growing slips, kumara for free (we'd actually eaten some before the photo was taken).

With our newfound interest in growing our own vegetables, I'm finding that I'm buying less and less at the supermarket which is always a bonus. We have yet to tire of eating beetroot or silver beet, but that day may come yet. At the moment we are still experiencing that sense of exhilaration whenever we load our plates with something we have actually grown. 

And while on the topic of new and favourite interests, we have recently discovered water kefir and are loving it. There have been a few bumps (I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit that some batches smelt rather off-putting) but we seem to be overcoming those early learning humps and are convinced that we are experiencing the benefits of this new-to-us fermented food.

If all this makes us sound a bit "crunchy" I'll be the first to admit that right now I have a craving for chocolate and licorice that no amount of sugar-free, good-for-you snack food is going to satisfy. Please excuse me while I go and raid the pantry (knowing full well that there is no chocolate, licorice, or anything that even comes close to it - but surely I can find something?) ...