September 15, 2008 at 4:49 am (Spring, food, gardening, nature)
Tags: blossoms, fruit trees, Spring, taste, variety
Springtime. Blossoms abound. In particular, the fruit tree blossoms, beginning with the almond. When that comes into flower late in winter, I begin to revive again from the cold, knowing that soon I shall feel the warmth of the sun again. My hope blooms. The fruit tree flowers also herald the start of the formation of fruit, and in my mind I can taste again the sweetness of a ripe juicy peach, or the explosion of flavour from an apricot.
Now only those who have tasted real fruit will understand what I am talking about. Most modern fruit is tasteless. Even that which is homegrown is tasteless if it comes from a variety selected for it’s commercial reasons, rather than it’s flavour. I recall in particular an elderly gardener who was removing a peach tree from her garden because the fruit was as tasteless as cardboard, and with similar texture. It was a modern variety, promoted by the nursery trade, and she, like many others, unsuspectingly fell into the trap. It is a rare, specialist nursery nowadays that sells decent fruit trees. The majority sell lines bred for the commercial sector, hardly a recommendation for flavoursome fruit judging from what is available through retail outlets.
Now how can a person who has never tasted anything even half decent know that there is a better way? How many people these days, particularly younger ones, dislike eating fruit, despite the urgings of health professionals? The only way they eat fruit is when it has been processed and loaded with sugar, and this is definitely not beneficial to good health.
I was fortunate in growing up with fruit trees in the backyard, in having excursions to pick wild blackberries and having friends in similar situations. One friend had the most magnificent peach tree, and I must confess, it was a major factor in our teenage friendship! I know what real fruit tastes like, and I mourn for it. However, when I find a roadside seedling along a disused track I leap for joy. There is always the chance it will turn out to be ambrosia. I can but hope.
It is springtime.
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September 5, 2008 at 12:34 pm (Spring, food, gardening, insects, nature)
Tags: butterfly, Spring, vegetables
After a very cold winter it is lovely to soak up the spring-time sun. I feel enlivened, and around me I see other life bursting forth as well. The grass is growing so quickly that I dare not stand still for long, it case it covers me! Birds are flying about more, including the parrots in their colourful coats, as they visit the gum tree blooms for nectar.
My time has been spent just recently in the vegetable garden. Suddenly there are many many tasks to do, especially if I want some food for the summer. This week has been a favourable moon-planting time, and I have been focused on sowing seeds, both in the garden proper and also in tubs and in tiny pots for transplanting later. There just could still be a frost, so I’m hedging my bets each way. Nice to get an early start, but it does carry a risk with it, and I hope to have something to fall back on if the garden seedlings don’t survive.
There is a tangible vibrancy in the air. Each day sees a new bloom appear or a new bird in the trees, and yesterday I had the first butterfly for the season land on the climbing peas. Such a joy to see this beautiful creature. Yes there are caterpillars about, but I rarely kill them these days - the plants can feed them so then I can see the butterflies.
Even the ants are on the move again. All winter they have been deep underground, and now the sun has drawn them out and they are busy replenishing the larder.
Another season begins.
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May 10, 2008 at 11:26 pm (gardening, philosophy)
Tags: artichokes, gardens, pumpkins
I have begun to harvest the pumpkins and Jerusalem artichokes which grew this summer, and it is such a rewarding activity. It is tangible evidence of the time well spent nurturing them through my first growing season at this location. In fact, the artichokes are testament to my feeling of trust, as when I saved the pieces to plant in the garden, I didn’t know where I would be living, or how I would be able to grow them. At the time I was house-sitting, and had no idea of where I would be living next. But I stayed with the feeling of trust, and was rewarded with this marvellous property.
The harvest also is satisfying in the knowledge that I have food set by, for eating during the winter. It is a little like having money in the bank, only better.
When ever I look at pumpkins, I am reminded of a friend of mine who was passionate about growing her pumpkins, and would go out each morning and count the ‘babies’. One day we found a pumpkin dangling from the orange tree, having grown up through the branches, determined to grow despite the situation.
The artichokes remind me of my father, who loved to grow his vegetables, and in particular the artichokes. Their sunflower-like characteristics, their toughness to survive, and their usefulness as a food all endeared them to Dad. And to me.
Have you noticed how certain plants remind you of particular people? One lady I knew, Joan, would walk around her wonderful garden, and say “There’s Mary, and there’s Eleanor, and over there is Bill….” as those plants had come to her garden from those people. Never mind the botanical name, that had no association for her with the plant. If it was “Mary” then it meant it came from a cutting taken from Mary’s garden, and Mary was then always in the garden, her memory always present. Joan’s garden then, was full of her friends. Maybe that was why it was always such a satisfying place to visit. Not like those soul-less designer gardens, where everything is “just so”,and which do not encourage one to linger a while.
When I visit other’s gardens, I love to hear their stories of how that plant came to be there…and that one…..and so on….it is really hearing the story of their life.
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