Last weekend the
weather well and truly broke and we had torrential rain but it was still very
warm. Mr Shoestring and I started our
garden clean up while the rain came down all around us, which was quite
pleasant after such a long dry spell. Mr
Shoestring found this unusual garden tool recently at the markets (red of course, his favoured shade) which is ideal for
gathering up fallen leaves. We are
unsure as to whether that was its original purpose but it is engraved with a
“Patent Pending” sign at the top of the prong and it is very handy.
I would like to report
that there was a dainty harvest of Jerusalem
artichokes and that the result looked like this:
(Note the pretty floral mauve gardening gloves, a kind gift from The Dancing Queen)
But in reality the
result was like this:
And that is after we
pressed some onto Mr and Mrs Peaceable, The Canucks and my friend B2, all of
whom looked rather dubious. They all
were insistent that they only needed a few and that they were unsure exactly
what to do with them. I am dreading what next year’s harvest will be like
– they multiply by leaps and bounds even when we think we
have removed all traces of them from the earth.
Mrs Peaceable gave us
some more of her fragrant quinces and we must get ourselves motivated and make the quince vodka
and also some blackberry vodka to make the most of the short season of these
delicious fruits.
The warmth and rain
has brought on a wonderful flush of field mushrooms and here is a shot of them
in the paddock out at Mr and Mr Peaceable’s farm. The taste of store bought mushrooms really
can’t compare with fresh field mushrooms, what a treat we had with a Jerusalem
artichoke gratin, field mushrooms and quince and apple pie for dinner. Afterwards we had to lie back and quietly
groan while we digested our meal, but it was worthwhile.
The mushrooms really do grow in "fairy circles", you can see the outline of them here.
The other seasonal
delight we have been loving is feijoas.
Daughter number three who is travelling around Asia
has been emailing anxiously and enquiring as to whether the season has
started. We have to admit that it has
and that she is missing a bumper crop. I
will post some recipes for all these short-lived autumn delights. The feijoa sorbet is well worth a try, also
the Jerusalem artichoke gratin.
A random selection of the strange and extraordinary fungi which popped up in the garden after the warmth and wet
