Little that matters

So I'm back from the big town. From the dear and cheer and oh so pretty everything. From the buzz and important. From the crowds and family gatgerings that I love. And I'm greeted by the smelly wet dog, the wet grass, the hungry cats and sticky mud. And I wish I would't care and could say everyone just get lost! But I don't. I dont go inside wnjoy civilised meal and maybe hot tea made in the electric kettle. My kettle will take its time on the wood burning stove... I tell my boys I'm goi to check the garden and they know what I mean. I go despite the fog (or is it really the rain?). I look for them bloody stupid slugs under my courgettes' leaves silly me (don't find any tonight), I wave to my tomatoes from the distance and hope they'll survive this cold coming night. I come back to my wooden home and take lavender & jasmine bath while the smelky dog dries out happily in the middle of our kitchen. And I dream of Alascan solitude. But today my place is here and I'm happy. I'm in the NOW.

Witnessing

For a right handed person like me having a broken right arm it's very difficult. The physical restrictions are even more frustrating in the garden. There is so many things one would love to do but shouldn't or simply can't. That is why I'm so grateful for my Helpers :) Thanks to them I can be in the garden more like a witness, observing small changes, taking in all that is around me.

Self sufficient

It's something we've been dreaming since we come here: to be self sufficient, to eat food we grow ourselves. It's not that easy in this climate - pretty high in the mountains (650meters above the sea level), not that simple, but today our dream came true with our dinner! The potatos and herbs for the potato pancakes, the salty cucumbers, the string beans, the lettuce, onions and even the tomatoes, all were picked in our garden. Happy day :D

The mashroom

This beautiful wild mashroom was watched on my FB profile by the entire world ;) It was spotted beneath one of our hammocks. At first we thought it was from the Boletus family but no, it is much more common Leccinum scabrum commonly known as birch bolete as it only grows under birch trees. No wonder it chose our birch corner in the garden :D We pick these mashrooms every year in our garden and I would usually add them when making scrambled eggs but this one was exceptionally handsome and deserved a special treatment - I had it slowly fried in butter with a bit of onion and a pinch of salt. Yummy!

Yellow wild sweetness

 The other day my Friend from America (thank you Pippi!) posted this recipe on Facebook. As I have plenty of dandelions growing in what we call the Little Orchard - a part of our garden where we don't cut the grass and let the wild flowers glow freely - I couldn't resist not to give it a go. Last Sunday morning Junior and I went for a walk  and had fun gathering the gold flowers in to  a little basket. Then we made a mess in the kitchen :D The shortbread were delicious!

I will however make some changes in the recipe next time I'm going to bake these cookies:
- you really don't want to use brown flour! you won't see the petals in it once the cookies are baked :( and it doesn't need to be rice flour, ordinary white wheat flour works just fine.
- you don't want to use brown sugar for the same reason. I used brown muscovado cane sugar and it made the pastry even darker
- to my taste there is too much sweetness so I will use either the honey OR sugar, not both together

I know, it's not a typical post you would expect to see in a blog with "permaculture" in the title :) but I will write here about everything that is going on in our garden. Mostly you'll read about plants, how I grow them and why. I will also write about what I do with the plants, with the crops and - yes, you guessed - WHY we do what we do and the way we do it :D See you next time!