WILD PEARS, POTATOES, BUTTERNUT SQUASH, WILD PLUMS...FORRAGING

The first outing of the Tea Cosies...

Dont' I look proud at my first craft fair...I tell you I am so happy I could burst, which would, lets face it make a bit of a mess...|In case you wish to know, it went well...in unexpected ways and people really liked my stuff and I learnt loads and it was such fun! What I will remember is that people want to learn "how to" nowadays. They do not wish to buy stuff much but are really keen to learn stuff so I'll be organising little workshopettes to teach the skills I am learning by the way I live, the endless gifts I am given.

Its gleaning time, dear friends and the harvest is amazing. Around where I live, after all has been harvested, the farmers don't mind (I have checked) if you go in the fields and help yourself to what is left behind by the machines. My lovely farmer friend Garry says that it all gets ploughed back in anyway so might as well help myself!

And I do...potatoes at the moment, all different shapes, the ones that Mr. Mark & SainsTesAsco does not want because they are not pretty enough or whatever... they end up in my lovely bag and then in my cooking pot. Its good for the muscle tone as well, no need to go to the gym when you can walk around the land collecting kilos of fruits and vegetables and then carry them home. In my world, it is not cricket (O how English I have become) to use the car to go gleaning or indeed wooding, it has got to be done by foot and hand.

And the land at the moment is just amazing. The harvest is in, the wheat is cut down and they have started ploughing. The black earth is being churned for the winter tide and smells beautiful. I had my nose in it this morning and it was warm and delicious. The season is turning. And I want to dance with gratitude. There is so much...so much to harvest!

So much work to pot everything and transform it into delicious "butters" and "cheeses". That is the thing. To collect, gather, make takes patience and time. Its like a prayer really. Slowly picking the sloes, patiently gathering the damsons. Squinting in the sunshine to see the berries. I believe berries hide in the first instance and then when they realise you will only take what you need and not more and leave some for the birds then they de-cloak and there are hundreds of them.

I love "seeing" things I did not even know existed when I moved to the country three years ago. I went for a forage with a friend this morning and was able to point out hazels, brambles, wild apples, crab apples, damsons, within minutes. Where once, I was only seeing a mass of green, I can now see, see all the nuts, the berries, because I have learnt to look. Not look for, not look because, no...just look and then suddenly I see!

May you get to "see" what needs to be seen to make your week a happy one! Oh and there was a skylark too!