Garlic Harvest

Friday’s mornings drizzle delayed raspberry picking so I was able to harvest the garlic. Our kitchen is never without strings of garlic, in fact there are still half a dozen strings from last years harvest & all as good as the day they where harvested. (I put this down to moon planting & harvesting) It’s a different feeling to harvest a whole crop as apposed to regular fresh harvests and very satisfying .Each year I grow enough for us, the dogs and chooks plus 1/3 is used for planting the next crop. The garlic now dries on the veranda until there is time to sort and plait it and then it’s stored in the kitchen. Probably get around to this sometime after Christmas when the berries are all harvested.

Being busy with the berries means the veggie garden does not receive a lot of attention, but there is plenty happening with the selected plants forming seeds, a variety of new veggies developing from the regular plantings. Visits to the garden are generally to pick what is needed for dinner and water. The tunnel house is like a jungle with tomatoes and cucumbers rapidly developing along with some giant silverbeet. The understory of clover is lush and green. The skinks play hide and seek with Hebe using the clover for cover.

This is a special time for the bees, The raspberries are still abuzz but the main action is in the chestnut orchard and the linden, who’s branches reach down to the ground all covered in blossom and a loud buzz of busy bees.

As the day draws to a close there is elderflower champagne on the veranda as the blue wrens and flame robins collect their last morsels for the day. A final, hopeful visit to the white shahtoot mulberry by the geese as the sun begins to fade and they finally take their gosling’s home for the evening.