The Last of September – What I learnt from the Challenge.

For the last meal of the Home Grown September Challenge we had roast lamb slathered in a yogurt, lavender and garlic paste.  Roasted baby pumpkin, roasted beets, roasted shallots tossed in rosemary and hot butter and a huge green salad with an olive oil, cider vinegar and fresh rosemary dressing. All home grown.

Today the last of the lamb will be ground up and made into Lamb rissoles served with a green salad. So October 1st will be all home grown as well.

In fact I could go on eating straight from the farm and will.  If  I had to eat only what I can grow I would not be hungry.  But there were some things I missed.

This is the sun rising over the corn this morning.  Into the fog.

I longed for nuts, seeds, oats, lemons, avocadoes, oranges, bought cheeses (though I made fresh cheese) , chick peas, deep red kidney beans, fish, cured meats (something we are going to learn this winter) , the store bought organic greek yoghurt with honey (my weakness) and store bought spaghetti (I can make  pasta for just about everything except spaghetti).

Tui flying out of the barn yesterday morning.

 And really that is about all. Oh and frozen peas. I love frozen peas.  So on my shopping list this week is nothing.  Because I have most of these things in my pantry and freezer anyway and piles of all the usual in the garden. We are having a lovely long summer – food is still growing. 

Mostly I have learnt how little we actually do need. Plus if I really have to try and use what we have on hand  and not waste any of it, I find I am a better cook.  Though my list of ingredients was shorter, my list of meals was much more diverse and interesting.  I did go through periods of frustration but by the end of the month I was just rocking along.  Of course I ate out with the family when they went out. And I would stare longingly at the frozen peas in the freezer wishing to cheat.  But all in all the month of eating only what I can grow was remarkably satisfying. Now if I had said I will only DRINK what I can grow there may have been trouble.

Daisy scratching an itch on her favourite scratching post.

The greatest lesson is to stop being fancy in the garden and to grow the staples. Lots of them.   Potatoes, garlic, cabbages and onions particularly. Just get down and do the work, early in the season.  Plant ’til it hurts.

And I know for sure now, that there is very little that I need from the supermarket. Though there are some things that I want.  But you can’t always get what you want!

Mouse told me yesterday that when she was small her Dad hung sacks out for the cows to wipe their faces through, dislodging flies. After all they cannot reach their faces with their tails.   She described this as like hanging washing on a line. Maybe I was going at it wrong, I thought and rehung my  burlap coffee sacks in the tree like tea towels, then dropped a little DE into the base.

When I came back from the feed store  – look who I found enjoying the sacks.  And not a fly on her face. Just before this Daisy had been standing with her head on the sack just to the left of Queenie. Voila!

What an outstanding idea. Thank you Mouse. I will be doing this for years to come. Just as long as Sheila does not find them!

Good morning. I hope we get clear skies this October, I am looking forward to some star gazing shots and the Night Sky Challenge.  I hope you can take some too, or draw them, or make poems and stories about them or simply say “The stars were beautiful last night.”  We will all be looking at the same moon. What a lovely thought.  Our sky. No rules though. I had enough rules in September!

I hope you all have a lovely day.

Your friend on the farm, celi