My gorgeous Yule gifted fruit bowl from Brett Hamlyn filled with the harvest from our 2 1/2 year old, mostly verge and laneway planted fruit trees.
One of my treasures. I’ve posted pictures of it full of winter, spring and summer harvests of fruit, and here it is, just past the Autmn equinox, full again. This one is extra special cos this is not harvest from our 30 year old orchard, but harvest from our 2 1/2 year old suburban permaculture retrofit.
But the cabbage moths have arrived, and I think that’s about the end for this year. We’ve had a good three months of harvesting broccolini, cauliflowers, kale, pak choi, napa cabbage, mustard. But from now on it’s not worth it, at least not here in the sub-tropics.
Back in midwinter, I posted a picture of my new, very beautiful fruit bowl – a Yule gift – filled with winter fruit – oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruit. Then in Spring I posted a picture of it filled with spring fruit – pawpaws and strawberries in my part of the world. And now it is full of mangoes and grapes.
Strawberries should be a luxury food. A couple of months of indulgence a year, sweetened by a whole year of waiting. There’s this thing with seasonal luxury foods, that they start out expensive and the price encourages every kind of scammy hereticism, pushing them to grow until you get something that is cheap and very very nasty.
Back in June, I posted a picture of my new very beautiful Yule gift of this fruit bowl, filled with mid-winter fruit. Now it is strawberries and pawpaws in my part of the world. They make my very favourite breakfast smoothie. (Maybe I lie there. I have many favourites).
Some years I don’t bother with European cabbage. My winters are short. The cabbage moths are active right into autumn, and back by mid-Spring. Cabbages take up a surprising amount of room. You harvest them once (unlike broccoli or silver beet) and then they’re gone. And then I have a cabbage year and remember why I love them and vow I will plant cabbages every year.