A couple of months ago I wrote a post about time, thinking forward, and how much gardening involves being aware of the seasons in advance. I still get trapped by the turning of the wheel of the year. Stop, I’m not ready for you yet!
There is a little bit of science to this.
When I was a kid, every block in suburban Brisbane had a backyard macadamia tree. Maca season meant finding a good rock with the right kind of hollow to stop the nut flying off, and a good hand sized rock for hitting them with.
For twenty years I’ve been trying to decide whether the lunar calendar is a bit of superstition – an old wives tale that seems to work only because you see what you are looking for – or whether it is folk wisdom accumulated by generations of gardeners with a lot more to lose by getting it wrong than we spoiled Westerners with a supermarket in reserve.
It’s a simple trick: if you whisk egg whites until they are fluffy, they expand, by a huge amount. Add a few tasty low fat ingredients and you can create a big breakfast that is healthy, filling, and very low calorie.
This time of year, part of the evening ritual is chopping some firewood and lighting the slow combustion stove. I’m not a huge fan of winter but I do like the stove. It’s a lovely old Rayburn we bought second hand about 20 years ago, probably half a century or more old. It warms the house, the hot water, the dinner, and the rising bread all at the same time
I went out intending just to plant out the seedlings of the staple root crops – beetroot, carrot, onions, and parsnips – and get another round of them in. (Have a look at last month’s post for my method of starting them off in the shadehouse). And then I just kept going. And now as I sit at the computer I can hear it all being beautifully watered in.
I went out to pick some greens for lunch this morning, thinking there’s not so much in the garden this time of year. Before I knew it though, my basket was full and I was using my shirt to carry the extras. Winter is a surprisingly good growing season in most of Australia.
The dessert version of these is easy, but the healthy lunchbox version is a little trickier. It is still easy enough, though, to be within the bounds of the Muesli Bar Challenge rule: easy enough for busy parents and even kids themselves to be bothered actually making, routinely, for daily school or work lunchboxes.
All these healthy ingredients make up for the fact that, unusually for my lunchbox baking recipes, I think these go better with white flour. They are still good with wholemeal, but there is something about fluffy lemony lightness that makes a midwinter day bright!