KW-40 The last of September
do you remember... ?
This week at the barracks has seen me mostly not at the barracks. I went up to Berlin to spend some time with friends old and new, see the offspring and sit around in cafes trying to make decisions about writing.
I also meant to go to the cinema and to the theatre, but the film I wanted to see had been booked out for days, and the play was cancelled at the last minute because of illness! In fact, I almost didn’t make it up to Berlin at all and coming back was a nightmare of Deutsche Bahn. But, I did get called Grandpa and I ate a birthday doughnut in the rain, so all in all, a perfect adventure!
On the way back to the ranch yesterday, I read two separate articles about how it was going to be a crappy year for edible mushrooms1, but of course, mushrooms do what they want. Generally speaking, mushroom hunting is a hyper-local experience and I have more faith in the locals here knowing the local woods than I do in celebrity opinion piece for a news channel, and so far I’ve not seen any of the Einheimische roaming the woods with their mushroom knives and their keen eyes. They really know when to come out. Some unspoken glance at the sky, and they know. When it comes to hunting for mushrooms they are super efficiently parsimonious. If I don’t see them in the forest, I don’t think there is much out there.
So far, most of the flowering fungi that I have found, I have found on the barracks, and not in the forest. I plan, however, to have many extended silent forest walks in the coming week to see what can be seen and think what can be thought.
The Week Ahead
This week is going to be spent split evenly between the kitchen and the woodshop.
I haven’t looked at the beans since I got back late last night, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be too soon to be getting started with pulling the first of the dried beans off. Today feels already very blustery, and quite wet, but I am sure there will be a couple of dry days later.
There will be drying of chillies, pickling of onions, and the creation of winter treats. I can do a full winter on potatoes and dried beans and the occasional tomato sauce. There will be fresh green stuff coming off the field even when it is covered in snow. We have a lot of kale and spinach. But a couple of dozen small jars of extra niceies goes a very long way to bringing some colour and variety onto the winter plates.
It looks like it’s time to start raking. The annual raking of the leaves takes many many hours, and every year, I get asked why I bother.
Leaf mould is the best
Leaves in the compost make it better
The melting snow in the spring gets to soak straight into the ground, not to sit rotting leaves on top of the grass
A substantial portion of the carbon capture we do here is from mowing grass. The better the quality of the grass, the faster it can grow. I’m not trying to grow a fine English lawn here, but knowing how to do that, and bringing some of it to my carbon meadow is a very good thing.
Wood working: Tomato house, solar collectors, solar panels, pig fences.
Talking of the pigs - It feels like it’s probably about time to bring them over to their winter accommodations. They have done a fine job of pulling apart this year’s pig house, and have now taken to sleeping outside in all weathers. That’s up to them, right? The crazy porkers can do what they want. But, I think they might be ready for some stone walls and soft straw. Maybe I’ll give them another week.
And as for you, my dear readers, thank you for being here, for all your likes and comments. Remember, winter is coming and I need them more than usual when the skies stay dark and the colours start to disappear.
See you next time, and take care of each other
Your loving Pirate Ben
xoxo
Currently Reading
Another monster of a book. Over 650 pages of the Barnes family in more or less contemporary Ireland. You know how these sorts of things are described as “interwoven” stories? Well, Paul Murray has pretty amazingly managed to create the crossing stories of 4 family members occupying the same space, with almost no mutual overlap. I still have 50 pages to go, and I’m not totally sure what is going to happen to whom ….
Here’s one of them: https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/sachsen/pilze-sammeln-herbst-freizeit-pilzfluencer-berater-100.html
'mushrooms do what they want' , ' the crazy porkers can do what they want'. Loving the Monday morning wisdom! And yes please, write write write!
Hi Ben. Starting to feel cool here too. It's been a great year in my garden and I have a cupboard full of tomato concentrate, sauces and ratatouille. There were 25 butternuts so I shall eek those out over the year; only recently ate the last of last year's! Had the first apples ever on my little tree, huge tasty things ... No idea of the type but very good for both eating and cooking. The fig trees are full of figs but they will never come to anything as it's too cold now to ripen up. The little hard fruits are now dropping. 😞 Like you, I have lots of curly kale and I'm putting my garlic in today and sowing winter salads in the greenhouse. I saw on Gardeners' World a Tibetan man in the UK who was showing his 3 year old pepper plants. He said that they'll continue to grow like trees if you leave them, so as mine are in the greenhouse in the ground, I'm leaving them, pinching them and shall wait to see what happens. He said that they bush out and with a better root, will give more fruits each year. We'll see! I've listened to the book you've recommended and loved it! I always look at the prize lists and as I'm moving about doing stuff all day, I listen to books. Presently I'm listening to CREATION LAKE, by Rachael Kushner .... Topical and genius! I know what you mean about winter ... A lot of little old houses in my village are summer habitations. The owners all go back to Lyon or Saint Etienne and it gets very quiet here. I always try to get away as the garden has no calling. Have a good week!