Winding Down & Preparing
Winding Down + Preparing
This year has seen me learn a lot about growing my own food. We designed + built our own kitchen garden in the back of our house, and I set to work growing in it. It was mainly experimental this year, without too much concern for how much I actually managed to grow. I wanted to learn the lessons now, so I could reap the benefits of the food in the years to come.
One thing this last 18 months has taught me is that I want to be as self-sufficient/sovereign as possible, and growing our own food is a huge part of that. I am not someone to hang around to ‘wait + see’, I take action quickly, and I am so glad I did because I have learnt so much already; and I have actually managed to grow a reasonable amount of food. I know what I need to change for next year, and I am ready for it.
In the meantime I am planting things out still: Kohl Rabi, turnips, winter lettuces, Kai Lan, coriander, and spinach. I am nurturing my squashes until they are ready to harvest with the first frost. I am enjoying watching my leeks + fennel grow, and Savannah is loving picking our domestic blackberries + Autumn raspberries.
Yesterday + today I spent some time out there harvesting seeds to save: coriander, spinach, sunflower, calendula + poppy, as well as pulling out plants that have finished their season, ready to make way for the lettuces I plan to replace them with for the winter season.
I have started planning for Spring already, including charging Josh with putting up our new greenhouse.
One of the things I have learnt is that waiting until March is not ideal to properly have a chance of growing your own garden. Whilst the winding down is happening now, the preparation is too.
Being in this space - growing my own food, foraging, bringing it together in the form of healthy meals for myself + my love ones - it feels like home to me. It is how we are meant to live; the slow yet purposeful pace of it all. It is how we thrive: physically, emotionally, spiritually. I am so excited to share what I have learnt, and the experience of what we learn together, next year. .
This week’s Podcast Intuitive Birth
This week I am guided towards: A Lesson in Ethics