So, a small pleasure for today!
Well, three things came together and make me feel very grateful that I live in 2020. First of all I was sorting the presents to put away and I found the butternut squash which a friend had grown and given me. Then another friend fetched me two lemons. And the first seed catalogue of the season dropped on the mat.
And I feel so grateful for the lovely variety of food which I can get and grow,
I was a very lucky little girl in that my Father and my Grandfather both grew wonderful vegetables. Both grew carrots, parsnips, potatoes, beans, onions, peas, and other traditional vegetables. Daddy had more leisure time than Grandad and he grew other things like asparagus, raspberries, cucumbers, and sprouting broccoli but basically the food we ate at either house was fresh and seasonal. Tomatoes were a greenhouse crop so they had to be bought.
During my lifetime the seedsmen have done great things in creating reliable and tasty strains of vegetables. We can grow a far wider variety in our gardens - the nearest thing to a butternut squash that Daddy grew was the dreaded marrow, of which the least said the better. I grow tomatoes in the open garden every year, along with peppers, aubergines and sweetcorn which were unheard of when I was a girl. The seed catalogues tempt me with Oca, Yakon, Callaloo and Inca and the tomatoes run to seven pages! Commercial growers doubtless can grow even more
We still import a lot of fruit and vegetables: too much I fear but that may be another post as this one is about joy. However, I shall enjoy the lemons brought for me today just as I enjoyed the pineapple which I had at Christmas.
So my source of pleasure today is quite simply food, beautiful, varied, colourful and plentiful.
We are so very blessed in the abundance of food, compared to many others.
ReplyDeleteWe are indeed blessed with such a wide variety. I love this time of year browsing the seed catalogues and making plans for the garden.
ReplyDeleteWe really have an abundance of good food. Not like in days long ago.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your lemons and squash.
God bless.
Enjoy those lemons! Makes me want some sweet iced tea with lemon! An American southern thing.
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa had an allotement, whenever I ate at their house it would be fresh vegetables which were on my plate. My dad grew veg in the garden on a smaller scale. I used to take those veggies for granted when I was a child, now I'm in awe of the amount of food they actually grew.
ReplyDelete