The first fruit ...
Today, 1 February, is associated with the pagan festival of Lughnasadh (alternatively Lammas or First Harvest). Of course, in the northern hemisphere this festival would be held on 1 August. Lughnasad is an ancient Celtic festival believed to have originated in Ireland that honours the god Lugh, the Celtic god of light, arts and skills. To celebrate the harvest, Lughnasad is a time of thanksgiving for the bounty of the land and a celebration of the cycles of nature. Apparently, it also marks the beginning of the noticeable descent of the sun into the darkness of winter. So while it is supposed to be a time of joy about the first fruits, it also has an element of tension, because the dark days of winter are approaching.
There have been no major Celtic celebrations at Cracroft Farm to mark Lughnasad, but today does seem an appropriate time to record the fact we have recently been enjoying the first harvest of our own produce. Most satisfying of all is that we have picked our first apples from the domestic orchard. The earliest ripening variety in our orchard is the Vista Bella apple which was developed at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA in the 1950's. According to our local apple expert, Woodbridge fruit trees, it is smallish in size with a lovely perfumed crisp and juicy flesh.
The next cab off the rank will be the Geeveston Fanny, an apple that originates from Geeveston in Tasmania and was popular as a commercial apple during the 1970s. It is a small bright reddish-purple apple with white sweet flesh. The variety is known to be a heavy and regular bearer. We can certainly testify to the heavy copping claim as our tree is just about breaking under the weight of the apples.
We are also enjoying some amazing veggies from our small temporary patch behind the shed, particularly potatoes. In my experience Tasmania is the only place where different varieties of potatoes are regularly on sale. In most places you have a choice between “washed” or “brushed” with some specialty fruit and veggie shops occasionally giving you the option of a Kipfler or a Dutch Cream. We like Pink Eyes and Up To Dates for roasting, Dutch Creams for mashing and Nicola, Kennebec or King Edwards as all-rounders. We have had a great crop of Up To Dates and Nicola varieties which has meant that we have not bought potatoes for a month or more. The only downside is that it has served to emphasise just how many potatoes you need to grow to become self-sufficient! We have also produced heaps of lettuce, rocket and spinach.
The summer continues to be very dry. Despite the fact that we seem to be constantly watering, the garden is showing signs of stress in places. Cath has channelled her inner water engineer into adding a watering system to the olive grove to go with the one she constructed for the apple orchard. The olives meanwhile seem to be loving the dry, hot weather and all the trees are looking in fine fettle.
It seems hard to believe that the days will start to become shorter again now. The light evenings are usually very settled and conducive to working outside and we certainly have used the time well, very often staying out working until 7pm. This doesn't leave much time to clean up, eat and get to bed, knowing that Knut will start barking anytime from 5:00am onwards - a not so gentle reminder that he is a growing puppy who requires constant feeding. In the month and half we have had him, he has more than doubled in size and is now slightly bigger and much heavier than Pepper.
The only good thing about being dragged out of bed by a hungry puppy is that occasionally you are in time to catch the sunrise ...
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