farmers for a morning (sort of)

On Monday morning, we went to pick apricots for jam making and walnuts for liquer making. It was a hot sunny morning spent in the stunning countryside feeling connected with earth, nature and my own sweat.

I, with my citified ways, was completely ignorant of the fact that walnuts, before they turn brown with their hardened shell, are green and look like fruit. I guess perhaps they are fruit. To make liquer with, they need to be picked before they fall off the tree and turn brown. One of things that came out of spending a week in the Italian countryside was me wondering how things are grown. Like, for example, do you know how lentils grow? I didn't. They come from pods, like peas, but they are smaller and there aren't as many lentils in a pod as there are peas. There's so much I take for granted and am ignorant of, with shopping for my supermarket food. Like the concept of seasonal fruit and vegetables for example. Na and Mr M have an allotment and also know a bunch of organic farmers so they are practically self-sufficient and eat mainly locally grown, organic produce in season. It made buying bananas and potatoes feel very strange, things Paul and I do all the time in London! And that's not even getting into the whole question of how ethical the banana business is.

Plus the whole week we were there, we didn't watch any TV (Na and Mr M don't have a TV, nor a fridge) and hardly spent any time on the computer. Being there made me realise how much space city life occupies, space that was suddenly freed when we were not being bombarded by announcements, adverts and other noise and loudness. For a week, my head felt clear. And it's left me with a desire to find a way to rediscover and keep some of that clarity now that I'm back in London again.

Anyway, this is a photo of me and my friend mr apricot who was clearly delighted at being found. It was a happy moment for me too. I'm not even too sad to report that he's now part of a jar of homemade jam. It's how he would have wanted it to be.

We also stopped by a lovely church (pictures above) on the way home.

For some truly luscious photos and a bit more on jam and liquer making, go here.