It was probably about six months ago that I buried King Stropharia mushroom spores along the edge of the path at the bottom of the front vegetable garden. Yesterday I noticed that one mushroom had popped its head up. Yes!! My first harvest of edible mushrooms that I had inoculated. I was very excited. It grew quite large before I had noticed it. I'll be keeping an eye out now and will try to harvest before they fully open their caps in future.
While out in the front garden I continued planting garlic where my corn has been. Matt had commented once - why do you need so much garlic?? During this harvest period it was reinforced for me why in fact I do need a lot of garlic. A lot of my preserving recipes call for garlic use so I've been able to throw in lots with no fear of running out. I also hope to grow plenty to share and maybe to sell. You get lots of choices when you have something in abundance but no choice without!
I noticed my beans where all starting to die off and dry out. I pulled down a few vines that had completely finished and will leave the pods to dry fully before removing the gorgeous dried beans. Last year I had left them all to do in one hit but I think the local mouse population decided I'd left it for them. Not giving them the same opportunity this year!
I've shown a few people around the place lately and there was one spot down along the bottom of the dam where some ruts had been created a year and a half ago that I had to keep telling people to walk carefully through to avoid rolling an ankle. Finally it occurred to me that perhaps I should do something about it so I don't hurt myself at some point also. It's amazing how quickly potential issues can be resolved just be putting it on the list. It took all of 10 mins to bash down the ruts and smooth it out. A little hard to make out in the photos but it's a big improvement. Why it took a year and a half ? Just hadn't made the list!!
A trip to the pub for lunch with the ladies of Kardella today. Nice to catch up with the neighbours. Returned home for a bit more kitchen time, a little tidying up then called it a day!