You have to stretch to get the really good things. Thats the rule.
I'm so glad lovely Julie took a plane and a train and a bus to come all the way here to work and play at Gardenfarm. She wants to see how a beautiful food-growing life can happen, because that could change everything for her future.
Here is today's story. As you read it, try to remember the long-cuts you took instead of short cuts. Thank your younger self for the juicy things that were given you. I'm grateful and amazed that young me bothered to learn Japanese, to sew, to practice cooking for dinner parties. It was hard and unrewarding in the beginning.
I wonder what inconvenient long-cut I can take tomorrow, that future me will be grateful for?
The deliciousness of the Blackberries
by Julie Magnus
Yesterday at Gardenfarm I spent most of the day picking blackberries. Only one task, but a very long one.
I hadn’t had berries from the garden since my childhood. When I was living in Paris, I would buy some very occasionally because they are rare and expensive, even more if organic. And they are always sold in those non reusable plastic boxes, so I’d rather don’t buy the fruit, that generate so much rubbish.
So at first, I was excited, "Yummy fresh blackberries for dessert !!“. But I had forgotten that the blackberry bushes were full of thorns. Thorns on every branches, first big and well spaced, then tinier and next to each other, as they get closer to the fruit. It’s impossible to touch the branch close to the fruit without getting hurt.Â
Blackberries are very delicate, and I had to pick them bare handed, or the fruit would have been damaged. Therefore, it involved a lot of patience, moving one branch after the other to pick them.
To make a little more harder, the fruits easily accessible located on the front of the bush, are usually burnt by the sun, and when they are not, they are very small. The big and juicy blackberries are located in the shade… deep inside the bush ! They looked delicious though… so I scratched my arms and got them anyway. I did all of it with enthusiasm because that’s what it takes to have blackberries on our tables.
What I keep in mind from this day is the deliciousness of the dessert we ate. First, because those organic blackberries from the garden taste amazingly good. A delicate flavour not comparable to the one we find in organic supermarkets. Then, I appreciated the blackberries even more because I know it’s hard work to get them and we are lucky to have some to eat. And, I appreciated even even more the blackberries because I picked them myself. It gave me that sense of a good work accomplished.Â
This blackberry day is why I wanted to do WWOOFing. I wanted to be connected to the food I eat. To remember where our food comes from. To appreciate its deliciousness even more.
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