A combine harvester is working on our neighbouring field this evening: a true sign that summer has matured. For weeks now have been enjoying the view of the golden fields of oats getting heavier and heavier from ripening grains.  Although they soon will be gone this announces just a beginning of harvest in our garden.

The kitchen garden around the house is just utter bliss to look at.  There is an abundance of vegetables in all their colours, shapes and fragrance. A great testament to all those months of hard work. It is still uneasy to admit digging, sawing and painstaking weeding was time well spent but looking at the garden in its best made all that effort worthwhile.

There is a massive humbling sense of achievement when you are sitting down to a meal made from your own produce. The freshest taste, the look and the aroma make you question what you sensed before and then re-define crispiness of gem lettuce, sweetness of tomato, freshness of runner beans or beauty of the rainbow chard.

For that reason we dread the time in the future we will need to surrender to supermarkets for off-season supply of vegetables. Our assigned kitchen garden is too small to support our needs all-year-round. At least for now… next year things may change as Matt is already re-planning the garden to accommodate his poly-tunnel! It is all top secret but I feel my flowers will get evicted…