Due to the slightly weird year we've had with an unusual amount of cold, most of my basil is well into the flowering stage already so I took the opportunity to give it all a good trim and create my favourite healthy snack. As you can see in the above image I had to review my recipe from this time last year in order to remind myself of the quantities! Thank goodness for Hive. Thank goodness too the price which has been rather enjoyable lately, peaking at around $1.14 last night.
I could in this moment easily slip into a long monologue about how the world's most popular decentralised social media site is perfectly poised to accept the flood of masses who are waking up to the reality that sites such as Facebook & Twitter will never offer the kind of freedom we experience here, or indeed the rewards! But something tells me you've seen a few of those kind of posts already, so I'm just gonna stick to pesto. With a few family shots for you at the end.
Hey presto, it's pesto!
We anticipated being able to save some into the winter last year but it was all eaten so quickly. To remedy this I grew a whole bunch more than usual, mostly in the courtyard where they are better protected from bugs.
These two in the palate planter were the biggest and had started to take over the tomatoes, so they were the first to receive their trim. Having collected a ton of seeds last year I am happy to chop the flowers at this stage.
In the main planter they were taking over the chives. And we can't have that ;)
So, into the processor everything goes and it's time to eat. For those of you wanting this recipe please check my pesto article from last year.
Ideally served with some of my freshly baked sourdough bread.
I mentioned in my last post we have an abundance of tomatoes at the moment which is great because these make the perfect accompaniment.
The flavour combination is out of this world and my lunch was thoroughly enjoyable after nine months with no pesto!
Am currently training the tomatoes to grow in an arch around the entrance to our living room. All in all a very enjoyable and peaceful place to eat lunch and do my work when I am alone.
In other news Esteban & Luna are doing great, enjoying their summer, unaware for the most part of what is happening in the world.
Luna has glasses these days, but they are not like regular glasses. She only wears them for a few hours a day and there is no prescription, just a glaze over her normal eye, forcing her magic eye to work harder. The eye doctors think it will help. Not so sure about this myself and I preferred the sessions she was doing with the energy worker, but unfortunately she has quit her job as she cannot continue her work legally without being vaccinated.
Esteban is so in love with the piano it is the first thing he does every morning.
Working through the lessons on the ipad app he is improving super fast, playing confidently with both hands at the same time now.
It brings me a huge amount of joy listening to him playing. He has even started composing his own tunes and I am sure it won't be long before he is drawn to writing songs like his papa. On that note I am writing one currently which is a bit more upbeat than the previous few. Perhaps I will start posting my songs here. For some reason they seem more personal & private than these posts and I struggle to share.
Finally I wanted to tell you something I am seriously excited about! We tasted our first French mangoes from a local producer today and they are simply magnificent. Esteban & Luna remember mangoes from Bali and they are even more excited than me.
They are smaller than usual but more intense too! Naturally I have kept the stones and will be planting them immediately. This is what the kids ate for pudding today, with grapes from the garden.
Oh yes, last thing... I have a coffee machine! Don't know how it took my entire life to get to this moment, always accepting filtered coffee as being good enough? Now that I have a machine I realise it is so much more enjoyable this way!
While I know coffee is not the most natural way to start the day I also know that coffee beans won't be available forever. At least not at a price I am willing to pay, so I'm just going to enjoy little pleasures such as this until I can't. And that's it.
Love & Light everyone 🌱
