Nighttime Harvests

It's late Autumn, already dark outside and I need to get some more food in for the rabbits. I don't feel like it, but as I ponder on the easiest thing to grab for them I recall the grapevine still needs trimming back as it tries to make a break for it over the roof of the house. Its leaves are all red and many of them have been shed, but there are plenty still attached. As I grab my head torch and decide I should finally actually get onto the roof, instead of attempting to reach a few strands from a step ladder, I actually feel more enthused about the pending rabbit food hunt.

^{The offspring of the vine to be tackled, attempting to conquer her own, smaller roof.}

The step ladder just needs some big buttons thumping in and it converts into a standard ladder. It's just a small matter to retrieve it and lean it against the gutter. As I climb the rungs up to the roof The Drifters song, Up on the Roof starts to play in my head and continues to serenade me as I chop away at the vines and tug the tendrils from their grasps on the tiles, all the while being cautious to not to lose my footing.

I recall the birthday (was it my 12th?) when my mum took me to see The Drifters in concert as they toured the UK in the 80s. She’d asked me if I liked the idea of a concert and played some of their songs for me. I remember being excited and clapping with the audience when a song I recognised from my mum's tapes began to play. After the concert my mum bought me their album and we lined up to have the insert signed by each of the group members. One of them signed it then held it back from me while tapping his cheek. I had no idea what he was trying to communicate and looked at my mum in confusion. It turned out he wanted a peck on the cheek, at which point I got thoroughly embarrassed, because I hadn't understood, then felt too awkward to kiss him on the cheek. I did, eventually, as that was going to be the only way out of the situation. Don't worry, he wasn't creepy or anything, but I wonder how that would be viewed today.

As I manoeuvre the tangled bundle to the edge of the roof and push it over the edge between the ladder and the washing line I hope it doesn't take one or the other down with it as it flails out tendrils in a bid to halt its plunge. It's only a single story building and there are other ways down, but it's easier just to go back down the ladder.

Once safely back on Terra Firma, I select some of the freshest looking stems for the rabbits’ enjoyment then, now on a roll, I return to see what other goodies I can fetch them. They like variety, after all. The sweet basil is still going, but flowering desperately trying produce some seeds before winter hits. I've left one to go to seed and the rest I'm keeping producing by cutting off the flower heads. There are so many that they mostly go to the rabbits, but sometimes I’ll take the good leaves and fresh buds for what I'm cooking, passing on the fibrous stems and flowers to the rabbits. They enjoy it all as the fibre helps them to digest and it's good for their teeth to chew on as well.

^{This is the first time I've seen purple flowers on basil.}

The rabbits get excited every time I take something in for them, fuelling my enthusiasm for another foray back out into the dark. I see what weeds I can find in the most neglected area of the garden.

A sow thistle comes up with a bit of a tug. I whack the dirt off, because they'll enjoy the root as well. I take a small diversion as I spot a burr medic clover amongst the last of the onions behind the retaining wall.

The root has mealy bugs on it, so I set it aside. The wood burner is lit inside, so I can cut off and cremate the root. Back in the jungle I spot a mallow plant that is going gangbusters. I try to tug it out, but it's holding fast, so I return to the front door to retrieve my secateurs, trying not to trample some rather nice looking red chard as I go. Mallow retrieved, I collect up the sow thistle and burr medic, then make the perilous journey back to the house, making sure to hebt die Füße (raise you feet), as my grandmother used to say, to avoid tripping on the tangled undergrowth. I operate to remove the infected root from the burr medic, before replacing my equipment and heading inside. After conducting a brief funeral for the severed root I continue to bring the new gifts to four delighted rabbits.

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This year the garden has taken a back seat and has had minimal input from me. Apart from making sure it's had enough water, by propping the hose over areas at a time to get a good soak, most of the my input has been incorporated into multi-tasking in this way. The onions seeded themselves prolifically and had to be thinned out and weeded. As I worked I'd have a pile of those big enough to be used as spring onions, a bucket for the weeds the rabbits can eat and a bucket for the chickens. The chickens can eat onions, but not the rabbits and the smaller weeds can go to chickens, but not the larger fibrous weeds, which are better processed by the rabbits, anyway. Once thinned out and well enough watered I got the best crop of onions I've had in a while.

I had some volunteer tomatoes, which I transplanted and supported, before moving the chickens into the area they'd chosen to emerge. A friend also gave me some of her own volunteer tomato plants and the result was that I had more tomatoes than we could use and they were all the cherry sized tomatoes, so I wasn't about to try and prepare and preserve them. I just gave away what I could and any that went past their best the chickens enjoyed and are still enjoying. Yes, it's nearly winter and I can still nip outside for fresh tomatoes.

Despite being mostly left to nature, the garden is still producing food. Admittedly most of it the rabbits and chickens want to eat more than we do, but it could be worse.

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Posted on NaturalMedicine.io