Harvest festival in the rain

Well, the wet summer has turned into a wet winter here in northern NSW, and the Webster family is flooded in again, thanks to plenty of unseasonable rain, a high creek and a low causeway.

Yes, it’s home schooling time. Lesson one is how to have three children and two parents trapped at home for long periods without anyone turning into Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Lesson two is how to use a break in the weather to harvest some food.

Just now, the rain let up and we went outside to see what we could find. A bit of digging, a bit of picking and a bit of collecting later, and we have about 20kg of sweet potatoes from a 3mx2m bed, about 10kg of oranges from an old run-down tree that I have revitalised with some pruning and compost over the past couple of years, and half-a-dozen eggs from the chook house.

So at least we won’t starve. And the kids are getting a valuable education at the same time. 

Photo: Simon Webster