24 December 2020
It was the day before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Except for my arthritic old furchild, Ponchos, groaning to find a comfortable spot by my feet!
24 December! Wow, how did that happen? Things feel all topsy turvy this year. And while there are some 2020 elements that I'd like Father Christmas to hitch up to his sleigh and ditch over the Bermuda Triangle, never to be seen again, there are a few lessons that I hope we'll hold on to.
While our big social gatherings have been cut down, it means that when we are able to visit friends or family members, we truly focus on that couple, without the checking of a box that we've seen everyone in a big group, with only superficial chatting. And when we don't see those family members face to face, we've become better at using digital technology to make contact. My 75 year old aunt got a tour of my garden yesterday, from the comfort of her home in Cape Town.
This year, I got to see talents that I never knew my family members had! Byron mastered baking and is gradually passing the skill on to me (when I'm not melting bits of my arm to Herbie the Herbinator's interior, that is). My mom (Celia) has always been the baking queen, but has extended this talent to jams and preserves. My dad (Sven)'s garden has just exploded with produce with the fabulous rains we've been having. My brother-in-law Andrew has such a logical approach to problem-solving and is not too shabby at peeling pecan nuts either! Marijke is an excellent people person, keeping our clients happy and making sure orders are coordinated within each team member's chaotic schedule! Joshua is a computer whizz, set up our initial website and is our go-to tech guy. Hannah is the reigning crunchie baking queen, and even when we follow the same recipe, we just can't get ours to come out as perfect as the chewy bites of goodness that Hannah does. Kirsty brings a creativity injection with her social media management and website revamp. She's also a problem-solver of note, when we're trying to get goods to clients and teleportation hasn't been invented yet. Arienne is learning to identify herbs by the shape of their leaves and has become an expert at rescuing Christmas beetles from puddles. People say you shouldn't mix business and family, but there's nobody else I'd rather be on this adventure with.
Byron is very blessed to still have both his grandmothers in his life. Granny Lily (GG, for Great Granny, as Arienne knows her) is a sewing whizz. When I was pregnant with Arienne she gifted me a pair of dungarees. Pregnant or not, those dungarees are the most comfortable outfit I own! Perfect for gardening, light and cool with long pockets for seeds or my phone to capture garden critters as I encounter them. Also, when crouching down to ground level, butt crack exposure is eliminated by the fact that the straps come up over your back and the painful plumber's crack sunburn of the pale gardener is avoided...
During lockdown, Granny was sewing away and managed to draw off the pattern and sew a few more pairs of dungarees. Being anti-plastic as we are, I was not so keen on plastic buttons and the search began for wooden ones. These are finally ready and we'll be launching our gorgeous dungarees early in January.
With maskne being a real thing, my skin takes a real hammering having to wear a mask in public, which redirects all exhalation back onto your face and traps moisture under your mask. We'll be adding a face mask to our offerings this week (not the kind for breathing through, the kind for applying to your face as a beauty treatment). A blend of activated charcoal, bentonite clay and essential oils, all you have to do is add water, apply and leave for ten minutes before washing off. The tingly mint essence leaves you feeling refreshed, awake and ready to face (see what I did there?) another day! As an added bonus, it's hilarious when your kids walk in and see your face schmeared with charcoal! I made a feeble attempt to take photos to capture the relaxing effect of indulging in a bit of "me time" when applying the mask. The end result just proved to me that I should stick to text as a medium, because all I captured photographically was eyebrowless comedy!
While most people are winding down for December, our work is amping up in the garden. The abundant blessing of rain means abundant production of spinach, tomatoes, pepperdews, grapes, cabbage, herbs and the list goes on. This means harvesting, preserving and weed control. A busy past few weeks for me has meant a bit of a weed jungle explosion in the pepperdew bed. Luckily I'm of the gardening approach of "don't work harder, work smarter," and my lazy gardening approach also happens to coincide with soil preservation strategies. Instead of plucking weeds by their roots, leaving naked soil exposed, vulnerable to erosion and evaporation of all the precious rainfall, my strategy is to smother them. Repurposed cardboard boxes are flattened and trampled with well-worn gum boots along the paths between the veggies. This way, the weeds have grown and captured carbon from the atmosphere in their lifespan (yay, weeds) and trapped under the cardboard layers will start to decompose and add valuable nutrients back into the soil. In the rows of veg between the pepperdew, marigold and spinach plants, the weeds are plucked out by their roots, and the soil is immediately covered with straw to keep moisture in and smother any potential weed seeds lurking in the freshly turned soil. Our raised beds are proving to be excellent weed avoiders, as we've packed them so full of veg that the weeds don't have a spot of soil to peep through!
The past few months have seen us start this tiny little business that we are super proud of. It's such a reward to bring products in packaging that we buy back (R5 off your next order for each glass bottle returned), or which is recyclable or biodegradable. We strive, as far as possible, to only include organic ingredients, whether grown in our own garden, purchased from suppliers, or gifted to us by friends. For example, we've just been gifted a whole whack of green figs, picked from my friend Zinette's tree, which Celia is in the process of bottling to make green fig preserve. Our bread is made from stone-milled flour, free from preservatives and your gut will thank you for choosing our sourdough variety to aid in digestion. All in all, I can't believe all that we have managed to achieve in such a challenging year. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of friends, family and customers far and wide. We are so grateful for each order, post like or share and the awesome feedback that we get. We have plenty of plans for 2021, and hope to grow this little project of ours to continue making a difference for the planet, and the people who inhabit it.
Claire
Christmas garden elf
Wannabe face mask model
Dungaree addict