After a balmy morning, clouds rolled in, temperatures dropped, and icy winds began to blow. But there were adventures to be had, so I bundled up against the cold and headed to Oma’s house with a bag of limes for her and her family.

A while ago Oma planted heaps of garlic in her paddock, both one-cloved Russian garlic and regular garlic. They are now strapping seedlings and she invited me over to gather her garlic bounty to plant in my garden. I was thrilled!!

Russian garlic

Bear and I love garlic. Roasted, fried, tucked into nearly every savory dish we eat, it is definitely a favorite around here and we never seem to have enough.

Oma’s grandchildren, Katie and Alex, went out there with us, digging down into the black soil Southern Queensland is famous for. The bulbs smelled absolutely amazing, and we were delighted to find that even the ground smelled like garlic.

Everyone piled their pickings into my hands and I now have about 100 garlic seedlings ready to tuck into place in my garden.

picking garlic seedlings

Then we went over to Oma’s orchard where she pointed out the sweetest little bird’s nest perched in the branches of one of her fruit trees.

bird nest

One of her quince trees has new shoots sprouting up around it, and Oma and Katie hacked and dug and pulled one out for me to grow at home. I’m so excited. Last year Oma gave me quinces off her tree and I made the most luscious liqueur with it. Once my own tree starts producing, I’m looking forward to making more liqueur and several jars of quince paste to go with our current favorite cheese, triple cream brie.

digging up a quince tree

After the work was done, we went for a wander around the farm, stopping to look at the fat and gorgeous chickens before heading to the pig pen to see Oma’s three beauties. Who could resist those adorable faces?

three little pigs

 

Later this week Oma and Katie are coming over to tackle part two of making apple wine. We taste-tested today and it is mighty potent stuff with a marvelous fragrance. A bit more sugar syrup for sweetness and time to age and it’s going to be a mighty fine brew.

I’m so grateful for kind and generous friends who share their knowledge and fruits of their labors. It’s so much fun to learn and work together.

What projects are you tackling this week? xo