seasons

Like seasons in the weather there are seasons in our lives.

As the rain fell in fat drops this morning Sol sat inside at Cakes and Ale looking so grown up drinking an apple juice while I tried to dodge getting wet taking this photo.

Each winter for as long as he can remember my husband has chased the sun. And now as a family when the chill hits Victoria we head north. This year to Alice Springs where Pete will work with Indigenous Elders and the boys and I will immerse ourselves in a place we have never spent time in before. There is nothing like travel for stretching our experience and view of the world.

While I've never been much of a winter person, I do my best to embrace the changing seasons. Sure I'm looking forward to soaking up some winter sun but over the past month I've been enjoying the winter light and colours here on the Peninsula, our wood fire, endless pots of soup and slow cooked meals, adding layers to my winter wardrobe with local op shop finds and generally hibernating and being a bit more 'inner'.

My family entered a new season this year with Sol, our youngest, starting school. The baby/toddler/pre school years are officially over. Like any transition there's been some bumpy moments and we're all finding our new places but nearly 6 months in we're settling well. As with most seasonal changes it is rarely what your prediction might lead you to imagine.

Embrace the season.

Do you have a favorite?

cherry ripe

They're here! Those completely delightful plump, crimson stone fruit that herald Christmas here in Australia.

Cherry season is short - November to January - I'm happy to eat them everyday they're available. And so it seems are River and Sol. For the past few mornings we have eaten them for breakfast, the boys have hunted through the bowl looking for cherries joined by the stem to hang over their ears, some childhood pleasures are timeless.

There are over 1000 cherry varieties and while the crimson varieties are the most widely available, there are varieties that merge into deep purply black colours and yellow skinned varieties too. Sweet cherries are the ones we love to eat fresh, the sour varieties are best for cooking.

Cherries are a good source of vitamin C and are rich in health giving antioxidants making them perfect for breakfast, lunchboxes, snacks or dessert. Anytime really!

Living on the Mornington Peninsula I am lucky to live near cherry orchards where visitors can pick their own. This is the first year River and Sol have been old enough to join me on a cherry harvest. If the weather is friendly this weekend we will head to Red Hill Cherry Farm and pick cherries straight from the source.

How about you?  Are cherries a favorite? Do you eat them fresh or cook with them?  

what's in season?

Autumn is here. The tomato vines in our vegie garden are feeling the beat of the rain falling hard on them today. I plucked the last of the cherry tomatoes yesterday and we have gone from giving away bags of them, to treasuring each of the last ones as if they’re rare and precious gems.

I stopped at the local farm this morning and filled my eco-bag with parsnips, potatoes, onions, eggs, coriander and ginger. Pete pulled a pumpkin from our garden that will be chopped up and added to a pot to meet with the ingredients from the farm (minus the eggs) and become pumpkin soup. I love chopped fresh  coriander scattered across pumpkin soup.

This morning on his way out the door Pete requested more dahl, so I’ll make a pot of that too another good match with the coriander.

And with so much silverbeet in the garden my version of quiche is on the ‘to cook’ list this afternoon. I never use cream to make a quiche it’s too rich for me, I’ll use some fetta and ricotta and post the recipe and photos here another time soon.

Back to celebrating autumn. I like to honour the change of seasons. It is one simple way to reconnect or stay connected with nature. After 5 years of being part of the Steiner community here on the Peninsula, the honouring of the seasons was something I enjoyed about the Steiner philosophy (I’m by no means a strict follower of all the Steiner ways, but taking River to Steiner playgroup and kinder was a perfect way for me to meet like minded folk).

A simple way to acknowledge the seasons is to have a nature table in your home decorated in the colours of the season and with some of nature’s treasures, the most obvious one for autumn of course being leaves in all their varying colours. And perhaps some fruits and vegetables of the season.

Autumn is the season for these fruits and vegetables...

This list is a compilation from here , here and here .

Fruit

Apples, bananas, pears, Valencia oranges, figs, grapes, melons and strawberries.

Vegetables

Beans, beetroot, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chillies, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leeks, onions, parsnip, peas, potato, pumpkin, silverbeet, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips and zucchini.

On this rainy afternoon a crafty idea to do with children (or for grown-ups feeling arty) is to make a seasonal produce poster and stick on your fridge. Write or print out the list of fruit and veg in season then cut out pictures of fruit and veg from magazines or draw and colour them in.

For further seasonal produce information and inspiration visit The Melbourne Foodie, The Foodies’ Diary. The Foodies’ Diary takes over from The Seasonal Produce Diary the first one written by renowned Melbourne chefs and food writers Alan Campion and Michele Curtis.