Winter gifts from the garden

One of the few barometers a garden has is the ability to deliver ‘on demand’.

And so it was this weekend – the first since planting-out finished a week ago – when fate conspired to boost social demands upon cook and gardener just as gardening demands finally began to wind down.

“A fortieth birthday party – we’re invited!” says cook to gardener.

So the gardener forages about while the cook delivers on her promise to join the ladies in Pilates/stretching/yoga to start the birthday off.

Without driving anywhere the gardener does his own stretching, bending, kneeling, cutting, lifting and produces a gift basket containing

1. carrots
2. garlic
3. sunflower blooms and decorative chilli sprigs
4. curly-leafed parsley
5. grapefruit
6. chocolate capsicums
7. oranges
8. lemons
9. sunflower seeds
10. Royal oak-leaf lettuce
11. spring onions
12. celery
13. broad-bean seed
14. butternut pumpkin
15. basil and
16. assorted chillies