Early December

Notes From The Field

I can’t tell where the time has gone this year. I know it’s slipping through my fingers at a rapid pace now that the light is falling so early. Come the end of the day, it’s not even close to the real end of the day and I hardly feel prepared for the dark when it arrives, it feels so sudden.

I’m planting crocus, iris reticulata, and muscari this week, perhaps a little late- daffodils too, and the bulbs complaining a little by one of two going squidgy, but they’ll be just fine. It’s getting to the tulip planting moment too- the first few proper cold snaps have come and so it’s time. I’ve been known to put the tulips in as late as January and they were only slightly annoyed by my tardiness, by spring they had forgotten their woes and flowered beautifully. Tulips, it seems, don’t hold a grudge.

Walking the dogs out in the field above the plot at dusk this week, the mists lay like a smoke licking at our heels, breaths caught on the air before vanishing, and the leaves spinning to the ground in a whirligig of yellow. The Autumn-Winter cusp is always full of a melancholic and sweet kind of magic and I love it.

One of my favourite things to do when the nights draw in and the air gets sharply cold, is to cook. We’ve been eating the last of the beetroot crop with a mustardy, dill-packed sauce. The kale crop has been picked and picked at- my friend Emma showed me how to get it really tender to eat it raw and it’s so delicious. You basically have to massage it in a bowl of water for about 5 minutes to break down the fibres a bit- that sounds ludicrous I know, but it’s worth it. Lemon, olive oil and salt on top- so simple, so good, and no pans to wash up at the end.

Now I’m just waiting for the nights to get cold enough to turn the radicchio pink. I spend three years trying to figure out if I could breed my salads to be more pink, and then, after searching high and low, in 2020 I finally found the seeds of the variety I was after. Radicchio Rosa del Veneto. They are as delicious as they are beautiful- like a perfect winter rose. If I have enough crop this year, I’ll see if I can sneak them into an arrangement.

It’s full on prep-time for wreath season now. I love this time of year. I’ve said it before- but I love the scent of evergreens, they fill me up with such a feeling of winter celebration, and I increasingly feel it’s important to find little things to celebrate during this corner of the year when it’s easy to let the dark and cold creep right under the skin.

The first run of wreath kits will be landing on people’s doorsteps in a little over a week, and after that it’s in the in-person classes! I’m nervous and excited all at once. Excited to be in the company of people, to meet and laugh and commune- for what will be the first Christmas season in three years without lockdowns looming over us. I’m excited to teach in-person again- the last class I held was in May, before baby Rex arrived. And nervous- nervous because I always get stage fright before anything like this. But you know, as they say- it’s always alright on the night.

Can’t wait to see you there if you’re joining!

Milli xxx

Photo by the wonderful Eva Nemeth