Harvest

When I was a child, I would spend the October school holidays "potato picking" for the farmer in our village - in fact the October holidays were always called "Tatie Picking Week". Let me tell you, I don't know how I used to manage a week. Yesterday the hubby and I emptied this sorry looking receptacle out onto to the garden to reveal....
... this basin of beauties. We both complained of bad backs throughout the harvesting!!! (old age!!). Don't ask me what type they are - I just remember some spuds sprouting in the cupboard, so we planted them. We cooked the first lot within 5 minutes of picking and they are delicious. We will be feasting on different potato recipes for the rest of the week!!

I also grew these in a corner of the garden too. I never liked beetroot when I was a kid, then in my twenties, my Grandad (who was in his 80's at the time) made me a ham and beetroot sandwich and I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't like it, so I ate it and discovered that I loved it!!

I thought about my Grandad this evening. He died when he was 93 years old. He was a woodcutter and a big strapping chap - but never fat and he only was ever ill once (he thought he was dying because he never realised how bad you felt when you were physically sick!!) He never had colds or any common ailments. He ate all the things that are supposed to be bad for you. He told me that when he was young, the youngest of 13 children, he was only allowed to eat the dripping from the meat - his older brothers who worked ate the meat. He still loved dripping in his older age - often frying his bacon in it, then pouring it onto his plate to mop up with bread. He loved butter too - and spread it very thickly on thick sliced bread. I went to the cinema to see "Julie and Julia" and at the end of the film it said that Julia and her husband both died in their 90's. She used tons of butter in her cooking. It made me smile.

Its a lovely film - I love Nora Ephron films (except "Bewitched" which I can only describe as lack lustre). She certainly knows how to "style" a movie. The scenes in France are an utter delight. I'm all fired up to get back into the kitchen now autumn is here - so much for the diet!