It’s the 1st of August and that means my challenge is well and truly underway! Last night I had my last chocolate and Snackajack. More significant: after supper I had my last coffee… For the past 20 years I’ve started every single day with a strong shot of caffeine. Oh my word, I wasn’t quite prepared for what hit me this morning. By 10am even the word ‘zombie’ was too active a term.
On a breakfast of gooseberries, blackcurrants and dock bread I decided to stick myself in the river to see if that would work its magic. It certainly was a wonderful dip, but when I came out I still just wanted to sleep. Gradually, over the course of the afternoon it lifted and I felt more like myself.
In the warm sun I delighted in picking the first of the blueberries, nice big fat ones. There’s something very special about picking wild fruit after you’ve been swimming in a river.
Near Hirn I found a stretch of country lane where I got some key ingredients for my supper:
Back home I cooked up a storm! I made courgetti with homegrown produce kindly donated by our neighbour, and I added chanterelles, sorrel, nettles, thyme, nasturtium leaves + flower, and squash flowers. The result was absolutely scrumptious and so good that I’m going to make the same thing again tomorrow. The wine in the background is elderflower, named after my newborn niece who saw the light of day at the same time as our wine was bottled.
I’m also pleased that I’ve been able to feed my ‘inner cookiemonster’ quite well today. Over the past few days I’ve been practising making biscuits with dock seeds. They are sweet and nutty – excellent for an evening snack (and a mid-morning snack)(and a mid-afternoon snack)(and a midnight snack). I eat a lot of biscuits. Did I say that already ;-)? At least these dockies are healthy as well as tasty, so I feel better about eating them.
The same dock flour also goes in my bread. It was a bit of a disaster to begin with: it has no gluten so there’s no point in doing any stretching of the dough. John looked at it and made some comment about something having crapped on the kitchen worktop. So you can imagine my hopes were pretty much rock bottom. Nonetheless, the resulting loaf was excellent!
In the garden, many things are ready to harvest. We’ve now got tomatoes, lettuce (see above), cucumbers, onions, potatoes and carrots.
Tonight I’m going to relax with a glass (I like tea in a glass) of Pineappleweed tea. It smells like camomile and really does help you drift off. Though I doubt I’ll have any problem with that tonight! Pineappleweed grows on poor, sandy soil and can often be seen at the entrances to fields:
So all together it was a good start to my challenge, and I’m excited to see how I will feel once the caffeine withdrawal symptoms fully wear off. Watch this space…
The healthy forager 