Freda Wild

Environmentally Friendly

Most of my neighbours are practically self sufficient. They grow their own veg, salad and fruit. they keep hens for eggs and to eat. They fish in their own ponds and rivers and eat the fish. They bottle,freeze and preserve like there's going to be a seven year famine. When I say that I have been gardening they ask me what I have plant or picked and look puzzled when my answer is flowers, shrubs and trees. No matter what the weather scorching sun, freezing frost, biting wind, everyday I see old people bent double hoeing, weeding and picking. It's their way of life and they just get on with it.
There is no public transport here so many people have to walk to their local destinations. Some have those tiny cars which only go 40 miles an hour; I don't know what they are called.
I inherited two very old apple trees and the first autumn they produced so many apples that the branches broke with the weight and there lay a carpet of apples beneath the two trees. This bumber harvest taught me the meaning of the word abundance and gave me the title of a painting. They are cider apples, so not edible. Oh yes and my neighbours make their own cider too. Also a much more potent potion called Eau de Vie/ water of life which is considered to be a digestive and is consumed at the very end of all the communal meals.
When I first arrived I decided that I would have to choose between produce gardening and painting and writing. I chose to paint and write seriously and to dabble in the garden. Last year a neighbour gave me some strawberry runners which I planted and tenderly cared for. They produced a bountiful crop which the birds promtly ate before I had even tasted one. Last year also I planted just two corgettes in my compost heap. I couldn't eat all they produced but discovered if left the corgettes grew into whopping great marrows. I'm no chef but when something has grown in your own garden you just have to cook it. This year I have been given in total at least a dozen tomato plants by three different people. Two of them have a bumber crop already (plants not people) but are still green. Will I get to eat them before some other resident in my garden beats me to it? There are huge wild brambles growing along the top hedge which produce enormous juicy berries. I ate the last of the ones I froze last year yesterday.
However I don't really need to grow anything. Monique provides me with enough leeks to freeze. Ron keeps me in runner beans. Sue brings cucumbers. Yannick gives me tomatos. (I may have my own this year). Yesterday Janice brought a basket which looked as though she had stolen it from a Monet painting, just brimming over with lettuce, spinach, beetroot, corgettes and cucumbers. I shall have to do a lot of blackberry picking to return their generosity.

The industrial revolution by passed Brittany and the peasants were not moved from the land at gun point to work in factories as in other parts. Unfortunatly outside capitalism is beckoning to the young who are no longer satisfied with peasant life and they are leaving to chase who knows
what? But fortunately an unexpected trend is taking place. The old properties which have been left standing or more often falling (mine was empty for ten years) are being bought and renovated. This is stimulating trade and providing work for local people with traditional skills.
Perhaps some of the young will return to learn the valuable metiers of their fathers's and grandfather's before it's too late for them to be passed on.
Two basic fundamentals we all need and will always need are food and shelter.

posted by Victoria Wild @ 7:22 am