Like Wednesday’s, the winter solstice is that hump day that makes the winter bearable.  It’s the metaphorical permission you need to embrace winter because you know that summer is on its way once again.  As if to celebrate midwinter, nature threw New Zealand it’s finest blanket of snow, strongest winds and enough rain to make up for the parched summer we had this year.  Thankfully we’ve stayed warm, dry and safe indoors with the only bone of contention being who will replenish the log or whether the bassets or I would get the closest to the fire.

It may be frosty out but in the kitchen we’re embracing the comfort food of winter.  Casseroles, soups and plenty of warm fruit.  For the first time ever this year I’ve become partial to a Persimmons.  At first glance you’d be fooled that they were tomatoes and you can slice them and eat them as if they were.  I however prefer them roasted or stewed and I have grand plans for sneaking them into breakfast muffins.  Although I’m rather taken with the prospect of a persimmon, fennel and rocket salad from the lovely Emma aka Darling Lemon Thyme who has just sent her first cookbook manuscript to the publisher after much hard work.

Just writing a few thousand words for an essay feels a Herculean effort to me so I am full of admiration of people who take on a book writing challenge.  It’s been so hard to keep up with reading for the course, research and writing the assignments as well as keeping up with my own blog. I always knew it would be hard but I didn’t know how guilty I would feel about blogging so infrequently.  I have some breathing space before my next essay is due I shall try and get back into the writing habit and publish at least two blog posts a week.

Having just returned from an overnight trip to the first Martinborough Olive Oil Festival I do at least have material for my next blog post up my sleeve. As well as getting a master class in olive oil tasting we saw olive harvesting and learned all about how they press the oil.   Much to our surprise also we met someone who was bringing their olives in to press and they live close to Wellington where this is a similar climate to where we live so needless to say we’re inspired to see if we can source a suitable variety to plant a few trees of our own.  I think they’ll be a perfect addition to our backyard pantry.