Foraging bliss

But first the morning. Favourite Handyman shifted all the compost from the large old patch (which we had begun again recently, layering grass clippings, pea straw, chook poo and seaweed) onto the second raised bed. There is now a large hump along that bed, of compost which is partially cooked and can finish off there. At the same time it can kill any weed seeds in the soil underneath. In Autumn we are planting brassicas for winter and spring there.

We moved the temporary chook shelter onto the vacated compost site and put the chooks there for the day. They had a lovely time. Around the back edges of the compost pile, Wandering Jew had been getting more vigorous and we wanted the chooks to knock that back.

Favourite Handyman continued to be handy and spent several hours patching up holes in the shed rooves. Part way through we got a phone call from friends inviting us to go mussel collecting on the beach further north of where we live later in the afternoon. Would we ever?!! Going into kiwi girl (perhaps kiwi matron??) mode, I whipped up some muffins, bought some bread rolls and slipped the leftover salad from the night before (when in true kiwi style I had cooked for far more people than we actually invited) into a container. Then we all went up the coast and had a truly gorgeous few hours. We climbed in rock pools and collected mussels and then sat back in the late afternoon sun beside the fire and ate. I liked the mussels straight out of the shell which Favourite Handyman had cooked in their shells. But the food which I could almost die for was the mussels in beer batter, cooked in a frypan over the fire. They were close to perfection.

I got to try kina for the first time. I quite liked it, though it is a lot of mucking around for a small amount of food.

I brought home some seaweed for the compost. We also brought home the empty mussel shells and we will crush them to make grit for the chooks.

I will remember our afternoon musselling for a long long time. Just beautiful.