The biggest thing was the family. To be together this way, the whole day, working and eating and playing side by side. To feel that everything you need is right here, together. That being together is itself a kind of play.
I had never had so much respect for a potato until I tried to harvest one. They are gold nuggets hiding in the earth. You push your fingers into the soft, damp soil, and it comes up teeming with life, beetles and earthworms. What a joy.
The land is our pantry. You walk the vegetable rows and taste as you go, all of it organic, learning the flavour and the ripeness. What can I make from this harvest? Fresh beans, tomatoes, cucumber, whatever the day gives. The wild is a pantry too, herbs and mushrooms. One day it was beetroot risotto with wild oregano. The day before, mushroom pizza.