So I got up at 4.30 am this morning to organise my asparagus….
Well, not specifically, but it seemed as good an occupation for sleeplessness as any, and the asparagi are now happily ensconced in a glass of water, alongside some wild oniony-leek (a staple in our kitchen, currently), and awaiting their fate for lunch later today.
Struggling to relax in bed, what with the chimney crisis having now reached an end point, and the next phase of what will have to be done to compensate for not having a chimney (that goes directly (ish!) up from the inside of the house), and having been smoked out horribly (agAIN!) - so not being able to breathe so comfortably… and not wanting to exacerbate my Beloved 
My mind was raving/ racing for the past couple of hours, and it seemed more like morning than it actually is, so I endeavoured to drain aggravations by writing about them… But then I realised that this is a habit of mine, and I am not certain that it is the best technique for truly transforming the energetic blocking of an over-active nervous system and mind. I thought instead to focus on something positive, and to delve deeper into the actually pleasure of our daily activities, which are always beautiful, between the crises with chimneys and the like!
As I arranged the wild asparagi in the glass, the foraging trip came back to me clearly; the memory of their picking – which often gets us ruminating about the difference between bought and wild, free food. Especially the harvesting of it; the rummaging around in the undergrowth, the cutting of paths through brambles, the joy of seeing even a small spear pointing valiantly upwards in the shadows of a bush – and then the cheering out loud of a larger spear or three presenting themselves.
The aerobic exercise, the whole-body stretching and extending, and the heart being challenged to beat faster by the steep slope, the nervous system relaxing with the ambience and activity, the holistic well-being of the whole event – reverberates as I touch the stems again, to keep them from wilting further, and putting them in the glass of water. Each stem leaving the bag that we gathered them in, and landing with a satisfying gentle thud on the table top, some going as far as the floor – perhaps seeking to re-enter the earth? - every one picked up again, and placed into water, brings a satisfaction that reminds me of all the satisfaction of the day, of this lifestyle, and of the reality of Living In Gift under Natural Law: Nature providing for us abundantly, if we’re willing to do the work and the learning every day.
Every spear has meaning and quality of Living within it; they exude life-full-ness and full-fill-ment; embodied Right. Each one reminds me of the cycles and elements of which I am an inalienable living part. Every piece of asparagus has its unique perfection and character, emulating the plant it came from and the microclimate around it. They even reflect our interactions! I trim and clear many bushes around which might eventually overpower the asparagi, and over the years, through a kind of pottering-in-the-wilderness approach, rather like Fukuoka expounds, the riches that pour forth and upwards, are increasing and accumulating. Our basket gets fuller, thanks to small actions over many years.
The space in which we forage is a funny mix of abandoned and not-often-tended gardens, plus actual natural space, which has been released from ownership for more than a few decades, and has thus returned to a wild and chaotic format. Most of these gardens (after which the Via Dietro Gli Orti – ‘the wee street behind the veggie gardens’ - is named) have almost no footfall on a monthly or even yearly basis, BUT il stagione dei asparagi brings at least one or two other pairs of legs than ours, into the deeper jungle-y parts: we see the debris of their tracks and the local habit of cutting the living plants (which we avoid wherever possible).
Last week, Vincent even called out “Ciao, Lieverd!” to someone who he thought was me, crashing around in the nearby bushes – we hope the older man didn’t understand Dutch, hehe! I was picking from the asparagi further up inside the more ‘owned’ gardens, which we happily forage from also, but which most of the occasional foragers will not bother to step into. There are a particular couple of plants in Sergio’s garden, which I’ve been supporting for at least 15 years, and which put up the largest of the spears for this garden zone.
Apart from the hard-core local asparagi foragers, the very few who can be bothered cutting their way in from the bottom street through the high brambles which grow every year, there are literally no others who will go to the trouble of picking this – or other wild herbs and veggies, fruits, flowers and nuts – that we do. Especially the asparagus spears, because to get a worthwhile bunch of them, one does have to know where the plants are, and to get down under fallen trees, up crumbly slopes, through spikey vines and the like. Most of the weekend or very-occasional visitors who own houses and gardens here (though, ‘owning’ is a loose term!), if they do garden at all, will keep to the obvious and excessively abundant ones, and do not have the time or inclination to delve deeper into the subtle realms – or the subtle flavours, of the untamed parts.
Thank goodness for us! Because of others’ disinterest or absence, we are for the very most part free to rummage at will, whenever the hankering takes us to descend and grab a whole sack of nettles, baskets of chards, borage, wild onions, mulberries, oranges, walnuts, elderflowers, occasional mushrooms, plus firewood, bamboo for constructing with or holding plants up, etc, etc, etc, etc. We are blessed indeed, even without owning our own land, to have such a ready wealth of useful produce and materials, right there in front of us.
But that last sentence has more significance behind it than the literal interpretation of us being ‘lucky’ to ‘have’ stuff for free on our doorstep. The riches that we have free access to depend on a lot more than our being bothered to walk down and pick the stuff; we need a solid grounding in edible wild plants to begin with, and a more specific localised knowledge to follow. We need to cultivate enthusiasm for guardianship of the land, even when it ‘legally’ ‘belongs’ to others. And patience, endurance, humility to wait for the long-term positive results from our actions.
We need the stamina to keep up our connection with the land in the colder and in the hotter months – consistency in holding back the great waves of briars, ivies and rewilded vines which, without our perpetual snipping and pulling to the side, would swallow the whole zone whole and spit out mulch and acacias!
Which is to say; we are blessed because we make ourselves blessed. We look for the blessings, and so we find them. We take what we need from the world around us, without having to labour first in an abstract way in order to earn coin and then having to visit a sterile shop with severely-compromised food-stuffs at exorbitant prices – we have sufficient space in our minds, hearts, time and attention, to make occasional selective choices from the mainstream, whilst being discerning about what we do to accept money (mostly Hiving, and translating what we earn into BTC).
Wild food like this doesn’t just offer very-high-quality sustenance to fuel our health; it gives us a wholistic experience and accumulation of living wisdom with which to improve our entire life experience – even to evolve spiritually.
All that in a simple spear of asparagus… The Divine Gift of Real Food.
