Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland
One Woman, Three Acres.
Summer swells; the Earth heaves a mantle of green over all the land. 
Swallows dip and turn above tall grass. 
I see the Goddess rising…
Light dances at midnight across the northern horizon. 
Long swathes of ivy swing from tall branches of goat willow. 
The Fairy Wood is almost impassable. 
I see the Goddess rising…
Blackcurrants plump to ripening, as apples emerge. 
The summer is here in all her glory; a feast for the eyes. 
The Earth, Mother Earth, the Goddess… rises.
Dear Colette and other Bealtaine Cottage enthusiasts…
From my own very small efforts at permaculture / forest gardening I have come to the conclusion that slugs and snails are excellent indicators of taste and nutritional value in plants. Vegetables which been intensively bred to be tasty and nutritious get absolutely ravaged by the little darlings. Anything which isn’t so good to eat gets pretty much left alone. Unfortunately the few perennial vegetables I’ve succeeded in growing are in the latter category, so although they grow robustly, they aren’t very appetising. Martin Crawford in his forest gardening books talks about the fact that our familiar annual vegetables have been intensively bred over decades and centuries to be tasty and nutritious but have ‘unnatural fertility’ and require a lot of support, such as compost and fertiliser – not good for sustainability. I’ve had endless numbers of seedlings of beans, mange tout, brussels sprouts, french beans, kale, cabbage and so on, all eaten down to lifeless bare stalks. I want to have a small pond one day, to encourage the kind of mollusc-eating wildlife that might help me out, as I am determined not to use slug pellets. I’d be happy to grow perennials if only I could find vegetables which are as good to eat as the usual annual veg. I’ve tried mallows, salad burnet, sea beet, cardoon, greater sea kale (Crambe cordifolia) and a couple of others, and in my view they range from just about edible at a push, to quite unpleasant. If anyone has any suggestions for perennial vegetables which are actually a pleasure to eat, I would be really grateful for them. Hopefully then the slugs and snails will leave something for me.
All the best…
John (Portsmouth, UK).
Thank you so much for sharing your lovely home with us. You have become an inspiration to me in trying to do the best I can bringing nature back to an overgrown suburban plot. Please keep posting!! It’s wonderful. Hope to visit someday.
What a great comment to wake up to on this lovely Sunday morning in the West of Ireland…thank you Ravenna!
Blessings XXX
Colette
Beautiful, Colette. Yes, She is Rising,
Gorgeous, Colette! I feel the Goddess rising, too. Thank you for sharing the beauty of Bealtaine Cottage with us!