When I was a little kid we lived on a farm. Mum and Dad bought the farm, and then apparently, they found me sitting under a gorse bush. I’ve loved the warm coconut fragrance of the sunflower yellow flowers since then. At least, I think the flowers smell like coconuts, it seems other people don’t detect the similarity.
The farm had been very successful at growing gorse. Dad sprayed the gorse with herbicides and I can remember ‘helping’ Dad with lighting the fires to burn off the dead and dying gorse. Gorse burns fiercely, and it’s ideal for heating – or in our case – cooking. All of the cooking in our household was done in (or on) a wood and coal range, although most of our wood was gorse wood rather than coal. Dad would cut up wheelbarrow loads and bring it in for Mum to use. The old gorse logs were usually riddled with holes, and there’d inevitably be a resident weta or two. Weta – for international readers – are like rather large crickets with bad attitudes. Eventually, Dad converted a farm covered in gorse to one covered in grass, to the amazement of the neighbours.
My aunt came to visit from the city. She was a city gal through and through. She never cooked, and, had she, she would’ve done so on her new fangled electric stove. I think Mum was rather envious of the electric stove – it had to be better than dirty, hot, wood and coal range with the random wildlife. Mum turned out her signature dish for entertaining guests – scones. Gorse wood, with its huge burst of heat production, is an ideal fuel for making scones. My aunt went into raptures over the scones and – perhaps in an effort to explain away her lack of kitchen productivity – said, “Of course, you’ve got all that good wood.”
I can still recall the look of stunned disbelief on Mum’s face, followed immediately with the ‘if you kids open your mouths nothing but nothing will save your lives’ look. Mum was later to get her long awaited electric stove, and went on to travel the country demonstrating them, and wrote a very successful recipe book based on using the electric stove. She never missed an opportunity though, if she was talking with farmer’s wives, to compare the electric stove to the wood and coal range. Good wood or not.
Manifesto
21. Every day seek the support of others. You are not alone.
28. Every day you will be tested.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
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