Autumn Feasts

This week has been full of autumn leaves, pumpkins and roast vegetables. It's feeling very autumnal in our Exeter flat!

The week started off with me watching a squirrel in Exeter city centre eating chestnuts and mushrooms in a park. I've never seen a squirrel eat mushrooms before, but it seemed to be picking the head off and leaving the stalk. The chestnuts were being buried all over the place under leaves, in holes in trees and straight into the ground. I wonder how many other people stopped to watch the squirrel in the middle of town before rushing on with their shopping.

It wasn't just the squirrel that was enjoying the bounties of the season. I've been to three different pumpkin celebrations this week. The one I'd been looking forward to for the longest was Riverford's Wash Farm Pumpkin Day last Saturday. As well as yummy local organic food and lots of pumpkins there was the first Big Worm Dig. What a brilliant idea! Worms are so important for growing crops and keeping our environment in good condition, but we don't know much about them. So this mass participation science study should help us understand more about these amazing creatures. Did you know there are 27 different species of earthworm in the UK? I didn't.

In timely fashion I had my first Devon Riverford veg box this week too. Peppers, squash, potatoes, apples and cherry tomatoes arrived full of flavour along with organic British cheddar and mozzarella which are both quickly disappearing from the fridge.

With autumn closing in we've started having roast dinners once a week too. This week's chicken made six portions of yummy food. Two roast dinners, two cold chicken and potatoes salad meals and a fantastic dish full of chicken, rice and cheese sauce; my favourite. Per person, per potion only £1 for the meat, which isn't bad really. I love making meals go further and seeing how far one joint of meat can stretch is a real challenge but it's fun!

While I've been enjoying lots of yummy foods inside the local birds must be enjoying the harvest that's out in the fields because they still haven't touched either of my new bird feeders. I'm sure once the hedges are bare and all the berries and seeds have gone they'll be back though.

bird feeders