Growth mindset at work!

Its the end of the ‘harvest’ season- or so I thought! We have processed peaches, plums berries vegetables. Made jam and preserves.Wine is festering away in the hallway! Dehydrated boxes of fruit fill the  the pantry which is bulging at the seams.
The freezer is jammed to the top, and I look into it with satisfaction. The memories of hours of washing, cutting, and processing are starting to fade.

It is about this time of year that I start to think the end is in sight and I am quite thankful. I have once again coped with tripping over buckets of fruit, wiping down benches and trying not to get annoyed with the way that honey seems to spread from one end of the house to another. It is nearly over, as the leaves start to turn and most of the trees are empty of fruit, a sense of calm prevails.

Yes we are still processing apples- but now that is an ‘outside’ job. Pressing juice has thankfully progressed from taking over the house to being a reasonably ‘mess free; process outdoors. I say that with a little afterthought- as I drove to the city yesterday my windscreen seemed a bit blurry- I realised that small chunks of apple had obviously fired out of the home made apple 'chopper-upper' and coated my windscreen. A small price to pay for the juice, wine and cider that we will joyfully consume over winter months. Apples are the last of the major processing operations. My house will be tidy, non sticky and I might get some evenings free to do other things!

I should have learnt by now to ‘Never say never!’ I arrived home last night to find all the benches in the kitchen filled! My husband had been checking out the trees and found that all the chestnuts we have planted as small seedlings have fruited. Something has to be done with them- but what? My kitchen now represents a kind of laboratory. There are bowls of things drying, trays of half scraped chest-nuts, bags waiting for something to happen and so on.

My heart sinks and yet why should it- isn’t this about a growth mindset- about taking on a challenge and trying something new! So now we are frantically learning about chestnuts- they are gluten free, high in protein etc etc. The possibilities are endless. As I step up to help with the processing I try to ignore Brian’s remark about the fact that the olives will soon be ready and he quite likes the idea of making his own olive press…… watch this space. I am as we speak shifting my mindset to be encouraging and enthusiastic!