OH THE GOOD LIFE
Having lived now in our beautiful Valley for three years I have started to take the Good Life for granted.
Most of our fruit and vegetables are either home grown in our ‘orto’ or locally grown. They have blemishes, are eaten ripe straight from the tree, bought from our local market at the village then placed in brown paper bags.
Food tastes real here.
Making the change from the rat race to the good life hasn’t always been easy but it has totally been the best thing we could have done for our health, our children and our wellbeing.
Our neighbors keep ducks, chickens, goats, cows and sheep, and we raise rabbits which we swap with them. Our little community is thriving, a ring of the bell and Anna is giving us a tray of strawberries from her orto, our friends offer to help us with planting the potatoes, herbs are picked fresh from the garden, it’s a chef’s delight.
This year our little ‘orto’ is packed with veggies, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, a large potato patch, we also have an orchard bringing apples and cherries, and neighbors willing to swap surplus with us.
Our potatoes and apples will be stored to last through winter, our friends are busy making jams and life is busy as always.
As well as picking from our veggie patch we also go foraging along paths that lead into the mountains. It has become a daily competition for us to see how many wild strawberries and raspberries we can gather, we eat them as we walk.
Of course that first taste of a wild raspberry is something I’ll never forget, such an intense burst of flavour.
In autumn blackberries, walnuts and chestnuts will be gathered, along with wild mushrooms.
Our valley is rich in natural goodness and I can’t imagine ever returning to a suburban life in Australia.
IN LOVE WITH THE GOOD LIFE
Apples picked straight from the tree with a crisp, juicy freshness that I’ve never know before, antique varieties with a soft pink hue under the skin that are so sweet I gasp as I bite into the flesh.
THE GOOD LIFE
Are we living in paradise?
That’s what it feels like, are we living the Good Life here in our Valley at the foot of the Alps, YES I know we are.
Do you yearn to live the Good Life? Are you living it already?
We’d love to hear about it ……
