Walkabout

When you’ve got 17 acres, other jobs that take you away from your land, and a family you learn to accept that you’ll only have so much time to spend on each orchard, veg patch or polytunnel. This isn’t all bad – the upside is you get to see significant changes rather than miss them in the gradual shift from A to B. I’m at River Cottage HQ only once or twice a week, so I notice when someone’s had their hair done. I sound like my gran – ‘hair done’ indeed. Anyway, you pick up on changes (and in the case of spotting hair having been done, gain considerable points from the ladies *licks finger and smooths down eyebrow*)

Where was I….yes, the climate change allotment. I haven’t had a proper look around it for a week or more, and there’s a few peaches from the dwarf tree, a handful of Moroccan mint and one of the more fascinating sights that the allium family can display – the fabulously mobile Egyptian walking onion.

Emerging early in Spring, they flower, and produce small bulblets at the end of metre-long stalks. Each bulblet is a tiny onion, and each collection of bulblets can throw out a new stalk from which another bulblet cluster forms. The bulblets grow too heavy for the stalks to hold up, and slowly they bend to the ground where the bulblets take root and grow new onion plants, hence the name. A self expanding, self transporting harvest, and delicious to boot.

Can’t believe I got to the end without falling prey to the temptation of mummy jokes, pharoahnuff, or any mention of The Bangles.

  • It is a bit of a swizz, that Bangles video. None of them actually ever walk like an Eygptian. Not even the bint in the lacy jumpsuit who doesn't have anything better to do than rattle a tambourine.
    Not a patch on Wilson, Keppel and Betty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxAr66vtUoQ

    (Actually Betty mostly did swishing around being nearly naked rather than the actual Egyptian/sand dance thing.)

    Nice onion.

  • now that's proper old fashioned entertainment….and like you say, the bangles give us not a hint of the backwards-forwards s-shape shuffle thing that passes for an egyptian dance/walk. maybe that accelerated their seemingly rapid fall from grace – you cant promise your public and fail to deliver in such a brazen fashion

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