Strawberries, Jam and an Emu Egg?

[Jacob Robinson]

Hi growers. I joined a month or so ago and haven’t posted yet, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately and wanted to get involved a bit more in the gardening community. I don’t really have anything I need advice on right now, and I’m definitely not experienced enough to be giving it, so I thought I’d just share a few random thoughts instead, haha.

Over the weekend, I had one of those classic gardener “problems”, I picked so many strawberries I didn’t even know what to do with them (4kg)! So, I tried out making jam and made a couple of litres of it oops. I gave about a kilo of fresh berries to my daughter’s daycare, and handed out jam and berries to friends and neighbours. It felt good to give away food again, it's been a long winter!

And then, just to make the weekend even more interesting, I found an emu egg. Yep! A massive, green emu egg just sitting there on the fence line. There is an Emu that gets around but I haven't seen it for months. We gave the egg to wires and they put it in an incubator, unfortunately it was showing signs of being unviable. They are going to try and get the egg out so we can keep the shell! Just another one of those reminders of how lucky I am to live the life I do, full of small surprises and simple joys.

Anyway, that’s my random story for the week. Keen to hear what surprises your gardens have thrown at you lately!

P.s. not really sure how blogs work. I am interested in posting my recent thoughts about, the pursuit of happiness (one of my favourite movies) - but more about being content not contempt, what is good enough, being ordinary is extraordinary, beauty in imperfection, my life is ironic, and having fun in the garden through experiments.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Heya @Jacob Robinson ! I think I remember you from the livestream.

Asking questions also allow others to learn more. I've had people ask questions, and the replies taught me a bunch. So please, do ask away!

We love eating blended strawberries over icecream or custard. Simply blend them up with sugar and water to your desired sweetness and consistency, and enjoy! Us as kids would drink it straight up too - delicious and full of vitamins

I've never seen an emu egg before (outside of videos). What a cool find! Looks like your little one is very happy with it too.
My random story is that even whilst we are having a drought, I still see massive eels in the creek in our backyard. The water is shallow enough that their backfins are above water (but too skittish to be photographed). Granddad claims he's seen platipus in the creek in the past! Now I haven't seen that, but once I did see a massive goanna climb up a tree.

My garden surprise is that my plants survive my neglect
I forgot to water them for aobut 4 days straight during this drought. And whilst obviously struggling, they refuse to give up! Good on 'em.... I really should water them like... right now.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this forum. Do try to post them in the most appropriate sections. We all share our thoughts and oddities. Heck, I've even shared going kayaking with my dog.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Any luck of getting the Emu shell back yet?

 

[Jacob Robinson]

Any luck of getting the Emu shell back yet?

To be honest I forgot all about it, been busy planting veg and picking strawberries. I'll ask them today

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I am very curious to hear. I've seen people carve emu eggs into art - very beautiful.