Walking past the chookhouse at the farm the other day the sight of the elderberry tree adjacent blew me away. It was pruned hard a year or so ago and is now lush thick in full flower, masses of heavy white heads promising good harvest. The sad thing is they're all going to waste.
Previously for some years I picked every elderberry flower I could get my hands on for our herb wholesaler who supplied restaurants with herbs and flowers. We only had the one tree at the farm but I'd frequent the creek on the other side of Emerald a couple of times a week mid spring to early autumn. It ran in the gully behind Roger and Meredith's house where elderberry trees grow in abundance wild in the damp. It was a good money spinner although it was quite difficult: the steep walk down to the creek with picking box and pole cutter and honey or wine to give to Meredith's neighbours (who allowed me access), then the slow climb up the steep bank with my booty to where I parked in the shade, often in very hot weather.
Come March and Corona Virus lockdown our customers all shut down. For about a month we had no sales at all. The florists came back and we ended up being busy through winter and spring but our main wholesaler for herbs and flowers for restaurants with whom we have done business for decades ceased and will not be back. So it's strange to see all the elderflowers going to waste. I took cuttings and established new plants in our dam area which are now reaching chest height, this effort futile with no market. Similarly the abutilon shrubs we grew for flowers have flowered profusely with no harvest, and there was no picking of violets, small nasturtium leaves, onion weed flowers, strawberry leaves and other things the restaurants were after on and off for many years. All over red rover.
The florist side of the business came back strongly and demand has been high for foliage, flowers and mixed posies, so much so that we are busy, hardly noticing financially the loss of restaurant trade. The down side of course is that we are less diverse and therefore more vulnerable to future market fluctuations and dramas. But somehow it all seems simpler.
A major change in 2020 is we sold our house. I'm sitting in a rental house in Gembrook's main street, right next to the super market. The motor bikes that screamed their way through the gears up and down Launching Place Rd on weekends and public holidays, and were a factor in us selling, now pull up in the street outside to drink their coffee and buy their cakes and pies at the bakery and coffee shops. Yes the noise is there but as they are taking off or coming to a halt the noise is more restrained, for the most part. So far it's not worrying us much, we came here expecting it, in knowledge that it's temporary till we can find opportunity to look for destination somewhere near a beach and preferably in a quiet location well away from main roads and tourism if possible. We hope this next change will be achieved within twelve months.
The house we are in is owned by Vince Lamendola. When we came to Gembrook Vince and his wife Trudy lived here and ran a pizza shop in the shop part at front. Good pizza they made too. I played a few games of footy for Gembrook in 1982 the year after we came here and Vince, an excellent footballer, played also and for years afterwards in the the veterans comp. A plumber by trade he left Gembrook some 16 years ago to live in Berwick and this house was rented firstly to people who ran a restaurant here for a while, then the Gembrook Vet was here for 10 years. I saw Vince here working renovating after we signed the contract of sale of our home and it just worked out well to be able to move in when we needed with a big shed at the back for all our stuff. It's a nice little 2 bedroom house, all freshly painted and new carpet in the bedrooms and we've enjoyed our two weeks here so far. The shop front is to be tenanted separately.
With the lockdown over I'll soon have to put up with Puffing Billy returning. Again it's only temporary. I'll be pleased to leave Cardinia Shire when we are able. I'm dirty on CSC giving/selling two acres of land to PB for their car park for their new $20 million tourist centre in Emerald Lake Park. In my role on committee for the Nobelius Park and Emerald Museum committee (at the time a couple of years ago or so) I was invited and attended a meeting on a Saturday, for stakeholders to input for a strategic plan for the "precinct". Many people at that meeting expressed concern about the possible loss of parkland to Puffing Billy. Each time this came up we were assured no decision had been made and council had no intention to do so and therefore we were not at this meeting to talk about this. The draft strategy came out some 6 months later with no mention of it. Then, about another twelve months later, the front page of the local paper broke the news the council had "sold" two acres to Puffing Billy for car/bus parking. The whole consultation was a sham. Devious. I have no trust or faith in the Cardinia Shire Council and will be pleased to live elsewhere as soon as I can.
With the preparations and our move I've had a very busy couple of months and am now straight into busy beech picking season. I feel fit and well but am looking forward to scaling down come autumn with hopefully imminent retirement.
