Life was good. “Come on, Spencer. Let’s go feed the wild beasts.” The small dog blinked his bug eyes and dutifully followed him back to the shed, his little feet prancing over the gravel drive. He sniffed at the hay bales and looked for something to chase while Adam filled a couple of buckets with deer nuts. Together they walked down the driveway to the paddock where the herd was already waiting, forever watchful for danger. The skittish animals were always ready for flight but the lure of the bucket won them over every time. Easily pleased.
* * *
Lena drove down the lane toward home, only now the tension easing from her shoulders. Yesterday morning had been crap for all the obvious reasons. When she’d walked out of her home and business for the last time, the tears had flowed. Her heart and soul was in this place and she was leaving a large part of it behind. Cole had stayed out of her way ever since she signed the papers giving him everything she’d worked for. Not one to cause a fight where she knew there was nothing in her power left to do, she hadn’t sought him out either. Better to leave with her head held high than try and score points she would only regret later. Before she left, she’d walked over to the kitchen, the place that was once her sanctuary for one final look around.
This will be the last time for me. Lena ran her fingertips over her trusty stainless steel blender, the first one she’d ever brought. It might not have been the most expensive one on the market, but it had been all she could afford at the time and it still worked well now. One more thing she had to leave behind she would no doubt miss when she experienced the urge to cook again, that’s if she ever did. Her knives were all lined up on the magnetic strip over her work station and it was hard not to imagine throwing them at the person who had caused all this mess, burying them deep in his back. The image in her mind made her smile for a mere second before it was replaced with sadness and a gut wrenching loss she knew would be hard to let go of.
She didn’t need the knives or the grief it would cause, but the thought somehow made her feel a tiny bit better. She’d had a duplicate set for upstairs which were now packed away in the car so these weren’t such a great loss. A high shelf of pantry staples was on view between the diners and the kitchen staff, most of it preserves she’d made herself with help from Kyle. Italians were renowned for having a large back stop of food in case there was a bad year. It made sense to preserve what you could, when you could, and the display was beautiful as well as practical.
Imagine how hard it was going to be to replace all of this. Impossible, just impossible. Hours of climbing through barbed wire fences with her father and Kyle in tow to get to the best patch of wild artichokes in the gully at Helkin’s farm. Searching through the pine trees early in the morning on the couple of weeks a year when the wild mushrooms bloomed. Now the place had been sold she was doubtful they would forage there again and a small piece of her heart crumbled.
Red peppers filled row after row of mason jars. Preserved in oil with garlic and mint leaves, they were one of the main components of her famous stuzzichini platters every diner was served while they made their menu selection. Lena spent days in summer when the vegetables were at their peak bottling enough to last the restaurant for at least a year. Jars of purple eggplants gave the eye a different color to look at and she smiled remembering the day she picked up the last batch from her father fresh from his garden on a weekend visit with Kyle. Going home was normally a treat, now it was for the foreseeable future. Kind of changed things.
Cole had said it was a waste of time driving all that way for eggplants when they could just as easily buy them from the local markets, but there was something magical about her father’s garden. The food tasted better when you knew where it came from, and with the amount of compliments Lena had received, she decided it was well worth the round trip.
Sitting amongst them all was a large, rounded jar she’d dubbed the Buddha jar. It had been in the family for as long as Lena could remember and the one thing she didn’t want to leave behind. It had gone with her when she left home filled with pine pickled mushrooms and over the years she’d made sure it was always full.
The last time it was topped up was when she and Kyle went home to Mudgee for a week long break. They’d gotten up early, donned scarves, woolen beanies, and gumboots and braved the cool morning dew to get the best wild mushrooms they could find. Kyle had cleaned them by himself, set them out to dry, bringing them inside at night so they wouldn’t get ruined with the moisture in the night air.
He’d chopped the parsley, peeled the garlic, and stacked them with the dried mushrooms, layering to get the best effect. Over this he’d poured her mother’s home made red wine vinegar and proudly taken it home to show his adoptive father. Cole had been impressed and gave the Buddha jar pride of place on the preserves shelf.
Don’t care what
