The Sunday Lunchers have been trying to get together for simply ages. The last time we were supposed to meet, Jim was sick so he and I couldn't go. The others decided that we would meet again earlier than we might otherwise so Jim and I could catch up. And we made several arrangements to meet at Gillie's place in Daylesford.
These were all thwarted by various lockdowns, restrictions, circumstances.
Eventually, Gillie decided that we might not be able to meet in a home for simply ages and booked us a table at Harry's. And while Jim and I were en route to Hepburn yesterday morning, the state premier declared that from next weekend we could have up to 10 visitors a day in our homes!!!!
No matter. I like Harry's. You may remember that Lindsey and I had lunch there the weekend that we gatecrashed Freyja and Simon's weekend in Daylesford in August (I think) in a brief interlude between Melbourne Lockdowns. And Harry's is more accessible than Gillie's house for Jim. No stairs to get in.
It was good to catch up and nice to eat out, though there were time restrictions on our booking that you don't have when you are in someone's house. Next time we are hoping to meet at Tani, assuming home visits are still allowed. I am a bit worried that they have left me to organise the date. I am very, very bad at organising dates!
The end of civilisation as we know it may be sooner than we think. The people at the mushroom farm tell me that they are expecting a national shortage of mushroom compost sometime in the next two or three months. For reasons that are entirely unclear to me, the growing compost for commercial mushroom production is imported from Europe. I have no idea why we can't create our own growing medium but the current problems in global shipping mean, apparently, that the national supply of mushroom compost is stuck in shipping containers in the humidity of Singapore, which I'm told is not good for it.
I had not anticipated a problem with mushroom supply. I realise that mushrooms are not vital to life, although we eat a lot of them. But really, if Australia can't be self sufficient in mushroom production ...
I was also somewhat surprised recently to discover that the very large percentage of our frozen potato products are imported from Belgium. Why would you import frozen potato products from Belgium? It's not as though we don't grow potatoes here. We have butter, cream and milk. We have food production factories. It's all very odd. I know that I don't have a fundamental need for frozen potato products. I even grow my own potatoes, although I am nowhere near self sufficiency. But it is useful to have chips and mash lurking in the freezer. I have found a brand of Australian produced frozen chips but not yet frozen mash. And I must look more closely at the provenance of other frozen products that I buy.
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