First Winter Frost

A couple of days ago we woke to a beautiful clear still morning. Iris opened the back door to let our Border Terrier Bridie out for her morning walk and comfort stop and remarked that we had a frost.  And sure enough there was a coating of frost on our back lawn and garden.  Our guests sometimes are a little sceptical when we tell them we don’t get many frosts here … last year only 5 mornings when I was sure we had frost on the lawn.

Sails Ashore is  around 50 metres above sea level, is off to one side of the main valley within the village and we face north. So any cold air coming down the sides of Paterson Inlet from Mt Anglem tends to miss us. In the past we have fruited both Kiwi Fruit and Tamarillos outside, although really more trouble than they were worth for the small quantity of fruit.

I’m a Southlander born and bred, and swede turnips are an important part of our winter diet, especially good with salted mutton-birds. But good and all as Iris’s garden is she doesn’t grow swedes as they need several good hard frosts to develop their flavour.  So last week I pulled in a couple of favours from Southland friends, and asked them for a half dozen.