Hello my loves,

Last Sunday I headed out my front door for an early evening autumn walk. As I exited my gate, I noticed an older gentleman going through my neighbour's recycling bin, collecting cans and bottles, no doubt to recycle for a little extra cash. I smiled and said hello, as I like to do, and he smiled back. As I walked by, I noticed that he had a bag full of green, unshelled nuts with him - nuts that I was pretty sure had come from a tree in my local park (I had been told they were walnuts, but hadn't yet got around to collecting any myself to investigate further). So, I said, "those are some lovely nuts you have", and he said yes, he had got them from the tree in the park. I asked him how he shelled them, as I'd thought that this process was quite onerous, involving washing and peeling and drying and shelling, but he explained to me (mostly through gestures - English was not his first language), that you could just use a hammer or a nut cracker, and all would be well.

We had a very enjoyable conversation on all things nuts, composed mainly of gesticulations and smiles, and eventually, we set off again on our separate ways. I thought no more about it, until I got home to find something beautiful. A bag of nuts, their fresh green outer skins already peeled away, awaited me on my doorstep, their rich brown inner shells clinking cosily together as they awaited discovery. This wonderful man had come back and left them there for me. He hadn't even knocked on the door (someone had been home while I was out), he'd just left them for me to enjoy. I could not believe it! What an immensely kind gesture - he'd obviously have had to make a special trip back to his home to collect them, and come back to drop them off. I'm also going to hazard that given what he was doing that evening, he may not have that much to spare in his own life. But what he did have was nuts, harvested from the local park, skinned and ready for devouring. And those, he wanted to share. And guess what else I discovered my loves... it's not a walnut tree at all. It's a macadamia. Laden with a fresh, sweet, crunchy, juicy autumnal harvest of nuts. Nuts that are now shelled, chopped and caramelised, ready to adorn one of the dishes at tonight's Intimate Autumn Dinner: roasted pumpkin (from my garden) with tahini miso sauce and caramelised local macadamias. And that's how I know that magic is real - a fresh harvest of autumnal nuts, perfect for a dish I'd already designed, as local as you can get, hand-delivered directly to my doorstep by a kind heart. I still can't quite compute it :).

That's not the only dalliance I've had with the autumnal harvest this week. On Sunday I headed to Penrose State Forest, bag and knife in tow, for a bracing walk and mushroom hunt. Autumn is wild mushroom season in New South Wales, and there are two particular types of mushroom that pop up in the pine forests in this area that are incredibly delicious to eat. The first is called the saffron milk cap, or pine mushroom, and the second is the slippery jack. After rain at this time of year they can be found nestled into snug mounds of fallen pine needles, ready to be plucked and enjoyed. And pluck and enjoy we did :). We walked for a couple of hours through the whisper-quiet forests, among spider webs bejewelled with dew drops and handsome fairy-tale red toadstools, no doubt home to elusive forest fairies (those you definitely don't eat - not the toadstools and definitely not the fairies!).

It was so peaceful and still and beautiful, just walking quietly along in the cold air, observing the infinite world of the forest floor as you search for tell-tale humps in the pine needles that conceal the mushrooms. And let me tell you my darling, there is nothing more delicious than a freshly-picked mushroom fried in butter, garlic and sage, and piled on top of hot buttery toast. I know this because that's what I devoured as soon as we got home :). Mushroom season nearing its end, but it did rain here in Sydney last night, a good heavy drenching, so who knows what you might find if you head to one of the forests for a walk this weekend? There's plenty of excellent information online if you're wanting to give mushroom foraging a try. Obviously you don't harvest anything that you aren't absolutely certain is the type you're looking for, but I will say that the two edible varieties are really very distinctive looking and I didn't have any trouble at all identifying what was and wasn't them. Also, do not be put off by the slippery jack's less-than-appetising appearance. They are ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Even more so than the better-known pine mushrooms if you ask me - they're SO rich and dense and forest-y and glorious. Especially when fried. In butter. And garlic.

And so my loves, I must leave you now, to head off and make the last preparations for tonight's autumnal feast. I'm SO excited and delighted to be welcoming the first ten guests back into Hearth for an intimate and delicious evening. And I have excellent news - due to a cancellation, there are TWO lonely tickets left for next week's dinner (Friday May 29). You can snap them up here. Have a beautiful weekend my darlings 🍁.

Love, Rachel xxx