Early last week my husband, Bear, and I received a phone call from our friend Oma inviting us to help pick her bumper crop of luscious plums. We donned boots and hats, hurriedly packed up our buckets, and headed out.

I love Oma and Opa’s farm with its babble of turkeys and chickens, friendly dogs leaping about in greeting, and dirt tracks meandering around old barns. Mostly I love it because Oma and Opa are there. Survivors of World War II and the Hungarian Revolution, they are feisty, hilarious and wise, full of the commonsense wisdom that helps one survive wars and economic upheaval. When I arrived in Australia, knowing nothing about farming, they welcomed me into their family and opened my eyes to their incredible world of self-sufficiency.

They’re in their 80s now but are still planting fruit trees and butchering gigantic pigs, making their own hams and sausages, cheese, bread, and preserves. Their prodigious skills are surpassed only by their generosity. I’ve never left their house without a load of homemade preserves, bottles of Oma’s eye-popping home brew, a new recipe, or books I simply have to read.

We had a marvelous time out in the plum orchard, swapping stories and sharing recipes for plum brandy, cordial, jam, and cobbler. When our buckets were full to overflowing we joined Opa at the house for a good visit and icy glasses of homemade raspberry cordial.

As we drove home, my eyes stung with tears as I thought about Oma and Opa’s journey. A journey of hardship and of rebuilding amongst the plums and Australian sun. They start fresh every day, as we all should, building a beautiful, productive life.

Krista Bjorn is a wood-burning artist, goat farmer, author, writer, and photographer. Although she was born in Canada, raised in the USA, and shaped by her European roots, she now lives on a goat farm in Queensland, Australia with her husband, Bear. There, she celebrates anything that leads to healing, thriving, and loving. http://www.ramblingtart.com/

Imagery provided by Krista Bjorn