The Witch makes soup. The farm box arrives every Wednesday and with her daughter gone, the vegetables fill her fridge.
Chop and saute leeks, add garlic for a minute, chop a small pumpkin and remove the peel and add it, add two apples chopped and water. It smells like fall and winter and slowly the vegetables soften and come together.
Friends stop by after diving, with two crabs for her. "Come in for tea!" she says. After they leave, she eyes the crabs. They are chittering quietly, worriedly, in a plastic bin on the floor. She very much dislikes killing them but likes to eat them. She reads that many people steam rather than boil them. Steaming is a slower death. Some people clean them alive. She boils water in the kettle and some in the pan. Drops them quickly in the pan and pours the boiling water in. That is a compromise and quick.
The Witch calls a friend. No, he does not eat crab, but he would like some of the soup, tomorrow.
He comes the next day. She says, "I can't keep up with the vegetables."
"Ah, that's why you need bachelor friends."
She laughs, but it's the children she really likes. Her 8 year old friends and 4 year olds. The bachelors are interested in being fed, but the children like the house and eye her with respect and curiosity. They are sure she is a witch and her house is full of mysteries and messy and their mothers forget that they are listening and talk about things....
Blow blow thou winter wind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3is-UbB-QYo