FOOTPRINT REDUCTION IN THE 'BURBS

Getting Closer Every Day

2012-01-05T09:19:00.000+11:00

to self sufficiency that is.

We don't get our usual Food Connect box over the Christmas & New Year period but I haven't had to buy any vegetables and very little fruit. The pre Christmas box had enough onions to keep us going and everything else has come out of the garden.

It's not all about tomatoes of course, summer wouldn't be summer without zucchinis and squash, cucumbers and beans. I've given a lot more thought to the things we use day in day out and planted those rather than weird and wonderful exotic things that we might use once or twice a year.

One year I dedicated a huge amount of space to sweet corn, but for some reason my family are just not that keen on it. When I was a kid in NZ we used to buy it on the side of the road in rubbish sacks but now we wouldn't eat more than a dozen cobs a year. I had some leftover seed this year that I couldn't just throw out so I've planted those but that will be the last I think. Excuse my Rabbit Proof Fence made out of sundry bits of rubbish that were lying around, my new rabbit MooMoo (my kids think he has cow patterning) is living in the vege patch so anything that he likes the taste of has to be protected.

Rattlesnake beans are my absolute favourites, I love how they look on the vine and I think they have the best beany flavour. I'm so organised this year that my first crop is now happily producing large pods for dried beans and next year's seeds, while my succession plants are just about to produce a new crop of tasty beans for salads. They're so prolific that we are actually a bit sick of beans so it's good to have a small gap between crops. I tried purple king beans this year too which look sensational in the garden but are disappointingly tasteless. Thanks to this post of Jason's at Zucchini Island, I haven't wasted any space on them, they are growing on the chicken fence and providing the chooks with both exercise (jumping up) and greens.

My frugal side is very pleased with these cucumber plants, a friend of mine gave me a couple of very prolific plants last year so I saved some seeds et voila here we have free cucumbers - can't beat that.

Year of the Tomato

2012-01-04T15:25:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year to you all - may you have a peaceful and productive 2012.

Chez Greenfumb this will be (fingers and everything else crossed) the Year of the Tomato. Back in late winter I had a think about what we use most and it's definitely tomatoes. I've reduced the number of chickens I have, pushed their fence back a metre or three and planted tomatoes in the amazing soil left behind by the chooks. So far the crop is absolutely phenomenal! The 3 garden centre seedlings I planted back in October are like the proverbial triffids, sprawling all over the place and laden with fruit. Often by this time of the year the wilt has already set in and it's obvious the crop will be disappointing.

As well as the early crop I have 5 Romas, 2 Amish pastes, a Tommy Toe, an Olomovic or two and several self seeded mystery plants. Today I planted some Siberian and Black Russian seeds so that we will have a succession crop for when the beans come out.

While other people are bemoaning the rubbish summer I am just rubbing my hands with glee and planning my tomato preserving days. I've trained myself to do without fresh ones when they're out of season but they're an absolute must for cooking. I thought I'd stored enough last year but didn't take into account that Teen 2's boyfriend would become addicted to my home made sauce and eat pasta and sauce every day as a snack. Not that I'm complaining, it's great to have people appreciate what you grow and cook

Hope everyone has a great tomato crop this year too.

Flowers

2011-10-21T21:38:00.005+11:00

After having visited those gorgeous gardens in the Blue Mountains I have been trying to increase the flowers in my garden but actually if you look closely there is a fair bit there already. All that awful rain we had in the winter seems to have been great for the flowering plants. Mind you, in typical Greenfumb style most of the flowers will actually one day be edible fruits and veges.

Kipfler potatoes

Lemons

Feijoas

Crab Apples

I'm sure there were some completely decorative things out there somewhere.

Irises I bought in the Mountains

Calistemon

Forgot to take one of the native Frangipani which is really the best of the lot.

The Great Carrot Experiment

2011-10-13T18:53:00.003+11:00

For years I've tried to get a decent crop of carrots with extremely minimal success, not entirely unrelated to the fact that I have no patience whatsoever. This year I had a huge pile of turf underlay left over and an empty bathtub just crying out to be put to good use so I gave it one more go. Unfortunately rabbits are partial to carrots as we know so physical barriers were required - not very attractive I know.

Carrots don't like overly fertile soil and it is often suggested to grow them after a greedier crop so that they are forced to grow downward looking for nutrients. I figured that 80/20 sand soil mix was just what the carrots needed to get them searching.

I put a bag of blue metal in the bottom for drainage and then some home made compost for the carrots to search for and then all the sandy soil on top. The first crop fell prey to slugs and snails so I raided Hubby's beer supply, buried a few traps and threw down some more seed. Once the carrot seedlings were a reasonable size they seemed to be less attractive to the marauders even without me refilling the traps.

They grew pretty slowly over the winter, no doubt due to the lack of sunshine and excess of rain we have endured this year but finally I had some sweet little baby carrots to slice into my salads and pasta dishes.

Being a woman of very little (no) patience, none of them got to be huge but I still consider the experiment to be a resounding success. I'm not sure whether to throw more carrot seeds in there or try something else, I think I may be more suited to crops such as lettuce which don't require months of waiting.

Inspiration has been AWOL

2011-09-22T22:19:00.005+10:00

I actually deleted my poor neglected old blog a couple of weeks ago, seemed to have lost the blogging mojo.

Once spring really set in, I realised that a lot of my garden history was stored here plus links to recipes and other useful stuff, so I have managed to resurrect it. I also realised that it was hard to keep up with everyone else's news or to learn any useful tips about improving the garden without the blog. I appear to have messed up the design of it a bit but I'll sort that out over time (maybe).

Last weekend I had a wonderful time NOT cleaning my house, mucking out chickens or doing anything in the garden. I spent Saturday morning at a local art show/market day and then headed up to the Blue Mountains for an Open Garden weekend organised as a fund raiser by a local school. Can't get over how beautiful it all was, I don't think I've ever seen blossom trees like it - would have rivalled Japan I bet. I do have a few photos but they don't do it all justice.

This is a beautiful woodland/cottage type garden on a little farmlet - so beautiful and also productive - it was like being transported back to England.

And this is the driveway of a permaculture garden in Hazlebrook, probably the most inspiring garden I've ever seen. All the down the driveway are fruit and nut trees, not a mm wasted. The block was quite sloping and rather steep in some places but the whole thing was covered with plants, both productive and ornamental. I could not believe the amount of citrus fruit they still had on their trees this late in the year. Mine are all completely bare now.

Unfortunately, as my block is as flat as flat can be and we live in a completely frost free climate, it would be impossible to recreate this garden but I certainly was inspired to make more use of my space. This year I will be planting a lot more, both in the ground and in pots so that things can be moved in and out of the shade according to the season.

What on Earth Have I Been Doing?

2011-08-04T17:08:00.004+10:00

Haven't posted for ages - mainly because I hate posting without photos and I don't get time to take and download the pics.

So very briefly I have been:

knitting loads of socks (thank goodness it's warmed up)

to Melbourne and had the flu (unfortunately at the same time, will have to go back)

entertaining visitors from NZ (old uni friends)

falling downstairs with a glass in my hand ( stitches and tennis elbow) and no it was water not wine!

raising lots of chicks for friends

pet sitting 6 large, greedy and dirty chooks for a friend so therefore constantly cleaning up poo and filling feed containers

selling anything that isn't nailed down, on eBay - still have far too much stuff and of course ended up buying more stuff at the same time

working of course

trying to get rid of mould caused by a week of the worst weather I've ever seen

I think that's about it, nothing much doing in the garden these days as we have full shade in the winter but that is about to change I'm sure. I will get the old seed box out at the weekend and start doing some seed trays in preparation for spring. It's well over 20 today so spring can't be too far away.

Waste Not - Want Not

2011-05-23T09:21:00.008+10:00

My granny's favourite saying I think, and lately it has also become mine.

Convincing my youngest daughter to join my green "revolution" is proving quite difficult, she still prefers to buy biscuits, muesli bars etc from the supermarket rather than make her own. Unfortunately I don't really have the time provide her with the number she needs so I am losing that battle.

She did make macaroons the other day but I was horrified to find that 3 beautiful homegrown egg yolks were wasted in the process. I promptly googled "3 egg yolk recipes" and found the easiest sponge recipe ever for the next time she made the macaroons - where would we be without google.

I persuaded her to make the macaroons again so that I could try it out - both were a great success and were demolished almost immediately.

Here is the link for anyone who needs to use up eggs yolks, it's almost healthy really because it doesn't have any butter and could probably be made into a lactose free recipe if you used soya or lactose free milk. It's quite a small cake, you could easily double it if you need to find a use for 6 egg yolks.

Sorry about the rubbish photos, not sure why they turned out like that.

When Life Gives you Carrots - Make Soup

2011-05-16T08:49:00.005+10:00

We are in the midst of a carrot glut - I bought carrots at the market, there were carrots in the Food Connect box and a friend of mine brought me her excess carrots. Chloe was very partial to carrots being a rabbit, so we used to use quite a few but now that she is gone the fridge was collapsing under the strain.

Of course we now have perfect soup weather so I got out my trusty Covent Garden Soup book and made our favourite - Carrot and Butterbean Soup. It is actually the Carrrot and Coriander soup recipe but I have altered it a bit. I have posted about this soup before but this time here is the recipe:

25g butter (or olive oil - I use 50/50)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove

550 g carrots - 450 roughly chopped, the rest grated

1 L vege stock

pinch of grated fresh nutmeg

salt and pepper

tablespoon fresh chopped coriander

150ml single cream

instead of those two ingredients I add two tins of butter beans.

Melt the butter and cook the onion and garlic gently until soft. Add the roughly chopped carrots, stock and nutmeg - simmer till the vegetables are tender. Cool, then liquidise, I add one tin of beans to the liquidiser.

Return the soup to a clean saucepan (too much washing up), stir in the grated carrots and the other tin of butter beans or the cream and coriander if you are making that recipe.

I like a dollop of sour cream or yoghurt and lots of ground black pepper on mine and a hunk of homemade bread is obligatory in my house.

Goodbye Chloe

2011-05-14T19:41:00.003+10:00

I seem to be having a bad year with my pets, my beloved chook-rabbit died in her sleep this week, I wonder if the change in the weather was too much for her. Our night time temps seemed to plummet without warning and I doubt she was ready for that. I don't know how old she was, she was fully grown when we adopted her and we have had her for about 18 months but I don't think she was old and she certainly wasn't sick. I only took this photo of her on Monday.

She was a really lovely rabbit who loved a bit of a cuddle and used to bound up to me every time I went outside but preferred the company of chickens to either rabbits or people. She was top of the pecking order actually.

I will probably get another rabbit or a pair eventually but they won't be able to replace Chloe - she was a one off.

My Chooks Immortalised

2011-05-10T20:17:00.006+10:00

I am so excited, a very very good friend of mine is an artist and at Christmas time she took photos of some of my girls and turned them into artworks. I just LOVE them!

This is Bella and poor old Honeybum who is no longer with us

This is Ruby who is a great mum and is currently looking after 3 fluffy little chicks.

And this is the very beautiful Sylvia, a Silver Laced Wyandotte.

What do you think?

And if you fancy a look at some of Juliet's other artworks her blog is here.

Better Late than Never - Chutney to Die For

2011-05-09T08:25:00.007+10:00

I started this post on April 18th when it was much more timely but circumstances intervened - Hubby took the recipe to work to photocopy and it disappeared into a black hole. He swears he gave it back to me but as I am the font of all knowledge when it comes to lost things I'm pretty sure he imagined that!

Anyway - here it is, unfortunately probably a bit late in season but at least I will have it recorded for posterity now.

My main tomato crop was over in December and we have just had enough for salads since then but some kind person at Hubby's work gave me him a bucket of heirloom ones that I promptly turned into pasta sauce. I sent them some eggs as a thank you and was rewarded with another bucket full. My neighbour had given me a jar of the most divine chutney for looking after her chooks so I got the recipe and turned the second bucket, plus some of those great apples, into chutney. My friends have been bringing empty jars round to be filled with it, it is sooo good.

I gave the tomato givers a jar too and was rewarded yet again with a bucket of tomatoes - half of these were made into more sauce and the others we are eating like sweets, they are so delicious. Nothing I like better than a good barter.

The chutney recipe is a Maggie Beer one called Little Blanche's Ripe Tomato Chutney, tweaked a bit by my gourmet neighbour, cut down to 1/3 of the original and (almost) slavishly followed by me as it was my first attempt at chutney. (It was a great way to get rid of excess Christmas dried fruit too):

250g raisins (I used sultanas, my neighbour used figs)

500g Granny Smith apples (I used Bramley and Coxs)

1.5kg ripe tomatoes

650g brown onions - peeled and finely chopped (I'm lazy mine were chunky)

40g salt

650g sugar (half white, half demerera)

260ml vinegar (brown malt)

40g garlic cloves

20g grated ginger

1 ripe chilli (I used more)

Peel and core the apples and chop them roughly. Cut the tomatoes into eighths and cook with the apples and onions. (Till soft I guess) Add all other ingredients and boil gently for 2 to 3 hours. Reduce any liquid at high temperature. Bottle.

Warning - it may increase your cheese and crackers consumption quite considerably as you will not be able to stop once you start!

A Spot of Kulcha

2011-04-18T22:25:00.002+10:00

Tonight I did something I've never done before, take my eldest daughter to the ballet. I had ballet lessons as a kid but the teacher was pretty sadistic so I didn't last long. The fact that my father insisted on calling Madame Du Plat Mrs Duplett certainly didn't endear me to her. My daughter has been dancing since she could walk - ballet, jazz, funk, tap .............. a lot more fun than being whacked on the backside by Mme D.

Anyway a couple of months ago she said she'd like to see a proper ballet. I've always had a hankering to see Swan Lake, mainly because I had a biography of Anna Pavlova as a kid, but it wasn't on so I bought tickets for Madame Butterfly, my favourite opera, instead.

The tickets looked quite good on the internet but they were nosebleed seats, the first thing S said was "you do know I'm scared of heights!" And I wished I'd thought to take binoculars but it was fine, I did remember my glasses at least.

Aside from all that I absolutely loved it, it was very beautiful and if they made any mistakes I certainly wouldn't have noticed it from way up there. I think S enjoyed it, and her relief that there was no opera singing was palpable. I kept hoping Kiri Te Kanawa would be doing a cameo but she didn't show.

Not sure if she will want to go again but I will be looking out for Swan Lake for next time.

The Joys of Autumn

2011-04-15T07:59:00.011+10:00

When spring comes I always think that it is the best time of the year, everything warming up and things starting to grow but this year autumn seems even better. The weather has been lovely after all the horrendous heat of early Feb and then the torrential rain of March. Harvesting the last of the summer crops and finding ways to preserve them for as long as possible is great fun, especially when you have school holidays and lots of time to play in the kitchen.

I made my pilgrimage to Bilpin for apples again in early March - 10kg of Cox Orange Pippins, 10kg of Bramleys and 5 of Braeburns picked by us has kept us going for weeks. Lots of apple crumble, stewed apple and custard for Hubby or with yoghurt for me, the odd apple pie and still there are crumbles in the freezer, jars in the pantry and a few Braeburns still to eat.

Best of all are the feijoas (pineapple guava) from my own trees, they are a bit of an acquired taste apparently, I acquired it over 40 years ago and cannot get enough of them. They cost over $2 each at Woolies, if you can get them that is, but they are so easy to grow. I have two trees about 5 years old in my chicken run and they are producing enough for me and a couple of my friends who like them. Mercifully my family hate them.

Up at the Beach/Orchard House I have planted 5 more trees so soon I hope to have a glut which can be turned into jam and preserves as well.

The feijoas will all be gone soon but next will be the mandarins which are also thriving in the chook run and then after that the oranges, I got about 100kg off that tree last year. Can't wait to get some more use out of my bargain Vacola and all those great jars. My marmalade wasn't so good last year, think orange flavoured superglue! Hopefully the results will be more impressive this year.

And here is one of only 3 butternut squashes I harvested this year, the two others were only a few mouthfuls each but this one, from a volunteer plant of course, is a whopper.

Autumn Garden

2011-04-08T16:23:00.006+10:00

Here's my broccoli bed all ready to go when the seedlings are ready, it also has a random collection of other things - artichokes, chillis, capsicum and either turnips or swedes. I planted both but only one came up. Think it was the swedes but I'm not 100% sure - time will tell. I like a bit of mystery in my life. The background is a bit embarrassing, lots of things that should be put away properly but never are. It's all hidden behind the garage so no-one but me usually sees it.

At the end of the garlic bed I have a bit of silverbeet for the chooks, some snowpeas coming up and, in pots at the end, my collection of pineapple tops that I'm hoping will eventually bear new pineapples.

And here is the great carrot experiment, looking pretty good so far. I filled our old bath full of 80/20 sand that came with the new turf and they really seem to like it in there. It drains fantastically and is netted to keep Chloe the Chook rabbit out. It does need a bit more sun so I will get Hubby to remove some Jacaranda limbs at the weekend. Hopefully that will reduce the pigeon poo on the laundry at the same time.

This is my winter potato bed, I know I've planted them a bit early but it worked well last year so I did it again. Can't remember what sorts they are - some Dutch Cream (my favourite) something red and there is a trench left for my Kipflers when they've chitted a bit longer.

I'm not 100% sure about growing things in polystyrene boxes but at least they don't go into landfill and it gives loads more space for winter greens. In these three I have Corn Salad (Mache), English Spinach, Wild Rocket(Aragula) and Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce.

And alongside the broad beans is the garlic bed, I am staggering the planting a bit so that we don't have it ripen all at once and then start sprouting too soon at the end of the year. So far I have three rows that have come up and there are another two to go. I will also be squeezing it in wherever there are a few spare cm of space as you can NEVER have too much garlic.

I am using it in the chooks' water containers at the moment to try and prevent winter ailments - I've lost 3 chooks this year already and I don't want to make it 4.

New Life & Chook Shenanigans

2011-03-23T18:34:00.006+11:00

I am still missing Honeybum, she was a very striking golden presence amongst my mainly black and white chooks, but I am cheered by the fact that my new Brahma baby looks like being a girl.

How cute is she?

It has been an up and down week in the chook world, I've been looking after my neighbours chooks as well, there is a gate from my pen to their garden, so I just go back and forth between them. With the horrendous rain we had over the weekend the gate swelled up and I was not able to close it properly. Yesterday while I was at work, it obviously started to dry out and shrink back to normal. When I got home the gate was wide open and half my chooks were investigating next door and upsetting the residents no end. After some Benny Hill type antics, I managed to persuade them to come home.

This morning, when I went out to say hello, I thought to myself I really do have too many chooks. You guessed it, the neighbours chooks had escaped from their pen and come to return the visit. Actually I do have too many chooks but I was at least able to reduce the number instantaneously this morning.

No Good Very Bad Day

2011-03-21T08:55:00.012+11:00

Yesterday was not the best of days, I had agreed to go to a chook auction in Berry to sell some chooks for myself and a friend and also to pick up some lovely new Wyandotte pullets that the the very kind organiser thought I would like. Unfortunately the weather was as revolting as it could possibly be so the 2 hour journey, beginning at 5.30am, was pretty stressful. Not only was it dark and peeing down but there was also bloody fog. I was very glad that my car was serviced last week and had 4 new tyres I can tell you.

Unfortunately the auction was pretty quiet because of the weather so we did not get very good prices for our pairs of chickens but at least they sold - we are not allowed to keep roosters in the city so I didn't want to have to bring them all the way back again.

I had also hoped to get a new Brahma friend for my favourite chicken who has not been very well lately, first with an infection that required antibiotics and then with the dreaded fowl pox. I thought her recovery was progressing well but when I arrived home and went to tell her that there were no Brahma friends for her, she had died in her nest.

She was the first chick I hand raised and had the most beautiful nature, I called her Honeybum because of the gorgeous colour of her big fluffy bottom but sadly she has now gone. I think the ghastly weather must have been the last straw for her compromised immune system. She will be sadly missed.

And it's still bucketing down after more than 48 hours of almost constant rain.

Jabiru and Curl Grubs

2011-03-11T15:23:00.009+11:00

Was going to do separate posts about these things but I figured I would never get around to that so it is a kind of Yin and Yang post.

Jabiru or Edamame are soya beans that are grown to be eaten as beer snacks, I experimented with them this year and they were fantastic. They grew steadily over the whole spring and summer, seemed to be impervious to weather, including the horrendous heat of early Feb and don't appear to suffer from pests. I had room for about 5 plants I think but that produced a big enough crop to make several bowls of beer snacks and there are enough to freeze a few for later as well.

You boil the whole pod in salted water for 5-10 minutes, depending on how big they are and then suck the beans out - delicious. I read somewhere that they are also called Hairy Beans and mine certainly live up to that. In Japanese restaurants you can scrape the beans out with your teeth but with the homegrown you have to split the pods into a smile and sort of squirt them into your mouth. Sounds tricky but you get used to it pretty quick - or starve to death.

In the same vege patch that the edamame were growing in, I had a few unexpected casualties that I put down to cats peeing in there. However, when I dug it over after the crops were finished I discovered hundreds and hundreds of disgusting curl grubs which I suspect were the culprits after all. Luckily they are the chooks most favourite snack so I have been spending a couple of hours a week digging them out and chucking them in the chook run. It's like watching a chicken mosh pit.

Think I will put a chicken tractor in the patch for a couple of weeks and let them clear it right out before I plant the next lot of veges in there. They destroy plants at the roots so need to be eradicated toute suite. We get little enough to grow in the winter without those little buggers interfering.

I think you can water with eucalyptus oil to get rid of them but I am concerned that the worms would suffer as well so hand and chicken removal will have to suffice.

Garlic Time

2011-02-20T12:40:00.007+11:00

Because I am a bit of a cheap skate, I don't like to pay the prices that seed suppliers charge for planting garlic so this year I have bought organic garlic from anywhere that sells it - Food Connect, organic vege shops etc. Today I hit pay dirt at the French's Forest Farmers Market. There was a man selling his own homegrown organic garlic for a fraction of what it costs online from Diggers, Green Harvest etc. , $1 a bulb for white softneck garlic and $2 for purple hardneck. And no postage costs. He didn't tell me exactly what kinds they were but I don't really need to know that. Last time I bought garlic for planting I completely forgot which was which anyway.

I'll use the smallest cloves in the kitchen and then will plant the decent sized ones when it is planting time. I'll probably put some in at Easter and then have a go at another lot on the shortest day to harvest on the longest day. I'm going big scale with the garlic this year so I'm hoping it will be the last time I have to buy any - ever!

Here is a link to Stewart's Vege Garden with a very good explanation of how to grow garlic. It's actually much easier than you would think and then you just have to pray that it doesn't rain too much at the end so they don't rot. All mine will be raised beds this year, last year I planted them too close to the lawn and they fell foul of Hubby's strimmer!

Told You I Took alot of Photos

2011-02-13T08:21:00.005+11:00

Water in the Murray at Goolwa

Felt a bit sorry for the horse at Granite Island, Victor Harbour

Wonder if the horse can read the sign?

Loved the way the vineyards put roses along the roadside

Hubby had chook shed envy

A Weekend in South Australia

2011-02-08T21:11:00.010+11:00

Hubs and I have just had a mini break a la Bridget Jones - except that he didn't abandon me half way through.

I have only been to Adelaide once before for about 24 hours and the weather was absolutely vile so I didn't have terribly fond memories but we had tickets to a concert at Leconsfield Winery so off we went. I have to admit that half way through last week I was a bit nervous about the weather, I figured if it was too bloody hot here, Adelaide would be an inferno. Booking a weekend in SA in Feb didn't seem like such a good idea after all.

However, it was about 20 degrees cooler than Sydney, we had a great meal in Chinatown, watched a Lion Dance and spent hours in the Central Market on Saturday morning- I could quite happily have spent the whole 3 days in there actually.

We then went off to McLaren Vale to eat drink and be merry for the weekend. I was amazed at how brilliant the food and wine was - I am now addicted to Alexandrina Cheese, SA almonds & Olive oil and Penny's Hill wine.

The scenery was pretty amazing too, I took more photos in 3 days than I have in the last 10 years I think. And the concert wasn't bad either - we had seats 7 rows from the stage and could see every bead of sweat on their faces. Have to say that George Thorogood put on much more of a show than Joe Cocker but to be honest they're both lucky to still be around after the abuse they must have put themselves through over the years. I was impressed that they both managed to stand up for an hour.

What a Find

2011-01-11T10:24:00.007+11:00

In the town where we have our beach house there is the most amazing Op shop, it is a complete treasure trove and has not resorted to charging the exorbitant prices that Sydney Op shops now do. I have bought loads of great things for the beach house that I would just not have been able to afford new - filter jug ($1), cookware, pure wool blankets ($5), linen table cloths ($2) .....

When we there at Christmas I found a Fowlers Vacola preserving kit hiding under a table with a make an offer sign on it. I told the lady it was worth over a $100 but I didn't have that much on me (and I already have one) so she said how about $50. Needless to say I nearly bit her hand off. And that was before I realised that there were 4 boxes of jars that went with it.

I have been busy trying it out already, the electric one is great, no more lifting a huge pan of water off the stove and also it frees the stove top up for other activities, like making more goodies to put in the jars.

Preparing for Autumn

2011-01-10T08:15:00.008+11:00

I know it's only the beginning of January but I have a feeling the summer is going to finish early this year, it's not much of a summer anyway. I think we have only had a couple of days where it was over 30, unusual but good - I don't like it too hot and neither does my garden. I've barely had to water either, no more than half a dozen times the whole summer. Just as well as we have mites in the chook house so I have been emptying the tank trying to blast the little buggers out of the nooks and crannies.

My tomatoes are starting look to pretty sad and I have had to pull one or two of them out, the Grosse Lisse on the top and the San Marzano on the bottom are hanging in there but only just and will be pulled out as soon as the fruit starts to ripen.

Looks like I will have to buy tomatoes for bottling again this year. We have enough for the odd salad but no excess. I do have several replacement plants on the go but if we don't get some more hot dry days they will succumb to the wilt too in this wet and humid weather. The last two or three to be planted are in pots so they can be brought up to the deck when it starts to get cold. Our deck is about 1o deg warmer than anywhere else in Sydney I'm sure.

This is a little cherry tom that I picked up at a local market yesterday, I'm hoping it will keep us in salad for a long while.

The Rattlesnake beans have done their dash too, only one of the original seeds germinated but that one plant has kept us in beans for a couple of months and filled the freezer would you believe. Not only are they amazingly productive but Rattlesnakes are by far the tastiest bean I have grown. Thank you to the blogger who recommended them to me - I think it was Margo from the Goodlife Downunder. I do have a follow up crop of an unidentified bean given to me by a friend, and this morning I planted another crop of Rattlesnake beans from collected seeds, hopefully we will get a few more yummy beans.

I have already started preparing the beds for the winter crops, dumping lots of compost onto them and digging over the empty bits. I am keeping it really simple this year, nothing exotic, as we get lots interesting things in the Food Connect boxes. I will concentrate on staples such as garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, broad beans and broccoli.

I'll get Carrots if it Kills Me

2011-01-03T12:23:00.005+11:00

This is my Number 1 goal for 2011, in the garden anyway. Hubby and I have filled our old bath with a layer of blue metal and then put the left over 80/20 sand/soil mix on top and mixed it with homemade compost.

We got off to a really good start, I planted a row of carrots each week in November and got some lovely little seedlings. BUT, I turned my back for 2 minutes, it rained and the bloody slugs and snails got the whole lot. I tried coffee grounds but that made no difference whatsoever so I am going to give the beer traps another go but if that fails it's time for drastic action. Slug pellets it is. I have surrounded the bath with netting so Chloe the chook-rabbit can't get at them so no pets will be poisoned if it does come to that.

Another goal is to reduce my car usage, I did not do very well with it last year but will give it another go. The road to the station is so steep you almost need crampons and ropes so I think the answer is to get fitter so that it is not so painful. Hubs and I have declared January a no car month, he can walk to work and I can do my shopping in small amounts as I am not working and the garden is providing us with a lot of our fresh food needs.

Another goal from last year, that I did not actually document, was to grow more from seeds that I saved myself. I have made some progress with this - I planted the crook neck squash from a neighbour's fruit that I was given and I saved seeds for lettuce, rocket, 3 different varieties of beans.

Well that's 3 goals to be going on with, better go and find some carrot seeds and some beer.

Resolutions

2011-01-02T13:30:00.010+11:00

Actually I don't make resolutions any more because I am rubbish at keeping them, the only one I ever achieved was to give up smoking about 20 years ago which means that now I end up starting every year wanting to lose weight and ending every year fatter. C'est la vie.

Anyway here are last years goals

1. Improve succession planting to avoid gluts and famines.

2. Increase the amount of staples, such as carrots, potatoes and onions, that I grow.

3. Use the chooks to help more in the garden and destroy less. (need better fences)

4. Preserve and freeze more so that I don't have to buy in as much in the winter.

1. Definitely made some improvements here but I am still struggling to provide much from the garden in the depths of winter, it is just too shady, but since the spring I have been able to plant continuously to avoid feasts and famines.

2. My winter potato experiment went very well, I got a few kilos of spuds in late winter and would have got more if I hadn't chosen the shadiest bed I'm sure. I did get a few onions but completely underestimated how many onions a family actually needs. Carrots are still a no go area, room for improvement there.

3. The chooks are slaving away out there making compost and fertiliser these days instead of tearing up the vege patch so this is my most successful goal, amazing what you can do with a few star pickets and some chicken wire.

4. I put my Fowlers Vacola kit to good use preserving nectarines, peaches and apples. I had to buy it all in as I didn't have any growing but we picked our own at a reasonably local orchard so I don't feel bad about that. I underestimated the quantities there too, I had eaten most of the bottled fruit by Easter so will get far more this year.

I also embarked on a 100 mile (160km) diet which was pretty tricky. Joining Food Connect has made an impact on our ability to stick to it though. All of our veges either come from the garden or from within 250km radius and often much closer than that.

However, in terms of most other foods it is pretty tricky, all the milk we have access to comes from another state as does most of the flour and other wheat products. I ended up just focussing very strongly on buying Australian food whenever possible and doing as much baking and cooking from scratch as possible. The whole family is now trained to look for Australian, free range and organic labels wherever possible.

Haven't really come up with any new goals yet, need to keep working on last year's ones, but I will think about it and get back to you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2011-01-02T12:26:00.005+11:00

I started off trying to write comments on a few of my favourite blogs but there are so many I decided it would be better to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all at once.

We have been away up at the beach house for a week which was great, the "orchard" is going really well - we have fruit on all the citrus and the boysenberries. I ate the one and only ripe berry and should really have removed all the baby citrus fruit but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. I will next time though (maybe). I even got a handful of potatoes, which is a miracle as the house has been rented out since October and we haven't been up there to take care of the garden.

Of course I have discovered that a few things are in the wrong place, the grapevine does not have enough sun or room so I will move that in the autumn.

I forgot to take my camera so don't have any pics unfortunately. Would have been quite funny to have a pic of hubby having to take the boat trailer off the car half way round the drive thru and push it into the truck stop so I could collect our (very shameful) takeaway and drive round to pick it up. Eating takeaway is obviously very bad karma and it served us right.

That was boating disaster Number 7, not good but over 4 years not too bad. Boating disaster Number 8 was not far behind though. I am quite a keen fisherman but have not caught anything worth keeping since we came to Australia. I finally got a beautiful snapper at Port Stephens and was feeling quite pleased with myself until the Marine Park ranger appeared and informed us that we were just inside the Sanctuary Zone and it had to go straight back in. Bugger! It is a $500 instant fine but I think he could see we were dumb city slickers and had no clue so he let us away with a written caution. Thank goodness my fishing license was up to date or we might not have got away with it.

Here is a pic of Hubs surf casting in April just so you can see how nice the beach is.

Weird and Wonderful at Greenfumb's

2010-12-02T14:01:00.008+11:00

Siamese Twins amongst the Crook Neck squash

Eggstremes of egg size - the one on the right makes my eyes water - I'm assuming they were not laid by the same hen, one weighs 29g and the other a whopping 86. I think that it was laid by my biggest chook, a RIR/Australorp cross, who has now gone broody. No wonder after that effort. I'm betting it's a double yolker, it seems to be narrower in the middle as if it has a yolk each end.

Today I find myself at home unexpectedly, thanks to a ghastly stomach bug. I was actually bedridden for one day - I hate that! I feel fine now but decided it would be kinder to the people I work with not to inflict my germs on them.

Every cloud has a silver lining anyway, my diet will get a bit of shove as I am unable to eat anything but mashed potato (my favourite) and have had no wine or coffee all week. Gotta be worth a kilo at least at Monday shaming session, sorry I meant weigh-in.

And, I get to spend some time in the garden, things are crazy out there with all this rain. I had to cut back most of my early tomato plants so that some air could circulate and I could remove all the bloody snails. Must have been at least 30 of them on 3 bushes. I will let the fruit that's on there now ripen and then pull them out as they are growing under the frangipani which will provide deep shade in the very near future.

I have plenty of other younger plants to follow along behind, I've had a lot more success with my seed sowing this year, probably again due to all the rain we've had.

Feeling a bit sad - was I premature?

2010-10-31T19:56:00.006+11:00

After I posted about pulling the pin I lay awake for a while thinking about life without a blog and all of you, and wondering why I find it so hard to post these days.

As some of you may remember Hubby and I bought ourselves a holiday house this time last year - Hubby as an investment for his retirement and me to get more space for food production. This has taken up a huge amount of our time - it had to be completely gutted and renovated and we have had to spend loads of time (and money) on the garden because we both work and have the "farm" here.

I also realised that it also has a lot to do with the camera hassles I've had. My camera needs a service and also is very slow to load photos from. I don't really like posting without the photos as I don't feel my writing has enough substance on it's own - also I know I prefer to read blogs with lots of photos rather than lots of writing.

BUT I have remembered that I've found it really useful to have the blog as a diary of planting, harvesting, recipes and so on. I actually started blogging because I enjoyed Scarecrows garden diary so much. AND I've come to think of many of you as friends.

So I have decided to take another blog break instead, then I can keep up with what you are all doing, and then when I have holidays, (being a teacher I do get lots of holidays after all) I will come back. In that time I will get my camera serviced and try using one of my children's camera to see if they are any easier.

So sorry to be a drama queen but I will give it another go and then if I still can't get my impetus and enthusiasm back I definitely will give it up.

I will leave you with some gratuitous (and not very good) photos of my chickies. See you at Christmas.

Pulling the Pin

2010-10-30T23:13:00.002+11:00

Just can't seem to get up the impetus to blog these days so have decided to abandon it. Sorry to those of you who have been following and I will miss my regulars who have become like real friends but real life seems to take up more time these days.

I will bookmark the blogs I enjoy and pop in from time to time and leave the odd message. I have learnt so much from many of you about sustainability, cooking and gardening and often had a jolly good laugh..

Thanks to all of you who read my ramblings and especially to those who commented.

Technology is Against me

2010-10-10T18:02:00.005+11:00

I've been struggling to blog lately, partly because my laptop is playing up and is out of warranty so isn't worth paying to repair, I will wait til it dies completely and then get a new one. Also my camera still needs a service so my photos are pretty disappointing but I found an old photo on it today and thought it would be good to take a new one of the same spot. I love before and after photos. What a difference 3 months makes.

The broad beans are amazing this year, very tall and covered in flowers and pods. I wouldn't bother with them myself, they take up such a lot of room, but they are Hubby's absolute favourite vege so it would be churlish of me not to grow them. He deserves some reward for all the labouring I get him to do.

The big broccoli plant has been keeping us in greens for weeks but has gone to seed now so I will collect some and pull that out this week. there are a few baby ones underneath it but I found my first cabbage white caterpillar this week so their days are probably numbered.

I hate those bloody things but not as much as I hate fruit fly. This weeks major task is to get some fruit fly baits out and I have been scouring Vinnies for net curtains to protect as many of my tomatoes as possible.

I've had a planting frenzy this week, the mini greenhouse is now full and I'm just waiting for the broad beans to finish so I've got somewhere to plant things.

Self Sufficiency it Aint

2010-09-10T18:57:00.005+10:00

Dont think we will be able to dispense with our vege box any time soon, but after a long dark winter with very little in the way of home grown veges we finally have some things to pick. I managed to bandicoot 4 very beautiful looking potatoes that were part of an experiment to grow tatties in the shade over winter. I was thrilled to find them - I just threw some pantry potatoes (organic) in the most shady patch, mounded them up with chicken bedding and away they went. Can't for the life of me remember what kind they were - maybe Dutch Cream or Sebago. Need to find somewhere to put my Christmas potatoes now.

I also managed to get a fair bit of English spinach, lettuce and rocket for a salad and the broccoli is fantastic, it is now almost as tall as I am ( not that that is difficult) and still producing what I would call "broccolini".

I planted a few things today too but it's tricky finding space at this time of the year, the garlic and broad beans aren't quite ready and take up alot of room, but I did squeeze in a few Rattlesnake beans and some Soya beans for Edamame.

Because I have been chronically over-ordering seeds in the last few years, and managing to save a few of my own, I won't buy any more this year, if we are missing anything that will be too bad. Our Food Connect box will make up the shortfall anyway.

AND I finally took the last oranges off the tree today. I think there about 25kg still to do something with so the weekend will be spent processing them - more marmalade, more cake and loads more juice.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2010-08-17T22:10:00.003+10:00

Absolutely nothing to do with gardens or chooks but had to share a funny incident at work today.

I was reading Dick Whittington with a couple of my students and I mentioned that many many years ago rats had contributed to the Bubonic plague and lots of people had died. One student immediately asked me if I had lost any of my friends! When I pointed out that I was old but not quite that old the other wanted to know how old I was and could not believe I was older than his mother who is actually 8 years younger than I am.

Obviously being flattered by this is pointless as according to these two I could be anywhere between 35 and 350 years old!!

Oranges are not the Only Fruit

2010-08-16T12:04:00.008+10:00

I am beginning to feel as if we eat nothing but oranges around here, I have given heaps away, I have been bartering them for eggs and still there is a 22kg box of them on the deck and more on the tree. And yes there are lemons too, they're next on the list for preserving.

Over the weekend I made this fantastic Orange and Almond Cake that I found on Liss's Blog in the Seasonal Savvy section. I didn't have enough almond meal so there was a bit more flour in mine than in the recipe but that was fine, we have no intolerances around here (not when it comes to food anyway). It was great as a cake and reasonably healthy with whole oranges and no butter but it was Amazing as a pudding with ice cream (oops not healthy) and extra thick hot orange syrup. The kids weren't impressed, not buttery or sweet enough for them but Hubs and I loved it.

I am going to stock up on Almond meal and stick a few in the freezer for when the oranges are gone - if ever that is.

I also finally plucked up the energy to tackle the marmalade which turned into a 24 hour marathon as it had to soak for hours and then the bloody stuff wouldn't set so I had to re-boil it in smaller batches. I swear it took me an hour to clean the stove and wash the pots and even then I'm sure I caught a whiff of burnt sugar when I boiled the kettle.

My Year on a Low Carbon Diet

2010-07-29T22:21:00.006+10:00

Did anyone else watch this show on SBS - an Anglo-Finnish family trying to spend a whole year without plastic and reducing their oil consumption, it was interesting and really quite eccentric. I loved the honesty of his wife who wasn't at all sure about the whole venture. Especially when she snuck out in the middle of the night to buy crisps so that her son wouldn't go to a school party with a bag of dirty carrots.

The kids were great, going along with it all until Dad had the audacity to suggest that there be no plastic Christmas decorations.

It seemed almost impossible, in a Finnish supermarket, to buy something that wasn't encased in plastic, made Woolies seem quite progressive. Mind you I have taken to using the self serve section at our local so that I don't have to explain every time that I don't mind paying for the weight of my cloth vege bags or washing my reusable bags when meat has been in there.

Spring? - Maybe Not

2010-07-28T17:58:00.002+10:00

Yesterday was as beautiful a winter's day as you could imagine, our school had it's athletics carnival and it was just lovely. Not really like working at all.

What a difference a day makes! Today is as vile a day as I've experienced in Sydney, it rained non-stop all day and it is pretty cold. I know we're not supposed to complain about the rain but my tank is full and my garden is a swamp - I don't need anymore bloody water here.

I kept the poor chookies in today because I figured they were safer in than out. The silly silkies are too dim to keep dry and I didn't want them to catch pneumonia. I feel guilty treating them like battery hens but it's for their own good. Hope it's a bit better tomorrow or I might have a mutiny on my hands. I'm having enough trouble getting the beggars to lay as it is at the moment, only three are even thinking about it and two of those are pretty erratic.

At the weekend someone gave me an absolutely beautiful black Australorp which isn't far off laying so hopefully when she comes out of quarantine and joins the others she can show them what to do.

Spring is Coming

2010-07-26T20:16:00.004+10:00

It's a bit hard to believe it in Sydney today but the days are noticeably longer already and the heater is on less and less (in the daytime anyway).

The chicken houses needed cleaning out at the weekend so that seemed like a good opportunity to get the tomato patch ready. I am using a sort of loose rotating system so the toms will go in the garden next to the house where the passionfruit used to be before it turned into a triffid and had to be removed. I dug all the manure and compost from the run into the soil and then covered it with the mulch from the floor of the coops. The tomatoes won't go in the ground til about September/October so the poop will have plenty of time to rot down.

Next weekend I will get all the seeds out and start planting some in jiffy pots. They can start out in my mini greenhouse to make sure they don't get hit by any freak frosts or cold snaps. My crop was devastated by fruit fly last year so I will make sure I get the Natralure traps out too. Serves me right for being so lazy, leaving the bottle of stuff in the shed didn't seem to do the trick somehow and I was punished.

Another lesson I've learnt from last year is to get the melons and luffas in alot earlier, neither of them had time to develop fruit last year. All those straggling vines and nothing whatsoever to show for it.

New Job

2010-07-21T19:59:00.004+10:00

Following an article in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of weeks ago, Food Connect has had a big influx of members so I have become a City Cousin. It's not a very arduous job, I just have about 10 boxes delivered to my carport on a Monday afternoon and then people come and pick them up over the next few hours.

Food Connect provided a few extra things so that people could swap things they didn't like or want so I chucked in a few of those ubiquitous oranges as well. I'm hoping as time goes on we will be able to do a bit of bartering with homegrown veges as well and maybe even some eggs if the girls ever pull their fingers out.

It makes life easier for me really because I don't have to cross a major Sydney road at rush hour to get my box. I will miss my former City Cousin but hopefully we can keep in touch. In fact she was the person who delivered the boxes this week so I'm sure I will see her again.

Down on the farm

2010-07-03T21:12:00.005+10:00

Joy asked me how my chooks were going so here is a bit of an update.

I have become completely addicted to them and you could say I have too many. I wouldn't say that but many do. My lovely little Araucana chicks have gone to stay with a friend of mine who has 5 acres and can have a rooster. Hopefully we will get some more eggs to hatch when they're ready for a bit of romance.

My cute little penguin chicks are now 12 weeks old and such beautiful colours.

One is called a splash, two are mid blue and one dark blue. I am no expert at chicken sexing but I am quietly confident that I have 4 girls from 4 eggs this time. This time last year I had some Sussex chicks an all of them had to be rehomed.

I can't really keep them all so if they are all girls I will keep the splash and one of the mid blues and sell the other two to cover the cost of a couple more bags of feed.

And my motley crew of older girls have been on a winter layover, eating like pigs and contributing nothing except manure. Hubby has been sharpening his axe and muttering like a madman.

I was reliably informed that they would start laying after the solstice and was getting impatient until I went to clean the rabbit hutch and discovered that someone had laid in there. I decided to go on a bit of a hunt in the undergrowth and sure enough found 2 more eggs so hopefully we will be back in full production soon. The lemon tree is groaning and I want to get busy with the lemon butter. It wouldn't be quite the same with shop bought eggs.

Don't you love that big fluffy Brahma bum!

Orange Recipes Please

2010-07-02T08:13:00.004+10:00

I just had to show you this but the photo does not do it justice, must get my camera serviced. A couple of years ago I got three fruit from this tree thanks to stink bugs (bronze orange beetle) and probably partly because orange trees do rest occasionally.

I think the chooks are partly responsible for this crop as they spent the whole summer underneath, escaping from the heat and fertilising at the same time. Just as well they are good at something because they haven't laid in ages. Time to get the Hot Chicken sign out again!

There are oranges right through the tree to the other side, normally we only get a crop on this side which gets more sun. I have made a fair bit of orange juice so far but I can see there is a lot more to come.

Is it possible to freeze or preserve orange juice in some way? I froze some lemon and lime last year but when defrosted it was very sticky which wouldn't be great for drinking juice.

Bread Glorious Bread

2010-07-01T11:19:00.006+10:00

Teen 1 quit her job at the bakery so I can make bread again, I really missed it but wasn't going to make it while we were getting free bread that would have been chucked in the bin anyway. Waste not want not. I did hate all those plastic bags though, I've got them all stored in a cupboard in case I ever find a use for them.

I often make a plain white loaf in the bread maker using a Laucke bread mix but I have a French exchange student here for 7 weeks and the lovely Liss at Frills in the Hills just happened to post a French bread recipe. Thank Liss.

I've made it about 5 times now with absolutely fantastic results. The only change I have made is to brush it with milk alone, I don't find the egg necessary and as the girls are not laying I don't like to waste any. My favourite was the plait but the kids just like the plain baguette shape. Our student was very impressed with the results too.

I have also finally managed to get the Teens to eat wholemeal bread, my big mistake was putting seeds, grains and other healthy additions in the mix. We had dinner at a friend's house the other day and they all tucked into her homemade wholemeal loaf so I have been making one like that every couple of days as well. I think I have posted the recipe before, it is from the Cranks cookbook.

Back Again

2010-06-25T18:28:00.006+10:00

I have been trying to regain some interest in my blog by changing the template. Haven't quite mastered the new system yet but I think a change was in order anyway. I will continue to tweak it as I think the text is too small but hope you like it in the meantime. Any advice on how to make the photo a bit smaller gratefully received.

Had a day off today and the weather was actually reasonable so I got out into the garden for a bit, mainly to tidy up the things that weren't doing very well. I haven't been out there for ages and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Think I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

The trees around my patches have got so big that I don't get any sun on them in the winter anymore so not alot will grow out there. If they were in my yard they would be firewood by now but unfortunately they're not.

What's growing well (if rather slowly):

oranges

lemons

broccoli

broad beans

garlic

onions

leeks

spinach

potatoes

cherry tomatoes

What isn't doing so well (now in the compost):

peas

snowpeas

Siberian tomatoes (an experiment)

Intermission

2010-04-30T21:55:00.002+10:00

Seem to have run out of things to say so will be taking a break from blogging. I will still be reading my favourite blogs and commenting but can't seem to think of anything worth writing about around here. Sorry.

New Babies

2010-04-19T15:59:00.010+10:00

How do you like my new chickies, aren't they cute - the lovely Chris from Bushland Project sent me some eggs. The two grey ones are lavender Araucana and the dark one is an Araucana Barnevelder cross (I think). They are a week old in the second photo and have already sprouted some wing feathers.

The one closest to the camera is hilarious, it tries to stare you out and then leaps in the air as if to say BOO! Hopefully it will be a girl and I won't have to get rid of it. last hatch I had got 5 chicks and had to give 3 away.

More babies

2010-04-19T05:01:00.002+10:00

And just because I can never resist a blue chook, here are my little Blue Orpington chicks, they remind me of little penguins. Unfortunately the lightest and cutest one already looks as if it could be a boy but hopefully I will turn out to be wrong.

Making Progress

2010-04-04T17:37:00.013+10:00

Hubby and I have been working hard in the garden of the beach house.

This is the side garden. Under all that rubbish was a row of tree ferns which are rather sad but should come back to life with a bit of TLC and luck. Between them I have put arabica coffee trees and camelia sinensis (tea plants).

This was how the backyard looked when we bought it. Thankfully the vendor removed the worst of the giant weeds but we have still had a lot to do.

In amongst all that was a chicken coop that I had hoped to salvage but it was beyond hope and mostly ended up on the bonfire. Don't think chickens enjoy going on holiday anyway so I figure we won't need it.

The huge cast iron boiler in the background has finally been removed with the use of a crane. We would have liked to reuse it in some way but it was just too big to handle and seemed a bit dangerous.

I was very excited to discover a few banana trees which have huge hands of bananas on them and taste fantastic. Beyond the banana trees along the back boundary we will have a native garden to hide the fence and also to shield us from the apartments that may be built behind us if the developer ever finds the money. Fingers crossed he doesn't.

So far we have put a couple of avocados along the left had fence and 3 citrus to the right of the clothesline. In the borders close to the house I have put boysenberries, blueberries and grapes. Still have a mango and some passionfruit to put in and there will be room for plenty more as time goes on.

Food Connect Box

2010-03-23T18:25:00.006+11:00

This is actually my second box, I completely forgot to photograph the first one. So far I am really happy with how it all works. I get a medium box of locally produced fruit and veg which costs $50. It is delivered to my local City Cousin who is less than 10 minutes away and I pick it up on Monday evening. I am supposed to return the box the following week but of course I forgot - duh!

This week we had parsley, mushrooms, onions,capsicums, lettuce,radishes, cucumbers, butternut squash (3), watermelon, oranges, grapes, bananas and kale. I loved the way it was quite different from last weeks so we are not just eating the same thing all the time or having a glut of something we're not that keen on.

Our CC actually works for Food Connect Sydney and is really keen and knowledgeable. She and her partner have a permaculture garden of their own and are very generous with their produce. So far they have given me extra basil, chillis, cucumbers and even a lemongrass plant - brilliant!

It also works really well for me because there are some really good local shops very nearby. I can do the rest of my shopping at a very good butcher and the IGA (plus the chocolaterie if I'm in the mood) without making a separate journey. No more stupidmarket.

I don't believe it

2010-03-18T22:00:00.005+11:00

Jamie was in town on Monday, I had the day off work and I didn't know. I could have popped down to Manly Beach and he would have been there, but I didn't know. I should have known because he did a show in town, silly me. I didn't really want to pay to see him pacing around a stage with all those other people but I would have loved to sit on a bench at the beach and watch him do his thing for the camera.

It took me a long time to see what all the fuss was about, all that wittering and bouncing about just made me feel tired. I didn't really start to like him until he did Jamie at Home and I saw his fabulous garden. Now I just can't get enough. I love the casual nature of a lot of his recipes - a handful of this, a handful of that - bish bash bosh and away you go.

Until I discovered Jamie (and Hugh F-W) I couldn't even really be bothered to follow a recipe, I just scanned the ingredients and did it my own way. This provided some good results but I think being able to get to grips with recipes has definitely improved my cooking. In 2008 we had a full Jamie Christmas and it was pretty good, if I say so myself.

I love it when he says 2 eggs - preferably organic and I know I can follow that by popping out to the chook house.

Of course he'd be perfect if he looked like Johnny Depp - but you can't have everything.

There's Apples in them thar Hills

2010-03-01T13:10:00.010+11:00

Hubby and I had the most brilliant day on Sunday, we set off for Bilpin to pick some apples because I discovered there is a place that actually grows Bramleys and Coxs. (How did we ever survive without Google!)

I have never ever seen these varieties in Australia before and apparently they are not grown commercially. Bramleys are absolutely brilliant for making pies and other desserts and to me there is nothing quite like a Cox apple for eating. The very nice man offered to give me a Bramley tree but I doubt we get enough chill here so I am happy to drive up there once a year to get a supply.

Hubby was a teensy bit hungover, and absolutely ravenous, after a party the night before, so we stopped in Kurrajong for lunch at a place called Sassafras Creek which specialises in using local produce and it was absolutely delicious. It's such a nice little village too we had a great time poking through the shops but didn't buy anything as we are on an economy drive after buying the Tea Gardens house.

We eventually made it to Bilpin and picked two shopping bags full of Bramleys, about 15kg I think. The Cox's were already picked so I got a box of those as well, the smell in the car was phenomenal. I also managed to get 4 jars of homemade marmalade which will keep us going until the oranges are ready and some small purple potatoes. Not sure what they're called, they look like Kipflers but are a very deep shade of purple. I will keep a couple and see if I can grow some.

Surprise surprise we had an apple pie for dessert, I used a Jamie Oliver recipe for the pastry and it was fantastic, if I say so myself.

Snapshot of 100 Mile diet

2010-02-22T13:59:00.005+11:00

I decided to keep a tally of what I ate Mon-Fri last week without trying extra hard to go local or pretending to be better at it than I really am. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought, 47% was homegrown or local, 13% was Aussie Farmers Direct (acceptable to me) and 40% was either unknown or totally shameful. This was a fairly normal week apart from the fact that I bought lunch twice (I usually only do that on Thursdays) and I went up to the beach house for a night and the family bought a takeaway (even though I had left homemade pumpkin soup.)

I won't be keeping a tally every week because it's a bit tedious for me and probably even more so for you but I will continue to try to find local sources of everyday foods. I think that there is a local co-op in a nearby suburb that sells wheat products, rolled oats etc that are grown in NSW so that will be brilliant if I can get the bread mix/ingredients from them.

Monday

Strawberries (local)

Banana (Qld)

Cereal (unknown)

Milk (AFD - Vic)

Bread - homemade (flour Vic)

Eggs - homegrown

Pumpkin Soup - local and homegrown

Tuesday

Cereal unknown

Milk AFD (Vic)

Chicken salad (cafe bought) unknown

nectarines (Local)

Brie (local)

crackers (NSW)

salad - homegrown

stewed rhubarb (homegrown)

Wednesday

Bread (Homemade)

Jam (local)

Brie (Local)

Crackers (NSW)

salad (homegrown)

Chicken (NSW)

Veges (Homegrown and Local)

Nectarines (local)

Chocolate (Organic Freetrade)

Thursday

Cereal (Unknown)

Milk (VIC)

Fruit (Local)

Sushi (Very bad - unknown origin)

Homemade Pumpkin Soup (local ingredients)

Bread (unknown)

Friday

Eggs (homegrown)

bread (unknown)

Jam (French)

Leftover takeaway (Bought on Thursday when my back was turned)

Homegrown 22%

Local 25%

AFD/VIC 13%

Unknown 25%

Very bad 15%

100 Mile Diet Update

2010-02-21T09:24:00.005+11:00

Thought I'd better do a bit of an audit on how we're going with the challenge of eating locally produced food. It is a huge struggle I have to say, I doubt we are more than 50% there yet.

Firstly, we have given up rice, we've only had it once since I started and that was from a bag I already had. Since it is imported from Pakistan there is absolutely no way it fits into the challenge. When it runs out we won't be getting any more except maybe for very special occasions. No one else seems to mind but I am a carb fiend and I really miss it.

On a happier note I have had a great time going to roadside food stalls out in the country and stocking up on summer stone fruit,tomatoes and other vegetables which are eaten raw or turned into preserves. Our local Sunday farmers/organic market has a great apple stall run by local growers who also have stone fruit and blueberries. The bottled necatarines, peaches and apples are so yummy I have started eating my way through them already.

The vege garden is producing quite well so we have homegrown salad every day as well as spinach, eggplant, zucchini, strawberries and passionfruit. Everything else I buy at the market, so it is usually homegrown by my favourite little old Italian men who run their own stall there. you can tell it's homegrown because no two things look the same, everything is nobbly and covered in nice honest dirt.

And of course we have far too many chooks for a suburban backyard so have plenty of eggs both for ourselves and our friends and neighbours.

I did try buying the milk and other dairy products from local sources but the only one I could find was a Jersey dairy that costs an absolute fortune and comes in plastic containers. I made the choice to stick with Aussie Farmers Direct whose milk comes from Victoria but is 100% Australian owned and comes in cardboard containers. Not to mention the fact that it is delivered to the door twice a week, which saves me going to the shops every couple of days.

We have cut down on the amount of bread we eat because of expanding wasitlines but at weekends I make a loaf or two and the mix is still coming from Laucke flour mills in Victoria. If anyone knows of a more local one I'd be happy to change.

I have had to invest in a few more equipment items to make the challenge easier, I finally got a Fowlers Vacola, that wasn't 1970's orange, and 12 great jars. I also bought a food thermometer for making yoghurt so that will be my next challenge. I think I will invest in some of that delicious jersey milk and yoghurt for the starter. Might as well try to make ice-cream while I'm at it, Teen 2 seems to eat her own weight in French Vanilla every week and I dread to think where that's made. We always get the one that's made by the company Hubby works for so at least we're keeping it in the family and it doesn't come in plastic boxes.

There certainly is alot more work to be done but I am training Hubby to check the labels of things in the supermarket if he goes and to at least ensure that if is Australian - baby steps.

Strange Looking Chook

2010-02-07T21:06:00.009+11:00

I think Chloe, my rescue rabbit, is a bit confused, I went out this afternoon with a handful of sunflower seeds, called "chook chook" and up she bounded for her share. I will give up attempting to get her to respond to her name from now on.

Here she is thinking how bloody inconsiderate I am caging up the sweet potatoes when she was enjoying them so much.

Can't get over how much rain we must have had this weekend, Hubby and I were up at Tea Gardens making a start on the "orchard" and came back to find everything soaked, the mulch on the path had all washed down the slight slope and the pond was overflowing. The plastic garbage bin that we use to clean out the pond and one of the 20L buckets was absolutely full, must have been a good few mm of rain.

Free Range Chooks - Caged Veges

2010-01-30T20:27:00.010+11:00

I finally gave up the battle of keeping all the chooks contained in one area, there always seemed to be some budding Houdini that would find a way out and rampage through the vege patches chomping off all the leaves or worse still digging up the plants entirely.

Not to mention the free ranging rabbit, the cat who thinks my patches are toilets and the dog who careers around out there like a lunatic whenever we have a thunderstorm - which is almost every day at the moment.

We decided in the face of all that, that veges were alot less trouble to lock up so Hubby and I spent the entire day fencing them in and dismantling the crappy barricade we had made earlier for the girls. No complaints from either veges or chooks so far.

Since there are no trees or bushes in the way it was alot easier than fixing the chook fences. Also we have had rats with wings hanging around pinching scraps and pooping on the laundry, somehow they have an uncanny knack of hitting either the white sheets or the thing that someone (ie Teens) wants to wear that very minute, if not before. Hopefully now that the chooks can freerange we will just feed them in their little house morning and night and the pigeons will bugger off in disgust. I am absolutely convinced that food production will increase greatly now that the poor veges can grow in peace without the menagerie trampling all over them.

Ups and Downs in the Garden

2010-01-19T18:49:00.006+11:00

Took a stroll around the "farm" with my camera this morning. Here is one of my Moon and Stars Watermelon plants, they are doing well so far but we have had quite cool evenings and mornings this week so it may be too late for us to get any fruit.

Below are my ginger and turmeric plants , I am quite excited about growing my own, it would never have occurred to me to try it if it wasn't for Julie at Towards Sustainability. They're quite small so far but I think they can stay in indefinitely so we can bandicoot the odd piece of root and eventually we will get a decent crop.

On the table are all the plants I ordered from Daleys for the beach house garden - there is an orange, a lemon, a mandarin and a mango tree. And there are three boysenberry bushes, 3 tea plants, 3 coffee plants and a passionfruit vine. Hubby's frangipani cuttings can be seen either side, clicking on the photos should make them bigger.

I'm hoping to increase our self-sufficiency level by using both gardens, especially with fruit. The orange variety is supposed to ripen much later than the Navel we have at home, giving us oranges for about 6 months - in theory.

And last and definitely least is my pathetic tomato patch, I have been hit by Early Blight and very little remains of my once beautiful plants. I am trying to ripen the few fruit that are left in the next week or so and then I will pull it all out. I have some little Roma plants elsewhere and some Siberian seedlings coming along for winter tomatoes so hopefully we will get some more later.

Working Towards the 100 Mile Challenge

2010-01-16T01:46:00.003+11:00

I went on the hunt for local produce this week and found a great roadside stall stocked with homegrown veges and fruit. Great quality, very fresh, reasonably priced and only around 25 minutes from home, well it would have been if the road hadn't been closed for maintenance.

So today I spent the whole day turning 10kg of tomatoes into passata and two boxes of nectarines into preserves. I discovered that I don't have a pot big enough for the water bath method so that was a bit of a challenge, just as well I used to be a waitress and have asbestos fingertips.

I had saved loads of passata jars over the last few months but they were too tall for the pot. I need to go on the hunt for one of those huge enamel jam pans or a Fowlers vacola preserving pan. The sauce in the two tall jars have already separated so I will probably have to use those quite quickly.

But I was too late for the raspberries. Bugger.

Chicken Out

2010-01-15T08:37:00.004+11:00

Thought I would post a copy of a letter I received from Hugh F-W (my hero) encouraging people to improve the lives of commercial chickens. Hugh has been trying to convince British chicken farmers, consumers and supermarkets to move away from battery farming.

Unfortunately, it doesn't quite fit but you can click on the links to read a full version.

Happy New Year from everyone at Chicken Out! and Compassion in World Farming.
We hope you enjoyed the festivities and are ready to join us in another year of passionate campaigning for chickens.
Last year saw our campaign grow to over 167,800 supporters and notch up some key victories for chicken welfare. But our resolution for 2010 is to achieve even more, and over the coming months we’ll be in touch to let you know how you can get involved in growing the campaign and making a real impact.
Please click this link to subscribe to our ongoing emails and ensure you keep up to date on the campaign.

Happy New Year!
As we enter 2010, my friends at Compassion and I have ambitious plans for taking Chicken Out! to the next level. Together, we are moving closer to a free-range future.
Thanks for your ongoing support.
Hugh
200,000 supporters by the spring
It’s not that far off – we already have nearly 168,000 supporters – but we need your help to grow our campaign so that we have an even stronger voice with politicians and decision-makers.
How hard can it be? If every one of our existing supporters encouraged another person to join us, we’d have a movement of over 335,000 – so let’s work towards a milestone of 200,000 by the spring…
Tell your friends about us and win signed Hugh goodies
Spread the word by emailing your friends about the Chicken Out! campaign – everyone who does will be entered into a draw to win a signed River Cottage diary – we have 8 to give away:
Email your friends and win signed Hugh goodies
Tell us your story
What have you got up to over the last year to make a difference for chickens? Whether it’s the unusual ways you’ve gone about persuading friends and family to go free-range or the lengths you’ve gone to in lobbying your local MP, store manager or restaurant, inspire us with your stories and we’ll publish a selection of them on our website. Our favourite story will also win a signed copy of Hugh’s new book, River Cottage Every Day.
Thanks for your support and here’s to a compassionate 2010!
Rosie, Siân, Hayley and Caroline
On behalf of
The Chicken Out! Team
Compassion in World Farming

P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider making a donation – however small – to help keep up the momentum of our campaign in 2010. We receive no government funding so rely entirely on your generosity to help give millions of chickens a better life.
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Gourmet Farmer

2010-01-14T21:58:00.004+11:00

Wonder if anyone else caught this show? Actually I missed it but I managed to watch it on the laptop afterwards. The link for doing that is below (assuming I succeeded) and I think it is on SBS on Thursday at 7.30pm but don't take my word for it.

Gourmet Farmer

It seems like a lovely show, makes you want to move to Tasmania immediately. Looks like the 100 Mile diet would be a helluva lot easier down there than it is in Sydney!

100 Mile Diet Research and Practise

2010-01-11T22:33:00.007+11:00

As we are still trying to get through existing pantry supplies I haven't started the challenge in earnest yet but thought I would do a straw poll of todays intake just to see what the existing situation was.

Breakfast - very bad

Bread - SA

Butter - Vic

Jam - France!! (that might have to be one of my luxury items unless I learn how to make it)

Lunch - not much better

bananas - homegrown

homemade pizza - flour Vic, Paste - Vic, Cheese - NZ, olives - Hunter Valley

Dinner

chicken - local free range, tortillas - Vic, cheese - Vic, carrots - local, salsa - Vic, tomatoes homegrown

Clearly a move to Victoria would make this alot easier!! This gives me a local content of only 36%, assuming you give every item an equal weighting without worrying about the proportions.

I'm sure it wouldn't be as bad as that normally as we have alot of veges at the moment, I haven't actually bought any at all in 2010. Looks like we will have to eat Lilydale chicken and eat homegrown veges a lot more to stick to the challenge.

On a brighter note, research has revealed a lot more locally produced food on offer at farmers markets than I had anticipated. Also the local PYO orchards and farms are in full production so I will be able to go and buy lots of great things to preserve. My tomato harvest has been affected by both heat and some kind of disease so I will concede defeat and buy some. Better that than buying bottled passata in the supermarket later in the year. Better make some jam too I suppose, hope I haven't missed all the raspberries.

Food Connect

2010-01-07T14:39:00.012+11:00

Food Connect

Food Connect Sydney is a community supporting agriculture (CSA) enterprise that connects farmers with city folk.
We believe in food with integrity and care about where your food comes from, who has grown it and the impact on the environment.
We source ecologically grown produce from local and regional farmers. As a subscriber, you receive a weekly box of fresh fruit and vegetables that you pick up from your neighbourhood City Cousin.

Thanks to Kel for reminding me that I had also signed up for Food Connect in an effort to keep to the 100 mile challenge. There is no co-ordinator in our local area so I have put my name down to become a City Cousin when they get enough interest.

So if you live near the Upper North Shore of Sydney get your name down and we can get started. You can click on the name above (if my computer skills are operational) to go directly to the new Sydney site.

100 Mile Diet

2010-01-07T09:14:00.005+11:00

I have thought about this for a few days after reading Gavin's blog, inspired as always by his efforts. I am not going for 100% success as I know that the Teens will not allow me to provide food that only comes from within 100 (160km) of Sydney but will try for 75% to start with. Not entirely sure how I will calculate this not being a mathematical genius - any bright ideas? I wonder if maybe it would be easier in our case to restrict it to NSW which would give us a greater choice, even for Teens and be alot easier to gauge success.

Clearly I will have to do some research but what I have found so far is very inspiring. There are several farmers markets in our area that source local food from the Hawkesbury Harvest area as well as 4 different farmgate trails you can do if you like driving in the country. Much as I enjoy a drive in the country I think it would defeat the purpose somewhat if I got in the car and drove for 4 hours when I could pop up to Castle Hill 25 minutes away and get everything in one place.

I think that learning to make cheese will go a long way towards ensuring success too as cheese is something that almost always comes from either Tasmania, Victoria or worse still Italy. Might have to eat less rice unfortunately, especially wild rice which comes from Canada. If anyone knows of rice that comes from NSW I'd love to know. Or maybe I should turn that old bathtub into a rice paddy.

Is That It?

2010-01-06T21:47:00.006+11:00

Now you'd think with all that greenery there would have been a bumper crop of pumpkins but no - one single solitary 2.5kg Red Kuri was all I got. It's beautiful though, not sure I can bring myself to cut it up .

Goals for 2010

2010-01-03T12:06:00.004+11:00

Happy New Year to everyone. I am looking forward to an even more productive 2010.

Some of my goals for this year are:

1. Improve succession planting to avoid gluts and famines.

2. Increase the amount of staples, such as carrots, potatoes and onions, that I grow.

3. Use the chooks to help more in the garden and destroy less. (need better fences)

4. Preserve and freeze more so that I don't have to buy in as much in the winter.

I think that we will definitely be able to increase production this year, especially fruit, as we have bought a second house at the beach which has a much bigger garden than here. It will be rented out alot of the time (I hope) but the garden will only be accessed by us so we can put lots of fruit trees in. It has a banana tree and I have already bought a mango and a passionfruit plant. Still to come will be avocadoes, nectarines, oranges, lemons, olives and grapes which we have no room for here.

Hubby thinks it is an investment but to me it is just an extension of the "farm". It even has a chicken house but we won't be able to have chooks there as they wouldn't be looked after properly. Unless of course I just happen to find a neighbour or local kid who wants to share the eggs.

To make up for the commuting I will have to do, a further goal for the year is to use the train every day unless it is either stormy or horrendously hot. My bike will be going to the beach house so that I don't have to drive around, it's nice and flat there, not like the bleeding mini Himalayas we have around here.

Hopefully this will lead to yet another goal - the loss of the the spare tyre I have developed around my middle in the last couple of years.

Wish me luck!

Simplifying Christmas

2009-12-16T08:12:00.007+11:00

I used to love Christmas, especially when we lived in London and it was cold. Sometimes when we went to Hubby's family "oop North" it even snowed.

Unfortunately, as Gavin said in his blog today, it has become incredibly commercialised and does not seem to fit at all with a greener more sustainable lifestyle. I will try to simplify the whole thing - only useful presents not wrapped in paper, no Christmas cards, no crackers and far less food. Last year we had a huge Christmas which cost an absolute fortune, it was great fun and I loved having everybody but Hubby's job was looking very shaky and the excess made me feel very guilty and a bit nervous.

This year it will be smaller but Hubby's family will be coming to us from the UK for the first time (at Christmas) so I can't really go Bah Humbug and refuse to do what they would consider to be a proper job of it.

We will have a live tree, I tried a very cute sustainable twig tree that could be reused year after year but my kids have harangued me about it ever since so I gave up. I will put that one on the deck for myself. We will also have far too much food because, to Northern English people, food is love so lack of food would mean lack of love.

However on the plus side, quite a lot of the food will be home grown for the first time. We will have potatoes, both new and some I have put by, zucchinis, beans (3 0r 4 varieties), parsnip, onion (only 1), spinach, tomatoes, maybe a pumpkin, a few strawberries, some rhubarb, loads of passionfruit and of course eggs.

I got lucky this year too, my neighbours have left me in charge of their chooks and veges for two weeks so I will have two gardens to pick from. We each have different things so the variety will be great - looking forward to crook neck squash and mountains of pesto.

I am only giving one present to each person and it will be as useful as I can make it - a coffee machine for Hubby, an overlocker for Teen 2, music festival tickets for Teen 1 and her cousin, a digital photoframe for MIL and we have agreed with Hubby's brother not to do adult pressies.

Last year we all had Oxfam Unwrapped gifts - of course mine was a pile of manure and some chickens for a family in a less fortunate country. This year I will be sending those to people who are not actually going to be with us. And I hope I get one too.

They've Hatched

2009-12-15T07:38:00.005+11:00

We are all so excited, we finally have baby chicks, after a lot of ups and downs with both the incubator and the eggs under the broody hen. From an original 20 eggs we only have 5 babies so obviously more practise is required.

The first three photos are of the eggs hatched in the incubator, 2 Brahma chicks with furry feet and one Light (or Coronation) Sussex. I was very worried about foot deformities because of an early temperature spike but so far, so good. These three are now living in a polystyrene vege box in my study.

The two little black chicks are Silver Sussex and were hatched by my broody Wyandotte, Sylvia. They are living in a chicken tractor outside and don't seem as if they will be at all tame. I haven't even managed to catch one yet and mum gets very irate if I get too close.

All we have to do now is wait and see whether they are boys or girls so we know which, if any, we can keep. I think one of the Brahma chicks is a boy - a bit stroppy - and one is a girl because she already has wing feathers, but I'm no expert. No idea about any of the Sussex they are a couple of days younger and still all look exactly the same as they did when born.

Keep your fingers crossed that they are all girls and I can keep the whole lot!!

Banana Bread

2009-12-13T16:40:00.008+11:00

After many disappointing attempts I finally managed to produce a loaf that was as good as cafe banana bread. It is a recipe from Jane Lawson's Grub cookbook which has lots of great traditional recipes.

It wasn't really big enough to be good for the toaster but I'm sure making half as much again would do the trick. It certainly was a great way to use up 4 or 5 over ripe bananas.

Here is my version of the recipe:

150g butter

115g caster sugar

45g soft brown sugar

2 large eggs (or 3 bantam eggs)

250g plain flour

1 tsp bicarb (baking) soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

5-6 very ripe bananas (I only had 4 and it was fine)

1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence)

125g sour cream

50g of nuts (walnuts, pecans macadamias -optional)

Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time. Sift flour, bicarb, cinnamon with a pinch of salt (I use salted butter so left this out) then beat into the mixture to form a stiff batter.

Combine bananas, vanilla and sour cream and fold into batter mixture. Add nuts if you are using them.

pour into a greased and papered loaf tin. Bake at 160 (150 in my oven) for 1 hour 15 mins. Dont rush this or it will be soggy on the middle.

It was truly scrumptious if I say so myself.

Working on the Christmas Pudding - better late than never!

What is the Point?

2009-12-06T23:03:00.003+11:00

I fail to comprehend why we would encourage people to drive around and around and around, using vast quantities of petrol and smashing into things.

Local radio stations in Sydney have been promoting just such an activity since Thursday, I think it was called the Sydney 500, presumably that means that people drove around until they had done 500km, have these people never heard of global warming, peak oil, pollution....... Don't they know that there are people starving to death every day, what a lot of good they could do with that money. I heard one bloke interviewed about the damage he had done to his car the previous week - something like $200,000 worth of damage. He seemed quite proud of the fact.

Do these people never wonder how much good could be done with the kind of money they squander on driving around in circles for hours on end. Seems completely and utterly pointless and irresponsible to me!

Succession Planting

2009-12-04T11:42:00.005+11:00

It's always a feast or a famine around here. Just can't seem to master this concept, I did most of my spring planting when I had holidays in October and then said to myself better do follow up planting before it gets too hot. Of course how was I to know that it would be over 40 a couple of times in November and my succession seedlings would die in the vicious heat.

I have a few tomato seedlings that are coming along, ready to go in the upside down buckets I finally sourced on eBay (10 for $15 from a cafe in Cabramatta). I also put in two new zucchini seedlings this morning but that is about all I have.

I harvested the last carrot this week and no sign of any babies coming up, there's one parsnip left and no seeds planted and the Mesclun mix has taken a hammering from chooks and heat so we have virtually no salad veges. Better get some going quickly as some of the tomatoes are almost ready.

Never mind, the weather seems a bit more settled this week, we have had some rain and it hasn't been hotter than about 25 so instead of wittering on here I will go outside and rectify the situation. Just need to consult Cosmic's moonplanting guide and the Gardenate site first to see what I can still put in.

Well Done Teen 1!

2009-12-03T19:23:00.005+11:00

She passed but no thanks to me. Poor thing almost wasn't allowed to do it because I forgot to put the new rego sticker on. I felt like the worst mother in the world but thankfully they gave her an interim sticker because we had actually paid.

If she'd failed it would have been all my fault because she was pretty upset when she got in the car.

Anyway, now I can relax in the evenings and let her drive herself to soccer and dancing but then spend all night worrying when she is out driving to parties. Thank goodness for airbags.

R.I.P Felix

2009-11-30T10:31:00.002+11:00

Very sad day today, had to have my beloved old cat put to sleep, he was just too old and sick.

Scary times

2009-11-27T23:26:00.005+11:00

I never intended to blog about anything other than the garden but find that occasionally I need to vent, ponder, whinge, get advice, sympathy ....

Next week Teen One has her driving test, OMG how old am I! I can't decide whether I want her to pass, and therefore take over the taxi driver role, or fail so that I can keep control. I have been known to have to sneak up to the station after a glass or two because she has needed a lift home unexpectedly - such a dilemma, do I drive after a couple of glasses of wine or do I allow my daughter to walk home in the dark by herself. Don't worry though, any more than a couple and I have just walked (staggered) to the station and accompanied her home - I'm not that irresponsible! That could soon be all a thing of the past.

In NSW they have to do 120 hours before they can even sit the test and you would think that that was more than enough. I doubt I did more than 10 hours, at the age of 15 (NZ, long long ago), before sitting my test. BUT I don't really think that she is anywhere near ready to drive around on her own - changing the radio station, fiddling with her mobile and castigating all other drivers on the road is far more pressing than concentrating on the job at hand.

This was brought home to me quite graphically at the weekend when we passed three teenage girls standing in the middle of a local street because one of them had lost control on the corner and their little girlie mobile had collided with the kerb on the wrong side of the road. Very soon that could be MY daughter.

How do other people feel about this - do they live in mortal terror or just be thankful that they no longer have to spend their entire life in the car being a chauffeur?

Chook and Garden Update

2009-11-26T20:52:00.007+11:00

Too busy to blog much these days but I have had a stroll round the "farm" this afternoon and taken a few piccies.

If you look really closely here you can see a few baby oranges and hiding in amongst the leaves are some enormous passionfruit. We are going to have an amazing crop of them this year, both vines are doing really well. I can sense lots of passionfruit cheesecakes coming on.

Not a great photo but this is my Three Sisters Garden, see here for an explanation of what that means. I have chosen cucumbers, Lazy Housewife Beans and Blackjack Zucchini to accompany my sweetcorn. The corn is beginning to flower already so I am hopeful of an early crop.

Here is the BlackJack Zucchini at the end of the Three Sisters bed, it is only a few weeks old and already producing more than enough for a family of four. I can see us getting pretty sick of it by the end of the season. Luckily it is one of the veges that the Teens will actually eat in vast quantities without whingeing. Goes really well with all the lovely home grown eggs too.

And speaking of eggs, in the background of this photo is my new chook house which used to be a cubby house. I got it locally from Freecycle for $0! How brilliant is that. I haven't finished modifying it for chook habitation yet but I'm sure they'll love it.

And finally here is my new pumpkin patch, for years I have tried to grow them near Hubby's lawn only to have them mown down but have finally given up and put them on the path by the clothesline. I have Red Kuri and Butternut Squash in there, as well as another zucchini that I feed to the bunnies and chooks.

As for the Incubation update - what a lot of ups and downs, especially temperature wise. The incubator is quite hard work, I have to open it twice a day and turn the eggs and fill the water tray to keep the humidity up. Then the temperature seems to go mad and I pop in and out of the study trying to stabilise it.

One morning it was 38.1 when I got up when it should only be around 37.5-7 and then the next day one of the Teens turned it off by mistake so the temperature plummeted. I had put some eggs under my broody Wyandotte Sylvia as well, but my one remaining Isa Brown got into the coop and destroyed 2 of the 3 and replaced them with her own. I've given her a couple more but who knows what the outcome will be.

I candled the indoor ones tonight and I think ( but only think) that 12 of the 14 are developing. The other two look to be dead but as I said I don't know for sure. I have marked those two with sad faces to see if I am right.

Eggs - of the fertilised variety!

2009-11-18T17:53:00.005+11:00

I am beside myself with excitement. I finally found a friend who wanted to give chooks a try and was happy to take all 4 of my Isa Browns so that I would be able to have some chicks. Not sure how someone with my total lack of patience is going to survive the 21 days it takes for hen eggs to hatch though.

The first to go in the incubator are these Buff Brahma bantam eggs, only 6 of these were available but that's ok, I only have a suburban backyard after all. I have ordered a dozen Sussex eggs in 4 different colours as well and those should arrive any day now and be in the incubator by the weekend.

Fingers crossed that we get a good hatch rate and that ALL of them are girls - I know this is highly unlikely so I am steeling myself to get rid of any roosters as we are not allowed to keep them.

One of the Glamour Girls (silver laced wyandotte) has gone broody as well so I am going to sneak a couple of Sussex eggs under her for fun - the silly bugger is sitting on an empty nest at the moment and no doubt waiting for peeps.

Wish me luck :-)

"Bandicooting" Potatoes

2009-11-02T13:42:00.009+11:00

In my usual impatient way I have picked some new potatoes out of the patch while they are still growing. I was quite impressed, last year I got about 3-4kg of spuds in total, and I think that might be a generous estimate. Today I took half a kilo just from two of the plants on the ends.

The traditional trench method seems to be better than cages if you have the room for it. I also have a cage so it will be interesting to see what comes out of there. It's not exactly a controlled experiment as the cage has pantry spuds and the traditional patch has seed potatoes from Diggers.

Since it is Meat Free Monday here I am going to try really hard to make a meal purely from home grown food. I am thinking broad bean, snow pea and zucchini frittata with minted new potatoes. Not sure whether to give myself a break on the cheese (which I did not make) as frittata isn't quite the same without it. I don't have any onions either but I figure garlic and spring onions will suffice.

Garlic Harvest

2009-11-01T19:49:00.007+11:00

This was my little garlic patch a month or so ago, one row of Italian red and one of Early Purple.

And this is all that remains of it. I tried to do one of those groovy French plaits, it turned out ok, but more practise is definitely in order. It is now hanging under the deck roof keeping the vampires away according to Teen 2 (too much Twilight obviously)

This is how the patch looks now, the Silkies are digging it over and fertilising it for me. They don't seem to want to lay eggs but they can still earn their keep. Once the spuds behind are finished we can turn the coop round and they can dig over the whole patch. Don't you just love chooks!

Chooky Update

2009-10-20T21:01:00.007+11:00

I finally got around to taking some photos of my new Wyandottes, this is Bella a Blue Columbian. Unfortunately she has suffered a bit of feather pecking in the rear end and has no tail but I'm hopeful that once it grows back she will live up to her name. Unlike the silver laced Glamour Girls she is a large Wyandotte so will be huge eventually.

This is Dotte, another Blue Columbian who is at that hideous teenager stage with some feathers and a bit of remaining fluff. Hopefully she will get more attractive as time goes on, poor thing.

And this is TingTing and PomPom who are my family's favourites, they are nowhere near as destructive as the bigger chooks so they spend most of their lives free ranging around the garden. They have managed to eat all the spinach and Mesclun mix on one side of the garden but they don't uproot everything in sight like the others. PomPom is so tame that you can turn her upside down and carry her in the crook of your arm like a baby.

A friend of mine in the Blue Mountains has a Silkie rooster so we have arranged a holiday up there for the girls once they start laying. I've never seen a Silkie chick but I imagine there's nothing cuter.

Can You Tell I'm on Holiday?

2009-10-15T09:23:00.006+11:00

I seem to have been blogging like a madwoman this week. I have lots of time to spend in the garden so I have been noticing things more. I found this rotten little 28 Spot Ladybird on my potatoes, along with a couple of his friends so I promptly fed them to the chooks. I think I've read on someone else's blog - was it Julie's - that they can decimate a potato crop.

I spotted these little comfrey flowers hiding under the leaves too, comfrey is brilliant for chooks, I think it helps in shell production and is absolutely fantastic in the compost. You can make comfrey tea for your plants or just add it to your compost.

Below is some info I copied from Wikipedia.

There are various ways in which comfrey can be utilised as a fertiliser, these include:

Comfrey as a compost activator - include comfrey in the compost heap to add nitrogen and help to heat the heap. Comfrey should not be added in quantity as it will quickly break down into a dark sludgey liquid that needs to be balanced with more fibrous, carbon rich material.
Comfrey liquid fertilizer - can be produced by either rotting leaves down in rainwater for 4–5 weeks to produce a ready to use 'comfrey tea', or by stacking dry leaves under a weight in a container with a hole in the base. When the leaves decompose a thick black comfrey concentrate is collected. This must be diluted at 15:1 before use.
Comfrey as a mulch or side dressing - a 2 inch layer of comfrey leaves placed around a crop will slowly break down and release plant nutrients; it is especially useful for crops that need extra potassium, such as fruit bearers but also reported to do well for potatoes. Comfrey can be slightly wilted before application optionally but either way, avoid using flowering stems as these can root.
Comfrey potting mixture - originally devised to utilize peat, now environmental awareness has led to a leaf mold-based alternative being adopted instead; two year old, well decayed leaf mold should be used, this will absorb the nutrient-rich liquid released by the decaying comfrey. In a black plastic sack alternate 3-4 inch layers of leaf mould and chopped comfrey leaves. Add a little dolomitic limestoneto slightly raise pH. Leave for between 2–5 months depending on the season, checking that it does not dry out or become too wet. The mixture is ready when the comfrey leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. Use as a general potting compost, although it is too strong for seedlings.

And look what I found on the older passionfruit that I had more or less given up on due to possum damage. there are already half a dozen fruit on there and it's only mid-October. If all the flowers on both plants turn to fruit I will have to set up a road side stall to get rid of them.

And here are some new feijoa flowers, they're so beautiful it wouldn't even matter if we did get any fruit. Last year I hand pollinated them but I am going to leave them this year to see if the bees can do it for me.

Reusing "Rubbish"

2009-10-14T21:23:00.008+11:00

I have decided not to feel guilty about my holidays because it did occur to me while we were staying in the holiday house how much we actually do to reduce waste around here. I was quite gobsmacked by the amount of rubbish we generated in a week when we didn't have the compost bin or the chooks.

I have taken a few pictures from around the garden of things we have rescued and reused. And yes I am trying to make myself feel better lol.

I found this mosquito net on the side of the road and it was absolutely brilliant for keeping those b***y cabbage moths off my broccoli last year. It doubles as a deterrent for naughty chooks too while the seedlings are growing.

Old milk cartons are great for blanching celery, and protecting it from bandicoots, when it gets too big I wrap newspaper round it instead.

I rescued three of these big pots from a pile of stuff waiting for council clean up, one has some damage to the rim but the others are perfect for hubby to grow his frangipani cuttings in. I won't let him cut my tree unless he uses the bits to make new ones, I'm terrified he will kill it.

This crate is my personal favourite, we had the front porch tiled recently and this is what the tiles came in, it seems to me to be made out of some very nice hard wood and makes a perfect potato cage. Well it will be perfect if I get any spuds!

The mower catcher I scrounged from the local repair shop to use as a nesting box for the Wyandottes, unfortunately they don't seem to like it but I'm sure that eventually it will be put to good use.

I have also found that I can actually make good use of meat trays, I don't buy the polystyrene ones because they can't even be recycled. These plastic ones make great seed trays, I put holes in the smaller ones with a hot knife and then put a bigger one underneath to catch water to keep them moist. (I hate that word)

Guilt

2009-10-12T18:42:00.008+11:00

We have had a couple of very "ungreen" weeks and I feel bad. I will have to walk or cycle everywhere for a month to make up for my wastefulness.

Three weekends ago we flew down to Melbourne to see our closest friends, I did pay the carbon tax but in my heart of hearts I knew that it was a nonsense. For example, when I got on the plane I was served Danish butter in tiny little packets (note to self - tell Qantas to get their act together), surely we produce more than enough butter in Australia and our national airline should be at the forefront of using local products.

Last weekend we drove up the coast for a week's holiday near Forster taking two cars and pulling a boat. I tried so hard to buy food for the week, I got a big organic vege order and stocked up on the Aussie Farmers Direct products but with between 5 and 7 teenagers in the house we seemed to get through a weeks worth of food in a couple of days and ended up buying all sorts of non-organic, non-local food in environmentally unfriendly wrappings.

I did try to catch some fish to give us at least one meal with minimal environmental impact but it wasn't to be, I just don't seem to have the knack.

I think the pelicans must have eaten all the fish.

And to make sure I felt really guilty, the weather was so horrible at home that one of my baby Wyandotte chicks died, presumably of exposure. Poor little thing.

It might have all been a bit wasteful but we did have a lovely time in Melbourne with our friends and up the coast with our children and their friends so all is not completely lost. I will just to have to double my efforts at home to make up for it. And my water tank is completely full, in fact probably overflowing so I can leave the mains water alone for a while.

Catch Up Time

2009-10-12T17:37:00.007+11:00

We have been away a couple of times and I'm really behind with the garden and the blogging. Thought I would start with my Back to Basics Challenge.

Planting out:

Fenugreek seedlings

Beans - Rattlesnake, Flageolet

Snowpeas - Roi de Carouby

Pumpkins - Red Kuri

Zucchini - Blackjack, Yellow Round

Luffa

Sowing:

Tomatoes -Moneymaker, Grosse Lise and Roma

Tomatillos

Capiscums - di Torno

Butternut Squash

Dill

Coriander - Delfino

Beetroot - Bulls Blood

Sweet Corn - Golden bantam

Observing:

Potatoes about to flower

Garlic soon to be ready

Citrus fruit setting

Feijoas flowering ( halleluja)

Harvesting:

Parsnips

Broad Beans

Last of the broccoli

Snowpeas

Mesclun Mix

Red Cos Lettuce

Loads of Eggs

Planning for the Future:

Audit of seed failure for resowing

Drawing up plan for replacement crops in potato and garlic beds

Working for the Future:

Preparing the tomato bed

Making comfrey tea for the compost heap

Reusing household waste in the garden

Building Community:

Taking Teen's friends on holiday

Sharing eggs with anyone who will take them

Learning New Skills:

Learning more about Chicken Husbandry

Citrus Heaven

2009-09-15T22:09:00.005+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the end of my 2009 citrus harvest and I am already looking forward to 2010. (I told you I had no patience) The blossoms are phenomenal this year, if even a tiny fraction of them become fruit we will be in for a bumper harvest.

First are the mandarins, it's only a baby about 3 years old but producing quite well already and a huge favourite with the kids. Can't remember what variety but I think Imperial.

Then the Eureka lemon which still seems to have some heat damage from those horrendously hot days we had last summer. There are two stubborn fruit hanging in there somewhere too but the rest of them flung themselves off in disgust last weekend when it was 30deg.

Then my beautiful orange tree, the fruit have no pips and are amazingly juicy. It has probably been there for around 50 years and is my pride and joy. We were provided with home made orange juice and marmalade for the whole winter.

And last, and definitely least, is my Tahitian lime. I only got 4 limes this year but I have given it some TLC, courtesy of advice from Gavin, and I am hoping for great things. Key Lime Pie, Coconut Lime Cake, lime cordial, lots of Asian stirfries .........

What a Difference a Year Makes

2009-09-15T16:46:00.005+10:00

Its hard to believe that a passionfruit plant could grow that much in one year, you can see it in the top photo in the middle with a little stick. Now it covers the whole wall and has literally hundreds of flowers on it. It's a grafted Nelly Kelly which seems to have quite a short lifespan, we have only lived here 9 years and it is my third. Mind you the second one is still there, just massacred by b****y possums. It reminds me of the Day of the Triffids, I'd be scared to fall asleep out there in case it strangled me.

Also around this time last year, this is what the left side of my garden looked like, a few sad remnants of veges and a pile of junk. The orignal sleepers were treated pine so we decided to replace them with ecowood. After a lot of hard work, mainly by Hubby, it can now be seen in the picture below. The garlic is not far off being ready and the broccoli, which has kept us in greens all winter, is still producing. In the last bed that you can't really see, I am about to harvest my first ever celery.

It's Working!

2009-09-03T17:49:00.004+10:00

We got our electricity bill today and I am proud to say that our consumption has been reduced from 41kW for the same period last year to 26kW this year. My maths isn't marvellous but I think that is a reduction of 35%. Also our Co2 emissions are 0.0 because we pay for Green Energy.

The main change we (I) have made is to turn off the plasma TV at the wall when we are not using it and not to use our column heaters in the bedrooms. Of course I don't think it was as long or cold a winter as last year but I am pleased anyway. I would like to have solar fitted but we will be moving from this house when the Teens finish school in 3 years time so we will save our money for the next place. (Hopefully acreage fingers crossed)

The water consumption on the other hand has increased slightly despite the fact that my hose is now permanently attached to the water tank. I think it is because the teens have been having baths which I would not allow them to do when we were in drought.

End of Winter

2009-08-31T10:02:00.007+10:00

Since it is so close to spring I thought it was a good time to finish off the citrus harvest, I still had a bag of oranges, several kilos of lemons and four (yes only 4) limes in the fridge so this morning I made lemon butter and lemon cordial - thanks to Julie and Rhonda Jean for those recipes.

The green liquid in the jar is home made apple juice, not home grown but made from organic Granny Smiths and the tiny amount of liquid in the ice tray is the juice of my miniscule lime crop.

And here are my new Silkie chicks, aren't they cute. They are part of a shameless attempt to encourage my children to take an interest in my chooks, they're not keen on the utility breeds. It worked too, they absolutely love them and are keen to try breeding them.

And finally the Wyandottes managed to produce an egg, they're bantams so it is a tiny thing but I'm sure it will taste just as good.

It Wasn't Me!!

2009-08-28T16:00:00.002+10:00

I didn't break the washing machine stuffing a queen size duvet in there, it was my b****y Teens and their hair clips getting stuck in the filter. Mercifully the pump survived so I only needed a new filter - I'm only $263 poorer - could have been a whole lot worse if the pump had blown up. It's been a tough week trying to catch up with all that laundry but I was lucky with the weather, it's been very warm and very windy.

Just as well I didn't thrash myself with a tree after all. Still I really should try and learn some patience, then I might stop pulling things like carrots and parsnips out of the ground way before they are ready.

A Promise of Things to Come

2009-08-23T17:28:00.004+10:00

I have diversified this year and put in some ornamental plants around the water tank. It is surrounded by treated pine sleepers so isn't suitable for food plants. It will be nice to have some things purely for aesthetic reasons. Any day now there will be poppies flowering.

Not long til the broad beans produce a meal or two as well.

And the winter tomato experiment is almost at an end, look good don't they. Just hope the greedy possums don't get them before I do.

And best of all, my new passionfruit vine is flowering. The possums got everything last year so I have planted another one closer to the house and left the old one for the little furry critters. Let's hope they appreciate it and don't take a fancy to mine.

Patience is a Virtue

2009-08-21T10:15:00.004+10:00

Shame I don't have any.

I am so angry I feel I should do to myself what Basil Fawlty did to his car . I put something in my washing machine that was too heavy this morning and it wouldn't drain. I decided that emptying the filter would be a good idea but couldn't do it with my hands so, rather than wait for someone stronger to come, I used a spanner and managed to break the handle right off.

So now I have saved myself $37 on drycleaning fees and probably done hundreds of dollars worth of damage to my washing machine. And I have to wait til Monday for someone to even look at it. Is it possible to learn patience I wonder, I really do need to work on it, most of the things that go wrong around here can be attributed to my inability to wait.

Back to Basics Challenge

2009-08-20T17:33:00.000+10:00

Mexican Coriander

Sowing and Planting

Seed potatoes - King Edward and Nicola (more to come)

Provencal Mesclun Mix seeds

Rattlesnake beans

Echinacea

Evening Primrose

Lavender x 3

Transplanted Mexican coriander

Harvesting

Mushrooms, mesclun mix, parsnips, broccoli

Maintenance

pruned citrus trees

moved comfrey and horseradish tubs to a sunnier position

Working for the Future

added chicken compost to pumpkin mound

Planning for the Future

ordered tomato seeds from Green Harvest - San Marzano, Moneymaker and Grosse Lisse and tomatillo

also basil, purslane, carrots, sweet corn and other seeds

No Building Community or

Learning New Skills :- (

Strange Goings on at the Eggcelsior

2009-08-20T17:22:00.007+10:00

Esmerelda and Anastasia

Very strange things my chooks - I got a pair of Isa Browns from Rentachook about a year ago and they were lovely - very tame, amusing and productive - so I got another pair from a local produce place. These two were very skittish and nervous, so much so that we called one of them Nervous Nellie. We're fairly sure that one of the new ones doesn't lay as we have never had 4 eggs in one day but can't work out which. I'm tempted to dye their bums different colours to see if I can work it out!

As I have mentioned before, when we came back from holiday the pairs had become a one and a three and I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that Nervous Nellie has morphed into Bossy Knickers. I caught her today jumping on the back of one of the others and pulling her feathers out - horrid thing. They remind me of playground bullies.

They are also a bit fussy, Hubby brought some shredded paper home for the rabbits and I thought it would make good nesting material but no - they scorned it and laid their eggs on the floor of the coop in the straw. I put a very small handful of straw on top of the paper and hey presto the eggs were back in the boxes - very easily fooled.

And the Glamour Girls, Silver Laced Wyandottes, are completely useless, they behave as if I have an axe in my hand if I go anywhere near them and have failed to produce a single egg. Lucky for them I am way too soft to eat my own pets!

Gorgeous Day

2009-08-17T16:55:00.000+10:00

Don't think the weather knows it's not quite spring yet.

I felt so inspired that I decided to plant some potatoes, one row of King Edwards and one of Nicola. I don't really have enough room for the remaining ones so I may have to resort to potato cages again this year. They weren't entirely successful last year, I only got about 4 kg from 3 cages. I will have to do a bit of research and see if I can work out how to get a bigger crop. I think that the stalks need to be covered up more quickly and also prevented from poking out the sides of the cages.

I rather liked the idea that Rob, of One Straw, had of building potato towers so I might try that instead this year. We have had some building work done on the carport and there just happens to be quite a lot of old timber lying about.

I also finally planted the lavenders I bought ages ago to help attract bees to my feijoas trees. Last year I hand pollinated them to be on the safe side but they are getting too big now to do a really good job. I bought two different types, one called Pukehou and one Tickled Pink and had another one that I grew from a cutting but can't remember the name of.

More of the seeds in the mini-greenhouse are beginning to sprout. I am thrilled with how well it is working but will have to be a bit careful about opening it up every day with these summer temperatures we've been having, the baby fenugreek plants looked a bit sad yesterday.

Challenge Update

2009-08-10T16:08:00.005+10:00

Sowing Seed

Not a huge amount of progress in the garden but the Fenugreek seeds are up already. Last year they all failed so I think the mini greenhouse is definitely earning it's keep. It should also have the advantage of protecting the seedlings from bugs, snails and escapologist chickens.

Working for the Future

Bad light again, must remember to take photos earlier in the day. Above is the fence where the Wisteria used to be, the fence was collapsing so we have covered it up with some Natureed. In front of that is the pile of chicken made compost that will be home to the two kinds of pumpkin seeds I planted yesterday - Red Kuri and Golden Nugget. I was going to plant Butternuts too but the seeds were very dusty and papery so I think they would have failed. Must order some more, I love butternut squash.

And here are the broad beans powering away now that their patch gets more sun. The chooks got in here very early on and dug about half the seeds out so the crop will be small this year. Poor hubby, it's his favourite vegetable.

Not much else to report on the garden, most of the weekend was spent getting rid of wisteria twigs and preparing the outdoor furniture for spring time.

Planning for the Future

Need to order all the tomato seeds, I forgot when I got the other delivery.

Building Community

Went to a quiz night at the football club as part of our annual fundraising activities. (came 4th so we weren't totally disgraced this year)

No new skills acquired this week I'm afraid.

Back to Basics Challenge

2009-08-02T17:02:00.009+10:00

I have been a bit slack with this over the winter, my apologies to Belinda who has managed to keep going despite getting such a reduced input. Hopefully I can get back into it now that the weather is improving.

Sowing Seeds

Capsicum- Marconi Red and Corno di Toro

Chilli - Jalapeno

Echinacea Purpurea

Cucumber - Muncher Burpless

Fenugreek

Luffa

Nasturtiums

Soya Beans

Zucchini Black Jack

Planting

Asparagus

Strawberries transplanted

Harvesting

Mesclun Mix

Snowpeas Roi de Carouby

Parsnips

Broccoli

Mushrooms

Maintenance

Pulled out scrappy snowpeas

Dug home made compost and chook manure into new potato patch

Fed broccoli, garlic, chard with compost and chicken manure

Weeded all patches and fed to chooks

Working for the Future

Pulled out the straggly old wistaria behind the clothesline to make room for the pumpkins (well Hubby did anyway)

Bought ginger, turmeric and NZ yam corms from Green Harvest

Building Community

Gave eggs to the neighbours who feed the chooks over the fence

Agreed to make more lemon butter for a friend who gave me a great old breadbin as "payment"

Learning a New Skill

Knitting socks, finished one pair and have started a fancy pair for Teen 2

Therapy But Not of the Retail Kind

2009-08-02T16:19:00.006+10:00

A big day in the garden today, difficult to believe that it is still a month til spring.

Here are all the girls enjoying the weeds and old plants that I have thrown into their coop today. Neuroses seem to have been forgotten.

My garlic patch is coming along nicely, there are two types, one Italian Red and the other Early Purple. Cant remember which is which now but I assume it will be obvious at harvest time.

It was really the wrong time of the day for photos so I apologise for the quality, or the lack thereof. This my new asparagus patch, there are 4 new second year crowns from Green Harvest in there but I have covered them up with chicken wire because it is a favourite hang out of the possums. Bet they'd just love some juicy asparagus tips.

The winter tomatoes are still going and are starting to change colour now so I think they are definitely cherries. The plant doesn't look as healthy as it might so I will feed it tomorrow and cut back scruffy parts.

And here are the seeds that I could not resist planting. Hopefully the new greenhouse will keep them warm and moist and I will get a head start in spring. I have used old meat trays underneath to keep them watered. I also poked some holes in a couple and planted seeds in them as some of my seed pots have disintegrated over the winter. I only buy meat with non-polystyrene trays these days because at least they can be used for other things. Polystyrene is just landfill waiting to happen. Of course it would be better if you could buy meat without any plastic but it is pretty difficult. Must ask the butcher if we could take our own containers.

Nowt as odd as chooks

2009-07-31T21:11:00.006+10:00

When we got back from our holiday our Isa Brown girls had changed from being two separate pairs to a trio and a singleton. Poor Ginger who usually seems to be top of the pecking order just wasn't happy. I picked her up and examined her but there was no sign of ill health or pests. She just didn't seem interested in the others or even in food for that matter.

I decided to let her out for a free range on her own so I could keep an eye on her and she seemed to perk up straight away and was munching away happily on the grass. I thought I would try putting her in with the Glamour Girls for a while for a break which seemed to be ok but was really a bit crowded. After a couple of days I put her back in with her original mates and all seems to be back to normal.

I have no idea what was up with her and I'm not sure if she's laying but at least she doesn't seem to be sick. Is this common amongst chooks or are mine a bit neurotic?

Meat Free Monday

2009-07-27T09:01:00.008+10:00

Actually many days are meat free around here but this is a good way to make sure we don't fall into bad habits.

Today we are going to try two recipes from Spice is Nice - My Kitchen Adventures, one is Egg Masala and the other is Potatoes in Yoghurt Sauce. I often make a Sri Lankan Egg and Potato curry but I thought it might be fun to try something a bit different. First I have to take

myself off to the Indian grocer up at Thornleigh to get some fresh herbs and spices. I love going there, it smells divine and transports me right back to my backpacking days in India........

.... Well, I did make them but it wasn't a hundred percent successful, the yoghurt I used was very low fat and I think a bit too sharp. I had to use tinned tomatoes in the Masala which were also a bit sharp but the flavour of the spices was delicious. I bought some fresh Roti in the spice shop too so it was a pretty yummy dinner.

Holiday in Paradise

2009-07-22T18:56:00.006+10:00

Well it wasn't very environmentally friendly but it certainly was amazing! We went to Hawaii for a family reunion and it was so much nicer than I expected. Of course Waikiki was very developed and touristy but most of the rest of the island was just beautiful and the local population are very keen on preserving as much of it as possible.

These first two photos were taken from the garden of the house we stayed in on the Windward side of Oahu.

Diamond head from Waikiki Beach.

And a lagoon on the Leeward side of Oahu.

Of course now we will have to work even harder on our carbon footprint to make up for our extravagance but it was worth it.

Retail Therapy

2009-07-09T17:28:00.011+10:00

Well, it's in no way shape or form reused, recycled or frugal but I'm sure it will make such a difference to my seedling success rate this spring that it will redeem itself in no time. Not only will it keep the moisture in but it should keep a lot of pests and pets out as well.

I am going on holiday for 10 days starting Saturday but the first thing I will do when I get back is start some spring planting. Should be able to use up seeds from last year without buying in too many extra things. I do need some new tomato seeds though, I wasn't all that impressed with my choice last spring (Mamma Mia - disappointing like the movie!) so will go back to old favourites like Moneymaker, Roma and Apollo.

Speaking of tomatoes, the winter tomatoes are going quite well still, I never did get around to making them a bigger cover but they seem to be surviving ok, if there is any sun they catch it all day and we don't get temperatures below 5 or 6 degrees so no frosts. I'm now pretty sure it's cherry type but will know soon for certain.

I have a question for you gardeners out there - someone gave me a beautiful homegrown lemonade fruit today and I was hoping to get some seeds from it and attempt to grow a tree. Does anyone know if there are any tricks to ensure germination and will it be ok if it isn't grafted onto anything?

Completely forgot about the mushrooms growing under the BBQ cover!

Fighting a Losing Battle

2009-07-08T21:43:00.003+10:00

Sometimes I feel like I am banging my head on a brick wall, I have spent the last couple of years trying to encourage my family to live sustainably. I have tried to grow the vegetables they like, we have chooks for eggs and I have baked and cooked from scratch with predominantly organic and/or local ingredients whenever possible. But still, every time my back is turned they buy fast, processed, packaged food. 99% of the time there are leftovers in my fridge but if I am not there to insist they eat them, a takeaway is ordered. I think one problem is that I refused to get a new microwave when ours died, it is much more difficult to heat things up without one so people just don't bother. I'm thinking I may have to compromise on the microwave thing just to get them to eat the leftovers.

Tonight I took the Teens to see a J Rock performance that straddled our regular dinner time so I encouraged them to eat before we left and then offered them a healthy supper when we got home, but NO they chose to have the big M, I mean is that stuff even food! Hubby is no better, despite the fact the I left him a nice egg and potato curry and rice in the fridge he ordered a b****y pizza.

If they go to the supermarket they invariably come back with plastic bags, snacks in individual plastic packets and packaged cake mixes and biscuits. I am almost reduced to tears every time. I'm not the sort of person who wants to be a control freak but it seems that it's the only way to get them to live sustainably.

I'm not ungrateful though - Hubby is a great support when it comes to the veges and the chooks. He has dug and built and funded and chased and driven all over the place without complaint but I know that he doesn't actually believe in it, he just does it to make me happy.

Should I just worry about what I do and let them make their own choices or should I continue trying to influence them?

Meat Free Monday

2009-07-06T19:10:00.006+10:00

The UK’s Food Climate Research Network suggests that food production from farm to fork is responsible for between 20-30 percent of global green house gas emissions. Livestock production is responsible for around half of these emissions. The more meat we produce and eat the bigger that carbon footprint will get. A sustainable future demands that we cut down - and yet between 1961 and 2007 the world population increased by a factor of 2.2, but meat consumption quadrupled, and poultry consumption increased 10-fold.

As a result the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has concluded that the livestock sector is ‘one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global’.

We have decided to join Paul McCartney's campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of meat we eat. Actually we try to only have meat two or three times a week usually but I thought it would be good to formalise the idea because sometimes the consumption does creep up. Cooking with meat seems to be alot easier than coming up with tasty and nutritious vegetarian meals that everyone likes. There's always someone who doesn't like a certain vegetable or lentils or whatever.

I thought we might as well start immediately so tonight we had a tomato and zucchini pasta bake with mozzarella and a parmesan breadcrumb crust. I would have taken a photo but it didn't last long enough. In future I will try and get a bit more organised.

We will be away on holiday for the next two Mondays but if anyone wants to leave link for favourite vegetarian recipes they would be very welcome. My repertoire consists almost entirely of curry or pasta so new ideas will be gratefully received. If anyone wants to join me in a meat free Monday there are also recipe ideas on the Paul McCartney site.

Eureka

2009-07-05T16:32:00.012+10:00

I finally discovered how Houdini Hen was escaping from the run. I kept making the enclosure higher and higher, and clipping her wings shorter and shorter until I could clip no more but still she got out. Today as I was fiddling about in the garden, repairing all the damage done by the escapee, I caught her squeezing through the holes in the mesh. I think that rotten dog had made them bigger trying to help herself to the stale bread I'd thrown in there.

And, I picked a whole load of Eureka lemons yesterday because I had taken all the oranges off the tree and I didn't want the possums to turn their attentions to my lemons. A couple will go into the freezer to see whether or not it's possible to keep them whole, I will juice some and freeze it into cubes for cooking and I made the most delicious lemon butter, if I say so myself.

I got the recipe from Julie's blog Towards Sustainability but I doubled it because I had so many lemons and a friend put in a request for a jar.

Marmalade

2009-07-01T15:05:00.005+10:00

I finally had enough time to dedicate to making marmalade but I have to confess that I cheated a bit. I used Jamsetta with pectin in it because I didn't want my first attempt to fail and I also only made a small batch using 1.5kg of fruit just in case.

There was a recipe on the Jamsetta packet so I thought it best to use that the first time but now that I have had some practise I thought I would try this recipe by James Martin which looks fairly simple and doesn't seem to take very long.

So now Hubby has 6 jars of the chunky marmalade that he almost lives on. I prefer mine clear like jelly so I will make some more at the weekend, if I can find some more jars. I think a little bit of ginger might be nice in mine, I am addicted to ginger.

Around the Garden

2009-06-22T14:35:00.007+10:00

The first thing you might notice is that it is not b***y raining, I know it is awful to complain after the drought we've had and some people are still suffering but it does get a bit beyond a joke sometimes.

The oranges are still ripening but we are losing the odd one to the possums so I am taking them off as soon as they're ready. I haven't got around to making any marmalade yet, I've had to spend too much time re-washing and spinning wet laundry and removing mould from various surfaces.

The lemons are also very close to being ready, they will help to provide pectin for the marmalade as our oranges don't have pips. Last year I gave far too many away, this year I will be more frugal and freeze some juice and make some lemon honey/butter/curd - not sure if there is a difference. Does anyone know if it's true that you can freeze whole lemons or have I just imagined it.

My new chooks are settling in, the Isa Browns gave them a really hard time so we have built a new run down the side of the house for them. Our neighbours love chooks so they are happy to have them so close to them and often throw them stale bread and so on. They even said they liked the sound of roosters crowing but I think that would be a bit dangerous. I can think of several other neighbours who wouldn't feel quite the same way.

Here are my new broccoli seedlings ( pronounced broccolee I think James as it is an Italian word isn't it?). I am trying to increase my succession planting so that we don't have feasts and famines but I have been thwarted by the weather, everything has taken much longer to grow than I thought it would.

The winter tomatoes are still going really well, the fruit looks as if it might be oval shaped which would probably mean that it is either a grape or a Roma but I'm not sure yet. I like a bit of a mystery.

As easy as 1 2 3

2009-06-16T12:38:00.009+10:00

PS - Sorry Stewart I realised later I had pinched the title of one of your recent blogs.

Well not really. Last winter I lost all but three of my oranges to stink bugs, I was almost reduced to tears. So in October, while my family were visiting relatives in the UK I spent literally two weeks picking the little blighters off the tree and feeding them to the chooks. When they got sick of them I dropped them into buckets of hot water - sadistic I know but at least it's organic.

As you can see in the picture below I managed to save quite a few this year, I've picked about 4kg so far and there are many many more to come. I did read somewhere that citrus trees sometimes take a year off but I was not prepared to leave the bugs and take the risk.

I have lots of plans for things to make with them - marmalade, cakes, juice - any other suggestions are welcome, but so far haven't got very far past eating them as fruit or turning them into juice. It is such good juice it is almost impossible not to drink it all at once, should take care of the Vitamin C intake for a while.