Category Archives: Prepping

Flowers and Food

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Late autumn is well and truly upon us and in fact the apparent temperature at 7am this morning was -0.3C. This is the first time I have seen it dip below 0C this year. However, it is beautiful and sunny with a forecast maximum of 18C today so it seemed like a good time to head out to the garden and get stuck into some jobs.

First up was planting the sweet peas which I had nurtured from seed. They had been outdoors overnight for the past couple of weeks to acclimatise and harden off before planting.

There was a fish pond in the back garden when we moved here last year. Actually, our first year anniversary in this house was last Friday. Anyway, the fish pond has been dismantled and the area is going to be a herb garden. However, I have seconded a strip at the back for the sweet peas. The main reason is because there is a paling fence with chicken wire on the inside which will be a perfect trellis for the sweet peas.

Next were the lettuce seedlings which had come up self-sown from some plants that went to seed last year. I have about 30 of varying sizes. I will keep some and plan to sell some punnets of lettuce seedlings at the next LETS market.

Last weekend I bought a large pot containing several rhubarb crowns from LETS. I divided them today and added to the single rhubarb plant which I have had for several months. This bed will hopefully become an abundance of rhubarb in time.

Finally, the brassica seedlings seem to be almost doubling in size overnight. I have now covered this bed with fine netting to keep the would-be predators away.

I am happy with what I achieved in a couple of hours this morning and look forward to reaping the rewards of food to eat and beautiful flowers in the coming months.

Choice Chutney

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I recently encountered a new ‘problem’. Here in central Victoria the weather had definitely turned quite cool. Summer is well and truly behind us and I was left with an abundance of green tomatoes. This never happened in Queensland as tomatoes literally ripened all the year round.

It was time to remove the tomato bushes so that we could reuse the garden bed so I harvested the tomatoes and found that I could use them to make chutney.

The first step was to wash them thoroughly.

I then sliced the tomatoes and layered them with the diced onion and sprinkled with salt. Then I covered the bowls and left them to stand overnight.

This morning it was time to make the chutney.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

Ingredients

2.5kg green tomatoes, sliced
500g onions, finely diced
1 tablespoon salt
500g sultanas
500g sugar
500g apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1100ml vinegar, I used half white vinegar and half apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
30g ground allspice
30g ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot/preserving pan. Simmer gently for about 3 hours. I used a stick blender sparingly to mash the tomatoes a bit more. I kept the pot covered for about 2 hours and then removed the lid for the final hour.

The mixture should be rich, thick and caramel coloured.

Spoon into hot, sterilised jars. This recipe yielded 12 jars so the pantry will be well-stocked.

Perfect Baked Beans

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A couple of weeks ago I successfully made baked beans which GMan declared were better than the ones out of a can. Some years ago I had attempted to make them but they were really not that great. This time I was armed with more experience and a video I had chanced upon as a starting point. However, I did adapt it somewhat to suit myself.

I have made another batch and made notes of the quantities and method as well as taken several photos so that I can share the recipe with you.

BAKED BEANS

Ingredients

1kg dry white beans
Olive oil
3 medium onions, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 capsicum (pepper), diced
700ml tomato passata
250ml water
1 tablespoon treacle
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 – 4 teaspoons smoky paprika
1 – 2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method

Place the beans in a large bowl and cover with boiling water (about 5cm above the level of the beans). Soak for several hours or overnight. The beans will swell but will still be quite hard. Transfer the beans and water to a slow cooker and add a bit more water. Cook on high for several hours until tender but not mushy.

Saute the diced onion in a little oil in a large pan. Cook gently on a low heat so that they soften but are barely coloured. Add the garlic and capsicum and continue cooking. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer gently until well-cooked and the desired flavour.

Add the drained beans to the sauce and combine thoroughly but do not break the beans up too much. Allow to stand and cool so that the beans absorb the flavour of the sauce.

Heat, eat and enjoy.

I choose to freeze the prepared beans which works really well. This is the results from the recipe above. The small dish will be my lunch today.

Notes

This is a large quantity – you can reduce the amounts.
I used Great Northern beans but you could use navy beans, canellini beans or whatever you prefer.
You could used canned beans if you wish. I prefer to use dried beans as they cost less and there is the added benefit of minimal packaging, especially if you buy them from bulk bins.
The tomato mixture could be pureed fresh or canned tomatoes or whatever you have on hand. You can also include some tomato paste for a more intense depth of flavour.
The original recipe used bacon but I choose to use smoky paprika to replicate the flavour and keep this recipe meat-free.
Add the seasonings gradually to account for your personal taste.
I used a couple of capsicums from the garden but regular red ones are fine, too.
I substituted rosemary salt for half of the salt.
I also added 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 cup of my homemade tomato sauce to make it a little spicier.

In other words, this is a basic recipe and you can adjust it to suit your personal taste.

Making Our Own

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After my previous post it is back to the things we do ourselves.

Today I picked up a couple of large grapefruit at our local LETS market. I have sliced them finely and am soaking them overnight and I will make some marmalade tomorrow. Grapefruit marmalade is GMan’s favourite so another jar or two is always a welcome addition to the pantry.

In the past I would have draped a tea towel over the bowl to cover the soaking fruit but I am using this cute fabric bowl cover which is simply a circle of fabric with an elasticised edge. It was a gift from a friend in Maleny and was made by one of the members of WAM (Waste Action Maleny). I was part of the group when we lived there so it was lovely to receive this gift.

Marmalade goes on toast and GMan was particularly proud of his latest loaves of sourdough. We have been here for almost 12 months and in that time he has been unable to replicate his best efforts but we both think that these are as good as any he has made.

The satisfaction in cooking, doing, making, building or repairing something yourself is immeasurable.

Saving Seeds

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My vegetable gardening efforts over the years have sometimes involved buying and sowing seeds but have mostly been a matter of buying a punnet of seedlings.

I know that this is not the most sustainable option for several reasons. The seedlings come in a plastic tray and they are often grown in quite different conditions to your location which does not always bode well for their success. Finally, many are hybrids which are not suitable for seed saving as they do not grow true to type.

At the beginning of October, I was fortunate enough to be given some lettuce seedlings by a fellow gardener who lives about 1km away from us. These were very successful for several months until the hot weather and then they bolted as lettuces tend to do in the warmer months. A couple of them grew to almost 1 metre tall with masses of flowers.

GMan was keen to clear out the garden bed where they were so today I checked them and found dozens of seed heads with literally hundreds of seeds. I collected them, rinsed the detritus from them and spread the seeds out on a scrap of calico fabric to dry.

Wish me luck with my first real foray into saving and replanting seed from my own garden. These lettuces have proven themselves very successful in our climate and soil conditions so I am hopeful of reasonable success.

Harvest Time

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When choosing this title I noticed that I had used it before in 2021 – except that it was in early November. It is now late summer here and everything seems to be ripening in abundance so we are fully occupied making sure that none of it goes to waste.

Here are a few of the things we have been doing in the past few days.

When we moved here we inherited two espaliered nashi pear trees which have borne prolifically. We did not net them so the parrots have enjoyed quite a feast but we have still managed to pick several hundred fruit. Once we discovered that we really like the fruit stewed, GMan has made it his mission to peel and slice the seemingly never-ending supply and the freezer is full of containers of stewed nashi which we will enjoy in the coming months.

It is now about 6 weeks since I picked the first of our zucchini and I been managing to use them at pretty much the same rate as we were picking them until the last few days. So, today I made zucchini slice. I have been trialling making them in individual serves in the airfryer for some time now and am happy that I have finally got the amended measurements and cooking times right. I will post an amended recipe in the next blog post.

I also grated several extra zucchini and have them packed in bags of 200g in the freezer for future zucchini slice making.

Meanwhile, the tomato sauce was simmering on the stove.

This was the result.

I made another of my experimental versions of basil pesto and am pretty happy with this one. Almonds instead of pine nuts. Some grated zucchini mixed with the basil makes it milder flavoured. Nutritional yeast rather than cheese makes it dairy-free, vegan and reduces the cholesterol. Yes, minimising the cholesterol intake is going to be more of a feature of my cooking in the future. I also add the juice of half a lemon as it makes it a bit less oily.

The bumper harvest has not been confined to just our garden and our neighbour’s. I picked up a bag of plums from a roadside giveaway earlier in the week. I stewed these and have some each morning on my cereal.

Processing gluts of home-grown, gifted or foraged produce can be time-consuming but it is a worthwhile activity which helps to minimise the amount of food going to waste.

Choosing A Title

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After almost 13 years and over 1700 published blog posts it is sometimes a bit tricky to come up with an original title that is relatively short, snappy and relevant.

I can, and sometimes do use a title more than once.  In fact, this post was going to be ‘Home, Sweet Home’ as I have been away for about 10 days.  However, I found that I had actually just about worn that out with no fewer than 6 blog posts with that moniker.

Anyway, enough rambling.  I am arrived home safely on Tuesday afternoon following a trip to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.  It was not under the best of circumstances as I attended a funeral.  It was for my cousin who is only a year older than me and sadly lost a battle with bowel cancer.

I chose to spend some extra time in Queensland with my daughter and granddaughters as well as my brother and sister.

I have unpacked, done some washing and prepared meals so nothing terribly exciting happening here at the moment.  We bought some fruit and vegetables yesterday and I spotted a couple of trays of mangoes.  This is not a common sight in Victoria so I bought a tray.  14 medium sized mangoes for $15.  I am planning to dehydrate some, freeze others and keep at least one fresh to make mango salsa to go with our dinner tomorrow night.

In the Kitchen

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While our granddaughters were visiting us my kitchen activities were limited to just getting the next meal on the table but yesterday I managed to do a bit of forward planning and preparation.

The first thing was to make some Choc Fruit and Nut Balls. These are perfect for Christmas gatherings (or any other time of the year) when you are asked to contribute a plate. They are always well-received and are super-easy to make (no cooking required). They freeze really well and it is easy to pull some out at a moment’s notice.

My next job was to make some more peanut paste. I buy raw, unsalted peanuts and lightly dry roast them before putting them in the high-speed blender. I have previously roasted them on a baking tray in the oven but this time I decided to try them in the airfryer. This worked perfectly. I did 2 batches in a round cake tin for 10 minutes at 170C.

Meanwhile, I had a batch of grapefruit marmalade simmering on the stove. I never thought I would be making marmalade in December as citrus usually ripen here in late autumn/early winter and it is now officially summer. However, GMan took the car to have some work done on it the other day and was at a loose end for about 4 hours. So, he went walking in Bendigo while he waited and happened upon some free grapefruit in a box on the footpath. He collected 8 grapefruit in his backpack and they are now marmalade.

Also, in the spirit of not wasting anything I had these remnants to deal with. The last of the peanut paste is notoriously difficult to remove from the jug of the blender so I chose to leave about a tablespoonful of the mixture and then used that to make satay sauce. I set the excess coconut from rolling the choc fruit balls aside and then used it in making another batch of gluten-free muesli.

Here is our dinner of satay chicken with rice and green salad.

All of the recipes mentioned are elsewhere on the blog as they are regular favourites here. Here is the link to the recipe index which can be found on one of the tabs at the top of the front page of the blog. I refer to it frequently because a lot of what I write is as much for me as it is for my readers. Please feel free to use the index as your own.

The link for the Choc Fruit and Nut Balls is somewhat different to the ones I make now – there have been multiple modifications and I will add the updated version later today.

Getting Growing

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We have reaped the rewards of a few fruit and vegetables that were already planted when we arrived here. Lemons and raspberries have been prolific as well as some beans and chard. I recently harvested the garlic that I had planted early in the winter and we are picking lettuce for summer salads.

In the past few days we have taken some more steps to increase the amount and range of produce that we grow.

This citrus tree was languishing rather sadly in amongst some other plants behind the fish pond. GMan rescued it a few weeks ago and potted it in an old plastic bucket as an interim measure. It seems to be coming good. We believe that it may be a lime tree.

When we were in Melbourne yesterday we bought 4 large green plastic pots for the princely sum of $9 each. So the as yet unidentified citrus is now repotted and placed on the north-facing terrace outside the sewing room.

Another pot now holds a relatively advanced Roma tomato plant which we also bought last week. It is at the other end of the terrace.

Our other purchase was two raised garden beds which we have placed just inside the front fence for the time being. The landscaping at the front may change once the driveway entrance is eventually relocated but we decided that we really needed a bit more growing space now. These have been planted out with zucchini seedlings in one and eggplant in the other.

All of these plantings are in a mix of garden soil and organic compost which we sourced from a local supplier in Castlemaine. We have also topped up the raised beds in the back garden and planted out tomato and basil seedlings.

The remainder of the soil will be used to turn the disused fish pond area into a herb garden. More on that another day.

Feeding Us

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We are home again after our short trip away. It was not so much a holiday as a reconnaissance mission to our preferred relocation destination. After about 6 months of searching we may have found the ideal property. More about that in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I have packed a few more boxes – I think the count is up to about 22. I have a description and number on each box and a small notebook where I have recorded the number of each box with a more detailed description of exactly what is in it. I am hoping that this will make it easy when we come to unpack at our destination.

There is also the everyday jobs to ensure that we remain fed and clothed. Yesterday I caught up on the washing and ironing after having been away and this morning I am cooking.

We are by no means self-sufficient but we do grow some food and also prepare most of our meals from scratch.

In the interest of energy efficiency we try to cook multiple dishes in the oven when it is turned on. GMan was ready to bake sourdough bread this morning so I made a Zucchini Quiche and some baked meatballs. The bread at the rear of the photo is fruit loaf made in the breadmaker.

I picked the last of the eggplant before I pull the bushes out and clear out that garden bed. So, I am making a big batch of Eggplant and Green Bean Curry which will make at least 4 – 5 meals for us so most will go in the freezer. These will be handy for days when I don’t have the time or inclination to cook.

I had some nectarines which were not great for eating fresh so I stewed them and will use this fruit on my breakfast cereal in coming days.

I have also made a batch of coleslaw and hard-boiled 6 eggs ready for lunches, prepared the mashed potato and cut up green beans to go with the meatballs for dinner tonight. My final project for this morning is to make some more hummus.