Category Archives: Self-reliance

Success

Leave a comment

We have had chickens for about 6 years now but in the last 12 months the most recent ones have been broadening their horizons.  They wander beyond our boundaries and have been making a nuisance of themselves by scratching on the neighbour’s property.  So for the last few weeks we have had to keep them shut up mostly except when we are around to closely supervise their whereabouts.

In the long term we plan to rebuild the chicken house in a different location and have a substantial fenced area where they will be able to roam.  However, this is not going to happen immediately as it is to be done in conjunction with fencing the vegetable garden area and some other landscaping.

2012-05-31 01 So, today I have put some nylon bird-netting over the fence and gate where I think they get out and seem to have successfully kept the chickens in our yard.

We also have some temporary fencing around the vegetable gardens as they are diligent when it comes to looking for tasty morsels, and there are plenty of earthworms in the garden.

2012-05-31 02And here are a couple of photos of the girls happily scratching in an area that is perfect for them.

2012-05-31 04Having a lovely time in the leaf litter…………

2012-05-31 03

DIY Dishcloths

3 Comments

In response to an earlier post about the dishcloths I had finished knitting, Cathy asked if I could share the pattern.

This pattern is from the ‘Down to Earth’ book by Rhonda Hetzel who writes a blog of the same name.  If you have not seen it yet please pop in here.

This is the pattern which I have put into my own words.

Using 8 ply (or doubled 4 ply) cotton, cast on 38 stitches.

Rows 1 – 3      Knit
Row 4             Knit
Row 5             K3, purl to last 3 stitches, K3
Row 6             K3, [P2, K1], repeat to last 2 stitches, K2
Row 7             K3, [K2, P1], repeat to last 5 stitches, K5

Repeat rows 4 – 7, 14 times (total of 63 rows)

Rows 64 – 67    Knit

Cast off, fasten thread and weave in the ends.

On a (Jelly) Roll

2 Comments

After hearing the term ‘jelly roll’ in relation to quilting I was sufficiently intrigued to try to find out what it is.  A Google search was all I needed.  I found this video on You Tube and was inspired to give it a go with my own fabric rather than buying a roll of precut fabric.

I spent a couple of hours on this and here is the result.

2012-05-27 01I am going to use this as the centre of a quilt for Izz.

2012-05-27 02These are some of the squares I have done.  You can start to get a general idea of what it will look like.

I have more fabric and more ideas but you will have to wait to see the next step.

A Lesson From The Past

4 Comments

Some people in various parts of the world are living in economies that are officially described as being in a recession but wherever we live, these are definitely uncertain times.  At the same time there is research showing that many 1st world nations waste up to 20% of all food purchased.  That is the equivalent of bringing home 5 bags of groceries and throwing one bag of groceries straight into the bin.

Perhaps it is time to look back to earlier generations and their ‘waste not, want not’ mentality.  Everything was used, re-used and re-fashioned until not a single thing was left.  This applied in equal measure to food, clothing, furniture and so on.

Today I want to show you how we can easily make better use of the abundant food that we have.

This morning I juiced a large carrot, 2 apples and about 1/3 of a pineapple.  I drank the juice for breakfast and saved the pulp.

Next was a 600 ml container of cream.  This was bought in January and not required for a luncheon we were hosting so it was put in the freezer.  Last weekend I thawed it to have some cream on dessert.  Only a small amount was used so today I put it in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and made butter.  I followed the description from here.  I was very pleased with the result.

2012-05-19 01I used 100g of the butter when I made pastry and this is what was left.  From about 500ml of cream I made 220g of butter and had 250ml of buttermilk.

I used the buttermilk tonight when I made a bacon and mushroom quiche for dinner.  I mixed a couple of tablespoons of milk powder into the buttermilk to make a thicker liquid for the quiche.

2012-05-19 02While the oven was on I also made a batch of muffins using the leftover fruit pulp from my juice.

2012-05-19 03I made beef curry in the slowcooker from a recipe in one of the Sally Wise cookbooks.  This is now divided into portions and frozen along with several serves of bolognaise sauce and a dish of lasagne.

2012-05-19 04Making these meals is a reminder of how we can use our own condiments.  The curry called for tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, chutney and curry powder as some of the ingredients.  I had home-made versions of all of these to use.  Some of the pasta sauce I made during the summer when tomatoes were very cheap and plentiful went into the bolognaise sauce.  The lasagne sheets were ones I had made some weeks ago and frozen.  It is great to have so many of the ingredients for meals at your fingertips and know that they have been created in your own kitchen and you know exactly what went into them.

The Duke has made our bread from bought pre-mixes for a number of years and now he is experimenting with making it from scratch.  He has the white loaf pretty well perfect but has working on getting the wholemeal loaf the way he wants it.  Here is the result of his effort today and naturally he is very pleased.

2012-05-19 05Tomorrow I plan to make lemon butter which will use our own eggs and lemons as well as some of the butter I made today.

How do you make the most of the food you have?

Shopping For Scraps

6 Comments

Today I went to 2 op shops looking for fabric suitable for my patchwork project.

Here is what I found.

A skirt

2012-05-17 02A dress

A blouse

2012-05-17 04A single bed sheet

2012-05-17 052 identical U-shaped pillowcases

2012-05-17 06And a ruffled single bed valance.

These will all be washed and unpicked ready to use.  The valance is big enough to use for the entire backing of the quilt.

Although these items were not super cheap it will still be quite a frugal project. I will mix and match them with existing pieces from my collection.

Thanks to Froogs at Frugal Queen for the inspiration.

Sunday Sewing

4 Comments

Today I took a break from the patchwork and did some other sewing.

First though, I did the ironing.  While I was doing it I discovered a tear in the ironing board cover.  I had noticed recently that it was getting close to wearing out.

001So it was time for a new one.  I decided that it could not be that difficult to make one so set about deconstructing the old cover.

002Here is what I salvaged: padding which I reused and also used as a pattern, bundle of polyester binding from the edge, elastic and clip from the edge, 2 velcro straps from underneath, edge strip which I used as a pattern.

003The fabric I used for the new cover is part of an op shop quilt cover that I bought last year.  I used the front to make a tablecloth for a work event and I had the backing left over.  I don’t think the quilt had been used and the fabric is 100% cotton.

004This the almost finished cover.  I just had to do some adjustments to the velcro straps which go underneath the board.  They were not long enough to go across my board so I had not used them previously.  I replaced the short end with some cotton tape so that I could use them.

005Just like new.

007This is the view under the board and you can see the modified velcro strap.

008I re-used most of the original cover when I made the new one.  The pile on the left is the cotton fabric which has gone into the compost.  On the right is the rubbish pile – remnants of foam which has almost disintegrated in places, the polyester thread from the unpicking (not visible) and the 2 short lengths of velcro that I replaced with cotton tape.

And a preview of things to come – starting from tomorrow and continuing each Monday for several weeks, I will begin a series  titled ‘Project Streamline’.  It is a natural progression (for me) from my participation in Project 333.  Please drop in and feel free to offer your thoughts/advice or you may like to join in.

See you tomorrow.

DIY vs Outsourcing

2 Comments

Today we went to the Wood Expo and unfortunately I did not find anyone who was doing the type of restoration work that my cabinet will need.  That is OK as I have plenty of time and no particular deadline.  I took more photos and printed them before I went so I have a complete pictorial record of the unit as well as all of the dimensions.  My next job will be to see if I can find someone who can give me an estimate of what my idea is likely to cost.  I did see a slab of silky oak for sale today – $150 and it was more than what I imagine will be required for the job.  I will let you know of any further developments.  In the meantime, it functions perfectly well as a stand for the television and storage of other items.

I decided to outsource the restoration of the cabinet  as the skills required are beyond that which we have.  However, there are lots of things we can do and make for ourselves.  We have managed to fill the rest of the day with doing things for ourselves.

2012-05-05 01The Duke makes our bread in the breadmaker and today was fruit loaf with sultanas, chopped raisins and chopped dried apricots.

2012-05-05 02He also bottled his latest home brew and then started a new one today.

2012-05-05 03I made some fresh pasta.  Here is some of it cut into lasagne sheets and ready to go in the freezer.  I used some to make chicken and mushroom canneloni for dinner.  We had a serve each and here are the 2 leftover serves ready to be frozen for lunches later in the week.

2012-05-05 04I picked a pumpkin and also some cucumbers from the garden.  We had mashed pumpkin and peas with the canneloni.

2012-05-05 05We made soda water using the Soda Stream and I had a glass of bubbles with fresh slices of lime.

Now I am off to do some more knitting on my dishcloth.  I have done 4 so far and the 5th is underway.

Pizza Bases

2 Comments

Since I was at home today I took advantage of the extra time and made tortillas to use as pizza bases.  I found the recipe on Simple Savings and it is very simple.

2.5 cups of flour (I used 1/2  white and 1/2 wholemeal)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons oil
3/4 cup warm water (I used slightly more – probably due to the wholemeal flour)

2012-05-03 01Mix ingredients in food processer until combined.  Knead dough for 5 minutes then leave to rest for 15 minutes.  Divide into about 10 pieces and roll out thinly.  Cook in a hot pan and set aside when cooked.  Keep covered with a damp teatowel.

2012-05-03 02Here they are ready to use for pizza bases.

2012-05-03 03I was happy with the result and the pizzas were a success.  Unfortunately we were too busy preparing and eating the pizzas to stop and take photos.  Maybe another day I will remember.  We used 2 tortillas and the rest are in the freezer for another time.

Local Lunch

7 Comments

In my post, ‘Competing Priorities’ from a couple of days ago, I discussed buying organic vs local vs no packaging.

Since then I decided that even though I do buy some imported ingredients, I try to offset that by producing some of our own food and buying local food where possible.  Stephanie’s comment re the priority of the ‘100 Mile Diet’ reminded to look at the origin of what we eat.

Today’s lunch measured up pretty well on all counts I think.  I had lasagne (leftovers from the freezer) and a few bits of salad.  Here is the analysis:

Cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and green bell chilli – all from our garden. – No packaging

Lasagne – made using fresh lasagne sheets, bechamel sauce, cheese and meat sauce.  To extract this further:

Lasagne sheets – eggs produced by our chickens and flour (Australian) – bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier.
Cheese – bought from the Kenilworth cheese factory (about 40km from home).
Minced beef – grass-fed from about 400km away and bought at local independent butcher.
TVP (textured vegetable protein) – bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier (unsure of country of origin)
Pasta sauce – made and bottled at home using local tomatoes and capsicums plus home-grown onions.

The meal also used powdered milk, tomato paste (bought at local Aldi supermarket), red wine (Australian – purchased at the winery when travelling), pepper, spices (bought from bulk bins from local independent supplier).  I use butter blend that I make myself using pure butter (comes in a paper wrapper which is re-used to line cake tins and then composted) and olive oil (local from about 30km away) bought in bulk from the local co-op.

I take my own re-used paper bags for everything I buy from the bulk bins.  I take containers for the meat that I buy from the butcher and mesh bags for any fruit and vegetables that I buy.  The 2.5kg block of cheese was encased in plastic and the packet that the packet from the powdered milk are the only non-recyclable waste generated from the ingredients used to prepare this meal.

Not every meal I prepare measures up quite as well in terms of local content but I plan to try to incorporate something we have produced ourselves in every lunch and dinner.

Do you ever consider waste and local content in terms of a whole meal?

Kitchen Kapers

6 Comments

I have spent the best part of today in the kitchen.  The first thing was to juice the 60 limes I picked from the tree.  Some is in ice-cube trays in the freezer and the remainder in a jug in the refrigerator.  I will freeze this in trays as well once the others are completely frozen and can be removed from the trays and placed in a bag.

Next were 5 pumpkins from the garden.  Unfortunately, I cannot leave them on the vine until the stalks dry out completely because some of the wildlife starts to eat them once they are mature.  Because I have to pick them before the stalk has withered, this means that they will not store.  So my plan was to cut and peel them (a mammoth job), roast in the oven and then mash the pumpkin.  I have frozen it in batches so that it can be made into soup as required.  By just freezing the mashed pumpkin I save space in the freezer as compared to making and freezing the soup.

I also sorted through the freezer and pulled out this bag of chopped onion tops.

2012-04-22 01These are from the onions I grew last winter but our winter is not long enough for the tops to die down before I have to harvest the onions.  Otherwise our wet weather starts and they would just rot in the ground.  I diced all of the onions and froze them in 150g packs and I could not bear to waste the fresh green tops so chopped them and pt the bag of them in the freezer while I considered what to do with them.

2012-04-22-02I decided to thaw them out and then put them on the trays in the food dehydrator.  My plan is to dry them completely and then grind them in the spice grinder to make my own onion powder for seasoning. I will post about the success or otherwise of this venture in a day or so.

The other thing I retrieved from the freezer was a bag of cherry tomatoes.  These were picked from the neighbour’s garden a couple of months ago when they were away and I didn’t have time to do anything with them apart from wash, hull and freeze them.

I found a tomato sauce recipe on the internet and made a couple of adjustments to suit the ingredients I had.  I cooked up the sauce and 1.9 kg of cherry tomatoes made up into 1.75 litres of sauce.

Here it is – bottled and ready to add to the stock cupboard.

2012-04-22 03I made 3 batches of muffins – lime and coconut, fig and almond as well as banana ones.  This is some of them packed and ready to freeze.

2012-04-22 04While the oven was on I made another zucchini quiche.  We have an abundance of eggs and since this uses 5 eggs it is a good way to use some up.

I had planned to make so more fresh pasta – using eggs again – but the day was almost over.  I will save that job for Wednesday which is a public holiday here (Anzac Day).

Most of my cooking and preparation was a direct result of produce from our garden, either fresh or frozen.  Since we are blessed to be able to grow this food I feel it is important to make sure that we use it to the best of our ability.