Processing Plums

Leave a comment

It is that time of the year when everything seems to be ripening at once. I have a nectarine tree but no other stone fruit, however, there are plums aplenty around town and I have received some from 3 different sources in the last week so today I made jam using 3.4kg of plums.

This is the result.

These were the first batch of plums I was given. They don’t look much but have a lovely flavour and beautiful deep red flesh.

Since having an airfryer I have discovered that it is a relatively quick and easy way to sterilise the jars and lids rather than having to turn the oven on. That is definitely a consideration on a day like today when the forecast temperature was 37C (98.6F).

However, it was not all plain sailing as I had a calamity with the second batch of jars. Thankfully there were only 4 of them but they came to grief when I managed to catch the handle of airfryer with my oven mitt and send the contents flying across the kitchen floor. One jar broke but that was all. GMan kindly swept up the broken glass while I retrieved the remainder and the lids, re-washed them and started the process again.

The other job was somewhat simpler than jam-making as I had some gifted oranges to juice. It is the first time I have had fresh orange juice since we moved here which has been a bit of a shock after having what seemed like an endless supply from the 3 trees we had in our previous garden.

Finally, we were delighted to record 42mm of rain in a series of thunderstorms overnight. It has given the garden a welcome soaking during what has been several weeks of fairly hot, dry weather.

Assorted Sewing

Leave a comment

I have done several sewing jobs over the past couple of weeks so I thought I would gather them up and share in a single post.

These boxer shorts which are pyjama bottoms were both made from other garments which belonged to my mother. One was a nightie which she had made and the other was a dressing gown. They had been sitting in my stash for nearly 4 years with the vague notion of using them to make sleepwear. My hand was forced when my 2 existing pairs of boxer shorts became so thin that they ripped. Both had also been made from salvaged fabric and had a good life.

Of course, there were smaller pieces of fabric left over so I cut them into squares ready for future patchwork projects.

This pair of trackpants had been waiting since I bought them at the op shop a few months ago. They were definitely not a priority as we were coming into warmer weather. When I tried them on it was quite hilarious to discover that they were a bit too short in the leg for me. Those of you who know me will understand but for everyone else – I am 5’2″ or 157cm tall so clothes being too short is not normally a problem for me. The also had an odd angled raw edge at the bottom which is not really my style so I straightened it up and added contrasting cuffs. I bought them because they are a neat fit, not at all baggy and will be perfect for winter days at home.

Finally, I used up a few more pieces of fabric by making 3 more bags which I have donated to the Community Pantry.

Netted Nectarines

Leave a comment

It is about a week since I picked the first of the nectarines from our tree. For the first few days it was a matter of picking 2 or 3 at a time.

However, the ripening process is speeding up and I picked enough this morning to fill a large bowl.

The slightly firmer ones are in the fruit bowl and we will have them to finish our meals.

I sliced up some of the others which had some slight marks or need to be eaten quickly. These will be the fruit I add to my cereal for breakfast each day.

There are still many more that are yet to ripen and be picked so we are going to end up with a bumper harvest. It will be much better than last year when the birds probably ate more than we did. The netting that we added about 2 months ago has made a substantial difference and was definitely worth doing. You can read about it here.

Two More Tops

1 Comment

A few days ago we went to Castlemaine to meet some friends for lunch. We had a couple of other things to do and still had a bit of time to kill so I popped into one of my favourite op shops.

I came away with 2 tops. The first one is a favourite shade of green so was difficult to resist. I have no idea of any details about it as there are no labels. No brand, size, composition or washing instructions but it fitted beautifully and I love it.

The second is a simple fitted grey tshirt from Country Road. I like the idea of a plain top as it will go with some of the patterned bottoms that I have. It will also be useful as an extra layer in cooler weather. Something that does double-duty is a perfect addition to the wardrobe.

A Labour of Love

Leave a comment

My father was a keen photographer. This was mostly before the days of digital cameras and definitely prior to mobile phones that included a camera. It is almost 24 years since Dad died and I wonder what he would think of camera technology today.

In fact, a large percentage of his photos were slides which he catalogued and stored meticulously. After his death we were left with an enormous collection of slides spanning 3 decades up until 1979. He generally had prints of photos after that time but it is the slides which I want to focus on in this post.

My mother, along with my siblings and I, realised that we could not continue to store these slides forever as they were not easy to access and view and their relevance would quickly fade with passing generations. While the slides were broadly catalogued, most of them did not identify specific individuals. We were all involved but Mum and my sister undertook the bulk of the work to do the first round of discards. This included any that were badly damaged, were of unknown places or people. The next step was to scan/digitise those which we felt could be worth keeping. Mum created digital folders for each of her 4 children containing copies of all of the photos which included that particular child. It is now nearly 4 years since Mum died and the responsibility for the preservation of the images from the slides passed entirely to me and my siblings.

I had all of the digital copies and my sister had all of the physical slides. When we were together at Christmas we went through them again to check that none had been missed in the scanning process. I then brought the slides home with me as I could see that there might have been some useful information on the frame of each slide, however, I needed a magnifying glass to check. This is what I have been working on intermittently for 2 weeks and that step is now completed.

I have cut each slide in half. I am not really sure why but it just feels better to have done this before discarding them in the bin and ultimately to landfill.

The next step is to curate the collection and choose the best photo where there are several of the person or group of people. I will make sure that each digital file includes the names of people in the photo as well as the location and date as best as I can ascertain. I will sort them into folders as part of my larger project to organise all of my photos.

I know that my children and grandchildren may not want to retain all of these photos, however, by doing this I will be providing them with an organised, curated collection with no expectation that they retain them. They will easily be able to see what they want to keep (if any) and discard the rest.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to enjoying some of these relics which have not seen the light of day for a long time and sharing the stories behind them with other family members.

This is a particular favourite – a style statement from a holiday in 1975.

Kitchen Additions

Leave a comment

Making sourdough bread is entirely GMan’s domain and he has been working on perfecting his technique for about 7 years now. These days he does not generally have any catastrophic failures, however, there is no denying that some results are better than others. Like all artisans, he is constantly striving for perfection – whatever that is.

A couple of weeks ago he decided to purchase 2 rectangular cast iron dutch ovens. They duly arrived and were washed and seasoned as per the instructions and readied for use.

This is a view of the inside and the lid.

Here is the result from the baking done this morning. He is very pleased with the consistent shape.

Upcycling Inspiration

Leave a comment

This is a follow-up from my last post about buying secondhand in preference to buying new wherever possible.

Of course there are items of our own and that are donated to thrift shops that are really not saleable for one reason or another so a lot of it does unfortunately end up in landfill.

However, when we were shopping for the champagne flutes, I noticed a large piece of patchwork displayed on a wall behind the counter.

This is the note that was pinned to it.

What a great reminder of the possibilities that upcycling affords. I love the design and will definitely consider trying it one day. It reminds me of stained glass.

Frighteningly Fruitful

Leave a comment

There are plenty of posts on this blog about bargains I have scored at op shops (thrift shops). However, sometimes I ponder how easy it is to not only find a surprise bargain but actually to go shopping with something specific in mind and find it secondhand. There is so much secondhand stuff yet so many people seem to still be consuming and buying new things at unprecedented levels.

A couple of days ago we were in a medium-sized town near where we live. There are at least 4 op shops and GMan decided to begin his hunt for some champagne flutes. These are not for us but for the local film society. He was hoping to source 12 glasses and was not particularly concerned if they were not absolutely identical.

Anyway, the first shop he tried yielded 7 suitable glasses and her found another 5 at the next shop he tried. They were all 50c each so for the princely sum of $6 we are able to give a dozen champane flutes to the film society to use.

Last week I picked up this cute tank top which will be perfect for hot days. A bargain at $2.50. I have white shorts but felt that it would look better with black shorts.

My last pair of black shorts were worn out and discarded last summer after about 12 years of wear. At the first shop I was idly glanced at the racks and spotted a pair of black shorts that turned out to be my size and look as though they have been barely worn. $5 and I now have exactly the addition to my wardrobe that I needed.

There is so much quality secondhand clothing and household goods available that I would encourage anyone to consider taking a look at secondhand goods through a variety of sources before rushing out to buy something new. You will be saving things potentially ending up in landfill, almost certainly be saving money and the planet.

A Quick Quiche

Leave a comment

This is a long-forgotten ‘recipe’ that pops into my head occasionally. Instead of using pastry for a quiche base this uses rice.

QUICHE BASE

2 cups of cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

Place the cooked rice in a bowl. Add the beaten egg and combine quickly. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into a quiche dish or pie plate, spread evenly across the base and side pressing in place with the back of a spoon.

QUICHE FILLING

The filling for a quiche is one of those things that can be pretty much anything you want it to be.

Tonight it was:

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 large leaves of silverbeet (chard), stalks and leaves finely chopped
Small piece of capsicum (red pepper), finely chopped
1/2 tin of tuna, drained and flaked

Lightly saute the vegetables.

Add the tuna. Spread the mixture over the rice base, add a small amount of grated cheese.

Finally, make a mixture of eggs/milk/cream. Once again, this is very forgiving and you can use whatever you have to hand. I generally do not have cream available so I often add a spoonful of powdered milk to the regular milk to make it a bit creamier. However, tonight I did have some cream that I had bought marked down earlier in the week.

3 eggs
100ml thickened cream
100ml milk

Beat the eggs/cream/milk thoroughly then pour carefully over the filling. Bake in oven at 180C for 30 minutes or until firm to touch and golden.

I had started cutting the quiche before I remembered to photograph the finished product.

And dinner is served.

The first slice is always a bit tricky to get out, especially when it is warm but it still tasted great. In fact, this is equally as good hot or cold so that is our lunches sorted for the next couple of days.

Feeling Satisfied

2 Comments

I am feeling rather pleased with what I have achieved today. I did 3 loads of washing, including the bed linen and towels. Everything dried quickly as it was quite windy. I have done all of the folding AND the ironing. I am trying to minimise the amount of ironing that I do as it plays havoc with the sciatic pain in my leg, however, most of our cotton and linen summer clothing still requires ironing. There were only a few pieces to iron from today but I did have a bit of a backlog from the holidays and last week.

One of the pieces that I did iron was a ‘new to me’ pair of jeans that I bought in a recycle boutique in Brisbane while we were on holidays. They are NYDJ brand and look to be in perfect condition so I was very happy to pay $30 for them as they are around $200 full price. They are a perfect fit and I am looking forward to getting plenty of wear from them.

I have spent the remainder of the day checking that all of the old slides have been digitised and gradually sorting them into chronological order and labelling each photo so that it is relevant, especially for future generations. It is a huge job but one that I can do a little at a time and feel that I am making progress.