Holiday Hangover

2 Comments

Posted on November 30, 2014

It is now 10 weeks since we arrived back from our overseas holiday and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get properly back into the swing of blogging. With less than 4 weeks until Christmas, I suspect that it is going to be next year before I get things really back on track.

Apart from trying to get things done at home, I am finding that I am particularly busy at work. I constantly feel as though I am trying to catch my tail as there has been quite a backlog from while I was away. I have almost got that under control and now am trying to fit in a couple of additional projects which I will be working on next year.

Yesterday we attended our Christmas drinks celebration with all of our neighbours. The road we live in is about 3km in length with only about 26 houses scattered along its length. Some of the residents are permanent and others homes are weekenders so we see some of our neighbours very infrequently. The annual get-together is a fun evening and everyone brings theirs drinks and a plate of food to share. I took a bowl of Pumpkin & Feta Balls and some homemade tomato sauce for dipping. The recipe I used is here. I adapted it slightly as I used standard feta, chilli powder (1 teaspoon) and 1 teaspoon of powdered coriander. I rolled them into small balls rather than as fritters.

Today I picked 2 large bowls of cherry tomatoes. These grown wild in our garden – sometimes in rather inconvenient places. Here are some of them. I remove the stalks, discard any with blemishes, rinse them and then freeze them whole in recycled bread bags. I now have about 6 kgs in the freezer.

I am off to Sydney this week for 3 days for work but more about that next time.

Foodie Friday – Keeping it Local

7 Comments

Posted on March 15, 2014

I am sure it is still Friday somewhere – my apologies for the lateness of this post – it is Saturday morning here.

How do we feed ourselves? Food prices keep increasing, labelling laws are ambiguous, processed foods contain unfamiliar additives and food allergies appear to be on the rise. Add to this, a desire to eat organically-grown food which I believe is better for my health and the health of the planet and it starts to feel a bit overwhelming. While we are at it, the wasteful packaging needs to be minimised as well as transport costs, both monetary and environmental. Don’t forget ‘food security’ – the latest catch-cry. This is the ability for us, as a nation, to feed ourselves in the event of natural disasters or major changes to the world order.

Have you thrown up your hands in despair? Fear not. You can begin to solve all of these issues with a single action – grow some of your own food.

The Duke and I have a somewhat neglected but productive garden which sometimes surprises us with its bounty. We both work full-time and have minimal time to spend on tending a garden. We try to grow some annual vegetables but the real secret is in growing trees and perennials. We have an avocado, peach, fig and several citrus trees. There are blueberry bushes as well as self sown cherry tomatoes and pumpkins. The clump of parsley has been in one spot for so long that it has a stalk that looks like the trunk of a tree.

It may seem obvious but it is also important to eat (or preserve) what you grow. Do not let the harvest go to waste.

Keep your eyes open for food producing plants in your neighbourhood that are not being harvested. Don’t be afraid to ask if you may have some. There are many reasons that people do not harvest – lack of time, knowledge or health are but a few.

The last few weeks we have had access to the following (either fresh or frozen) from our own property or nearby – corn, blueberries, avocadoes, mangoes, figs, lemons, beans, pumpkins, and pineapples. At times I have felt overwhelmed by the excess on the kitchen bench but I have endeavoured to make sure it was used or stored for later use.

Last weekend I kept track of what we ate.

SATURDAY

Breakfast – buckwheat blueberry pancakes

Lunch – platter of cheese, cherry tomatoes, avocado, dried figs and mango chutney

Dinner – Salmon with mango salsa and vegetables – everything came from the garden except the salmon and onion which I used in the salsa.

SUNDAY

Breakfast – mango and pineapple smoothie

Lunch – Pumpkin soup

Dinner – grilled chicken with cherry tomatoes and mango/avocado salad

We certainly will never be completely self-sufficient but being able to produce at least some of the food that we eat goes a long way to addressing the myriad of issues that I identified in the first paragraph. Eating local food also gives you an appreciation for what is in season in your area. I really look forward to the new crop of things such as figs which have a short season. We eat them constantly while in season then it is but a distant memory until next year.

You do not need a huge amount of space and even though you could not grow some of the thing that we do in your climate, the reverse is also true. What do you grow?

Slow Living – April

13 Comments

Posted on May 1, 2013

Here we are with another month ended and it is time to for a review in the spirit of Slow Living Essentials

I must say that a do feel like a bit of a fraud as there does not seem be anything slow about our lives.

Here are the Slow Living categories:

{Nourish} We have continued to be very diligent with making our packed lunches every day. It is now 9 months since I changed my diet to one which is gluten and mostly grain free. I am feeling much better and as an added bonus have lost 8kg. My main focus has been ensuring that we do not waste any food. This makes for some interesting but nourishing meals. This was made from some leftover bits in the fridge last week. You can read more about it here

{Green} We are starting to reap the benefits of SAM – our Solar Air Modules. It is essentially solar airconditioning and we are using it to very effectively keep the bathroom and bedroom warm and dry. I can reduce the humidity from 90% to 65% in the matter of a few hours. You can read more about it here

sam15

{Grow} It is well into autumn but I have still been picking cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

{Create} We have made 2 more raised garden beds.

{Discover} I have made a start on putting all of the family history research into a computer program and getting rid of a pile of paper in the process. I am discovering new facts and remembering some previous discoveries as I do it.

{Enhance} I have gifted 2 pairs of boots via Freecycle.

{Enjoy} I have celebrated my birthday, met a friend for lunch and spent a morning with another friend – morning tea and then window shopping.

Now I am off to check out some of the other slow living blogs.

Til next month………..

Weeds That Feed

6 Comments

Posted on April 29, 2013

What is a weed? A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.

If the above definition is applied then my cherry tomato plants are definitely weeds. They are not particularly pretty, grow in places where I do not want them and generally get in the way. I am forever pulling the seedlings out of the ‘formal’ vegetable beds and The Duke must mow over thousands of them in the lawn.

However, we usually have a few that we leave to their own devices in areas where they are not causing harm. There is one plant which has been growing and bearing fruit for several months on the far side of the driveway in ‘no man’s land’. It has spread over a heap of mulch and has intertwined with thistles. I had not picked any fruit for about 6 weeks so I braved the thistles yesterday and was surprised to find all of these fruit just waiting for me.

There was about 3.5kg of fresh, full-flavoured cherry tomatoes. I have cleaned, rinsed and frozen 3kg of them in readiness to make more tomato sauce. I hope to do that next weekend. The remainder are spread on a tray to ripen fully and then they will grace the last of our summer salads.

Plants that are self-sown which survive and thrive will be good as they have passed the ‘survival of the fittest ‘ test. Perhaps that is why we have such success with the cherry tomatoes. Other self-sown plants which provide use with food include pumpkins and cucumbers.

Do you harvest from any fruit or vegetable plants which just appear in your garden?

Tomatoes – Tall Tales and True

16 Comments

Posted on January 13, 2013

Six months ago I watched on wistfully as my Northern Hemisphere blogging friends struggled to bottle, preserve and freeze their abundance of tomatoes. It was winter here, and although the ground is not covered with snow, it was far too cool to be thinking about growing tomatoes, let alone harvesting them. I hoped that my turn would come, and sure enough, it has.

A couple of weeks ago I made tomato sauce and blogged about it here.

As well as the wild cherry tomatoes we are growing Roma tomatoes for the first time and they have been a runaway success. The next tomato project I decided to try was tomato paste. As usual, I found several recipes on the internet, compared them and then made it to fit my available ingredients and quantity of tomatoes. The site which I referred to most is here. You will see that I used much less oil than suggested. Also, please remember not to mix up pounds and kilograms. I used 5 kgs which is 11 pounds.These are 4kg of Roma tomatoes which I picked yesterday.

And another 1kg of cherry tomatoes which I had in the freezer.

I roughly chopped the Roma tomatoes.

5kg tomatoes, 125ml olive oil and 1 & 1/2 teaspoons sea salt into the stockpot and simmer for about 10minutes.

Then it is time to put all of the liquid and tomatoes through a food mill.

All of the liquid and puree went into a large saucepan and the skins and seeds into a separate bowl to be discarded.

Simmer the liquid for 1 – 2 hours or until reduced and thickened.

Pour the thickened puree into shallow oven trays and bake in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes and then for another 30 minutes at 140C.

Check the mixture about every 15 minutes and be sure to stir any caramelised bits on the edge back into the middle of the puree.

Transfer the paste to hot, sterilised jars. Be sure to tap the jars to remove any air bubbles as you pack it in. Place the lids on the jars and process in a hot water bath for 30 minutes. For your health and safety, please refer to more detailed instructions about hot water bath processing.

Remove the jars, allow to cool and check that the vacuum seal is intact before storing them.

This is an easy but somewhat time-consuming process. It is a great way to be able to store a large quantity of tomatoes for later use. 5kg of tomatoes made these 6 small jars plus a couple of spoonfuls that I have in a container in the refrigerator which will be used in the next day or so.

The harvest continues. Here are more that I picked today and there are still heaps more of the Roma tomatoes on the bushes.

Finally, here are the first 2 full-sized tomatoes that I have grown for several years with plenty more to come. I cannot remember what variety they are. They have some imperfections but those can easily be removed.

And one final photo for Mrs Thrift from Not Just Green Fingers who asked how we managed to garden in the heat we are having. I live in an area of Australia where we have a more temperate climate due to the elevation and also a good rainfall. In fact it is sometimes more than we need. However, the last 6 months have been particularly dry and very hot for the past week. The tomatoes and red peppers have coped well but with more hot weather forecast I decided to rig up some protection for them today. The main covering is a large piece of shadecloth which came from my parents’ home. It has timber frames at each end and eyelets in the corners so was very easy to attach to the star pickets at the corners of the fence. The extra piece is an old curtain (very thin) which is covering the peppers.

Despite the heat we are still managing to produce some of our own food. There are plenty of chillies, we also have figs and peaches. The fruit are unfortunately attacked by fruit fly but I salvage what I can even if it is just one bite. I am going to see if I can rescue enough peaches to perhaps preserve a bottle or two to enjoy in mid-winter. The first cantaloupe was picked yesterday because the side that was touching the ground had started to rot. It was a little early so not superbly full-flavoured but I diced it up and mixed with some locally grown pineapple was very enjoyable for breakfast.