Day 83

Mellons

The first watermellon for the season, third rockmellon. They were not ripe when I cut them open. I am still not sure how to tell when to pick them.

Dinner for the Chans

Our neighbours Lucy and Kevin just added beautiful baby Kai to their family, so I made them dinner as part of  the traditional Baby dinner roster for the first post natal weeks.

Spanikopita made with silver beet, ruby chard, yellow chard, Alexandrina fetta, chook co-op eggs, herbs from garden, and pastry made with olive oil and egg. The salad has a dressing made with egg, olive oil, local Honey Lady honey, and Newman's horse radish. (normally I put copious garlic in the spinach pie and dressing, but omitted it this time as it's not good for baby burps)

I was in a flap because I had run out of butter, and I wanted to make pastry for the pie, ( Last year I would have used frozen pastry from Victoria) but I found this great recipie.

Olive Oil Pastry Recipie

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large beaten egg

Combine flour & salt in food processor & pulse. Add olive oil & pulse 2-3 seconds. Add 1 tablespoon of water & beaten egg & process for 10 seconds till crumbly & moist. Remove dough, do not nead, wrap in plastic film & put in fridge for 30 mins to rest. *this is important to relax the gluten that can make the dough tough & chewy. Roll out cooled dough to use as required.

The Chan's desert - 1/2 our prize rockmellon

Pesto making

had lots of basil in the garden going to flower, so add almonds, olive oil, & garlic

And my new friend, Murray Valley Parmesan Cheese, and salt, and presto - yummy Pesto.

I put it into small jars and into the freezer, defrosting as I need. It's great to always have it on hand. I use it on toast for breakfast, on pasta, and in pasta sauces.

Day 74 - March 15th 2010

Breakfast

Pancakes for Sunday Breakfast, but not enough bacon to go round, so I invented pancakes with apple and bacon, fry bacon first, chop into strips, throw into pancake batter with chopped apple, and fry as usual. I used the fat from the bacon left in frypan, made delicious pancakes, and no arguing over who had more or less bacon.....nice.

Orchard harvest

EcoVillage orchard harvest, we went for a walk around the village (with a basket) on Saturday evening and found almonds, figs, and a couple of peaches. The almonds were very easy to peel with fingers, no nut cracker required, and very tasty. The figs were sweet, purple/red and soft inside, quite unappealing on the outside, they don't look ripe because they're green.

We took this offering along to our neighbourhood group meeting on Sunday.

Rockmellon

I just found this beauty this morning hiding under a huge mass of rocket, it is the largest rockmellon I have ever grown, even bigger than I have seen in the supermarket. I am so proud.

Garden harvest

Today's garden harvest, another huge zucchini that was hiding under a leaf, self sown potatoes, also the largest I've ever grown, a cauliflower left over from last spring/winter, beetroot, capsicum, tomato, and another rockmellon, this one had been munched by slugs and milipedes, how opportunistic are they? As soon as there is a bit of moisture around, in they go, needless to say, my other mellons are now safely resting on the timber edges of the raised beds. I am going to try the large zucchini in dehydrator after salting it to see if salt sticks and adds flavour to the dried zucchini chips.

Garlic

Beautiful Australian Purple Garlic from Fleurieu Garlic of the Willunga Farmer's Market

If you email fleurieugarlic@bigpond.com  you can order your own wonderful Garlic and a cool gadget for making peeling the garlic much, much easier

Above is the very cool Easy Garlic Peeler made of silicone - mine is a bit mis-shapen because I put it in the dishwasher!

garlic goes in one end with skin on

A quick roll back and forth, and Ta Da....

Clean skin garlic in seconds!

Baking

Yes I took pity on the boy and baked for the lunch box Muffins with the last frozen raspberries, and scones ( the ones that look more like biscuits) with Paris Creek cheese, garlic chives and parsley from garden

Parmesan cheese ?

I have been missing Parmesan cheese on my pasta, and then I found this Romano at the Singing Cricket food  Co-op in Willunga. It is not as dry as Parmesan, very salty, not as strong a flavour, but a pretty good substitute. It melts more like a cheddar though and clumps together. I later found a Murray Valley Parmesan at Seaford Foodland. I will try this next time.

Dinner Tonight

Tonights dinner, I am pretty pleased to say that it is completely local, and more than that, it is all home grown except for the Fleurieu fetta in the beetroot salad, and the pork from Kuitpo. The rockmellon complimented the pork surprisingly well, and Aarod said it was the best meal he had enjoyed in a long time. (probably had a lot to do with the chips) I found tonight that they cooked quite well shallow fried in cold pressed olive oil. I wouldn't usually use olive oil for frying, but as it is the only local oil that we have been able to source so far, I am using it for everything, and it does well, tastes fantastic.

Day 70

Dehydrating & Weevils

Plums

Jerky

Dish drainer overwhelm

The results are pretty pleasing, but the jerky was difficult to remove from the tray as it was stuck fast. It would have been better to remove it before it cooled down and dried completely. It was also difficult to wash the dregs of the meat off the tray. Finally, the trays take up lots of space on the sink drainer.

Weevil deterrrent

I have heard about the Biodynamic method of Peppering to deter pests, and  my friend Lynda said that she had tried crushed caterpillar paste to deter caterpillars on her Veges with some success. So I decided to try a similar technique with crushed weevils. We had been collecting the weevils in a jar, so there were quite a few. We added water to drown them and soften their shells.

Weevils soaked in water to drown them and soften them.

I thought about blending them in the blender but I was a bit put off by the thought of the dregs in my smoothies. I figured that the mortar and pestle would do as good a job and be easier to clean. I had too much water to make a paste, so it turned out more like a lumpy soup. I felt a bit cruel doing the crushing, but my poor olive trees are suffering so badly, I was determined to find a solution. I painted the soupy mixture onto the branches and leaves, making sure to cover all sides of the trees. Every now and then a chunk of beetle would be left on a branch, I felt satisfied that this would be so off putting for the weevils. Tonight I went out as usual to check the olive trees with my torch and jar in hand. Alas there were 2 weevils on the most poorly tree, seemingly un-deterred by the soup. Now for Plan B.

Day 69

Dehydrator Success

The Zucchini was the most exciting for me because it turned into sort of zucchini chips, a little crispy and tasty. Next time I will add some salt while they are still wet from blanching. I think that even Aarod might like them with some salt. 

The apples remained pretty much the same colour as I squeezed lemon juice over them, they tasted sweet and lemony, very nice.

Capsicums shrivelled up very small, I put them in an air tight jar with local olive oil, local garlic, and chopped thyme

The cherry tomatoes shrank to the size of jelly beans, not too great, but I put them in oil anyway, same as the capsicum. The Plums took so much longer than everything else, they were so juicy, I put them on the tray with no grill, so perhaps there was not enough air flow? They may have been cut too thick also. They taste fantastic though, they are still a bit squishy, may not have ensured their longevity, however, I don't think that they will last all that long in pantry anyway as they make great snacks.

Products from Foodland

Today's shopping from Seaford Foodland - I was very happy to find an Adelaide based vinegar company. Vine Valley from Innovative Beverages 992 Port Rd. Albert Park.

Tonight's rushed local dinner - Phaedra's pork sausages, Chook Co-op eggs, garden spinach, Brad's tomato relish.

Phaedra's beef livers, marinated for 6 hours first in a jerky mix of soy (pantry), salt, pepper, honey, and garlic. The meat was quite wet to start off the process, but I followed the recipie instructions.

Phaedra's pork and beef liver, marinated 6 hours.

The meat is stinking out the whole house, not very pleasant, (Michael insisted on opening up the windows, and now it is freezing - well, 20 degrees) it needs to dry for up to 12 hours, so - overnight.

I hope it works, or we might be making friends with our neighbour's dogs (Liver treats?)

Day 68

March Harvest

Dealing with the harvest:

Dehydrating:

To preserve the harvest while things are in abundance and allow us to access these foods out of season, the freezer is still full of Pork, so dehydrating is a good option to free up freezer space and provide some variety in our diet. I am thinking about the merits of a Fowlers Vacola preserving kit versus the dehydrator, and whether I need both. I like the idea of dehydrating as there is no need for salt or sugar in the process, although I don't want to use sulphur either. I like that I won't need to use water in the process and the end product will not take up so much space in the pantry.

I have been wanting to buy a dehydrator for some time now, looking on Ebay as one does, and fantasising about a solar dryer too. My lovely little sister Lisa came to the rescue with a top of the range dehydrator for me to try before I buy. YAY! It is easy to use, and comes with instructions and recipies too. It is a bit noisier than I expected, but I like that I can add up to 30-yes 30 extra trays if I want to. I am not sure how much power it uses, it sounds like it is using a lot, I can use Sue's energy meter to check consumption but that is a job for Michael. It seems easy to clean and robust, and does not take up too much bench space. The only thing I am a bit thingy about is the plastic construction, I am not too keen on heating food in plastic, I avoid plastics mostly, but it seems that most dehydrators on the market are the same, I think that even the stainless steel ones have plastic trays? I will report back on the results tomorrow.

Farmer's Market Apples - I squeezed lemon juice on the apples to stop them going brown                        (not sure if this will work)

Farmer's Market Plums

Garden Tomatoes and Capsicums

Zucchini

Storing fresh herbs:

Sometimes I just want to have some handy in the kitchen. I have tried keeping them fresh in a glass of water on the kitchen bench with some success. My latest approach is to keep them in the fridge in a glass of water with a plastic bag over the top. This is so far the most successful and keeps herbs fresh for up to 2 weeks! Great if you are buying herbs and don't use them all straight away. I was looking for a way to stop them getting soggy and slimy in the fridge, (when the herbs touch eachother and stay moist).




I bought this at Cheap as Chips for about $2, I think it is an iced coffee mixer, but it is perfect (without the lid) for storing herbs as the mixer blades keep the herbs apart allowing some air flow between the leaves.

In door of  fridge (stops it falling over) with bag ontop. Would be better with a cap of some sort as the bag takes up space, but it allows some air in while keeping herbs slightly moist.

Dealing with the Food Boredom:

Aarod is so bored with his school lunches and snacks at home, he says that sandwiches with home made bread is like eating sandwhich fillings in-between cardboard! He says he is so sick of bread, and he despairs when he opens the fridge or pantry, he just looks and then closes the door. He made me feel his chest tonight, commenting that he has lost so much weight that his bones are all poking out!
It is surprisingly true, even though we are eating heaps more dairy, meat, and wheat, we have all lost weight, but I think it is more due to us eating out less, not eating processed foods, and just not eating at all because it is too hard! I think that Aarod's main issue is that there is no longer any convenient foods in the house. That is, apart from fruit ( "I am so sick of apples"), other foods need to be cooked or somehow prepared. I am waiting for the day that Aarod decides to bake some cakes or biscuits, I guess he is just not desperate enough yet.

Day 65

Local Breakfast

Phaedra's ham, coop eggs, home made bread with Four Leaf local flour, & garden spinach, & spring onions.

I am missing cornflakes and other cereals for breakfast, I tend to eat toast for breakfast mostly, or smoothies, or fruit and almonds, on weekends, we often have eggs. Aarod is getting bored with toast, as he tends to eat toast for snacks and lunch. Michael is now regularly using the bread maker, mostly making a loaf a day. I estimate it costs about a dollar a loaf for organic bread. Which is pretty good compared to about $5 -$6 per loaf that we were spending on organic bread from the farmer's market / food co-op, and we were also buying (from the supermarket) Country Life organic loaves from victoria.

Bee Keeping Course

Today I went to a workshop on Bee keeping with Robert Beer. A group of us from the EcoVillage have embarked on a four day course. The last two days have been very interesting and inspiring. I had no idea how complex a bee's life cycle is, or moreover, a bee hive's cycle. Today was practical, after a day of theory yesterday. We held drone bees, looked at frames containing honey and pollen, and identified the queen. There is so much to learn, and I am excited about the possibility of producing our own honey and wax candles here on our farm. Here are our hilarious attempts at getting geared up in protective clothing.

Elizabeth Gloves upBrad Looking like an AstronautClare trying to bee-llydanceCam looking like an arctic explorer.

We were all a little anxious about keeping the bees out of our clothing, but as it turns out, they were very calm and quiet once smoked, and more interested in eating their honey than investigating us. The bees were fascinating to watch and I was not afraid, in fact I was more concerned about not hurting them. The whole experience was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to the next weekend workshop when we will learn to extract the honey.

We can buy local honey at the farmer's market and at the food co-op, but if we are looking to replace all of our sugar with local honey, then it will be much more sustainable and financially viable to make our own.