Apron Days
Yesterday after preserving olives and making Granola, I baked scones, and today I made pumpkin soup with our first pumpkin of the season. I gave 1/2 of the soup made with home grown basil as well as a home grown rockmellon to a friend on the latest food roster. The meal was completed with 1/2 a loaf of home made bread still warm from the oven. I noticed that I feel more attached to my home grown produce, a little less generous. We are not at the abundant stage yet with our garden, and every offering from our patch is precious, even more so this year as we rely on it even more. Still, it is such a beautiful thing to be a part of a community that provides this service to those in need, it is actually a nice feeling to know that someone out there is sharing our meal, and I know how hard it can be when I am stretched to the max physically or emotionally, to get a meal on the table at the end of the day. I have never received meals from a food roster, but I imagine it would be such a blessing. I would like it to be a tradition that continues and expands in our village. Spending so much time in my kitchen makes me think of my mum, and I feel all nurturing and womanly and old fashioned (especially in my apron, with a t-towel on my shoulder). I kind of like it, somehow it feeds something inside of me that yearns to nurture others. I have often thought that food is a love replacement; a way that women often show their love/caring for others. I would love to be in a position where my garden is so abundant, my kitchen so overflowing with food; that I just give food away all the time, and there is always food in the oven, cooking smells wafting out the door, and ample preserves in the fridge and pantry. First I need a cellar!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Day 114
Olives Olives Olives
Olives are ripe in the village orchard, and there is a harvest scheduled for tomorrow. It would be fun to pick together, but Kensington Yoga class wins out. I want to try a couple of alternative olive processing methods, one off the internet, using a salt drying technique (refer last Blog entry), Colin Endean's method, and a batch using sea water. This is all a bit untimely, as I am about to leave for a Thai Massage course in Byron Bay for 3 weeks. The most labour intensive methods should be complete before I go, hopefully, otherwise Michael and Aarod will be left with the finishing tasks for all four batches....oops! ( Men not happy).
The Colin Endean method:
Place olives in clean plastic milk bottles with brine 10/1, each day let gas out of the bottle by loosening the lid. (bottle swells out so you can see when it needs releasing). Keep doing this daily until the bottle no longer swells. Then decant olives into preserving jar adding desired mix of brine or brine/vinegar mix and garlic/chillies/herbs. Done. (I like this method, no wasted salt, no salt water washings in garden, less water loss, less work it seems) I have tried this with 2 batches
Salt Drying Method:
Put the equivalent mix of 10kg olives with 1kg salt in a cotton bag, hang outside out of the rain. Tip bag and hang from the other end daily for 15 days. That's it, (I very much like the sound of this one). I put the olives into an old pillow case and knotted both ends so it will hang securely both ways.
Sea Watert method:
I will try the Colin Endean method using sea water and see how it goes, I just think that sea water must be the original method used in ancient times, and it is less wasteful of both water and salt, and could be returned to the sea after? Not sure about that bit. It was actually a bit tricky filling two 2 litre flagons at the Port Willunga beach. I walked to Gulls Rock end of the beach as I thought it would be easier to perch on the reef and fill the bottles without battling waves/getting drenched or getting too much sand. It was pretty slippery on the reef, carrying 2, 2 litre flagons and trying not to have a nasty accident. Then there was the carrying back to the carpark part. I imagined myself being one of those women walking with hand weights, except mine were 2kg each., and unweildy. I made it with no mishaps, but I wouldn't want to be doing it too frequently. I used the extra sea water to put into trays on the deck, to allow it to evaporate, and I am hoping that there will be some lovely sea salt left for me in a few days.
Granola:
This has been a big hit with the men in my household, especially since we have been without breakfast cereals for a few months. It makes a great snack for any time of the day, can be used as extra oomph in apple crumble, and is great ontop of porridge. I follow a recipie but replace the sugar with honey, the seeds with almonds, the rolled oats with rolled barley, and add dried jujubes, apples and pears. I do add vanilla essence while we still have some, lastly I add salt.
Olives are ripe in the village orchard, and there is a harvest scheduled for tomorrow. It would be fun to pick together, but Kensington Yoga class wins out. I want to try a couple of alternative olive processing methods, one off the internet, using a salt drying technique (refer last Blog entry), Colin Endean's method, and a batch using sea water. This is all a bit untimely, as I am about to leave for a Thai Massage course in Byron Bay for 3 weeks. The most labour intensive methods should be complete before I go, hopefully, otherwise Michael and Aarod will be left with the finishing tasks for all four batches....oops! ( Men not happy).
The Colin Endean method:
Place olives in clean plastic milk bottles with brine 10/1, each day let gas out of the bottle by loosening the lid. (bottle swells out so you can see when it needs releasing). Keep doing this daily until the bottle no longer swells. Then decant olives into preserving jar adding desired mix of brine or brine/vinegar mix and garlic/chillies/herbs. Done. (I like this method, no wasted salt, no salt water washings in garden, less water loss, less work it seems) I have tried this with 2 batches
first wash olives
These Village olives are soooo big and fleshy, some of them are hard to fit into the bottle!
after the olives pour in the brine
I am keeping them on the kitchen bench so that I don't forget to release the gas daily.
Salt Drying Method:
Put the equivalent mix of 10kg olives with 1kg salt in a cotton bag, hang outside out of the rain. Tip bag and hang from the other end daily for 15 days. That's it, (I very much like the sound of this one). I put the olives into an old pillow case and knotted both ends so it will hang securely both ways.
Looking very attractive on the pergola, with large bowl underneath to catch the drips.
Sea Watert method:
I will try the Colin Endean method using sea water and see how it goes, I just think that sea water must be the original method used in ancient times, and it is less wasteful of both water and salt, and could be returned to the sea after? Not sure about that bit. It was actually a bit tricky filling two 2 litre flagons at the Port Willunga beach. I walked to Gulls Rock end of the beach as I thought it would be easier to perch on the reef and fill the bottles without battling waves/getting drenched or getting too much sand. It was pretty slippery on the reef, carrying 2, 2 litre flagons and trying not to have a nasty accident. Then there was the carrying back to the carpark part. I imagined myself being one of those women walking with hand weights, except mine were 2kg each., and unweildy. I made it with no mishaps, but I wouldn't want to be doing it too frequently. I used the extra sea water to put into trays on the deck, to allow it to evaporate, and I am hoping that there will be some lovely sea salt left for me in a few days.
In the mean-time, we ran out of our Lake Frome salt, and I needed salt to do all of this olive preserving, so I went to Goodies and Grains in the Central Market. They had bulk salt both ground and rock salt, and I asked the staff where it was from. Apparently it comes from the Great Australian Bight, which is out of our radius, but at this point in time, it is the best I can do.
Granola:
This has been a big hit with the men in my household, especially since we have been without breakfast cereals for a few months. It makes a great snack for any time of the day, can be used as extra oomph in apple crumble, and is great ontop of porridge. I follow a recipie but replace the sugar with honey, the seeds with almonds, the rolled oats with rolled barley, and add dried jujubes, apples and pears. I do add vanilla essence while we still have some, lastly I add salt.
Willunga roasted Almonds in processor
McLarenVale sultanas painstakingly plucked from the stalks
Home dried McLarenVale jujubes, apples, and pears
the lot is mixed together and spread on oven trays to bake for 10-15 mins till golden. Don't be fooled like I was, it comes out of the oven still mushy, you will be tempted to cook it longer, resist the temptation. It is easy to over cook, and it becomes crispy as it dries. It tastes much better under cooked.
From my favourite recipie book The TAO of cooking Sally Pasley 1982
Granola
Makes 12 cups
11/2 cups sesame seeds (crushed Roasted Almonds)
11/2 cups sunflower seeds
1/2 cup oil (olive oil)
1 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar (honey)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
8 cups rolled oats (Rolled Barley)
1-2 cups of Dried fruit
bake sesame and sunflower seedsin oven for 10-15 mins, until light brown
Heat oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla together, stirring until honey is thin, add salt.
Mix oats and toasted seeds together and combine with honey mixture until well coated. Spread on oven trays and bake until golden brown 10-15 mins in moderate oven. Stir once or twice during baking to brown evenly
Let cereal cool on trays and store in airtight container.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Day 112
Olive Picking In Willunga
We had a great opportunity to pick Kalamata olives from Mark Webb's property in Willunga. He had too much on this year, no time to harvest and preserve himself, so he offered these olives to Ecovillagers.
A tree laden with ripe Kalamata olives
It was hot work but a lot of fun, very satisfying picking those fat juicy purple/black olives by hand. I perfected a two handed technique. We filled two buckets to the brim in about an hour, maybe less. We stripped about 4-5 trees in that time, so it was not bad, but made me ponder how many trees I would need to access to keep my family in olives (not to mention olive oil) for the year?
Our little helper, Mark's beautiful chirpy son Luca was happy to help us collect the olives, chatting away to us as we worked, so cute, we promised him a jar of olives for his labor.
Beautiful black fleshy olives. We combined the two bucket loads when we returned home in a clean plastic rubbish bin with a lid. we covered the olives with rainwater, and placed a heavy plate ontop to weigh them down, and prevent floaters, ensuring all of the olives remain in the water. Change water daily for 10 days, then put olives into saline solution, in jars with a top up of olive oil to the brim, and airtight lids. I am keen to try preserving with sea water, but Michael is less keen on the idea. I also want to try salt preserving ie. no washing. I will try a few different batches. For a variety of different methods see below.
http://www.cookeryonline.com/olives/Olive%20Pickling.html
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Day 110
Tomatoes and Olives
I love the look of this abundant car boot ex -Willunga
I spend All Day in the kitchen
I bought a 10kg box of tomatoes from the the Willunga Farmers market and sliced them up in approx. 5mm sections as per dehydrator instructions. The book says 11 -12 hours, I say some took more like 24hrs! I am taking no chances with mould this time! So I am not bottling until they are crisp, no spongeyness.
I put the dried tomato in a jar and layered with garlic. I wanted to add herbs but was not sure if they needed to be dried too? I took no chances and found some dried herbs in pantry, not sure what they were - no label.
As I started to pour in the extra virgin olive oil. I started to think about the cost of the oil, and decided to put them in a smaller jar - less oil. I don't think squashing them in should be a problem?
These babies are reluctant to dry out, the last of the bunch, they are the ends of the tomatoes (thickest slices) so are taking much longer than the rest.
I am determined to try one jar with no oil, just to see if it works, they are very crisp, and I am making sure they are completely cooled down before I seal the jar! The last lot are still drying as I write.
Dehydrator Musings
I am not too impressed with the speed of this machine. I am starting to wonder about the economics here. The dehydrator is 1000 Watts, so it is similar to a toaster, and I am leaving it on all night/all day. I freak out about the thought of leaving the toaster on all night but Michael says it would cost about $2. (It goes up to $5 during the day - using the solar power we would otherwise export). Then I think about the cost of the olive oil, the tomatoes, garlic etc, and I guesstimate it costs about $10 for this jar (then there is my labour ontop) - it sounds a lot at first, but then I am not sure how much sun dried tomatoes cost for that sized jar? It does make me think that dehydrating is possibly not as sustainable or cost effective as bottling with the Fowlers Vacola kits.
Fowlers Vacola Kit
They can use water only (no salt or sugar needed) and the cooking process takes one hour, as opposed to 12/24. I found some second hand jars at the local second hand shop for $1 each, and I have found a source for new lids and rubbers, so all I need now is a preserving kit. There are the stove top types (the old metal ones) which I prefer, but they need watching as they don't have a thermostat or thermometer, and they need to be kept at the correct temperature to be effective. The new plastic ones sound more idiot proof as they come with inbuilt thermometer, and timer, and they plug in, so they can be set off in the shed or laundry, freeing up kitchen space. Personally, if I can possibly avoid plastic, I like to, but the other extra features are swaying me. Also the food does not come into contact with the water or the plastic, and I presume that you can re-use the water.
More Preserving
2.7kg of tomatoes chopped and cooked to make tomato sauce
When tomatoes are pulpy, press through sieve to catch the soupy liquid (I can't bear to give the pulp to the chooks, so I reserve it and add it to the pasta sauce).
I used a muslin bag with almost the last of the pantry's foreign spices - cinamon, all spice, cloves, paprica, with vinegar, honey, and red wine, to spice up the tomato sauce.
I also made a pasta sauce of zucchini, capsicum, olives, onion, garlic, basil, bay, oregano, rosemary, and the tomato pulp.
The results of my labour: tomato sauce & pasta sauce. The tomato sauce is quite runny, I think maybe because I substituted honey for sugar? I am hoping it may thicken up with time. The preserving expert from the Save the Children Op Shop in Willunga said that these jars would be OK for preserving as long as they have rubber under the rim of the lids, the jars and the sauces are hot, and they are filled to the very top. Fingers crossed!
My garden beauties!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Day 105
Willunga Food Finds
I went to the food co-op in Willunga to pick up some local almonds, local sultanas, and Alexandrina Dairy products. I also found some local pepper seeds. We are not finished our current pepper corns yet, but I presume that these will not be available all year, so I bought some to try them out, and to use later. I had been thinking of collecting pepper corns from our EcoVillage pepper tree, and the research about if are edible, that I came up with, was inconclusive. It seems however, that the leaves are very high in essential oils, which have many therapeutic uses. I will report more on this when I harvest some.
I also popped into the Save The Children Opportunity shop to look for a Fowler's Vacola preserving kit. The one that you put on a stove top and heat the jars of fruit/veg in boiling water. They did not have one, but they had the jars, lids, and clips for sale. Margaret Offe, who served me was a wealth of knowledge on preserving. She told me that the replacement rubber rings are available in the Willunga hardware store, and she proceeded to give me a mini seminar on how it is done, including some very handy tips on trouble shooting. I am very grateful, I bought 3 jars, (one of each type) to test them out, and I went to the hardware store to get new rings.
They were selling yabby nets, so of course I had to buy one, and I have put it strategically on Aarod's bed. (A great way to prise him away from the computer - I think) What a perfect school holiday activity, and it fits in beautifully with our quest for local food. The Guy serving me was also very helpful, giving me tips on catching yabbies, and showing me their whole range of preserving equipment. Happy travels in Willunga!
I came away feeling very chuffed with my purchases, and thinking about the invaluable information that had been shared by both experts in the shops. I think about the different experience I might have had purchasing the same items in a large department store. There is such a difference in shopping locally, with a local, knowledgeable person serving you. I feel very blessed to live in this area.
I went to the food co-op in Willunga to pick up some local almonds, local sultanas, and Alexandrina Dairy products. I also found some local pepper seeds. We are not finished our current pepper corns yet, but I presume that these will not be available all year, so I bought some to try them out, and to use later. I had been thinking of collecting pepper corns from our EcoVillage pepper tree, and the research about if are edible, that I came up with, was inconclusive. It seems however, that the leaves are very high in essential oils, which have many therapeutic uses. I will report more on this when I harvest some.
I also popped into the Save The Children Opportunity shop to look for a Fowler's Vacola preserving kit. The one that you put on a stove top and heat the jars of fruit/veg in boiling water. They did not have one, but they had the jars, lids, and clips for sale. Margaret Offe, who served me was a wealth of knowledge on preserving. She told me that the replacement rubber rings are available in the Willunga hardware store, and she proceeded to give me a mini seminar on how it is done, including some very handy tips on trouble shooting. I am very grateful, I bought 3 jars, (one of each type) to test them out, and I went to the hardware store to get new rings.
They were selling yabby nets, so of course I had to buy one, and I have put it strategically on Aarod's bed. (A great way to prise him away from the computer - I think) What a perfect school holiday activity, and it fits in beautifully with our quest for local food. The Guy serving me was also very helpful, giving me tips on catching yabbies, and showing me their whole range of preserving equipment. Happy travels in Willunga!
I came away feeling very chuffed with my purchases, and thinking about the invaluable information that had been shared by both experts in the shops. I think about the different experience I might have had purchasing the same items in a large department store. There is such a difference in shopping locally, with a local, knowledgeable person serving you. I feel very blessed to live in this area.
Evil Weevils Strike Again!
The Weevils are smarter than they look!
Weevil Destruction
I might have to resort to deadly sprays or my trees may well die. I am thinking Pyrethrum is the next weapon of choice. Watch this space.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Day 104
Beer, Pumpkins, Mould, Gomashio, & Weevils
Last week's harvest of self seeded pumpkins drying in the sun before I bring them inside, last year I had about 1/2 of my crop go mouldy, so I am making sure that the skins are completely dry and toughened this time before I bring them inside for storage.
Dehydrated curry
Sadly the leftover dehydrated curry from our camping trip went mouldy. Again I am unsure if this is due to insufficient time in the dehydrator, or my impatience with packing it into bags (moisture due to condensation) - next time I will allow it to cool fully before bagging up.
Weevil Fix
Devastated olive tree
The dedicated Michael has been out hunting every 2 nights and gathering up at least 20 each time! Consequently, the poor tree is nearly dead as they seem intent on eating every last leaf even though there are 3 other trees to chomp on with many more leaves. I begin to wonder if the dying tree sends out messages to the weevils like "I am suffering please put me out of my misery" or "I am dying, eat me while you still can".
Preparations for weevil barriers
I am really determined to stop these evil weevils from their path of destruction. Cuffs were suggested by the nursery man, (with no directions whatsoever) so here I go with my makeshift cuff barriers.
Lets see how they deal with this strategy
I figure the evil ones will be really pissed off about having to climb up, across, down, then up and across again. Hopefully the smooth surface will impede them, and the multiple changes in direction will confuse them.
I left the insulation cuffs (so annoyingly ineffective) on to hold up the plastic containers. Unfortunately I have to cuff the stakes as well.
So aesthetically pleasing!
Lake Frome "Gomashio"
Gomashio is traditionally used in a Macrobiotic diet, and made with sesame seeds and sea salt, it is a delicious way to reduce sodium while adding a little calcium, magnesium, & iron. I used salt collected at Lake Frome, with sunflower & pumpkin seeds because that is what I have left in the pantry. I figured it would make an interesting nutty flavoured salt as well as making it easier to shake out as the pure salt is slightly moist and tends to clump. (I usually use natural sea salt and sesame seeds).
Lake Frome Salt
Roasted sunflower & pumpkin seeds
crushed in mortar and pestle, it is easier to crush them separately, then combine them, but I was doing a fairly small batch, so I did them together.
The end result is a tasty seasoning for the table. It still is fairly moist, just needs some tapping to encourage it to pour out.
Local Brewery
Sand Rd McLarenVale
Hi There Jeff and Mary,
Your brewery sounds great! My family are on a 100 mile (160km) diet for 2010.
We are keen to source some local beer, but it seems that most hops are
imported from Tasmania or NewZealand.
Do you have any beers that have all ingredients sourced locally?
I realise that sugar is from QLD yeast is from interstate too, but I
guess there is a chance that the main ingredients could be local?
Also do you know of any beers brewed without hops/sugar/yeast?
I am keeping a Blog for this year, "lifewithoutanchovies" about our
experiences and would like to publish your replies on my Blog if you are OK with that?
Thanks for your help,
Bridget
Hello Bridget.
Thank you for your interest. Please feel free to come out and visit our
little estabishment for a look when ever you are passing by. Yes our beer
is brewed locally, (we would be comfortably within the 100 miles) but
none of our ingredients unfortunately are from within that radius.
We are an all malt brewery so no sugar is used. Yes, no commercially
viable hops are grown in South Australia let alone McLaren Vale. The
closest hop growing region to here is Bright in Victoria.
Beer by definition under the food standards code must have hops and be
fermented by yeast, beer is after all a food and a very health food at
that when drunk in moderation.
We wish you well in your endeavours for the year and hope that when you
have achieved your goal you can come over for a locally brewed beer.
Regards,
Jeff
Monday, April 12, 2010
Arkaroola Trip
We went for the Easter long weekend to Arkaroola with Aarod's cousin Connor, and our EcoVillage friends, Tom, Hilde, Nathan, and Levi, & Leo the dog. In preparation I have been dehydrating meals and fruit, baking and shopping and having a break down when everything went pear shaped the day before we left home.
Michael made a loaf with this flour and it did not rise much at all but it tasted fine and had a lovely texture, and brown colour, it has less gluten, which makes it rise less.
Dehydrated Spaghetti bolognaise that can be rehydrated by adding hot water, easy, no chopping, no huge ingredient list, delicious result. Served with Pasta
Dehydrated curry to be eaten with cous cous (leftover in pantry)
Eggs gone wrong - I thought it would be good to boil up a heap of hard boiled eggs for the journey. Two cracked immediately on entering the boiling water, and they were not cooked sufficiently, so they were soft boiled!
I found this disaster of mouldy figs when I was looking for snacks to take on the trip. I obviously did not dehydrate them for long enough.
The dehydrated pear suffered the same fate, I am not sure if this is because they were not dried enough or they were still warm when I packed them away. Such a waste, luckily we have worms!
This was the last straw, and I was in a flood of tears just before our trip. It was actually a lot of work preparing the food for the camp. I realised that I could not rely on acessing local food on our journey, so would have to take all of our own. Usually I would buy packaged convenience foods and canned foods for the trip to make life easier, and we would look forward to picking up snacks at bakeries etc. along the way. This trip for the first time, I took fresh veg from the garden, including lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, basil and rocket. Usually I don't bother too much with fresh foods because I don't think they will last. We took Michael's Mum's car fridge which took up a lot of room on the back seat, and did not work particularly well. We ended up using it like an esky and filling it with ice. We also took our esky which I filled with frozen milk, frozen yoghurt and frozen butter. I was amazed at how well the fresh food lasted. We still had fresh milk untill the 4th day, and the (BD lemon myrtle) yoghurt was a lovely after dinner treat on the 3rd day, and the lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and capsicum lasted until day 5. If I hadn't accidentally left them in the fridge of the cabin in Wilpena Pound, we would have had salad sandwiches for lunch on the way home! I was very impressed with the freshness of the veg. I am not sure if they lasted so well because I picked them the day before we left home? They were all packed unwashed in snap lock bags, or airtight plastic containers. I did pick up the following at our local fruit and veg shop in Aldinga, and took the lot with us. The strawberries from Mt Compass were disappointing, most of them were thrown out on day 2 as they deteriorated very quickly in our makeshift fridge.
The honey is from Kangaroo island, so I assume it is Ligurian honey, and it seemed to be the same price as we pay for our local honey lady honey, so I wanted to try it. Haven't opened it yet.
Parachilna
Our first night we spent in the overflow cabins (Atco huts) at The Prairie hotel in the Flinders. The boys had a room with two bunks and the adults had separate rooms, it was very basic but comfortable. We could not resist eating dinner in the hotel, Michael and I shared the Feral Grill - kangaroo, camel, and emu, thinking it would be pretty local (it wasn't, only the Kangaroo was) but we did enjoy sharing a bottle of local wine though (as local as we could get) Bundaleer Shiraz from Jamestown. Michael and Tom also tried a "local" beer Knappsteins from the Clare Valley - very nice, but very expensive - at $10 per 375ml bottle!
It was difficult to really get a sense of the different tastes of the game as the sauce they came with was so rich. It all tasted great though.
Bush Camp Arkaroola Nature Sanctuary
Camp fire potatoes, and beetroot, MclarenVale wine from home, liver jerky, pasta, farmer's market mushrooms & garlic, with Paris Creek Nuage Blanc, followed by marshmallows roasted on the fire. (who brought those?)
Lake Frome
We decided to visit Lake Frome to check out the bird life, and see the lake with water in it as we were told that the recent rains had introduced water to the lake which is an infrequent occurence. This is what we found.
No water, no birds, just salt and very cute lizards that the boys were impressively adept at catching. So we spent our time productively. Painstakingly and carefully gathering salt for our table for the next few months. We used state of the art precision tools to scrape the surface salt off the lake.
The salt is very tasty if a little difficult to shake onto food.
Bush Tucker
on the way to lake Frome (along a sandy dirt track) we spotted a tree laden with fruit, is it a bush orange?
on the same track we found "bush bananas", the green fruit, that grows on a vine like a cucumber, and looks like a small cucumber.
Four Leaf Organic Mill
On the way home we stopped off at Four Leaf to do some Blog research and buy some items for our pantry.
Rosemary Dunn, the owner of Four Leaf Milling. She patiently told us about her products, and where they are grown, and it turns out that, like most mills, the grains are mixed in order to keep enough product available to meet demand. Some of their growers are Biodynamic and some are Organic, but because the grains are mixed, they can only label them organic. Many small growers are based within our radius, but their larger producers are located interstate, mostly in Victoria, and again the grains are mixed. The following grains are grown locally and are not mixed with grains from interstate.
pearl barley is grown locally is used to thicken soup, and is a good substitute for rice. Makes a good risotto apparently.
Egyptian Gold wheat was found in an Egyptian tomb, and grown successfully by a neighbour. It is also known as Kamut, and is an ancient grain, it will last many years in the pantry if stored properly, but they say conservatively, it lasts one year. It makes a high protein flour and has a sweet, nutty flavour (this nutty flavour is stronger in the Egyptian Gold than the spelt), and is excellent for pasta and bread. It has similar properties to Spelt flour and can be tolerated by many people with wheat sensitivities.
Michael made a loaf with this flour and it did not rise much at all but it tasted fine and had a lovely texture, and brown colour, it has less gluten, which makes it rise less.
Barley flakes are a good substitute for oats, and can be used to make porridge and museli.
Barley flour is a good alternative to corn flour as a thickening agent.
So these are the products we can use this year if we want to eat organic.
Happily, most of these products are available through the Food Co-op in Willunga, but Rosemary offered to deliver any other products that we cannot get in Willunga directly from the mill.
Us with Rosemary
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