Showing posts with label Eco Challenge gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eco Challenge gardening. Show all posts

4.04.2009

Garden Update



Most things are growing quite well in the garden, although we aren't eating much from it at the moment because we were so bad at overlapping the harvesting of different plants. We tend to have feast and then famine, floods of beans and then nothing. We are really working on trying to stagger the planting better to prevent that problem in the future.

Little green caterpillars are attacking the broccoli leaves like crazy. They did the same last season as well. Luckily they don't eat the usable part of the plant, so we just let them go. It makes the plants look ugly but it's better than spraying them. Perhaps you have some way of getting rid of them using natural products? Does the soap and oil spray work on this little grub ? Please share a recipe if you have one.


The basil is fabulous and brings a lovely fresh flavour to past sauces. I love being able to go and grab handfuls of leaves as I need them. Before growing our own basil I used to buy a plastic wrapped pack of fresh basil from the supermarket. It would be fine for the first dish but would be soggy and lifeless when I needed it again three or four days later.
A herb garden is a great starting point if you don't already have a garden established. Even if you don't have much space, you can have a few pots of herbs growing on the front porch or even on the kitchen window sill. I use basil, shallots and coriander the most. Once you taste the fresh flavour in your food, it is hard to go back.




My in-laws arrive on Monday and I am looking forward to learning my mother-in-laws beetroot preserving method so I can take care of these little babies.



3.16.2009

Garden Update






There hasn't been much to report in the garden since Christmas. We battled with extreme temperatures and then a long period of daily heavy rain and floods.

With the addition of some extra soil and lots of compost things have bounced back to life again. We have capsicum,cucumbers, beetroot, beans, tomatoes, basil, coriander, shallots, radishes, corn, broccoli, spinach, strawberries and butternut pumpkins.


Our most successful crop of tomatoes are doing well - in an old recycling tub.






We have had to fence off the area with a makeshift fence to keep the chickens out. While they are pretty good with established plants, they do like to scratch around the new seedlings. We are not complaining about them too much however, because they are making a valued contribution to our local eating campaign!






The area up the back has affectionately been christened ...'the farm'. Just goes to show that even very very small scale farms can produce a lot of food for a family. The good thing is that there is a lot more room to add more and more plants for the autumn season.








1.08.2009

Getting Ahead Again.



With the last visitors waved goodbye yesterday morning I turned my mind back to 'getting ahead'. It was terribly hot the day before so in order to be able to bake up a storm I had to get up really early and turn the oven on before it got too hot. I woke at 5.20am ready to start the day. By 9am it was game over, just too hot for cooking!

The lamington recipe that keeps incarnating into different things has done it again! From lamingtons to slice, to cake and now to muffins. I just stirred in some blueberries that a friend gave me from her recent 'pick your own' adventure.





I also made a huge lot of crackers to replace water crackers, Saos and Saladas. I adapted the lavash crackers recipe I have used before. I roll the dough out with the pasta maker to make it quite thin which is fine for a cracker to use with dips but for something more like a water cracker or crispbread style I just fold it over. To speed up the process I roll out the dough, lay it across a baking tray and slice it with the pizza cutter.










They come out of the oven crisp and golden brown. Now I need to harvest some sweet basil and make a great dip to go with them.





Yesterday was the first day that I let the girls out to roam. I had been told to leave them in their enclosure for a while so that they learn where home is before I let them out. They were a little hesitant at first but soon began enjoying their surroundings. I noticed how they picked the bugs off the cucumber leaves. We don't use any sprays or pesticides and generally run with the philosophy that there is enough for us and the lady bugs, as well as the fact that they seem to only munch on the leaves. But the chooks, well they had a picnic feast! I will let the girls wander around the garden beds. I know that the benefits will outweigh the fact that they will scratch around. I will protect anything that I don't want destroyed by them.



They must have loved their little romp in free range land, because....... they rewarded me with my very first egg!!! ( ***tears of joy*****) We proudly showed it to hubbie who replied 'it's a bit small - you might have to give them some steroids!'. Hmmmpph. I replied with ' if you want bigger eggs, go and get yourself an Emu'. lol.



It's a mighty fine start girls, don't listen to him. Bigger is not always better. You will get there!

11.24.2008

Howling Winds and Garden Damage.



The Wind has howled these past 36 hours. I mean really howled. So much so that some corn was knocked off the stalk and a group of tomatoes were also knocked off. The beans that last week were climbing like mad have now shrivelled and all the plants are leaning on a 60 degree angle. I now have sympathy for the farmers. I can’t imagine what it would be like having acres of corn which I depended on for an income only to have the whole thing thrashed about and destroyed in one weekend! Tomorrow morning I will inspect the damage.


There was some joy, however, the corn that was knocked down looked perfect!

Number one son has been sleeping in number two’s room because he has large windows in his room which is at the rear of the house. It can be quite noisy when it’s windy. Number two son’s room is across the hallway from our bedroom and is at the front of the house. It is somewhat sheltered because of the front veranda.


The joy of having both the boys together was realised tonight when they were in bed reading. I heard the following conversation. Remember, number two is seven and number one is ten.

No2: "what does wise mean?’


No1: “ it means, like, when you know stuff, like you know about things and you do what is the right thing”.

No2: “ I’m wise”


No1: “ yeah, so am I”.


Oh joy of joys!

11.20.2008

Do You Hear What I Hear ?















































































They say corn has ears, but I don't know that mine have been listening to my message. I need you for Christmas! Don't be ready yet..... hang in there..... a few more weeks.... please......


Jack and Beanstalk - apparently there's some truth in that story!





The makings of something very exciting!!!!

11.18.2008

The Future's So Bright.........



Yesterday I was chatting to a lady who I haven't seen for a while. She asked me what I had been doing since I left my paid job.

I started to tell her that the time had actually flown by really quickly and I had this real sense of not achieving as much as I had hoped to with all my suddenly found extra time.

I had hoped that I was going to make some 'real headway' in my life! I told her that I guess I had done 'a few things', like built garden beds and started growing all sorts of different vegetables and herbs which has now paid off in that we have lots of things to eat in the garden.

 I had also began making lots of things from scratch including bread, water crackers, dips, cakes, biscuits and then other things like soap, cordial and cleaning products.

I said we were getting closer to finishing off the chook house and I had been able to do extra activities with the boys which I really enjoy.

I have been writing on my website, talking on local radio about the stop food waste campaign and doing interviews with journalists. I had got all the washing/ironing under control and was enjoying going to aqua aerobics , I had also started teaching album making classes from my home and had been doing some photo restorations. I told her that I had also just about finished a book about my Grandmothers wisdom applied to my modern life.

WoW! then I said, ' well, when I put it in a list like that it certainly does sound as though I am getting somewhere'.

Then I stopped. and I thought. and thought. Yes, it has been a while now since I left 'work' and when I look back at the wake behind me, there has been a lot happening.

It's just that most of the tasks I do on a day to day basis are quite repetitive and are sometimes taken for granted. When I look, however, at the beautiful tomatoes that are growing on the bush and know that we started them from a tiny seed, I can see how far we have come..... and how bright our future really is.

10.27.2008

These are Exciting Times






Who would have thought so much joy was here awaiting me. Today I crunched into a carrot that was so crispy and sweet that it tasted like a fresh coconut!




There are tomatoes just bursting off the bushes. They are almost ready to come inside and ripen on their vines. There are grape tomatoes and Grosse Lizzy. The carrots, oh boy, there are SO many carrots..... and beans...... won't be long and we will be drowning in them! I can't wait to supply friends with fresh produce. I remember my two Nannas exchanging things when I was a child. Do you remember, before plastic bags, things like fresh beans were wrapped in damp newspaper and had a rubber band wrapped around them ? I will be reviving this tradition FOR SURE! LOL




This picture is of one our our newer beds. They measure about 2 metres by 1 metre. We are a living proof that you do not need a lot of space in order to produce your own food. This is a highly productive little garden. There are loads of carrots, two tomato bushes and huge area for climbing beans. We thought that to produce some of our own food we would need to have a huge area, even maybe an acre of land and that we may have to move. This is such a myth! You can have a very productive garden in a very small space. Our first tomato plant was in a pot! You can plant three lettuces with leaves that you constantly pick in a pot about 40 cm in length. That will do you all summer!


Today I heard Maggie Beer talking on the radio about cooking. The presenter said that it was difficult for people to cook from scratch because we just don't have the time. I was so impressed by her answer. She said the idea was total rot! All it takes to be able to cook a meal is a little planning! She said with some planning and a well stocked larder it is actually quicker to cook from scratch than it is to drive to the takeaway, place your order, wait for your order and drive home again. I remember Jamie Oliver proving this by phoning for a Pizza whilst on stage and then making one and having it ready well before the delivery boy arrived.

So, I guess if it's not a time factor, it must be a "can't be bothered" factor! I know I suffer from it sometimes!
These are some other tomatoes that are growing up the side of the driveway. This spot faces west and is not a 'garden bed' as such. It is just an area that we used to have to pull the weeds out of from time to time. Now it is a wonderful productive garden.
Let me tell you ........ these are exciting times.

10.23.2008

Thinking About Christmas ( but not presents)




Recently I have turned my mind to Christmas planning and I don't mean presents.


We take it in turns to have Christmas here or over with Hubby's parents. This year I am very excited because everyone will be coming here.


The reason I have been planning for Christmas so early is because I need to make sure my garden is ready for the BBQ season. My aim is to be able to create as many things as possible from scratch and from the garden.


When I hear people talking about the Christmas countdown I think about what plants will mature in that time. I think about what plants take 16 weeks to develop or 12- 14 weeks ? Then we plant out, hoping for a Christmas harvest.


Because it is Summer in Australia it is salad and bbq season. My aim is for us to be producing the following things:


lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, shallots, corn, beans, potatoes and a good range of herbs. I also want to make sure there are plenty of blueberries.


I am very excited about how the corn plants are going. The seeds that I planted have powered ahead and are much taller and stronger than the seedlings I planted a few weeks before. It will be a joyful day the day I can pull some corn from the plant and cook it straight away. Hopefully that will be Christmas Day !!!!



I am also preparing other things for Christmas. I am experimenting with bread recipes and cookies and cakes to make sure that I have it well perfected before the day. There are also napkins and placemats to be sewn, decorations to be made, edible gifts to be perfected and Christmas Irish Cream to be made!


It is all very exciting!


I have written before about the joy that comes from the 'doing' of things. Maybe the true joy of the season comes from hand making things to give as gifts. The recipient will be overjoyed receiving something so precious, and you will experience their joy! JOY JOY JOY - there you go ! Is that why when Christmas is all about BUY BUY BUY we don't feel the joy of it and all we worry about is the headache of the credit card bill coming in January.


As I write this there are 62 sleeps, five hours and two minutes until Christmas Day. That's over 7 weeks. What can you get up and running to feed your guests at Christmas ? Can you start with some herbs, put some lettuce in a pot? Can you start to make some handmade gifts? - you don't need great skill, you just need ideas - google for ideas!


My challenge to you is to bring some joy back to the Christmas season. Give JOY not STUFF.

10.14.2008

After Storm Glow





The last two afternoons we have been blessed with good soaking rains. In the past we might have cursed an afternoon storm, usually arriving at the time when school is coming out and things are thrown into chaos. Now we are grateful for the rains that stop us from having to water the garden with the hose. What is it about rainwater? What is that magical ingredient ? Why is it that you can water daily, but as soon as there is a little rain water the plants stand up and come alive. Mother Nature certainly has the recipe worked out well.

After the storm this evening there was an amazing glow. The photos certainly don't do it justice. It was a strange green/yellow colour. Everything came alive! Even in the house there was a strange glow. It was truly lovely. I grabbed the camera and took some shots in very poor light so they are quite blurry.



We recently started daylight savings, meaning that we had to wind our clocks back one hour. I hate the change over. I value my mornings because that is when I get the most done. To suddenly lose an hour was very painful. It has taken me a little while to naturally wake up early again. I don't use an alarm clock. I generally wake up naturally just after five anyway. You can imagine my horror when this turned into six ! Anyway, I am almost back to my 5am rising.



Thank you to those of you who have been sending me emails. I value the feedback, especially the questions because they give me ideas of what to write about.
I would like to write more about managing a home on a budget, and creating a joyful, simple life especially with kids! Do you have any questions or issues you would like me to address? Just send an email or leave a comment. I would be happy to share ideas.

9.24.2008

Splendid Tomato Staking




We are attempting something a bit different with the tomatoes this time.

Firstly we have moved them to the side of the house, right along the driveway.

 They face west and get lots of afternoon sun. S

econdly, instead of staking them up with stockings or scraps of materials, this time we are using a technique that Hubbie saw at a tomato farm.

They loop a piece of string under the heaviest part of the plant and tie it to a frame above. As the plant grows the string is tightened. The frame is made from tomato stakes with a whole drilled in each end and a cable tie looped through the holes to keep it together.

It seems to be working magnificently.

The plants are doing really well and have lots of flowers.

9.14.2008

Spring Garden Update - Messy Peas and Harvest Joy






The soil warms and the plants SPRING to life.

Last week and the week before we had awful weather. Our peas, which were about 5 feet tall were laying flat on the ground because of the terrible winds that we had been having. We also had a huge amount of rain which seemed to last for days and days. We thought we may lose all the peas so we decided to just pick the whole lot up and tie it up as best we could. It appears today that some pieces which were broken or bend have started to die, while others still have good fat pods on them

The plant is a huge bundled mess, but we will just let nature takes it's course


The rest of the garden is coming along well and we are very excited about the temperature of the soil rising. Beans which he had given up on have now awoken and since the rain the corn has doubled in size

Last night we went to a bbq with friends. Our contribution was the salad and it gave us great joy to go and pick a lettuce from the backyard. We joked about our 'harvest ceremony' and of course, had to take photos.




We had to add 'bought' capsicum, cucumber, tomato, carrot and red onion. We live in hope for the day when the whole salad will come from the backyard. If we keep getting great days and steady rains it may not be that far away.



































8.19.2008

A Hint of Spring - Garden Update.

If you look closely you will see our blueberry has the first hint of blue.


The Lemonade Tree



The peas









































The Silverbeet


8.06.2008

Today ... in review





Radishes are popping out of the ground, 22 corn plants think it is spring and have poked their heads up. Zucchinis are unfolding life dancers from Swan Lake and all is well with the world.



Hey Julie I tried your recipe for Lavash crackers and they were a sensational success!! ( Julie is Crazy Mumma from Towards Sustainability linked below). I rolled the dough out with the past maker to make them ultra thin. I couldn't believe how many it made. This container full plus the 8,432 that Hubbie and I ate as they came out of the oven and there is still half the dough mixture left.

The recipe was simply 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt 2 tbs poppy seeds 2 tbs sesame seeds 1 egg 1 cup of milk 60g butter.

They are identical to the store bought ones we got on the weekend to spread Camembert on. Of course they don't have any preservatives and probably cost about 45c to make. Now I will have to make the coriander dip again considering I have so much coriander growing.


Here is my favourite chocolate cake recipe

 


Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2/3 cup of cocoa sifted then add 2/3 cup of boiling water. Stir and put aside.
In a new bowl beat together 200g of room temperature butter with 330g of caster sugar.
Once creamed add 2 tsp of vanilla and 3 eggs one at a time. Then stir in 2 cups of Self Raising Flour then add 125 ml of milk. Cook for about 55 minutes, or until you can poke a skewer into the cake and it comes out clean.

7.22.2008

Garden Update





The garden is coming along steadily. I can't wait until the weather warms up a little to be able to get right into it.


At the moment we are growing tomatoes, lettuce, corn, capsicum, carrots, beans, peas, broccoli, radishes, strawberries, passionfruit, coriander, parsley,mint, zucchini, silverbeet. The corn that I have in is starting to go well, so yesterday I planted a lot more.

 We also planted extra beans.

Once the weather warms up a little I will put in lots more so that I have some staggered harvesting. I have been really enjoying the garden. I close the front gate and in my mind I am on 3000 acres.

The day I can sit back and eat a cob of corn freshly picked moments earlier will be the day that I can sit back in a state of joy and say that all is well with the world!







7.10.2008

A Winter Break.





Last week we finally got our tank of petrol off layby, remortgaged the house for the second tank and set off for a little tripping around. Ahhhhh the sweet freedom. No deadlines, no return date, no expectations.

First stop was to stay with friends in Sydney - a little place in the Sutherland Shire called Oyster Bay. The sign says " a little bit of country in the middle of the city" and I have to agree. The Kookaburras are the loudest alarm clock and there are plenty of possums about.

It's always nice to go down there and see the progress on our friends house. They have done the most wonderful renovations on their block over the last few years and I was lucky enough to get some super pumpkin seeds to plant.

While we were there we caught the train into the city and spent the whole day at the Powerhouse Museum. It was wonderful and I could have spent a lot more time there. The boys really enjoyed it.

On one of the days we tripped down to the South Coast to see some of the places I used to live.


( Shame you weren't home Libby, I could have used a cup of tea and a chat! ) I navigated us around Albion Park, Oak Flats, Mt Warrigal, Shellharbour. It has all changed so much. I did manage to get a couple of photos of houses that I lived in for my scrapbook. They have really changed, especially the house at Mt Warrigal. Someone has rendered over our lovely 70s red brick ! LOL The photo above is of Hubbie fooling around at the beach at Shellharbour.


We came home on Monday night. Just enough time to unpack and wash, build another couple of garden beds, plant some seeds and plants, bake some bread, cakes and ANZAC biscuits and now we are off again, This time we are heading out to Quirindi to have some time with Hubbie's family. I am looking forward to the trip over the mountain and stopping at the little town of Nundle. We will stay there for a few days then I will meet my Mum in the Hunter Valley and head over to Dubbo with her because my Grandmother turns 101 on Tuesday.


So....... with news headlines this morning that petrol has reached $1.75 per litre, you can see why I am remortgaging the house for this trip ! LOL. It will be our last for a while now. So that will allow me to lay-by the next tank of petrol for another trip.


On the home front, there has been so much happening. Once I am home I will upload a progress report, but the exciting news is that Hubbie and No2 son enjoyed two home grown tomatoes this week on their sandwich and Hubbie reported the taste as 'sensational'. So, that's good.



Signing off now......... time to fill my 1970s airpot with hot water and pack my basket with lovely home baked goodies and head off over the mountain, coasting down the other side to save petrol.

7.30.2007

A Peter Cundall Moment.



















For those of you who aren't aussies, Peter Cundall is a TV presenter of a show called Gardening Australia and he is extremely passionate about what he does. ( and I love him ! )

Well, yesterday I WAS Peter Cundall. I went to empty the food scraps and found myself yelling out " Gees I love compost. Have a look at this beautiful stuff". ( Aussies will be laughing)

It absolutely amazes me that our scraps turn into the earth.



















I have always understood this process, but the speed at which it happens just blows me away. It really moved me because I suddenly had a huge permaculture wake up call. We really need to try and move towards that idea that anything that comes into our property stays on our property and gets reused or turned into soil. Then I looked into our garbage bin and saw all the things that won't turn into soil, won't regenerate and are not cyclic in nature. The garbage bin truck came and picked those things up today and took them out of sight, but they will lay there wherever they are put forever and never return to the earth. Forever is a very long time.

So... if I was to ONLY bring things onto our property that became part of the ongoing cycle, that is used then broken down and used in another format, what would I have to STOP bring home ?
That is such a difficulty question because the answer is things like milk, margarine, etc etc.

So....... the question remains. How am I going to get rid of all this plastic. There are only so many milk bottles that you can cut up or reuse etc. I would estimate that we would use about 4 2 litre bottles a week. That's 208 bottles a year. Hmmmmm I will definitely need to start buying the three litre bottles. I will also give the whole thing a lot more thought.

Bring back the milko with the reusable glass bottles - pppllllleeeeeeaaaaaassssssseeeee

Harnessing Old Wisdom for a Fulfilling Modern Life

If you have been around here for a while, you know that I love to look to the old ways to find wisdom to apply to a modern world.   I ...