A weekend of cheese

Had a wonderful weekend down the coast at a cheese making workshop in narooma. 

A makeshift cheese press

Communities of like minded people keep you excited about living slightly outside of the norm and this was no exception. Cheese making - at least outside of a factory/needing to earn a living variety - is an activity that takes a lot of time and yet not much time at all. The cheese making process lends itself to conversation as you wait for the starter or the rennet or the draining process to do its thing! There was ample opportunity to discuss all manner of interesting topics, mostly centred around food and gardens, meals shared together and even some time for me to take a long walk on the beach before going out for dinner with new friends. 

checking the rennet has set

Over two days we made eight cheeses including feta, haloumi and Paneer, as well as yoghurt and ricotta. These are cheeses we eat very regularly, and are not cheap. I had bought a cheese making kit recently from our local amazing hardware store but had been hesitant to make some probably for fear of totally stuff it up and waste a whole lot of milk :)

It was reassuring to see how forgiving the process was, so long as everything is sterilized, you dont overheat the starter and you have good quality ingredients. 

Now looking forward to the advanced weekend later in the year when we learn to make cheddar, mozzarella and Camembert! 

A book that another course attendee had which was reccomended by our teacher Geoff Southam 

Anyone on the south coast interested in attending they have other dates for the same course at ecotel narooma - or find it on the website for small farms network

http://www.smallfarms.net.au/UpComingEvents.html

Now to eat all the samples I brought home and then decide which one to make first :)

A beautiful day! Sun + Sea + Supper

John and I went to Huskisson for a late brunch today... the water was bright blue and so beautiful, if it had been much warmer I would have been in there. Maybe I should have anyhow?

We had brunch at Pilgrims using one of our new entertainment book vouchers... very excited there's one for the south coast now, we had a beautiful breakfast looking out over Jervis bay for little more than it would have cost to make it at home, and read our favourite sections of the paper, did a little window shopping and a walk along the beach....

I love living where I do!

We stopped at the tip on the way home and picked up some iron bars to make a tripod to cook over the fire with... and some black pipe for another vege bed covering...

And my amazing husband made this for dinner... boeff bourguinonne! In the slow cooker, it was rich, delicious and tender... I made lime meringue pie with limes I picked from mum's tree when I dropped around for a cup of tea this afternoon.

We ate in front of the TV watching the movie Tintin... very enjoyable day and evening together...

Love Weekends :)

oops - set the smoke alarms off tonight :)

Cooking of course!

I found a recipe for Gozleme which is a rustic Turkish snack stuffed with silverbeet and salty feta.

I don't have silverbeet at the moment, so I used a mixture of Cavalo Nero, Mizuna and Beetroot leaves.

I found a 'good taste' magazine from last month at the op shop - so 50c instead of $4!

Gozleme:

600g plain flour

1tsp salt

410ml warm water

1/4c olive oil.

Mix til dough comes together, then knead until smooth and elastic... Recipe said for 10 mins... I learnt a new way of kneading on masterchef last week. Carefully stretch the dough out as much as you can by pulling one side toward you and pushing the other side away... then carefully roll it up. Only needed to do this about 6-8 times (less than one minute) and it was good, didn't stick to the bench at all.

Place in a bowl covered overnight if possible, or at least for the day (I mixed it up in the morning and cooked them for dinner.)

*for all the sourdough ppls out there, I actually redid recipe with sourdough - about 500g starter with 300g flour, salt and I forgot the oil, but it didn't seem to need it :)

Filling

6 cups finely shredded leaves

4 shallots finely chopped (the mini onion ones rather than the green onions)

100g ricotta

250g feta.

Mix well.

when ready to cook divide the dough into 6 portions.

One at a time roll out to a rectangle about 20x40cm

Top half the dough with the filling, leaving a 3cm border, fold the other half over and press edges together.

Recipe said to cook on flat BBQ plate on med low heat - drizzled with a little oil 5 mins or so each side... as it's wintery - cold and blowing a gale outside, I cooked on flat cast iron pan inside - which cooked really quickly - only 1-2 mins each side but well cooked inside and not burnt... although the smoke was all through the house :)

Serve cut in half with lemon or lime wedges to squeeze over!

I'm always looking for recipes using things that are in the garden - seasonal recipes...

To help this I have rearranged my recipe magazines into month by month, not worrying about what type of magazine, meaning that I can pull out all the magazines for the month I'm in a flick through to find something that I already have the ingredients for... In this recipe all I had to buy was the ricotta and the shallots. (Had some feta in the fridge already, and the limes are from my mum's garden. (Her tree gets so many there's no point planting my own tree :)

How do you plan seasonal recipes? any tips or ideas?

sourdough waffles..... delicious of course :)

I have had an old waffle iron in the shed for ages and in a recent sorting, decided to move it inside and give waffles a go.

Sourdough style of course.

They need a lot longer cooking than pancakes, but were delicious, with that crispy edge typical of waffles. The key seems to be cooking even amounts on each side and oiling between each waffle. I have a small olive oil spray that I used, but would like to try brushing oil on with a silicon brush...

But what you all want - the recipe.

Night before - one cup of starter, one cup of flour and one cup of liquid (I use whey, you can use buttermilk or water)

In the morning mix in 1/8cup oil, one egg and mix thoroughly, then add pinch of salt and 1/2tsp bicarb soda.

Cook!

I had mine with bananas and frozen yoghurt... but it was gone before I thought to take a photo loaded up :)

Have a happy day xo

We have lift off! (Rocket stove)

I had a great day at the tip on Friday, found a piece of metal I felt would be perfect for making my rocket stove work better, as previous version was not big enough and was not drawing enough oxygen to maintain fire levels.

It worked!!!!!

The pot had water and was boiling in a few minutes, frypan sizzling hot in no time at all, and seems quite easy to maintain the heat.  The only downside really is that there is little temperature control... It's hot or hot.

The basic premise as seen in the diagram below is feeding small diameter sticks into a chamber surrounded by insulation (easy to create with ash between the wall of the chamber and an external surround) The chamber allows air to flow in and burn the small diameter sticks at a high heat, creating less smoke emission and high temperature emitted through the top of the flue.

These stoves are being introduced as an alternative cooking source through africa and along with solar ovens being taken up as they require essentially scrap wood as opposed to existing charcoal stoves which need expensive and high polluting fuel

If you are interested in reading more about rocket stoves try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove

Maybe waffles on the rocket stove can be next :)

Have a happy day xo

Scrummy Muffins

Having muffins for breakfast means getting up earlier, to finish the recipe started the night before, but theres something in getting up early, seeing the sun rise. Takes 5 mins to mix and knead the dough, then you have 40 mins or so to let them rest until cooking. Lots of time that for me at least was productive time. Shower, cup of tea, quiet time, putting dishes away....

And then breakfast of an English muffin straight off the grill with butter and local honey... mmmmm

I whinged the other day that my hubby almost never picks up the camera so he insists on taking one this morning. Thanks babe.

ENGLISH MUFFINS (sourdough recipe)

The night before: combine 2 C flour, 1C water and 1C starter

Leave overnight.

In the morning put 1C starter aside to keep, mix in

1/4C milk powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

1tsp sugar

and enough flour 1/2-1C to make a dough that sticks together.

Turn onto floured surface and knead well until smooth and no longer stickly, adding more flour if needed (for 2-3 mins.) Flour generously and roll to 1/2inch thickness. cut out with drinking glass about 7-8cm diameter. Place on parchment or silicon baking sheet sprinkled with polenta. Sprinkle more polenta on top.  (Should get about 16 muffins from this recipe)

Leave to rise, covered in a warm place at lease half an hour.

Cook muffins kind of like a pancake, in lightly greased pan - cast iron is best for this if available.

7-8mins on low-med heat (I set the timer and get other things done while waiting.

Have a happy day xo

another use for milk - cheese

My work has started getting milk delivered.

Problem is not everyone looks at the dates before they open the next bottle of milk...

Problem?

There were three unopened 2L bottles of milk at work today that were out of date...

So I thought I'd make cheese - Ricotta cheese is one of the most easy things to make in the world.

1. Put milk in a clean saucepan

2. Heat up to lukewarm

3. Put some lemon juice/vinegar - or as I tried tonight some junket or vegetarian rennet in the milk, stir then let the curds form (the white lumpy stuff in the photo below)

My experience is that with acids - like juice and vinegar - the curds are lumpy

With the rennet it formed a huge curd, which I then cut with a long knife into inch sized cubes and stirred while warm

4. use a slotted spoon to scoop the curds out into a colander (mine is one that was one that a large round of ricotta came in - so gets the perfect lines as seen in the next photo that is on the ricotta you purchase at the supermarket.)

5. Let it drain

6. If you want to you can use the whey for breadmaking, the yeast loves the protein in it.

 

I think Ricotta and spinach something is in order for dinner tomorrow night.

Have a Happy Day xo

Lots happening at the farm... all 1/8 of an acre of it :)

I am loving having a strong set of arms (belong to my husband) who is happy to dig holes, move heavy things and is currently installing my fence between the lawn area and the vege garden area. All the posts are in now, just need two more recycled hardwood rails - from my BIL who is renovating his and my sister's house and ripped out some walls.

I have been busy in the kitchen...

Sourdough english muffins for breakfast this morning...

Sundried tomato and olive sourdough loaf....

And exciting to be bottling the first produce entirely from the garden! 4 size 20 jars of yummy rhubarb. I was given the plants from a special friend who was killed in a freak car accident shortly afterward and they are very special to me. This year I divided most of the original plants and they are doing so well. I always make sure I leave two leaves and one baby leaf on each plant when I am picking it.

Sourdough loaf (you need starter from a friend or watch multitudes of youtube videos on how to grow your own.

Feed your starter with a flour/water mix the night before

Before work the next morning....

1 cup starter

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar or honey (only if going to be a fruit loaf)

I put all these in a mixer with a dough hook and then add plain flour (mix of regular and wholemeal) until dough forms a lump and comes away from the sides.
Then place dough - still a bit sticky - in an oiled bowl and turn a few times to coat in oil (stops it drying out) Put the whole bowl in a plastic shopping bag and leave all day.

When you get home from work.

Tip dough (should have about doubled in size) onto well floured bench.

For a plain loaf - knead a minute or two then put in loaf tin

for a fruit loaf - knead a minute then use fingers to spread dough out into a rectangle. Sprinkle mixed fruit (I am using sultanas/raisings and dried plums at the moment) and 1 tsp mixed spice onto the bread, then fold it over and knead the fruit through a little. Place in loaf tin.

For a savoury loaf. Do the same but use sundried tomatoes and olives (no pits) chopped roughly and I use mixed italian herb sprinkle too. Place in loaf tin.

Leave for 1-2 hrs. (I have noticed that there is a warm spot just in front of my oven... not sure why, but tins go there while oven heats up)

Bake in a hot oven 200-220'c for 30-35 mins

Should pop out of tin straight away.

(loaves can also be made freeform on a pizza stone)

delicious toasted.... just had two slices of fruit toast to prove it.

Anyone have any other interesting sourdough recipes

Hannah xo

learning new skills

A year or two ago I bought some cake decorating equipment at a garage sale. My grandma has a history of beautiful cake decorating, equisite fine lacework and my parents wedding cake (in fact every wedding cake of my aunts and uncles) my dedication cake and other special events were all celebrated with cakes she had made.

Today I spent the morning with a friend from church learning and experimenting with how to use some of the equipment I had purchased. These are the piped butter icing cakes, a sunflower, a flower and a swirl. Then we played with fondant, and I made a rose and a carnation. Amy my friend has attended two short courses and then taught herself the rest, and is very inspiring. She was very impressed with the supplies I had bought... and it may have inspired her to start attending garage sales :)

I had one of the cakes for afternoon tea with a cup of earl gray, and it was very nice.

Then while I listened to a uni lecture, I made cassoulet - I have been wanting to make this since we ordered it on our honeymoon in july and it was delicious, both then and now. I roasted vegetables to go with it, and the sage, leeks, kale, potatoes and sweet potatoes were from my garden! And served with my sourdough bread... The proportion of food from the garden is steadily increasing...

I didn't find this recipe on any of the websites, but the place we went served the dish with an amazing crumb, reminded me of farofa from brasil. The chef told me it was almond meal and sage in olive oil.

My version of sage crumb
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup almond meal
1 clove garlic crushed
small bunch sage leaves finely chopped
s and p
2 tbsp olive oil

Lightly cook garlic in oil then add other ingredients, turning to coat crumb with oil and prevent burning. Ready when fragrant and lightly brown. Serve generously sprinkled over cassoulet

Speaking of the garden, yesterday I visited a gardening friend and came away with a plum tree sucker I had been wanting ever since eating the fruit of one of the other trees, a fig tree, warrigal greens, leeks, carrot seedlings, mint, currant bushes, turnips, and land cress. Everything seems to be growing well, and the bunnies are enjoying the pepino leaves she picked for them.

ferment and family

I got a wonderful gift from a colleague at work - some sourdough starter. Her sister has had this one going for almost a year, and got it from someone else before that so I have no idea how old it is.
It was not very exciting looking when I picked it up, murky white underneath, with watery liquid on top, and faint bubbles coming through, a bit of a beery smell....

I quickly did some research on tending for my new aquisition and headed home to feed it... after a while it started to respond, as you can see in this photo, full of bubbles - a sign that it is alive and well, as the yeast and bacteria eat their way through the new flour.
I divided the starter and with some started making pancakes for the morning, and with the other fed it and in the morning, mixed up dough for a loaf of bread. The pancakes were amazing.

Recipe:
1/2-1 cup starter
mix with one cup flour and one cup water
Leave overnight

In the morning mix in one egg
2tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

It's ready to cook, they were lovely, thick and moist with lots of bubbles. Delicious with fruit and yoghurt, or jam/syrup

The bread was delicious too... I will post recipe and photos soon.....

Also had a lovely time on father's day at local cafe with my dad, siblings and some partners. My nephew was only a few weeks old last father's day. He's a toddler now and thinks he's very grown up

Garden Lovers Fair and hummus recipe

Last sunday I woke up, looked outside and felt a sigh of relief as I saw the sun. It was the sunday of the Garden Lover's Fair, annual fundraiser of our permaculture group, and the weather can be quite changeable at this time of year and the fair is amazing, the biggest collection of plant growers, seeds, garden supplies on the south coast, and this year we increased the focus on food products and sustainable living.

I spent a lot of time on the gate, and behind the permaculture stand, answering questions about growing food, living sustainably, meeting times etc, and eventually found some time to have a wander around, buy my spring seedlings (there's a store that does pick your own punnet - so I got a punnet with 2 each of tomato, capsicum and eggplant, and one with different herbs and some red onions.

Also got a strawberry guava and a lillipilli (native food producing plant) which I'm going to plant in my neighbours yard ( we have a hold in the fence so I can get in to water and harvest) and an orchid I have been wanting to get for a while... I then texted my hubby to say thankyou to him for buying me such a lovely gift.

One of the highlights was the cooking demonstrations that were put on by www.ifeelgood.com.au with a vege tagine, hummus and salad. I went home and made the salad and hummus monday night, and it was amazing...

1 tin of chickpeas drained

1/4 cup tahini (ground sesame seeds)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic

salt

Put all in a food processor and start it, slowly adding water to the mix until it is a smooth consistency and able to be poured (like thick cream)

Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika and served with flatbread to dip.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter Long Weekend

Spent the long weekend at Colo River, just north of Windsor (Northwest Sydney) My mum and I have a share in a holiday park there that's a bit like timeshare but better. We pay an annual fee and get 2 weeks minimum of school holiday time plus can go any other time it's available. I had it booked for easter and had the most amazing week. I had friends come and stay with me, but also made some great friendships with the other people staying who are also shareholders.

Most people ate communally, cooking food on the barbeques and eating at large picnic tables, I think we only cooked one meal inside our cabin, the rest were all outdoor meals... delicious
I have found myself cooking on the Barbeque more since the weekend.

Fun kayaking, meeting a yoga swami living on the river and doing bush regeneration, playing cards, a little bit of study, a lot of fun.

On the last night my two gorgeous cousins came to stay and we had a lot of fun, watching 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' on the outdoor big screen, kayaking, finding eels and lots of laughs.

Just what I needed to end a lovely holiday...

Kim Chee - a first experiment in fermenting.

Femented foods are very healthy for us, and were the original way of preserving food, as well as brine/salt preserving and drying.

Examples of some fermented foods are wine, vinegar, kombucha, tofu, miso, saurkraut, pickles.

Kim chee is the asian version of saurkraut and is really easy to make. I've had a recipe for ages and this week made my first batch. I got this recipe from Kendra Jane, who blogs at A sonoma Garden

She has the most beautiful photos and lots of posts with recipes and ideas.

1 head Napa cabbage, cored and shredded

1 bunch of green onions, chopped

1 cup carrots, grated

1/2 cup daidon radish, grated

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes

1 tablespoon sea salt

4 tablespoons whey* (or use additional 1 T salt instead)

Place vegetables, ginger, red chili flakes, salt and whey in a bowl and pound it with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer to release juices. (See picture of my kimchee mid mashing)

Place them in two quart sized glass jars and press down firmly until all the juices come up to the top and cover the vegetables. The top of the vegetables should be at least an inch from the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days at which time you can put it in the fridge or cold storage.

I only made a half quantity, and was very relaxed with the amounts of different vegetables. I don't think it will really matter. It's sitting on my kitchen bench fermenting away, and tomorrow it will be ready to taste and then refrigerate!

Kendra jane explains that you can get whey by draining a quart of yogurt (make sure it contains the good bacteria-we use Pavels) through a clean dishtowel for a few hours. If you do this overnight you’ll end up with more than 4 tablespoons, but it will keep in the fridge for up to 6 months. And you’ll also end up with yogurt cheese as a by product, which is delicious and makes a great alternative to cream cheese

I have also in the past gotten whey from making ricotta cheese which I have posted about here.

I also use the whey in my breadmaking, it adds extra protein which is good for the bread dough and for you!

I'll let you know how it tastes tomorrow! Ps, the onions, garlic and daikon radish were all from my garden!

Homemade Ricotta - simply

Cheesemaking has always been on my list of things to do, and yet seemed scary with thermometers, tools, special things to add that you had to buy from victoria.....

When I saw this simple recipe for making ricotta on a blog that I follow (and forgive me because I can't even remember which one) I knew I had no more excuses. It looked too easy to stuff up.

1. Get milk. put it in a clean pot and heat. As soon as it starts to froth (but before it boils) cut off the heat if using gas, or take off the heat if electric.

2. Add one tablespoon of acid (either lemon juice or vinegar) per one litre of milk. Stir.

Within seconds this was what I saw in the pot. The curds (clumps of cheese) and whey (liquid) had separated and it looked a bit like off milk. funny that.

3. Get a strainer and line with cheesecloth, or if you're doing this after a meeting at 10pm at night and only the supermarket is open - a couple of chux type cloths.

This is what mine looked like before I poured the stuff in.

4. use a pot or bowl to collect the liquid that pours off. It's still very good for you. I used some that night to make up some bread and froze the rest for another batch in place of water.

5. Tie up the cloth around a wooden spoon so the mixture drains. Allegedly the more whey that is drained off, the longer it will last.

And this is the end result - Ricotta Cheese! I did it, and it was delicious. I put it in the yummy ricotta pancakes from Stephanie Alexander's kitchen garden book. Went down a treat.

If you've got some milk that's nearing the use by date. You know what to do!

Nowra Show

Look at what I won. I entered a bunch of stuff in the show, some preserves, some craft, my famous bread and some things from the garden. Came away with a bunch of certificates and some prize money.

I have to make a confession, that the weekend of the show was such a heatwave that I didn't actually go. I will next year I promise.

One of the most exciting things was that as I was picking everything up the president of the show society, said to me that the entries in the produce (aka vege) section were of a very high standard and that the awards I won were well deserved. How cool is that.

I entered some of the items in the weaving because I'm a member of the spinners and weavers, and won a second for a scarf, didn't expect that as it was the first thing I ever wove.

I was excited I won the prizes in the vege section (first for collection of herbs, seconds for pumpkin 10-15 cm diameter and for runner beans) because I want people to see that you can grow things of good quality in the home garden. Yeah. Hoping to enter (and win) even more next year!

B is for Bread

I have been wanting to start baking my own bread for a while, but the whole hours of work and kneading was not the most appealing thing in the world.

So when I came across the idea of no-knead bread with next to no effort involved, just a bit of time to do all the work, I had to give it a go. I found this website to be the most helpful, as it explains the why not just the how.

Basically put 3 cups plain flour, (I have been using 2 cups no-name and one cup of wholemeal organic flour) 1.5-2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp dried yeast in a bowl and mix. Now add 1.5 cups water and mix (I find I have to add just a bit more water to make it all come together. It should be sticky to touch, with no dry bits of flour left.

Cover this with gladwrap and leave overnight (I do the first step before going to bed at night, it takes less than 5 mins)

Optional step - in the morning get a spoon and beat the mixture down before covering again. Last loaf I made I forgot to do this and it had no discernable impact on the loaf.

The Yeast doing all the work

The following evening I heat up my baking dish - a rectangular cast iron casserole dish in a very hot oven, around 250 degrees celcius. It must be a dish with a lid. Initially I used two smaller dishes, hence the two loaves below, but now am just using one larger one, it's about 4 litres in size I'm guessing.

While that heats, I shake flour over the dough in the bowl, use a wooden spoon to pull it away from the sides and then tip it out onto a floured piece of baking paper. I roll it around a little to ensure that the whole loaf is floured and then when the dish is hot I flop the lot into it, cover and leave in the oven 30 mins.

Using the lid creates a steam like effect, that gives you a loaf like a bread artisan would make. After 30 mins take the lid off and cook for a further 15-20 mins at the same heat. Tip it out onto a wooden board, and listen to the crust crackle as it cools. It will be hard to wait, but if you can leave it for at least an hour it will be the best loaf you've ever eaten. Delicious plain, toasted, with oil and dukkah....oh the possibilities.

Loaves just out of the oven. (Can you hear them crackle)

Just looking at them is making me hungry, oh and the fact that it's lunch time

And this is the inside of a loaf. We have a woodfired sourdough place that sells loaves which don't taste much different to these for 6-7 dollars a piece. I reckon this one costs under a dollar and takes about 15 mins maximum time to make (plus 24 hours where you are not involved.)

I gave Allison some last night, and she said it was amazing. So amazing that she doesn't want the recipe, she just wants me to make it for her. Anyhow, hope some of you try it out. It really is failsafe. Well so far at least, and i'm on my third loaf and more coming!

100 foot salad

Took this photo as a joke, but really like it.

This salad is almost all from my garden (Beetroot from a friend's garden and potato was bought)

But the ingredients that didn't travel were...

Lettuce (two varieties)

rocket

celery

broad beans

mint

dill

coriander

chives

mizuna

eggs

And it really was delicious, and lasted well, I had the leftovers for lunch today (two days later) and still crisp and fresh and yummy.

A very Gardening Saturday

I had a wonderful weekend, visiting some friends (and their gardens).

Firstly thankyou to Sue, who came and found me at the Markets so that I could come visit her. Sue and I are both part of Aussies living simply, and it was great to meet her and her husband and see their garden and their home.

They have the most amazing stockpile, inside they have dried foods (they have adapted fowlers jars to vacuum seal their dried fruits and veges) bulk rice, groceries etc. They have bulk wheat which they grind themsleves for bread and scones in an electric mill. Under the house is the cellar with the bottled food.

They had a shed which they lived in while building their house, this was the preserving area, with converted shelves to hold hundreds of bottling jars, fowlers and pressure canning units, dryers and more.

Then the garden, which was full of food. They grow much more than they can eat and give the surplus to the local meals on wheels group. Her husband has a shed full of old engines and toys. I was so impressed I almost asked if they would adopt me. :)

Sue's Stockpile. Fruit, veges and soups. (She can bottle veges and meat as she has an american pressure canner, which can cook foods at much higher temperatures.

Sue's Garden, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, onions, broad beans. She has runs for the chooks, areas for berries that is netted in and an orchard.

What an inspiration! When I grow up I want to be like her.

Also on Saturday I went to Feedback, a gardening group based in Nthn Shoalhaven. They were wording on establishing a permaculture garden at a rural property that had recently been completed.

There was a large group, adults and children, and the garden was almost done by the time I arrived with my gift of banana trees and lebanese cress for the garden. We finished up the work and then went for a bushwalk.

The creek we crossed to enter the property, there was a causeway to get over.

The landscape was a mix of open paddocks and pristine rainforest. Some of the group are keen bushcare volunteers and were pointing out plants and picking up weeds to destry.

Imagine this for a view out your loungeroom window!

And sunsets like these....

Tempting, but I do love my house, and my crazy community.

After the walk we had a pot luck dinner, delicious with homemade sushi, dolmades, salads and curries. Thanks Janet for inviting me, I'll definately be coming back!

Lastly, I'll add in a photo from Sunday...

I went to my workmate's for lunch and after we ate, her husband decided to sew a cover for his new camera lens, I couldn't resist a photo!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hannah

Independance Days Challenge Update

Planted: Eggplant, tomatoe, chamomile, oregano, banana passionfruit, lemon grass, strawberries and corn.

Harvested: Broad Beans, spinach, strawberry (just one so far) salad, snowpeas and herbs

Preserved: Lemon Butter, Pasta Sauce.

Stored: Local Cheese - (Disappearing quickly) Seeds, Woodchip mulch

Managed: Spread Woodchip mulch in chook run in anticipation of the return of the chickens

Prepped: Planted more seeds - and potted up volunteer tomatoes seedlings to give away/plant.

Advocated for local food economy: Followed up all the people who signed up for permaculture network, and having our first meeting at the end of October!!!!.

Reduced waste: Compost, church scraps, mum's scraps, Neighbours scraps.

Cooked something new: Broad Beans! Loved them. Steamed then mixed with a little butter with pasta, baby beets and wilted spinach. Mmmm

Easy Dinner with friends

I had Allison over for dinner Friday night and was inspired by Melinda to bake dinner.

If I remember rightly this has onion, garlic, potato, sweet potato, turnip, carrot, beetroot, brussels sprouts, capsicum, beans, mushrooms, parsley and beef in it. The root veges went in first after being salted peppered and olive oiled and the others followed about 20 mins later. One pot dish, and it was delicious. served it on cous cous and had leftovers to take to work.

We then settled in to watch a movie, of course we needed hot chocolates with marshmallows (Allison likes to pose :)

And also this weekend we tried to make caramel chocolate tarts. I think we didn't cook the shells long enough, and possibly the recipe called for more butter than it actually needed. I'll try again soon, it was still delicious.