...Reading the rain guage: 7.5mm yesterday.
...Some light gardening (staking the eggplants and capsicums, planting out two Aunt Molly Ground Cherries) until I noticed another Very Large Spider on a leaf nearby (a species of Scarethecrapoutofme bigtime, commonly known as a Garden Orb-Weaver) and abandoning it in favour of a cup of tea from the relative safety of inside the house.
...Where I later killed a Redback spider in the walk-in-wardrobe.
...And wondered why I live in Australia.
Picking: Silverbeet, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, my first leeks of the season (yum!) and the first apple on the dwarf Anna apple. As you can see, after the rain in the last week, it has started to split on top like the one I picked off the Tropic Sweet apple tree, d'oh. I cut the split bit off and ate the rest: it needed a couple more weeks on the tree as it was very tart, more's the pity. I have one remaining apple on the tree (which is huge!), so fingers crossed that I can baby it along for another few weeks to see what the real flavour is like.
Making: Mulberry muffins. Starting another ginger beer plant; I don't know what I did wrong that made the last two stop fermenting, but I started this one last night and it smells a bit vinegary this morning already, so fingers crossed this one is OK, or there won't be any ginger beer for Christmas, LOL.
Dinner: Zucchini and leek gratin, baked kipfler potatoes and salad. Using homegrown zucchini, leeks, potatoes, green onions, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, homemade cheese and bread(crumbs), with a little bought milk, flour and spices. Not bad for a city chick, huh?
Reading: Clare Snow's post about Thai prawns. Apart from the production of cocoa and coffee in Africa, I hadn't given too much thought before now to human exploitation in the production of food, but it's pretty obvious isn't it, when you think about it. Like consumer goods, if it has been carted half way across the world and it still seems incredibly cheap, then someone else has paid the difference for you; usually those who can least afford it.
Utilities: Gas 34.7 MJ/day; water 357 L/day; electricity 12.9 kWh/day.
Contemplating: Forking out for arachnophobia-curing hypnosis sessions.
7 comments:
Mulberry muffins, yum!!
Do you have a Dorsett Golden apple? They're delish and where I live they seemed to fruit better than the red ones .(It had just started fruiting when we sold the house, aaargghh!!) We haven't gotten around to buying more apple trees yet, but I've been eyeing some off at Daley's nursery.
Apart from the spider explosion isn't the rain great? I don't know about you but we actually have a lawn!
Regards,
Shell.
I bet you really enjoyed that "home made" dinner. Well done Julie. :-)
Hi Shell,
No I don't have a Golden Dorsett... yet! It's definitely on my "list", although I've no clue wher to put the ones I already have, LOL. I might have to dig out the Murraya hedge along the back fence! I try not to persuse Daley's website too much, it's all just *too* tempting :-) And yes, the rain really *is* lovely. I've gone from wanting to rip the entire lawn out to actually admiring how nice it looks at the moment :-)
Polly, it was delish! Even DH commented that it was the nicest vegetarian meal he's had.
Cheers, Julie
I hate spiders too!
I am trying out a 'no plant' ginger beer recipe from the Hardtimes Handbook at the moment. I bottled the mix this morning and must let it sit for four days before I'll know whether it worked. I'll post the recipe in a few days if successful.
hugs,
Kate
The rain here in Melb yesterday was simply awesome!
Yep we got the 8 legged freaks happening here too, tho the cats keep the numbers down lol.
For hard to find heritage apples, try Badgers Keep in Chewton,Vic.Couldn't find a website for them, just an article here
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1659669.htm
The dinner menu sounds delicious, well done for making us all drool on our keyboards lol.
Off to read about Thai prawns, thanks for the link.
Hi Kate,
I came across a "no-plant" ginger beer recipe a few weeks ago but haven't tried it yet, I'll be interested to see how yours goes :-)
Hi Jayne,
Oooh, thanks for the link :-) Glad to hear you got some nice rain too, doesn't it smell great?
Cheers, Julie
That gratin sounds delicious. I wish I could taste it.
I picked all my apricots yesterday (well, all 9 of them) because their skins were bursting from the rain too. The ants were getting in the cracks so it was time to bring them indoors.
Kate
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