Sowing Seed or Planting:
Sowing: ... Lettuce (a random mix of purple oak leaf, cos verdi, cos freckles, green oak leaf and Flame), beetroot Chiogga and Burpees' Golden, radish White Icicle and Easter Egg, Amaranth and Nasturtiums.
Planting: ... A black passionfruit vine (DH attached some trellis to the kiwifruit gazebo for me), four Sweet capsicum seedlings, five Lebanese cucumbers and three Pink Brandywine tomato seedlings, a sage plant and vietnamese mint.
Harvesting: Grapes, one rockmelon, cucumbers, button squash, kale, silverbeet, cherry tomatoes, beans, and herbs.
Planning for the Future:
* Beginning an intense investigation of local food producers in my area, something I really need to work on in "localising" our diet.
* Continuing to meal plan and try to incorporate new-to-me ingredients.
* Organising where to plant out my new banana tree and tea Camellia's.
* Researching the best small varieties of bamboo to grow in our garden, to harvest for use around the house and garden in future (e.g. for pea and bean trellises) .
Working for the Future:
* In the process of moving and organising my computer workstation and crafting areas (and trying to incorporate them into the one cupboard - yikes!).
* Made and froze more chicken stock.
* Collected cucumber and tomato seeds.
* Chitting potatoes for a late experimental planting.
Building community:
* Talking to my daughter's preschool director about setting up a worm farm.
* Another box of goods donated to my local charity store.
* Freecycling a few items we no longer need, and gratefully receiving a new worm farm for use at the preschool.
* Agreeing to babysit for a girlfriend going back to work as a relief teacher on the Tuesdays when she is working (changing nappies again, sigh).
Learn a new skill:
* Learning to bake free-form loaves with the Artisan Bread book.
* Experimenting with different ways of popping Amaranth grains (I don't recommend an air popper: half flies everywhere and the other half burns).
* Brewing beer at home: I set up my first trial run with the second-hand kit I bought last year.
Caveat: I used an out-of-date tin of "Mexican cerveza" beer which the owner had thrown in with the kit, brewing sugar instead of the sugar recommended on the tin (because I couldn't find it at the shops) and I realised at the last minute that the package of yeast had been removed from inside the lid of the tin, so I used my own dry yeast! Who knows if it will work, but surely it will be good enough to make pizza dough, if nothing else?
9 comments:
Wow, you've been busy!
I'd be interested to hear what you find in the way of local food. I don't know of much near here except milk, but that is probably just my own ignorance :-).
I've got the exact same fermenter. I made the beer that came with the kit, and it was good, but since then I've been using it for (alcoholic) ginger beer. Very nice. I also just bottled up a rhubarb champagne I fermented in it, but it needs more time before it's drinkable. It's a really beautiful soft pink colour, so it'll have looks if nothing else!
Hi Darren,
I've only just started researching local food and I am quite surprised at what is being produced around here! ("Here" being the Hunter Valley). The problem for me is that it is commonly either boutique/ gourmet sales (so not widely available) or gets shipped to Sydney to be distributed to organic shops.
Ooh, rhubarb champagne! We don't drink much beer so half the reason I bought the kit was to try my hand at fruit wines at some stage, so I'll be keen to see how your champagne goes :-)
Cheers, Julie
Well done with the chicken stock. That would be fantastic.
I've been making ginger beer from scratch (instead of those kit-form cans), and it's great.
The problem with the kit stuff is that they use artificial sweeteners (aspartame etc) to make the drink sweeter. They don't use sugar, because the yeast will eat it all. I hate the artificial sweeteners - they leave a metallic taste in my mouth. Plus they're really bad for you.
Hi Linda,
It beats the bought stuff hands down doesn't it?
Hi Darren,
I didn't know you could get kit-form ginger beer until recently - seems odd to me as it's so easy to brew by yourself? I use dried ginger root I grew myself and there's no comparison to bought ginger, the flavour is unreal! Ive just started using treacle instead of sugar and the flavour is so mellow and rounded :-)
Erk, artificial sweeteners - do you mean they are used in ALL beers, or just the beer-kit ginger beer? I won't be making any more beer from cans if they contain aspartame etc!
Cheers, Julie
@Julie: As far as I know, all the commercial home-brew ginger beer kits use artificial sweeteners. I've been to specialty brewing shops, and none of them know of one without. Beer is probably OK since they don't feel the need to sweeten it - it's ginger beer that has this problem.
I've been making ginger beer with bought fresh ginger (which I run through the food processor), lemons (rind and juice), raw sugar (similar to your treacle, it's more mellow and full-bodied than white sugar), cream of tartar and yeast.
I'm going to play with some more recipes I found recently that used molasses. They sound really nice.
I love your blog. You do what I'd love to do and am working towards. We're in the process of moving to Australia and when we get there I want to grow as much fruit and veg as I can. My dream too is of a bit of land with chickens, veg plot, cow etc.....one day it'll come true. I know that we'll be living in suburbia for the time being so I'll have to make do. I'll keep getting inspiration from your blog and in a few months will be posting on our efforts to be greener in Australia. Thanks for a inspirational blog. xxsx
I hope the beer works out. If it is not good for anything else, it really boosts compost. I have used a dud batch in our heap before and it really took off.
Hi Alex,
Thank you for the positive words, I love encouragement too :-) I hope your move goes smoothly!
Hi Tracy,
Ah, so if nothing else it's a good compost booster LOL! Thanks for the tip :-)
Cheers, Julie
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