33/52 - Gardens

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Matilda: She is creating a garden of her own to make the cubby look beautiful. Chook dirt added, some 'huge' worms lovingly found, fondled and hidden back beneath the soil. The flowers are the important bit, along with the worms, maybe we will throw a few bulbs in somewhere too.

Orlando: He is creating a garden of his own, to have control over what is planted. Plants are chosen with great care, tags read, depth measured to perfection, spacing even and ordered. Worms are noted, observed and left to their devices. There is much anticipation as to what will be and how big things will grow.

Pair: Playing music is a big thing in our house hold at the moment. These two have always been drawn to the piano - at the moment there is a lot of collaboration in their masterpieces.

Joining with Jodi

Native Folk

As I have mentioned a few times before, my children are chronic collectors. They find treasure everywhere they go and fill their pockets (my bag) with all of the must have souvenirs. 

I love that our children see treasure and beauty in the natural world... we just need to find a way to channel the 'goods' that are lovingly brought into our home.

So when we came across this book... we were inspired to use some of our treasures. In fact we were so inspired we spent 2 more days out bush walking, collecting even more treasures with vision.

I LOVE that resources from the natural world a completely free. All they require is for you to step out of your door and open your eyes. We found some really interesting things on the nature strip!

This afternoon was a 'Craft-a-noon' at our place and the whole family sat and created. A world of Native Folk, out of our treasures. 

All we needed was the natural resources we had collected and a hot glue gun (I LOVE HOT GLUE GUNS)

We had a lot of fun, here are our first attempts :)

46/52 - Cherry Harvest

The first year we moved into our house we planted lots of fruit trees. Finally after many years we are now getting harvests that require the whole family to help :) Yesterday we harvested 5 kg of cherries! YUM!

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Matilda: I think Matilda ate far more than she put in the bowl :)

Orlando: Is very serious about his food growing. He carefully protects things from the birds and weighs how much he harvests. He was rather proud of the 5 kg tub we collected.

32/52

1 day off a week late!! Opps!

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013"

Matilda: Fire-gal Tilly... she was in heaven and fascinated by the force of the water.

Orlando: "Mum why can't we cook more things from our garden?" .... me -"well we need to look after it more if we want things to grow..." .... Ollie - "Well I'm going to investigate it and see what help it needs! Tilly I need an assistant!"

Grapefruit Gratitude

On my trip to Italy, way back in 2005, when my dear friend Wenone and I walked to the top of Mt Vesuvius, I tried my first shot of Limoncello. We purchased it from this souvenir shop right next to the volcanic crater.. crazy I know! But YUMMMMM!! This drink became a celebratory shot for the rest of the holiday. I grew rather fond of it and brought a number of bottles home with me. I had heard it was quite easy to make, but had not had a lemon crop worthy of the effort.

After returning from our recent holiday, our grapefruit tree was heavy with its first ever crop. 25 beautiful big grapefruits. Our citrus trees were some of the first we planted in out garden, I love them. They are evergreen, lush looking and have the most divine sent when in flower. I ADORE the sent of Neroli and can often be seen with my head in the flowering tree, breathing deeply. Not to mention the delicious and versatile fruit!

My Mum who has inherited many citrus trees, with the purchase of their property exclaimed "GRAPEFRUIT! Why would you plant that! Your can't even give them away!" I was determined to show her that I would use them... and use them ALL.

 

Then and idea hit me! Could I make Limoncello using Grapefruits? I turned to my trusty friend Google and set about re-searching. I came across this great Blog who had exactly what I was after.

 

Now in Australia it is very hard and at times impossible to get 150 proof alcohol, so I settled with 50% (100 proof) vodka - I can hear the fundamentalists cringing at me already ,but hey I wanted to give it a go :)

 

So here is how I made Pompelmocello!

 

Pompelmocello (Grapefruit Liqueur)

 

 

10 large organic grapefruit

1.5L of 50% Vodka

3 cups Water

1 1/2 cups Castor Sugar

 

* Remove peel from clean grapefruits, taking care to avoid as much pith (white stuff) as possible as this will make it bitter.

* Place in a clean and airtight jar and cover with Vodka.

* Leave in a cool and dark place for over a month 40ish days (a good hint I read somewhere was that if the peel can fold in half completely without snapping it is ready to go!)
* Shake every week or so.





*  Once ready, Strain and let drain (over a bowl dont waste the good stuff :))
* Heat sugar and water in a saucepan and simmer until all sugar is dissolved.









* Cool syrup and mix with vodka.









* Bottle, chill and ENJOY!

 

 I was amazed at how well this turned out and just how DELICIOUS it was!

Just in time for the silly season....

 

 

 Now before, I said I was going to use ALL of the Grapefruit, so here is how I used the rest!

 

Grapefruit and Ginger Cordial

 

 6 Cups of Grapefruit Juice

3 Cups Castor Sugar

1.5 Cups of Water

3 t of Citric Acid

(Optional, will make it last longer)

2 thumb sized pieces of Ginger

(Optional and vary depending on how much you like Ginger )

 

* Juice grapefruits and sieve to remove any solids.

* Add Sugar and Water and heat.

* Once sugar is all dissolved, add ginger in thick slices and boil for 15/20 mins until it starts to thicken slightly.

* Take off heat, stir in Citric Acid.

* Strain and pour into clean and sterile bottles.

*Refrigerate or Freeze depending on how fast you will use it... apparently it last for up to 3 months in the fridge, I have never had one go off but it has never lasted 3 months!!

 

We enjoyed ours with soda water and a little mint but I think it would also be delicious as a mixer for alcoholic drinks. Very summer-y and refreshing.





Well other than the pith we have managed to use every skeric of grapefruit and our taste buds have enjoyed every bit of it! We are already eagerly anticipating next years harvest...

 

Spring Planting....

We love our Vegetable Garden. Different years have greatly different results depending on the climate and our energy levels.Some years we are rather competent and attentive and this is rewarded with a close to self-sufficient veggie patch. Other years we are less attentive and have very little to show for it.

We plant much later than most, mainly because we find that seedlings planted into warm soil hit the ground growing... rather than needing to survive the cold before they grow. Also in Canberra we can have very late frosts so it is always a gamble as to when they are over. We have come to plan around Melbourne Cup Day being a safe time to plant.

Our garden is a whole family affair. I find that the more the kids are involved the more they are likely to eat the vegetables that are presented on their plate. 

I am hopeful and slightly optimistic that this is a year of growth for us all, and that the garden will be rewarded with attentiveness, which in return will reward us with delicious organic vegetables.

With our veggie patch re-fertilised and doubled in size, we set out to the nursery to select this years crop. Ideally I would LOVE to be growing all of our veg from seeds, but this requires me to be even more attentive, and I have not yet got to that place :) We often save our seeds but are not yet dedicated enough to do this productively. The kids love picking the tomato varieties for the year and love all the different names they have. They also join in the discussions about vegetable selections... should we try yellow zucchini this year or stick with the tried and true black jacks? What type of onions are on the menu? Do we want real spinach or just silver beet  What colour carrots do we enjoy? This year we selected: kent pumpkins, beans, snow peas, more strawberries, Lebanese cucumbers, black jack zucchinis, spinach, rainbow chard, 4 types of cherry tomatoes, 4 types of big tomatoes  HEAPS of Basil, lettuce sweet potato (trial) and a mixed bag of carrots. We also choose nasturtiums as our edible flower to welcome bees into our garden.

This year the kids did all the planting and I acted only as a foreman. I delighted in hearing Orlando teach Matilda how to care for and plant the seedlings. His instructions were "Squeeze the tub... but not too much... support the stem in your fingers... turn it upside down... and then take the pot off.... now the fun bit.... tickle the roots and make the plant happy.... if you laugh too it works better.... now put the happy plant in the hole... make sure it is up straight and not falling over.... and cover it with the dirt like a blanket... remember you don't like a blanket over your head and neither does the plant, so just around its bottom and legs, which is the roots.... push it down tight so it is cosy and give it a kiss with water, but not too much .... then we wait before we can eat it..."

Don't think I could have put it better myself....

Now to do the waiting part... remember to kiss it with water regularly and see how we go....

How is your garden growing this season? Hopeful?

Preperation Harvest

As the frosts disappear and the kitchen mayhem settles we are looking outside again and preparing out veggie gardens for their summer plantings. I am always a bit latter than most with my plantings but come from the philosophy that when the soil has really warmed up, plants can hit the ground growing, instead of having to wait a month for the soil to warm.

So this weekend we are preparing for planting. We have re fertilised (thanks chooks) and cleared the winter crops. I always hate pulling out veggies that have gone to seed as it feels like such a waste. I know I could save my seeds but we have a bucket load already and last crop wasn't the best as we were away for 2 months of it.

This year I decided to deal with the pull out guilt by using all that I could of what I was pulling out. Mainly I was able to harvest coriander, kale, rainbow chard (silver beet) and onions.

Here is how I used them!

Kale and Spinach Chips

I was having morning tea with a friend the other day when their child pulled out some green 'chips'. I had heard of Kale Chips but this was not Kale... Upon asking I found out that they use all sorts of green leaves to make their 'chips'. Beetroot leaves, spinach, broccoli and kale! So, I heard a little about the process and put it loosely in the memory bank for later.

Today's harvest inspired me to retrieve that memory and put it to use.

Ingredients
Edible green leaves
olive oil
garlic
sesame seeds
salt

Method
- Wash and dry all the leaves
- Remove strong inner 'spine'
- Roughly tear into 5 cm 'chips' (they shrink A LOT)
- 'Dress' with a little dash or olive oil a good sprinkle of sesame seeds and 2 cloves of garlic
- Lay baking paper on some large trays and spread the leaves out
- Bake in a 150 C oven for about 20 mins, mixing and re spreading once or twice until crisp
- Add salt if desired

YUMM!!







Coriander Pesto

Coriander grows like a weed at our house. We planted it once and let it go to seed (as it often bolts quite quickly when planted as a seedling). We let these seeds to their thing and didn't pull the plant out it naturally died and rotted. I must have spread its seeds far and wide because for the past 6 years we have had coriander grow annually all over the place - even in the grass!) We have begun chopping the flowers and seeds and putting them in a jar!

So this is a recipe I grabbed from somewhere many years ago - I forget where as it now just lived in my head :)

2C Coriander Leaves
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 C Cashew Nuts
1/3 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Parmesan Cheese

Blend it all in the food processor until it resembles Pesto!

This is great on pasta but is also awesome spread on chicken on the BBQ or on sandwiches or a dip or....or... or ... endless possibilities!

 

 

 

 

 

Celebration of Spring

 

As I've said before, Spring is one of may favourite times in the garden. Since being home, everthing is bursting in flower and growth.

So I thought I would share with you my view of our Spring garden :)