Hello! Amazing how quick Friday seems to appear and disappear!! What are the grand weekend plans for everyone?
If the weather is reasonable tomorrow, Jeff and I want to dig up our potatoes. That will be a fun, grotty job!
Yesterday was lovely. I did nothing. I didn’t even get out of my nightie (A huge time saver when going back to bed… not having to turn the place upside down looking for it! 😀 )
I crocheted a few granny squares and generally relaxed!
Today – back into a bit of gardening. I popped around to Ruby’s and did a couple of hours in the garden
Sadly no parsnip germinated and only 10 carrots – will have to put some more in.
This plot was getting weedy and scruffy
I have left all the self seeded potatoes in – Ruby loves going and finding bonus chat potatoes.
I also used most of what was left of her seaweed and covered the entire plot to tidy it up and slow the weed regrowth.
After a cuppa, I went back home and did a bit in our garden. Mostly taking out the dried snow pea vines and collecting the pods… more than enough seeds for next season
And look!!
OK – they are really not fat enough yet, but they were sweet and it was so nice to FINALLY have some corn on the plate!
Monster Black Russian tomato!
I really enjoy picking food! It does mean a lot more kitchen time coming up, but its all so satisfying!
Hello! Midweek already…
Most of my day was taken up with finishing some things in the kitchen.
The three beetroots that I pulled up the other day got chopped and pickled. I have really been enjoying it in my salads. Plus I have a buyer for a jar 🙂
I also de-pipped and pulped the last of the plums. Then, because I was on a roll I decided to make that lot straight up into a batch of plum sauce. It turned out really well and I didn’t even have to thicken it!
I got a bit over-zealous and also made up our favourite Japanese dish, koroke (mashed potato & mince made into a patty and fried) and teriyaki chicken. (You know, because I hadn’t stood up in the kitchen long enough already today)
Still… it was a good dinner and lots of leftovers so I might do a day of nothing tomorrow 🙂
Also managed to tuck the tails in on my latest lot of granny squares – a more somber arrangement of colours but I like them too !
Its only 9.30pm and I am DONE for the day! (Even the last of the dishes have been sorted!) Wow… I may get an early nights sleep tonight!
Hello! I would like to let those of you who were worrying know, that I completely survived my shopping trip. Even more amazing I came home with FOUR items of clothing and only one book.
I have impressed my husband.
I bought a couple of bra’s – Â which was agony in itself… I cannot wear underwire and I don’t need anything padded. (Happy with my natural padding) BUT – seems everything was wired and padded!
Finally found a place that sold some normal bra’s. I hadn’t bought them for about 10 years. Kid you not. I have been wearing crop tops but they get a bit saggy and the old bra’s I have been wearing to death are, to be honest, a bit manky.
Well… foundation garments sorted, I moved on to the hiking pants and rain jacket issue.
Sigh. Womens sections of shops are useless to me. In the end I bought some hiking pants from the mens section of Rivers, along with a water/wind proof lightweight jacket. Doesn’t anyone think women hike or work in outdoor situations?
I bought a book because it was easy, fun and stress less 🙂
Home again I enjoyed an enormous slice of tomato on a piece of toast for lunch then amused myself in the garden for a while!
Two nice days in a row – gives me hope that some of these very very very late tomatoes have a slight chance of ripening
I have a mad amount of tomato plants out there!
The corn is also agonisingly slow. The cobs are showing signs of fattening up at last.
I did peek into one but it is not ready yet. I have to stop going down every day to see… Maybe if I ignore them for a week…??
Happily the seaweed mulch is really doing its job where I put it down… the weeds have really been cut back
Weeds flourishing on the right side where I didn’t get to weed and mulch
I had almost given up on the runner beans – but they are making a significant appearance now
Half the bean arch is falling over!
I finally got around to putting in a few small rows of carrots. First time I have tried using my own seed
Then I took a pretty bad and boring photo of the patch… haha
My potato patch is looking fairly scraggly and done in. I think its about time to dig the lot up and use the space to get more winter vegies on the go.
I’ll wait until Jeff has his next lot of days off so we can do this together. He loves digging potatoes as much as I do.
(But I did sort of accidentally dig another plant – I’ll view that as a reconnaissance job)
They weren’t huge, but decent sized and a good amount under a single plant
This one was under a self sown potato that I found when planting the carrot seeds
Rogue potatoes under the macrocarpas doing well with no assistance from me!Apple cucumber (got two more of those)More self seeded parsley appearing and doing well!
And out of all the pumpkin plants I have one measly little pumpkin growing!!
Hello!
Today was fluffy clouds & blue skies! Chalk and cheese from yesterday!
I did finish my relish, (eventually this evening) but we took advantage of the weather today and went for our loop hike around Anniversary Bay.
We took about two and a half hours, saw a snake and nearly got run over by a speeding wallaby! (Naturally had put my camera in my backpack for both fauna incidents!!)
We didn’t pack and carry big packs. Really thinking we should as we are less than a month out from our start date
Had a good chat with our friend Rachel tonight who is coming along with us on the Cradle Adventure. I highly recommended she get hold of a fly veil! The flies were so sticky today… much nicer if they can’t sit on your face!
Rachel is booked to arrive in Tassie a few days before we head off. Time enough to get all the gear packed and make sure we haven’t forgotten any little essentials.
Jeff has been avidly watching hiking videos, collecting gear, sorting clothes and generally being rather switched on about the whole thing. Apart from cooking and dehydrating a couple of meals, I have actually thought about making a list! 😀
Love the sand patterns
I am thinking I might duck into town tomorrow to see if I can find some suitable pants/shorts and a decent rain jacket. (Yes yes, I live in Tasmania, so I should own several proper rain jackets… but I don’t)
I hate clothes shopping. I think its been a couple of years since I bought any new clothes. I will be brave and try. (Often I give up after two shops and dive into a book shop and treat myself to a new book to get over the clothes-shopping-trauma)(I’ll let you know how I go)
The last little bit of ‘up’ for the dayLooking back into the sun
I love the last part of this little hike. Â Mostly flat across the top with great views all around.
Well… I think the Weather God’s are having their meetings above Flowerdale and are in a cranky mood!
What a (non) summer!
As well as the rain it was cold.
SO – back to the kitchen for me!
I got the vegie mix I made yesterday and popped it in the dehydrator. One more hiking meal taken care of!
I have been running out of room in the freezers. (Probably something to do with all the ice cream I have been making) So wanted to get most of the plum pulp cooked into jam rather than freezing for later.
I did it in two batches (one 5lb’s and the other 4lbs) That’s about the limit for a batch of jam for me. I find if I do bigger lots it NEVER cooks or sets.
I know my Dad is reading this! Hi Dad!! Yep – there are a few jars there for you so you don’t have to be on such strict rations anymore 🙂
Enough chillies to easily make another batch of sweet chilli sauce. But I just topped them & de-seeded ready for another day and squashed them into the freezer. (Handy having a nurse – usually has spare latex gloves to do this job! If I do it without gloves its about three days before I can put my hands into warm water without them stinging like Billy-Oh!)
Last job before dinner (which I was multitasking-cooking) was to cut 6lb’s of tomatos and 2lbs of onion to mix. It needs to sit overnight before doing my tomato relish.
But that’s tomorrow
I have done enough dishes to sink a battleship (ok – slight exaggeration) but I will ignore what is out there until the morning.
Hope your weekend has been fabulous and domestic chores-free!
Cheers!
Last night – before the clouds came in and made Sunday soggy
Short and sweet tonight!
Had a lovely afternoon picking and digging!
I have already cooked the celery, carrot, zucchini and quite a few tomatoes into a vegie mix that will get dehydrated for one of our hiking meals.
I also stuffed some tomatoes and steamed potatoes for dinner tonight (Jeff BBQed up some steaks and it was all perfect!)
Looking forward to pickling that beetroot. I miss it in my salads – I ate the last lot pretty fast!
Hello! That’s Friday done and dusted for me!
Last night there was a lot of thumping on the back veranda, suspected wildlife, so took my camera out with a torch.
The first possum practically fell out of the tree (pictured above). Happily stayed put long enough for a snap. A few seconds later another one streaked out of the tree and away! (No snap)
Then there was a pademelon (small wallaby)
Also getting fat on our apples. There was another one in next doors paddock. This one panicked a bit with me out there, went charging all over the veranda then went bouncing all through my herb garden!!! I went back inside and left them to it. It was running into the fence in a blind panic at one point and didn’t want it ripping itself to shreds.
I wonder where it sleeps during the day?
It was a rain-sun-rain-sun day all day. Ended up in the kitchen.
Depipped the plums I cooked the other day and ‘mooleyed’ them. (Basically squashed all into pulp) Hopefully will make into sauce or jam tomorrow
Then I decided to get on and use some of the cucumbers and made a double batch of my Nanna’s cucumber relish (Recipe in previous post here)
It’s fitting to use Nanna’s old scales when using her recipes!
After boiling all the apple, cucumber, sugar and vinegar (er and supposedly the onion which I forgot about until I was almost ready to spoon it into jars!!!) then you add in the spices and thickener (I use cornflour)
I rectified the onion problem and started to fill my jars
(Jars have been sterilised in the oven)
All done
Again – this is pretty good on all meats and sandwiches.
Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend planned!
Cheers!
All scraps put through the ‘gee-whizzer’ to give to the compost worms
Hello!
It was time I updated you on a few things in Ruby’s garden. I haven’t been doing much there – rain, shoulder, more rain, cooking a million plums…
Anyway, I made myself popular with Ruby & Margie by taking down one of the choc-raspberry-ice-cream-bites for them to sample.
It was well received indeed!
Ruby has been doing a LOT in the garden. She was really keen to give me the tour and show me. So off she charges – then had to come back for her ‘walking stick’ (you know, whatever is at the back door handy – this time an umbrella!)
And then charges back up the garden path
At less than half her age, am I supposed to be running to catch up shouting ‘wait for me!!’ ???
She has been busy sitting on her milk crate pulling up literally a few barrow loads of weeds – mostly the ones lining the pathways
I got her to stop long enough to pose with one of her barrow-loads full of her handy work!
‘Walking sticks’ are handy to point out all the places one has weeded! (In this case – see all the bits that aren’t green?? That’s the parts she has also cleared!
Pausing to admire the runaway pumpkins. All these have grown from Ruby’s haphazard approach to composting.
Huge zucchini plant!!
Ruby also has a bit of a seed collection hanging in one of the sheds. Broccoli and lettuce.
I shooed her back inside so she could have lunch with Margie while I tackled the remaining potatoes in the potato patch.
With all the family upsets towards the end of the year, the watering got a bit neglected and the potatoes hadn’t done as well as they could have… but there is certainly enough to keep Ruby going for quite a while.
I was also trying to pull the seedy grass and get up what oxalis (mumble mutter grrrrr) that I could
One little quirk of Ruby’s that makes me chuckle is her obsession with making sure her rubbish bin is full to the brim for collection day. Since she pays for this service via her rates she feels she needs to get her moneys worth every week and a partly empty bin is an opportunity wasted!
Since she doesn’t really make enough household waste herself – she is dead set determined to fill the bin up with garden waste!!!
My job done
Lovely potatoes. I brought Ruby out to show her and she was extremely pleased! What I don’t have is the photo of her helping me take them into the shed!
“Here – you take the black bucket and I’ll take a side of the green one”
!!!!!!
So, hands full and (nervously) watching Ruby carry half a bucket of potatoes I was unable to get what would have been a sweet action shot!!!
Hothouse is doing well – not as lush as last season but producing enough cucumbers and tomatoes
Outside tomatoes… if we are lucky, we will get some colour in them yet!
Of course, when all is done and I have washed off a ton of dirt, I get to come in and have a cuppa and a natter
I picked the right day! Ruby, not only weeded everything in sight, but also baked bikkies!! (Biscuits) (Quick translation for my North American Readers. We call crackers and cookies, biscuits. What you call a biscuit is a scone to us.) 🙂 (I love translating English into English)(I could go on with jumpers, peppers, the boot of the car, lollies, daks, cozzies & fairy floss etc but I would be here all night)
Anyway…
Ruby was telling me about a couple who came to visit Tasmania quite some time ago. They had a little girl with spina bifida. Ruby said she would take care of the little girl and her brother while the parents took a rare break and had a little trip around Tassie.
Apparently the travel agent didn’t do a very good job of booking them into sensible places for an efficient and comprehensive look around in the time they had.
Boy, did Ruby sort them out! I was laughing so much hearing how she got them to cancel the bookings and reorganised the whole thing! I interrupted her to say “My gosh Ruby, you were such a bossy-boots!” She had a really good chuckle at that. I looked at her and said “Actually you still are a bossy boots you know!”
She cheerfully admitted it but also fessed up to not being as good at it anymore!!
I love our afternoon stories and laughs! (not to mention the fresh baked biscuits!)
I hope everybodys week is going along fantastically!
Hello! I was going to try and do nothing today.
I am not actually very good at doing nothing.
Happily the kitchen that I destroyed yesterday got sorted out though!
Below is the recipe for the Plum-Worcestershire sauce recipe for those that are keen.
Sorry – a mix of imperial and metric measurements – just to keep you on your toes!
Step One – Find a whacking great pot.
INGREDIENTS:
3lb dark plums
3lb white sugar
2lb brown sugar
3 X tins of treacle (1 tin 850g)
7 pints vinegar (OK – thats 4.2 litres)
1/2lb garlic (Its ok to put more)(Chop small or whizz-up)
1 oz (30g) white pepper
1 oz allspice
1 oz whole cloves (I only had ground and ended up putting in 8 teaspoons.)(Seemed ok 🙂 )
1/4 oz Cayenne pepper
1/2 oz ground ginger
2 Tablespoons salt
METHOD:
Put everything into your oversized pot together and bring to boil. This took a looooong time for me.
Don’t let it boil over. Really. Don’t.
Let simmer until the stones leave the plums
Strain pips and skin (And whole cloves if you used them)
Reboil for an hour.
Sterilise bottles (a LOT of bottles) in your oven, (I put mine in at 100C/212F) when too hot to touch I take them out and pour the sauce in – pop the lids on and voila! Lasts for ages.
Wonderful in your home made hamburgers/rissoles. I like it in spag. bol. sauce and usually splash some in casserole dishes as well.
Finally a day that seemed more like summer!
And I, insanely, spent all day in the kitchen! Its 11.30pm and I am STILL not finished and I think I am a little over it!
It was the Plum-Worcestershire sauces fault. I only make it once a year and the quantities are rather large and everything has taken an eon to do.
Plus, once you have boiled over a sauce that has three tins of treacle in it and had it ooze all over your kitchen, you get totally paranoid about it happening again (The clean up was horrendous) so I had to stay close all day.
First things first. Lets wrap up the choc-rasp/ice-cream bites thing.
Melted the chocolate and got most of the squares dipped before the chocolate went doo-lally on me and wouldn’t go runny again.
Mine didn’t turn out magazine worthy, however…
A hasty photo before Jeff and I taste tested and pronounced a success!
I think next time I do this I can just use my recipe of ice cream, bung some fruit in and do the same – into a square tin, cut and dip in chocolate.
So – onto the buckets of plums and the sauce
Luckily I have my super garlic stash upstairs, as this recipe calls half a pound of it! (I use a bit more)
And it takes a looooong time to peel that much garlic
Happily you can just chuck the plums in as is – no messing about with taking pips out or skinning
I also set another big pot of plums to cook…. will sort them out tomorrow
You also need a lot of spices – about an ounce of each kind.
The house smells a bit amazing – although its incredibly strong when you are near the mixture
A LOT of treacle!
Also three pounds of white sugar, two pounds of brown sugar and 7 pints of vinegar! (over 4 litres) (Why you need a massive pot!!)
This whole thing took a couple of hours to come to the boil!!!
In between hovering over my sauce I sorted dinner and crocheted a few more granny squares!
Once the stones leave the plums, you need to strain it then reboil.
I was bottling it up when I realised I didn’t have enough bottles ready, so right now I am just waiting for the next lot of bottles to sterilise before finally finishing this marathon!!
A brief foray into the garden
Hope everyone else has managed to move more than ten feet from their kitchens today for more than 15 minutes!! 😀
Cheers!
