Sourcing Fresh Fruit & Veg

Judging by how difficult it is right now to buy seedlings or to source seeds, there are a lot of people having-a-go at growing some of their own food. I think that's a really positive thing!  I've always tried, with varying levels of success, to grow some of our own produce in our own garden. Homegrown is as local as it gets, we don't use chemicals or sprays in the garden, it saves us some money and it's super-fresh. A store-bought cucumber just can't compete with one picked off its vine, rinsed under the hose and munched on in the garden. 

Eggplant in the veg patch.

Snow pea seedlings starting to grow.

In our garden, there's always lots of herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley and oregano to pick and bay leaves too from our tree in its pot. This year, the Ceylon spinach thrived once the rain fell regularly later in the Summer. So too the sweet potato vine which is busy twining its tendrils up and around a nearby grevillea at the moment. (I really must get down and see just what it's up to.) There always seems to be spring onion growing happily in our veg patch and I've recently planted lettuce, rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, beetroot, snow peas, two types of cherry tomato and one lone eggplant in with it. There are mandarins on our one-and-only fruit tree (for I managed to extinguish the lemon tree and the avocado didn't survive the dry months before the rain came) but they are nowhere near ripe yet. This all adds up to the promise of some homegrown produce to come, but even if all this thrives (and doesn't get gobbled up by caterpillars or grasshoppers) we still need to source more fruits and vegetables.

Ceylon Spinach growing well.

(The young leaves are delicious in omelettes.)

 A mandarin beginning to ripen on our tree.

Farmers markets are too crowded a place to be during these times of social distancing and a little local shop, where I used to be able to buy some lovely produce closed late last year. Our dear neighbour, who was the most amazing gardener I've ever known and who would share so much produce, and accept my baking and treats in return, moved away a couple of years ago. It was a sad day indeed when the new people turfed over his veggie patch. I mourned the waste of that rich soil and the loss of such a generous and knowledgeable neighbour-gardener to learn from and trade with. 

Self-seeded sweet basil.

So, when I saw the vibrant selection of spray-free fresh fruit and veg that Kathy, over at Our Simple and Meaningful Life, received in her online-ordered box, I decided this might be a good solution for us and ordered one too.  I picked it up on the weekend, from a collection point a very short drive from here, and brought home my spray-free fruit and veg. Just a small box this week, to supplement what we already had left in our crispers, plus a dozen eggs and one sweet pineapple as extras.

 Fresh & Nutritious 

Everything is fragrant and fresh. It's mostly local produce, picked not long before it was delivered and packed without plastic besides the extra eggs in their carton. The carrots are delicious. (Yes, I taste tested them.) I've never had any success with growing carrots. I don't know why but it means I always have to buy them and I'm rather fussy about my carrots. I am not a fan of limp, bitter or woody carrots. Both Sir Steve dog and I are very enthusiastic fans of crunchy, sweet carrots. 🥕 We are both quite content crunching away like Bugs Bunny on the carrots from the box though only one of us sounds like a sloshing washing machine while snacking  .... and it's not me, folks!

Image sourced from:  http://clipart-library.com/bunny-clip-art.html

While the carrots are for snacking, they'll also be grated for salads made with the lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. One of those potatoes was thinly sliced and, together with cream just past its use-by date, made a creamy potato bake for dinner last night.  The other potato will end up roasted along with the pumpkin. The zucchini and the corn will be used up in a zucchini slice later in the week and the large onion will find its way into lots of evening meals. The pears and the apples are for snacks and the pineapple is destined for pizzas.  No waste! Peelings for the compost and the worm farm! 

I'll be ordering another box of fruit and veg soon. It seems to me a good solution for us right now. How are you sourcing fresh produce for your table?

Meg

Sewing for Wildlife

The raging bushfires that have burned huge swathes of our country's beautiful lands have meant that so many people have lost, or become displaced from, the places they call home. So too, our animals. These fires have destroyed so much habitat, their homes, and our native wildlife need all they help they can get.

A sweet joey kangaroo resting on the grass just outside our holiday unit door.

The loss and suffering of so many of these beautiful creatures is immense and I wanted to do something to help and to support those wonderful wildlife rescuers and carers who will try to nurse injured and frightened animals back to health and release them again if they can.

A possum pouch lining made from the flannelette of old pillowcases.

 A soft and warm place to rest.

On the WIRES website, I found very simple instructions for how to make little liners for possum pouches. These are a soft inner liner that go inside the larger outer pouch that holds small and recovering native animals like young possums, wombats or bandicoots. These liners have to be changed much more regularly than the outer pouch they line and so, from a pair of old and soft flannelette pillowcases, I made a set of them. They are simple to make and anyone who can sew a straight line can make them.

 A set of stripey bat wraps.

My mother-in-law gave me two more flannelette sheets, soft with age and many washes, to make bat wraps with. Rhonda, on her Down-to-Earth blog, which many of you will be familiar with, wrote about the work her nephew does as a wildlife rescuer in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. He needed more joey slings and bat wraps to transport and care for animals caught up in these terrible bushfires so I sewed some bat wraps from stripey strips of my mother-in-law's gifted sheets. The little bats' wings are protected as the fabric is wrapped, sausage-roll style, around them. The bat wrap pattern that Rhonda linked to, with photos of little bats all wrapped up in them, is available here. They are simple to make and anyone who can sew a straight line can make them.

A little bundle of home sewing for wildlife.

This sewing is one small thing I can do in the face of a big crisis but there are many, many people right around our beautiful country, and the world too, who are doing what it is they can do to help. Just one example is this inspiring news story of crafters in the far north joining a sewing bee to sew for wildlife affected by the bushfires. I think that's a wonderful example of community and compassion. 

A protective Bush Stone-Curlew with her little chicks 

in the garden of our holiday unit home.

My little set of pouch liners and bat wraps doesn't look a lot on its own but it is something and, when joined together with everyone else's somethings, that then becomes a lot! And our animals need a lot of help right now.

Meg

An Evening Filled with Music

On the balmy Saturday evening just passed, my beautiful boy and I enjoyed an evening of wonderful music. Works by the composer Franz Schubert, with a little Brahms too, filled the beautifully restored Sandgate Town Hall with music and our hearts with joy.

 The piano from which the music plays.

The evening's program. 

Just as he did the last time we saw him, when he played Gerschwin in this hall, the amazing Australian pianist,  Simon Tedeschi, enchanted us again with music and with his incredible talent. Tedeschi first played at the Sydney Opera House when he was 9years old; his hands played those of the young David Helfgott, whom we saw perform here too, in the movie, Shine. I love that he shares something of the composer, and the music when he introduces the pieces he will play, for those pieces and those who imagined them, all have their stories.

 The town hall lit up at night.

 The hall's historic clock tower.

 Fairy lights twinkling in the trees.

The pattern on the hall's beautiful ceiling. 

The lights that hang from the ceiling. 

The old timber and iron seats of the mezzanine where we sit.

We have been to a handful of these concerts now and we make it a special night out. We dress up a little, drive up together and walk arm in arm, along paths lit by twinkling fairy lights in the trees, to the town hall. We sit up on the mezzanine, on the old timber and iron seats, and look out across the expanse of the floor below to the stage. We listen in rapt silence and our clapping joins the enthusiastic applause for the playing and for the music. It's music we love.

You can enjoy a little of Simon Tedeschi's playing piano here, as there is a choice of videos on his website, or listen to a little of Schubert at this YouTube link.  

I always find it hard to describe what I love so much about classical music. It's the mountains and the valleys of pieces, how it describes such a range of emotions from glorious love and elation to the depths of desolate despair and melancholy. And how that's so open to the interpretation of the one who is listening.  I love to close my eyes and just listen. It's a joy my son and I share and I hope he'll long remember our evenings filled with music.

Meg

Supporting Handmade

I 💗making simple little things but I am also drawn to the handmade treasures that others create. Handcrafted things appeal to me because they can be well-made, unique, detailed, thoughtful and very beautiful. 

 Simple and useful rope baskets.

(from this Women's Creative Centre)

A sweetly scented lavender sachet.
(I 💜 the way an old doily has been used to make this.)

 A beautiful little ceramic bell.

(made by Kylie of Paper Boat Press)

While I try to make most of the gifts our family gives to those in our lives whom we adore, there are times when I will choose something a local crafter has made to either give instead or to augment my own handmade gift. The simple rope baskets in the first photo will hold some of my handmade washcloths come Christmas time.

Typically, the handmade things I buy are not things I know how to make myself or they are little things that spark an idea. I bought the the little lavender sachet in the second photo because of the way the maker has re-purposed an old doily. I love using old linens and doilies in the things I make too so on my sewing table at the moment is the beginnings of a pincushion inspired by this little lavender sachet.

Supporting the makers in my community has led me away from that which is mass produced to that which is crafted locally. It keeps more of my $ in my local community and helps to ensure that the markets and little shops, that expand my shopping choices in my local area, continue to survive and hopefully thrive. It connects me to the creative folk who craft these lovely things. The sweet handmade bell, in the third photo, is a special farewell gift for someone very dear. It was made by a local ceramicist and poet, Kylie Johnson, who is not only incredibly talented but a most lovely and gentle soul too. When I dropped in to her little shop, we had a long, wide-ranging conversation of a kind that is not possible with oneself at the self-serve checkout of a large retail chain. 

I noticed, while out and about on the weekend, that Christmas trinkets are beginning to appear in some shops now. I really think this happens earlier every year! I still have a lot of my own Xmas crafting to do (I always seem to get behind with it) but I am happy to have a few handmade gifts, made by others, to give this year too. 

Meg

My New-from-Old Skirt

On a weekend workshop, held at a local community centre, I learnt how to make a sewing pattern from an existing garment.  I chose to create a new skirt from one of my old favourites and I am really happy with how it turned out.

My 'New from Old' Skirt.

The skirt is really just a basic A-line. The original skirt had four panels sewn together at the front, back and sides. I changed this so that there are only two panels, a front and a back, so just two seams at the sides. The skirt also has a very lovely and long waistband tie. Sewing this really gave me some grief; firstly I found it difficult to pin on because it is so thin and secondly because the fabric of the skirt kept fraying and so it kept pulling away from the waistband. After a few "choice words" and a lot of unpicking, I decided the best solution was to make the waistband wider to make it easier to pin on and to ensure I secured the fabric of the main skirt when attaching it.

 Waistband & Invisible Zip.

Zipped up!

An invisible zip is sewn into one side of the skirt. I've never sewn in such a zip but, with the help of this You-tube tutorial, I learnt how to do it and sewed it in so that it is indeed invisible when zipped up. 

Fabric remnants for a skirt.

Look at all those toothy smiles!

I chose remnants of fabric, from the community centre's little haberdashery, to test out my pattern and sew up my skirt. I found a heavier curtaining fabric, with big firework flowers on twisting stems, and a very light fabric, printed with toothy smiles, for the long waistband trim and ties. When cut and folded into a thin strip, you can't see all those teeth!  Altogether, this cost me less than $15. I think they look nice together. 😊

A pattern I will be able to use again and again!

The best part of this course, besides a usable pattern and a very wearable "test run" skirt, was learning from a really patient teacher and spending time with  a small group of really lovely women who all like sewing too. Everyone made different garments and there were lots of encouraging words from everyone as we paraded and twirled our creations for one another. 

I hope to do some more craft workshops at the little community centre soon. It's a lovely space, in an old wooden house with a productive garden and chickens in the back yard too. It's nice that there are places like this in our city where people can meet one another and learn and make things together.

Do you have a community centre near where you live? 

Meg

A Night at the Local Show

Arriving just as the sun was going down, rugged up in our layers to keep out the Winter  cold, we enjoyed a night-time visit to our little local show in the valley.

Colourful, wide-mouthed clowns.

Sparkly balloons.

Side show alley rides.

Given the chill in the air, we soon made our way to the big bonfire, burning up the leftovers from the woodchopping competition earlier in the day. The heat from those crackling, golden flames was toasty warm and so we found a spot nearby for our barbecue tea. While we ate our burgers and sausages-on-bread, drips of tomato sauce on our chins, we joined in with the beat of the bush band playing their toe-tapping, sing-a-long tunes.

The Bush Band playing one of their upbeat songs.

I only had a moment to dash in to the pavilion, where I usually while away much of my show day, before it closed for the night and while hubby and son sourced dinner.  I wish I'd had more time as I love seeing what people are growing and baking and making!

Beautiful roses like this one. 

 Delicious cakes and biscuits and slices...

(I remember making this when I was a girl!)

Lots of jam and lots of ribbons!

 Juicy oranges for judging.

Pikelets ... of course!

After our dinner was done, it was around and around on the ferris wheel to look out over the showgrounds, lit up by the colourful lights of side-show alley.  

Around it goes!


Looking down from the top!

After our whirl through the sky, we joined with many others to await the fireworks. After a countdown from ten to an enthusiastic "Zero!" from all the children in the crowd,  those first fireworks whizzed up and into the sky. Popping and crackling and fizzing, they burst into showers of sparkles that lit up the dark sky of the valley.

Bursts of colourful sparkles.

A stroll around sideshow alley, a few whirling rides and an ice-cream (it seems our boy can eat ice-cream no matter the weather) later, we were back in the car and heading for the warmth of  home. While our night-time visit to the show cut short our time compared to other years, we still found much we enjoyed. 

Our little local show is something we look forward to, as a family, every single year. That's a tradition that I hope continues for many a year yet. 

Meg

A City Farm's Nursery

I could while away many an hour at local nurseries immersed in all the garden goodness they have on offer. Everything from plants to fountains to mulch! My favourite nursery though is in at the city farm. I love to visit, to talk with and seek advice from staff and to browse their range of incredible and edible plants!

The colourful gates at the entrance to the City Farm Nursery.

Bright and early, on the Saturday just gone, I spent some time at the nursery choosing some seedlings to plant in my Autumn veggie patch. I came home with some tiny little lettuce seedlings and some silverbeet to plant out too. These will be the first things I tuck into the soil this Autumn. I'm looking forward to picking the leaves of our own lettuce again!

 An amazing selection of vegetable seedlings and herbs.

 My lettuce and silverbeet seedlings and a pot of lemon thyme.

I love to wander the little paths of this small nursery. Besides the interesting range of edible plants (herbs, veggies and fruit trees) there is so much inspiration to find...

Beautiful leadlight bamboo! 

(This has me thinking about Art for the garden.)

Gorgeous tumeric flower.

(I hope my newly planted tumeric will flower too.)

The nursery's native beehive. 

(Could I make a little roof like this for my own hive?)

There's a wonderful range of herbs at the nursery. Everything from tansy to thyme. I bought a pot of lemon thyme as I lost mine recently. Too much rain?? I'm looking forward to flavouring our Winter stews and casseroles with this wonderful herb. Such a zingy scent!

My new vanilla bean orchid.

I always find new-to-me or unusual plants too. Things that are a bit different! This time, I chose to bring home a vanilla bean orchid. (It was a hard choice between that and a pepper vine!) I'm going to plant it in the dappled shade that the trees near our back deck rotunda create. I really hope I can get it to grow! If I am lucky and it blooms, I will need to learn how to hand pollinate the flowers because there are no natural pollinators of the vanilla bean orchid outside of Mexico. No wonder vanilla is one of the world's most expensive spices.

A re-purposed laundry trolley full of liriope.

A visit to the city farm and its nursery always renews my enthusiasm for growing food and provides so many ideas of what is possible in the area where I live. I always leave with many new ideas and always more than a few plants!

Do you have a favourite plant nursery? What do you love about it?

Meg

From the Farmers Market

Once a month, on a Sunday morning, a street in a nearby suburb is blocked off as local traffic makes way for the stalls of a farmers market. 

A local street is closed for a farmers market.

Up the street and back again takes you on a happy, crowded and mouth-watering stroll. There's fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables displayed on trestle tables; their vibrant colours so inviting. (I never feel this way about the fruit and veggies at the supermarket!)

Baskets of fresh Summer vegetables.

(No styrofoam trays and plastic wrap either!)

As well as fruit and veggies, there's nuts, cheeses, meats, breads, cakes, fudge, flowers, coffee and much more. 

Lots to choose from!

There's the wafts of delicious foods cooking as you pass by. Everything from fresh Turkish breads and spicy sausages to hot crepes and little poffertjes (little Dutch pancakes). Following one's nose at the market can often lead to all kinds of delicousness!

Little Dutch pancakes cooked while you wait.

(Soft, hot and drizzled with maple syrup ... Mmm!)

There's the farmers and producers themselves, standing behind their stalls or out in front offering samples of their amazing food. If you ask them, they'll tell you when, where and how it was grown or made, when it was picked or baked or bottled, why it tastes so good! The conversations to be had about food and produce, with the people who actually grew or made it, are one of my favourite things about the markets. It's how to find out where your food comes from and what's in it or on it! 

Tom grows apples in his orchard near Tenterfield (about 3 hours away)

 & his free samples were fresh, crisp and delicious!

And ... just as you go over the railway line to enter the market or just before you cross back to leave, there's a guy wearing a fluro high-vis vest. You can't miss him and for relatively few bucks he'll sell you a copy of The Big Issue with a "Gday!" and a smile. His presence reminds me that there are many in our community who fall on hard times (for whatever reason) and that abundance (in whatever form) can be shared to make someone's life that bit better. 

Lots of fresh food, and food for thought, from the markets.

In my market basket, along with my copy of The Big Issue, there was pumpkin from a farmer who also grows sunflowers too.  Two types of bananas from the grower who helped me choose some that are ripe now and some that will ripen over coming days. There's corn so sweet you can eat it raw on the cob and sweet potatoes sold at the stall that has the most beautiful classical music playing in the background. (I talked about pianos and guitars with that grower, not veggies this time:) Little new potatoes and lettuce and capsicum came home with me as my garden has none of these growing over the Summer. (Try as I might, I am rarely successful at growing capsicums!) An armful of Tom's crisp and crunchy apples made it into my basket too, his free samples were soooo good!

Do you buy some of your fresh produce at a market? If you do, what do you love about your market?

Meg