Around the grounds

I have been doing sewing, but I haven't had my camera out in the sewing department. I have however, had a bit of a walk around the garden with my camera so I can give you a colourful update about what's going on there...

How delightful and unusual for us to still have several sunflowers in our garden on the 3rd day of Winter. It's such a treat- these self seeded and I remember thinking "there's no way they will flower, but I am not pulling them out- just in case". Hooray for just in case!

In the past few days this tress has totally lost it's leaves- so now it's a leafless deciduous tree with a whole lot of bright, big orange persimmons on it. Also good on the 'cheer up factor' for the winter garden. The chooks are loving sharing the persimmon fruit this year- it makes me smile to watch them jump surprisingly high to peck at a soft one.

Several of our pomegranates have split this year. I'll need to keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't going mouldy or anything- in the meantime, the split ones are fun because various members of the family pinch a few seeds every time they walk past (again, including the chooks). I like doing that because it feels really healthy- like I am eating 'living food'. I had a go at making pomegranate molasses. Not sure what I'll use it for yet, but it looks amazing, deep red and quite thick. I juiced four pomegranates and added a bit of sugar and then reduced it over a few hours. The yield was less that 100 mils (because I wanted it syrupy)- so it's waiting for a pretty special occasion! 

The crab apples remain on the tree. They are on my 'to do' list. I'm keen to make crab apple jelly...there's a few other things on my list before I get there though.

We have had a bumper crop of all our brassicas this year. Above is the kale going crazy, below is at least 10 cabbages which I made into sauerkraut shortly after the photo was taken. I am having a bit of 'fad' for sauerkraut at the moment. Maybe it's my exchange student roots, or just wishing I was in Europe right now!

I love the idea of eating seasonally, I love growing our own food, but I tell you what, I have had my fill of cauliflowers and broccoli and trying to be creative with serving it...the ridiculous thing is, as soon as it's gone, I will quickly forget the overdose and have a bit of a hankering for it- just because it's no longer there.
Happy Winter.

Produced

See those quinces in my last post? This is what they look like now...

Turned to jelly...in bottles waiting to be labelled. The white flecks are the old label that I haven't cleaned off well enough- funny how you only notice some things when you see them in a photo!

I took this bottle outside, hoping to catch the amazing red colour in the photo, but haven't quite succeeded. It's so pretty! I'm in love with quince jelly- it was so easy to make and its a bit of a 'win/ win' because you can eat it like jam, on toast or whatever, and serve it as a condiment. Tonight we had it with roast lamb- I was trying not to ration everyone's portions being the first day, and all (as in- NO- we don't need to eat the whole bottle in one sitting!) 
There are plenty more quinces where they came from and I'm thinking there will be more quince jelly as well.

Many hands...

On the weekend (allow me to interrupt myself and say I feel like I am doing a grade 4 piece of 'reflective writing'  and that it should be Monday morning...but it's not)...as I was saying, on the weekend we had a crowd here and boy, were we productive.
Between us all (12 adults, 2 kids and 2 babies) we:

• picked two wheelbarrows full of butternut pumpkins
• picked and bottled about 40 kg of apples

• turned 13 1/2 litres of milk into feta cheese

• turned 7 litres into another soft white cheese 'queso blanco' (the link is not the recipe we used but similar, it's an easy peasy cheese that needs no special cultures or rennet, it's coagulated with vinegar. We experimented with both a basic white vinegar and apple cider vinegar- the latter worked better, I thought). Apparently it cooks quite well, I'd make it again as a cheese for ravioli, I reckon. The kids were happy to hook into it 'as is'.
• turned 3 1/2 litres into a soft white cheese called 'fromage blanc'. We added this one to a ravioli filling with roasted pumpkin, roasted garlic and sage. Ravioli is a great 'bang for your buck' pasta to make at home, I reckon. it's just flat sheets you make but add little tasty morsels, cut them out and they look just smashing (unfortunately eaten before a photo was taken!)

• Made bread- 3 loaves wheat flour, 1 loaf gluten free
• Made pasta- wheat flour ravioli and fettuccine, gluten free ravioli and fettuccine
• Vanilla ice cream

I had other 'big ideas' but I had a friend who was more sensible than me saying 'let's just see how we go'! I arrived at work yesterday and a colleague said 'gee, you look tired!'...I've been to bed early the past two nights and I'm planning to do the same tonight. I am not known for my ability to 'pace myself'! 

My blog 'by-line' is "crafty fun and the goodness of home economics".

I tell you, this weekend was all about the goodness of home economics. 

Good food (our food!), happy times, hard work, laughter, chatting  and a cider at 4pm on Sunday arvo with friends, tired but satisfied friends. They headed back to the city with cheese, apples, a fruit tree if they were lucky, herbs to pot up, garlic and memories of stars and lovely fresh air. 

I'm planning on heading down for my 'city fix' of lovely coffee, quirky cafes,  interesting sights, tram trips, city noises next week. I love Melbourne.

the arrangement

We are lucky enough to live close by to great friends who are biodynamic dairy farmers. We have 'an arrangement', we swap our produce for their milk.
Sometimes the 'vegie box' is more abundant than others, sometimes it includes honey or jam and occasionally a cake or some bread. I feel really grateful to have such excellent quality milk, I do appreciate it. Mr. Apple has worked in the cowshed a reasonable amount, although not for a while, after his first few milkings he commented on how content and settled the cows seemed, really calm compared to other dairys he'd worked in. Our farmer friend is a pretty calm bloke, so the cows probably pick up his 'vibe'.

It's blackberry season here, I did a bit of jamming before Christmas but need to crank out the preserving pan again, we've put quite a few blackberries in the freezer- they'll be turned into cakes and muffins during the year.

We are spending our days kicking around home, hanging out- by ourselves and with friends, it's really nice. It was cooler this week so I baked bread and slow cooked lamb shanks for dinner (pretending it was Winter!). No craft has been done- I don't think I can count the ongoing 'mastery' of 'chain stitch' in my crochet...or complete failure to progress from there. I will be inspired by Lissanne though, because she 'got it' today...maybe I will get it...one day!

Citrus season

Our citrus trees are full on at the moment, one particular orange tree is my favourite. 
Ages ago, I got a bit inspired to make marmalade

 and this lot of mandarins, tangelos, lemons, and oranges turned into quite a few of these

there are considerably less jars now than when I first made them, two people in this household are particularly fond of marmalade, it would seem!
I like making jam and preserves, I like that the abundance of the season can be spread over the year. I still have quite a few blackberries in the freezer from Summer, I have been adding them to cakes, muffins and smoothies throughout the year. This year we didn't bottle enough tomatoes to last us the whole year and now we've run out. I don't like having to buy tinned tomatoes, doesn't feel quite right.