harvesting the hazels

'











Autumn, you might just be winning me over.

A sweet sunny day spent harvesting our hazelnuts. Speckled, sparkly shadows. All the twittering bird songs. A new spoon carved. A tiny nest found and admired. Blackberry scratches all over my arms and legs. Warm sun on our faces and backs. A bit of humming, some chats about plans and stages, a lot of silence and listening. Sweet, cardamon spiced, Turkish coffee brewed on a flame and served up in little cups. A chunk of apple cake unwrapped from its waxy paper package. Nuts cracked and eaten, coffee drunk.

One basket full.



I hope your season is the reason for your gladness.

xx

Twenty ninth

On the twenty ninth day of our year Miss Indi went back to school, the wind blew an absolute gale, I got an email from a blog friend that made me cry, in a good way, and we built the smalls a cubby-house on the back deck where they spent most of the day.









On the twenty ninth day of the year we did jobs in the garden, we built a small fire in the garden and we made and enjoyed morning tea with my parents - in the garden.



On the twenty ninth day of the year we started making plans for the rest of the year. We spoke of our priorities, about how to separate money from happiness in our definition of success and of where each of our girls are and what they might need from us as time goes by.

On the twenty ninth day of the year the smalls made a giant chatterbox and laughed hysterically as they read us the messages under the flaps, Miss Indi came home smiling from school and although we probably didn't achieve all that much, I blame the wind, we had a really happy day together.

When we came in to make dinner, this little arrangement was waiting upon the kitchen table - just like that.


So how about you, what did you get up to today and how's the wind at your place?



I hope you get the message you've been hoping for.


Love Kate xx

bits and bobs

Hello!! How are you? Happy springtime!

Long time no blog hey. Possibly the longest time since this blog began, possibly too long for me to even remember where we've been and what we've been doing.  But that's OK, I'm here now with twenty minutes before I have to go and pick up the girls from school, and that's all that matter's right.

So a little while ago the clouds finally parted, the sun came out and we've been busy bees in the garden, in the kitchen, on the farm, at school and everywhere else in between - ever since. I've barely opened my computer in weeks. But I have been taking photos here and there and so I thought I'd just catch you up quickly on some of the highlights.

We've been picking daffodils. Always one of the very first signs of spring around here.

One sunny day Miss Pepper woke up very early and wrote a list of everything she wanted to do that day. It looked like comic strip with a drawing of her doing the thing and a description underneath. Pick a basketful of daffodils was the very first thing on that list. So we did. And now we have jars full of yellow happy flowers throughout the house.

I'm so excited that spring is finally here. Last night it occurred to me that I've now survived 14 Daylesford winters. That is a lot of very cold, dark months and I am so relieved to see the back of this past one. Phew!

I'm reading another Miss Mogantosh book suggestion.

It's interesting to read a book that is so similar to the one I always thought I might write. Leaving the city for a life of organic farming, the steepest learning curves, the never-ending jobs lists, the dirt and mud, the cost of things, the joys of farming, the taste of food grown with love, the interesting characters along the way, the live-stock and dead-stock, the love of a farmer boy...it's all there. But in this case it's in America with the added bonuses of real deep snow, encounters with the Amish, maple syrup and draught horses.

Our stories are so similar and yet vastly different. I'm really enjoying Kirstin's tale and bookmarking so many bits to chat with my own farmer boy about when I get the chance.


I'm still loving my wool craft classes at the girls' school.

I've been thinking a lot about holding some workshops here on our farm over the warmer months, teaching, making and sharing. I love the thought of passing on the knowledge and skills that we have to people who don't necessarily live the same sort of life as we do.


We've been making our coffee on a little burner out in the paddock in the sunshine, eating snacks of dried nuts and fruit and knitting a few rows here and there. Ahhhhhh there's nothing quite like the feeling of breaking after a hard morning's work, sitting with the sun warm on our backs, counting how many different bird songs we can hear, while sipping sweet cardamon coffee.


I worked out that every Saturday for the past few Saturdays, I've cast off a sock and cast on another sock. Last Saturday I finally finished Miss Indi's fairy bread socks and she loves them! She actually took them off me and wore them straight away!! It has been a long time since my teenager has worn anything I have handmade for her and seeing her love those socks as much as I loved knitting them for her was the biggest buzz ever. Hooray!!

Socks ravelled here.


That same Saturday I cast on a pair of socks for my farmer boy.

A few weeks ago he was on a boy's only trip to Melbourne when he popped into a wool shop, asked for a ball of sock yarn that would be knitted on size two needles with graduating colour and chose this. Amazing right?!

I could hardly wait to cast them on.


I should probably mention that when our local craft shop didn't stock the one meter long, size two circular needle I'd need for knitting two socks at the same time, I was forced to shop online and by accident lost my web-shopping virginity on these beauties.

I bought them from Tangled Yarns who had the best customer service and I can highly recommend.

I always thought that I needed to actually squish the yarn myself before buying, but I've been proven wrong. There is something so exciting about getting a parcel of delicious wool in the mail, it's almost like a present. I'm pretty sure I'll be online buying again before too long.


Of course we've been taking advantage of the warm, windless days by spending time in the kitchen garden, the market gardens and the orchards weeding, forking, tidying, planting and getting ready for the growing season.

And we've been planting bucket-loads of this gorgeous looking mix of Burrum Biodynamics green manure seeds. Giving back to the soil that gives so much to us.

And that brings us up to now, to this week when the weather has closed in and is cold and wintry again. At other times this might have made me miserable but instead I'm feeling glad for the opportunity to slow down for a bit, to catch up on some inside jobs and for the rain that is watering in the seeds and hopefully filling up the dams and water tanks before summer. It feels like a big, deep breath.


So tell me, if you feel like it, what you've been busy with. What you're making and baking and growing and reading. I'd love to know.

Be well my friends, I hope your shoulders feel strong enough to take on your load.

Big love

xx

Coffee and paste...x

I think these last few weeks have been amongst the biggest of my life. The book, the interviews, the feedback, the film, the signings, the reviews and of course the Daylesford launch.

I have been so overwhelmed, I have been humbled and I have been grateful. I feel like I've been running on adrenaline for so much of it. It really has been huge.

And over these big book weeks my blog words have woken me up at night whispering descriptions and explaining goings on and feelings. My nighttime blog words always feel so articulate and honest in the dark.

And yet my days have been so full that I haven't had a second to get those words down here. 

And now that I finally have a little bit of time, they're gone. Actually I don't think they're gone but I think there are so many of them that I don't know how to make sense and order out of them. I feel like they're all jumbled up and all over the place.

I hope I will get all that stuff down here soon because it is important and because I want to remember it, but for now I thought I'd try something completely different. Something I found on Pip's blog. Something I feel might help me take stock and ease my way back in.

So here goes;

Making : Another crocheted hot water bottle cover, knitting a looooong scarf and squares for a blanket.
Cooking : Wintery breads and soups and cakes and bakes.
Drinking : Freshly picked beetroot, carrot, kale, ginger, orange and lemon juice.
Reading: The List Of My Desires. The publisher sent it to me. I've only just started but I love that she's a blogger.
Wanting: Warmth in the air and a bit of sunshine on my skin.
Looking: At the chooks through the mist in the forest.
Playing: A feeding a plant game on my phone that tracks how much water I drink during the day.
Wasting: Time on facebook. I resisted for so long. Then I joined to keep an eye on Indi. And now I think it's fun.
Sewing: Buttons on a knitted onesie.
Wishing: I had more time to knit. And cook. And garden.
Enjoying: Reading chapters of The Famous Five with Miss Jazzy every night.
Waiting: For asparagus and the start of the spring veggie season.
Liking: Photos on instagram.
Wondering: how much our lives will change now we've made the decision to scale things down here and homestead instead.
Loving: That my folks are just at the bottom of the hill.
Hoping: Miss Indi feels better soon. Hate the flu!
Marvelling: That Miss Pepper can stand on her head for minutes at a time.
Needing: To go out and collect the eggs, but it's toooooo cold.
Smelling: The Daphne blossom at the front door.
Wearing: Jeans!!!! It's been years.
Following: An exercise plan. True story!
Noticing: The first signs of spring. More daylight, almond blossom, jonquils...
Knowing: That I shouldn't wear my shoes inside the house but I do anyway.
Thinking: That the bunnies are super messy.
Feeling: Calm for the first time in a while.
Bookmarking: Recipes. I need to menu plan again.
Opening: The stove door to add more wood. Constantly.
Giggling: About Miss Jazzy's suggestion that I should write a book called BUMtastic.
Feeling: Like I could sleep for three weeks if I had the chance.

So how about you? 

What's going on in your life?

Do you want to play Pip's game too? 

Coffee and paste the blank list from her blog.
And let me know so I can come and see what you're up to.

We're off to get the eggs.

Happy days my friends!

xx

olive harvest 2013

On Wednesday we finally picked our olives.

It was one of those icy-cold but brilliantly sunshiney winter days. We wore sunglasses for the glare and about six layers of clothing for the chill. We chatted and we laughed and we sang and we joked.

And over the course of the day we picked all the olives from our one hundred trees. 

Some of us used little hand rakes to brush the olives off onto the white ground sheets (a small section at a time just like you do with your hair straightener, my farmer boy explained to his 12 year old). Some of us picked off each olive into picking bags clicked onto our waists. 

And the last one of us, had the most important job of all of us. Farmer Bren was in charge of catering.

He made us camp-fire Turkish coffee.

And he made us pesto, cheese and last year's olives jaffles.

Everything tastes more delicious when cooked on a camp fire don't you think?!

I love days like yesterday. I love the feeling of everyone pitching in and working as a team. I love the joking and the feeling of leisure at the start that slowly becomes a rush to get it all done before dark.

And I love the olives. Big time!

There's been a lot of other stuff going on here on our farm in the last few weeks. A lot of other stuff that has taken our focus and attention and meant we left the olives a bit longer than we should have. 

The birds got possibly more than their fair share and the frost damaged a few, but we got enough to press some for oil and enough to brine for eating and that makes me happy. Really happy.

I can't imagine how exciting it'll be to have bottles of our own Daylesford Organics olive oil.

We are trying to organise to get it pressed next week. I'll keep you posted.

And I'll keep you posted about the other stuff too. Soon I hope.

I'm off now to cover the lettuces, there's going to be another frost in the morning I think.


Big love to you peeps.
May your days be brilliant and sunshiney and your olives and coffee plentiful.

xx

#herecomeswinter

With the promise of more than two inches of rain on the horizon, we spent the whole of yesterday in the garden. We cleared out autumn and settled her in for the long, cold winter ahead.

We weeded, we forked over the empty beds and we filled them up with fresh compost. We picked bucket loads of carrots whose tops were starting to rot. We harvested the last of the tomatoes and beans and yanked out their vines. We thinned out and transplanted kale and spinach and cos. We planted broad beans soaked in garlic and chili (to deter the pesky possums). And we seeded a spiral of rocket and some parsley. 

And we lit a bonfire for warmth and to burn the sticks that held our tomatoes and beans up all through summer.

And my farmer boy made us cups of steaming hot Turkish coffee with cardamon.

It's a wonderful gift to realise that we are exactly where we want to be right now, doing exactly what we want to be doing. We are together, we are doing what we love: making and growing our own, we are being creative and we feel inspired and good. We feel really good.

Time and circumstances and bad weather may challenge that and probably change that, but for now it is.

And when we came in last night at dark, stoked the fire, settled in for the night and heard the rain starting to tumble down on the roof, we felt like we were up to date and on the right track.

Winter looks like she is settling in but our garden's ready for her.

If only I were as ready in the kitchen.
Soup again?
What're you having for dinner?

xx