seasonal - sustainable - wonderful

At the start of the cycle, last spring, we planted tomato seeds in trays in the hot house. We nurtured the seeds and watched them grow. When they were large enough to cope, we moved them outside or into the poly tunnels to give them space. We tried to provide ideal growing conditions by planting according to the moon's phases, weeding out some of the competition, feeding and irrigating and staking. And then over the last few months we enjoyed the harvest.

We had a wonderful, bountiful tomato season this year.

We picked colanders and baskets and buckets and crates full.

We ate them straight off the bush and in salads and sandwiches and cooked them in absolutely everything. And we preserved enough sauce and semi drieds to hopefully last us through out the year.

And then along came the first frost of the season. Just like that the outside tomato season was over. The frost burnt the foliage and damaged the remaining, as yet unripe fruit.

Following the first frost the chooks went in to clean up. They gobbled up the fleshy fruit, they ate the bugs and scratched up the dirt. And they pooed. Our chooks are really the hardest workers on our farm.

In the next few days, after they are done, my farmer boy will plow the tomato scraps and the chook poo into the soil adding much needed organic matter and fertiliser to the land that has grown our beautiful and delicious fruit.

After the plowing up we'll probably plant a winter pea crop or a broad bean crop to add nitrogen. We have to do everything we can to look after the health and balance of our hardworking soil. Everything that comes out with the growing, needs to go back in and more.

The tomato journey comes to an end.

And then next spring we'll start all over again.

As much as I dislike the cold and wet and grey, I love the seasons. I love that everything has it's time.

My farmer boy asked me the other day if I could commit to seasonal eating completely this year and cut out fresh tomatoes until they grow here again next summer. That is a big one for this thinly sliced tomato with salt on crackers loving girl. It even makes me panic a bit. But I think I'm going to try. It makes sense I think.

I'll be enjoying every single precious tomato I pick in the poly tunnels for the next week or so, that's for sure.

Are you a seasonal eater?
Could you do without?
Thinking about how far away the tomatoes are grown and how they travel to get to me over the depths of winter certainly helps.

Happy week my friends.
Keep cozy.

xx

Jammin'.

While we were far away on our road trip last year, sometimes I'd try to visualise my life back home. I'd try to imagine what I would be doing and how I might be feeling. And for some reason I always had the same picture in my head. I always imagined myself right in the heart and heat of preserving time.

I imagined myself in my kitchen, wearing an apron, surrounded by buckets and baskets of produce, stirring pots and peeling and coring and deseeding fruit and vegetables and slowly filling jars and containers with summery goodness.

I'm here. That picture is now. Right now, my life is almost all about preserving. Preserving summer so we can feel it's warmth and abundance in winter.

Life right now is picking and gathering the fruit and berries from the orchard. It's about washing and weighing. It's about freezing and cooking and dehydrating and pureeing and straining. It's about jams and relishes and chutneys and syrups.

There are lots of preserving books on our kitchen table. Some recipes and techniques we know by heart from years gone by, and others we are learning as we go. We are not experts. Far from it. We've had a few mishaps already this year, but plenty of successes too. (Who knew you could only use those Fowlers preserving rings once?)

These are the books we've got on our kitchen table at the moment:

The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Secrets of Successful Preserving by Fowlers Vacola.

Fowler's Method of Bottling Fruits and Vegetables by J. Fowler.

Wonderful ways to prepare preserves by Ayers and James.

Preserves by Pam Corbin.

The cook's companion by Stephanie Alexander.

The Permaculture Book of Ferment & Human Nutrition by Bill Mollison.

Homemade Jams and Preserves by Family Circle.

The River Cottage Year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Home Freezer Cook Book by Good Housekeeping

My life right now is sticky and pink.

And man, I do love preserving! I love how wholesome it feels. I love the connection I feel to history and to those who have been doing this in some way or another since we began. I love that the produce I am preserving is homegrown, certified organic, local, no food miles. I love the thought of opening these jars and bottles I am now sealing in the cooler months to come and enjoying their contents. I love that preserving food now for later is thrifty and frugal. I love company in the kitchen and I love doing it alone. And I really, really love the process too. It's such fun.

Are you right into preserving season at the moment?
Are you making jam or bottling tomatoes?
Are your fingers stained red?
Or are you on the other side of the world, dipping into your stores?
Do you have memories of preserving with your parents and grandparents? Pulling the elastic bands onto the Fowlers jars and clipping on the clips?
Do you love the look of jars filled with colourful jarred produce as much as I do?
Don't you agree that a gifted jar of homemade jam is the best present ever?

Or is preserving something you would like to try but haven't? If this is the case, then please do. It is such fun. Get some books, pick some produce or buy some from your local farmers' market, get your hands on some jars and get right into it. You'll love preserving, I'm certain. We sure do.

Happy, sweet days.
xx

ps. funny how in my preserving fantasy my kitchen was sparkly clean, the dishes were always done and my apron was frilly and spotless...reality, not so much.

3 dresses I sewed..

So the girls went back to school and I finally pulled most of my clothes out of the caravan. The holidays are over.

And with that realisation came the realisation that I can no longer wear the clothes I wore on the road trip. Strange but true. I guess when you wear the same few things over and over and over and over, there comes a time when you cannot wear them anymore. A bit like the end of pregnancy.

So I decided to get busy and create a few dresses.

I love wearing dresses. They are easy. If it is warm, I wear them as is with sandals. If it is cool, I wear them with a little cardi over the top and leggings underneath. And if it is cold, I wear them with a cardi, a scarf and some boots. Easy peasy.

The old sheet dress.

This one is the prototype.
I'm not mad on that sheet design so I wasn't all that precious about getting it right straight away.
I found a picture I liked in a Japanese sewing book. (I'll fill in the details when I can find it).
I found a dress of mine that fits me well.
And I made a pattern.
And I made the dress.
And my farmer boy thinks it makes me look preggers.
But it is super comfy and great for wearing around the farm.

The old curtain dress.

This dress was made from an old hydrangea printed curtain. The fabric is quite stiff and holds it's shape well.
This front of this dress was made from the same pattern piece as The old sheet dress (above), but with the addition of darts for shaping and a longer seam down the front.
The back of the dress was cut taking about an inch off both sides.
All the shaping means that my farmer boy thinks it does not make me look preggers. Yay!
When I finished this dress and tried it on, I wrote on the twitter that I was thrilled that I had nailed my dress pattern.
I love it.

The old table cloth dress.

I made this dress out of an table cloth I'd been saving for a special occasion.
I really love that print.
This time I experimented with sewing the pockets on straight after cutting it out. After the shaping they became a bit crooked. Lesson learnt.
This time the neckline didn't really work. It's too high and the bias binding puckered. Facing?
But it's a great around the farm dress and a scarf hides all the problems perfectly.

And I like the red pockets. I think they're fun.

So now I have three new dresses. Hooray!!!!
Combined, they cost me about five or six dollars, that's including the binding.
And the best part is that I had everything here already. So that kinda justifies my floral fabric collecting addiction.

I think I'm ready for a new pattern now.
Hemming those three dresses can wait.
I'm thinking wrap around, maybe some crochet lace details.....

So that's me.
How about you?
Are you tired of your wardrobe?
Are you making something new to wear?
Are you making anything?
Do you love pockets as much as I do?

Happy weekend. xx