empty

Hello lovelies,

Last week as my mum sat on my chair and edited my commas, and tenses, and hyphens, she told me that she always wants to delete the part of my blog where I discuss the writing of the blog. She thinks it's a means to getting into the writing of the blog but unnecessary to the actual blog itself. So with that in mind I'm not going to start with a discussion about my process, instead I'm going to start somewhere else entirely.

I'm going to start with the word empty.

For our past few gym sessions, we've made a point of sitting down at the start when we first arrive, to set the intention of the class. On Monday we let go of the fear and today we used the word empty. We emptied out everything that we brought in with us and started afresh.

I emptied out the apples being eaten by the birds, the school dramas, the washing in the machine since yesterday, the period pain, the phone calls I have to make, the emails I have to return, my messy mind, Pepper's tummy ache, my to-do list and all sorts of other rambly etceteras and made an effort to be present in my body.

To make this blog I'm going to take the word empty in another direction. I'm going to empty out all the photos I have in my camera from the past week and write a little bit about each.

Let's go.

A few days ago we made sauerkraut. And I took a few photos inside. Which I never do because we live in the forest and it is often too dark in here. I love growing cabbages, and I love eating sauerkraut, and recently after listening to Richard Fidler's interview with Giulia Enders about The powerful impact of gut health on our bodies and brains and Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis's report on the intricate relationship between the gut micro biome and the brain - The second brain - on All In The Mind, I've started viewing it as medicine too.

I've been watching all those dangly beans fade from green to brown and waiting for their pods to rattle so I can pick them and fill jars with them, and winter soups and stews full of them, and later on come spring time, plant them all over again.

I've been watching as parts of our garden fade and die off.

Parts of our garden reach their autumnal peak.

And some parts of our garden lie empty and ready to be filled.

I knitted leisurely rows of Emily's birthday Bulldogs socks until I found out that the AFL men's competition starts again tonight. TONIGHT!! Better get a wriggle on, hey.

I watched Bren spend every spare second outside working with wood.

We made fruit leather using my old recipe from here.

We squished and bottled jars of tomato sauce.

We made semi dried tomatoes in the oven using my old recipe from here.

And we made apple compote and dried apple rings using my old recipe from here.

And I've left the best to last. Over the past week Bren has started making bowls on his pole lathe from wood that he's found around our farm.

I should rephrase that: over the past week Bren has been thinking, speaking, watching YouTube clips, reading, dreaming and obsessing about wooden, pole-lathe-turned bowls. The making has been somewhat limited due to the weather and the busy season. But holy moly you guys, BOWLS!!!

I am beyond excited at these beautiful creations and the potential ahead. I am so very inspired watching his process, his need to learn and itch to create. And truthfully I'm a bit jealous of his obsession. I'm feeling so stuck creatively and would so love a dose of that excitement that comes with learning a new craft.

So I guess having started this post with the word empty, it's quite fitting to finish it with a photo of a bowl. A vessel waiting to be filled - with apples, with little love notes, with the treasures I find when I empty the pockets for the wash, I guess time will tell. And in fact I quite love them empty because it means you can see the beautiful grain and chisel marks inside.

And with that I'm out of photos, which must mean it's the end of the blog.

But first tell me about you - are you a sauerkrauter? A preserver? A lover of hot or cold weather? Fiction or non fiction? Happy or sad movies?

Me? - yes, yes, hot, fiction, sad with happy endings.

Happy weekend you guys.

Love Kate xx

How to make dried apple rings

Make hay while the sun shines.

It's possibly a bit silly to write up a recipe for something so straight forward as dried apple rings, but this afternoon as I was making up a batch they looked so pretty that I couldn't resist snapping a few photos and then I thought - why not.

So here we go - this is how we make dried apple rings at our place.

Gather -

• a basket of apples
• half a lemon
• water
• a knife
• an apple peeler/corer thing - if you don't have one never-mind, you can do it the old fashioned way with a peeler and a knife.
• a colander
• a dehydrator 
• air tight storage jars

Gather your apples. Just like there are different potatoes for different meals, there probably is a an apple variety that is more suited for dehydrating, but our Jersey Macs were first off the trees this week so we used them.

Peel, core and cut your apples into rings. Actually, only peel if you feel like it.



Add one tablespoon of lemon juice to four cups of water and mix well.

Dunk all the apple rings in the lemon mix and leave to soak for a few minutes.

In theory the lemon is supposed to stop the apples from browning, but we just do it because we like the taste.



Drain the apples in a colander, give the colander a shake and then lay the rings on a clean tea-towel to dry.

I usually press another tea-towel over the top to get all the excess water off.



Then load your apple rings onto the dehydrator trays making sure there is space between them for the air to circulate.



After a couple of hours in the dehydrator, test the apples to see how they're going. Ours generally take between four and six hours.

When your apples are leathery or crunchy, just the way you like them, take the trays out and leave them at room temperature for ten minutes or so.



Then load them into a glass air-tight container and store them out of direct sunlight.

I dare you not to gobble them all up at once.



Now if only I could work out a way to crochet the peel....


Wishing you a word in edgewise.

LoveLoveLove

xoxo