What I've been up to - the late summer edition

Hello!

How are you lovely blog buddy?

What have I been up to? I thought you'd never ask. Here goes;

I've been picking celery, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers and herbs from the garden.

Somewhere along the line I ditched the cider vinegar method of preserving and fell in love with fermenting. These fermented pickles are super easy to make, barely cost a thing in terms of ingredients and dollars, they are DELICIOUS and are full of beneficial nutrients for your gut. WinwinwinwinwinYUM!

I'm using Amanda Feifer's book - Ferment Your Vegetables as a bit of a bible, but I'm certain there are loads of great recipes online and in other books too.

I think my poly tunnel cucumber vines are nearing the end of their season but my market garden vines are just taking off. Looks like I'll be shoving cucumbers into jars, filling them with herbs and brine and vine leaves and burping their air bubbles for many weeks still to come.

We're picking apples! So far we've picked the the Jersey Macs, the Abbas and the Galas. Gosh it's good to be an apple farmer in apple season.

After a few years break from pumpkin growing due to lack of interest, we finally planted the seeds and had another grow(!). I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch those big leafy vines take over the space, to watch those yellow flowers form bulbs behind them that seem to grow and grow and grow every time you look, and even though I am not a pumpkin eater, none of us are, this autumn I resolve to try a whole lot of recipes until we become so.

We've been sharing our grapes with the birds.

I read, and fell in a deep hole, and wept over, and despaired over, and then finally finished Hanya Yangihara's A Little Life. Reading it affected my entire life for two weeks like a bad dream that haunted my days. But as traumatic and heart breaking as I found it, I also thought it was brilliant. I couldn't put it down. I made excuses to run inside to my bedroom to change clothes just so I could sneak a few pages, I stayed up waaaaay too late at night to devour big chunks and I read on the treadmill - which is something I've never done before but which I have always done since. I loved this book and still feel myself sobbing a little when I think back to it.

And even though I made jokes that I needed to read a fluffy romance novel after I finished A Little Life - I started reading Room by Emma Donoghue, a much less traumatic but still very disturbing and claustrophobic novel.

I've almost finished my Flower King beanie from Anna Maltz's gorgeous book Penguin. The pattern calls for a big pom-pom on top, but I'm thinking an i-cord finish might be better for my little penguins to wear to school.

Ravelled here.

I've started a Bracken jumper for Miss Pepper which is knitted inside out with two different sized needles which is fun and fast. It's been ages since I've knitted jumpers and cardigans for my girls but this year I'm hoping to have them all rugged up in time for winter.

I felt like the luckiest Mum on earth when I discovered that an entire ball of HOT PINK yarn had gone through the washing machine cycle and not coloured anything else pink. I have no idea who the yarn belonged to, I have no idea how it even happened but I do know that I am grateful beyond words that there wasn't even a streak, or a tinge, or a speck of pink on anything to be found.

I am loving the little posies of garden cut flowers that have been appearing in jars around the place.

We watched and loved both seasons of The Leftovers and have no idea what to watch next.

And I'm thrilled to report that we have finally joined the rest of Australia by having bowls of tomatoes on the kitchen table. Finally. For a while there I thought that the girls would eat every single one that I brought into the house as I brought it in, but eventually supply overcame even their demand. We still are nowhere near a saucepan of passata or a tray of semi-drieds, but as I keep chanting to myself - tomatoes are an autumn fruit and we are still 10 days away from autumn.

And as usual I've been watering and weeding and feeding and planting and digging and fencing and cooking and baking and jamming and dehydrating, and driving, and listening and solving and writing and photographing.

I haven't yet used the spinning wheel I borrowed from my spinning group, maybe this weekend.


And that's me, us, we.

Tell me about you. How are you travelling? What are you reading, growing, dreaming about?


Wishing you the most wonderful weekend.

Love Kate
xoxo

twentieth

Hello lovelies,

I'm afraid I can't chat tonight as I am deep, deep in pickled cucumber and pickled bean land.

Measuring, stuffing, sterilising, chopping, cooking, pouring, sealing.

I hope you understand.

And I hope you can tell me which land you are deeply immersed in right now?


Big vinegary love,

Kate

xoxo


ps (yes they are my pyjamas)

fifteenth - how to make pickled cucumbers

We're officially in the middle of a cucumber glut!

A crate a day. All you can eat; straight off the vine, in salads, and sandwiches, and dips and like apples. We're filling the baskets of anyone passing through. And it's still early in the season!

We planted cucumbers last year for the first time and I fell in love. I had one plant and I think I squealed in delight every single time I picked a fruit from its vine. They were so crunchy and delicious and so user friendly.

This year I planted trays and trays of seeds. And when their green leaves poked out of the soil I quickly repotted them to give their roots space until they took up half of the green house. They were a hardy plant and seemed to thrive under cover.

When it came time to plant them in the ground my farmer boy read me a section from Steve Solomon's Growing Vegetables South Of Australia;

Unless you intend to put up enough cucumber pickles to supply all the rellies, neighbours and friends, two vines will almost certainly become one vine too many.

And then I promptly ignored him and planted about 50 plants. Yep, I know.

So right now, we're getting through them, only just, but come next week, or into February - who knows.

Originally I found our pickle recipe on my instagram friend Jules @procrasticraft's page . We've made them so many times over the past few weeks that they've become a kitchen staple. They're super simple to make and ridiculously delicious to eat.

I asked Jules and she kindly gave me permission to share her recipe, so here it is. Just keep in mind that the measurements aren't exact and each time I make them the number of jars I fill changes.

PICKLED CUCUMBERS

Gather

• five medium sized jars - sterilised
• enough cucumbers to stuff the jars full
• fresh bay leaves
• 1tsp each per jar cumin, coriander, mustard seeds
• 4 cups cider vinegar
• 2 cup water
• 3Tbs each sugar and iodised salt

Make

To each jar add 2 fresh bay leaves, and 1tsp each of cumin, coriander and mustard seeds and then your cucumbers.

In a saucepan put the cider vinegar, water, sugar and salt.

Heat until the sugar and the salt have dissolved but do not bring to the boil.

Cool slightly, fill each jar, seal and store.

Leave a day or two and then EAT!

I have no idea how long they'll last but given that they are full of vinegar, sugar and salt, I'd say quite some time. Also we refrigerate the jars after we open them.

Modifications

We're not big on cumin so we ditched it.
We have masses of garlic so we peel and slice a couple of cloves per jar.
We tried pepper corns but they didn't seem to do anything for the flavour.
We haven't tried dill yet because we don't have any but are going to grow some to add.
We cut down on the sugar for taste.

You know what else? I think there's no reason why this recipe wouldn't work as a pickler for all manner of things...beetroot, onions, carrots...

The only thing that I can't work out is if it's possible to reuse the liquid in another batch, it seems like such a waste to chuck it in the compost. Do you know?

So are you in a pickle?
Do you have a go-to recipe?
What are your fave things to pickle?
Do you think you'll try these?

Thanks Jules!

Happy pickling you guys

Love Kate

xoxo

tenth

I've been having some awful computer problems. For some reason, all of a sudden I can't get Lightroom to import or save my photos and I don't know what to do about it.

I spent ages this afternoon trying to work it out despite the fact that I am not in the slightest computer literate. And then out of desperation I called for back-up but my farmer boy didn't have any better luck with it.

Yesterday my system worked and today it doesn't.

In the past things like this have been known to make me crazy. They've made me get cross and shouty and behave in a way that later I wish I hadn't. Today when I felt my breathing get shallow, when I realised that I wanted to get impatient with the one person who was trying his best to help me and when I started to feel panicky about the future of this blog and my photos and life as I knew it...I grabbed a basket and went outside.

I wandered around for a while checking on the state of the tomatoes and the peas and then I hit the poly tunnel and started to pick today's cucumbers. And after a while I slowed and calmed down.

And then a little bit after that my farmer boy joined me and as we were chatting I had a realisation that I may be crap at computers but I can grow cucumbers and that maybe I should be happy with that.

And maybe I should find a real life Lightroom teacher to come over and set me up with some systems.

And maybe I should stack the dishwasher with some jars and get pickling!!

These two photos are of yesterday's crop, there'll be more tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.

If you've got a pickle recipe I'd love to try it.
Actually if you've got any sort of cucumber recipe - I'm interested.


See ya tomorrow!

Love Kate xoxo

Snapshots again

Hello lovely online friends. How are you? How was your weekend? Have you got anything exciting planned for this coming week? Are you feeling grounded or a bit aflutter?

I'm good. A little bit unsettled with all that I have to do and all that I want to do rushing around my head and making me feel a little bit out of breath. But I feel like my life is busy with good things at the moment and that makes me feel grateful.

But it also makes me feel like I don't know where to start this blog today. Which stories to tell? Which bits to share? And which to let go never to be heard from again?

Sometimes my blog speaks to me in such a clear bossy voice, while at other times I need a formula to get going. Today is definitely the latter so I've decided to go back to a post I wrote back about six weeks ago and do the same thing all over again. Eight photos that represent a bit of a snapshot of my life at the moment (minus the girls of course because they are at school) and a sentence or two as a description of each.

PICKING 

Beetroot. I feel like beetroot kind of fills the void of tomatoes when they are out of season. The flavours are completely different, but they both add something special to the salad, the roast veggies and the sandwiches that nothing else does.

I pickle my beetroot using this recipe. Yum!


KNITTING 

Another cabled beanie for my farmer boy from this pattern.

Last year two photographers came to our house to shoot us for a fancy country magazine. After we had done our polite introductions they asked us if it were at all possible for Farmer Bren to go beanie-less for the shoot. Although it was the middle of winter, the magazine would come out in summer and they wanted it to look warm.  Apparently the order had come from the top so who was he to disagree. I think those few hours were the only few hours I have ever seen him without a beanie on our farm in autumn, winter or spring since we've been here.

I like how happy a new beanie makes him and I like the charcoal instead of his usual brown.


READING

Gone Girl. My littlest sister Abby was so surprised to hear I hadn't read it that she ordered it and had it delivered to me by post. And she's right, I'm loving it. Even though I only have time for a chapter or two each night, I'm still reading it far too quickly and will be sorry when it's done.


FEEDING

The fire. Always. Collecting kindling, filling the firewood trailer, splitting logs, bringing loads inside and keeping the fire going. Sometimes I dream of push button central heating, so clean, so quick and so easy, but the fire is the heart of the home and I'd probably miss it if it were gone.


DECIDING

Whether or not to knit the pair to my first ever sock. The length is right, the height is right, the heel makes me happier and prouder than I ever thought a heel could, but it is baggy under the instep and uncomfortable to wear. Shame.


TRYING AGAIN

Toe up this time instead of cuff down. And with much smaller needles. Wish me luck, I don't know if I'll have the heart to try a third sock if this one doesn't fit right.


ADMIRING

Backyard Bees a gorgeous new book by Doug Purdie published by Murdoch books. So much important beekeeping info, such great photos by Cath Muscat, lots of delicious looking recipes, it really is a fabulous book.

And look, there's us all dressed in our bee keeping best!!

SQUISHING

The wool that came with some other cute treasures in the last instalment of the Jellywares winter yarn club. Mmmmmmmm delicious. Jodie plans to run a spring wool club starting next month too, so keep an eye on her Facebook page for sign ups. It's been such fun to get my box in the post each month.

And that's that. How about you, what are you picking, reading, feeding, deciding, trying again, admiring and squishing?

I'll be back tomorrow with the next instalment of the granny-hottie-a-long. Have you made your 24?

Happy new week friends. May your news be fabulous.

xx

How to make your own pickled beetroot

This beetroot pickle is so yummy and such a fave in our house that we try to have a jar in the fridge at all times.

We planted this bunch of beetroot way back in February. The ground is so cold at the moment that it acts a type of fridge, stopping it from growing but keeping it fresh for us to pick as we need.

Gather

1 biggish jar, sterilised 

7 fresh medium beetroots

1 and 1/2 (375ml) vinegar (we use apple cider vinegar)

1 and 1/4 tablespoons dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

Cook

1. Wash the beetroot and place them in a saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover the beetroot. Bring to the boil and cook until the beetroot are tender.

2. Drain beetroot reserving 1 and 1/4 cups (300ml) of the cooking liquid.

3. Once the beetroot are cool, cut off the tops and bottoms and peel.

4. Slice the beetroot and set aside.

5. Mix together the reserved cooking liquid and the vinegar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

6. Add the mustard, salt and sugar to the saucepan. Stir occasionally and bring to the boil again. Remove from the heat.

7. Place beetroot slices in your jar and pour hot vinegar mixture over the top.

8. Screw on lid and refrigerate for a few days before use.

Eat!

Will last for a while after opened if refrigerated.


Tell me peeps, are you a fan of the beet?
What's your fave way to partake?

Happy new week!
Happy canned beets!

xx