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

the patch work cubby

The story of this cubby started about ten and a half years ago.

I know!!

Ten and a half years ago I told my farmer boy that I was going to buy Miss Indi a cubby house for her second birthday. You know, one of those cubbies made from reddish wood with a pitched roof, a little door, square windows, some window boxes to pop some flowers in and some floral curtains.

But my farmer boy said no.

At first he said no because of all the nasty, treated wood they were making cubbies out of back then. And then when I found an alternative, safer version, he said no because he wanted to build her one himself.

But soon after that our business took off, we had more little girls and the cubby house just never did happen.

Until a couple of months ago, after a boy's pool night out, my farmer boy showed me a photo on his phone of a cubby a friend of ours, Jobbo, had built for his girls. It was the cutest little cubby house I had ever seen. And what's more, Jobbo was thinking about making those cubbies as a little business.

I knew straight away that our cubby time had come.

So we got Jobbo over. And we spoke about what we wanted in a cubby - somewhere the little girls could play but also a space for Miss Indi to hang out with her friends. We spoke about size - small enough to feel like a teeny cubby but big enough for grown ups not to feel claustrophobic when invited in for a cuppa. And we spoke about materials - where available all from our farm (ie. farm junk).

And then Jobbo and his apprentice, builder Bren, got to work.

And over the next few Thursdays there was plenty of sawing and sanding and scavenging and deciding and designing and admiring and cutting and nailing.

And then last Thursday the front door was bolted on and our cubby was finished.

The girls swept it out and picked some roses from the garden and we lit a bon fire to celebrate.

Every time I look out the window and see it sitting there I can't help but smile.

I think it is the most beautiful patch work cubby house I have ever seen.

After ten and a half years I'm happy to be writing a The End at the end of this cubby-house story, even though I know it's really just the beginning.

You can find Jobbo on instagram  @TheBuilderRecycles.


I hope you have the happiest week peeps.
Me and my farmer boy are heading off on a little adventure tomorrow and I'm so excited I might not get to sleep tonight.

Bye! xx

Monday early in the afternoon

Eight shots from our weekend;

(1-3) One of the best parts of autumn is the bonfires.

(4) Visiting the Holy Goat girls and meeting Giselle the goat who will soon be coming to live with us and have kids and provide us with milk.

 (5) Still preserving.

(6) His beloved compost steaming.

 (7) Knitting a red beanie for Miss Jazzy.


(8) The kitchen garden at dusk.


Monday early in the afternoon.

So far today: we got the girls up and off to school, had a quick coffee in town with my parents and then I did a pilates class. Pilates is ace for me. Farming and mothering are hard on my body and pilates feels a bit like a weekly tune up. It slows me down and helps me to remember to breathe, keep my shoulders down and do things properly. I've been doing pilates for nine years!!

And now I'm home sitting on the couch with a blankie on my knees answering emails about my book, filling in an author's survey and finding some photos of our family and farm for the publicity.

I still feel very self conscious when I'm referred to as the author.

There is clean washing in the machine to hang out, there is tonight's dinner to think about (onion soup?), I can see my farmer boy out the window filling up the vegie beds with compost, there's a zillion unanswered emails in my inbox and a house full of the weekend's mess to deal with, there are seeds to plant, apples to dehydrate and some phone calls to return.

But all I really feel like doing is having a long hot bath and listening to a podcast or hopping back into bed with my knitting.

I never ever do things like that. Especially not on a Monday when the to-do list is so high it's threatening to topple over. When the rest of my week is looking so crazy busy that now might be my only chance. But the pull of the cozy over the constructive is huge and strong.

Maybe I'll make the soup base and a bread dough and see.

Maybe I'll answer four emails for every four knitting rows.

Maybe I'll have lunch and then decide.

Maybe...

I hope your week is super lovely friends.
Have you got anything fun planned?

Bye bye. xx

every day in may - or not

This is the bunting I made and the stamp I cut to stamp the bunting I made.

When my book comes out in August, hopefully some book shops will hang this stamped bunting in their windows as a display.

My book!! Oh my gosh! Did you see I put a little pic of the cover over there on my side bar. Eeeeeep!!

This is the wool I was lucky enough to win in Little Woollie Jules's giveaway to celebrate the opening of her online store. Thanks Jules!! 

Delicious and soft and squishy and waiting patiently for the perfect project. Six 50gm balls, any suggestions?

This is the show-off autumn kissed grapevine on the front side of our house. The back-side (ha!) grapevine gets less sun and is yellow. 

This is about 30 or 40 rows of this brilliant idea I had that is never going to happen. Such a shame. A wide, loooooooong, grey scarf would be so useful and snuggly and cute. But realistically, 120 stitch rows of plain knit and plain purl are not so much fun. Unravel.

This is the state of our cubby so far. 

There'll be more tomorrow. @thebuilderrecycles (on instagram) is coming at 8am.

This was my attempt at a wintery colour palette blanket.

It hurts my eyes. Unravel.

These are the potatoes we picked last Friday.

This is the beanie I'm knitting for Pepper. I-cords and pom poms to go.

These are some of my kitchen garden tomatoes. With ten crates of green tomatoes in the loungeroom and a frost warning overnight, I had to say goodbye to these. I guess the chooks will love them.


It's funny, all week long I've been obsessively considering my every day in May project.

I've thought about walking every day, crocheting a square a day, knitting a square a day, making a pom pom a day, cooking a new recipe a day, reading a chapter a day, writing a blog post a day, naming something I am grateful for each day, doing something different with apples every day, taking a bag to the op-shop a day or doing some sort of photo challenge each day.

But late this afternoon, waaaaaay into the first day of May, I admitted defeat. For some reason I am just too crazy busy this May. Between the book stuff and the preserving stuff and the home stuff and the mothering stuff, there is just no room to take on another project. I have no idea how it is possible that with three at school this year I am still busier than last year, but I am. Either that or just more realistic.

I adored last year's motif a day in May and the May two years before that. I loved choosing the pattern, finding the cotton, hooking each square and watching the pile of finished motifs grow.

Hopefully I'll be back on board next year.

Hopefully I'll stick to this decision and not freak out and rush off to make a square as soon as I've pressed publish on this post. Hopefully.

So what are you up to over there?
Are you busier this year than last?
Are you making every day in May?
Or are you too tired by the end of the day?
Oh and if I disable anonymous comments is that going to worry you?

Bye!

These autumn days I am...

❤ Popping and planting garlic. See you in six months little purple bulbs.

❤ Knitting beanies. One almost done, four to go.

❤ LOVING having my folks at the bottom of the hill. xx

❤ Making and stamping bunting to go in shop windows when my book comes out. Eeeeep!!

❤ Thinking a lot about business and pleasure. And dollars and sense.

❤ Picking about 20kgs of tomatoes a day. Preserving most days. 

❤ Keeping one girl a day home with us for private time. Part time farm school.

❤ Loving the look of the water droplets on the nasturtium leaves.

❤ So over the 300+ spam comments I am getting each day on my blog. 

❤ Loving Dawn Tan's new blog.

❤ Behind on my running/walking routine because of the time-hogging tomatoes.

❤ Loving splitting two year old, very dry wood.

❤ Wishing it were 15 degrees warmer. At least.

❤ Listening to the Maremmas barking like crazy in the back paddock. 

❤ Needing to dehydrate another load of apples.

❤ Watching Nashville. Liking not loving.

❤ Looking forward to visiting a dairy goat farm later this week for some ideas and info.

❤ So glad I decided not to drive to Melbourne and back tonight.

❤ Supervising the building of the recycled cubby house. There it is in the pic above top left.
❤ Loving the expanding kitchen garden.

❤ So sorry that I haven't replied to your emails. I'll get there soon.

❤ Still struggling with autumn dressing.

❤ Enjoying snacking on carrots straight from the ground.

❤ Embarrassed that we still have one suit case left to unpack. The odds and ends one. Ugh!

❤ A bit dehydrated. I never remember to drink water when it's cold. 

❤ Really enjoying writing my blog at the moment.

❤ Loving the comments you are leaving on my blog. Thank you! Thank you! x

❤ Tired and ready for bed.

What's going on with you?

What are you thinking/making/baking/growing/feeling/wearing?

Do tell.

Later potata. xx

passion

This weekend's tomatoes;

All the San Marzano's were cooked, moulied and poured into Fowlers jars (132 for the year so far).

All the cherries were eaten in salads and sandwiches.

And all the baby pears were laid out on baking trays with big glugs of olive oil, plenty of fresh basil and oregano, wedges of onion and garlic, and salt and pepper.

Tray after tray sat for hours and hours in the wood cooker over the weekend. Our house smelled delicious.

A few trays of the tomatoes were put in jars and filled with olive oil (recipe here), some were eaten straight off the tray and the rest were moulied, poured into a big, heavy saucepan and cooked down for sauce and paste.

Me and my farmer boy are talking a lot about passion at the moment.

Red, fiery, excited, energising, smiley, happy, butterflies in your tummy passion.

Where does it come from and what is it exactly?

I keep coming back to the same answer. Growing food, preparing food and preserving food for our family is my passion. Living in the season and preparing for the next. Having a minimal impact on the earth. Living a creative life. Family. Home.

It's been a few years since we came to the realisation that it's a bit silly to grow gorgeous organic fruit and veg only to sell it all off at market and not have any left over for ourselves. It's been a few years since we used that realisation to set up a big kitchen garden right outside our house. And it's been a few years of feeding ourselves before the business.

But now that I have three at school, my book has gone to print and we are back from overseas, I feel like there's room in my life to go further. To do more.

There's not a lot of time. The slow life is a pretty busy life. But while I'm gathering tomatoes, or kindling, or eggs, I'm also gathering ideas. Maybe a couple of milking goats and some cheese making, maybe some sheep for shearing and wool spinning, maybe a bit of work on a way to grow citrus, maybe a paddock of wheat for bread and chook food? So many maybes.

It's a work in progress and a constant reassessment.

I feel like this is an important time for us and I'm excited. (Although I do sometimes wish that cleaning my house gave me more of a buzz.)


So tell me peeps, what is your passion?
What keeps you up at night and gets you out of bed in the morning?
What makes you happy and feeds your soul?

I hope you have such a happy week my friends.

xx

Toffee apples.

This autumnal afternoon in April, after weeks of picking, drying, bottling, stewing and baking apples, when Miss Jazzy suggested we make toffee apples, I jumped at the idea. And then I sent her and her sisters down to the orchard to pick some.

They came back with a box of Splendors and a fistful of sticks and we got to work.

We followed this recipe.

Delicious heritage apples picked fresh from the tree, toffee cooked from the very best certified organic ingredients, excitement in the anticipation, delight in the crunch, pure childhood joy!!

Years ago I made toffee apples and sold them at farmer's markets, today I enjoyed not worrying about the bubbles and just enjoyed the process.

And they were declared the best toffee apples EVER!!

Toffee apples in Autumn are going to be a family tradition at ours now I think.


When was the last time you enjoyed the sweet childhood fave?
If you close your eyes can you remember that mix of sweet and tart?
The crack of the toffee and the crunch of the apple?
Deeelish!

Later
xx

Oh and my book is going to the printers tomorrow. OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I'll show you the cover in a few days time. Eeeeeeeeep!!