Happy Christmas Meghann

Hi Meg, our day in photos for you........

Not today , though we got it ready for you in advance

Rhonnie's wearing my apron as a bib, her belly is in the way come meal times.

Breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, croissants, jam and cream and Marks eggs. Yum and  orange juice and bubbly

A new old bike for Scott.

@ little pee wees had fallen out of their nest

We put them in an ice cream container

and Mark put them back up in the tree. Their nest was far too high. We did the same thing last year and the parents looked after them in their new nest. Hope it works this time.

Thanks for the lovely trivet You're are so clever. It's just beautiful...

And you did a great job on Rhonnie's nappy bag. We all really missed you but I'm glad you got to spend the day with friends. Dom called this afternoon, it was lovely to hear from him. Mark and I have had a lovely day. Gudrun came to lunch , we've read and slept and now we are having trifle for dinner!

Love Mum xxx

Winding Down

We take a short break over Christmas. We still need to tend to the animals of course, and Mark still needs to milk, and watering usually needs doing over the summer, but we have had so much rain and the days are so cool and not like summer at all that we won't need to do that either. But we do have a break from making up our CSA boxes for just one week. We both bought a couple of books at the op shop the other day, and we will be laying about resting, reading and maybe knitting for me if the weather stays cool and cricket on the telly for Mark.
I will be having a break from the computer also, so until the New Year I would like to wish you all a very happy holiday season.


                                                   Kate   xxx

The Winner Is...

Congratulations to Georgina for winning the Garlic braid and thanks for your comment......

             Thanks for the tutorial!!

My question is how long do you need to hang it out for before you can start eating it? (this is the first time I have grown garlic)

Mark replied "you can eat it straight away but mostly when the skins are dry it peels best so depending on the weather a few weeks sees it ready for use."


I did have a photo of Mark drawing out the winning name but then the battery went dead. So Sorry, it was a nice photo!


Thank you to everyone who left a comment and I hope your braiding is coming along well. And Georgina if you can get back to me I'll post you off your garlic braid.


                                                    

Happy Birthday Mark

What a beautiful day for a birthday. After all the overcaste and rainy days we've had, today has been glorious. Birthday celebrations began with breakfast of course..

Followed by some op- shopping. Before you think "poor man fancy being dragged along to op- shops on his birthday" let me tell you it was his choice, he just happens to love op shopping as much as me. He was in need of some shorts, sandals and he just can't resist stainless steel. I found some curtaining for some new curtains in the WWOOFer's caravan, some books for some light reading over Christmas and a children's book for the  littlies. (oops, sorry it's up side down)

 And then, a picnic lunch in the park...

Although the ocean was choppy and  the breeze a little cool, it was lovely to be near the sea. We enjoyed a lunch of home made paneer, grilled eggplant, sundried tomatoes and olives with crusty bread. Yum!

And then home for birthday cake and a cup of tea. I'm always longing to get home for a cuppa if I've been out all day.

Chocolate zucchini cake of course!

Mark and I have been together for 9 years now. It has been an amazing journey. He is an amazing individual , a master garlic braider, and my best friend. Happy Birthday Mark!

Mark will draw the give away at 8 this evening so you still have time to leave a comment. Check back here after 8pm to see the results!
Tricia has featured him in her post on garlic. There's a great photo of him taken by little eco.

Hand Made Gifts

I've  finished knitting Leah's cotton dress and bloomers. I'm really pleased with them and managed to teach myself the double crotchet and crab stitch for the edging.

For her big brother and sister I was able to pick up a hand painted (by the children) silk ribbon streamer   for Elizabeth...

 and for Jeffrey some hand made blocks ( sanded and polished with bees wax by the  year 1children ) at the local Steiner school...

 Both presents were on sale at the school's annual Fair. As much as possible we wanted to give  hand made gifts for Christmas. We had a Christmas lunch here on Sunday for Mark's family. Along with the gifts above were the adults gifts of honey, jam and a garlic braid.

Speaking of garlic braids, if you haven't yet left a comment here for the braid give away you have until 8pm tomorrow night. Just a reminder that we can only send the braid within Australia, excluding Tasmania due to export restrictions.

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We have a lot of Casuarina (She Oak) suckering around our duck pond....

Over time they become overcrowded and need thinning out. The smaller ones we transplant to windbreaks around the farm, but some are too big and today we chose one for our Christmas Tree..

Once Christmas is over the leaves and branches will go back to the garden as mulch and the trunk will be used to make some toy fences for our grand son for his birthday next year. No waste!


Mark has been busy over the past 2 days robbing hives and collecting honey...

Here he is decapping a frame. This is our food prep. room where we wash, sort , weigh and pack our vegies.  The milk is bottled here and of course the honey is collected here too.

We bottled some up into cute little jars, capped them with some upcycled, reclyced paper  and made some labels. It was great fun.

And here's one gift ready for family when they come to lunch tomorrow. Home made berry jam, honey and a garlic braid!

The little dress I started for our baby grand daughter is up to the crotchet edge stage and I'm just in the process of learning how to crotchet. I've still got a few days yet!

I still have one small gift to make for Christmas and then I'm done. Then I need to get on with a couple of gifts for 2 new little babes. Both little girls - 1 , a new grand daughter for my brother and his wife, and the other the  4th grand child for a dear friend, who by the way has another due in Jan. and then my grandchild comes next.

If I'm to get gifts for them all I'd better get moving. 

How are your Christmas gifts going?

Garlic Braiding and Giveaway.

I have enlisted the services of the Master Garlic Braider himself to provide you with a garlic braiding tutorial....
Step One cross the stems of two corms.

start with two

Step Two - loop the stems together to ensure the braid doesn't unravel. 

then knot them together

Step Three - place a third stem between the first two.

then add a third

Step Four - plait these three stems for three plaits. You will be looking for the next corms to sit neatly between the first two and the middle corm.

and plait a few strands

Step Five - the process continues as you add garlic to the braid, first to the outer two then the middle one and the addition of stems ensures the length of the braid. Keep any short stems till the end where length no longer is an issue.

add more as you go

keep it tight

stems make for length

when you have enough

Step Six - when you have added the desired number of corms plait the stems till you reach a suitable length.

plait til the end and tie off

I like to braid within the Fibonacci sequence of numbers because of the affinity to nature and eight and twenty one are the most common though the smaller garlics some times go to larger numbers. 

Thanks Mark for sharing your expertise.

Now for the giveaway....To celebrate our garlic harvest we'd like to offer this garlic braid as a gift....

Simply leave a comment, and a winner will be chosen at random by Mark on his birthday 20th Dec, at 8pm. Due to quarantine/customs restrictions the draw can only be open to Australian residents

                                                 Good luck,

                                                                    Kate   xxx

My Weekend

                ~    making labels
                ~    gifts for family and friends
                ~    garlic braid label
                ~    Lebkuchen biscuits to take to a party  at the home of a CSA subscriber
                ~    op shop find so the grandkids can sit up at the kitchen bench

Interesting Reading

While in Melbourne on a course with David Holmgren, a couple of weeks ago, Mark was told about this site.  Mother Earth News, The original guide to living wisely, covers just about everything to help guide us on our simple living path. There are articles on preserving, cheesemaking ,gardening , green energy, health etc etc. I found this article very interesting and  the house would be quite appropriate for  our intentional community, I think.. There are blogs to visit and the Canadian Cam Mather   reminds me a lot of Mark and his no nonsense approach to life.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. It has finally stopped raining here and we can actually see blue skies. Might even get some washing done, certainly a little Christmas crafting.

                             Kate xx

Developing Community.

It's not often that an opportunity like this presents itself. It is so vital that food producing land, close to settlements maintain their purpose for growing food. Occasionally,  opportunities arise, to develop community incorporating food production with housing, on the urban fringe.
One such opportunity has presented itself. The land is currently zoned rural, but surrounding land has previously been bought by developers with the intention for residential development, with a forecasted rezoning of between 5-10 years.
With proper planning, housing could be incorporated into a rural setting making food production possible as well as providing medium/high density housing and community common land.
To seize this opportunity we need to source the financing of the land from people with community development in mind ( in contrast to the abject greed of your typical land developer).
We would love to hear from people who a would love to be a part of this opportunity for developing community with investment of money/ time/ ideas/ support etc.
Money is important at this early stage to secure the land before it is snapped up by developers.
Here is a little something from a friend along the lines of development, if you care to look.
 http://pocket-neighborhoods.net/.

Zucchini Glut

What do you do with a glut of zucchini? We are averaging 4Kg a day of zucchini. Most of them go into our CSA boxes, but it still leaves us with lots. We add them to just about every meal. They have been an ingredient in our evening meal for the last 4 nights- vegetable stack with paneer, paneer with vegetable sauce, curry, and tonight vegetable rissotto.
This afternoon, while going through my recipe book looking for another use for zucchini I came across a chocolate zucchini cake recipe scribbled on a piece of paper and thought I'd give it a go. Normally when I write a recipe down I note where I've got it from. I didn't do it with this one and I can't remember where it came from, so if any of you out there reading this recognise it please let me know so that I can link it back from whence it came.

Ingredients.
1/2 cup butter
11/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
21/2 cups SR flour
4 Tblspns. cocoa
1 tsp. bicarb soda
1/2 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn. salt
2 cups grated zucchini

Method
Cream butter and sugar
Beat in eggs
Add milk and vanilla
Add sifted dry ingredients
Stir in zucchini
Pour into 23cm x 30cm tin
Bake at 160 c for 40- 45 mins,

Delicious.....

It certainly will be one of our regulars over summer while ever the zucchini glut is on!

Employment

What does it mean to be employed?  The dictionary describes it .. ' To give work to; to keep at work.' It doesn't say anything about being paid for that work. And what of work..."effort; a task; achievement...'  "to labour, toil..'..  'to bring about; to influence; to fashion...' Again, nothing said about payment.
In nature nothing is unemployed. Everything goes about it's work to take care of it's needs. Once their needs are met they rest.
Last week I went to a talk by Ted Trainer.

THE SIMPLER WAY:

WORKING FOR TRANSITION FROM CONSUMER SOCIETY TO

A SIMPLER, MORE COOPERATIVE, JUST AND ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY.

In Ted's talk the point was made that if there is anyone who is not actively employed then there is some serious faults in that community.

At an employment seminar some years ago I had the opportunity to ask the panel including ALP president (past president) and pickabox champion Barry Jones a question on employment on behalf of the Permaculture Hunter Group.

My question was "If we can teach people to provide for their needs through gardening, would we not eliminate or reduce unemployment?" Barry answered by saying that it happened in Lismore on the fringe of society - totally missing the point I am afraid. I still believe that employment is an activity that provides for your needs and the needs of your family and some of the most employed people on the planet are "stay at home mums"

Chooks lead a life full of purpose.
They are employed scratching. eating bugs and weeds. pooping and laying eggs.

Having purpose is what we need to be employed. We need a reason to do the things we should and from this comes the satisfaction which goes with being active in providing for your self and your family.

Lets work towards 100 percent employment by staying focused on the things that give us purpose and provide for our needs and the needs of those close to us.

Mark and Kate ( in collaboration ) xxxx

An Amazing Individual

I've had cause to say this to Mark quite a few times today. He truly is an amazing individual. While he has been away and with all the rain we've been having, the garden has just gotten out of hand.Before morning tea Mark had started to tame it.He had paths cleaned up, green manure crops turned in,and weeds thrown to the chooks.
But it started long before that. Up at 5.30 to milk the cow, down to the garden to harvest for the boxes, and while I washed and packed he got breakfast ready, and then made paneer cheese.

While I was delivering boxes he continued with the garden and while I did the animal feeding, lock up and egg collection he cooked me my favourite dinner.....

Fried paneer cheese with roasted capsicum, eggplant and tomatoes, caramelised onions on fried bread. Yuuuummy!

Mark, you are an amazing individual!

Around The Farm

Mark has been away since last Monday, and took the camera with him, so I haven't had any photos to share with you or the time to do much blogging. With Mark away  I had to try to keep up with some of his jobs as well as my own. He went to Melbourne to do a 2 day course with David Holmgren. Lucky him! But he's home again and I'd like to share some photos....

We are picking 2 Kg of berries every day. Most goes into our CSA boxes but I have been freezing some and making jam

Corn and Zucchini patch then...

and now....

We are picking between 3 and 4 kg a day of zucchini and the corn is flowering. Next to the corn we planted beans which are now climbing up he corn stalks, with squash growing underneath, The American Indians      "3 Sisters".
So much has been going on around here. A Steiner School year 3 camp, a baby shower for my daughter, a tour by some year 12 students environment club. I went to a talk by Ted Trainer on Living simply. Nothing new in what he had to say really - basically stop consuming so much, but we all know that don't we. His suggestion to us all was to join Transition Towns and support what they are doing as , in his opinion, it is the only chance we have of making a real difference. Previously he hasn't had good things to say about TT but he said that was because they weren't going far enough but now he says if we all get in there and do something it has a chance!.
After that I had a lovely dinner in the park with some other Permies, before watching a new film  Growing Change-- A journey inside Venezuela's Food Revolution. It's a documentary by Simon Cunich. He spent a little time on our farm a few years ago and photos of our farm are on the film!
All our tours, workshops and courses are now finished for the year, so I hope that we can slow down a bit and gather our thoughts. We have many exciting things planned for the new year including some new projects!
But for now I need to take it easy for a while I think. I have some gifts to make for Christmas as well as some special things for my grandchild, as well as keep the market garden going. I hope to be more regular with my posts here as well. We'll see how that goes.