Storing the harvest

Ideally, the corn would have been processed on the same day as harvesting to keep them at their freshest. But anyway, we got around to it today.

Peeled, chopped, blanched, chilled, frozen.


We then moved on to making our way through the piles of produce awaiting processing. Squeezing some excess oranges to make ice blocks and then I cooked up a big batch of tomatoes as well. Beans can happen tomorrow once I figure out what to do.

Oooooh, harvest day!

We had great fun this morning collecting this lot. The corn was a disappointment, but got some neat looking Rainbow Corn with some deep purples and bluey colours.

More homemade

Well, I cooked up another batch of tomatoes this afternoon and came out with 5 servings for the freezer. Have had to move on to the upright freezer since I've got the underfridge one bursting at the seams. My tomatoes are definitely out-performing last years both in yield as well as size. I think we'll get them to last quite well especially since I don't seem to cook with tomatoes so much while on the GAPS diet (probably since I can't serve up pasta sauce on pasta at the moment which was a good staple meal a few times a week before).

I put another batch of yoghurt on as I used up the last 500ml for making some ice cream GAPS style.

2 cups of homemade yoghurt
1 ripe banana
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

It went down well, we'll see how it goes down when I serve it up for the kids birthday party in April lol*.

Today I also received some almonds I'd ordered through our organic co-op and decided to try out some almond milk. So I set a cup of almonds to soak in water for 8hrs.

I then drained them, added 3 cups water and blended till smooth. I drained it through a fine sieve and added a little vanilla essence (and popped the pulp into the freezer for using in baking). It tasted nice but slightly bland but I'm sure Nathan at least will like it. I am investigating growing my own almond trees (apparently you need two or there are some dwarf self-fertilizing ones available). To buy organically from the shop the nuts are $40/kg and through the co-op around $20/kg which is a significant difference but still pricey in the big scheme of things.

*I am also looking at how I can throw the kids a small joint bithday party as sustainably as possible (their birthday's are 6wks apart). I will be catering the food GAPS style and have quite a few yummy options so far but a few recipes that still need testing. I am looking at getting or making some little bright coloured paper lanterns instead of balloons that can be kept and reused another time, making a bunting for decoration, making some new funky table napkins instead of disposable and a few party games that don't include a bunch of junk for kids to take home.

Yesterday Nathan wanted to make his own scrambled eggs. He's been increasingly wanting to cook his own food (banana pancakes are becoming a bit of a standard recipe around here and then he figured scrambled eggs weren't so different). I did do a bit of extra stirring for him, but the rest was his work.



We also did a batch of fresh juice yesterday with the arrival of our new vege box. We used beetroot, apple, orange and pear. I was busy washing out the gear and turned around and saw this sweet little face playing with her image in the stainless steel of the juicer.


I picked these long forgotten and neglected carrots the other day. This lot survived the carrot fly but didn't get thinned hence the stumpy appearance. They were tasty though and the kids enjoyed munching through.


And wow, tomorrow is the last official day of summer.

Another basket

I've finally been able to pick enough to fill my basket again.

I was surprised to see this lovely yellow courgette hiding under a leaf.

Here is one of many lurking out there in the undergrowth...

A big ole batch of tomatoes

Today I realised I'd accumulated quite a few tomatoes that gave me enough to cook down to freeze. It was hosing down outside, so was good to have a few inside domestic duties to get into which broke me from the hum-drum of washing, tidying and cleaning.

Last year I made them into a tomato fondue which I used for pizza sauce, pasta sauce in spaghetti bolognese etc - but since I've found myself all "cooked out" recently, decided to just cook them down plain and freeze into portion sizes that I can flavour up later.

I got about 4 cans worth from this batch.

And the kids enjoying some freshly cooked tomatoes...

And while I was in the mood I set another batch of beans to soak overnight to make up tomorrow. Yay, looking forward to easy lunches around here again for minimal cooking. Even though I have no store bought option at the moment due to the extra ingredients, if I were buying organic baked beans by the tin this works out at about the same cost while I am able to use my own home grown tomatoes.

We tasted our new batch of yoghurt today and I found it had a lovely tart taste which when done with a shorter culture time seems to not have so much. So, so far a success.

The Three Sisters

Well, they've gone wild down there. They look very cool and all three plants producing well, but I do wonder if some of the corn are going to get smothered out by the beans. I found half a dozen nice long beans which we can use for dinner tonight (or maybe I'll turn them into a green-bean dip so the kids are more likely to eat it with carrot sticks as a pre-dinner snack).

Gardening catch-up

Oh, poor garden has been really neglected!

Today I transferred some seedlings (tomato (maybe a bit late), courgette, celery, brassica's, a bean, spinach and silverbeet) into one of the beds that needed some filling up.

I've got the chickens rotating on the garden beds now, so there are a few new beds for them to go on to and one that will be vacated soon.

I now have one potato patch entirely clear and dug over one and a half other beds to put more seeds in once the chickens are done. We're loving the potatoes and have been pretty much digging for potatoes as we need them.

The only other vegetable I'm regularly harvesting is my red onions, but have a couple more cabbages & cauliflowers ready and broccoli's not too far off. The tomatoes are coming along well and some of the plants the fruit are starting to lighten up and going pink. Still no sign of my corn cobs developing, but have noticed the stems fattening up in places, so I'm sure they're there ready to do their thing soon. The beans and pumpkins have almost taken over the corn patches, and it's quite cool to see them winding and growing up the corn stalks. Definitely a neat way to grow vertically and maximise the use of space.

Consulting my little local planting diary suggests more carrots, beetroot, brassicas, and lettuce (and a few other things that I don't have seeds for anyway).

So I think I'll go hard on some more carrots coz they have certainly gone down a treat with the kids and consequently we have no full grown ones left LOL!

Harvesting Dinner

Well, I think we're getting there!

Bar the bbq meat (and ginger, butter and oil), tonight's dinner was entirely from our garden.

I had cabbage, cauliflower (unfortunately left a few days too long and started to go to seed), onions, garlic, beans*, potatoes and carrots to make a meal from.

I sauteed up the cabbage, cauli, beans and onion with garlic and ginger. The kids ate the carrots raw.

I then sliced up the potatoes, drizzled butter over them and baked till cooked.

Simple and yummy!

*The beans were a lovely wee surprise I discovered a few weeks back hiding in amongst my corn and pumpkins as part of the Three Sisters. It was just a small bushy plant, unlike my other scarlett runner beans. These are Borlotti Fire Tongue beans and I decided to harvest them quite young and still tender so they could be lightly cooked. If left to mature they will deepen in colour, plump up and become tough and more suitable for drying.

Hanging and drying

I was reading my little locally published gardening calendar on when to do what in the garden. It's been a great little book and to the point which is what I like about it.

So, as I was randomly flicking through it as I was decluttering the table beside the computer I noticed that the herbs were due for harvesting now that the oil levels are high. Oops! Totally hadn't even seen that one coming.

After doing a quick online research I grabbed my scissors and basket and only chopped those that seemed to be suitable for hang drying - oregano, marjoram, thyme and rosemary (I did get some basil too but will lay it out to dry). I fancied making a little kitchen display of it and ended up with this. Pretty nice to have the lovely fragrances right there in my kitchen too.

I also pulled up my garlics (I'm impatient like that) although they're not really ready to come up for a few weeks or so and could have stayed a bit longer. But anyway, I'm pretty happy with my first successful harvest (I attempted planting some seedlings the year before in spring but they really were a flop and had yucky little black bugs all over them and no bulbs!). My house just smells very garlicky now!

This is my attempt at braiding them - was much harder than the pretty online pictures I was trying to copy!

Getting a little bit Christmas-y...

Being the 1st December, we put our tree up today. I awoke to Nathan asking me to get the decorations down. You would have thought it was Christmas itself! LOL

It's also the official first day of summer and it coincided with us finally having a garden ready for harvesting a lovely full basket of fresh produce.

I had promised myself last year to leave the potatoes alone until Christmas or when they had flowered and died back...but, I spotted a lone potato scratched up by the chickens and I really couldn't bring that up on it's own so dug around under the soil to find enough for a meal.

The basket was also full of peas, a few baby carrots, a head of lettuce, a broccoli (not in picture), a couple of eggs and a beetroot. We added these to the sausage* that Nathan chose and sheep's feta that we were given at the local market on Saturday as well as asparagus and avocado from our vege box delivery. The kids had the broccoli, carrots and peas while Simon and I had a salad.

* (I did cut it up to cook which is apparently the way to cook a Cumberland Sausage).

Accidental discoveries

I was just wandering past the carrot bed this afternoon and decided to do a little more thinning. I was excited to find some cute wee carrots that looked totally edible and appealing. They were lovely and straight and we look forward to a bumper crop this year!

Enjoying some peas...

A Simple Spring Day

We've had quite a bit of wet blustery weather (and yesterday had a cold southerly coming up which added an icy feeling to the air) that has kept us inside a lot and meant racks of wet washing sitting inside the house for a few days (and the days I could put them out on the porch the air was too damp to dry anything anyway).

Yesterday evening I checked the weather report for overnight temperatures and noted that it would get down to 4 degrees and that the wind had dropped off and the sky had cleared to a perfect blue - so not wanting to risk losing my potato and tomatoes we went down and covered everything over with a bale of straw that we use for the chickens nesting box. There was no frost, but I slept better knowing that it wasn't of concern.

So we welcomed the sun back today and just a gentle breeze to air the house out again.

The chickens were out for ages in the potato patches - scratching, dust bathing and basking in the sun.

Nathan had woken with bright ideas jumping out of his head lol - he retrieved a mug from the freezer that he'd frozen a toy dinosaur in the day before, removed it from the mug and spent a while smashing it from its icy surrounds. He was then keen to make a dugout in our dirt bank. So, he and Simon set to digging out a hole - of course, the bank wasn't really big enough to do much with, but he's now keen to put something inside it and rebury it.

The kids had fun collecting up the straw and leaping in it and pretending to be baby birds. Then gathered some lettuce and beetroot from the garden for lunch.



I caught up on more laundry and made lunch to enjoy in the sun.


The kids came in from the sun and sat down to draw for a while...

Simon took the kids down to the beach in the back of the bike trailer while I decided to make a gluten free pumpkin pie for dessert to take with us to my parents...

Now find other uses for the rest of the pumpkin. Still not halfway through it. I think we'll be having pumpkin soup tomorrow night.

Pumpkin Pie

sweet pastry:
175 g all purpose wheat free or gluten free flour (use appropriate flour depending on dietary needs)
100 g butter, softened (plus extra to butter the tart tin)
2 tbsp sugar (unrefined preferred)
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp water

filling:
225 g pumpkin flesh, mashed if fresh (alternatively use tinned)
50 g sugar (unrefined preferred)
½ tsp mixed spice
1 large egg, beaten
185 ml evaporated milk (we used Carnation Light)

preheat oven/initial cooking temp: 220°C, fan 200°C, 425°F, gas 7
reduced heat after 15 mins cooking: 180°C, fan 160°C, 350°F, gas 4

1. Lightly butter and dust with wheat free or gluten free flour a 20cm (8") tart tin, if it has a removable base then it will be easier to remove the pie from the tin when cooked.

2. Into a large mixing bowl put the wheat free or gluten free flour, softened butter and sugar. Mix together until it resembles large breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water and knead into a smooth ball of pastry dough. If the pastry appears too dry and crumbly then sprinkle with a little more water until it makes a smooth ball.

3. On a lightly floured surface (again using wheat free or gluten free flour) roll the pastry out to a size large enough to completely line the tart tin including the sides, trim the edges to neaten the pastry. You may find that the pastry is too fragile to roll out, in that case simply press it into the tart tin using floured hands, then trim the edges.

4. To make the filling place the sugar and spice into a large bowl and mix together. Add the pumpkin flesh and mix until well combined.

5. Add the beaten egg and mix until well combined. Then stir in the evaporated milk. You should now have a smooth batter.

6. Pour the pumpkin batter into the pastry shell, you can fill the pastry full as the batter won't rise, and put in the oven at the initial baking temperature shown above. After 15 minutes reduce the oven temperature to the lower temperature shown above and bake for a further 30-40 minutes.

7. Check how the cooking is progressing after approximately 25 minutes (at the reduced temperature) by gently slipping a thin knife or skewer into the centre of the pie. If the pie is still very runny it needs further cooking. The pumpkin pie is ready to remove from the oven when the filling is set all the way to the centre of the pie.

8. When fully cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tart tin, serve at room temperature or cold. The pumpkin pie should be stored in the refrigerator.

The BEST pumpkin

This evening I decided to cut into the last remaining pumpkin from the autumn harvest back in March.

I harvested 10 from memory, gave 3 away and ate through the others. By then, we were totally OVER pumpkin and we haven't eaten any in this house for probably 6mths. The last pumpkin (which was my 6.3kg beauty) has just been biding it's time out on my front porch getting good air and light (so 7.5mths!).

I had a sudden urge to cut into it to add to our roast meal tonight and was impressed with the deep orange colour on the inside. The previous pumpkins were quite pale, almost yellowy and not all that flavoursome (in fact, bordering on bitter).

YUM! It cooked up so well too, and was very sweet and moist and about the most delicious pumpkin I've ever tasted. Nathan declared that it tasted like "goodies and sweets" and gobbled it up.

Now, just to figure out what to do with the remainder!

Feijoa Feast

After all the wind we've had, a heap of feijoas were tossed off their branches ready for devouring.

Zucchini Jam

I was reading over at Annoushka's and she wanted to know if anyone was keen to give her recipe a go. So, since I had a couple of kilo's of courgettes lying around (a few had grown to semi-marrow size while away on holiday) I decided to use a kilo on jam.

It was really successful! You actually couldn't tell what sort of produce was used in the jam - it was just a sweet, normal textured type jam. I got 4 regular size jars for my efforts.

Fresh corn

The other day I harvested almost the rest of my corn. So today I decided to cut the kernels off them since no one is wanting to eat them anymore (after eating 2 or 3 a day initially lol). I decided to make corn fritters for lunch using the fresh kernels. Usually I make these with tinned creamed corn, so I needed to google a recipe to use. I was interested to find that mostly New Zealand sites came up with recipes - are these not really eaten around the rest of the world??

Anyway, here was the recipe I went with...

1 cup corn kernels
1 cup flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk

Mix together, drop a large spoonful into the pan and fry.

They were so much nicer than the tinned corn variety. The corn kernels had a nice crunch to them and were very juicy.

6.3kg!

Yep, that was how big the first pumpkin is! That's 13.9 pounds for those who don't work in kg's.

I'm thinking, if the rest of my dozen or so pumpkins also grow this big then I'll be seriously looking at selling them to the organic shop the next town over that sells off excess produce from local people who grow spray-free produce.

Muffins? Ah...no...

Nathan got all excited when he came into the kitchen this afternoon and saw the muffin tins up on the bench. He looked inside and asked if they were muffins? LOL.

I had HEAPS of carrots backlogged up in my fridge from several weeks of vege box deliveries where they gave us too many to be eaten, and then there were my own harvested lot.

Since they were starting to soften up a bit I decided to freeze them in portion sizes. After pondering how I'd do that, I thought the muffin tins would be perfect for holding one sliced carrot per tin. I will then be able to transfer the frozen lumps into freezer bags or the likes.

More tomatoes!

Over the last week I collected up another 3.5kg of tomatoes. So yesterday I cooked up some more tomato fondue. Tonight we used a thick portion on our pizza - it is so yummy, yummy, yummy and the kids love it (in fact Danielle ate hers off the pizza and left the pizza base). I'm just posting this as a reminder to myself how much I harvested this season. Strangely though, I only ended up with about 1.5 litres of sauce as a result (and that included all the onions). We scooped out the skins (I didn't bother to pre-peel them this time) and the hard lumpy top bit - but it wouldn't have been that much of a loss to the overall weight. I know that a fair portion evaporated since I like the sauce thick, but wow, I expected a lot more I guess.

There are still masses of tomatoes ripening. I think I planted about 15 plants and I ended up with about 3 self seeded plants. Next year I need to look at organically fertilizing the plants too coz the tomatoes are all pretty small (a bit larger than a cherry tomato) and I suspect that that is because of lack of fertilization rather than the variety.

Bring on the carrots

Well, they've finally been a success.

I sowed carrot seeds *way* back at the beginning of Spring. Two times in fact. Neither were a goer. Third time (and almost given up) they were a success.

This evening I happened to see a top of one poking out of the soil and realised it they were ready.