The Lazy Winter Garden

This is my garden currently. 

It doesn't look like much and truth be told it isn't. 

I could tell you about how I didn't get my beloved purple sprouting broccoli in this year or how my basil won't even survive inside because it is really cold this year, but who wants to read my moaning about vegetables.?
 Instead I want to introduce you to a really Dull Roar Philosophical approach to gardening.

I know it looks like a mass of weeds and that is exactly what it is! I let the wild rocket go to seed self sow, the desiccated plants and those of the scraggly Sweet Alice (Alyssum)  wwent into my mulcher which threw seeds everywhere.I am growing rocket, Sweet Alice(good for attracting beneficial insects and chickweed in abundance. Without planting. I have planted a handful of broad beans I found in the pantry. This is my version of crop rotation as the box they are growing in had broccoli in it last. I have not supported them. My broad beans are au naturale.

Somewhere amongst the rocket and the chickweed is a random mizuna plant and some parsley and spinach I planted to get rid of old past it seeds, and a struggling French sorrel.

I really like leafy greens, they were my number one pregnancy craving and I cannot get enough of them even now so this is working well.

Even in the cracks between pavers. I rather like the look so I am leaving the useful plants put and occasionally pulling out non-useful plants like milky vetch and other latex sappy weeds, fleas bane and the like.

I am enjoying the little patch of wild in the tiny courtyard that serves as a garden. If I want more I am lucky enough to have a new park around the corner which has been planted with lots of leafy vegetables, herbs and brassicas, is tended by the council and supplies the healthier locals with free greens. 

My boys love to snack on the greens when they are scooting around the pocket sized park. Mr 4-nearly-5 is making quite a habit of getting his veggies from municipal gardens- ah well it's very thrifty and healthy I suppose if decidedly odd. I am sure I have mentioned he is a free-spirited individual! 

Why Christmas in July?

It doesn't sound very thrifty or very "Dull Roar Philosophy" to suddenly add another Christmas to the calender, I mean Christmas is expensive and takes a lot of effort right? Isn't it just a commercially driven holiday? It can be, that's for sure but it is also a lovely time to come together as a family and our little men are impressed by very simple things so Christmas doesn't have to be over the top to be appreciated. A conscious effort has been made on our part to not spoil them so they still enjoy the wonder of the little things in life- not always successful as they have very gourmet tastes (hot smoked salmon and aged organic cheddar anyone?) but it does make celebrations easy to pull together.

So a creatively acquired little Christmas tree (it was growing in a ditch on the roadside) quickly decorated, Christmas crackers bought in March for $4, some fresh market vegetables scrubbed and roasted, mini Yorkshire puddings, a roaring fire and a couple of cheap toys (magnetic sketch pad and a tea set for teddy bears) and a very jolly night was had by all.
Christmas is not only the busiest time of year for our business (and I mean BUSY!) and Christmas is generally hot and dry here in Australia- hardly conducive to celebrating a Classic Christmas!
Christmas in July was a resounding success and much easier than a December Christmas (hardly any commercial pressure either) so it is going to be a family tradition from now on!

The crackers were interesting. they were "premium" which apparently means the paper is upgraded to cardboard which doesn't tear (not so great with small children with tiny hands people!!!) and the novelties were an odd bunch...notably a bulldog clip and a pencil sharpener (useful and much loved by strange son #1) and this thing:

I don't know either. If you can tell me what it is I will post it to you!

Winter Sun. Whole foods.

It seems an eternity since I last blogged. I keep trying but the posts are half baked (which reminds me I have a slice in the oven and mustn't forget!).

I have been getting more exercise, having fun using body weight exercise to increase my strength and fitness, squats, pushups, crunches etc every second day to try to keep warm and keep the happy endorphins pulsing through to keep away the SAD I seem to be prone to in Winter. I have also been taking walks every day in the watery winter sunshine and so far so good!

 I notice that when I exercise more I start eating better and when I eat better I have more energy and exercise more, whole foods and raw foods are playing a bigger part in my diet these days and my energy levels are really good! I have bought some rapadura to use instead of sugar, bought some whole organic rye and celtic salt to try to make my cooking that little bit more nutritious rather than using all refined products. Resting on the bench is my first attempt at sprouted bread, something I had given up eating as it costs $6.50 a loaf but it seems it may be simple enough to make, there are recipes and variations everywhere but I have sprouted some rye, ground it up (in the Thermomix of course, but I believe any good food processor would do it) and mixed in some rapadura and yeast, left to prove and hopefully I can bake it and have a halfway convincing result!

I have made a whole rye loaf (not sprouted), milling the rye in the Thermomix and using the flour with a bit of vital wheat gluten, yeast and salt. I kneaded it a lot and left it to prove a long time (which seemed to produce a kind of alcohol but didn't affect the finished product) it made a dark, sour dense loaf which luckily was exactly what I wanted!

 450G rye (ground into flour in Thermomix)

50g vital wheat gluten

360g water

50g butter

5 g salt

40g rapadura

10g yeast

mixed for 20 seconds on speed 5 and then 1 minute 30 secs on interval, left to prove over night, kneaded by hand for 10 minutes and proved for another hour, baked at 220C (could be done with a stand mixer or food processor or by hand I guess!)

I also made a sort of cream cheese/marscapone  which I spread on the bread and had with red onion, delicious but gave me heart burn (better check on that slice!.. still good- the thermostat isn't the best on the oven so times vary wildly...).

The boys have started at another day care where they have their own lunches instead of having them provided which is working out much better- it turned out that Master 4 was only ever eating a tiny amount of vegetables at lunchtime and nothing else so it is much better for everyone (and our wallets- the new centre is much cheaper!) as he is helping choose what goes into his lunch box and consequently actually eating a lot of it. It is good practice for when he goes to to school next year and for me too as I will be getting repertoire of lunchbox friendly snacks! So far I have few favourites (or rather the boys do):

carrot and cheese sticks

raisins and wholemeal crackers,

fruit buns (homemade).

I will try to incorporate yoghurt and popcorn in next week. 
The slice (with ground almonds, ground oats and rapadura to give it some redeeming features) is out of the oven now, slightly unevenly cooked but one day I will get a new oven...

Purple! Sprouting! Broccoli!

Gardening has come to nearly a standstill at Apple Isle Cottages as we prepare for our big move three doors up the road. 

After raking the frost affected pumpkin vines and harvesting the last of the volunteers (they might actually be some kind of squash, I should ask the hens as they seem to have been the ones who planted them- I certainly didn't) one of the only things left standing in the garden was a lone purple sprouting broccoli plant. 

Spindly is the word I would use. This poor plant has been attacked but thousands (maybe) of caterpillars, pecked by chickens and swamped by pumpkin vines and yet it remains standing (if rather rangier than I expected) I am giving it a monthly derris dusting but that is all the "good"attention it has been getting. Poor thing. I couldn't just leave it. I have soaked it with seasol and bundled it into an old Styrofoam box with it's soil and soaked it with more seasol (evidently it should help prevent transplant shock) and will trundle it up the road with us to see if it will ever do anything edible for me.

It is seriously cold and frosty here and I am eating a lot of cheese which I am kidding myself is some kind of keep warm tactic.. that's why I bought a whole wheel of brie (that would be a kilo of it).

And now a return to our usual programming...

Well there have been many little tasks happening here.. since we have started taking the Creche's food scraps our compost has come along great guns. We pop the scraps on everyday and then a layer of aged grass clippings or fallen leaves. On Saturday I add our weeks worth of scraps from our kitchen bucket and then turn as best I can- the heap is now a happy steaming pile even in sub zero temperatures! Hurrah! 

My children are so exhausting at the moment I am finding it so draining it is hard to stay perky when they refuse to sleep during the day, filthy up their clothes as soon as they are put on, get into anything messy/dangerous/important that they can get their hands on as soon as my back is turned, talk, sing shout and fight constantly and demand food then spread it on anything they can reach all the rest of the time....everything becomes a big palaver with my boys! *sigh* I am so grateful we have a quality day care centre where the children are happy, it buys us some time to do things like run our business and oh I don't know.. spend some time as a couple! It is almost definitely an age related thing... please let them grow out of it!

We have some Jonquils popping their heads out amongst the general chaos of the garden- shows what I know- I thought they came along in Spring but we are only a few weeks into Winter. They are cheering to see especially with the happy looking Calendula flowers. Borage plants are charging ahead, I love their old fashioned blue flowers they ease my melancholy- well they are supposed to anyway...I have started planting annuals which I like and letting them go to seed so I end up with a kind of perpetual garden. I collect the seeds and fling them around places I would like more flowers and it might just work. The Calendula in the photo is a result of this approach. Very Dull Roar Philosophy...

Gardening is so humbling because I can do a lot of research and ask questions on lovely helpful forums but there is a gap in the knowledge which can only be closed by gardening myself in my garden, It will take years of trial and error, weaving new knowledge in when the old no longer works. I am very new to gardening and thankful that I don't have to support my family on the food I grow as there is so much for me to experience and learn before I can count myself as a Proper Gardener.

The ground is so cold and my little plants are just sitting and waiting, not growing. I wonder if they would like some more compost or mulch or if they will just sit until the weather warms up a bit.

I have planted some peas and have them in a plastic blanket bag and in a foil lined cardboard box to reflect the light and hopefully stop them becoming leggy. I have started a mushroom kit and am trying to encourage the mold growth by keeping the polystyrene box in an insulated bag and spraying with warm water...hopefully I will report success but it is bloomin' cold here! The mushroom kit is being kept inside so that should make a difference.

I have been quite obsessed with trying to bulk buy and avoid the supermarkets lately. Haven't been for a week and a half but I have been buying enormous quantities at the Cash and Carry- 25kg of sugar, 2.5kg cheddar cheese, 2kg mozzarella for the freezer etc 10kg of Tasmanian plain flour for $8.50. The local fruit shop has been doing 10kg of local Atlantic potatoes for $6.95 and $5.50 for 10kg of local onions so that will be keeping our costs nicely down as well as eating locally. 

Hope you are all going well in your quests of life!