A Perfectly Pleasant Day...

I was getting lots done despite regular distractions, the fence was taking shape, weeds were getting pulled, Sugars drift-log was dragged down to the bottom yard so she can munch to her little heart’s content (sheesh, need to get some wheels on that thing, so heavy!) stones were stacked, concrete chunks put in for another edge line, veges getting thinned, a good dose of fresh seaside air and then this happened...

Alfie’s Built Herself A Tiny House...

  

 

While putting in stakes and rolling out netting I noticed a tunnel in the long grass behind the garden, one look WAHOO!  I had finally found Alfie’s nest which was loaded with eggs. I hope when I make the new coop she uses it! I am still playing around with different ideas so it will be a little while yet but I want to build the cosiest coop in the cliff.

ANZAC Day In The Garden...

 

Today I spent most of the day pottering in the garden. It really did feel good having my hands in the dirt and the sun on my back. 

Diesel and Mr were happily lazing in the sun while I sipped on a nice hot cuppa and planned the first job for the day. 

Time in the garden has been rather lacking in the last couple of months so I wanted to make the best use of the time I did have.

It was great to see that after digging it over a few months back, breaking the soil up and then putting a good layer of clipping mulch on it, my soil is looking healthy...and a little bit like black gold.

 

I am wondering if it is working so well because we had many days of the sun/heat to completely dry the clippings out before we got days of rain, that way they disintegrated instead of becoming a soggy, wet  mess. 

 

 

The chooks have been a huge part of the process with their scratching around in it and breaking up the soil. 

As well as plenty of big juicy worms, it has become a small paradise for much bug life including some very happy ladybirds who scuttled around under the tomato and basil plants while I attached the netting to the bamboo screen. I’m sure that even Gramps would be impressed with my improvements...

Tomato Heaven...

I have already got seeds from the Black Krim and Orange Blossom tomatoes for saving. I am getting two or three tomatoes everyday but still not enough to do much with just yet. Both are sweet tomatoes and very tasty but the Black Krim does seem a meatier type. So far I am very pleased with the results of these two so saving seed is a given. It is so hot here at the moment I have to make sure everything gets a good watering because the soil is getting quite dry. They are loving the heat we are getting though!

 

I planted beetroot, baby carrots and long keeper onions in the small garden the other night and I put spring onions,  green cabbage, flat and curly leaf parsley, coriander and snowball cauli seeds into trays. The trellis I was using to keep the chooks over the other side of the house has seen better days and has started to pull apart so those pieces I have been using for name tags and other garden bobs.

One of today’s jobs was tying up the tomatoes that are wildly climbing the stairs. I have left a few bits sprawled across the steps but most are growing up the balustrade now which looks very cool. I also planted the strawberry shoots which will give me some more plants to replace the ones someone ate, hmmm. The tamarillo and passionfruits have been put into much larger pots and I have about ten dragon fruit plants sitting in a sheltered part of the porch. All of my sunflower, corn, bean and pea seed have finished drying and are sitting in brown paper bags, waiting to be stashed away.

The new garden has been dug over and more little runners been removed. It is actually looking quite neat and I am busily contemplating what I will plant in there. I still haven’t finished the last bit of the bamboo fence so I will need to do that soon but the tepee’s from the small garden have been shifted over to the bigger garden which will give me more room to plant and harvest and provide some crop rotation as well. Despite her many escapes (only to find her lounging in the garden nibbling on my Amish paste, green sausage and zapotecs) Sugar did not completely wipe out the tomatoes in the new garden. Even if I get a decent seed supply I will be contented but it would be fantastic to have enough to make some relish or sauce with.

Pickles And Plums...

Here is an update on the plums so you see how they turned out. Four trays of plum halves loaded up in my dehydrator (which is a Harvest Maid with a thermostat of 35-60) looks like this at the end, take away a few for tasting as they dried and I ended up with one small and one large Maccona jars full. They did not last long!

I also opened up the first jar of pickled vegetables. While I enjoyed them and the taste is quite scrummy, I did find they were a little too sweet for my liking so next time I make the spiced vinegar I will just reduce the sugar so I will end up with more of a bite. We had them with some deli meats for our lunch. Haven’t yet opened the pickled onions but they are in the fridge chilling.

Today I put another load of apples in, once they were half dry I condensed them onto two trays giving me two spare trays. One I have filled with tangerine slices and the other lemon slices with a ginger sugar syrup basted on them. Because some things can stick to the trays, I have only basted one side at a time.

The dehydrator I am using is fantastic compared to the cheapie I had years ago. The adjustable temperature is fantastic and though I dream of having my own Excalibur one day, I am very pleased with the results I am getting from this one. I will probably try to get a few more trays for it soon so I can do more at a time. This type heat from the bottom and not from the back which blows the warm air across the food and that is why most people who love dehydrating look for the more expensive ones. I find that leaving my dryer going so to not lose much heat and shuffling the trays around quickly works fine for achieving even drying times. I also turn the food over once or twice during the drying process so the tray shuffle can easily be done then.

A Hundred Out Of Ten...

That is what my score was for dinner and dessert on Saturday night and not a crumb was uneaten. Lamb hotpots (tomatoes, fresh and dried, chick peas, red kidney beans, celery, onion, garlic, coriander and cumin) with a slapping of skin on - smashed potatoes and a sprinkling of grilled cheese. Dessert was Raspberry Plum jelly with a generous dollop of French vanilla icecream.

I also loaded up the dehydrator with apple slices again, slightly thicker slices this time and got a large jar from that lot...they are just so damn yummy and far too easy to eat! The stewed plums were a hit for breakfast too.

Icecream In Bed...

I just sneaked out, grabbed the cat and snaffled a bowl of French vanilla icecream to devour whilst lying here in bed. It seemed a great idea at the time but everything seems so noisy when you are trying to be quiet and the icecream had frozen solid which meant tense moments, trying to desperately chip away at the solid frozen dessert, in the dark, without waking my favourite little house guests who are sleeping in the lounge. Getting caught at midnight by a 6yr old and an 8yr old with a bowl of icecream is not a good thing.While I desperately dug into the icecream for what seemed like an eternity, I did get a twang of guilt that I haven’t made my own yet so maybe next time it will be homemade blackberry icecream?