WELCOME to my BLOG

Hi there!

I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

On the go around here

What items are on the go in your house?

Taking inspiration from Rose's thread for her freezer inventory organisation over at the Down to Earth Forum......looking around my home, you could be excused to be thinking I have a few witches brews going here and there.....Although you won't see any Eye of Newt or any other freaky things around here...

I know I will forget some things...and it doesn't matter really...the point is...I always have something on the go.......and I would love to hear what everyone else is up to too.

Things without photos at the moment....are:
  • Soap is drying
  • There's newly planted things in the garden....
  • Cream sitting on the counter for 24 hours to begin a nice flavour to make clotted cream butter
  • a bag of frozen mashed sweet potato is defrosted on the sink to make scones.
  • Chillies threaded on cotton and hung to dry (from a friend)
  • Lemons off my tree....(I picked my first 9 lemons ever!!) Yay!! I had to pick them because Cocky's got two of them...The Nerve!..I hope I get a bigger yield next year, but for a first....Not bad....I think I will make Lemon Butter...that way we get to enjoy OUR lemons for many more months to come.
  • Stevia seeds drying....
  • Vanilla pod drying to use 2nd time around in Vanilla sugar.

Things that I do have a photo of to show you are:
  • I started a sourdough baby from the rest of my Kefir milk....and am now feeding it daily with wholemeal flour and water....

  • The lactic acid mix for the Bokashi powder I am making.
  • Seeds soaking to start a new batch of Sprouts...I also have Sprouts ready to eat in the fridge. 


L to R: Sourdough baby, Lactic Acid mix waiting to seperate, Seeds soaking to sprout

  • Vanilla extract...brewing away for xmas gifts
  • Citrus Cleaner...how could I forget that one? lol
  • Newly strained Pineapple/Apple Vinegar
  • Newly strained Honey Dew Melon Vinegar
  • Newly strained Apple Cider Vinegar

  • White wine Vinegar
  • Red Wine Vinegar
I love how thick the 'mother' is floating on top.

Using the White Wine Vinegar 'Mother' to kick start some new vinegars.


Red Wine Vinegar 'Mother'

see the ones in front, wrapped in plastic....
they're off to Caroline in QLD (finally)

  • Persimmons are beginning to ripen...All the way from Canberra.....Tammy, I haven't forgotten about the Persimmon Challenge...they have been happy in their box up until now...but lately a few are starting to change...so I have spread them out ...Mum tried one last night that was ripe...and she said it wasn't astringent at all...I do have a cake recipe for using astringent persimmons...and the rule is don't eat the cake until it is completely cold....then it doesn't take on that astringent effect on your tongue.......

In paper bags to promote new growth I have:
  • Sweet potatoes, ....both normal and purple skinned
  • Eshallots
  • Ginger....these will be planted out as soon as I prepare a space for them.
  • Garlic
  • Pink pontiac potatoes...these will be planted out as soon as I prepare a space for them.
I don't buy seed potatoes...I have always been happy with doing things this way...although the sweet potatoes is a new one for me..but any others work great.



  • Chokos....I have kept a few back to shoot...as I think a few people might be wanting a plant.....If you would like one....I'm willing to barter, (more so to cover the costs of postage.)
 There are a few more sprouting that are still on the vine too.



Phew!! So what's growing or on the go in your house?...is it in the garden, maybe the kitchen...or even the craft room....

I'd love to hear what you have on the go at the moment.....even better; blog about it, then come back and leave a link to your blog in a comment.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! That is SO inspiring, thanks.I'm new to your blog.Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Love dropping in here always a hive of activity :]

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  3. Holy cow, you are busy, woman! Mine has the odd thing going on, I gotta get back into it more. You are inspiring!

    I want to try cheese making sometime soon, but maybe I should master sourdough first.....I never did get that working right.

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  4. My goodness, you have quite a workshop going on there. Lots of goodies, I am very inspired!

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  5. what an impressive list! so many things I want to do.

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  6. wow.. you're busy!!

    Thanks for the welcome.

    What's on the go in my nick of the woods?

    http://rebeccadehaan.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-go.html

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  7. Gosh Nelly Mary! When do you sleep? LOL That's one list of works in progress! I'm very impressed.

    I'm in the process of trying some 'hanging planters' my husband got to plant some cherry tomatoes and 'Hillbilly' tomatoes along with some herbs. We don't have garden beds for vegie planting but are planning on doing it in the near future. We thought we'd try these planters out.

    other than that, it's the day to day chaos I try to get through with 2 young children and the challenges that brings. Only 1 more day to school holidays and then I'll be busy with that for 2 weeks.

    You're such an inspiration!

    Anne @ Domesblissity xx

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  8. About all I have is beef & ostrich mince (ground meat) thawing for spaghetti bolognaise, tomatoes ripening on the windowsill in the Winter sun, a mug's handle I'm gluing back on setting on newspaper and several very basic sewing repair jobs lying waiting for me as well as a pile of scrapbooking material that just has to get done after weeks of procrastination.

    Now, I'm off to fetch 17 yr old daughter from school to start her 3.5 week school holidays and dropping in some recycling to the Nursery Class of her girls' school (costume jewellery that they will pass on to an underprivileged school's nursery class) and toilet paper rolls for projects like making Christmas crackers. Yesterday, we gave away 2 used, but good, mattresses to the outreach ministry of our church--they take to very poor homes.

    Becca
    Cape Town
    South Africa

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