Category Archives: Gardening

A Sunday

Posted on by
3

Our Sundays can be a but a hectic but they have fallen into a bit of a routine.

As our youngest decides that 5:30am is a good time to wake up and demand some food typically one of us is up even on the weekends at that time.

Chickens and ducks get fed, any plants needing it  watered (depending on rain), cats fed and then a homemade breakfast.

I then head off to the community garden or my garden and do some work, Catch up together for swimming classes a few hours later, home for lunch, a nap for one of us while the other heads out with the older child to get anything that we need for the week ahead(I also do a fair bit of urban foraging for pallets at the is time in the industrial area’s near home)

Back home for stuff around the house (today was getting the ropes off the shade sail and replacing it with real hardware). Kids bathed, dinners cooked maybe one of neighbors over for dinner (we do this a lot), clothes ironed for the corporate week, house cleaned up as much as we can before we collapse in exhaustion.

Sounds normal and probably is. I will draw yourself to a few details. Homemade breakfast and lunches. Today we had sourdough hot cross buns and coffee for breakfast, and great lunch post kids swimming lessons of artisan bacon, home free range eggs, sourdough, tomatoes and mushrooms  with a good red rind soft cheese and baked beans. Again with coffee.

A Sunday 010

A Sunday 011

So all of this set us back maybe $20 at the max for both meals. In the day A. and I would go to a café and the meal for one of use would be this much on one meal. We see a lot of the people in our swim class head to café at the swimming center and they probably spend twice that for a meal for them. And that is fine. We just choose to save our money and know where our food comes from.

The garden and the community garden help to keep us sane and in good fruit and veg. It is easier to just buy it but not better.

The shade sail cost us probably $1000 in total (probably a bit less) and we had neighbors who put in a similar one by a professional company that set them back $15,000. Now there’s took two weeks to get put in, mine took about a year to get ready. It does the same great job and keeps the back of the house 5 to 10 degrees cooler on a really hot day. Kids sleep better we sleep better. Again skills in house, be it cooking, concreting or managing the tension on the sail it is all skills to have and use.

Our evening meals on Sunday are typically a roast, stew or curry. And we would more than 50% of our time have a neighbor around for the meal. We enjoy their company they bring some booze we chat we eat it is all good. One thing we always try to do over the weekend is to get some extra meals ready and that also means a big curry or stew so we have enough for lunches. A meal at work canteen will set you back a minimum of $10 for a meal that is $50 per week $2500 per year… Yes I would prefer that in the bank or off my mortgage thank you very much.

Tonight I managed to get 10 meals together for the week (1 meal a day, 2 people, 5 days) and juice 4 cups of lemons (got a big bag from my parents) while chatting to my neighbor and cooking a meal. We are set and I can still be social even while doing things (hey I can drink beer and cook curry)

A Sunday 014

A Sunday 012

Even the setback of finding my work pants in need of repair was handled by A. who just pulled out the sewing machine and just repaired them. Again a set of skills used.

A Sunday 013

The reason for this long winded post is to show that while busy, we spend a lot of our time with each other and the kids, we get a nap often and save some money. I think this is how is should be. Yes we are buggered some times. Yes some days we order pizza and I end with a meal of two minute noodles and a can of tuna for lunch on Mondays but all in all we like this. We like the extra money in the bank it keeps us sane in this crazy world and our kids like to watch us do stuff not just stare at the TV screen. It allows us to control our consumerism and keep it under control.  The skills are critical. I keep harping on about this the more skills you can build the better off you will be.

Learn absorbe, do!

Well this Sunday has come to an end and my last task before collapsing is to get this post out. Have a great week of work and remember if you a wishing it was Friday you are wishing away 5 days of your life.

Taking Stock

Posted on by
Reply

So Today was our famers market day. We go to the farmers market at Bundoora stock up on good meat, small goods, cheeses and a week or two of any fresh vegies that we don’t grow or swap that are on offer.

Today before I headed off I did a fridge and freezer clean out and stock take to check what I needed and to ensure that I did not waste anything, or buy things I already have.

We have some changes coming to our house as we retro fit it for conserving energy and the power will be off for a few days to a week so one of the plans is to clean out the freezer. It will also not hurt to process what I have in there, either by cooking it or it processing it for alternate storage such as bottling/canning drying etc. I like most people can rely a bit too much on the freezer  and while a very useful tool for improving self-sufficiency we should remember that at the end of the day it costs us to run whereas bottled fruit or a pack of dried mushrooms can sit there for a couple of years and not cost me a penny.

It is also going to help our budget as well. The retro fit is not going to be cheap but by my calculations we are pretty much setup for the bulk of meals for the next couple of months.

So it might be a good chance for everyone to see what they have in their larder, fridge or freezer and ensure that all nothing is going to go to waste.

Once done I have cleaned out my freezer I will be putting in a good chunk of a whole pig I am buying in the freezer in May to see how I go with it as my primary source of animal protein for the winter. But I will also be processing some into smoked bacon, salami and prosciutto as I have said I want to reduce that reliance on the freezer and keep it as simple as I can  which will help my budget and hopefully the world at large.

To this end tomorrow I will start to plant my bed in the community garden with winter veg. After all if you can grow and harvest it as you go then you are even better off than storing it in the end.

taking stock 001-2000

My what a busy year you have had.

Posted on by
Reply

My what a busy year you have had.

Well it has been a very, very, very busy year.

As I am sitting here having eaten a nice meal home cooked with my family and knocking back a nice cold elderberry champagne I must admit I am pretty content.

Not complacent just content. I wandered around my back yard this evening thinking I need to do this. I need to do that but I reminded myself of the many things I have done.

In some ways the approach I am taking to lighten my step on the earth is working but it is still way too heavy. I am not the worst or the best and if the whole world lived like me we would be in trouble. Conversely if the whole of Australia lived like me we would perhaps be starting down a better road (just my opinion here).

So where to from here? Well for me I intend to keep going. I have a number of things I would like to do this year as listed below but one of things I will do is take more time to spend with my family.

While I was always interested in the world and the long term living of within means, my children bring home why I have to continue to change.  For anyone reading this it is a long term thing. Each day you look at the world a little differently and hopefully a little better.

Achievements this year.

  • Garden more productive than last year.
  • Passive solar changes for the house underway
  • Front yard full of idea’s (most would call it full of junk)
  • 87 posts on this blog (some of them readable)
  • Lots of good meals with friends and family
  • Some bartering for services.
  • Lots of plant swaps.
  • Most of my seedlings self grown (or bartered)
  • New skills such as salami making, meat curing and stone carving learnt
  • A lot of booze brewed (some of it even drinkable – cheers)
  • Foraging skills for plants, materials etc  increased.
  • Bees in the back yard
  • Started a few people on the road to growing their own gardens
  • A reconnection to local food through the garden, the ceres box, and the cheese and tofu coop.
  • And mostly two happy little kids who love the world.

It is short list but there is a good number of things to be happy for I think.

For next year

  • Shed move
  • Retaining walls.
  • Retro fit the house for energy saving
  • The new plot in the community garden
  • More garden beds
  • Cellar space
  • Harvest Honey
  • Hot house
  • More time with my family and of course…
  • two happy little kids who love the world 

This list is shorter as more things will creep in and the last two items will be a strong focus. Time spent smelling the roses and enjoying friends and family more.

I still had to work tonight and again tomorrow, a reminder of the bad old days for me in the corporate world but I am starting see that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Happy to be working at the end of the day and working towards the rest of my goals

May you all have a great new years and safe break (if you are having one) see you all next year (yes that is tomorrow)

New Years Eve Dinner (yes it can be a food blog at times)

Chicken

  • 3 or 4 chicken thighs (you can use breast fillets but thigh are better flavour and will not dry out so much)
  • 2 table spoons fish sauce
  • 1 table spoon of soy sauce
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Table spoon of water
  • 3 cloves of garlic crushed
  • Teaspoon of fresh chilli
  • Walnut sized piece of ginger grated
  • 4 or 5 spring onions sliced up.
  • 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
  • 1 table spoon sesame oil

Put the chicken breasts in foil and pour over the rest of the ingredients you have mixed in a jug. Wrap up and seal the tin foil and cook in an oven at 170 degree Celsius for around 30 to 45 minutes (breast fillets 30 minutes, thighs longer)

Meat will fall off the bone and both children where getting right into it.

Salad

  • 1 cucumber sliced on grater slicer
  • 1 zucchini sliced on grater slicer
  • 1 carrot peeled and sliced with a peeler in long strips
  • 1 tablespoon of flaked almonds (I ran out tonight)

Mix vegetables together and season with macadamia/olive oil, vinegar salt and pepper  leave for a while then toss in the almonds prior to serving.

Works very well mixed together on a plate with chicken meat, and steamed rice.

Of Mallow and Strawberries

Posted on by
Reply

On Sunday I went and did the excellent Adam Grubb of Very Edible Gardens edible weed walk.

I am interested in foraging and already do some foraging eating nettles and wild fennel, converting sticky weed into bio fertilizer, getting into wild foraged elder and other trees. I have known about dock and dandelion and have eaten them before but wanted to improve my knowledge of the food options that we underestimate and are so widely available. Being self-sufficient is a part of what I am looking at and this is just one small part of the puzzle.

I won’t go into details as to individual plants in this post as this is an area that you are best to go and do a course with or/and get mentored and learn this important skill safely. I have done a courses with Ballarart Permaculture Guild and now with Adam and feel a level of comfort with what I know and don’t know (and have posted on things like nettles) but even then I use a field guide to check things out I am 100% sure of it.

Adam said at the start that you will look at the average plot of grass and weeds a bit differently after the course and yes this is certainly the case and last night I spotted about 5 different edible weeds in my back yard that there was good mallow plant up near the strawberries. So while the 3 year old got stuck into picking the strawberries I picked a handful of mallow buds or mallow cheese as they are known.

They have a nice crunchy texture and taste not unlike edame. So Sabrina and I brought in the strawberries to share and after seeing me eat the mallow she asked to to try it and low and behold she loved them eating them over the strawberries (she can be a strange child at times 🙂 )but she did then clean up the strawberries when the mallow was all done 🙂

Our rule is that you don’t have to eat a meal but you do have to try it and I am glad that this is now coming out in my daughter being willing to try anything.

So go out and learnt some new skills and learn to forage (and do it safely) and if like me you have a family then you might just manage to influence that next generation to something just a bit more sustainable.

The Olla Bed

Posted on by
Reply

About a year ago I built an Olla bed. For those of you not familiar olla are a low tech unglazed earthen ware containers used to provide water directly to the roots of a plant.

A much better article than I could ever write is found at

http://permaculturenews.org/2010/09/16/ollas-unglazed-clay-pots-for-garden-irrigation/

With summer just around the corner (despite the sudden cold snap) I thought I had better give a report on how it is doing.

My Olla are not so pretty being made of some old clay pipe I had access to and some pot bases. I Sanded them to remove any glaze and used silicon to bind it all together. Over the last summer they lasted really well requiring a single fill up of the three olla to last the week.

I also incorporated a mini worm farm into the bed that helps to keep up the worms in the beds and compost it.

As you can see the beds are thriving. Last summer almost all of our salad vegetables came from this one bath tub. I was sick and tired of plastic packets of salad vegetables costing me a fortune and going bad after about two days.

The bed requires very little work to keep the plants maintained and as you are feeding directly to the roots of the plant the amount of weeds has been very minimal. I have used seedlings for the most part planting them around the Olla and this seems to work best for me, the developed roots seem to find the water without much trouble. Direct seeds seem to go the way of the weeds and not do as well.

This year I will be adding some herbs and more leafy greens to the mix and seeing how much I can push the system and how long the reservoirs will last with the bed fully loaded.

In the next week or two I will drop a post on the build process I went through.