Cuuuutie Cherries!!!

The tomato season has rapidly come to an end. This morning I decided that I should harvast all the cherry tomatoes. I love cherry tomatoes best for it's many virtues.

It's sooooo sweet, one can eat it like a fruit (anyway, some would argue that tomato is indeed a fruit), makes a beautiful quick tomato salad, productive plant, starts early in the season, looks charming in my veg garden, minimal fuss required, birds can't get to them easily, they are so colourful...(yes, there is a late season slug pre-tasted strawberry in the basket)

The backyard

This was the backyard in late summer. Matt took these arial pictures from the roof and I kinda of merged them together using paint. The picture is a little distorted but hey, you get "the picture"!

The veg beds were boxed in with macrocarpa sleepers so I lost the edges for planting. The plus side was we had a raised bed for planting carrots and parsnips. However, the entire design looked and felt a little rigid and boxed in and I didn't like the lack of "roundness". We're in the process of putting in lots of circle to go with our new chicken tractor. Stay tuned!! :-)

Playing with videos...

Well, I wanted to find out how to embed youtube videos into the blog. It turned out to be simple.

So, without further adieu, here is video that shows the kind of thing you can achieve in a small urban back yard in California. Who says you need 6 acres? Just look whats going on in 1/5 of an acre! They are our inspiration.

FIRST tray of Eggs!!

in April 2006 from our VERY FIRST two pullets given by a friend.

Broody (left) and Black Bird (right)

(Each chook has distinctive personality and features that tell them apart. The names are really our best effort to not get too emotionally attached to them for a good reason....)


It was a mixed feeling eating those lovely eggs - imagine the "pain in my heart" when my mother in law poached 6 of those eggs in one go for breakfast at our place....that meal tasted "bitter sweet"!! :-) Somehow eating eggs takes on a whole new meaning when you see where they came from. We haven't bought any supermarket eggs since last April.

BACK TO WORK!

Sniff...sniff...back to work tomorrow! Had so much fun while "in poxies". Thanks Tara, Max and Abby and of course my superbly wonderful husband :-)

Tomatoes Galore!!

I waited all year to eat my homegrown tomatoes - not kidding i don't buy fresh tomatoes from the supermarket. The lack of flavor alone is sufficient to put me off...and even the canned tomatoes taste better...

One of 6 tomato plants survived despite planting it out at the usual time! Fortunately the sole survivor did more than survive - it produced just under 10 kgs of tomatoes. If only the others had survived.... The trick to maximize production per plant is to pile compost at the base of the tomato plant where the laterals are growing. By doing so, it will encourage the laterals that are covered with soil to form roots, and essentially grow as another plant. The main stem that is in contact with the compost will develop even more roots thus enabling the plant to take in even more nutrients. That means more tomatoes too! What a nice trick to truely get more for less!!

Chicken Pox #3

The "poxies" have mostly disappeared. Apparently I had had a mild case of chickenpox and all credits to the daily consumption of garlic veg juice and the loving prayers from my "Thursday night family" :-).

The whole experience has been short of a little science experiment: Aloe vera didn't work when the blisters are appearing but it's great when the scabs appear. Applying aloe vera at this point to minimize scaring. Vinegar "stings" the burst blisters but by far, MOST effective in easing itchness. Once the vinegar takes care of the itch, the Colloidal silver cream with active manuka honey completely sooths the sores and seems to also speed up healing. Any spotted spots/blisters were not spared the cream. In fact, my skin loves it so much that I'm now using it as a face cream after dabbing on the healing scabs!! Apparently it the "total skin food"!!

Chicken pox #2

On the second evening, the itchness got very unbearable. A hot bath with boiled up in a muslin cloth made a perfect hot bath sponge. In this case, it was the warm rolled oats milk coming through the museli cloth. It was very gentle on the skin and on the "poxes". As long as I was in the bath, the itchness went away. The skin felt absolutely soft after the bathHowever, I did discovered that more red dots started appearing after the hot bath; it could be a coincidence!!!

The itchness came back a few hours later. It took quite an amount of endurance to resist scratch as the night progressed, finally at 4am in the morning,my darling husband was landed with the task of dabbing calamine lotion all over my spotted body. The spots are mostly on my back. Much to my disappointment, the calamine lotion didn't do much to ease the itchness but I did fall asleep for a few hours. In my sleep, all I could think about was what would ease the itchness? Suddenly I remembered witnessing a friend dabbing vinegar on a bee stings on his face, and it stopped the itchness and swelling. You guess it right, no time was wasted, I jumped out of bed (literally), poured some white vinegar into a small cup, and wet the cotton bud with the vinegar and dabbed it on all itchy spots, I dabbed on all spots repetitively until the itchness went away....it really works!! :-)I've also noticed that the spots with blisters this morning (8am) are now (12:35pm) starting to dry up....I continously apply vinegar on any spot that is calling out for attention

My most devoted husband has been preparing vegetable juices for us since that first day of getting the pox! And he has been most generous with the garlic to keep any baterial and virus and friends, at bay, if the pox didn't do the trick!! This juice give my body a really good boost and keeps the immune system going strong to fight this attackquickly and efficiently. Getting the pox as an adult, I could be in danger of getting shingles with a compromised immune system.

On top of that, I've abstained from tasty food, reducing my colourful diet to the plain boiled vegetables (carrots, cabbage - whatever I can find in my veg garden) in rice porriage (rice with lots of water)and loads of fresh fruit. This is to not put more pressure on my already compromised body to enable it to fight out the virus quickly and efficiently. On top of that, lots and lots of filtered water, and of course, plus endless trips to the toilet!!

Chicken Pox #1

I have always had a strong inclination towards herbal remedies than the exisiting drug prescription, so I decide to keep a record on the findings from my research.


Chicken pox arises from the elimination of toxic fat or fatty acids through the hair fat glands. The chemical burn from the purging of waste products though the skin causes the characteristic blister of this disease..... http://www.garynull.com/Documents/Vaccines/ChickenPoxWhy.htm

Fever in a child is a frightening symptom to the mother. Just what is the function of fever? Is it a harmful process, something to suppress and worry about? Or is it the body’s attempt to burn up a poison, thereby helping to dispose of it more quickly http://www.garynull.com/Documents/Vaccines/ChickenPoxWhy.htm

If you are feeling adventurous, here's the Salt and vinegar treatment....http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/chickenpox.htm

Another simple and effective treatment for itching...http://www.stopgettingsick.com/Condtemplate.cfm-1337-82-1?print=1

More herbal remedies for chicken pox http://www.newlifejournal.com/april07/herbal-healing-chicken-pox-remedies.shtml

I've got Chicken Pox!!

I found a blister on my back this morning. A friend who is a mother of two, with one recovering from chickenpox and one having it at the moment, confirmed that I, indeed have chicken pox.

The little bit that you see on the picture is the back of my right arm... :-)

Apparently I had 2 blisters on my neck yesterday but I didn't give much thought to it and had burst them.

A fever sets in this afternoon.

Have been applying aloe vera on all the spots throughout the day.

A few bumps pop out of my scalp. It feels warm and lumpy and painful if I touch it.

The blisters burst by the afternoon and at 5pm it looked like this

I've been drinking lots of water and needless to say, paying endless trips to the toilet.

Decided that it maybe a good time to detox - so my God-sent husband made us both a tall glass of carrot, apple and half a bulb worth of garlic juice - for pre-dinner. He's drinking it to increase his immune system so that he can look after his not so well wife!! :-)

Dinner was rice porriage - grated carrots and shredded cabbage with garlic. Total plain but it wasn't too bad, prepared by my husband, again. Basically, I'm not allowed to do dishes, and housework, to avoid spreading the virus - honestly, I don't mind it at all. However, I'm allowed to make myself as comfortable as possible and order him around - that's got to be an A+++++ for my good husband!!

It's starting to itch now at 9:50pm ....very tempted to scratch ...so aloe vera to the rescue...

Bumps are developing on my facing now at 10:05pm....just when I thought I might escape it.... within minutes, the bumps start turnining into small blisters that get bigger...there is definitely something in ear/or in the throat somewhere because it hurts when I swallow but I can't pinpoint the exact spot...and it's getting more painful...apart from the itch!!

More red bumps are forming on the front of the body...

Zucchini Pickle

With 6 zucchini plants in the garden, we have been cooking zucchini in all possible creative ways for the last few months...my favorite method is to cut it into thin stripes length wise, and pan grill with some olive oil, curry powder and a sprinke of salt - and it's absolutely yummy on it's own or add to a salad of anything/stir fry etc....grilled capscium makes superb partner to zucchini cooks this way.

But zucchini pickle tops the above to be my favorite.

To make 7-8 cups
1 kg zucchini
750 grams onions
1/4 cup salt
2 red pappers
1 cup sweet corn

4 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
2 tsp celery seeds
Juice and rind of a lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cups of cider vinegar

1 tbsp cornflour (or arrowroot powder)

grate the zucchini and cut the onions roughly into the size of wheat grains - take care to not overdo it! Chop the peppers finely too.

Put the chopped vegetables and the corn into a large bowl and mix the salt in. Leave it for half an hour, then add the water, stir and pour through a large, coarse sieve or colander. Discard the salty liquid (make sure that you stir through enough to remove as much salt from the vegs otherwise it would be too salty)

Next, put the drained vegetable, sugar, seeds, turmeric, lemon rind, lemon juice and vineger in a large heavy bottomed pot. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often. Mix the cornflour to a paste with 2-3 tbsp cold water, stir into the pickle, an boil for 5 minutes longer.

Pour into clean, heated jars and seal with boiled metal lids. Refrigerate all opened jars.

I served it to my in laws and friends and it was a hit!!!

Pie from Russian

Nonna was a Russian workmate of mine who shared this delicious recipe with one of my ESL classes - English through Cooking and Culture!! :-) We actually made this in class and nothing much was left at the end of the lesson.

Very inexpensive recipe to make the night before a party and reheat in the oven just before serving...

Pastry
350 grams high quality flour
15 grams sugar
1 egg
75 litre milk or cream
30 grams Sour cream
1 tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder (1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp cream of tartar)

Cabbage Filling
1 small white cabbage
3 eggs
100 grams butter
salt to taste
Sugar (if the cabbage isn't sweet)

This is how you make it...

To make the pastry, melt butter, add milk, sour cream, egg, salt, sugar together. Mix thoroughly, put in flour mixed with baking powder. Stir and knead until you get a well-blended pastry.

To prepare the Cabbage Filling, shred the cabbage head finely. Next, melt the butter on the frying pan. Add the cut cabbage and simmer it until it's semi cooked. Break the eggs and add it to the cabbage. Add salt and sugar to taste and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.(depending on the texture you like to achieve)

Leave cabbage filling to cool.
(an important step otherwise it will break the pastry)

Divide the pastry into three parts. Roll each into a rectangular sheet with a thickness of an inch (the thickness is to your preference, so long it's thick enough to hope the cabbage filling).

Drain the cabbage filling(make sure it's very dry otherwise it will leak out of the parcel while baking in the oven) and put it on the rolled pastry and roll it up. Press the pastry together to on all the edges. It should look like a giant spring roll. Take a fork and poke some holes to on the top of the pastry (this is to allow the stream to escape from the parcel when it's baking).

Put it into the oven pre-heated to 170 celcius and bake it until the pastry turns golden brown.


If you can be bothered, apply a glaze of beaten eggs on the top when it's just turning brown. And continue to bake until golden brown.

My Modification

Instead of using the pastry recipe above, I turn to the all reliable Filo pastry. To the cabbage filling, I put in the following additional ingredients:

1) 1 can of butter nuts

2) 100 grams of bacon pieces (cut into small pieces)

3) 1 bay leave (crushed into small pieces)

4) 50 grams Add to bacon pieces in with the 50 grams of butter ( I cut the butter by half because the fat from the bacon pieces will make up for the remaining fat requirement).

Fry the bacon pieces till it turns brown and nearly crispy. Add the crushed bay leaves in with bacon pieces to fry for a few seconds. Add the cabbage and cook it as per the instruction in the above recipe.Add drained butter a few minutes before the cabbage is cooked.

We finally met up in March!

The first meeting in March was nothing short of fantastic. It went from 2:30pm to 5pm.
We watched an half an hour video on permaculture in the tropics presented
by Bill Mollison, who coined the word permaculture. After the afternoon
tea, we had a quick tour round my little urban yard to see the little
projects that my husband, Matthew and I have put in place using
permaculture principles.

We then went on to my favorite, compost making and a simple
system we use to sift the compost. I'm also very proud to share that
Tara, one of the attendees, has made a round of beautiful compost since.

Amazing Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Bread

I simply can't get enough of this bread - it keeps and keeps and keeps and it's completely dairy free. Bake two in one go and keep the other one in the freezer ...so here you go


3 eggs
1 cup oil(olive oil or veg oil)
1 cup sugar
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups coarsely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 can well drained crushed pineapple
3 cups wholegrain flour sifted
2 tsps baking powder (or 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp cream of tartar)
1 tsp salf
2 tsps mustard seeds
2 tsps ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup each chopped walnuts and currants(or raisins)

HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT....
In a large bowl, beat eggs until froth
Add oil, sugar and vanilla , continue beating until mixture is thick and foamy.
Stir in zucchini and pineapple

In a separate bowl, sift in flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add walnuts, currants(or raisins) and mustard seeds into the bowl.

Add the dry mixture into the zucchini pineapple mixture.
Spoon into 2 greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Bake at 180 celcius for 45 minutes.


Icing- add the juice and rind of one lemon into 1/2 cup of icing sugar. Put it on just before serving.

The MOST amazing thing about this bread is that it CAN be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months and still maintain the flavor and moisture - infact the taste improved!!! Deli -cious-mo

Sheet Mulching

A few years back when we were just starting to learn about Permaculture, we discovered the concept of sheet mulching and very close planting. The idea is, don't dig. Digging damages soil and soil life.

Planting your plants close together mimicks nature and helps to reduce moisture loss and creates little microclimates where plants get protection from each other.

Have you seen the movie "The March of the Penguins"? When the penguins huddled together in the extreme cold they usually survived, but the moment they stray out on their own they die. Like the penguins, plants do better when grouped with other plants, rather than planted in their own mini deserts where they dry out or get burned by too much sun.

Here are some pictures of what we did, before and after things started to grow.

First, we lay out some old newspaper.

Then we covered it with pea straw to reduce moisture loss and suppress unwanted plants (weeds). In this we planted various a range of herbs and other plants making sure that we plant through the newspaper and into the soil below.


Heres what it looked like about 3 months later...


Much nicer than grass don't you think?

We later put Ponga log (tree fern) edging around it as you can see, and added gravel to the path. The gravel actually absorbs warmth from the sun during the day and releases it at night helping to regulate the temperature in this area and meant we have now had some limited success growing herbs like basil. Previously, they died rather quickly.

This is a reasonable approach to starting a garden, although we've tried other methods with better success which we'll share later.