Recipe for Garden Soup

I call this recipe Garden Soup.



It takes a long time to prepare but the results are worth it.I made this for dinner last night and it was perfect warming winter food.


Step 1
This is the most time consuming part of the recipe, it can take a couple of months! You need to grow a variety of vegetables. This step involves digging the soil, mulching, weeding, watering and a lot of love.

Step 2
Harvesting. This is best done as close to when you want to cook your soup as possible. It is a wonderful feeling eating something that you know was alive only a couple of hours ago. It still amazes me when I walk inn the garden and see all this delicious food that has seemingly arrived in my garden from nowhere.



I picked a whole bunch of celery, some curly kale(or Chinese broccoli) 10 radishes, 2 turnips, 2 spring onions and a pumpkin.








Step 3
Wash and roughly chop the veggies. This stage may involve you having to rescue the tiny green tree frog out of your bunch of celery. Give the frog to the children to take back to the garden.


Step 4

Put the vegetables into a large soup pot with a sprig each of rosemary and thyme and three bay leaves. Cover with fresh rainwater, collected off the roof and bring to the boil.








While it comes to the boil quickly run up to the garden to pick the broccoli you forgot to pick before . Chop and add to the soup

Step 5

Now have the children light a campfire so they can cook toast to go with the soup

Step 6 For atmosphere you can get your wwoofer to show the children how to make mandarin lanterns. Place these around the fire.

Step 7 Season the soup with salt and pepper. Serve with slightly burnt toast and sit back around the campfire and enjoy the fruits of your labours.

Prepare for a ramble

You may have noticed I haven't been posting as often lately. Well there are multiple reasons. Firstly my borrowed computer s so old and slow and the keyboard misses letters so it is so frustrating to type anything. My camera has died...:( but luckily I moved into the 21st century an got a mobile phone so I can still take some pictures...the quality is a bit bad though.

The other reason I'm not around here as much is general busy-ness. We have had WWOOFers to organize and we are getting ready for our Winter Solstice Market Day. I don't know what I was thinking when I stared to organise this... There is advertising, stalls, food, entertainment to arrange...the list is endless. BUT hopefully I'll achieve my aim of generating a space for local People to come together to trade and have fun.

I've been crocheting a new blanket. It's not a very clear photo but you can make out the colours at least!

We made these yummy stuffed chapatis for lunch yesterday. Mr T was enjoying his so much he had to take a picture of it.

His collection of treasures we found on our walk.

Tui has been teaching herself to climb...

And gardening mulching paths with sawdust, picking heaps of squash and purple beans, eggplants (still!) and the broccoli are almost ready...yummy!

Teepee or not Teepee that is the question...

We have been talking about building a little cabin for Wwoofers and guests to stay in when they visit. But there is always so much building and fixing to do on the house that we haven't had time to even really plan it yet but today Peace suggested buying a Teepee. It would be a quick easy solution. Only thing is, I think I would want to move in! Maybe I can sleep out there sometimes when noone else is here.
I'd love to have wwoofers soon. It would be great having help to get the food forrest and the veggie garden up and running. With four children to look after Peace and I just can't do as much as we'd like. And I reckon it'd be a pretty awesome experience for the wwoofers too.
This afternoon we planted some of the native plants I grew from seed last year. Some blue quondongs, lomandra and some hoveas which get the prettiest little blue flowers. I love planting, imagining how big these trees will be one day. Soon you won't be able to tell that this place was once a sawmill and that when we bought it it was a bare patch of dirt covered with weeds and rubbish.