Kids and Chooks

At the moment we have an abundance of eggs and zucchinis. So zucchini slice is on the menu again. I love summer veggies.

Zucchini Slice
Grate a couple of large zucchinis




Pick the first couple of onions from the garden. (which is exciting because it's the first time we have grown onions and they are so sweet!!!)
Finely chop onions and about 4 cloves of garlic.


Add 1/2 a dozen eggs and season with salt and pepper.
Cook in pie dish until golden on top.
It's pretty simple but is so yum.

And because I love chooks (chickens) not just for their yummy yellow eggs, but also because they are amusing animals to observe and they make great pets, here are a couple of photos.

Today's Harvest

Yesterday was another hot one... another swim and another storm. We went to the river and played about in a canoe.

we stayed until dusk...

and more cute photos of Tui and her Daddy. (It's a little blurry but I just can't resist!)

Today more gardening. After many attempts we finally have a productive garden. Peace planted out the newest bed...

and we picked the first of the capsicums and eggplants.

Tui was looking a bit concerned about the size of this marrow! Somehow we missed this Zucchini under the leaves and it has grown to massive proportions. It was a bit big to eat but the chickens enjoyed it.

My brother brought this shopping basket up for me so I can take it 'shopping' in the garden...




I love the logo on the side...very appropriate...


Then to the kitchen to turn all that 'fresh food' into dinner (and a nice cold beer while I cook)

A bunch of fresh herbs for extra yumminess...

and a beautiful day was had by all.

Rain and busy bees...

The rain falling last night

I love this rain we're having. It's beautiful, it's soaking into the soil, it's cleansing the Earth, the sky, my soul. The plants are thriving, the dam is overflowing, the tank almost full.

But I do hope it lets up by the weekend. This Saturday we are planning a little working bee.

With the promise of food and booze (lemonade and juice for the non-drinkers) we have lured some of our nearest and dearest to put in a day of hard graft for us. Well probably not so hard...

We are hoping to get some gardens mulched and to finish painting the house after all these months. Peace keeps coming up with more possible jobs for the list but I've reminded him that the working bee only goes for a day not a week!

The list of jobs to do on the property and house is endless. It seems that as soon as we complete one job another five have been added to the bottom of the list. So we decided that what we'd really like for xmas is some help around the place.
So I'll be busy tomorrow and Friday prefaring my post-working bee feast (which will include something made out of Zucchini) and scrubbing the house clean for painting.




And for hippymummy, a Zucchini, albeit a hail damaged one!

Real wealth…or 101 ways to cook zucchini

I am amazed how quickly the new veggie garden is growing. I think it’s because the soil at the new site is so much better. The old garden was closer to the house but digging there was almost impossible. We built up the soil with heaps of cow and horse poo and bags of mushroom compost but it just wasn’t doing much.
Under the new garden the soil was black and rich and the spade literally sinks in. We added a lot of organic matter again and raised the beds slightly above ground level. It is right by the dam so watering it is easy and with the recent rain even easier still!

garden 26th september

the garden today

The eggplants(aubergines) are flowering now so some yummy meals coming up….

And the zucchinis….we may not be wealthy by conventional standards but right now we are rich in zucchinis. I don’t call it a glut, I call it real wealth. They only grow for so many months and by the time we might start to get sick of them the season is over. And there is always enough to share with our family and friends when they come to visit. I love being able to share my wealth! So I’m making the most of zucchini season and being creative in the kitchen. So far we’ve had…
Zucchini fritters
Mushroom and zucchini pie
Grilled Zucchini on Bruschetta
Zucs stuffed with rice and herbs
Pasta with tomato and zucchini sauce
Steamed Zucchini
Zucchini slice
…and there’ll be many more to come

Peace has started work on the third garden bed and it’s almost ready to plant out. Yesterday our wonderful friend from the Organic Olive Farm brought over a whole tray of spring onions to plant and a bag full of seed. We were happy to receive the present but sad because he and his family are moving out of the Olive Farm and won’t be so close anymore.
And much to our surprise he gave us another gift, a beautiful telescope for the children.

The universe is so wonderful. Good friends are also our real wealth…

Peace has been teaching the kids lots of survival skills lately. He loves doing anything outdoorsy and so do the children. They can all light fires with just a flint and have also done it the way where you twirl a stick until you get embers. That way takes such a long time and a lot of patience and I was surprised that they kept going.

Two days ago they set up a water trap. It's a big hole that you line with leaves etc (you can even pee in it. Which Mr T did with glee). Peace placed a jar in the middle of the hole then they covered the hole with a sheet of plastic. Over night or a couple of days the moisture evaporates out of the leaves and soil hits the plastic and condenses and drips into the jar.

They uncovered the hole today.

Mr T was so proud that they had 'made' water.

Beautiful fresh water, out of leaves and pee...good enough to drink!

In the background you can see how the veggie garden is flourishing. I'm might have to do a post soon on 101 ways to cook zucchinis!