Freedom Harvest Challenge

I have signed up for the "Freedom Harvest Challenge". The challenge is for people to collectively grow 1 million pounds (453 600 kgs) in their backyards, (or front yard, or window sill, or where ever). Anais at Little Homestead in the City says this amounts to about 400 pounds each (181.5 kgs) eeek!

Oh, well, one of my goals for 2009 was to get the garden back up to scratch, I guess this will help get me more motivated.

I wonder if I should weigh every handful of parsley I sprinkle on our dinners?

Anyway, I'm off to plant some zucchini to pad out my total, ;) they always grow like weeds, he he.

Sign up here: http://www.freedomgardens.org

Another 2009 goal

I have enrolled in The Northey St City farm's Permaculture Design course.
My first day was great. I am always really nervous meeting a group of new people.
I also had these wierd half formed ideas, that maybe everyone would be uber hippy green and they would think that i was terrible for eating cheese, or using soap, or something. He he. After awhile, I felt really comfortable though, with everyone so welcoming. There was a lot of diversity, in age, political leanings, "greenness", etc.

I have learned so much, my head is swimming. It is so refreshing to study something that gels with your worldview. (Unlike so many university arts subjects, which are approached from either a feminazi, socialist viewpoint, or focussed on past world events, and really can't be applied to life.)

Lunch is provided for the students, by the students, on a roster. (And everyone has to pitch in with dishes and cleaning up after, which gives you a chance to chat. Not like uni, at all! Reminded me a bit of school camp lol.) Every week lunch focusses on a different subtropical seasonal ingredient. This weeks ingredient was Bunya Nuts. We had bunya nut stirfry, with rice, and bunya nut patties - think felafel, with lilly-pilly chilli jam. It was so exciting for me to see Bunya nuts 'in the flesh'. I've read about them before, and have always wanted to try them. There was also a presentation about the nuts, you know, habitat, uses etc. We also discussed how the Bunya nut is a special tree to Indigenous people. A lot of the significance of bunya nuts is only allowed to be shared within the Indigenous community, which I respect. For an interesting insight into the Bunya nut festival visit this blog. The festival is invitation only, which i think is great, because it stops it from turning into a tourist attraction.

I also loved that I was eating a meal prepared by other people, yet I could eat everything on offer... It was all vegetarian, yay! No making excuses, or apologising for putting people out. The ratio of carnivores to vegos was about 50/50, so i didn't feel odd.

I am thankful this is something I am able to do, and I hope to put my knowledge to use at home now and on our property, when we get one.

Here is one of my 2009 goals completed. Home made Sour-dough bread according to this recipe. The dough is extremely wet and a bit gloopy. You really need to flour your hands. The finished loaf looks great though, (and smells great, wish I could waft it your way). The texture was quite airy, even though (because?) it hadn't been kneaded. This recipe is great, because you make up a batch, then leave it alone until you want bread. The texture is chewy and substantial, unlike supermarket bread that can dissolve on your tongue like fairy floss (cotton candy.) My Handsome Husband and I ate it straight from the oven, still warm, smothered in butter and honey. *groan of pleasure*

One benefit of this method is the dough keeps for two weeks, so it is always on hand ready to go. Today, my MIL came over for dinner, but by 5pm I still hadn't figured out what to cook. Then I realised I already had dough sitting in the fridge. Perfect, I'll make pizzas. Mmmm, so yum. One of the main reasons we rarely have pizza, is because you need to plan ahead a few hours. My usual dough recipe needs to be kneaded and left to double in size twice before you can turn it into bread or pizza bases. This can take all afternoon! With this recipe, you pull a lump of dough out of the fridge, roll it out and plop your toppings on. So simple! Who needs soggy frozen pizzas or greasy store bought ones?


My Pizza sauce:
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup BBQ sauce (or steak sauce)
1 clove of crushed garlic
1 handfull of fresh herbs (We have basil, oregano and chives. Sometimes I will put a pinch of rosemary and/or thyme in as well. Anything will work, really.)

Chop/process/pound herbs until the flavour is released.
Mix all ingredients in a covered bowl or screw top jar, and refridgerate until you need it. Don't keep it for much more than 24 hours though, it might grow legs and walk away.

Our Favourite toppings:
Pitted Kalamata olives
Grilled eggplant
Fetta cheese (an extra kick for the grownups)
Pineapple (for the boys)
fresh/semidried tomato
Grilled capsicum (char the capsicum by slicing it and placing it on highest setting of your grill, really burn the skin black! Let the capsicum cool enough to touch and then peel off the blackened skin. You will be left with a bright red, slippery piece of capsicum, that tastes smoky and so sweet.)
chopped onion or shallots
Top everything with lots of grated cheese. We use bocconcini or mozarella if we are feeling rich, but any mild, melting cheese works fine.

P.S. Making your own pizza means it is really easy to cater for finicky eaters. It is so simple to just keep the eggplant, or the onions, or whatever, to one side of a pizza. Use a long piece of chive on top of the cheese to show the halfway mark. Can you believe pizza chains charge extra for half and half pizzas?

A new year begins.

Well, the first week of 2009 is over.
I'm not one for making new years resolutions, mainly because I either break them or forget them. Instead, I plan, I dream and I formulate goals.

Some of my goals for 2009:

• As always to reduce, reduce, reduce my family's impact on the planet. (This is the main goal I have and most of the other goals are related to this.)
• Reduce the amount of processed food my family eats. This means I will need to be more organised. I will have to make work and school lunches in advance and freeze up some home made "ready meals", for days when neither of us wants to cook. Sorry boys, no tuck-shop or take away.
  
• Complete a Permaculture design course. I have researched this and I am lucky to have Northey St City Farm just down the road from me. This is the website here. Somehow, I will fit this into my existing work, school and family schedule.
  
• Finish everything in my mending basket. Sigh. How does a grown man manage to rip so many pairs of shorts?
  
• Bake our own bread, biscuits, muffins etc. I love to cook, and my boys love to eat what I cook, but somehow I only manage to bake for special occasions. I need to make it part of my weekly routine. I really want to try this recipe I saw in Mother Earth Magazine.
  
• Make my own pasta. I have been promised a shiny pasta maker by my handsome husband. I know, I know, I could just roll it out and cut it, but when I do it this way, the texture is all wrong and my lasagne is too thick.
  
• Walk, ride or catch the bus to school.
• Be on time for school everyday. Last year, my son's teacher was so frustrated by my lack of punctuality, I think she was on the verge of giving me detention.
  
• Get my Driving license. I don't want, or need a car of my own, but for emergencies, it's probably a good idea to be legally allowed to drive one.
  
• Get the veggie patch up to scratch. The poor patch has suffered, due to storms, heat, humidity and general neglect.
  
• Make soap, at least once. I have relatives who own an olive business and they make their own olive oil soap, which is so luscious and creamy. I just don't see them enough to keep us supplied in free samples, lol. So I will try to make my own.

I will post through out the year about my attempts at achieving these goals, and keep you updated about my successes, or failures :1