Summer Shade

We've been working on some extra shade for the chickens over summer. Unknowingly we seem to have put their pen in the hottest place on our property. We went out to visit friends yesterday, and arrived home to find the chickens hot and bothered, with their beaks hanging open, looking most miserable, so something had to be done.

Firstly, we used five sugar cane bales to make a shade shelter within their outside pen. These will hopefully block out the worst of the north and western sun in this section. I also put this 75 litre bin in there filled with water. I'm not sure how effective it will be, but I am hoping that it will keep the area cooler for longer.

Then down the side of the pen we've put a large trellis of reo bar steel. I've planted some loofah seeds, some cowpea seeds (with inoculant), some nasturtium seeds, and some linseed. Hopefully once they grow, they will shade the side of the shed and keep the temperature down in there too. Until they get growing, we've put up some shadecloth, with a gap between it and the shed, in the hopes of cooling things down.

We'll see tomorrow how it goes. I'm happy with all we've done, although there are a few more things we've planned to do as well. So far though, everything we've done has been with materials we've already had, so there hasn't been a big outlay.

More mulch than we know what to do with

Our 50 bales of sugar cane mulch arrived a couple of days ago. All I can say is Wow. Here it is stacked up against the side of the house, where it was unloaded. DD had a ball, climbing up and down the bales, and then jumping from one to the other once we moved some to the front garden. I've started spreading them around the front area, where I hope to cover the entire area in mulch. Let me tell you, I'm going to have heaps for that, and for several other projects I have in mind. It is such a lovely feeling to have so much mulch that I can just use lots of it, and for so many different things. I'm sure these bales will feature in many of my posts over the coming months.

We also harvested the first installment of our potato patch this afternoon. (I posted about making this here and here.) We were going to harvest the whole lot, as the plants had begun to yellow a little, but found that many of the potatoes are still quite small. They are plentiful though, this is the harvest from about 4 plants that we pulled up. It will probably do us about 3 or 4 meals. We'll probably keep harvesting from this patch now instead of buying them, but do it as needed rather than pulling the lot up at once, so that some of them will have a little longer to grow. I do want to get them out soon though, as I have plans to plant corn and pumpkins where they are growing now.

It is very satisfying to harvest your own food. Tonight we had potatoes and pumpkins that we grew ourselves. A short step closer to having a fully home grown meal!

A Change for the Better

We finally switched the main lights in the new house over to energy saving compact fluro's yesterday. After taking two months to get around to it, it only took a few minutes to actually do it (the biggest problem was remembering to check what type of light fitting we had before going out!) We've switched over the three lights in the living area, the two in DD's playroom, and the bathroom light, since these are the ones we use most often. The bedrooms, toilet and walk in wardrobe came with compact fluro's, so they are fine. We still need to switch over the hallway, laundry, and outside lights, but these are only used infrequently and for short periods of time, so they can wait a little while.

The compact fluros are much cheaper to run, especially over a long period of time. These that we bought are 15 watt, but with the light of a 75 watt, making them brighter than the existing 60 watt lights, for 1/4 of the energy. I'm sure we'll notice the savings on our next bill. Although you would think that changing lightbulbs over wouldn't make that much difference, we did actually notice the savings when we changed the ones in our unit over several years ago now. DH also prefers the white light over the yellow, and I have to agree with him, especially in the sewing room. For those that prefer the yellow light though, you can get yellow compact fluro's now. We have them in the other rooms in the house, and you can definately see the colour difference.

Recycled Planter Box

You may remember from July's Unfinished Projects Challenge, that I mentioned a mysterious planter box. Well, here it is, FINALLY all finished. When I went back to find the initial photos of putting it together, they were back in my MAY folder. This is one project that's been too long in the finishing. But now, finally, my little raspberry plant has a safe home, where it can't take over my yard or grow out of control. Hopefully now it will provide us with lots and lots of fresh raspberries.

It's made out of two old pallets that were left behind (or rather, snaffled with the overseer's permission) from our house building. These were the ones that the bricks were on for the house.

And, just in case anyone has a hankering to make one of these, here are some photos and basic instructions.

First, cut both pallets in half. We used the chainsaw for this. You want to end up with a piece (well, two actually, but you'll only use one of them) like this for the base.

And two pieces like this. They will make the sides.

Pull the back board off each side. These will be cut up to make the ends.

Attach first side with these hammer on connector thingies. (I'm really good with technical names.)

Then attach the other side. Then let it sit and weather for 4 months or so. Or, if you're the sort who likes to finish jobs in one go, you can skip this step...

Then cut the boards you pulled off into two pieces (one slightly shorter than the other if you have an angle like ours), and screw or nail them onto each end.

I then moved the planter to it's final place in the front garden, up against the fence, near the compost heap. Of course, it's not finished yet, since it's hardly going to hold soil like this.

I lined the planter box with weedmat on the bottom (left over from making DD's sandpit), and shadecloth on the sides (recycled from DH's parents pergola).

It's attached on the inside using the staple gun. Doesn't look too tidy, but it's about to be covered in soil anyway, so you won't be able to see it. Using pretty much all recycled materials or stuff we had lying around, all up it cost nothing more than the price of a few screws and staples. Can't go wrong there.

Then add your soil and plant your plants! It took quite a bit of soil to fill this up. Half the compost from my compost heap (on the bottom since it's still quite fresh), and about 4 bags of compost/potting mix from the garden store. The raspberry only takes up half of the planter for now, so I'm thinking I'll plant carrots in the other half until it grows a little.

Planting Perennials

The challenge this month on Aussie's Living Simply is to plant a perennial. Perennials are considered to be the mainstay of permaculture, as they provide food and other products with minimal tending. They don't need to be replanted every year, and usually once they're established, only minimal fertilising and watering, and the occasional pruning.

It came at a good time for us, as I have several fruit trees, vines and plants awaiting planting. Yesterday, before our trip the the beach, we planted a lychee, plum, macadamia and 2 mandarins, as well as transplanted one more mandarin from a position where it was not happy. I still have 3 grapes, 2 kiwi fruit, an olive tree, and 2 blueberries to plant. The picture above is of our orchard area, and future food forest! We're getting close to having all the fruit trees I can think of to plant right now, although I'm sure we'll squeeze in a few more when I just can't resist. It is getting pretty crowded though.

So far, on our property, we have:

Citrus:
Mandarins:
1. Honey Murcot
2. Imperial
3. Hickson
Oranges:
4. Washington Navel
5. Valencia
Lemons:
6. Eureka
7. Meyer

Stonefruit:
8. Peach - Tropical Beauty
9. Plum - Yellow Flesh
10. Apricot - Morepark
11. Nectarine
12. Peachcot

Others:
Apples:
13. Tropical
14. Golden Dorset
Mulberries:
15. Black
16. White
Others:
17. Fig - Black Turkey
18. Persimmon - Non-astringent
19. Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit)
20. Macadamia
21. Macadamia - H2
22. Mango - Bowen

Hmm, only 22? Seems like there should be more than that.

We also have about 4 passionfruit vines, several lilypilly's, and of course the blueberries, grapes etc that I mentioned above. Eventually, I plan on adding some understory plants in the orchard area, as well as lots of edible groundcovers for the chooks. For now though, we're working on a windbreak of natives at the back (as the neighbour is clearing her land for subdivision), and one or two more fruit trees that I'm sure will jump into my car at the markets...

Toes in the Sand

This is how I spent a large portion of the afternoon.

When I wasn't doing this. As you can see, I'm still wearing my skirt. Better make another one I think, before I wear this one out!

We went out to Bribie Island again for the afternoon, and had a lovely relaxing time in the sand and water. The water is just starting to warm up, and being school holidays, there were a few families around, but not too crowded.

There were a bit of a crowd of these jellyfish though. So sad to see them washing up on the beach. I wonder why they do that?

And here are a couple of pics of DD playing on the beach, just for good measure.

We didn't spend the whole day in idleness though. Before we left this morning, we added planted 6 new trees in the orchard. I'll post some pics, maybe tomorrow, and an updated list of the trees we have now.

And finally, here is today's harvest for today. We're finding that we're losing a lot of strawberries as they're rotting from lying on the damp ground under the plants. When we get runners this year, I'm going to move them all down to the front, hopefully with a better setup. There also should be 2 eggs in the picture, but I forgot to include them. One in the nest, and one found in a corner of the shed veranda. No idea how long it was there, but it can't have been more than a day or two. It tasted fine. Well, better than fine actually. There is nothing quite like the taste of your own, fresh, chickens eggs.

Improving the Soil

We have our work cut out for us, to change our barren front lawn into a productive vegie garden. And this is the first step. Here are the 20 bales of lucerne hay that were delivered this morning. We will have 50 bales of sugar cane mulch arriving some time in the next week or so. I'm also buying up on compost, manure and soil food at our local Bunnings.

Yes, I am spending a lot of money on establishing this garden, and no doubt I could do it for less. I mean, we have 3/4 of an acre of grass, and plenty of kitchen scraps, couldn't I use those? The answer is that yes, I could, and yes, I do, but the amount of compost and mulch I can produce this way barely makes a dent in the amount of land I'm trying to make productive. And while there is nothing particularly wrong with the soil, there's nothing particularly good about it either. We're basically trying to grow European vegetables in Australian soil, and the difference between them is quite significant. The vegetables will grow in the soil we have, but they won't produce as well as they should be. The answer to this, of course, is to increase the amount of vegetable matter in the soil, which in turn increases the nutrients, and the soil's water retention.

So we have a busy time ahead of us, preparing all this area for our summer planting. I hope to take lots of pictures, and document our progress as I go along.

Our First Egg!

DD and I were very excited today to discover our first egg! I'd almost given up looking, and was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with our chooks, but lo and behold, there it was. We almost missed it, I just happened to look through the window of the shed, and there it was. I would have liked to take a picture of it still in the nest, but DD was so excited she had to pick it up and bring it down to the house straight away. I figured this was the next best photo. I was really afraid she was going to drop it in her excitement, but she didn't. It's now sitting in our fridge, and DD wants to make pancakes with it tomorrow morning. I'm so looking forward to having more fresh eggs than we can eat, and hopefully some to share with our family and friends as well. One more step towards self-sufficiency.

I made DD the requested 'skirt like mummy's, so here it is. I actually did this up in about 15 minutes last night once DD was in bed, only to find this morning that it didn't fit her! Far too small. That will teach me to sew when my model is in bed. I cut it up the seam, and added in another panel, and it fits fine now.

I made this little dress today too, finally cutting up one of the fabrics I bought for clothes for DD. It's a really pretty dress, although it was a bit more fiddly than the others. It's also a little short. Wearable, but it won't last until next year. If I make another one like this, (and I probably will), I'll adjust the pattern to be a bit longer in both the skirt and the top. It was listed as a 6yo pattern though, so I didn't expect it to be this short! Guess the Japanese are shorter than my already very tall girl.

A Crafting Day

After picking up my new overlocker after a warranty repair yesterday, today was lined up for some serious sewing. I had prewashed all the pretty material I bought from spotlight a few weeks ago (to preshrink it, it's cotton), and was all ready to go. Of course, I then didn't want to cut up said pretty material straight away, in case the pattern I tried didn't work. So a quick search through my recycled fabric stash revealed this pretty purple floral material. It was an old granny nightie. Much more useful now don't you think? And I was glad I didn't cut up the expensive stuff for this, since it was MEANT to be a dress, but was far too short! The addition of the shorts makes it a very cute little outfit regardless though.

Next I had a go at making a dress following this tutorial (from memory, since my computer wasn't turned on). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (again from an old granny nighty that I posted about here). I've always wanted to know how to do that elastic gathery thing, so was really excited to find out how it was done (and it's very easy, check out the tutorial). Unfortunately DD has already broken one of the gathers from her habit of putting her knees up inside her dresses/shirts and stretching them. Oh well, no doubt I can fix it if I get around to it.

And finally, I took the scissors to the new material to make this skirt for me. This was actually my least favourite of the material, but I really like how it has turned out. After taking the photo, I added two pockets, as I hate wearing things without pockets. Nowhere to put my keys, and they always get lost in the bottom of my handbag. The pattern for this dress came from my "Stitch House" book, a great book, translated from Japanese, with measure and cut patterns for a great variety of clothes. For those who've seen them, it's very similar to Enid Gilchrist's books, only more modern (it's from the 80's I believe). I think I'm going to be making a lot of clothes from this book (and the other two from the series that I have) because most of the clothes can be made with 2m of fabric or less, unlike the paper patterns I have (and I have lots) that seem to need 3-4 metres for everything. Far more frugal, and usually easier and faster to make too.

So it seems like I've made a good start on our summer wardrobe. I am itching to make more, and have my next pattern already planned out. Well, I might have to make DD a skirt like mine first, as she's already requested one. Luckily I have enough material left over from my 2m to make her one!

And yes, for anyone who is curious, I did do all these in one day. Most of them only took 1/2 an hour to an hour to do, so I even managed to cook some johnny cakes, and do some craft with DD too.

We made these flower collages from cutout scrap paper and other bits and pieces. I helped cut bits out for DD, but she stuck all of it on herself. She's really enjoying these sorts of crafts lately. We made a pirate hat at the library yesterday, which she even cut out herself. While I'm at it, here are some other crafts DD has done in the last few days (not today!)

DD cut out and stuck these dinosaurs all by herself last night from some scrapbooking paper we bought her for her birthday. The one on the left is a velociraptor, and the one on the right is an apatosaurus.

These little paper envelopes she also made herself. The paper is some coloured squares, again bought for her birthday. She did it all herself, just asking me to get some masking tape off the roll for her. All the folding and sticking she did herself.

Her manipulative skills are really taking off right now, so I think we're going to be doing a lot more of these sorts of activities around here.

Four Sources of Water

Permaculture theory (as stated by Rosemary Morrow in her book, "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture, yes you're going to hear a lot about this book over the next little while) states that you should always have at least 2 sources of water, just in case one is lost or contaminated. This can be any combination of tanks, bores, dams, or town water. If your only water source is tank water for example, you should have two smaller tanks rather than one large one etc. Well, our new 5000L water tank arrived yesterday afternoon, bringing us up to 4 water sources - 3 tanks and town water backup. I've mentioned before that though we have a mains water connection, we intend to only use it in an emergency. Since we moved, mains water has only ever been used to top up the new house connected tank when it was first installed (via the automatic top up that was installed, and was turned off as soon as handover was completed). We now have over 50,000L in water storage, and after the recent rains, both main tanks are at half and three quarters full. Another good rain, and they'll be full.

That's where this new tank comes in. We'll pump into it regularly (it's not connected to a downpipe) when the tanks are nearing capacity, giving us some extra storage space. It will be used entirely for watering the front garden, and will save a lot of carting buckets back and forth. I'm hoping to set up some drip watering systems to make watering even easier (and more water efficient).

As you can also see in the photo, the front garden is starting to take shape. Besides the tank, you can see the black compost bin in the bottom right corner, that is about 1/4 full now, with a pile of grass next to it for covering food scraps with. it's hard to see, but the climbing peas are about 18 inches tall now, and starting to flower. I'm hoping we'll get a harvest in before it gets too hot for them. Weeds abound in the rest of the front yard, but in the next few weeks they will all be mown down then smothered with lots of mulch. Then I'll be able to get started, albeit a little late, on my spring planting.

On a good gardening note though, the strawberry harvests just keep getting bigger and bigger! I need to pick them more often, as you can probably see, some of them are getting rotten spots where they're lying on the damp ground too long. I had to chuck about a dozen really rotten ones to the chooks, but most of these were salvageable, and have now been frozen for the next batch of strawberry jam. Organic and homegrown this time!

Bye Bye Teflon.

DH and I have always had an electric frypan, and up until now, they've all been teflon. It's pretty hard these days to buy a frypan that isn't teflon. Now aside from the fact that there have been numerous health risks linked to teflon (which scrapes off the pans quite easily), every single teflon pan we've had has lasted a maximum of 18 months. The teflon just scrapes off the pan so quickly, even if you're being super careful, that they have a very short lifespan indeed. Meaning that we have to regularly replace a frying pan that is working perfectly well.

This happens so regularly that we have several electric frying pan boxes holding all our Christmas ornaments. We'd buy a new one each year, when they came on special.

Well not anymore. Yesterday I went out and bought a stainless steel electric frying pan. No more icky teflon scraping off, no more replacing our frying pan each year, or feeling bad because the teflon was scraping off and we hadn't replaced it. Our new frying pan has a 25 year guarantee on the cooking surface. You won't find that on a teflon one any time soon!

We cooked pancakes in it for lunch today, and it worked beautifully. Looking forward to many more safely cooked meals, and a long and harmonious relationship with our new frying pan.

Beginning Reading

Yesterday, we visited our local library. Every Wednesday and Friday, the Caboolture Library has story time, about half an hour of stories and songs, usually followed by a simple craft activity. As DD has been a little uncertain about being involved in group play and activities, this one is our gentle introduction and some social interaction. Some weeks she doesn't want to go, and a few times when there has been an unusually large group, such as during school holidays, she's wanted to go home, but overall she really enjoys the experience, and always demands that we go to the playground nearby to play afterwards.

It's really great morning out, we get to listen to fun stories, play with the other kids, get some new books/DVD's/computer games, and best of all, it's free! I've been really impressed with the Caboolture library's resources for kids. There are giant floor puzzles for the kids to play with in the library (not a visit goes by that we don't do at least one of them!), a great selection of fiction and non-fiction books for kids, and even an educational section.

Yesterday, among other things, we picked up a beginning reading book. It's quite simple, 3-4 word sentences on each page, and a very cute little story about two frogs jumping. I picked it up on a whim, thinking that DD might just like it. We do have the first level of a couple of different beginning reading series, and DD has practiced many times with them. This book was a little different though, in that it had more of a story than many of the readers we have.

When we got home, we sat down to read it, and DD read it through with minimal help! She was so excited she read it again, then again to show DH when he got home from work. It was a very exciting moment for us all. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but we've taken the first step, and all in all, it was pretty easy.

One of the best things about homeschooling I think, is that we get to share these moments with our kids, rather than just hearing about them later (if they even get repeated). Seeing DD's excitement as she realised that she could read was a wonderful gift, and I look forward to many more like it on our homeschooling journey.

Mending a Tear

A few nights ago, I ripped a hole in the bottom sheet on our bed. You see, there was a minuscule particle of grit that had somehow gotten under the sheet (at least, I think it was under it), and I have a bit of a hatred of dust/grit in my bed, so I had to rip it out. Unfortunately, I had a bit of sheet between my fingers as well, and this was the result. So instead of letting the hole get bigger and bigger until I threw the sheet out, I pulled it straight off the bed (well, next morning, I didn't get up to do it in the middle of the night, rest assured), and mended it. The rest of the sheet is still in good condition, and being nice, expensive, 100% cotton sheets, I didn't want to have to buy new ones straight away.

It was easy to mend. If you're not craftily inclined, you can buy iron on patches that will do a fair job of this sort of mending, but I prefer to go for the cheaper option. I cut a square of cotton out of an old sheet that was too far gone to mend, and pinned it behind the tear. Then I sewed around the edges to hold it in place, then in close to the tear, then finally, zig-zagged over the actual tear itself. Luckily I still had green thread on my machine from making the Teddy Bear, so it even matched.

I actually feel really satisfied doing things like this. I mean, for taking the time to do a 10 minute job, I actually saved $100! This is actually much better even than if I'd made $100, as I don't have to pay tax on it! Not to mention not needing to take the time, energy and fuel to go buy a new set of sheets!

It's more than just the saving though, I feel productive, and I feel a connection to the things and people in my house when I do jobs like this. Now I have a couple of DH's cargo pants sitting on my machine, waiting for a similar treatment.

Front Garden

I promised some front garden photos yesterday, but got too busy to actually take any today. I really haven't done much yet though, so you're not missing much! We've put 180cm wire along the front, and I plan on getting lots of vines growing there to cover us from the street while we get a more permenant hedge (hopefully of pidgeon pea, and maybe some carob) growing. So far I have climbing peas growing (though it's late in the season, and they seem to be getting a mould attack), a baby passionfruit, and a sprouted choko. I've planted other vine seeds, like loofah's and gourds, but they haven't come up yet. And that's about it. So far all that exists in the front garden is a narrow bed about a foot wide along the front. So without further ado, here are some pictures I took a few weeks ago.

The new garden bed from the same direction as yesterday's picture. Believe it or not there is about 3 bales of hay in that garden!

And a closeup of the climbing peas.

More Strawberries!

I thought it would be another couple of days before we got more strawberries, but up in the garden this afternoon I picked this bunch. If I can get this many strawberries each day, we'll have enough for another lot of jam before we finish eating this one! Of course, I ate a couple, and DD ate one, and the rest are going with DH tomorrow for his lunch, so none to add to the freezer stash today.

Some of you might remember that back in May, when I harvested my first lot of potatoes, that there was a strange bug on the stems, that I'm pretty sure was responsible for the early death of the plants. Talking to a few other gardeners yielded the idea that they might be the larval stage of the 28 spot ladybird. I wasn't sure at the time, as I hadn't recalled seeing any, but looking at my current crop today, I pulled these little critters off the plants. There were so many of them I was amazed. My first crop is looking a little the worse for wear, so I might not have gotten to them in time, but I'm hoping that if I keep an eye on the second crop regularly, I might just prevent the same thing happening. I offered these to the chooks, but they turned up their noses!

Finally, I've been promising info on my new garden plans for a while, but haven't had a chance to post about it. I took these pictures back in June, would you believe, and haven't posted them yet. This is the front lawn, between our house and the street. I plan to turn this, and the area around the corner (right to the fence, then left in this picture) into my new vegie garden.

As you can see, it's quite easy to fence off, in fact, we've already fenced it. A small fence between the tank and the fence, and another between the tank and the side of the house makes this side inaccessible by chooks. And a longer fence from the side of the house down to the front fence secures the other side. I've already begun work on the garden here, but I'll save that post for tomorrow, after I take some more pictures to show you.

The garden up the back that we already have will remain there, and I'll use it for larger crops that don't need to be visited/harvested as frequently. Some plans include a giant corn patch, watermelons, and of course, the strawberries will remain there, though I'll bring this years runners down to the front for a second strawberry patch there.

I love days like this, where I actually have some sort of tangible harvest from my garden. This is the last of the Roma Tomatoes, the mickey's (aka Noisy Minors) got the rest. But I'm sure they enjoyed them more than I would have. There are a few more side shoots from the broccoli at the back that we had for dinner. Never have I actually enjoyed green leafy vegetables before, but these are yum. I had the mulberries for desert, more ripe this time, and starting to get sweet. The strawberries are about 2-3 days growth. If I get this many every few days, about a punnet full I think, then I'll have a giant pot of my own organic strawberry jam in a few weeks time! I cut them up and they're in the freezer now, along with the tomatoes.

Gardening wise I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I want to get into spring planting, but there is a lot to organise first, which I shall post about more in the next few days/weeks as it gets moving. I have plans to move my vegie garden to the front of the house, where it gets plenty of sun, and is protected from the westerly winds, which can be quite nasty at times. It also works in well with the permaculture zones, being essentially Zone 1, close to the house and easily accessible. I actually bought Rosemary Morrow's "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture" yesterday, and have been voraciously devouring it. This of course is probably part of the reason for my overwhelmed feeling.

I've tried to read about permaculture before. The idea intrigues me, but Bill Mollison's books were just too theoretical for me, and I couldn't get through them. This book is far more practical, and I'm already finding myself referring to it as I try to plan something. I think I will have to work through the exercises she lists in each chapter, and try to get an overall permaculture plan for our block. Hopefully there will be some posts about that in the future too. (Ever notice how I talk a lot about possible posts that often don't ever eventuate?) There is just so much to it, and so much of it is so useful, but it takes a lot to take it all in.

In other news, my kiwi fruit plants arrived today. 2 plants, male and female, both very tiny. I've been reading up on them, and apparently they grow VERY extensively, and are very strong plants, so I'm going to need somewhere to put them. I'm really wishing right now that I had a pergola out the front, as it would be a perfect place for them. As they're deciduous, they'd give us some nice cool shade in summer, but let in the warm sun in winter. Some planning to do there too...

And as an update to yesterday's post, Roley the rooster has been returned to the breeders we bought the eggs off, and they are going to attempt to find him a new home. Hopefully Jumpy will settle down now that he's the king rooster, and not take after Roley.

Time's Up

This is Roley the Rooster. Beautiful isn't he?

Well let me tell you, he's not so beautiful when he's pecking your hand through the wire of his pen. Or sidling up to you, wings down, indicating that he's deciding whether to attack or not.

Out of our 7 surviving chooks, we have 2 roosters (You can see Jumpy in the background of this picture), and both aren't exactly being friendly. Jumpy (why is it that our roosters have names, but not our chooks???) has only run at me once or twice though, whereas Roley does it every time I open his pen, or walk outside.

So this means that, beautiful though he is, Roley is going to have to go. Jumpy will get a short reprieve, just to see how he goes once Roley is gone, but if he follows in his predecessor's footsteps, he'll be gone too. Sadly, we're not quite game enough to put him on the dinner table, so I'd say he'll go back to the breeders who we bought the eggs off.

Berry Nice

Yes, I know, lame title. That is what happens when you over plan a blog post. This is my 'berry harvest' from yesterday (with a few peas thrown in). Mulberries and strawberries. This is the mulberry tree's second year (first year it was still in a pot though, poor thing, while we waited to get out here to plant), and we're getting a nice taste of mulberries this year. Many of these were picked up from the ground after the recent rain and accompanying wind. Tasted nice, but could be a little sweeter, probably because some of them could be a little riper.

The strawberries are doing well too, but they taste Soooo yummy, that I am beginning to wonder if we're going to get many to make jam. I'm afraid I'm the worst culprit for strawberry eating, I keep eating them as I pick. They are so totally unlike the strawberries you buy in the shops, or even at the markets. These are the old variety, from my Grandmother's plants (Grandpa used to have a farm, and I have feint memories of going there and picking strawberries from their huge strawberry patch). These haven't been bred and modified to travel well, or be huge, or extra red, they are just the way they are, and you can taste the difference. Not even a hint of bitterness, just as sweet as can be. I'm not even going to bother trying to buy any newer commercial ones (the last ones I tried died anyway, oops), just keep making more and more and more of these.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was just beginning to wonder yesterday if we were going to get enough to make jam, and we were down to our last jar of jam... when I found a bargain at the markets this morning. A whole box full of strawberries, for the bargain price of $5!!!! So I bought them home, diced them up, and here they are in my pressure cooker! None of the saucepans were big enough to hold them! There is still at least a punnet load of the nicer ones left for eating and, more likely, juicing (have to post about my new juicer soon...)

I don't think I've posted about making jam before? We make all our own jam these days, and it's really easy. Basically, just dice up your fruit (and there are lots of options other than strawberries, pineapple, apricot, rosella, raspberry, etc etc). Put it in a saucepan with equal parts of sugar (I often put slightly less sugar, and it hasn't affected the eventual outcome). If it's a low pectin fruit (which strawberries are), add some lemon juice (about one lemon to 2 cups of strawberries), and boil it up. After a while (time seems to be dependent on the temperature of your stove) it will 'gel'. You should be able to see the change in the pot once you get used to it. The jam seems to go darker, it doesn't boil as quickly, and it 'feels' thicker. Then pour it straight into sterilised jars (I just rinse mine in hot water from the tap), and put the lids on quickly before it cools. If you have 'pop-top' jars, the tops will pop down as it cools, and seal the jars. I keep mine in the fridge, but I think it is OK to keep sealed jars in the cupboards, though I'm not sure how long.

This lot of strawberries made 11 jars of jam! So for $5 for the strawberries, and maybe $2 worth of sugar (I buy in bulk, 15kg at a time, works out at a little less than $1 a kg if I recall correctly), about $1 worth of lemons, that's about 70c a jar. Hopefully that will keep my family in jam for a while, although I won't hold my breath, we go through a lot of jam. So long as it's strawberry anyway. The pineapple and apricot have been sitting in the fridge for months. While I was at it, I poured a little into a bottle before it hit the gel stage, to see how it works for strawberry sauce.

I wonder if they'll have more boxes next week?