Keldane Homestead & Living Sustainably | Gardener

Keldane Homestead & Living Sustainably

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25.01.2022 Something prickly this way comes ...

19.01.2022 What are you having for breakfast? I’ve made and Agnes the AGA brekkie. Bubble & Squeak, an egg on top with tomato sauce. Let’s put this in context. Bubble & Squeak is essentially last night’s leftover mash. My SPECIAL mash. Potatoes, carrots and onion, touch of salt, all simmered together until JUST tender. Strain off liquid through a mesh strainer. You could retain the mash liquid for white sauce for later. ... Mash with butter & a bit of salt to taste. Sometimes I add cream. Get creative ... add chopped garlic chives from the garden, a grating of fresh parmesan ... #FreshIsBest However this is more special as I GREW the vegetables. The egg came from my Chookie Girls. If I had a Cow I’m sure I would’ve made the butter and scooped the cream off the top of the milk. Unfortunately we don’t have enough land to warrant it, otherwise there would be a few alpacas and a jersey cow! The tomato sauce was made last season from tomatoes grew. It’s quite a laborious task as you have to strain all the bits out ... It really is a labour of love but it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I like the slowness of all of it. Watching the vegetables grow, preparing them, figuring out the recipes, cooking & preserving them. The old skills were dying but during Covid they’ve been making a comeback out of necessity ... more to stop the boredom and care for your family’s mental health during Lockdown. From making bread from scratch, sourdough and sandwich loaves, keeping chickens & putting in vegetable beds, people are rediscovering what their ancestors did & now there is no turning back. These are small things to do within your own fenceline but that is where positive change happens ... at home.

14.01.2022 I have a mild Alpaca obsession ... only problem is I can only get Llama-ery things. I’m willing to compromise! Here are my latest additions. Firstly is the cutest silicon spatula/bowl scraper. It matches Agnes! Secondly, is cotton fabric to make chef pads for the hobs on Agnes the Aga & a double oven mitt. I think she deserves some accessorising ... Last is husky polar fleece, on special at Spotlight, for onesies for Ariel & Fergie my fur kids. They have no undercoat, being Italian greyhounds, so during winter they need clothes. if it’s really cold outside and they have no jackets on, they literally run back in. So for my sanity, they get dressed. Back in the 80s and 90s I had my own childrenswear label Gonomie. I still have my sewing skills and my labels. I think I’ll make them with hoodies!

13.01.2022 I have a couple of lovely neighbours who grow food too, Pam & Marion. When they message Would you like some ...? I say ... they know I never knock back fresh produce. They also know something will be coming back their way. Today the third bag of tomatoes was hung on Our Hook, a biggish cup hook on my back gate post to swap with Pam.... Currently I’ve been giving back eggs. My garden is still starting to produce & the tomatoes are still green. The sweet potatoes will be months off and hopefully they’ll produce. Even the zucchinis are just starting to produce fruit. Out of the 4 I put in, 3 died. I think I’ll plant three more groups of Blackjack zucchini seeds tomorrow. I do have a lot of capsicums coming on & the eggplant are doing well, I just hope this wind doesn’t flatten the whole lot! Potatoes are growing but I won’t know until I empty the bags and the beds. It looks promising. There is also a bed of Yacon. Fingers crossed they come good. Tomorrow I’m going to put in bantam corn, pumpkin, butter beans, carrots, lettuce, shallots & cucumbers. It may be a bit late but the seasons are pretty screwed up. Call it an experiment. I have a dwarf Cavendish banana in a pot. Benny Banana ... He’s growing really well. I have a dragon fruit that I have yet to put up and a bed with strawberries just coming on. The seasons have been so weird that I think the veggies are confused as to what time of year it is. I’m hedging my bets that some really hot weather is coming. Perfect for corn and pumpkin.

12.01.2022 The Molt is upon is!

12.01.2022 MUSHROOMS ... The humid conditions and the big rains we are having create a great environment for mushrooms. Risotto, pies and tarts, simply fried in butter, dehydrated for later, pickled, sauces ... I’m salivating thinking about it! The Neanderthal, on the other hand, isn’t a fan but I did manage to sneak some in at times. ... However, I face a quandary. The mushrooms in my backyard, are they edible? Usually I can tell. It becomes pretty obvious when you rip one out of the ground and the base turns yellow. If I run my nail across the top of the cap & it stains yellow, it gets binned. I’m not too sure about composting poisonous mushrooms ... I don’t want spores lating in wait to pop up in the veggie patch or in the flower beds. This one smells like an edible. It LOOKS like a field mushroom. I put slashes in the top & NO yellowing. I’m not usially a lucky person and knowing my luck I’d poison myself end up in emergency. The stalk is actually brown & no real yellowing like the Yellow Stainers ... but IS it a Field Mushroom? We get hundreds popping up each year, the majority being Yellow Stainers, the poisonous one that can land you in hospital. It really takes the fun out of ‘Mushying’. The previous owners say they did not have any of the poisonous ones ... I’m amazed they didn’t up in hospital. They bought in many truckloads of mushroom compost and this is where they’ve come from. This is the second mushroom we’ve found this week, so obviously the season is coming up. If anybody knows if this is a good one or a bad one, comment below. Obviously I want to take advantage of as many as I can! Presently I’m too scared to eat the ones I find in our backyard.

10.01.2022 Today I made Spiced Pickled Onions. I don’t like fast methods when preserving, it takes the Fun out of it! I like processes. This took 3 days preparing until jarring up. Pickled Onions remind me of a little poem that goes like this ... Why don’t they make pickled onions square,... Why are they always round? When I put my fork into the jar All I get out is the vinegar. Grab ’em, stab ’em, They’re nowhere to be found, Oh why don’t they make pickled onions square, Why are they always round? This poem is by David Mabey and David Collison from ‘The Perfect Pickle Book’. Unless you bought a pickled onion from the fish and chip shop, you would know the frustration of getting a pickle out of a jar after the first couple of layers have been picked off. They start to float. Unless you are an absolute grot, by using your fingers to get one of the lip puckering spheres out of the jar, you would use a fork or spoon. Then you’ll understand the frustration in the poem, as pickled onions develop a mind of their own if they think they will be ‘caught’! Slippery little suckers! Now to wait at least a month for the flavours to develop. The second picture is a new project. Actually it is a ‘practice’ macrame project ... hopefully it will look like a feather. If it works I will do the ‘real’ piece which will have 4 in a row and be a wall hanging.

09.01.2022 Final stages of The Big Kitchen renovation ... the new timber sash windows went in. So much light! I’ve also noticed how much QUIETER it is in here. I can hear myself think . Alex, the carpenter, said that the glass is 6 mm thick now, whereas before it was only 3 mm thick. Now during Winter it will retain warmth a lot more in here, taking advantage of the Aga’s ambient warmth. A snuggly kitchen during Winter. Airflow during Summer. Yes! Airflow! We now have FLYSCREENS on ...ALL windows so we can have cross-ventilation . Second thinking about having window treatments ~ outside are huge trees giving privacy. Call me practical but isn’t that the main reason for window coverings? Privacy? That and providing relief from the sun pouring in? However, this side of the house faces South. For my Northern hemisphere friends, this means we don’t get direct sunlight this side of the house. In the USA it would be the opposite. If it was facing North we’d need more than window coverings as our area can be putrid heat-wise in Summer. Don’t get me started about the during Summer. Flyscreens are more than a necessity, we need them for cross breezes & ventilation. Look out the windows, why cover the view? Do we NEED coverings on the windows? I could do a nudie run & nobody would see me [thank GOD!]. We are in a VERY rural area. Actually our little town [if you could call it that] called Lancaster, has no pub [a prerequisite for most towns], no general store, no post office. We have farmland to the East and the West. Cows. Feed. Flies. It is secluded & peaceful. It does have a great little Primary school that is doing its best to be innovative regarding learning & inclusivity of all learning styles [awesome principal I might add]. We have a huge AFL football & netball complex, The Wombats! Other than these things, Lancaster is more a farming area, a ‘suburb’ of Kyabram. Getting back to the windows ... we are in a quiet area, have big trees for privacy & a lovely vista, no northern/western/ exposure to heat up the windows ... only 2 windows face East and plants cover those ... so WHY cover the windows? Bare windows it is ...

08.01.2022 A couple of my little Chooky Girls, the youngest ones, appear to be beginning to moult. I know one seems to be off the lay as I know these chookies’ eggs from the young group. One is not laying as often. After looking at her bedraggled appearance & checking her over, I could see the feathers missing, particulary around her neck. Plus there were others threatening to fall out, sticking out at odd angles. So it is extra protein in their feed time. It’s hard for their little b...odies to produce eggs when a lot of energy goes into moulting and growing new feathers. Being a good Chookie Mother, I am baking some Cornbread with added goodness like yeast flakes, which adds protein & a cheesy flavour, pepitas as pumpkin seeds are the highest source of plant protein, hemp seed hearts as they are valuable source of protein, energy, and long chain fatty acids. Lastly linseeds. This is a bit of an experiment & has turned out awesome! If I hadn’t put bakers flour in it, I would have had a look at myself. Unfortunately I have got a tolerance. I can’t eat spelt flour but not this type. Anyway here’s the recipe: CHOOKIE HIGH PROTEIN CORNBREAD Grease and flour at 25 cm square tin. Place a square of parchment paper on the bottom. Pre-heat the oven to 200C or if using an Aga, pre-heat the roasting oven and put a shelf on the bottom. DRY MIX 1 1/2 cups of plain flour 1 1/2 cups of fine yellow polenta 80 g of white sugar 2 teaspoons of pink Himalayan salt 5 level teaspoons of baking powder Whisk these together. Add the following: 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast flakes 1/2 cup of hemp hearts 1/4 cup of green pepitas 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds 1/4 cup of linseeds WET MIX 3 extra large eggs. Minimum 65 g each 90 g of unsalted butter, melted 375ml of regular milk lactose free 60ml of buttermilk Whisk together lightly until just combined. Stir the wet mix into the dry mix until just combined. Pour into the cake tin & put straight into the oven. Do not leave it sitting in the bowl. Set the timer for 25 minutes and check at the halfway point, turning the tin around. It should be lightly golden on top and when you insert a toothpick it should come out clean. When you touch the centre of the cake it should feel firm and spring back. Run a knife around the edge to release the cornbread. Leave in the pan for five minutes then turn out to cool. Chop into cubes and serve to your chickens. **You can keep this up and freeze. Just defrost them before giving it to them. If it’s a hot day you can serve them frozen**

08.01.2022 Got Beeswax Wraps where the wax looks uneven & a bit ... daggy? Mine I had made had chunky wax bits in patches on them but were otherwise in good nick ... using a quality quilting cotton fabric helps. Give a quick wash with WARM ... not hot ... soapy water & rinse. Let dry. This is just to remove any food debris.... Now follow the directions in the photos. NOTE: If the wax has not melted back into the fabric, flip over and do another 30 seconds in the microwave. Do not stack one on top of the other in the microwave. It doesn’t work. Do them individually.