A Lay Day

Cool morning, there are frosts on the flats of the property across the street. Drove down the road to where the cows and calves are strip feeding and wound up the electric fence. They were grateful to get some more green feed. There is a stray animal  from another property further down the road breaking into two strips ahead. That property is feeding silage only and the green feed is just too enticing. Will need to speak to its owner as it runs away when approached and its gender is not clear. The cows and calves are accompanied by a bull and the stray is quite young and we don't want any unlawful goings on.

Overnight a calf had been born to one group of cows on the river. Mother and son doing well. Need to tell the Bull responsible so that he can break out the cigars. Topped up their feeder with a fresh bale of hay.

This morning we are heading off to the Maitland Farmers Market to see about buying some chook food from a grower who comes from Dubbo. As it turns out he is not organic and only fumigates with phostoxin when weevils become excessive. Organic grain mix for poultry is twice the price of normal chicken food and available from the local produce stores. We can get a one ton bulka bag of mixed organic grain grading's for a reasonable price but the challenge is storing and caring for it for such a long period until it is used. Storage would be in 200 litre drums using a candle to remove oxygen and add CO2. This would need to be repeated regularly and weevils monitored. No decision yet.

The markets are very large, produce limited to some Apples, Bananas, Strawberries and the usual Winter vegetables such as Cabbage, and Cauliflower and cucurbits. All of which we don't need. Lots of lollies, soaps, clothing, jewellery, tools and scented products. Quite a few home made products such as pet beds etc. And of course lots of plants. Our support was limited to a bottle of wine and a flowering shrub.

The trip home was via a large hardware chain for some urgent supplies i.e. Rose food and sandpaper.

Our 20 year old TV finally died a few weeks ago and we invested in a new flat screen model after a lot of research. The size is correct for the viewing position but with digital transmission we had a steep learning curve to understand what is needed to record and/or store programs. It should have been simple but the sales people were not that helpful. The problem seems to be that if you are not purchasing new every few years your knowledge gap grows to the point where you are completely ignorant. It should have been as easy as outlining your needs and having them filled. Not so. You need to return to basics and learn all the technology and associated language to make sure you get what you want. Even the salesperson got it wrong. The first unit we brought home would not record (PVR). Why? They gave us the wrong model. Add $100.  Anyway the next challenge is recording while watching another channel. Yes, add another $100 and another electronic box. Well at least its incremental not replacement. Don't let me get onto buying a car or tractor which we had to survive earlier this year.

A Perfect Saturday

Although cold outside the house was warm (with a jumper), the fire still trickling along thanks to the better quality wood. There was a plan to go to Gloucester today to pick a new fan for the wood heater and at the same time attend the monthly Gloucester Farmer's Markey. As there was no confirmation of the part arriving we had to hang about until 8.30 for them to open and answer the telephone. No Part, trip cancelled. That's OK, lots to do at home anyway. Got out the tractor and went around collecting all the bags of cow manure. Filled the cow pat compost bin with a few bags left over for other tasks. The bin should be broken down enough by Spring to make one of the ingredients for our oversized Tomato bed. Covered the lot with a few biscuits of mulch hay to give the worms some protection. The contents of the few remaining bags was put around some of the bigger brassica in vegetable bed and mulched with hay.

While the tractor was out and about used it to push over an old stump (dead Mandarin) in the house garden to make room for an ornamental. Being just a tad rocky at out place we both hooked in with an iron bar and post hole shovel to expand the hole in order that the ornamental gets a good start. We will fill it with good compost. At this point a confession - not being careful with the tractor resulted in a fist sized hole in the ornamental grill. First scratch on the shiny new toy which only has 25 hours on the clock. Managed to repair it later in the day and it looks as good as new again. Must talk about the tractor one day. It has what is called a 4 in 1 bucket on the front which allows you to open and close the scoop. In this case it allowed us to grab the stump once it was loose and lift it out of the way. The next job will be to improve the grill guard as well as remind self to be more careful.

Plodded along all day with satisfying achievements such as finishing the lawn mowing and making the whole place look respectable. The next batch of Cabbage seeds had germinated during the week and all these were potted up. Just one of those satisfying days were lots of little jobs get done and you go inside feeling a sense of achievement.

Started dinner with the usual cheese using a freshly picked Daikon Radish.  Roasted more Sweet Potato, steamed some freshly picked cabbage with Fish Sauce. Still picking Eggplant, nothing fancy with it just fried until lightly brown smeared some homemade Gay Bilson Roasted Tomato Jam and dressed with a little Havarti which melted gently. The vegetarian main was Mussels with onion, garlic, turmeric and ginger while the non-vegetarian was mince patties with chilli jam, soy sauce,  black pepper and turmeric. Watched a Miss Marple before settling in for a disappointing game between the Wallabies and the Lions. Might have to move to New Zealand or South Africa to find a more competent team to support. Still nice to see George Smith again.

The Westerly Winds have Arrived

So much for the cold dampness underfoot, the westerly winds have arrived. It doesn't take long to dry the ground in these conditions. One minute I was complaining how muddy things are and now how cold and dry it is. The tractor isn't leaving track marks in the paddock anymore.

Well once more it was an early start, the list of outstanding jobs is getting shorter and this is the incentive to keep going. The sour dough bread had risen slowly over the last 24 hours and went into the oven this morning. Although we use rye flour for the starter we grind BD grain for the bread itself. While the bread baked, the cows and calves next door were given another strip of fresh green grass and the seven pregnant cows soon to give birth (Springers) on the river were checked for progress and feed levels.

Sourdough ready to bake

The finished product ready to eat

While taking a nourishing cup of tea after returning had another revue of articles on Horseradish. Resurrected the remaining roots and using a steel wool scourer cleaned the remaining roots and made another batch of sauce using just the roots, water and vinegar in the blender. Made the mistake of inhaling through the nose while checking the blender. Sinus now very clear.

Horseradish Sauce

Took the time to relax for an hour or two and finished reading a novel that had been in progress for a few days. Well at least some roses were smelt. Now down to some serious business of collecting the cow pats from the paddocks our own three cattle had just been through. With the MP3 player plugged in and various Radio National programs feeding into ears the work went quickly. So much so that instead of the one paddock planned it was well into the third paddock before it was time to head to work and feed silage to the cows and calves across the river.



Small feed bags of fresh cow pats

The cows know when the silage is good quality. They can smell it a mile away. By the time the tractor was near the entrance to the paddock they were all up and strolling purposefully towards the bale still on the tractor. There was a bit of pushing and shoving while trying to get the bale into the feeder. Very slow going so as not to run over the odd leg.

Back home in good time to spend another hour collecting cow pats. Finished paddock 3 and made a good start on the worst of paddock 4, the last. Another hour tomorrow will finish the chore and now its dry enough it'll just be a matter of running around with the tractor to pick up the bags.

Today is Friday and a designated Fish and Chips night. Yes a decadent meal. The fish is fillets of Hoki (deep cold water fish caught of New Zealand's South Island) done in beer batter with some spices and the chips are cut thick and baked with olive oil before dressing with salt. Always leave some chips unserved just so you can have that second generous helping. Oh yes, there was an entrée of our Roquefort with sticks of freshly harvested celery.

Another Day

Well not up so early today, 6am was the best we could manage. Having gained momentum yesterday we felt we should push on and try to break the back of the log of work before the weekend. Started with some fiddling in the kitchen setting a sourdough bread to rise and feeding the starter. Of course didn't have enough flour on hand and the grinder went on. Kept going with another batch of Sauerkraut, just plain, no seeds and a batch of Kim Chi with the last of the Wong Bok. Used extra red pepper powder (ko choo kah rhoo) to get a bit more heat. Also had a go at the Horseradish picked yesterday. It was a little bit woody as we had left it too long before harvesting but grated well enough and with just a little vinegar as a preservative - it tasted fine with a nice kick.

Grinding Bio Dynamic Wheat

Sour Dough Starter

While that was in progress managed to complete a backup of the laptop files. Try and do this every couple of months or after a major change in documents. In this case it was end of financial year data that was completed. Golden rule here. If you perform a backup you will never have a problem and need to use it.

Now the serious part of the day - Firewood. Supplies had been run down. Chainsaw and wheelbarrows finely tuned we cut and stacked. A pile of old fence posts mostly Ironbark which burns extremely hot, the rest were White Mahogany which needs a hot fire to really respond. Not our preferred option but waste not want not. Then there was a pile of fliches from a little private saw mill nearby that had been resting for some years. The chooks take great interest in all this as there are all sorts of creatures ensconced between fliches that rush out once disturbed.

Main Fire Wood Storage

"The Jura" behind the chimney

Fliches cut and drying

We took a break midpoint for coffee, although no scones today as it is one of our fast days. We are trying to fast two days each week (5:2), not so much to lose weight as to reduce our IGF-1 level. More on that in another blog. Finished cutting and stacking by 2.30.

Another trip to the work property to put out silage. The girls had devoured one feeder completely and almost finished a second but were only picking at the third. Put out one really good bale and the second last of the poorer quality.

Home by 4.30 to call it quits for the day. Having fasted all day and burnt a few calories our fast lapsed a little and we tried a new cheese made some months ago - Blue Vinney (Dorset Blue). A blue veined long ripening cheese. It has an interesting texture. I don't think we got this first try quite right but it does have potential. It was attractive to us because of the long ripening period. Will experiment again.

Normally a fast day (it is really just calorie reduction) for us will end with one meal only i.e. an evening one with usually a stew made with lentils and dried beans (very thick and filling as you don't want to go to bed feeling hungary) and lashings of greens such as silver beet or spinach. As there were a few mussels left over from last night they were added as a side dish. We tried some Kim Chi and then the freshly and finely grated Horseradish as garnishes for the stew. Both worked well. Another satisfying and productive day.

An Early Start

Very hard to get out of bed at 5.30 when the temperature outside is 6.5 C, our coldest morning yet. But there is too much to do, don't want to get behind on the things they must happen. No smelling of roses this month at least not yet. July should be the laziest month but it's not. A lot of things happen in July as these blogs will explain.

Cup of milky latte and then drive down the road to let the neighbours cows and calves into another strip of fresh grass and set up two more strips for later in the week. The bull gave me a dirty look. I'd been warned about him and growled back. But typical male, the fresh grass was more attractive than bothering me.

Cows and calves feeding on a new strip

Just as well that electric wire separates us.

Back within an hour to make and eat breakfast, toasted sour-dough toast with Avocado, melted Havarti and a smear of Dijon mustard for one of us and toasted sour-dough bread, Avocado and Kim Chi for the other.

Filled six barrels with compost and planted the Artichoke seedlings.

 

Artichoke Farm

 

 

Harvested the Horseradish, emptied the barrel (keeping the soil in bags for future compost making), refilled with fresh compost and planted Horseradish seedlings.

 

Horseradish in need of work

 

 

Harvested Turmeric, kept old soil and refilled pot ready for replanting. Lot of time washing Horseradish and Turmeric. Plugged into the MP3 player listening to some of Greening of Gavin podcasts on cheese. Handy, always something to learn from someone else. All these little bits on food or gardening get filed away mentally (I hope they stay there).Then morning tea two scones with butter over second latte. A good and productive start to the day.

 

Turmeric washed and in drying racks ready for use

 

 

Collected another 20 or so fallen limes. wrapped most of them in a sheet of newspaper and stored in a box in the Cave. Tried this technique (passed on by a friend) last year to good effect.

 

Then the main task of the day i.e. Planting Shallots, French Onions and Potato Onions. Chopped up the Woolly Pod Vetch green manure crop with hedge trimmers. Forked it over roughly, and chopped vigorously with a spade. Added a generous layer of fresh compost and forked that in - bed ready. All that raised a healthy sweat, no need to go to the gym. Laying out all the bulbs to see how they will fit trying to provide as much space as possible for each plant. Nothing worse than not providing enough space and finding everything constrained when it is only half grown. Everything buried and task complete.

 

Green Manure Crop

Chopping Complete

Forked and spaded

Fresh compost

Shallots

 

 

Headed across the river to the regular job to put out more silage. They only needed one bale and we are now into the high quality bales having worked our way through the poorer quality woody stuff. The girls will enjoy this good silage. They can smell it at a distance. If you are carrying good quality silage they will crowd around the tractor straight away pulling at the bale before the wrapping is taken off. The feeding bins are surrounded with a sea of mud making the task all that much more difficult and dangerous. Again the job only took an hour all up and so back home.

 

Silage in the mud

 

 

Ahead of schedule for the day. Spent the last hour or two of daylight weeding. The Asparagus bed all clean and tidy and also the Pineapples which were at risk of disappearing under chickweed, tidied up around the peas and Daikon Radish. A good day.

Pineapple Bed

Asparagus Bed

 

 

Now off to cook dinner. Started with some more Roquefort on Daikon Radish slices today. Another nibble to keep us going is steamed Red Cabbage wrapped around a small slice of Avocado and a sliver of tinned Mackerel. Main course was roasted Sweet Potato (again as it was so nice last night), Couscous, lightly fried Mushroom quarters in Olive oil and Fish Sauce. Mussels in fried Onion, Garlic, Ginger and Turmeric. Finish off with Yoghurt and ported prunes. The photographs are of the leftovers.

 

Mussels

Sweet Potato

Mushrooms

Couscous

 

 

Not every day is this busy or productive but this intensity of activity is not untypical. There is always so much to achieve in the garden and especially so when the routine is interrupted with wet weather.

 

 

 

 

Clear Skies

This is Tuesday. Up at 6.30 am for a busy day now that the rain has gone. The ground is wet but we cannot wait as there is lots to do. Finally finished pruning all the grapevines. There are about a dozen around the house that provide useful shade during the worst of Summer. Most of these grow across a pergola and required a ladder to get the job done. This of course then created another job. A mountain of pruning's need mulching. Some cuttings were taken of some varieties and potted to be used to replace any that did not make it last season.

Another job in waiting

A few vine cuttings as backup

Uncovered the first NZ compost bin that is ready. Dug out a few handfuls and had a sniff. It is beautiful. We've laid out the half barrel we will be using for Artichokes. Most of this compost will be consumed by these.

French Purple Artichoke Seedlings



Rich sweet smelling compost

Needed to check next door's cattle which are due to commence calving this week. The neighbours have gone to the Kimberley for 6 weeks and left us to babysit. These 18 look fine and apart from one on her own nobody looks close to dropping. The one apart probably just found a sweet patch of grass.

Angus cross girls ready to calve any time

Access to next door for us to check this lot was through the back boundary. Carried down a bag of organic pelletised chicken manure/seaweed to spread around a paddock our three cattle had just exited.

What a great day after the rain. The air is so clear. It was a real pleasure to walk up the hill at the back boundary and walk amongst next doors cattle and take in the panorama.

Looking down on our house from the next ridge while checking cattle

Back home by 3pm just in time to go to our work property (8 kilometres away) and put out more silage. The 25 cows and calves needed three bales of silage. The ground is sodden and the tractor is making a mess. The cows are two weeks away from calving. Last years calves are weaned (some still wearing their weaning nose rings) but have not been sold off as yet. Fortunately there is plenty of silage as the paddocks are really low on grass except for the half dozen or so that are locked up in order to have good quality green feed for lactating mums.

It was dark before we got inside to light the fire and prepare dinner. Nothing flash but all from the garden. Entrée of home made Roquefort with fresh celery sticks. Main course was fried  Portuguese whole sardines with Oregano and Garlic side dishes of steamed Sweet Potato drizzled with Olive Oil, Eggplant fried and dressed with Chilli Jam and melted Havarti, Mushrooms with salsa verde and fetta and a big green salad with lots of seeds and a real variety of garden fresh greens. Yogurt and ported Prunes to finish.  Enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and watched a DVD.

Rainy Days, Camembert, Peas

It has been raining off and on for the last week. Just enough to make everything under foot soggy. Too difficult to work in the garden and probably not a good idea anyway especially with any digging tasks which could lead to damaging the soil structure. Too wet to go fencing and earn some money. It pays to have prepared a reasonable supply of firewood in advance otherwise things could get really miserable.



10 mm Overnight

Footprints in the grass

So the first few days it was attending to those jobs that were put aside for a rainy day. Catch up on sewing i.e. repairing any work cloths that need patching, Into the workshop for some ride on mower repairs, Build an insert for the filing cabinet to hold the DVD collection. Sharpen a few tools ready for the next interesting job.

Food is not ignored as we have eaten or given away all our Camemberts. We always seem to make too many rounds and they all mature at once. The solution was to pass spares onto friends to repay favours sometimes in advance of expected favours. Today though we tried another approach i.e. using less milk and making fewer rounds. sometimes moderation is difficult. This batch is 7 litres of milk but has had the cream from the original 21 litres added back. This could be called a triple cream Camembert. Used B Flora starter from Cheeselinks  and added both varieties of penicillin i.e. Candidum and Geotrichum and just followed the recipe.

 

Camemberts ready for brining

 

The sauerkrauts made earlier are fermenting and will soon be refrigerated just in time to make some more batches. The cabbages have done well and there are another two almost bursting ready to be picked. Might think about trying some recipe variations for different flavours. There are still three small Wong Bok to be made into Kim Chi tomorrow.

 

Ready for the plucking

 

 

Sauerkraut bubbling gently

 

And something that has never been done before and that is start the tax return on day one of the new financial year. Always an onerous task continually put aside in favour of other more exciting work here we are within an hour of completion just waiting for the arrival of some bank statements. Hopefully the Tax Office will owe us money and make it all worth the early effort. It is nice not to have this task hanging over our heads for the next few months.

But things are looking up. The prediction is for many fine days ahead which means the July garden tasks can start. Artichokes need to be planted out, Bunching shallots need planting, Turmeric needs harvesting. And of course weeding has fallen behind.

 

Some things are really taking off with the rain such as the Citrus and the Peas. The Peas are the best we've grown for some years. The last time was when we made a bed with just old horse manure. This time we'd run out of compost and green manure options. Instead lots of Blood and Bone was churned into the soil. Also the watering system was changed i.e. took out the overhead watering nozzles and watered by hand. This is because the plants last year suffered quickly from mould on the leaves. Also only watered the seed once after planting until they had germinated. I think in previous times we may have over watered and rotted the seed.

 



Climbing Peas over 2 metres tall. A mix of podded Peas and Snow Peas

 

With all Citrus we have tried to plant early, mid and late ripening varieties to ensure the maximum availability. Most of these were planted in 1995 in shallow holes (hit bedrock) mounded up with soil. Windrows of grape marc were placed between trees which were 5 metres apart (wish it had been more for the tractor to pass through). Every few years several barrow loads of cow manure was put under each tree and covered with weed mat. The weed mat has now been removed. This Imperial in the picture always manages good sized fruit. Far too much for us to consume. The fallen fruit will be mulched and composted.



 



Imperial Mandarin. This one ripens during July and August. The sister to this although also an Imperial ripens May and June. Possible just a slight location variation makes all the difference.