Avo Season

For as long as I can remember, we've never had to buy avos. You see, our house has a really big avo tree in the garden. It's survived tree-houses, building renovations, landscaping projects and was used as cricket stumps for years :-)

Every year some of the avos get attacked by birds and squirrels and fall to the ground. These result in small trees popping up each season. For years the gardener has just pulled these out. Last year, however I decided to plant them in nursery bags and see if I could  grow avos in the other garden... I've read up and I understand it takes up to 7 years for an avocado tree to produce fruit. The 50 trees (no half measures here!) we've got in bags are now two years old. I unfortunately lost 4 trees to snails (Yuck! Unfortunately the snail eating chickens are at the other house...) as they haven't recovered afer having their leaves all removed.

Just a few of the nursery trees

The big avo tree still has a few big avos in the top branches (we've eaten all of the easy to reach ones already!) and I've noticed that it has started to flower. They don't really look like flowers at all, they're a sort of cream coloured bunch of bumps... The bees arrive en mass to polinate which is wonderful. The nursery trees haven't made any flowers so I'm sure it's safe to plant them out. Shout if you'd like one!

Need an excuse for another cup of Tea?

 

I've stolen (or borrowed!) this trick from my ingenious mom. She has taught me much and we continue to learn together :-)

We drink tea. Lots of tea! Lots of tea means lots of used tea bags... Mom has always kept the tea bags, dried them out and put them in a jar with paraffin/torch fuel to use as firelighters. This is especially useful when at the River House a long drive from civilisation and fires for breakfast, lunch and dinner preparations (loads of need for firelighters). Buying blitz would get a little ridiculous and the crumpled newspaper and kindling can be challenging :-)


The basic recipe (and you really can't go wrong) is to dry out tea bags - this works well on a baking rack and you can speed up the process by popping them in the oven when you're done baking/grilling anything. Put  these tea bags into a glass jar with a lid that seals. Add enough paraffin/torch fuel to get onto all of the bags (play it by ear - you really don't need much). If the jar is sealed, the firelighters will last a very long time. It might be necessary to add some extra paraffin if they get too dried out or if they don't burn properly. You only need a couple to light a stack of logs and you'll be amazed at how long the tea burns for.

 Please remember that fires should not be left unattended. Paraffin and Torch fuel should be kept out of reach of children, as well as far enough away from your fire that they don't catch fire as they are highly flammable! 

Happy fire-gazing!

Crunchie Test

I haven't made crunchies in absolutely ages... I seemed to remember them being a bit of a mission to make. Not so at all! It took all of about 3 minutes to mix the ingredients (excluding the rush to Pick'nPay when I realised I had no coconut and nothing apropriate to substitute it with!) and the first recipe I tried baked for 15 min (which I decided was actually too short - see the lighter crunchies) and the second one 20-30 (I left them in for 30 which turned out to be a little too long and the edges burned a little)



This is a pic of the banana loaf that was made and consumed last weekend... the banana bits were really big when I usually mash them finer and this resulted in burned bits around the edges. It tasted delicious anyway!

Some things that put a smile on my dial today

Apart from the fact that it's the most stunning day in Cape Town (enough to keep you smiling all day!) I have taken a few photos of some other things that have made me happy... you'll soon relise just how much I miss my growing garden when it's cold and rainy and way to muddy to venture out :-)


The peach, plum and nectarine trees gushed blossoms overnight!


The bees are back and loving the new food...


The orange trees are taking the oppotrunity to send out new growth (they produced the sweetest juiciest biggest naval oranges a couple of months back!)

Quilting Project

Growing up going to a Waldorf School and having a grandmother who owned a boutique and made everything beautiful you can imagine has inevitably resulted in my becoming infected with the hand-work bug! I remember tackling a hexagonal quilting project with Ouma a a little girl but I don't remember much about it and never saw a finished project (I think Ouma was protecting me against major disappointment!!!)

I recently saw the most divine quilt in a home magazine... I've seen a few in some stores too but lets just say that my credit card would melt beyond recognition even after a great month :-) Got me thinking and inspired though... I headed out the next morning into retail bliss - a fabric shop in Salt River and bought the most gorgeous coloured Taffeta, some crushed and some normal.

Here's where I'm at so far:

Each piece of fabric was ironed and pinned to a paper template before being hand stitches into rows. You'll never believe how many pins it took to make a king sized quilt! (I headed back to the haberdashery store at least 4 times to restock and I was never stingy!)

Once the blocks were all sewn together I cut a piece of backing (lining) and batting (the stuffing part). Next task is to sew the three layers together and then sew around each block. The outside edges can be done on my machine but the quilt is too big to all fit through the machine... I guess it'll stay truly hand-made :-)

Strawberry plan

It's time to plant out the strawberries which have been carefully looked after in their seedling trays (all of the established plants had to be taken out of the garden beds as the chickens eat the leaves and scratch them clean out of the soil when they're looking for grubs and taking a sand bath!) There are still about 30 strawberry plants in pots and troughs that for some reason have decided it's time to start making fruit... I'm so sure this is way too early and as a result of the very warm winter weather we've had in Cape Town. Holding thumbs that it doesn't negatively affect the plants through their proper friut season!

I have been racking my brain for weeks now as to where and how to plant out the new plants... I can buy hanging and wall baskets from the wholesaler but at a great cost (you have to spend a minimum of R2000 which is one hell of a lot of strawberries that could be bought at Woolies at R40 per punnet!!!). I have some in troughs at the moment which work quite well and am trying to get my very able and generally willing dad to build a stand for them so they can be off the ground (that is, away from the chicken's beaks and claws!) and into a better sunlight position... But this only solves the problem of the strawberries already in their "final home" :-)

We had a guest to visit last weekend who came to see the chickens (I am very proud and tell everyone about them!), when he saw all of the strawberry plants in trays he suggested building an A-frame and attaching plastic gutters all down both sides to put the plants into as they don't need very deep beds and the narrowness of the guttering means that the berries will grow over the side and not lie on the soil... I love the idea!!! I unfortunately don't have enough space to use an A-frame but I've spent the weekend identifying potential walls that I can attach multiple gutters to. I've checked to see how much direct sun these walls receive as well as the visual impact of having gutters on said walls.

I have a great big wall that can have 4m long gutters and if I space the plants 20cm apart I can fit 18-20 plants in a level. This should deal with the 150 plants waiting to be planted out! I feel like this is a success already ;-) Tomorrow's task is to buy guttering from the hardware store , put ends on, drill holes in the bottom for drainage and attach them to the wall. Tuesday is reserved for planting out of all plants. Smiles all round! I can't wait for summer and yummy fruit and Jam and Daquiries and, and, and!!

Planning for Spring

There are many things I look forward to but I have to say warmer weather is probably that which makes me most happy!In the meantime, the fruit trees are all completely naked and the garden looks bare... There are still some veggies in their boxes but things are looking like I've taken a big holiday. I used the weekend to start idying p the garden in preparation for spring planting and this week's tasks include pruning the rose bushes and planting seeds indoors so I can move them out once they're established.

Planting will be done in a very orderly fashion this year, having established over the last two what gets eaten and what gets forgotten in the fridge! Its time to start planting potatoes and I am going to do this in a big way and over a few months: we love potatoes! We eat baked potatoes, potato wedges, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and with anything you can think of... We're espacially fond of sweet potatoes and I've discovered that you can cook them in all the same ways as normal potatoes rather than the standard sweet mash (which we also love!), they make a great savoury potato wedge too.

The beans are always a hit so I'll be planting a fair number of these. I'm due to plant some more carrots as the last ones are near ready for harvesting and the animals love the tops

Summer in the Middle of Winter!

After a week of miserable, rainy and freezing cold weather (my car said it was 3 degrees C the other morning)I woke up late to find the most glorious day! Helped a little by the fact that it was after 8 (when I'm normally up at 6), it was warm enough to venture into the garden and feel the soil... Maybe I'm a little soft!



Making the most of the warmth I cleaned up the strawberries - all 60 plants ready to be planted out - and decided to give the carrots, onions and beetroot some seaweed fertilizer. I have to brag a little as I'm so very proud of my carrots :-) In 2 square meters we've had carrots galore... I was overzealous when I planted my seeds so I've had to thin them out substantially. The rabbits and chickens go crazy for the greens and the baby carrots taste amazing raw and in a basic root veggie roast. I have harvested carefully more to thin out the veggie box than clear it so each time we have carrots they're a bit bigger.

Once I finished pottering in the garden (cup of tea in hand!) I tackled the box of guavas I bought on Friday. I've discovered that if I'm brave and have a plan, I can buy large quantities of fruit or vegetables that are in season from the hawkers outside the Epping Market (Cape Town Fresh Produce Market) for less than half of what they cost in any of the commercial shops. I ended up with 8kg of guavas which were ripe enough to stew today.

Stewed Guavas

4kg Guavas, peeled and quartered
1 1/2 cups sugar
15 whole cloves
10ml ground cinnamon
rind and juice of 1 lemon
3 cups water

Dissolve the sugar in the water along with the cloves and cinnamon before adding the guavas. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. I have messed this step up twice already - the pot boils over in a second, even once it's turned down so be very careful! The mess is super sticky and the syrup burns on my gas hob... Not ideal. Allow the mixture to simmer until the fruit is soft. Pour into hot, sterile jars, clean the rims with a clean cloth and screw the lids on lightly (as the jars cool a strong vacuum will form). It's a good idea to wash the jars under warm/hot water at this point or else the spilled bits dry and you never get rid of the stickiness on the jars. Makes 4 x 750ml jars.

Serve with bulgarian yogurt and honey.

I've added these jars to my preserve collection - I've tried to can fruits and veggies in season rather than buy expensive out of season imports that have lost much of their flavour. The tomatoes from the garden that my Ouma helped me bottle are the tastiest, juiciest addition to so many great meals (and can even be eaten like sweets!). Since the tomatoes I've done truckloads of apples and pears but there's a mouse in my house that eats them with his breakfast as fast as I can make them... Time to visit the Epping Market again I think!