Fabulous Family Outing

 Once a year we rally the troops and head out to Klondike  farm outside Ceres in the Western Cape to pick fresh cherries... We were introduced to this fabulous outing a few years ago by one of dad's friends who has celebrated his dad's birthday every year with cherries. As you can see the farm is beautiful and well worth the drive! We picked about 15kg as we always share the juicy red love with friends ans faily who are unable to join us on the day...


As far as a reasonable day out goes it's pretty good value: R15 entry fee per person and then we paid about R600 for cherries and juices for the drive home... 


We've dished out the gift cherries and still have a giant coolerbox-full to make preserves for deserts for the year to come... Someone suggested freezing them to eat on hot days as mini icies so i'm going to chuck 2kg into then freezer for that! 


But enough of the blogging - I've got cherries waiting to be tasted :-)

Happiness Is...

Heading into the garden with my cup of tea yesterday morning I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world! How can you feel anything else when you share your morning cuppa with the chickens, bunnies and such pretty flowers and exciting new seedlings? 

After the upheaval of moving the garden from one suburb to another, the veggie boxes are finally installed in their 'forever homes' and filled with straw and chicken litter and potting soil (the idea is that the chicken litter breaks down and the veggies on top grow like they're on steroids!)

The beans are 4 days old and looking strong

The bath full of carrots is looking so promising!

Lettuces just showing their faces in the first veggie box

Lettuces and Beans in the first veggie box

Creative Pasta

So, after the longest of creative droughts I am finally writing about something yummy AND meaningful once again :-)

The pictures were taken on my new toy: a Nikon D90 which has made me ecstatically happy and takes the most amazing pictures. Unfortunately the pics were taken my an over-zealous fourteen year old who is only starting to learn about composition and the like (you understand when you see them)

Fresh pasta is something that happens often in our house. I've got it to such a fine art that I can make, roll and boil it in under 45 minutes! I haven't had a wedding so I can put a KitchenAid KSM150PSWH Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, White on the registry list so the dough still has to be mixed and kneaded by hand (the fourteen year old is really good at this part so we share the duty when he's feeling cooperative) I bought the pasta roller when I did a pasta making course a few years back but it's only started being used regularly since we got the chickens ;-)


The recipe is very simple: 


100g flour per egg - use 1 egg per person (I always make extra as there are ALWAYS unexpected guests and if it doesn't get finished on the day it makes for the best lunch or freezer meal) Mix the two together and knead into a dough. If it's too hard, add another egg or water and if it's too sticky then add a little more flour. I divide the dough into manageable balls to knead and roll out or else it's a real challenge...

This time around I decided on Raviolli with butternut and Ricotta and another with spinach and feta.

So it's been a while, a very long while since I've managed to post anything, let alone something valuable or interesting... It's not that there's nothing happening in the kitchen or urban farming project, it's actually that there's been too much on the go!

I dealt with an infestation of lice in the chicken cage - I was away for the weekend and got a pannicked phonecall  from my little boet saying I had to come home immediately... I told him to relax and I'd deal with it after my mini break :-) The solution to lice isn't a fun one and neither is it particularly environmentally friendly... I cleaned out the cage completely and then dusted the ENTIRE thing with some chemical concoction called Karbadust (which nurseries no longer stock as it's a nasty insectacide - I found it at the farming co-op agrimark in phillipi). My internet research said that I'd need to dust the chickens too - the instructions suggested putting the chickens in a plastic packet with their heads sticking out and shaking a little to get them covered in the dust... I laughed out LOUD when I read it. I then called my mom and read it to her and we laughed hystirically together... you see, there is absolutely no way to get a chicken into a bag without injuring it and yourself, not to mention that it'd have to be one flipping sturdy bag not to get shredded by the chicken's kicking claws!!! I worked out a much more efficient method: I simply sprinkled powder onto the chicken's back which resulted in a flustered chicken who kindly ruffled their feathers, thus distributing the dust all over their bodies... I also got covered in the process (and I seem to have read that it's toxic to humans on the instructions) but I had a ball and was absolutely certain there could be no lice on me by the time I was done :-)

We're busy building a compost heap system - three divisions as there's quite a lot of composting material coming out of the garden and chicken cage... I'll post photos and designs once I'm done :-)

There's so much more to share but I haven't put the photos onto my computer yet and somehow photos tell a much better story than my less than colourful words :-)