Head cold

Lemon, honey, ginger, garlic and thyme tea. Plus two good books and a comfy chair, because I feel like I'm allergic to myself.

Surrounded by a family embrace

Well they say something about how you can't choose your family. I'm glad you can't because I couldn't have picked better myself.

I've got two little brothers. Apparently I was a terrible older sister when I was small, if you believe the stories the "Fabulous Aunt's" tell. I can't remember having tantrums like Pj does, or being separated from my young cousins for their own safety! I do remember chasing them with Wetas and telling stories of ghosts in my Grandma's house and of course how we told the youngest brother that the ugly painting in the hallway was "the big Eughh" and could scare the living daylights out of him at the mere mention of the fictional monster. Dad use to warn me though when I was scratching and pulling at the boys hair to be careful that one day they'd grow up bigger than me. He's not wrong, my two little brothers stand now at 6ft2in and 6ft4in. Lucky for me they both grew up to love their big (short) sister.

My littlest brother is visiting from Adelaide with his wife and two adorable little boys. It's brilliant having two extra adults around who care for my kids almost as much as I do. The big boys have adored having their Uncle, who's a big kid at heart, to play sport and swim with, while I appreciate a sister in law or Auntie to my kids who's much cooler than me but tells one of them not to moan "just get off your butt and get a job if you want something"

I watch their two wee boys for glimpses of my little brother and admire how gentile, sweet and full of mischief they are.

The extended family came for a shared meal to celebrate their arrival. It's just magic how three generations of brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, Mums, Dads, cousins, friends and a few second cousins once removed, create a joy full energy when gathered together. Shared food from many gardeners, meat grown ethically by family, fish from the neighbour, blackberries discovered around our garden with a promise of potting up some cuttings, tall tales and reminiscences all create a picture of "family" in early Autumn here tonight.

From my garden:

I harvested Maori potatoes for my contribution, making a completely sustainable, organic potato salad. The end result tasted better than it photographed.

Cheeky muffin

Someone has recently hit me over the head with the "happy homemaker stick". This is quite possibly the culprit: Doesn't eat his dinner but slyly whips off with the biggest muffin before the others even know they're out of the oven.
I'm actually not often this domesticated, but was inspired by a large harvest of poppy seeds when I went out to finally tackle the garden yesterday. I made 3 dozen muffins with lemon and poppy seeds to go in the freezer for school lunches. Perhaps being in the kitchen was a good way to avoid the garden where there is so much work to do I don't know where to start.

Got the gherkins bottled and made sauce as well.

Picked an armload of cucumbers, I'm struggling to know what to do with them all. There are still "bread and butter pickles" in the cupboard from last season. Anyone who visits has been sent home with them, the pet rat likes them. I think maybe I'll slice some up and rest my eyes awhile.

Anyone else have any good cosmetic recipes for them?

Family creativity

I know I didn't knit this enthusiastically when I was 8 years old. PJ caught the knitting bug in the last week of the school holidays and worked for three days to create a jersey for Willow and blankets for her favorite soft toys. I kind of bungled away nearby trying to set a good example and to be on hand to help while trying myself to perfect my Continental style knitting.

It was OK on these simple singlets:

I found the pattern for these after advice from Melissa who pointed me in the direction of Soule Mama whose archives I searched until I found this from The thrifty knitter , perfect for a newborn and a new knitter.

This:

was a little more difficult, I've been doing it on and off for about three weeks. I found myself switching back to the English style knitting that I learned around 8 years old myself, because the weight on the left hand needle made it harder to get into the swing of Continental style. Knitting two stitches together for the pattern slowed me down to a pain full beginners pace, though it did make me appreciate PJ's efforts alot more, but not enough to ignore my impatient streak. Back to English style to get it finished, both she and I are really pleased with the result. She helped me sort through some light weight fabrics to choose the blue floral which tones in beautifully with the cotton knit. I got the pattern from a book which I have since returned to the library, I think it was this one. I've put it on my wish list now because it's full of similar delights.

The paua shells I used as props with the singlets are from skatey's trip over the bay, his creative streak lead him to borrowing a grinder from the neighbour to grind off the grey shell to reveal the beautiful colours beneath. Then he varnished it to make the colour "pop". He gave me some to have in my bedroom. I treasure them as an expression of his creativity.

Faries Dance Here

A nice thing about the holidays has been that PJ hasn't had the influence of other girls telling her how she should be. I've finished a couple of dresses for her that have been half done for several months. She's been through her dress up box and added her Granny's apron over the top of them, then quietly acted out the stories she has made up, including her little brother when he is in a co-operative mood. It's a little sad that this week she will go back to school and start stressing about the outfit to put together so she doesn't get called a baby. Sad too that those other little 8 year old girls want to wear short shorts and tops instead of the lovely dresses I'm sure they'd all prefer. We're working on confidence so Pj can be a leader instead of a follower.

Oh I wish I had a WOOFER

I know, I'm repeating myself. It's just that time of year where a pair of extra hands would be helpful. I've picked a lot of huge tomatoes which need to be made into sauce. I'm not sure how many more I will get as I think the plants have blight. The symptoms are browning leaves and fruit browning before it goes ripe. A Woofer could pull out the affected plants and burn them, plant some seeds for winter crops, turn compost, summer prune fruit trees, pick gherkins and bottle them, dig the rest of the garlic and clean it up, pull the shallots and string them up, pick the last of the currants and preserve them, clean the chookhouse, weed and water, then mow the lawn. They'd deserve a good dinner and a swim after that.
You'd think two teenage boys would be pretty useful around the house wouldn't you? I haven't got the knack of how to get them motivated to help. Skatey has gone off adventuring again anyway, over to Anatori to collect Paua from the sea over there. One last adventure before school starts. Can't believe I'll have two at High School, I'm really hoping Skatey will find a lot to inspire him there. The teen is looking forward to going back now that we've sorted out his timetable clashes and bought the new uniform and supplies for school. He's doing English, Math, Physics, Computer Studies, P.E and Outdoor Education so I reckon he's in for an awesome year.

Tracks

Last week I packed up all the children for a journey over the nearby Takaka hill. It is not a trip I have done often despite living in this area for much of my life. Stopping me has been fear. It's not a particularly treacherous drive but I do hold onto a quite irrational fear of edges of hills from childhood.

Our destination was through winding roads to beautiful beaches beyond, in the Golden Bay. Summer camping spots full to the brim with tents don't hold much appeal to me though the beaches, wildlife, galleries and roadside stalls will now I'm sure tempt me back again. We past Pohara, Tata and Wainui at which point I wondered why I'd waited so long to go back to the area. We thought of their Dad and how much he loves adventure, a contrast to my homebodyness, as I willed myself through the fear to set a good example to my children.

We arrived at Totarnui and spent awhile on the beach watching the waterskiiers at full tide. A girl fell off and was knocked out. It was comforting to watch the rescue helicopter arrive what seemed like about 20minutes later. Skatey found a bike park where he attracted a crowd of adoring 8- 10 year old boys to watch his unicycle stunts.

The event that bought us to the bay started at 1pm. We were there to farewell the teen on his rite of passage to manhood. We didn't know what to expect really, though the course had come highly recommended. As his mother I can't explain the experience but from my perspective it was a very powerful and spiritual journey. Boys leave their mothers for the rite of passage with their fathers or mentors, other returning "trackers" and a group of Elders, for their week long rites. As a mother you say goodbye to the boy in a ceremony and welcome back a young man as we did yesterday. It seems all involved including the fathers gained so much spiritually from the experience that I would recommend it to families with teenage boys. Our extended family and even one of the teen's teachers was there to welcome him back as a young man. The love and support was almost overwhelming. We were also very touched to see the impression it had made on the other young men involved.

For me personally it was a joy to see respectful, spiritual, kind, caring, strong men are for real.

I applaud Tracks Trust for the experience they gave our family.

Using Rotten eggs

So it goes along with hatching eggs that a few may not hatch for one reason or another. The kids now view these as quite a treat, we collect them ever so carefully so as not to crack them and get covered in the stench of rotten egg, and go for an evening stroll down to a small stream nearby.

We had a "real" farm kid staying with us this week and he certainly showed us what separates the farm kids from the townies.

You can just see the farm kid in the stream, while a former farmers daughter sits on the bank wishing she still jumped in streams, climbed trees and chased other kids with weta's and hu hu grubs.

We waited and watched for eels coming upstream attracted by the smell of the eggs, while he just waded on in bare toes only covered by orange "crocks" and broke the couple of eggs that hadn't exploded when they hit the water. Though instead of high -tailing it out of the water quickly, he stayed in to look for koura or fresh water crayfish. It was nice to see that our stream is so healthy with wildlife, he found 5 in a matter of minutes. He also informed me their Maori name was "koura" as in "Kaikoura" on the South Island East coast, renowned for it's lovely sea crayfish and whale watching. We spied about 3 eels (in Maori tuna )make their way upstream to our eggs, but they weren't as big as the ones we saw last summer. We also discussed the New Zealand place names we know which include the words Kai (food) Koura (crayfish) and tuna (eel) and came up with quite a few from the areas we had lived and visited. These give a good clue to the history of an area. We deciphered another Maori place name we know. The road where we live translates to: dog oven!! So we speculated that probably this area may have been known in olden times for eating dog. For the boys especially our evening excursion in cooperated some great lessons that they just wouldn't get if traditionally stuck in a classroom to learn local history and ecology. Parents, never underestimate the value of family life and what kids can learn by"living"

We all came home glad to have taken the time to do it.

"Stuck to the computer boy" formally know as the "teen" sadly didn't join us.

Though at least I could also refer to him as "passed NCEA, stuck to the computer boy". Exam results came through yesterday.

Or to be specific, I should describe as: "often grouchy with mother, doesn't want to work, obsessed with a nice girl, talks to her online, thankfully passed NCEA, stuck to the computer, teen, lovely,boy"

hatching

Late Dec saw the majority of my chooks sitting on eggs or clucky. The three old ladies shared two eggs between them and by chance I noticed the hatching happening on Christmas eve. It's pretty mean but I whisked the 2 hatching eggs off the old girls and put them under the clucky bantam to hatch. She had six due also to hatch that day. I did this because I've let the big White Leghorns and Light Sussex hatch eggs before and found that their mothering instinct is nowhere near as strong as the bantams. They've stepped on the babies, left them out in the cold and while their backs were turned lost them to hawks and cats. By contrast the bantams puff up and attack when you come within a few feet of them. They are so hilarious to watch, the way they fuss about showing the chick some tid bit they've found. Clucking, scratching and flinging things everywhere with their feet as they call them over. Remember too if you are raising chicken to give them fresh water every day in a shallow bowl so they don't drown in it. Also while we do love hedgehogs in out garden we have to keep the chickens caged at night as my neighbour reported a hedgehog attacking her chickens again last week.So now the nests are empty and the egg production has stepped up a bit bacon and egg pie, scrambled eggs and Pavlova with fresh berries are back on the menu.

This week in the garden I have harvested: a cauliflower, about a bucket full of spuds, 1 cucumber, 5 tomatoes, 5 gigantic marrow fed to the chooks, 2lb of raspberries turned into 4 jars of jam, an ice cream container of red currents popped into the freezer, a feed of beans, poppy seeds, lemon verbena leaves for tea, St Johns wort for oil and too many garlic bulbs to count. Alot of them have some kind of fungal disease resulting in a sort of grey smelly bulb beginning to rot, they must be burnt quickly or I think the disease could spread to the rest of the garden. Their beds will have to be rotated for about 3 years, which makes finding enough space for next winter's crop quite difficult. I think it has happened because we've had a wet spring/ summer here and my garlic beds were well mulched to keep them moist for more typical dry summer weather.
Planted: spring onions
Planning: to plant more corn and leeks. Prepare beds for autumn/winter crops.
Enjoying: Watching the cat sitting under the fejoia tree for hours staring up into the tree which is flowering and wishing she was quick enough to catch herself a wax eye (bird) which is helping to pollinate the flowers.

Giveaway

This won't take a minute.
Pop over and see my friend Melissa who is having her first giveaway. It's cool Kiwiana.

Holiday

Merry Midsummer Christmas to all from the prettiest corner of New Zealand.

Sk8tey, teen, PJ and the red head will be with their Dad.

Gilly will be without her babies for the first time in 17 years.

It aches already.

Sharing

I set up my handcrafts at the "Country Occasion" a couple of weeks ago. My photography skills on my son's camera do not do the scenery justice. We were set up in the middle of the beautiful Neudorf vineyard with a view of mount Arthur in the distance, on the only fine day amongst a week of rain. Setting up- around 8am.

I missed my family to keep me company but got set up well before the fundraiser started. I had West Coast whitebait for breakfast and trust me it was well worth the entry fee. My favorite potter Owen Bartlett was there, though I still haven't indulged in one of his magnificent pieces.

The kind words said about my work were enough to make the day worthwhile but by far the best, was a European lady who saw me knitting once the crowds were settled and listening to Jazz and later good old 60's and 70's covers. She said "I'll show you continental knitting it's heaps faster"
Well, that demonstration was enough to convince me! I have been practicing ever since. It's taking alot of persistence to retrain my brain after 18 years of pretty constant English style knitting, but I am so determined to master the art. I did several rows just practicing garter stitch and then "googled" continental knitting to figure out the purl technique. Now I'm onto some pink candy striped fingerless mittens in white angora and pink homespun for a friend's daughter.
As I get older I appreciate the value of sharing knowledge freely. In my 20's I carefully guarded my craft and gardening skills and wouldn't share, but now with the example of fabulous Aunts and strangers like the one I met at the fair I realise how rewarding it is to pass it on. In a way that is why blogging continues to be rewarding for me.
I may not make it back here between now and the New Year. So I'll take this opportunity to say to all who visit:
Thanks so much for your support. All the best for Christmas and New Year wherever you may be in the world. The people who I correspond with will be in my thoughts, along with my close friends and family.
I shall be back in early January for more waffles about my garden, crafts and other stuff that I am learning.

Our Agricultural and Pastorial Show

The kids had prize winning peas and Broad (fava) beans with their dinner tonight. I reminded them on several occasion's that they were the best in the district. (Tongue in cheek) Though the "red head" still didn't eat what was on his plate. He did appreciate the fish that the neighbour gave us. I text my Dad to gloat and he quipped "just as well for you I didn't have anything entered" Garden rivalry runs strong in our family!!! Makes it all the more worth the hard work.

I got up early this morning and carefully selected my best vegetables for the Agricultural and Pastoral Show. My organic peas and Beans took "first" from the old fellas who entered almost every vegetable category. My mixed collection of no less than 8 varieties didn't place, which made me all the more determined for next year.

Entering the A and P show is very "Nana" but I really enjoy it. I have missed it the past two years but set my alarm today to enter even though I really could have done with a weekend sleep in. My handcrafts also scored two seconds and two thirds making me determined to have another crack at the Nana knitters again next year.

Our little local show is great, but nothing to compare to the ones held in large New Zealand farming communities. We went with my Dad, in my (only daughters') opinion- the best farmer in the world, every year to the A and P show in the Wairarapa. It was about 5 times the size of our little Motueka show and featured real stud animals and serious farming business. Of course I was a pretty stuck up farmers' daughter when I moved here, and anything less than about 1,500 acres was a hobby farm. ( Tongue in cheek again) I honestly do remember laughing to myself at kids who said their fathers were farmers on 250 acres. I am so glad that life did take the path it did as I don't think I would have liked myself much if I had continued to be that person with those attitudes.

I do remember so fondly though those Solway Park shows with fantastic Rams, Bulls and Roosters in the 70's. The handcraft sheds were full of beautiful homespun crafts, making an awe inspiring impression on little Gilly, while the animal sheds had angora rabbits, cashmere goats and merino lambs.

Shearing displays in Masterton, the home of Golden Shears were of course supreme. A few seasons in a shearing shed as a Rousie will always remain the best of my youth. Try it, hard pysical work throwing fleeces all day, skin covered in fresh Lanolin, music and laughter, you can't beat it. Good people and good money, it's nearly the perfect lifestyle job for a teenager in my opinion.

Today my Pj loved the piglets the most. She said to me "Mum remember when I asked you for a little piglet pet?' I love piggies too. The miniature Schnauzer puppies stole my heart as well.

All memories and moments making for a pretty awesome day. Never mind the rain, farmers and gardeners LOVE it!

Insects. Goodies verses baddies

Spotted in the garden this morning, oodles of honey bees, several types of hover fly, ladybirds and tiny wee praying mantis. On the baddies list not too many aphids but a growing population of green vegetable (stink) bugs.
I do not want to find any potato psyllids and am keeping a close eye out for signs of infestation. My Dad, who has a small market garden has warned me they are on the increase in these parts and are quite devastating to potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants etc. There doesn't seem to be too much info about controlling them in the home garden except to squash them and encourage ladybugs to the garden which may feed on them. To encourage ladybugs and other beneficial insects: let buckwheat, parsnip, parsley, yarrow, Valerian, chervil, mustard,phacelia, radish etc go to seed in the garden. Also don't get too stressed about the aphids on roses because the lady bugs will want to feed on these when they get to the garden. I have also noticed hoards of wax eyes going round the garden eating aphids this spring. The article I highlighted above mentions some insecticides will control physllids including organic ones, which I suspect would be pyrethrum. Another thing I saw at a shop which imports "Trade Aid" items the other day was a bar of "Neem" soap. I thought that might be quite useful as a soapy water spray against bugs. Has any one given that a try?
I like how the garden looks at this time of year. I'm mulching as much as I can to keep the grassy weeds down as the rain has given everything the energy to flourish, including the weeds. I love that my garden is getting a much better balance of Nature being in charge.
Bugs, flowers, sweet smells and sounds, seed heads, movement and BUZZ.

Miss my boy

Skatey is away at school camp. The "red head" and I are missing him alot, I think Willow the Jack Russel is missing him the most (no one warm to sleep with)

Skatey will be 13 tomorrow. I remember about his birth and infancy more vaguely than the others as I had post natal depression. He was overdue. The week before he was born I had a nasty fall when I went out to hang the washing, I also had a terrible tummy bug which the Dr thought should have bought on his labour. We'd had some late concerns about his growth rate and when I went to see the Dr on a Friday, he told me if he hasn't come by Monday we're going to do a "sweep." Now that didn't sound too good to me so when Sunday night rolled around and there was no sign of the boy I walked two rounds of the Ngatimoti School field. That didn't work, so we drove to town and walked up and down the Mot beach. Still not working so we went round and round the Memorial rose garden. If my memory serves me rightly I think I might have helped myself to a gypsophilia cutting.

Thankfully at 5am the next morning things started to happen. His Dad went to work. I carried on till about 9am and then decided I was too scared to be alone. There was a horrible bull in the paddock that bordered our house and he kept roaring at me as he'd done in the final weeks of pregnancy. I sneaked down to the shed where the 1968, red family Datsun was parked. At the time the teen was 3 years old and I drove he and myself to town about 25kms, to where my Mum lived. No cell phones in those days, quite a scary ride down the Valley stopping on the roadside on my own with a preschooler for contractions. Poor Mum freaked out as I laboured at her place, I think eventually we called my partner home from work and got to the birthing centre at about 12.30pm.

His was a very intense labour from then on and he was born at about 1.30pm weighing 9lb2oz. Towards the end it was fast and very freaky.

After that is a total blur except for rain outside the window and a beautiful pink rose in flower.
He was a good daytime sleeper for about 6 weeks but feed alot at night.

He was the baby I shared with my precious Grandma. Driving to town in the Datsun with no heater in winter and stalling at the intersections because the timing was out. Before he was born I sat on her sofa, knitting, chatting and choosing antique baby clothes. Afterwards I dropped the teen at Playcentre and raced around to Grandmas place. She was always waiting with chocolate biscuits in her tin and books in the white cabinet if I wanted to borrow some. I made her a cup of tea and we talked for two hours about life and the goings on of all the rellies till I reluctantly left for clean up time at Playcentre. Skatey entertained us as we sat, she popped him in her old cane pram and then when he got older she bought out her antique toys and puzzles for him to play with.
Happy Birthday to my Skatey tomorrow. I wish my Grandma had lived to see how awesome he is.
I'm now going to make the never fail Chocolate birthday cake with walnuts,
to surprise him we'll have the day off and drive out to camp tomorrow. (hope they are having eel for tea)
XX

Moist Chocolate cake.
(Never failed in 15 years)
4oz butter
2 eggs
2tsp baking powder,
2 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 cups milk
2 dsps golden syrup
2 Tbsp Cocoa

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time. Then flour, baking powder and cocoa sifted.
Warm golden syrup in milk with baking soda.
Then combine with dry ingredients.
Creates quite a wet mixture. Stir to combine, pour into greased square tin and bake for about 1 hr at 190 degrees Celsius. Ice with Chocolate icing and decorate with walnuts.

Caught a Kahawai. Vege friends look away

It sure does take a village to raise a child.

How lucky we are to live in such a good one.
Several times over the past few weeks one or other of our children has run inside at dinner time to ask "Mum can I go fishing with the neighbour?"

Even though dinner is about to be served, camp consent forms need to be found and rooms should really be tidied, I couldn't possibly answer no.

Skatey boy rushed back in at about 9pm.

(I'd just been beginning to fret as I do when my kids are not with me, especially if they are on the ocean. I'd keep them cuddled up at home, but their Dad taught me some years ago that the best thing was to give them the full experience of life and not to molly coddle them too much.)

He ran in, "Mum look at the Kahawai that I caught!!!!"

I was gobsmaked! That fish will feed the whole family tonight. We had the story of the catch and so, the appreciation of where the food comes from. It also provides a boy who needs adventure with the buzz he needs without searching for some kind of artificial high. If I could get him anything he wanted for Christmas it would be life long adventure. Thank you to my neighbours on both sides and up the Valleys for helping me out with that.

He approved the showing of his face and his fish on the blog.

A Country Occaision

This weekend the most talented crafters of New Zealand will gather at Neudorf Vineyards for the Country Occasion.
Also divine local food, wine and music in a magic setting.
All proceeds to child cancer and Moutere Hills Community Centre.
I hope they have a clear windless day and that the local community come out in support of treading lightly on the Planet.
Buy local.

Tappy feet

Four children didn't ask to go through this kind of year.
The stabilising factor has been staying in their own home and continuing with all their routines.
In the midst of winter after days I'd rather forget, we went every Thursday to tap practice.

As spring came we went to exams and extra practices for the recital.
Her feet grew and her shoes got tighter, she put plasters on her heels!
She tried so hard without any complaints, (OK, maybe a little tired sulking)

It all paid off for her yesterday. She smiled till her cheeks got sore, as her Dad watched in the audience and I cried in the wings.
Her name got called for a prize. Fantastic exam results, and much improved confidence for the year.

Well done my girl.

Sewing fast, growing fast.

Typical story for late November.
Sewing like mad for Christmas.

Once a week I've been checking the Sew Mama Sew Handmade Holidays ideas. The Mama Chic wrist cuff took our fancy. A silk one for me and a patched one for PJ.

Meanwhile the garden.....

is close to bountiful.

Peas sown where garlic was last year. A bit silly of me to put the peas so near the back door though as I'm sure they'll all get eaten raw before I can get any on the table.

A strategy for tattle tailers

I have to share this wonderful trick.
A friend who I really admire has raised 5 lovely children , one of whom has special needs after an horrific accident involving a fall when he was two years old.
I was telling her about my tiredness at dealing with constant silly tattle tailing. She said "look this is what worked for me: Every time you get a tattle tale say to the child something like Oh dear that's no good, just a minute let me wipe your face it's really grubby"
I LOVE IT!
I still listen, don't get me wrong, but those silly tales (she did this, he did that) get forgotten after a good scrub of the face.
Helps them solve their own disagreements and they are playing much more happily while I prepare dinner, which with the warmer weather and abundance of veges in the garden is probably an 80% sustainable meal most nights.
That's gotta be good! Skatey boy is even stepping up to do some cooking!
Oh happy days.

Making ginger beer

Truth be known, the produce from my garden is wasted in my cooking as I'm a totally uninspired cook. Beautiful fresh peas, asparagus, broccoli and carrots are all being steamed together tonight to have alongside chicken and rice. I like to spend as little time in the kitchen as I can, unless it's one of those days when I am spending all day in the kitchen cooking enough food for a week, or throwing together some raw stuff.
The other night I made something with pasta and veges, sprinkling on some chopped parsley at the last minute. The teen, who was setting the table said sarcastically "f a n c y Mum. You finally learned something from Masterchef"
Cheeky little begger!
I do like making concoctions for keeping, like ginger beer, Elderflower cordial, jam, sauce, syrup and cider. Got some of them going on this week.



I know there are recipes for these all over the web but here's my ginger beer recipe followed by one from my Dad:
Ginger Beer 1:
To make the plant:
8 sultanas
2 tsp ground ginger
4 tsp grated ginger
strained juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp of lemon pulp
2 cups of cold water
Put all ingredients in a screw top jar. Leave for 3 days in a warm place. It should show signs of fermentation (bubbles) Then feed the plant for 7 days with 2tsp ground ginger and 4 tsp sugar.


Making up the ginger beer:
3-4 cups of sugar
1 litre boiling water
juice of 5 lemons
strained ginger beer plant
7 litres cold water
Mix sugar and boiling water and stir until dissolved, then add the lemon juice.
Strain the plant through double muslin, squeeze the muslin to get all the liquid out. Add the plant liquid to the sugar, water and lemon juice. Reserve the plant left in the muslin.
Now add cold water and stir.
I bottle into saved plastic bottles to avoid glassy explosions.
Fill bottles and add a sultana to each. Store in a cool place for two weeks.
To make a new plant halve the plant residue left in the muslin and place back in the jar. Add 2 cups cold water. Feed daily as before.
usually freak out about the sugar quantities adding less sugar at stages.
Feel free to experiment or offer some other ideas.


Dad's recipie: (More simple, less wholesome)
16 cups of cold water
1lb sugar
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp lemon essence
1 level dessertspoon of DYC Active yeast
Mix.
Stand overnight (or at least 12 hrs)
Strain, bottle and cap.
Stand 24hrs at room temp, then keep refrigerated.

Forget what you've been told about 4 year old boys.

The Montessori teacher stopped me on Monday to tell me about a conversation she had with the red head.

He told her " God gave me to my Mum as a special gift. I'm so glad cos she was just the Mum I wanted"

I of course nearly cried at that. Beautiful child.

After the school fair on the weekend he came home with his sister and presented me with this:

"Mum that's a love heart for you because we're in love"

Even the weeds look good

I haven't had time to do a lot of seed raising, planning or planting this spring, but luckily for the last six years I have established many of the herbs and fruit trees we need. Radishes, kales, beetroots, lettuces etc self seeded last autumn and are now providing us with tender salads along with the addition of a few choice self seeded weeds. I've also been indulging in some local olives and oil just to top them off.
( Just need to find a source of nice local feta to barter.)
It is interesting that Motherwort and nettle are thriving in my garden at the moment. My friend who is a herbalist once suggested to me that all the plants you need for your well being at any point in time will colonise your surroundings, this might also explain why I just cannot grow some herbs despite much persistence while others rampage out of control. The nettle is being taken as tea for the iron and vitamins, while the Motherwort is helpful for woman's cycles.

Other herbs and medicines also thriving are: Elderberry and elecampane, chickweed and calendula, comfrey and hop plant, lovage, marshmallow, borage and lemon balm. Listing those herbs makes me really think about all their properties as well and how I must "make hay while the sun shines" so to speak. The warm, windy weather is quite favourable for harvesting and drying them.

The weeds are also doing a good job of "supporting" some things I have planted. The broad beans for example don't need to be staked as they are being held upright by weeds.

The planting that I have been doing has involved planting 6 telegraph cucumbers in the tunnel house, a few, "Ahem!" F1 hybrid tomatoes in the glasshouse. Ox heart tomatoes curving round the corner of the garden path leading to the blueberries. Tomatoes and basil near the water tank. Sunflowers and Phacelia by the neighbours fence with spinach and hearting lettuces poked in the shady wet spots. The onions were a disaster, I think they were too little when I planted them out so only half have taken off. Peas look good, a few flowers showing. The red head has a very close eye on the strawberry patch after a lesson in why we don't pick the strawberry flowers for Mum, a few weeks ago.

One row of spuds in, one more trench dug and lined with comfrey.

Hope to get the Purple Cherokee tomatoes planted in the tunnel house this weekend as well as the cannelinni beans and gherkins outdoors. Have four zucchini in but have been a bit slow to plant the pumpkins and forgot to buy corn seed altogether. Will watch a friends experiment with saving corn seeds this summer with interest.

If any Kiwi's want motherwort roots, sunflower seeds or cannelinni seeds drop me a line.

I'll happily pop some in the post.