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.

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.

Tiger worms-look away if you're squeemish

In response to spinningayarn.


I have a fairly functional worm farm but am still learning too. I'd leave it till they come to the food before you add more food. See mine in the photo below they've eaten most of their food and are all working on what food is left there. Don't let them dry out and keep something over the top of it all cos they don't seem to like the light, it helps keep them moist too. I use a hessian sack or wet paper/cardboard. I get quite alot of little fruit flys in mine, I think it's because I over feed it a bit but have also read that it might need a very small sprinkling of lime, but haven't got round to it. They prefer mushy food but I give them all sorts. I never give them onion or citrus though as they don't like it. Mine seem to be enjoying a recent layer of shredded paper.

Hope that was some help.

Garden notes Nov

I would've liked to be crafting or gardening today but I was trying to be conscientious and finished off my work from last week and went to a meeting.

Made it out to the garden when I got home though. Mowed the lawns and used the clippings to suppress the weeds. We had a good deal of rain and wind yesterday so it was a perfect time to put mulch on. I'd been putting off tying things up and I found almost everything tall in the garden had fallen down. Bit of a bummer, the poppies and sunflowers had been looking great. Fixed them up as best I could and took the laterals off my cucumbers . It's the first time I've done that. They just looked like they'd do better if I thinned them out a bit. Hopefully it will ward off the powdery mildew for awhile. I have arranged a trade with a friend of mine she gives me fresh cows milk once a week and I'm giving her fresh veges. It's a great incentive to keep up with all the work in the garden.

We're eating these lovely stripey beetroot in salads. Fresh peas, spring onions, cabbage, broccoli, a few potatoes, zucchinis and waiting patiently for raspberries , cucumbers and tomatoes. Still watering the garlic when necessary and looking forward to digging it up round Christmas. Sowed a few more carrot seeds, planting basil and melons and corn. Lady bugs are dealing to the aphids and I'm feeding everything with "worm wee" whenever I think of it. Should be sowing brassica seed but as we run out of water they get too stressed and then bugs attack so will leave it until January.

garden

This weekend the fore casted bad weather didn't make it's appearance until ...... 9am this morning after I'd unpacked all my gear at the market.
Blessings though, it started softly, I had hot coffee, talked with happy people and after I packed every damp thing back into the car the stall holder next to me who had packed up too, gave me this delightful bunch of peonies. Aren't they divine?

I made a foolish mistake when we moved into our house. It had been vacant for two years so the gardens were a weedy disaster, there was evidence though that the house had been occupied by a keen gardener. Wild pumpkin plants amongst the long grass where my garden is now, little paper bags of seeds in the shed and bulbs which were still trying bravely in long neglected gardens. I vowed to myself to not disturb the garden too much to see what came up. I hadn't yet learnt patience (still learning) so it wasn't long ( a couple of days) before I started clearing the small garden outside my kitchen window. I found what I thought were the roots of helebore's which I'm not fond of underneath the thick grass and ruthlessly hauled them out. It wasn't till I saw a poor lone leaf of a peony pop up the next year that I realised I'd slaughtered peonies not hellebore's. #1 lesson -patience. Learned the hard way.
I'm also learning a silverleaf lesson at the moment, I might have mentioned (moaned) that I got a greengage plum from the nursery which had silverleaf, anyway I didn't recognise it straight away. The tree got mournfully cut out of my garden but not before it had spread the dreaded silverleaf spores around. I thought I must have spread it on my pruners but I found that it spreads by airbourne spores getting into winter pruning cuts. Trees are especially vulnerable if the weather gets damp while the cuts are fresh. ARRRRAH so now I must decide if I should cut the infected cherry tree out. Ouch. Then what do I do if anything thing else shows up with it. Decisions, decisions. So that's hard gardening lesson # 2 -get rid of silver leaf quick. Oh and #3 might be don't be lazy sterilize the pruners between trees just to be certain.

Flower still life again cos I made a mistake uploading.

Smiley side up

I was going to sit down and write how I'm feeling low and lethargic, but I guess to dwell on those kind of feelings gives them more power somehow.

Instead I'm reflecting, I'm resting and I'm making a smile. I am blessed too. I have four beautiful healthy children, my own home, food in my garden and I made my first sale in my Felt Shop today. So what's not to be happy and energetic about? THANK YOU if you read here.

The garden is taking off. Last year's scarlet runners are popping up, zucchinis, cucumbers and tomatoes are flowering. Beetroot is being grated into salads, succulent peas packed into school lunches and the stink bugs are mating on the mustard. I need some pantyhose from the op shop to start tying everything up. We had very strong wind yesterday which flattened lots of plants and ripped a window off teenage son's bedroom, frame and all. No insurance wood too rotten.

I spun the mermaid coloured wool, it's not plied yet I'm trying to decide weather I should ply it onto itself or spin some white or gray to ply it with. I have plied up some adorable forresty green I wish I had enough for a jersey for skatey boy but I think there will only be enough for the red head. It's waiting to be washed and wound up. So can you tell what I did all weekend?