Tag: Self sufficiency

Green Tomatoes

Over Summer and early Autumn, we had great success with the tomato plants in the greenhouse.  We’ve eaten tomatoes most nights, given some away, frozen some for use in Winter casseroles and stews… and still there are more!  At the end of the season, we couldn’t believe the number of green tomatoes hanging on the vines. … Continue reading Green Tomatoes

Bread and Butter Pickles

There hasn’t been any posts on self-sufficiency for ages, so I thought I would share my first attempt at pickling.  I’ve tried sauces, butters and jams before, but never pickling. We had an excess of cucumbers, and the most common recipe in my cook books for using up cucumbers was ‘Bread and Butter Pickles”.  Apparently the … Continue reading Bread and Butter Pickles

Digging up Spuds!

Months and months ago, I found an old bag of seed potatoes that looked past their best. They were all withered and sending out shoots into the air.   Although I didn’t hope for much, I decided to put them in the ground to see what happened.  Miracle of miracles, they grew! Yesterday, Richard dug … Continue reading Digging up Spuds!

Vegetable Tales

For those of you who have been following the vegetable garden and our attempts to grow our own food, I’m sorry for the long wait.  The truth is, we’ve had more failure than success over the past year.  Initially the vegetables planted in the greenhouse seemed to be doing very well. When Winter came, we … Continue reading Vegetable Tales

A Sourdough Fiasco

Over the last few months I have been valiantly attempting to make sourdough bread.  I’ve spent days cultivating the starter culture, adding wholemeal rye flour and filtered water every six hours to feed it. After about a week, I had a lovely frothy starter, that looked just perfect. My bread, however, wasn’t perfect. Despite my … Continue reading A Sourdough Fiasco

Greenhouse Cucumbers

Pollinating the cucumber flowers while the plants are locked in the greenhouse, away from insects, turned out to be a non-issue.  The plants we chose are self pollinating.  That’s pure luck – no forethought involved at all.  It’s now possible to see the baby cucumbers growing on the vine.  The yellow flowers are a beautiful … Continue reading Greenhouse Cucumbers

Step by Step Firewood

It seems only a week or so ago that I was complaining about the heat.  Now the weather has turned and we have days that are quite wintery.  One huge difference between living here and living in our former home is heating.  In the past, I have always had gas heating.  Getting warm was simply … Continue reading Step by Step Firewood

Our Greenhouse Vegetables

Our greenhouse vegetables are growing beautifully.  We’ve already harvested and eaten the radishes, which were delicious.  The lettuce, carrots and beetroot are developing well, and it won’t be long before we begin to harvest these too.  Lettuce and root vegetables are pretty straight forward – plant the seeds, water, and wait. However, the cucumber plant … Continue reading Our Greenhouse Vegetables

Setting-up the Greenhouse

Over the last couple of weeks, we have began to use the greenhouse.  First, to hospitalise plants that were burned in the severe heat, and then to raise seedlings in punnets.  Thanks to family help, we also have one of the raised garden beds filled with soil, and have directly planted it with seeds as … Continue reading Setting-up the Greenhouse

Today’s Harvest

I haven’t written about the vegetable garden for a while, but we are enjoying the home-grown produce so much.  After a long time of producing a handful of cherry tomatoes, the tomato vine is beginning to flourish.  These small tomatoes are packed with full flavour – so much tastier than the ones available in the … Continue reading Today’s Harvest

Lotions, Potions and Soap

If you have ever made a mayonnaise for a salad, then you are already familiar with the basic process involved in making body lotions. Home made body lotions are essentially emulsions of oil and water, with added ingredients to provide fragrance and longer shelf life.  This week I set aside time to restock my bathroom … Continue reading Lotions, Potions and Soap

Getting Back to the Greenhouse

This week, we are preparing to construct the greenhouse.  After a busy couple of months, we are finally able to focus on this.  The timing will be good as it will allow time for seeds to emerge and take root as we come into Autumn. So far, we have the front and the back section … Continue reading Getting Back to the Greenhouse

Taunting Kookaburras: Photographing our environment

Every night, just when the light is too low to capture them on film, I hear kookaburras laughing in the trees.  It sounds like they are taunting me because try as I might, I simply can’t get a good photo of one.  During the day, the kookaburras call from neighbouring properties, or the opposite end … Continue reading Taunting Kookaburras: Photographing our environment

Preparing for the Greenhouse

On Friday we had word that the greenhouse is ready to collect from the warehouse.  This is exciting news!  It comes flatpacked, so next weekend we hope to construct it.   During the week, our raised garden beds and greenhouse shelving should also arrive.  We’ll need to order crushed rock to form the floor in … Continue reading Preparing for the Greenhouse

Growing Food

Our plans for growing food are beginning to take shape.   Eventually, we will have four separate growing areas: 1. Open air vegetable garden 2. Greenhouse for all year round tomatoes, capsicums etc 3. An open air herb garden 4. The fruit orchard. This post documents our starting points for all four areas. See the photo … Continue reading Growing Food

A Wishlist

Waiting for the property settlement gives me time to dream and plan -there’s seven weeks to go….  I’ve never lived anywhere but in a suburban house before, so thinking about what I could do on 15 acres of land is both exciting and daunting. For some people this probably seems a very small land holding, … Continue reading A Wishlist