So it's been a while ...

It's been such a long time since I've posted here that it's not really worth apologising. It is what it is. Other things have been happening, not least of which is a lot of painting (and there's a new blog for that over here).

Despite the neglect, the wild backyard is producing, with very little input from us. Exhibit A:

Cherry tomatoes - red, yellow and orange - and there are dozens more ripening (hopefully not all at once!). This is one of four big butternut pumpkins - I gave a second one away today, in exchange for some eggs. The pumpkins were volunteers - came up out of the compost I bury in the raised wicking beds. We've also had a small crop of potatoes (and I think there are a few more waiting in there) using the same no effort method!

Exhibit B:

Apples, and more apples. Quite a lot have gone to the birds, bats, possums, grubs and whatever other wildlife hangs around when we're not watching, but even so we've had plenty to eat and give away. There have been pears too, but it was the apple tree that went crazy this year.

In the past year we've had raspberries, blueberries, olives, various herbs, cumquats, lemons, lemonades and more. Just think - if we actually put some effort into it, we could be on the way to self-sufficiency (highly unlikely that it will happen, but it's a nice idea).

In two weeks I have ...

Worked. A lot. A number of clients are involved in a conference at the end of the month, and are desperately trying to get documents printed in time. Being at the end of the process, things are a little hectic around here right now, and it's not finished yet.

Read several books:


I'll have to read the rest of the Twilight books soon - I do love a good vampire tale!

I read the Dinotopia children's novel before handing it over to Miss Tizz, just to make sure it was appropriate for a 7yo (and I recently read The Princess Diaries for the same reason).

Mary called Magdalene is the current book by the bedside - it's a novel, because not too much is known about the historical figure, and very interesting so far - she's currently plagued by Canaanite gods & goddesses.

Watched a number of episodes each of Torchwood (Season 1, Episodes 1-9 - definitely a show for adults! Oh my! Dr Who was never like this!) and Lexx:



Crocheted (while watching the above):


Changed my hair colour - this one is a Joico purple - it's quite bright in the sunlight!


(Like my superhero cape? Trying to prevent the colour from bleeding all over me - I've been waking up in the morning with half my face purple! Nearly forgot about it today when I went to answer the door ...)

Sewed patches onto Miss Tizz's Guide sash (and unpicked the ones I put in the wrong place :P):


Picked apples & pears:


Made more bread from the Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day recipe, and made my first batch of English muffins. The baked product disappears too quickly, so here's a picture of the dough (you can't say I don't thrill you with exciting photos!):


And the I worked some more.

Who's eating my fruit?

Wicking beds



The beds are made, they're settling in, and just waiting for rain, worms & planting. The weather forecast mentioned rain many times last week, but nothing more than a few drops came of it. Tomorrow's forecast for the local area says "A thunderstorm in spots" - what's that supposed be? A fashion statement? I think I may end up resorting to the hose - after all, that's what those white watering tubes in the beds are for:



Next I need to bully the husband into finishing the worm feeders (he has more time & more sharp power tool experience than me). It all seems to be taking forever, but it's getting there ...

At least something's eating out of the backyard

The apples are looking lovely, aren't they?



But turn most of them over, and you'll find something like this:



Telltale signs of codling moth. The pears aren't immune either:



And then there's pear & cherry slug:



... and birds ...



The white cockatoos seem to prefer the pears, and the rosellas (ok - I'm not 100% sure they're rosellas, but they're green & red & blue & very pretty) prefer the apples. At least someone's eating well!

Baking

Speaking of eating, I made up my first batch of dough from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book today. The children have been bringing home their sandwiches barely touched, so I thought little crusty rolls, accompanied by a small salad, might be more tempting. The rolls are certainly tempting me!



You can find the master dough recipe on the authors' website, and variations of all sorts floating around the internet. I found this a little salty, and then read that the amount of table salt should be reduced by about a third or more if you're using table salt instead of the kosher salt in the original recipe. But it's certainly delicious and easy, even like this (that blurry one in the foreground is no more!). Mmmmmm ...

I need your advice

... but before that, a Victorian bushfire update. The death toll is now 208, including a firefighter from Canberra who was hit by a falling tree while he was on the job. Wonderful people, who quite literally put their lives on the line for the rest of us. Please continue to donate if you possibly can, as the recovery is going to take a long time.

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So now, your advice please. As I've mentioned before, the wild backyard includes an apple tree & two pear trees. I've been reluctant to spray the trees, especially while the children are young, but haven't been able to keep the codling moth under control, so I will probably prune them back hard in winter, spray this year, and then continue with natural methods (unless anyone else has any great ideas! I'd prefer not to spray with chemicals, but I need to do something about it).

In the meantime, I have a LOT of fruit again. It's quite confused fruit, due to the odd weather we've had lately, but overall it's not quite ripe. And it has grubs. I'm reluctant to throw it all out, so what can I use it for? We're not big jam/jelly eaters, although I know the apples would be good for pectin, so no point making litres of the stuff.

So what do you suggest?

About a year ago

I started this blog nearly a year ago, and while some things in the wild backyard aren't much different, we're finally making progress towards growing some of our own food.

Both wicking beds are now built, lined, painted inside with the sealant, and have 200mm of sand in the bottom as a water storage area.



I had hoped to get the four trailer-loads of soil it will take to fill them before Lee comes back next week, but with temps in the high 30s, including 39.6 degrees Celsius today and a predicted 40 degrees tomorrow, it may not happen. We're planning on hiding inside for the weekend, and only venturing into the heat if it's completely unavoidable!

In the meantime, the fruit trees are getting sunburnt, attacked by codling moth, and being feasted on by native birds. Hopefully we'll get something from them, and when the fruit is finished we'll do some heavy pruning and serious pest control and be off to a better start for next season.



On the family front: the children survived their first week of school. The X-man was most impressed that he scored four stickers from teachers for good behaviour and listening :) and Miss Tizz has decided she wants to learn guitar (I think she has visions of being a rock star, so thankfully the school has 3/4 size guitars we can hire before we outlay too much on an instrument only to find she loses interest after a few weeks).

Summer holidays

Forgive me, gentle readers, for abandoning you for this past month. Since we last spoke, our family has been visiting the past (the fabulous dinosaur exhibit at the Australian Museum in Sydney), the future (the Star Wars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum), and the extended families in Sydney and Grafton & surrounds.

We've had lunch on the banks of the Macleay River, and dinner on an island, overlooking sugar cane fields and the South Arm of the Clarence. We've sweltered at the Big Banana, laid flowers on a grave at Beresfield near Newcastle, and been disappointed to find a milk factory shop remembered from childhood supplanted by yet another Hungry Jacks. We've had major gearbox problems, and had people go out of their way to help us get back on the road (big thanks to Cullen Autos of Taree & NRMA Premium Care!).

And now we're back.

It's still school holidays, but I'm back at work and in the thick of it already. So just a few quick updates, and hopefully I'll post a little more regularly from now.

Earthboxes



Three weeks on their own, with no attention, some very hot weather, and a little rain, and they survived! Mostly. The snowpeas and capsicums did well, but the peas and spinach succumbed to less than ideal conditions. The kids stripped the snowpeas and ate them before they got anywhere near the kitchen, but there are more coming on. With a little TLC, I think they would produce a pretty good crop.



The second box has three very healthy looking capsicum plants, plenty of flowers, and a couple of baby capsicums.



The apple and pear trees are loaded with small fruit, but despite good intentions we didn't get around to spraying them (or treating them in any other way) so we'll lose a lot to codling moth. This winter we're planning to prune them back hard and treat them properly, and hopefully go a long way to dealing with the problem. At least the birds are having a good time in the trees!

Planting (part 2)

They're still alive! The seedlings which were under the bottles are looking quite perky. The others are a bit droopy in the sun, but hopefully they'll perk up as it cools down.

There are now two beds with assorted cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and some other greens, and the seedlings below - lettuce, herbs, beetroot, 'Oriental Mix' greens, and the kids' flowers - will hopefully go in later today. Hmmm ... perhaps the snails are just waiting for more variety before tucking in ...

And now, to quote a feral(ish) friend, for some garden porn:

Fruit and more fruit

I'm determined to minimise food wastage in this household. If that means I eat pasta carbonara for breakfast (like yesterday), so be it. Lucky I'm not fussy like that! It is going to be a little more difficult for me to not waste all the fruit from our trees at the moment though. I have a basket of apples waiting for attention (they really need to be cooked rather than just eaten raw, as they were picked early to avoid the birds and codling moth - we've lost a lot of apples to the grubs already).

I haven't even started picking the pears yet, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. I am seeing some friends on Friday, so if I get my act together before then I can give some away, but I'd also like to find some recipes to use some of them up - I'm not a big pear eater, so it's going to be a bit of a challenge for me. Any suggestions? Recipes that I can freeze would be especially welcome.

Today I baked a banana cake and banana bread - the house still smells lovely, and there are no longer any overripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl. Next time though, I'm prepared with this Monkey Cake recipe!