naturewitch

Life Struggles and Zumba

2010-07-31T08:11:00.005+10:00

About two months ago, I thought I must get back on my blogging horse. Unfortunately, life seems to always get in the way. I find it difficult to get "me time" these days and when I do take a moment, I'm usually exhausted.

However, a couple of friends are trying to get me out and about a bit more, so I can get back a bit of my own space and time. Thank you!

Last Thursday night, three chubby middle-aged women went to their first Zumba class. The result - hilarious! We were all somewhat unco-ordinated and found it hard to keep up with our teacher who was probably half our age and fed on jumping beans. But we had lots of fun and hopefully we'll all get a bit fitter.

So, I'll be trying to get back to the blog and hope to see many of you again soon.

love and light

naturewitch

Now That's Frugal Living ....

2010-06-01T20:06:00.003+10:00

Just had to share this joke with you all ...

MAMA AND HER BIBLE

Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers and they prospered. Some years later, they chatted after having dinner together. They discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother who lived far away in another city.

The first said, "I had a big house built for Mama."

The second said, "I had a hundred thousand dollar theater built in the house."

The third said, "I had my Mercedes dealer deliver an SL600 to her."

The fourth said, "You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can't read anymore because she can't see very well. I met this preacher who told me about a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 preachers 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000 a year for twenty years to the church, but it was worth it. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it." The other brothers were truly impressed.

After the holidays their mother sent out her thank you notes.

She wrote: "Milton, the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway."

"Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home. I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks."

"Michael, you gave me an expensive theatre with Dolby sound. It could hold 50 people, but all my friends are dead, I've lost my hearing and I'm nearly blind. I'll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same."

"Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift. The chicken was delicious. Thank you."

Still laughing....

love and light

naturewitch

Coming out of Hibernation

2010-05-30T21:44:00.004+10:00

Been silent for just a little too long, mainly because life has just become so very busy...

In the past year, both of my partner's children have moved in with us, which has meant an incredible increase in the amount of housework, as well as my continual juggle with both work and study.

But in all the busy-ness, I've left part of me behind, so am starting to make a concerted effort to regain it.

Dixiebelle arranged a lovely outing for some of us yesterday, so we got face to face and had a lovely chat about sharing some of our skills. This, and interesting conversations with the crone and a fellow student recently, have helped to pull me out of my hibernation and I'll get back to blogging real soon.

Just an exam tomorrow and three more assignments and I'll be done for the semester ...

love and light
naturewitch

Of Things Leguminous

2009-11-05T20:13:00.010+11:00

Out in the garden last weekend, I took a few snaps of our current leguminous crops.

The Golden Podded Peas are indeed golden. They are quite tasty when young and can be eaten whole like snow peas. As they get older, however, they tend to get a bit starchy and so I'll be leaving these to dry. The flowers are a lovely purple colour, so they are a very pretty pea.

The chick peas are flowering .....

And the first few pods are appearing ...

The broad beans, looking luscious, just before they were strip picked and cleared to make room for some new veges.

Legumes are such a good food for us. Just as they prepare the soil to support good growth, so do they help cleanse and prepare our bodies for good health.

Beans are the same shape as our lymph nodes, spleens and kidneys and they help keep these healthy.

Beans love to grow in amongst corn. Beans and corn together provide all the amino acids we need - that is, they are a perfect protein.

Alfalfa is also a legume and it is a fantastic lymphatic cleanser and body alkaliser.

All of these are good reasons to include legumes in your diet, but they are also very yummy and children just love to pick and munch them. Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Busy and Exciting Times

2009-11-02T19:30:00.006+11:00

I can't believe it's over two weeks since I posted anything. Have been busy with assignments, work, the garden - just the usual. We've got about three and a half weeks to go now and study will be over for another year, so hopefully I'll have a bit more time.

But there have been a few exciting happenings and a bit of progress in the garden while I've been silent ...

The large bed in the front garden has been completely renovated, with weeds removed and new plants inserted, its also been fed and mulched, and an arch has appeared to train roses on one side and a jasmine and gelsemium on the other. This bed is about 12 or so square metres and it was rather neglected, so it was quite a job.

I've managed to find the time to make some more mint jelly and start a batch of elderflower champagne ... recipes coming soon.

We've started dismantling one of the raised garden beds in preparation for conversion to a wicking bed. This particular bed has a slight problem with couch grass, so we've been sieving all the soil. Ugh!

A couple of weeks ago, I was awarded a prize for "Excellence in herbal medicine" where I study. I was surprised, but very happy, especially since it came with a voucher for some herbal extracts from my favourite herbal company. :)

And best of all, on Saturday we picked up a new nucleus colony and so now we have two hives in the garden. The new bees seem to be settling in well. And next year we can probably split the older hive, so we'll have a total of three hives. Haven't harvested any honey yet; just letting the hives get stronger for now.

Now I'm off to have a look at what you've all been up to ....

love and light
naturewitch

Hugh, Chickens and Mint Jelly

2009-10-15T19:24:00.005+11:00

I've become a bit of a fan lately of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the River Cottage. The ABC has been showing the River Cottage Spring series and starting next week will show River Cottage Autumn. Top viewing, if you have the time on a Wednesday evening ...

Today I ordered the cookbook, which apparently has been around for some time; I'm just a bit slow catching on to some of these things ...

Last night, they had a session on the difference between organic, free range chickens and massed produced chickens. A British professor has been conducting research into their nutrient value.

Here's some chicken factoids:

Compared to the chicken available to consumers 50 years ago, today's mass produced chicken has more fat and is no longer the lean option many people think it is - 12.9% fat comes to mind, but I didn't write it down, so I could have it wrong.

Chicken used to be considered a good source of Omega 3 fatty acids - essential for good brain function, lowering high-density cholesterol, reducing inflammation, etc, etc. Modern mass-produced chicken has very little Omega 3. In addition to the added fat, it seems modern mass-produced chicken is not at all good for our arteries.

Corn-fed chicken did not fair much better than the mass-produced stuff, but it did have slightly more Omega 3, although this was accompanied by extra fat.

The supermarket purchased organic, free range chicken tested had more than 10 times the Omega 3 fats, was leaner, older and had more flavour.

So, if you weren't eating organic, free range chicken before reading this, you might like to reconsider. Yes, it's more expensive, but what price the health of your family?

So, to the mint jelly .....

We had a minor culinary crisis in our house the other day when we realised that we were out of mint jelly. I mean totally out, not even a bottle in the cupboard, a most unusual event in our household. So, my darling man went to the shop and bought some.

I have not eaten shop-bought mint jelly since I don't remember when. I have obviously been very spoilt. The shop bought stuff was not only coloured green, it tasted disgusting - something akin to a bad tube of toothpaste. Ugh!!!! Can't wait for the mint to be big enough to pick. Mint jelly making is definitely on my culinary horizon in the near future.

love and light
naturewitch

Passionfruit Butter Recipe

2009-10-12T17:15:00.005+11:00

This one's for Sage...

Passionfruit Butter
Juice of 8 oranges
Juice of 3 lemons
Passionfruit pulp - 340g
6 cups sugar (about 1.5kg)
12 eggs
350g butter

Put it all in a small boiler with a heavy base. Heat while stirring until it simmers and thickens. If it's not thick enough, you can add 1 tablespoon of cornflour that has been dissolved in a little water.

Pour into sterilised jars and seal. Keep in the fridge for up to 6 months. Makes about 6 x 500g jars.

love and light
naturewitch

Natural Woman Network and Rad Pads

2009-10-07T08:57:00.007+11:00

A friend of mine has recently become the Canberra facilitator for the Natural Woman Network (http://www.naturalwomannetwork.com.au/). One of the roles of the Natural Woman Network is to provide a vehicle for the spread of information about women’s and family health and sustainable living.

One of the products the Natural Woman Network promotes is Rad Pads, which are reusable cloth menstrual pads. Here is a link to the website http://www.radpads.com.au/.

For those of you in Canberra, Cathy will be at the next Tuggeranong Homestead Markets on Sunday 11 October (9am – 2pm) with a stock of Rad Pads for sale, along with other information about the Natural Woman Network. She will also have samples of the Rasasara ayurvedic skin foods.

You can also arrange to have a gathering at your place where Cathy can bring samples of Rad Pads and show you the Rasasara skin foods and Chi cleaning cloths. If you are interested, contact Cathy on cathy@emailme.com.au.

love and light

naturewitch

Buying Local and Loving It

2009-10-04T12:51:00.006+11:00

One of the benefits of buying local produce is that you're never quite sure beforehand about what might happen in your kitchen that week. It keeps things from being routine and boring and surely that's a good thing!

Yesterday morning, my darling man and I went to the local Farmer's Markets, which set off a chain of culinary events ....

Finding some beautiful strawberries at good prices not only meant fresh strawbs to eat (yum!), but four pots of strawberry jam, which should last us several months.

Purchasing fresh, sweet, juicy oranges gave rise to me juicing the old ones and cooking up six pots of passionfruit butter, something nearly-teen-boy loves on hot oat cakes. The recipe also used a dozen fresh local hens' eggs.

Duck eggs reminded me of the moist coconut cake that a neighbour used to make from my brother's spare duck eggs when we were teenagers, so of course, that had to be made as well.

Fresh fennel, artichokes and sweet potatoes were roasted and added to fresh fish to produce a lovely meal.

And another meal of a thick vegetable soup was graced by the addition of locally produced chorizo sausages sliced on top (which, incidentally, gave off no fat while cooking and tasted amazing) and slices of toasted gluten free Crunch bread (a seedy concoction held together with a bit of gluten free flour).

OK, some of the supplemental ingredients were not local, but the majority of ingredients were. My point is that by shopping this way, you eat with the seasons, stock the cupboard with the seasons, and generally eat much tastier and healthier food (well, except maybe for the added sugar.... ;)).

I hadn't planned on making jam or a cake this weekend, but it sure was fun. And the fresh produce - simply delicious!

love and light

naturewitch

First Asparagus of the Season

2009-10-01T04:51:00.005+10:00

Last night we had the first of our asparagus for the season - three fat purple stalks. Yummy!

This is a photo from last year, but hopefully we'll be getting this much again soon.

Just love asparagus!

And did you know that asparagus is a source of the trace mineral chromium? Chromium helps to balance our blood glucose levels, as well as helping to reduce our cravings for evil sugar.

Just love asparagus!

love and light

naturewitch

The Real Reason the Chicken Crossed the Road

2009-09-21T18:26:00.012+10:00

At last, an answer to that burning question.....

Just had to share this one with you .... apologies to any vegetarians ...

love and light
naturewitch

Ah, Spring!

2009-09-15T08:22:00.007+10:00

Outside in the early morning

The others still tucked up in bed

Picking lettuce and rocket for our lunches

My breath of fresh air before the busy week begins.

The kale, which has fed us so beautifully over winter

Is heading upwards now, soon to flower

To provide food for the bees.

The first couple of broad beans

Not enough for a meal

But a contribution to a stir fry.

Breathe in deeply, feeling the cool air rush into lungs

Too long kept in the stuffy inside air

There's nothing like the clean fragrant air of spring

With promises of all that is to come.

Ah, Spring!

love and light

naturewitch

Tomatoes and Basil

2009-09-08T17:52:00.007+10:00

You know the warmer weather is approaching when you start planting your tomato seeds. Here in Canberra, we have to start our tomatoes under cover, transplanting out after the last frost in late October or early November.

So today I put some seeds in pots for both tomatoes and basil (the two just have to go together!). I've recorded below the characteristics of the tomatoes, as best I know them from seed packets and other information. I'm going to see how the crop goes and compare it to the information supplied. Hopefully, we'll have lots of salad and cooking/bottling/paste/sauce tomatoes this season. I'm going to rely on self-seeding for the cherry tomatoes and yellow egg tomatoes...

The basil varieties I planted are: Lettuce leaf; Small leaf, ball-shaped; Classic Italian; Holy Basil and Thai Basil.

I'll keep you posted on their progress over summer.

love and light
naturewitch

To Be Fifteen Again!

2009-09-08T08:07:00.003+10:00

Scene at the breakfast table ...

Dad: "Julia Gillard was impressive last night on Smarter Than a Fifth Grader."

TeenGirl (with a roll of her eyes and that tone): "She is the education minister, Dad!"

Had to stop myself rolling around laughing (no offence, Julia)! Oh, to be fifteen again and know everything.

love and light

naturewitch

I Love Soapnuts!

2009-09-05T16:51:00.003+10:00

After seeing Molly's post on soapnuts, I decided to buy some - I got mine from Eaternal. The service was terrific and the soapnuts arrived in a couple of days after ordering.

Today I did my first big wash with the soapnuts and they are absolutely fabulous! Everything came out clean and bright and the wash water went out on to the garden. I did my usual trick of saving and re-using the "suds", which further reduced the amount of water needed.

This morning we also worked out a plan to convert our raised garden beds into wicking beds, so hopefully we'll start work on that next weekend. By using the washing water to recharge the wicking beds each week, we're sure to be saving on water this summer.

Out in the garden today, I completely weeded my long herb bed and planted some of the new arrivals. Others are inside awaiting the last frost. I'll post some pictures when they grow up a bit; at the moment, it is hard to distinguish the herbs from lucerne mulch!

While weeding the bed, I also found a couple of parsnips missed last autmun. No problem, they'll make a great addition to the roast vegies we're having for dinner tonight :).

Talking to my neighbour this morning, who was also out in his vegie patch, I was delighted to hear that he had a better than usual crop of pumpkins last autumn, which he attributed to having the bees nearby. I too had noticed an increase in production, but it's really nice to have it confirmed. Our dear bee friends are proving to be very popular. Can't wait to get more.

love and light

naturewitch

The Herbs and Seeds are Here!

2009-09-03T19:33:00.004+10:00

We arrived home from the food co-op* this evening to find a fruit box full of plants awaiting us at the front door - it was my first herb order from All Rare Herbs.

Everything arrived in good condition and was solidly packed so that nothing had spilt or been damaged.

Included in the order were:

Galangal

Golden Alpine Strawberry

Ammi visagna (seeds)

American Wild Yam

Barberry

Betony

Orris

Self Heal

Sweet Annie

Woad (I'm dyeing to try this when it grows up! :))

American Arnica

Also this week, my first seed order from The Italian Gardener turned up. Everything was well packed and the photos on the packets have me drooling and keen to get growing, even though some of them will have to be raised under cover to protect them from any late frosts.

I'm in plantaholic heaven and there's not much chance of anyone keeping me out of the garden this weekend....

.... although, I must confess that I'm going to visit the bee man on Saturday morning to get a spare hive box, just in case the bees decide to swarm in the next few weeks. Also, I'm going to check out about getting another nucleus hive and am keen to get a proper protective bee suit (my white pyjama pants aren't really that suitable LOL!).

I'm also toying with the idea of a smoker, but it seems a bit cruel to smoke the bees and so far they've been pretty mild-mannered. Has anyone got any experience with this? I'd love some thoughts on the practicality and ethics of smoking the bees.

*The food co-op we go to is the ANU Food Co-op. For anyone living in Canberra interested in organic food, with deliveries of fresh produce twice a week, I highly recommend it. They also have a wide range of bulk flours, grains, cereals, dried fruits, nuts, fair trade chocolate, eggs, milks, breads and grocery items. You take your own containers and bags and so help to reduce the wastage of excess packaging associated with our food. There are discounts for members and workers, which make the products very affordable.

love and light

naturewitch

Food Forest Fun

2009-09-01T21:49:00.007+10:00

This morning, when I should have been finishing my presentation for tomorrow morning's class, I escaped into the garden. It was simply too beautiful a day to be cooped up inside staring at a computer screen.

And there was the rest of the strawberries to plant. These runners have been languishing in a dilute solution of seaweed extract for about six weeks now. They've been outside under the mega kale leaves, so they've been aclimatised. They've survived remarkably well and are now happily nestled in the beginnings of our food forest.

I planted and mulched to the accompaniment of bees buzzing, blue wrens singing and magpies carolling. It was simply divine.

So here's a couple more pictures of our fledgling food forest. The stepping stones are four pavers placed closely enough so that we don't have to stand on any plants. But in between the trees and the pavers will be solidly planted.

I've sprinkled lemon balm and borage seeds in between the strawberry runners. These will provide food for the bees, as well as herbs for me.

Elsewhere in the garden, the rocket, the broccoli and some Chinese cabbages are in flower, adding a little variety to the bees' current feast on plum, nectarine and peach blossom.

love and light
naturewitch

Herbs, Herbs, Herbs

2009-08-29T10:05:00.003+10:00

Hello. My name is naturewitch and I am a plantaholic. I feed my obsession in many ways - visiting nurseries (when I have the time and the transport), reading about plants, or buying them online.

I have just discovered a new place to buy plants and they are ones especially dear to my heart - herbs. All Rare Herbs has an amazing collection of herbs, herb seeds and dried herbs for sale. They have specials each month - to tempt you further - and are lovely to deal with. I have placed my first order this week and eagerly await its arrival. I'll let you know when it arrives.

love and light

naturewitch

Microclimate Gardening and Food Forests

2009-08-24T19:31:00.009+10:00

After last year's hot summer, I've decided to take a different approach this year - microclimate gardening.

The raised beds in our garden are made from Besser blocks, which is great for winter vegies as they retain the heat. However, they can be a bit warm in summer (last year I had to put this canopy up to raise the carrots), so this year they are going to host all of the heat-loving vegies, such as corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, melons, eggplants, etc.

The less heat-tolerant vegies, such as the leafy greens and root vegies, are going to be planted under and between the fruit trees. They'll still get enough light, but they'll also get protection from the hot midday sun; in other words, it will be the start of a food forest.

And I saw a neat idea on Gardening Australia the other day - pots with frames in them for growing Ceylon Spinach or Malabar Greens. These could be really useful to move around the garden to act as temporary shades and I'm also thinking of other plants we could grow in these pots.

I've moved the Queensland arrowroot from the garden into a big black bin under the eaves and it's put its first couple of leaves up already, about 2 months or so ahead of usual. I'm going to try this technique for also growing sweet potatoes and chokoes, so will tell how that goes later in the season.

We've worked out a site for a water tank to collect the rainfall from the roof and have finally agreed a site for the chook pen. It will mean moving the current compost heap, but that's OK with me. I'm also thinking about establishing a pond/bog area to house plants like water chestnuts (currently in buckets) and cranberries (currently in the bath tub); don't know if we'll get to it this year, but it's in the plan!

I lost a lot of time in the garden this winter due to illness and busy-ness, so I'm a little behind the eight ball. But on the weekend I got out in the garden and started weeding, feeding, fertilising (don't you just love chook poo!), planting and mulching under the fruit trees - twenty strawberry runners in so far. Haven't taken a photo yet, but will when I get a bit more done - hopefully next weekend (depending on the weather).

And last, but certainly not least, the bees have survived the winter (I was worried we might lose them when it was very cold and wet for a while) and we're thinking of putting in another hive. It is so terrific to see them around the garden and I'm planting up some extra herbs and flowers just for them.

love and light
naturewitch

Italian Vegetable Seed

2009-08-22T22:25:00.004+10:00

Some women have shoe fetishes; I must admit to seed, book and craft fetishes. But the one I write of here is unashamedly seeds.

Last week at work, one of my colleagues said that she'd managed to obtain some Italian vegetable seeds for her father (who is Italian). Of course, at lunchtime, I simply had to investigate! I happily returned with no less than eight packets of Italian vegetable seeds and a website to look at - http://www.theitaliangardener.com.au/

I am absolutely thrilled with this find as they have seed available that I've not seen in any other Australian seed companies. They also carry some organic seed stock.

Here's a picture of one of their tomatoes which I will try to grow this year. It is supposed to yield 400g fruit, which are very fleshy, with very few seeds.

So, if you share my addiction to trying out different varieties, have a look at what they have to offer.

Happy gardening!

love and light
naturewitch

Hello World

2009-07-23T16:44:00.002+10:00

No, I haven't fallen off the planet; just been busy with life.

After dealing with the end of semester rush with study, got a dreadful lurgy - don't worry, haven't started oinking nor felt like rolling around in mud ;)

Then there was the end of financial year rush at work . . .

And my partner's teenage daughter has moved in with us, so we've had to do things around that, including settling her into a new school.

All is good and hope to be back more regularly in blogland real soon.

love and light
naturewitch

The Flu and All That Jazz

2009-05-02T08:53:00.008+10:00

There's been plenty in the media about the latest potential influenza pandemic. the question is: do we need to be concerned?

According to Dr Mercola, probably not. His current influenza article is a little long to read, but quite informative and entertaining. I recommend it.

To stay well during the flu season, he recommends that we:
* keep up our vitamin D levels
* avoid sugar and processed foods
* get good rest each day
* exercise
* have plenty of omega-3s (eg, fish oil) and avoid trans fats
* wash our hands
* eat garlic regularly
* avoid hospitals and vaccines

Sounds like a pretty good list to me. To this I would like to add:

* drink a cup of thyme tea first thing each morning, preferably with one teaspoon of manuka honey and juice of half a lemon (unless you are allergic to thyme). The thyme boosts your immune system and helps prevent you succumbing to viruses. The manuka honey also contains immune-enhancing properties and the lemon juice will help to alkalise and cleanse your body. To make thyme tea, pick 2-3 small sprigs and infuse in 1 cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes. Add the lemon juice and honey and drink. Delicious!

* keep up your zinc status - around 85% of Australians are deficient in zinc and it is essential for the proper functioning of the digestive and immune systems. You can get zinc tests at health food stores to check whether or not you are deficient and one bottle will do the whole family.
If you find that you need to take a zinc supplement, take it after you have eaten, as you might feel nauseas otherwise. Also you might take a lower dose 3-4 times per day, rather than one large dose.
Aim for 100-200mg per day for adults; you probably won't need to stay on them forever, just top up every now and then. Children under 10 need about 10mg per day and over 10 about 15mg per day.
Or you can get your zinc from foods such as beef, baked beans, cashews, egg yolks (soft boiled eggs), ginger, herrings, liver, milk, lamb, oysters, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, whole grains, yeast.

* think about including vitamin C as a supplement, or including vitamin C foods in your diet, such as blackcurrants, broccoli, citrus fruits, guava, parsley, peppers, pineapple, potatoes, raw cabbage, rosehips and strawberries.

* the bioflavonoids can be really useful in building your immune system as well - enjoy plenty of buckwheat, citrus fruits, green growing shoots, skins of fruits and vegetables.

Look to nature for guidance - in these cooler months she supplies us with lovely fresh citrus, tropical fruits, broccoli and cabbages which are all good foods for building our immune systems.

And remember to stay active, stay warm and stay healthy. Bugs just love stagnant bodies to grow in, kind of like weeds growing in neglected gardens. Look after your body garden and you will stay well this winter.

love and light
naturewitch

Autumn Gardening

2009-04-06T19:48:00.005+10:00

Autumn is such a wonderful time to be in the garden. Although some plants are finishing up their main season and may look a bit tired, it is a great time to plant perennials. The soil is still warm enough and the weather cool enough to prevent major transplant shock. And Autumn is a great time to plant spring flowering bulbs.

This morning before class, instead of hitting the books (like I should be!), I escaped into the garden to put some plants into the ground. Quite a few of these are bee plants and many of my specimens were ones I salvaged from the sad bench at our local Bunnings store, although you wouldn't know it by looking at them.

Here's the newly planted lavender hedge. It's an Italian lavender, Avonview. The plants should grow to 80cm tall and 60cm wide. Apparently, it has a long flowering season, so I'm hoping to see lots of happy bees buzzing about the blossoms.

The lavender hedge was planted in a bed previously occupied by camellias. Although they were meant to be sun hardy, the camellias never thrived in the full sun position, so they were moved about a week ago to a partly shaded position. Although reasonably advanced, they moved very easily and look happy in their new spot. Now they're not getting so much sun, I hope they'll bush up somewhat.

This little hebe just moved into its new neighbourhood this morning and looks settled already.

The Chinese Star Jasmine was planted a couple of weeks ago and will soon be ready to zoom up the trellis.

Now, I know we're not meant to have favourites, but I just love this Gentiana scabra. The photo is quite washed out compared to the intense purplish-blue colour of the flowers. They truly are lovely.

I've listed my plantings in the side-bar. It was a very satisfying morning's planting.

Now that I've got the shrubs in place, though, the area under the trees looks like it needs some sort of ground cover. I'll have to do some research on suitable ground covers that bees like. And that will mean a trip or two to plant nurseries or at least online . . . ;)

Hope your Autumn gardening is going well.

love and light
naturewitch

Yesterday's Adventure

2009-04-05T06:42:00.007+10:00

Yesterday, a friend of mine ran a gorgeous workshop - How to do an Aromatherapy Facial.

It was absolutely delicious and the very best facial I have ever experienced. We also learnt how to make a few products.

Now that I know how to do one, friends around Canberra can expect to receive these for pressies. ;)

For those of you in Canberra looking for a lovely body work therapist in Canberra, have a look at Vanessa's website: http://www.holistictherapies.com.au/

Apparently, her hot stone massage is divine. I'm thinking of booking one for my birthday coming up soon.

love and light
naturewitch

What Did You Do for Earth Hour?

2009-03-29T21:52:00.004+11:00

Last night, our lights, television and computers were turned off for Earth Hour.

We chose to go for a walk to our local oval, mini telescope in hand, and lie down on the grass and watch the stars. It was quite magic.

On our way to and from the oval, we walked past many houses with their lights still blazing. My partner's eleven year old son summed it up with "I reckon about 80% just don't care". Unfortunately, I think he was right.

While some people in our neighbourhood, like the lovely peeps next door, had their lights off, about 4 houses in 5 still had their lights on. Some people are elderly and I can understand why they wouldn't turn out their lights - falling hazards and all that. But some appeared to have all guns blazing, almost as a defiant gesture. What will it take for them to learn?

We thoroughly enjoyed our Earth Hour, with the trip to the oval to watch the stars being something we want to do again.

How did you spend your Earth Hour? What was it like where you live?

love and light
naturewitch

The Simple Things in Life

2009-03-28T17:52:00.003+11:00

I catch the bus most days to and from work and study. I enjoy catching the bus, but sometimes the experience is less than optimal. Yesterday afternoon, suffice to say that the ride home was not the most pleasant, in terms of odours emanating from nearby passengers. I was very glad to alight and of course, spend some time in the garden breathing in the lovely fresh air.

While watering the garden, I refilled the bird bath. A short while later, a family of small birds were drinking and bathing in the water. It was a lovely sight and fully restored my humour. Such a simple thing and yet so powerful.

At the moment I'm on an elimination diet trying to work out what foods I keep reacting to. Now me and the word diet just do not go together (it's up there with jogging and photos! NOT something I do), so I was a bit apprehensive as to how this would work out.

Well, I have surprised myself. Not only am I not craving chocolate and other sweet treats, I'm really enjoying the food I'm eating. The diet works on a four day rotation plan, with meat (or other protein source), fruit and a carbohydrate source specified each day. To this you can add certain amounts of specified foods such as cabbage, lettuce, celery and plain rice cakes, etc.

Today I get to eat pears. Pears have never tasted so good. Tomorrow it will be pawpaw. The point is, by appreciating what I can have rather than concentrating on what I can't have, this diet is not the horrible beast I thought it would be. I'm really enjoying the plain simple tastes.

It's really all a matter of your attitude, I think, and you can gain pleasure from even the most mundane things. By appreciating what you have, you lose the desire (well, quite a lot of it ;)) for what you don't have. It really is the simple things in life that matter; we just forget sometimes.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Update

2009-03-17T21:06:00.004+11:00

The weekend before last I opened the hive to notice that the bees were still not moving into the top box, so I removed the queen excluder between the two boxes.

At this stage of the season, they really need to get in as much honey as possible to feed themselves over winter. We won't be getting any honey this season, which doesn't bother me as long as they have enough to survive over the winter.

Last weekend, I noticed quite a few bees near the front of the hive and I was concerned that they might be getting ready to flee, rather than move into the top box. So, I donned the gear and opened the hive to find a squillion bees in the top box, as well as a squillion in the bottom box.

Sooooo, I'm guessing the little darlings have had another hatching. Yippee!

The weekend before last also saw me on a nursery crawl to find bee plants. We came home with more herbs (rosemary, mints, lemon balm, pineapple sage and winter savoury), native bushes (leptospermum and banskia) and flowers (lupins, salvia and columbines).

Putting the plants into the garden proved to be fun, especially when the bees started to take a keen interest in the lemon balm I was planting near their hive! LOL! While I moved away from the hive, I still had some lemon balm seedlings in my hands and the bees followed. I eventually shook them off (out of my hair, actually) and planted the lemon balm a little further from the hive (about 3m). They're just going to have to fly for it!

This autumn and winter, I'm going to start work on a hedge full of bee plants. This will be within about 10m from the existing hive, so there should be plenty of food for them close by. The trick is finding plants which are evergreen, suitable for hedging, which the bees love and which flower over different times of the year. I have a list of potentially suitable plants and have started getting them. This will mean, of course, numerous trips to online and nearby nurseries - a difficult job, I know, but someone has to do it! Maybe I need to talk to the Evil Plant Buying Alliance to get some ideas??

love and light
naturewitch

Does Pampering Lead to Miscontent?

2009-03-15T20:27:00.003+11:00

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of going to a hair and beauty establishment to enjoy one of my Christmas presents - 3.5 hours of pampering. It started with a Swedish massage, followed by a facial and hand and feet treatments. Then a hair cleanse, cut and blow dry. The people running the salon were very professional and really lovely and the whole experience was utterly delightful.

Enter evil little creature from stage left, who suggests "wouldn't it be great to be able to do this all the time!". Mmmm - if I booked in every couple of months and limited my expenditure to say $150-$200 each time (which includes the hair cut, etc), I may be able to afford it.

Enter rational brain from stage right - "but then you'd end up spending in excess of $1000 a year and isn't that a lot simply to spend on vanity? And what about important things like water tanks and chook sheds and wicking beds, eh?"

"Oooh, but I do work hard and study hard and then juggle all that with home, don't I deserve a little pampering every so often?"

"Well, you could do your own."

"But it's not the same."

How often do we all have conversations like this with ourselves? How often do we deny ourselves some pleasure in the pursuit of the bigger environmental sustainability picture? Are we doing ourselves a disservice?

Or is it simply that having been pampered, I want more and the consumerist devil which lurks somewhere beneath the surface of all of us is just too ready to emerge at the slightest provocation? Does pampering lead to discontent? After all, I probably would never have entertained these thoughts except for being pampered.

love and light
naturewitch

Blogging Mojo and Beached Whales

2009-03-08T06:12:00.004+11:00

I've felt like I've lost my blogging mojo the past few weeks. I thought maybe it was to do with all the events over summer (which are still continuing - fire and floods, etc), but just now reading the Crone's post, I realise that she has expressed my feeling exactly. Something is up with the world and we'll find out soon.

Speaking of which - recently, very sadly, there was a mass beaching of pod whales on King Island, off Tasmania. I've often noticed that when the whales beach themselves there is an earth quake or similar disaster shortly afterwards (up to 2 weeks). It happened before the Tsunami and the quakes in Pakistan and now there have been quakes in Victoria (although reasonably mild).

One of the theories for the latest beaching was that some dolphins herded the whales into shore. Can you imagine a whale being intimidated by a dolphin? Seems a little far-fetched to me, but then again I'm no expert on marine animals and their habits. Personally, I think that the whales are sending us messages; it's just that we don't know how to interpret them.

love and light
naturewitch

Handmade Help

2009-02-17T20:38:00.003+11:00

If you're looking for a more practical way to help people affected by the bushfires, check out the Handmade Help blog: http://handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com/

There are three main streams of help being organised:

Craft - restash a crafter, quilt making, toy making, fund raising, etc
Cooking - submit recipes for a book
Gardening - this is currently being formulated, but a separate blog will be available soon

Have a look and see if any of it appeals to you.

love and light
naturewitch

Around the Garden and in the Kitchen

2009-02-17T20:13:00.004+11:00

Remember Kale Cauli? Well it grew up and was duly harvested. Kale Cauli ended up being a bit green and a bit purplish.

The texture was similar to cauliflower and the flavour was something akin to the taste of very mature kale leaves, ie, a bit strong. Kale Cauli was edible, but not sure if I'd want to eat it too often.

There are a few more baby Kale Caulis in the garden at the moment, so my thoughts are going down the pickles track at this point.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, in the kitchen drawer where I keep potatoes and onions, a sweet potato decided to sprout. This is the first time I have ever seen a sprouted sweet potato in Canberra - must have been the hot weather.

The sweet potato is growing well and I'll have to put it in a pot and see what becomes of it. Because the cooler weather will arrive before it's finished growing, the bathroom is starting to look good as a new home.

Have still been bottling like a crazy woman and last weekend I made my first tomato paste. Sure, I could have bought the same quantity of thicker paste for just a couple of dollars, but at least I know where this lot has been.

Also in the kitchen, I've started a couple of batches of wine brewing - one with elderberries, blueberries and plums and the other with peaches and rose petals. The first one will be a red port-style wine and the second will be a white/blush dessert wine. Drinking will be a while away, but it sure does feel good to be making wine again!
And yes, dear Crone, I'll put up a post soonish to tell you how to go about it.

love and light
naturewitch

Preserving to Recession-Proof

2009-02-14T22:11:00.009+11:00

During the great depression in the 1930s in Australia, housewives were urged to bottle their own fruit and make their own jams in order to help their families survive the times. Fowlers Vacola bottles experienced a surge in sales during this time, as their icon, Mrs B Thrifty, helped to spread the message about preserving.

This summer in Australia, we have experienced heat waves, fires, floods and drought, as well as a declining economy. The federal government is implementing policies to hopefully soften the economic blow and the Australian community is rallying like never before to assist those in need. But it strikes me that we all need to ensure we have adequate supplies in our cupboards to get us through potentially tough times ahead.

One way of achieving this is to bottle or preserve food while it is abundant and relatively cheap. Many in our blogging community are already bottling their produce or are contemplating it, so I thought I'd share a couple of tips handed down to me - yes, I'm a second or third generation bottler, depending on the family line.

Vacola bottles and preserving kits can be found from a range of sources: new - online and in hardware and kitchen ware stores; or used - via local classified ads, garage sales, deceased estates, etc. I assembled my collection over a few years by scanning the classifieds every now and then. By all accounts it is getting more difficult to obtain bottles this way because people are realising the value of them. Most importantly, make sure your bottles have chip-free rims and no cracks.

There are basically two types of lids - the cheaper ones and the stainless steel ones. The cheaper type is shown on the left in the photo. These are OK for bottling fruits such as peaches and pears which are not highly acidic, but I wouldn't use them for tomatoes or for anything I wanted to store for a long time. If you can afford them, invest in the stainless steel lids. They may be double the price, but they will last forever. Well worth the investment.

The clips placed over the lid will exert a little more pressure and help the lid to seal better if there is a small coin placed under them. A 2c piece is ideal for this, but if you can't find any, try a 5c or 10c piece.

Now to the seals. These are designed to be single use only. It is important that they are placed in the groove around the neck of the bottle without any twists. Wetting them prior to placing them on the bottle helps and I usually get the twists out by flicking or gently rolling the seal with the fleshy pad of my thumb. Do NOT use any sharp instrument or fingernails, as doing so may damage the seal and compromise your preserves. Also, make sure the groove is clean before you place the seal on and that there is no food caught underneath.

After the bottles have been processed and have cooled for a day or so, you can remove the clips (and the coin). Immediately turn over the bottle and inspect the seal. If all is good, you should not see any leakage. If you spot any leakage at all or there is a break in the seal (which does happen occasionally, although I can only remember a couple times in nearly 20 years of bottling), put the bottle into the fridge and eat within the next few days.

Hopefully, you will end up with a collection of bottles like these.

If you do not have a bottling outfit and cannot afford one, do not despair - you can still bottle food. In this case, use glass bottles that have metal lids with a rubber seal and the pop-up thing in the middle. Prepare the food as usual (with syrup, brine or vinegar) and secure the lid on the jar.

Place in a large pot (eg, boiler) and fill with cold tap water to the neck of the jars or just below. Bring the water to simmering (NOT boiling) point over about 45 to 60 minutes.

For peach, pear and apple slices in syrup, leave at simmering point for about 20 minutes; for tomatoes or tomato based products, leave at simmering point for 50 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave to cool in the pot before removing. You should find that the centre area pops down when the bottles are totally cooled and you'll have a good seal.

Whether you are using Vacola bottles (or similar) or reusing glass jars, you should hear a hiss or a pop as air enters the bottle when you open it. If you do not, check very carefully for signs of food spoilage and if there are any, discard the contents.

Now here's an offer to any Canberra (or nearby) bloggers who are interested in getting started in bottling. Email me (naturewitch@grapevine.com.au) and we can arrange a time for you to drop over and have a bottling lesson. Over the next couple of months, I'm likely to be bottling from time to time and am more than happy to show you the ropes.

Edited to add: Forgot also to say to make sure the lid is on straight and not skewed to one side. You can use just one clip and I do if I don't have many free because of processing lots of batches on the same day, but my preference is definitely to use 2 clips. With 2 clips you can get the lid on straight in two directions and you get less failed seals.

love and light
naturewitch

Hot, Burning, Drowning

2009-02-08T17:51:00.003+11:00

Our beautiful country is suffering.

People in Victoria are suffering horrendous losses of life and property due to the bush fires. At least 65 people have been confirmed dead, more than 300,000 hectares are burnt out and 640 homes have been lost at this stage. And the authorities think that most of the fires have been deliberately lit. What kind of heartbreaking lunacy is this?

Across South Australia and Victoria the heat wave conditions of the past few weeks have also cost many lives, particularly elderly people who did not have cooling or fans or refrigeration when the electricity was load-shed. And all because of the heavy energy usage going on.

In Queensland, floods are destroying property and livelihoods. There doesn't seem to be much in the news on loss of life, but there was an item about a five year old boy being taken by a crocodile.

And what about the native animals and plants? We've seen the pictures of koalas approaching people to get them a drink - a rarity as koalas usually get their moisture from the leaves they eat. But what about the animals now losing their homes to fire or flood? What about the plant species that may be endangered as a result of our "weird weather"?

Please spare a thought for all creatures currently being tested in ways many of us can never even begin to imagine. Many have lost loved ones or homes or livelihoods. And to all of those wonderful volunteers who are out there helping - a big, heartfelt thank you!

For those of us sitting in the relative comfort of 40C, with our fans or coolers and cold drinks - we can donate money through the National Australia Bank or the Bendigo Bank or the RSPCA or Wildlife Rescue service. We can also donate household items and clothes through our local charity collections. And we can pray that this will all end soon, without further loss of life.

love and light
naturewitch

Preserving . . .

2009-02-05T23:03:00.002+11:00

Wouldn't you know it, the heat has caused some things to ripen up quickly.

This morning before going to work I picked a bowl of tomatoes, one of zucchini and button squash and a very large one of peaches. Not that I'm complaining . . .

Tonight I picked leeks and stewed them up with zucchini, button squash, tomatoes and herbs. Then into bottles and into the steriliser. And the maximum today was about 38C! I must be nuts!!!! LOL

Instead of preparing the peaches (there's only so much heat a girl can take), I made butter. The peaches will have to wait until tomorrow night. It's still going to be hot, but I don't want to waste the fruit.

I'll post some photos of the finished results later.

love and light
naturewitch

My New Love

2009-02-02T21:49:00.006+11:00

I have a new love in my life and I'm embarrassed to admit that it's not a who but a what . . . our new juicer!

The juicer arrived today, and already it has made some extremely refreshing carrot and watermelon juice and also some macadamia nut butter. And it is relatively quiet! And easy to assemble and clean.

As well as being able to produce fruit, vegetable and sprouted grain juices, it can make nut butters; extrude pasta, noodles and breadsticks; mince; and make baby foods and sorbets. It has a 20 year warranty on the motor and 5 years on the attachments - a machine built to last.

Because it uses a low rpm gear, it maintains the enzymes in the food it processes. Apparently centrifugal and high speed juicers often denature the delicate enzymes because of the heat generated by internal friction.

There's a few different models of this type of juicer on the market, some with twin gears. Some of them cost thousands of dollars; this one cost a few hundred.

Here is our new baby . . .

We bought it online through Nature's Wonderland. The price was the cheapest we could find and the service was terrific. They have a good range of sprouting seeds, juicers, dehydrators, etc. Well worth having a look at their site if you are in the market for any of these things and more.

love and light
naturewitch

Ramblings About the Garden

2009-01-31T21:53:00.004+11:00

Following on from my previous post, here's a photo of the sweet corn and the maize. The sweet corn is on the lower left corner of the photo and as you can see, has not suffered damage due to the heat. The maize in the adjacent bed, however, is suffering quite a bit.

The main difference is the preparation of the sweet corn bed before planting - it received a double dose of manure. Although I have watered the maize more than the sweet corn and given it seaweed extract, it is less resilient.

Clearly, bed preparation is going to be paramount in the years to come.

Despite the hot weather, it's not all bad around the garden at the moment. The elder has decided to have a second flush of flowers, reminding us that elderflower cordial is particularly cooling in the hot weather. The recipe I use is from Self-sufficientish. We've been enjoying this today, mixed with mineral water and ice.

With the warmer weather, many seeds are ripening in the garden. This morning I collected a mix of broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage seed, which I'm calling "brassica surprise"; mignonette lettuce seeds, carrot seeds, white beetroot seeds and calendula seeds.

All the seeds are looking very healthy, thanks no doubt to our little buzzy friends.

While watering the roses this morning, a thought popped into my head about planting lettuces between the roses. I consulted the companion planting books to find that mignonette lettuce make a great companion for roses, as do garlic and onions. Well, now I know where those lettuce seeds are going . . .

love and light
naturewitch

Keeping Our Plants Alive During the Heat

2009-01-29T20:23:00.007+11:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we can keep our gardens going and keep producing food during the hot weather we've been having.

Maybe the main culprit is not the heat but the dryness of the air? Certainly here, the humidity is usually close to zero during the summer heat and the air seems to suck the moisture out of everything.

The beans form nicely on the climbing bean plants, but they almost dry on the bush before they are fully developed. The plants look fine and are mulched and watered, but the air is so dry it dries out the fruit as it hangs on the plant.

So, I've been trying to think of ways to reduce the evaporation from my plants. Things like the old sheet canopy I put over the carrots to get them to germinate or possibly some sort of shade tunnel that could also be used to ward off the first few frosts? Or get the food forest thing happening in the orchard . . .

Then last night I was visiting Molly's blog and she had a post about some online resources. Adding to my heat-induced sleep deficit (yawn!), I decided to pay the site a visit. I found an article by William Albrecht which claimed that the absence of water was not what damaged plants during drought, but the fertility and depth of the soil. That is, plant hunger, rather than plant thirst!

Dr Albrecht's basic argument is that if soil is prepared and made fertile to greater depths than used in conventional agriculture that the plants will use the available water in the soil more completely and more efficiently. He cites experiments to support his theory.

Interestingly, the vegie bed that is best surviving the heat at my place is the one in which I grew the oats last winter. The oats left the soil in a very fine tilth, although not that deep. Because I thought the oats might have taken out a lot of nutrients, I gave that bed twice the amount of manure that I normally do. I also gave it a good dig over to distribute the manure. This bed is planted up fairly densely with sweet corn, tomatoes and rockmelons and is coping much better than the maize in the next bed.

The other bed still coping very well is the asparagus bed, which I heavily manure twice a year and give the odd dose of seaweed extract and fish emulsion. The asparagus are barely fluttering a fern with the heat.

Well, it could be canopy cover - both of these beds have good leafy coverage. But so do some of the other beds. It could be the plants, but the same plants in other beds are not coping nearly as well with the heat. It could be the mulch, but most of the other beds are mulched as well, if not better. And, if anything, the maize bed gets more water than the sweet corn bed and certainly more than the asparagus bed.

So, maybe William Albrecht's studies have something to show us - prepare the soil well and deep to maximise fertility and the plants will survive. It's certainly made me think about doing much more preparation in the garden this winter to try to build the humus and soil fertility.

Which brings me to another point. In naturopathy, we talk about a person's vitality. The theory is that the more vital the person (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually), that the more likely they are to be resistant to disease and the more resilient they are likely to be.

Surely the same must apply to our gardens. We can't stop the heat, but maybe we can build our gardens to be more resilient to it.

Forecasts about climate change are predicting temperature rises of 0.4C to 2C by 2030, with more hot days over 35C.

This means we need to build our gardens to be able to cope with more summers like this one. I'm going to be putting some serious thought into this and I would love to hear any ideas you may have about how we can help our plants survive. I'd also love to hear if you have some areas of your garden surviving the heat better than others and what the differentiating factors might be.

love and light
naturewitch

Lightbulb Dilemma

2009-01-27T21:58:00.006+11:00

This morning going into work, there was a segment on our local ABC about the energy saving light globes.

Yes, they save energy (between 60 to 80%, depending on the brand), but they also contain mercury and they have deleterious effects on some people's health, eg, those people with radiation sensitivity and some people with epilepsy.

Like many people we "greened" our lighting several years ago, but now we are having second thoughts.

So, I thought I'd do some calculations so we could compare the energy savings with the other environmental factors.

Assume an average household has about 20 lightbulbs (including outside lights, lamps and room lighting) - count them up and be surprised!

If these are all energy savers, which have about 5mg of mercury each, at any one time, there is about 100mg or 0.1g of mercury plugged into the light sockets. There are currently about 130,000 households in Canberra, so if everyone is using energy saving bulbs, there is 13,000g or 13kg of mercury plugged into our light sockets in Canberra alone, not counting the amount used by business and government.

Across Australia, if everyone used energy saving bulbs in their households, we'd have in excess of 800,000g or 800kg of mercury. And that's not counting businesses, schools, government, hospitals, etc, etc. That's a lot of mercury to dispose of safely!

Now to the energy side of the equation. Assume each household uses 4 lights for 4 hours each day, amounting to 16 lightbulb-hours. If these are (on average) about 70W bulbs, each house would use 1.12 KWh each day for lighting or 408.8 kWh each year. If the energy saving bulbs save, on average, 70%, the energy saving per household each year would be 286.2 kWh.

In Canberra, this would save about 37.2 GWh each year. Across Australia, it would be more like 2346 GWh. That's a lot of energy!

It takes about 1 tonne of coal to make 2500 kWh of electricity. So, each household using energy saving bulbs would save about 114 kg coal. Across Canberra, this would be about 14,882 tonnes of coal. Across Australia, it would be 938,700 tonnes of coal. Not to mention the water and other resources required.

So, at the end of the day, in order to light Australia's households, we have over 800kg mercury vs nearly 940,000 tonnes of coal.

I'm really not sure how to balance this equation. It's a lot of mercury to dispose of safely and it's a lot of coal to dig out of the ground.

Because of the potential health risks, we've decided to use the old incandescent lightbulbs as long as possible. But we minimise our lighting and strive to have only one light on at a time at night, maximum two. I'm not absolutely sure we are doing the right thing. But then I'm not absolutely sure that the new energy saving light bulbs are the right way to go either. So, it comes down to a personal decision.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this one.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Food Plant Buys

2009-01-24T21:10:00.008+11:00

I simply can't be trusted near a plant nursery. But I didn't actually go near one - honest!!! Just went to the local Farmer's Market this morning and there were all these people selling plants and well, you know the rest . . . .

Having said that, I'm rather pleased with what I bought, most of it being able to provide food for the bees:

12 English Lavender
3 Rosemary bushes (upright)
1 Thyme
1 Lemon Thyme
1 Lemon Scented Verbena
2 Hibiscus
2 Penstemon
1 Liriope
1 Daisy bush

And all of this for the princely sum of $58. Most impressed.

Now speaking of the bees, I opened the hive last week to have a look at how they are going. They've pretty much filled the bottom box with brood and honey and I'm hoping they'll move up into the top box soon.

Not sure if we'll get any honey this season, as we need to leave enough for them to overwinter. But I'm just happy that they seem to be doing well.

love and light
naturewitch

Frugal Friday Food

2009-01-23T19:51:00.006+11:00

This Christmas, I bought a tray of mangoes, as the children always love them. Wrong! They've "gone off them" it seems and so although I was munching away, the heat was threatening to turn all the remaining mangoes to mush.

Hating the thought of throwing them out, we turned them into mango chutney, which goes brilliantly with curries. Here's the recipe, modified from one online at the ABC.

Mango Chutney
1kg mango flesh, diced
330g onions, diced
500g raw sugar
300ml white vinegar
250g sultanas
2 Tblspn finely chopped ginger
0.75 tspn each of mixed spice, ground cloves, mustard seed, curry powder, nutmeg
1.25 dessertspoons salt

Place all ingredients in a pot. Bring to the boil, stirring often. Cook until the mixture is thick. Bottle and seal.

This makes a sweet mango chutney. If you like it hot, you could add spice / chilli accordingly.

I love raw homemade muesli, with chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruits. However, I'm the only one in our house who does and so I recently made a toasted muesli or granola to tempt the others.

The finished result is a little sweet (for me), so I would halve the amount of honey next time. But the others loved it, so I thought I'd post the recipe.

Toasted Muesli
2 cups rolled oats
0.5 cup shedded cocnut
1 cup almonds
0.5 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 cup sultanas
0.5 cups chopped dried apricots
1 cup apple sauce / puree
0.5 cup honey
0.25 cup oil

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the apple sauce, honey and oil together, then combine well with the dry ingredients.

Spread the mixture onto baking trays (on paper) and place in a cold oven. Set to 150C (300F) and come back in 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the muesli to cool in the oven for another 30 minutes. When cold, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

This toasted muesli can be eaten as it is or in a bowl with milk or milk substitute. It could also be pressed into a tin prior to baking and you'd get muesli bars (although I haven't tried this out).

Happy eating!

love and light
naturewitch

WooHoo Wednesday!

2009-01-21T18:03:00.007+11:00

Well, I had the scan this morning and picked up the results this afternoon. It is all OK. The residual mass is still there but it is not growing - it appears to be what they call "scar tissue". All is good.

Added bonus: while waiting for the scan this morning, I noticed one of my favourite people in the waiting room. We had a good chat before our scans and met up for coffee and a chat afterwards. We had a few good laughs and I'm sure it made the whole experience better for both of us.

The last 48 hours have been truly amazing. Last night it rained (5mm) and so the garden has been revived. We may even get more rain in the next few days. Yippee!

I also found out yesterday afternoon that the course I had been saving for in February has been postponed to later in the year, so I now have more than enough money for the juicer. And to top it off, my out of pocket expenses for the scan were about half of what I'd been expecting.

Those moths? Well, they pushed me into thinking again about going all glass in the pantry. This afternoon in between the scan and picking up the results I went into one of the local shops and found beautiful big glass storage jars quite cheaply.

All this has made me think. The universe really does provide, even if not in the ways we would expect. If it hadn't been for those moths, I wouldn't have found the bottles so cheaply. And seeing my need for the juicer, the universe arranged it so I would have enough money. And my lovely neighbour offered to lend me one.

I feel so blessed and looked after right now. Not only in material ways, but also spiritually. It has been a great reminder to trust that everything will be alright and that it all has its place and time, even if I can't see it at the time. I feel somewhat embarrassed I posted about my fears now, as they all ended up being groundless. Must remember that next time I get myself worked up.

All is good. I truly hope it is with you too.

love and light
naturewitch

Maudlin Monday and Gratitude

2009-01-19T21:50:00.003+11:00

Well, today's one of those days when I'm in danger of letting my fears and anxieties get on top of me. And tonight I received a wonderful email about gratitude from a dear friend and it's helped me get back on top of things.

Just before Christmas two oft-used appliances decided to go belly up - the food saver and the juicer. In addition, my computer has been a bit cantankerous for the last six months or so - it took me over two hours to get it to boot up and be stable yesterday. It's old and it's dying and I need to replace it.

So, I've been a little concerned about juggling money around to replace the above items. The new food saver was found at a sale on Friday YAY! We tried it out Saturday morning and it works better than the old one ever did. Double YAY! And I'm really grateful that we found it and it was on sale and that it works better than the old one.

I thought my computer was definitely kaput yesterday, so went window shopping on my partner's machine and found what I think is a pretty good deal. I've also done some juicer research and narrowed it down to a couple of choices.

So, if I buy the computer (which I really do need when studies resume in a couple of weeks), I won't be able to afford the juicer for a little while (and I'm really missing my vegie juices!). But I'm grateful that if I just have a little patience and prioritise my spending, I will be able to afford both items.

Tonight I went to the cupboard to get some rice for our dinner. To my dismay, I found that the cupboard was infested with moths (how is it that they are suddenly there?) and that most of the rice that we had stored has been ruined. But I'm grateful that we did have some rice left unmothed and that they didn't get into the next cupboard which houses all our flours and other grains. And that my darling man helped me clean up the mess they'd made.

The summer sun is also testing me at the moment. It's damaging a lot of plants and my visions of bumper crops are rapidly waning. But I'm grateful that the citrus seem to be doing well and there are small oranges on one of the trees. I'm also grateful that I can turn on a tap and water the garden (within restrictions, of course!).

Now to the biggie. I have a CT scan booked for Wednesday to check on the residual mass from the lymphoma I was diagnosed with nearly seven years ago. I really do not like having the scans because there's always the possibility that the wretched thing is growing again.

This scan is a kind of critical one - it's just a few weeks before the five year anniversary of my stem cell transplant. So, if everything is alright, as it should be, then I'll have reached a pretty important milestone. But there's always the worry that it's not and then what? But I'm grateful for the medical know-how that's kept me alive so far and for the support of my wonderful partner, family and friends.

I'll probably be a bit of a wreck for the next couple of days until I have the scan and get the results, but I'm hoping Wednesday might be Woohoo Wednesday!

Reading this over, I realise I'm really very fortunate if these are my major concerns. After all, I live in a free country in relative luxury, compared to a lot of people in the world. I could have been born in Bosnia or Iraq or Ethiopia or Zimbabwe or . . .

I'm so lucky! We're so lucky! Enjoy your life. It's a good one.

love and light
naturewitch

Open Pollination and Natural Hybrids

2009-01-13T20:15:00.005+11:00

One of the great things about growing your own food is being able to by-pass the hybrids produced by multi-national agribusinesses and use open pollinated varieties. This enables us to save our own seed, but sometimes the results are a bit interesting.

Exhibit One
In one of my garden beds I planted kale seed purchased from a supplier of open pollinated seeds. The result is shown at left LOL!

It's hard to see it in this picture, but the actual colour of the kale-cauli is a soft lemon-lime green and there are small leaves in between the florets. Not quite what I expected, but I'm sure it will be good eating.

Exhibit Two
Last year I saved an assortment of zucchini and squash seeds. On this bush, we have a cute little stripey button squash and on the same bush, there is the regular light green button squash. Go figure!

Exhibit Three
Local rumour has it that this is a natural hybrid occurring between a cougar and a domestic cat. Hmmm . . .

Now to a completely different subject - the carrot seeds I sowed in the peat moss have sprouted! The trick obviously works. But I might take up Stewart's suggestion and try seed raising mix in the furrow next time.

love and light
naturewitch

Consumerism Rampant in Canberra

2009-01-11T21:26:00.004+11:00

In the local free paper, there was an article which claimed that Canberrans, on average, spent $1475 each year on products they either never used or threw away. Counting the cats as consumers (well, you've seen the size of them! ;)) and given the children are here part-time, we thought that would amount to our household wasting in the vicinity of $5000 per annum.

Across Australia, if all Australians lived like this (and I'm guessing they don't), this would equate to about 30 billion dollars wasted each year. This is staggering.

My partner and I thought about this - wasting $100 each and every week. We had a good chat and realised that we couldn't actually afford to waste this much money - we've other priorities for our money, like chook houses and water tanks.

Yes, some items may be bought ahead of when they are actually used, but they are eventually used. Very little food ever gets thrown out - it usually gets preserved in some way prior to that happening. If we have something we no longer need, we generally find someone to pass it on to or donate it to charity. We've streamlined gift giving with the wish book and put a halt to Christmas gift exchanges with many family and friends, so we've minimised receiving something we won't use.

I'm not saying we are perfect - far from it. I'm sure we could easily live with less than we do. But we are trying to be conscious about our purchases and only buy what we will use or give to others.

I'm still astounded at this level of waste in our society. What do people buy to cause such waste? Really interested to read your thoughts on this one.

love and light
naturewitch

Saturday Savings . . . and Spendings

2009-01-10T22:23:00.002+11:00

A few weeks ago, I was a bitt miffed when I went to buy some dolomite at the local hardware. They were charging over $11 for a 5kg bag. This morning I bought a 25kg bag for $8.50 from the produce store. Yippee for a frugal find!

This afternoon I blew any frugality by going on a plant and garden buying spree. Here's what I came home with:

1 bird bath
1 arch for the roses in the front garden
4 bags of potting mix and a small bag of peat moss
1 yard broom
2 lavenders
1 Chinese star jasmine
1 buddleia
2 blueberry bushes (Denise variety)
1 hebe
1 Mexican mock orange
assorted punnets - salvias, petunias, snapdragons, cornflowers, dianthus, daisies, dahlias, gazanias, vincas and verbenas

In my defence, the front garden, long neglected, will get a make-over tomorrow. I've decided that rather than neglecting the pretties, I need to encourage them. After all, the flowers often make good bee food, as well as being food for the soul.

Frugal Friday

2009-01-09T22:59:00.006+11:00

Following the lead from The Crone, I was thinking about doing a "Frugal Friday" spot. Given I'm not very good at keeping to regular things, let's just see how this goes.

The tip for today is for people who like to sew (I was going to say for the sewers! ;) LOL).

Annoyed with the cost of thread? Invest a few dollars in a cone thread stand for your machine. You can then use overlocking thread for your sewing, which works out a lot cheaper than regular sewing thread (a 2000m spool is only about $2-$3).

I have been doing this for years and I find there are fewer thread breakages than with normal sewing thread (and I used to use top name brands!). Even though it is polyester, I have also found it will stand up to a hot iron when pressing seams in quilts. This thread is suitable for just about any sewing you care to do.

The one drawback with using overlocking thread is that it only comes in a fairly limited number of colours. So, I use it for the bulk of the sewing on a garment or quilt and use the more expensive thread for any top-stitching (if needed). Often, I am able to make a garment without purchasing any thread the exact shade of the fabric.

You would be surprised at how much this can save you.

love and light
naturewitch

Doughnuts

2009-01-07T20:54:00.003+11:00

You never know what is going to happen next here - like when I woke up with a craving for doughnuts one morning before Christmas. Now, these are not my usual fare and being a bit intolerant to wheat, I decided to throw some gluten free ones together - sans recipe.

Talking to The Crone later that day, my corruptive influence had her making Churros. She said she would post her recipe if I posted mine. Trouble was, I had to wait until I made them again (so I could write down what I did and take a photo), so the other day I treated the children to homemade doughnuts for breakfast. Here it is.

Doughnuts

Ingredients
3 eggs
1.75 cups buttermilk (saved from butter making)
0.25 cup sugar
3 cups plain flour
8 teaspoons baking powder

Oil for cooking
1 cup caster sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon for rolling cooked doughnuts

Method
Beat all ingredients together with a wooden spoon.
Drop spoonfuls into medium-hot oil (about 12.5mm or 0.5" is sufficient) and cook until the underside is golden. Turn and continue cooking until the other side is golden too.
Retrieve cooked doughnuts with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Toss in sugar and cinnamon mix.

Note: as for a lot of my gluten free recipes, I used a 50/50 mix of Orgran and FG Roberts gluten free flours.

Makes about 15 doughnuts.

Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Garden Pics

2009-01-04T22:34:00.006+11:00

Here's the shade I built for the carrots this morning - an old sheet hooked over 4 garden stakes. I've since added thick rubber bands around the tops of the stakes in case of wind.

In the foreground is a self-seeded tomato growing in the next bed and in the background are the asparagus. Nestled between the fence and the shade are some leeks and spring onions.

Here's the horseradish, growing quite strongly, with some flowering yarrow behind and rue to the right at the front.

The carrots are flowering too, in a bed with some kale.

In between the rows of maize, I've planted Lazy Housewife climbing beans, which are using the corn to climb. Well, some of them are and some are sort of creeping on the ground. Also in this bed are a few self-seeded tomatoes growing well.

I like to plant nasturtium near the edge of a bed - it helps to keep the pests and diseases at bay. This one is consorting with a dandelion near the lettuces which have bolted.

Some baby button squash.

The bergamot is in flower, too.
A bee getting nectar from an asparagus flower. Notice the yellowy-orange substance on her legs? Courtesy of the button squash and zucchini, I think, that grow nearby.

Bees coming and going from the bottom of the hive. It is actually more busy than this, but they are hard to photograph.

Sleeping on the job - what more can I say? And before you start thinking that must be a very narrow path - it is about 40cm (16"); it's just a very large cat!

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

love and light
naturewitch

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T21:40:00.005+11:00

I'm a bit of a late starter this New Year - been trying to minimise computer time and have also been rather busy with all manner of things. Here's a rough update about what I've been up to.

We went away for a few days over Christmas, but are all back home now, so things have been a little busy here, just fitting in the day to day stuff that we all do. Thanks to the rain, the garden survived our absence quite well.

One of our fur-children managed to get into a fight while we were away and developed a not very nice abscess for his efforts. This resulted in a trip to the vet, minor surgery with stitches, etc, etc. He's on the mend now, with the drains being removed today and the stitches to be removed next week.

The day of his surgery, we had a "pest management" person here destroying the European Wasp nest we had discovered the day before while pruning the pine trees with our next-door neighbours. At first I thought they might be some sort of bee (and was quite excited), until a quick search on the net revealed their true identity. Apparently, they can give you a nasty sting (although these ones were not at all aggressive) and they eat or kill the insects in the region of their nest. The fellow who destroyed them for us said that if we hadn't removed them they would have destroyed the bee colony by the end of summer. So, I was really glad we found them relatively early on.

Now to the bees! The day after the wasps were removed, I started noticing more bees around. Not sure whether it was due to the demise of the wasps or the lovely weather . . . until the next day when there was even more activity and more bees coming and going from the hive, as they were today also. I finally worked it out - we've had bee babies! When we got the new nucleus just before Christmas, the bee man said that there were brood cells in the frames. I think they must have hatched because there definitely is an increase in the number of bees coming and going into the hive. Yippee! I'll be opening the hive again in about another week to check on progress, but I'm already anticipating we may need to put a third box on the hive in the next few weeks.

Things have been growing in the garden as well and yesterday morning I managed to drag the other household members away from electronic gadgets and books to give me a hand for an hour or so. Our main focus at the moment is weeding, feeding and mulching, but I've also been planting a few more seeds.

I'm trying a new thing with the carrots, which I often have difficulty germinating in warmer weather because they need to be kept moist. One of my books suggests putting some peat moss in the bottom of a furrow, then sprinkling in the seed, covering them with more peat moss and then finally the soil. I know there are sustainability issues with using peat moss, but I'm hoping the little bit I'm using will be for a good cause. We are due some very warm weather early next week, so I'm going to explore putting up a temporary shade over the seed bed as well.

Before we know it, we'll be planning for the winter veges - time is fast approaching to be sowing cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, silver beet and Asian veges to tide us over during the winter months.

One thing I almost forgot to mention - I was soooo spoilt over Christmas with lovely gifts, one of which was the DVD collection of the four series of The Good Life. I have watched a few episodes (while busy sewing some new clothes I need for work) and it strikes me that this show is just as relevant today as it was when it was first released. So, if you have some time and can get your paws on them, I'd highly recommend watching them - lots better than the drivel usually on TV these days.

love and light
naturewitch

The Best Christmas Present Ever

2008-12-24T13:56:00.002+11:00

For the past five Christmasses, my partner has not seen his children on Christmas Day, but has only been able to pick them up on Boxing Day. As you can imagine, this has been very hard for him.

This year, through a last minute miraculous sequence of events, he'll have them from late afternoon on Christmas Day. Although this has turned our plans a little upside down and we'll need to travel, we are absolutley thrilled and we both think this is the best Christmas present ever. WOO HOO!!!!

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.

love and light
naturewitch

Magic in My Garden

2008-12-23T06:29:00.004+11:00

The sparrows are flitting among the silver beet and kale, picking off tiny caterpillars and feasting.

A little silver eye picks at the last fruit on the weeping mulberry. One of the cats lies nearby, but the tiny bird is unperturbed.

The pot marjoram, inconveniently self-seeded and thriving in the middle of a path, is providing food for the bees now, so we'll continue to walk around it.

The zucchini bush, which had its first flower the other day (female, no male flowers), now has fruit magically filling out, thanks no doubt to our stripey, buzzy friends.

Purslane has come to visit - I never knew it before - and now it lives happily alongside the dandelion and yellow dock and wild lettuce. Weeds to many, but to me they are foods and medicines.

My garden is my pantry and my medicine chest, my gym and my classroom, my joy and my meditation. It is a place I can really breathe, taking in the fresh, clean air and exhaling the tension. It is my sanctuary.

But most of all, it is a place I feel at one with nature in all its magnificence, beauty, purpose and playfulness.

It is by no means something out of a fancy magazine, but there's magic in my garden. Hope you can find the magic in yours too.

love and light
naturewitch

You're Gonna Love This . . . Crumpets!

2008-12-21T09:22:00.012+11:00

This would have to be one of my favourite recipes for treat foods. Although, if you use wholemeal flour, you could have it as an everyday food.

Crumpets
4 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons salt
3.5 cups luke-warm water
1 sachet dried yeast (7-8g) or 15g compressed yeast
1.5 teaspoons sugar

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water.

Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Combine the yeasty water and flour mix and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Cover the bowl and stand in a warm (but not hot) place until small bubbles appear on the surface. This takes about 10 minutes in summer and about 20 minutes in winter.

Lightly grease a frypan or skillet and some egg rings (generally, five to seven egg rings will fit comfortably in your pan).

When the pan and the rings are hot, fill the rings about 3/4 full with batter. Cook over low heat, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes until holes appear on the surface and the surface is beginning to dry out.

Remove eggs ring (with a pair of tongs or they will burn you!).

Cover with lid and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until cooked through and the bottom is golden brown.

Cool, toast and serve with honey, golden syrup, butter, jam, etc.

OR you can simply flip them over in the pan for a couple of minutes to lightly toast the top. This is my preferred way, as they are then ready to eat straight away!

This recipe is designed for wheat flour (white or wholemeal) and works well with these. I've tried making these with all buckwheat flour and it was a dismal failure. But gluten free flours can work - a 50/50 mix of Orgran plain gluten free flour and FG Roberts plain gluten free flour gives a superb result.

Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Bees, Bees, Bees!

2008-12-20T18:28:00.004+11:00

This morning we went out to the bee supply place again and bought a nucleus colony - a queen, drones, workers etc on four frames containing honey and brood cells. We brought them home in a foam box (with little breathing holes in it) that was taped up so none would escape.

When we got home, I had to open up the original hive and inspect it to double check there was no queen bee. Couldn't find one, but I did find some brood cells (I pulled the frames out this time, rather than peering down like I did the other day). So I rang the bee fellow who said to check again because if there was an old queen bee, I would have to isolate and kill her (ugh!) so there wouldn't be any bee wars. Apparently, if you catch a spring swarm you often need to requeen and just about always before the following autumn.

I looked and looked at each frame again as well as in the box and could not find the queen bee. So I brushed the bees off and put the frames in the top box with the queen excluder in between it and the bottom box. I left them for a while and when I went back out there it was quite clear there was no queen. If there had been, she would have been down in the bottom box.

So, following the bee fellow's instructions, I put the top box on the bottom and a single sheet of newspaper in between it and the top box. I put the new bees in the top box - they were very co-operative and didn't seem too bothered. A few of them (not many) didn't go in with the frames, but within about twenty minutes of putting on the lid they had found their way inside.

All of the bees seem pretty happy now and I haven't detected any bee wars - they all seem perfectly happy foraging together - lavender, pot marjoram and flowering cabbages being their main targets (in our garden anyway).

I'll have to move the new frames into the bottom box in a few days, so all the brood is down there. When the bottom box is full, we'll be able to go double-decker again. The queen excluder will go on in between the boxes (to keep the queen in the bottom box) and the bees will be able to put honey in the top box.

By the way, the number of bees we bought today was about 2-3 times what we had, so we must have had some sort of remnant colony.

Still loving those bees.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Update

2008-12-17T20:24:00.005+11:00

We went out to the bee supply place last Saturday to get another box for the bees, just in case they would be in need of it over Christmas when the supply place was closed.

The fellow there said we should be looking at the bees every two to three weeks. I had been leaving them mostly alone, because I didn't want to disturb them too much.

So, yesterday morning (the weekend was too wet and windy), I put on the protective gear and had a look inside. The little darlings have been busy making honey, but there are no brood cells (at least, none that look like the brood cells in our bee book). And all the bees looked like worker bees, no drones and I think, no queen.

I emailed the bee fellow last night and he has responded saying he thinks we probably are queenless and that we'll need to get a nucleus to join with our current hive. Otherwise, the hive will die off. *sob*

Apparently, this is a reasonably common occurrence when you catch a swarm because the queen bee may be quite old and has left her former hive to the younger queen. This means that even though she might be there for the start of a hive, she soon dies and if there are no queen bee eggs laid during that time, the hive becomes queenless.

So, Saturday morning we will once again head to the bee supply place and procure a nucleus, which I'm presuming has a queen and some drones and maybe workers.

Apart from that, the bees we do have seem to be especially enjoying the lavender which is in bloom at the moment. The bee fellow says it makes them very relaxed and they are much less likely to sting when they've been dining on lavender. How cute!

I'm really enjoying having the bees around, so I'm hoping we can get over this hiccough and grow the colony.

love and light
naturewitch

Glace Fruit for Christmas

2008-12-13T19:03:00.007+11:00

I promised this recipe a while ago and here it is. If you are quick (ie, start this today or tomorrow), you'll have these for Christmas.

Glace Fruit

Fruit
Use good quality tinned or bottled fruit. Pineapple chunks or rings, plums, sliced and halved peaches and halved apricots are all suitable.

Syrup
This should be prepared by dissolving the sugar in the liquid and then bringing it to the boil.

Timing
Fruit needs to soak for a full 24 hours (or multiple thereof) at each stage, so try to find a time each day you can reliably tend to your fruit. You’ll need 5-10 minutes for each type of fruit (unless you process them simultaneously).

What you’ll need
· Fruit
· Sugar
· Heat proof containers (eg, pyrex dishes)
· Saucepan for making syrup

What to do
The following quantities are given for an 825g (29oz) fruit. For a 440g (16oz) tin, halve the quantities.

Day 1
Drain off syrup from can or bottle and make up (with water) to 600ml (1 pint). Arrange fruit in a heat proof container. Place liquid in saucepan with 500g (8oz) sugar, dissolve and bring to the boil. Pour hot syrup over fruit. Soak for 24 hours.

Day 2
Drain off syrup and place in saucepan. Add 125g (4oz) sugar, dissolve and bring to the boil. Pour hot syrup over fruit. Soak for 24 hours.

Day 3
Repeat Day 2. Soak for 24 hours.

Day 4
Repeat Day 2. Soak for 24 hours.

Day 5
Drain off syrup and place in saucepan. Add 180g (6oz) sugar and dissolve. Add the fruit to the saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes, then return the lot to the heatproof container. Soak for 48 hours.

Day 7
Repeat Day 5. Soak for 4 days.
Note: The syrup will be quite thick by this stage and the fruit can be left in for longer than 4 days if desired – up to 2 or 3 weeks.

Day 11
Dry in the oven at lowest setting (about 40-50C or 120F) or in a food dehydrator until quite dry. You may need to turn the fruit 2 or 3 times.

Notes
The quantity of sugar can be replaced with a 50/50 mix of sugar and glucose or sugar and honey.
The syrup left after the fruit is finished is quite sweet and fruity. It can be used as a topping on pancakes or ice-cream, or perhaps as a mixer in New Year’s cocktails.

Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Back to Basics Challenge Update Week 7.5

2008-12-07T14:36:00.004+11:00

This is only my third post on the challenge. Despite my best intentions, I have been slack in providing a weekly update. Oh well! My last post was 10 November, so I'll try to fill in for the past 4 weeks.

1. Sowing seed or planting

Celeriac - Giant Prague; Celery - Cut Celery, Pink, Stringless American; Climbing Bean - Giant of Stuttgart, Mostoller Wild Goose; Edible Chrysanthemum; Lettuce - Australian Yellow, Green Coral, Salad Mix; Michihili (Chinese cabbage); Nasturtium; Pak Choi; Silver Beet - Rainbow Swiss Chard; Sweet Corn - Max hybrid; Watermelon - Sugar Baby; Goji (potted on); Vitex (potted on); Watermelon - "seedless"; Capsicum - Alma Paprika, Jimmy Nardello, Marconi Red; Carrots - Nantes; Chilli - Anaheim, Purple Tiger; Eggplant - Casper, Listada di Gandia; Ginger and Onions that had sprouted in the cupboard.

The blueberry seeds I planted a while ago from some fresh blueberries have so far produced one tiny seedling at the two leaf stage. I'm very excited and hoping it will survive. The seedless watermelons failed to sprout, so they must be sterile. I have been very disappointed with the Sweet White sweet corn I purchased from Digger's. Out of an entire packet of seed, only about eight seedlings emerged. :(

I've had a delivery of lucerne mulch (about a week ago) and am gradually weeding, feeding and mulching all the beds.

2. Planning for The Future - meal planning, the next seasons garden plan, working out storage plans or more long term goals and projects like plans for digging root cellars

Have worked out a mortgage-reduction plan. Since I re-did my mortgage early last year (for renovations), I should have about 23.5 years left to go (groan!). But, if I raise my repayments each fortnight to just over the repayment when interest rates were at their peak, I should be able to pay it off in 12.5 years. That is with the current interest rate and given they are talking about further drops, it may be shorter than that. Woohoo!

We've also been investigating wind up torches and mobile phone chargers and plan to purchase some in the New Year. If anybody has feedback on particular brands, I'd most appreciate it.

3. Working for the Future - storing food, managing stores, preserving, building that home made cob or solar oven, adding house insulation, saving for manual grain mills etc

The red flowering peas, the snow peas and Greenfeast (shelling) peas have all set seed. I've pulled them out of the ground and they are presently drying so I can harvest the seed.

Following on from the Crone's example, I've started making our own butter. Although it may not work out much cheaper, the taste difference is incredible. I've also blended some with macadamia oil to make an easy spread version.

Haven't had much time to do any preserving, but the Silvanberries are starting to produce and I'm sure I'll be making jam and/or freezing them by the end of the week.

4. Building Community - volunteering, donations, joining an existing community group, forming your own community group, taking a cake to a friend having a hard time, calling someone you just let drift out of your life, etc

Am currently growing seedlings for friends moving house - they are just about ready for delivery. Helped another friend pack up her belongings for a big move in her life. Have rejoined Australian Conservation Foundation, after being non-financial for a few years.

5. Learning a new Skill

Am about to learn how to thresh the oats - they are still waiting for me to get to them.

Well, that's about it. Will try to post on this more regularly.

love and light
naturewitch

Making Fresh Herbal Tinctures

2008-12-03T20:42:00.016+11:00

First gather your fresh herbs and chop moderately finely. If you use calendula petals such as I have here, you don't need to chop them. Weigh the prepared herbs. There are 25g calendula petals here.

Place the herbs into a wide-mouthed jar, preferably one close to the volume of the herbs. Pack the herbs fairly tightly into the jar and pour a measured amount of brandy or vodka into the jar, ensuring the herbs are covered, but not swimming. Try to keep the brandy to a minimum.

I had to use 150ml brandy here, making a 1:6 fresh herb tincture, ie, 1 part herb (in grams) to 6 parts brandy (in ml). Other herbs are denser than calendula and so you will need less brandy per gram of herb.

Seal the bottle (I also tape around the join to reduce evaporation) and wrap with paper. Note the name of the herb, the amount of herb and brandy and the date. This is some wild lettuce I left to develop a little while ago.

If you are making a calendula tincture, don't wrap the bottle and leave it in the sun (it is a herb of the sun). Most other herbs, however, should be wrapped and stored in a cool dark place for a few weeks. Shake each day if possible.

When the herbs have macerated for a few weeks, place a strainer in a bowl, with a clean linen or woven cotton teatowel in the sieve. I have a few old linen teatowels reserved for just this sort of task. They are washed in warm water and dried in the sun. This destroys any bugs that may be lingering.

Pour in the herb/alcohol mix and let the menstruum (fluid) strain through.

Then pull the sides of the teatowel together and twist to force out more menstruum.

When you've finished squeezing, you can open up the teatowel to look at the dryish herbs left over. These can be discarded into the compost.

And here's the menstruum.

Filter the menstruum through an unbleached coffee filter. You can see how much clearer it will get. You don't need fancy glassware - any kitchen funnel will do to place the filter paper in.

When all the menstruum has filtered through, you can bottle and label your tincture. Make sure you include the herb name, the date and the tincture concentration.

If you want to get really tricky, you can work out the percentage moisture in your herb and calculate the equivalent dried herb concentration. This is what is used for commercial tinctures. However, for home use, I find the fresh herb concentration is good enough to give me a guide as to the amount of herb in a dose.

Of course, you should never self-prescribe and only take herbs prescribed by a qualified herbalist or naturopath. This information is provided for interest only.

Nevertheless, a herbal medicine book suitable for beginners is Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies by David Hoffmann.

If you would like to learn more about herbal preparations, a good book is The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual by James Green.

If herbs really interest you and you'd like to get to know them much more intimately, anything written by Matthew Wood is excellent, especially The Book of Herbal Wisdom and The Earthwise Herbal.

love and light
naturewitch

Green Power

2008-12-02T20:32:00.003+11:00

My partner and I have been looking at buying all our electricity from green sources, eg, wind. We just had a quick look at the costs - it would cost us just under $1 per day extra on our electricity bills to go fully green. That's based on our consumption levels over the past twelve months. Given we have been working on reducing our consumption, it's likely to be cheaper.

I was wondering how much you would be prepared to pay for going fully green on your electricity? Please take the poll in the sidebar. It will be there for the next week.

love and light
naturewitch

Pick a Cake

2008-11-29T21:55:00.005+11:00

Warning - not necessarily healthy, not necessarily sustainable, but ....

I was just sent an email with all of these links to cake recipes for the festive season. Thought you might be interested.

'Night Before Christmas' Coffee Cake
'Real New York Style' Cheesecake Supreme
A Cake That's Fit For A Queen
Amaretto Italian Sour Cream Cake
Amazing Tropical Fruit Cake
Apple and Nut Cake
Apple Cake
Apple Cake
Apple Sauce Cake
Applesauce Fruitcake
Apricot Nectar Pound Cake
Baby Cheescakes Baby Cheesecakes
Barron Family Cheesecake
Baumtorte (Tree Cake)
Becky's Pumpkin Cupcakes
Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake
Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake
Broken Angel Cake With Chocolate Chips
Candied Fruit Cake
Carmel Coffee Cake
Carrot Cake with Hot Glaze
Carrot-Pineapple Cake
Cherry Cake
Cherry Cake Sauce
Cherry Cheesecake Cups
Cherry-Pineapple Dump Cake
Chocolate Angel Food
Chocolate Browny Cake
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Cookie Sheet Cake
Chocolat e Éclair Cake
Chocolate Ice Box Dessert
Chocolate Logs
Chocolate Lovers Heaven Triple Threat Chocolate Di
Chocolate Sheet Cake
Chocolate welington fudge pudding
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cake
Christmas Cake
Christmas choclate cake
Christmas Mixed Glace Fruit Loaf
Christmas-Comes-But-Once-A-Year-Chocolate Cake
Cinnamon Morning Delight
Coca-Cola Cake
Coconut Cake
Cookie Pizza
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Cream Puff Cake
Creamy Chocolate Cupcakes
Creamy Chocolate Layered Cake
Decadent Chocolate Cake
Decadent Fudge Cake
Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars
Dream Cake
Dreamcicle Cake
Drizzle Cake
Earthquake Cake
Easy Cocoa Snack Cake
Easy Coconut Cake
Éclair Cake
Edie Ching's Cherry Cheesecake
Eggnog Cake
Extra Moist Coconut Cakes
Festive Pumpkin Gingerbread
Flower Garden Cake
Fruit Cake
Fruit Cocktail Cake
German Chocolate Upside-Down Cake
Golden Bacardi Rum Cake
Gooey Butter Cake
Gum drop cake
Heavenly Pecan Cake
Hedge Hog Cake
Holiday Cake
Holiday Poke Cake
Holiday Rum Cake
Honey Bun Cake
Honey Cake
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Hummingbird Cake
Ice-Cream Chocolate Roll
Jewish Apple Cake
Johnny Appleseed Cake
Lemon Cake
Lemon Poppyseed Cakes
Lemon Pound Cake
Linda's Yule Log
Mama's Homemade Banana Cake
Mandy's Cake
Microwave Scottish Pudding
Mini Fruitcakes
Miniature Cheesecakes
Mississippi Fudge Cake
Mississippi Mud
Mock Lemon Meringue Cake
Neiman Marcus Cake
No Bake Fruit Cake
Norwegian Gold Cake
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake
Old Fashion Pound Cake
Old Fashioned Light Fruitcake
Orange Date-Nut Cake
Orange Slice Cake
Oreo Cheesecake
Peanut-Topped Devil's Food
Pecan Icing
Pennsylvania Dutch Pastry
Pineapple Heaven
Plum-Nut Cake
Pound Cake Pound Cake
Pumpkin Cake Roll
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin log
Pumpkin Nut Roll
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Pumpkin Roll
Queen's Cake
Reese`s white cake
Reese's Brownie Cupcakes
Refrigerator Chocolate Cheesecake
Russian Tea Cakes
Russian Teacakes

Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Green Meme #1

2008-11-28T11:42:00.002+11:00

Well, I've been "green memed" by Em.

Here's the low down:
1. Link to Green Meme Bloggers
2. Link to whoever tagged you
3. Include meme number
4. Include these guidelines in your post
5. Answer questions (that bit's quite important)
6. Tag 3 other green bloggers.

1) Name two motivations for being green?
I'd like to leave the planet in a better state, for future generations.
Nature can show us so much and is our greatest learning, so why destroy it? It just doesn't make sense.

2) Name 2 eco-UNfriendly items you refuse to give up?
I doubt there's anything I'd refuse to give up if push came to shove. Chocolate would have to be high on the list, though, as would bananas and other tropical fruits that don't grow here.

3) Are you at peace with or do you feel guilty about number 2?
Guilty about chocolate?! :) Pretty much at peace with it, but if things became more dire, I wouldn't be.

4) What are you willing to change but feel unable to/stuck with/unsure how to go about it?
I'd willingly go vego again, but the rest of my household are hard to convince. I could also go without the car mostly, but my partner needs it in order to see his children and I must admit it is easier when getting supplies. Electricity makes things pretty convenient, too - we try to minimise our usage, but it would be hard to go without - especially if I wanted to keep blogging!

5) Do you know your carbon footprint for your home? If so, is it larger/smaller than your national average? (http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx)
I think ours is about half the national average (it's a little while since I've done the calcs).

6) What's eco-frustrating and/or eco-fantastic about where you live?
Our biggest eco-frustration would have to be waste - not ours, but from some of our neighbours. We are putting our rubbish bin out only a couple of times a month now and it's not usually full even then (average waste going to landfill from our house is one-two small bags each week). BUT some of our neighbours then add extra stuff to our bin - things that could easily be composted or recycled. Very frustrating!!!
Eco-fantastic is that we can catch a bus within two minutes walking of our house. It's a great way to get to work and the car then gets to stay home. Also, and this would have to be the best part, we have a reasonable sized back yard for growing food and housing bees (and hopefully chooks one day when we get their house built). And I loooove our solar hot water system!

7) Do you eat local/organic/vegetarian/forage/grow your own?
Try to grow as much of our own as possible, but need to get better at continuous planting, so harvest is continuous. We also go to local farmer's markets and certainly try to buy organic food. But sometimes, when things are super busy, we do our whole shop at the supermarket, although usually that's only for cleansers and cat food and such like.

8) What do you personally find the most challenging in being green?
Not having enough time to do all I would like to, eg, making things from scratch, keeping the garden in better condition. Also, the whole wasteful feminine hygiene thing.

9) Do you have a green confession?
Once every few months, we get plastic bags when we shop, rather than using our cloth bags. Rationale: to put our rubbish in them!

10) Do you have the support of family and/or friends?
Mostly yes. My partner and the children are walking with me, as are some of my friends and broader family. But I think that some of the others consider me to be slightly nuts and making life harder for myself than it needs to be. And I'm OK with that.

To tag or not to tag?
I know lots of people don't like tags, so I'm reluctant to do so. So, if you read this post and you'd like to join in the fun, consider yourself tagged and visit green meme bloggers.

love and light
naturewitch

Woohoo! Exams are over!

2008-11-28T11:06:00.005+11:00

My last exam for the year was yesterday, so now I can get back to a normalish life for a couple of months.

Yesterday afternoon, I walked out into the front garden and took a couple of snaps - a Silky Oak flower and one of "our" honey bees in the lavender. Bees are tricky little creatures to photograph - puts me in awe of Cheryl's gorgeous photos.

Now I've got a little more time, there's a few posts I'd like to do. Look out for posts on herbal tinctures, oils and oitments, as well as tips on bottling and how to make glace fruit for Christmas.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Update

2008-11-23T07:51:00.005+11:00

I opened up the bee hive on Friday morning to have a look at the bees. They are still there doing their thing, with a couple of frames starting to look pretty full.

Because the hive is new, these will probably be brood cells (I didn't take the frames out for a closer inspection), so hopefully we'll have some more baby bees soon.

love and light
naturewitch

Oat Harvest

2008-11-19T21:44:00.006+11:00

The oats I planted back in autumn were finally ready for harvest. Last Sunday there was no well-muscled, bare-chested, god-like young man wielding a scythe available (as if!), so a chubby woman in her mid-forties attacked the oat patch with a pair of kitchen snips LOL! Well, it was only a small patch . . .

The result was a couple of boxes full of oat sheaves (as pictured). The oats are hanging upside down for the moment and in a couple of weeks when my exams are over, I'll set about threshing them to extract the grain. Not quite sure how as yet, but it should be good post-exam therapy.

After the harvest, I dug over the patch, putting the residue of the stalks onto the potato patch in the next bed - instant mulch! Interestingly, the roots on the oat stalks were only about 4cm (1.5") long (maximum), so oats are obviously very shallow rooted. The soil in the bed where the oats grew was quite fine and looked somewhat depleted, so I dug in some cow manure.

The patch now has some "seedless" watermelon seeds in it. We saved them from a watermelon we purchased and they were plump and brown, so looked to be fertile. Does anyone know whether these will grow? I thought I'd give them a couple of weeks and if they don't sprout, I'll plant something else there - maybe some other watermelon seeds.

love and light
naturewitch

Money Can't Buy Me Love . . .

2008-11-16T11:08:00.006+11:00

. . . but it did buy me my new favourite gadget - a pasta machine.

Confession: I went to buy some groceries yesterday, but before entering the supermarket, I popped into the little shop that sells brewing supplies and lots of interesting bits and pieces. I thought I would just ask if they had a pasta machine and see how much it cost (you know, reconnaissance for future purchase). I almost walked out of the shop without it, but it kept calling me back - so I lashed out and bought it.

It is an Imperia pasta machine that makes lasagne, fettucine and tagliatelli. You can also get other attachments to do gnocchi (but I generally make these by hand) and one for ravioli, as well as a motor attachment. I wanted a hand worked one, so I don't think the motor is on future shopping lists, but the ravioli maker looks pretty good and could be in danger.

The reason I bought a pasta machine is that we mostly don't eat wheat (my darling man and I both seem to react to it if we eat too much). Consequently, we buy gluten-free pasta. These pastas tend to be very refined and I would prefer we eat whole-grain pasta, hence the machine.

Of course, as soon as I got home, we had to make some fresh pasta. The kids joined in and had a good time. They even made meatballs to go with it. Here's our raw fettucine before we cooked it.

For our first attempt we used a 50/50 mix of Orgran gluten-free all purpose flour and FG Roberts gluten-free plain flour. We added the eggs as instructed (plus one more) and a little water. It all held together during cooking and was truly delicious. In the future, I'm going to try buckwheat and oatmeal and such like, but for the first attempt we thought it best to stick with a fairly refined flour. The end result was very yummy and definitely superior to shop-bought pasta. I'm now dreaming of canneloni and lasagne and wonton wraps, etc, etc.

love and light
naturewitch

Rain

2008-11-15T21:44:00.002+11:00

In the sidebar, under the moon gardening, I've started recording the rainfall we receive.

love and light
naturewitch

Pea Harvest and Other Garden Things

2008-11-15T20:53:00.007+11:00

Last weekend, we harvested quite a few peas - both shelling and snow peas. Here is a photo of the harvest.

Clockwise from top left, they are:

Yakumo Giant Snowpeas (tender, juicy and sweet even when 12cm long)
Greenfeast peas (shelling)
Red Flowering Pea (these turned out to have the purplish bi-coloured flowers common to snow peas, but they are a dwarf variety rather than a climbing pea)

I'm not sure that the photo shows off the quantity that well, but there were enough to eat fresh as well as plenty to freeze. I've never frozen snow peas before, but they seem OK so far. The snow peas and red flowering peas are both still producing and I've left the last few pods on the shelling peas go so we'll get some seed for next year.

Now to foam boxes - last weekend on Gardening Australia they showed ways to re-use common items in the garden. One of these was styrofoam boxes, which you can usually pick up for free from your local markets or greengrocer as they can only be used once before being thrown away. So, I went to the markets and picked up some boxes, figuring I could use them to raise seedlings, etc.

After planting up the boxes, a discussion with the Crone revealed that we shouldn't really be using these in our gardens because of the fumes they emit. Looking on the web, I found a site called Non-Toxic Life, which had this to say about polystyrene:

NEVER use Styrofoam cups, especially for hot drinks. Polystyrene, #6 PS, is usually found in foam containers and cups may leach styrene. Styrene, considered a possible human carcinogen, may also disrupt hormones or affect reproduction.

*SIGH* I thought I might be doing something to help the environment by re-using a product which is otherwise disposed of after a single use. Now it turns out it may not be such a good idea. But what I'm thinking is this - the boxes are not getting really hot like they would if filled with boiling water and if I take the seedlings out when they are large enough and plant them out into open ground, the likelihood of them having loaded up with much toxin is pretty low. After they grow on and produce food, the amount of toxin should be extremely low and the food will still be heaps safer and less toxic than the commonly available fruit and veges. Then the boxes go!

Sometimes I have to agree with Kermit the Frog - it's not easy being green! But all things considered, I'd rather be green than not.

love and light
naturewitch

Back to Basics Challenge Update (a little late)

2008-11-10T20:01:00.005+11:00

I should have posted last Thursday; thought I'd do it Friday night; had an almost computer free weekend, so it's Monday and I'm just posting this.

1. Sowing seed or Planting
Squash and Zucchini - various; Rockmelon - Hearts of Gold; Beans - Giant of Stuttgart, Purple King; Fig - Preston's Prolific; Grapes - Black Muscat, Pink Iona and 2 I can't remember; Nasturtium; Sweet Corn - Sweet White; Cucumbers - Orbrad's; Cape Gooseberry - Golden Nugget; Ground Cherry - Aunt Molly's; Blueberry seeds (wonder if they'll sprout??)

2. Planning for The Future - meal planning, the next seasons garden plan, working out storage plans or more long term goals and projects like plans for digging root cellars
I've sorted my seeds (at last!!) and have worked out just how much straw/hay I'm going to need for my mulching (hoping to put this off till the end of the month, when it'll be cheaper). Also started work on a mortgage-reduction plan.

3. Working for the Future - storing food, managing stores, preserving, building that home made cob or solar oven, adding house insulation, saving for manual grain mills etc
Vacuum-sealed and froze shelled peas, snow peas and asparagus on the weekend. Am delighted to have excess this early in the season. We've also constructed a pair of heavy trellises for the grapes, with the usual wires on one side and wire netting on the other side for climbing beans or peas.

4. Building Community - volunteering, donations, joining an existing community group, forming your own community group, taking a cake to a friend having a hard time, calling someone you just let drift out of your life, etc
Have received my Climate Connectors information pack and viewed the video; need to find audiences for that now and to start discussions about grass-roots projects people can undertake to help stop / reverse climate change.
Have planted up some foam boxes (more about these later) with seeds for friends for when they move house in a few weeks.

5. Learning a new Skill
Ummmm - does studying for exams count???

That's my update for now. Will do another post, hopefully in a couple of days, about the pea harvest and foam boxes.

love and light
naturewitch

Garden People

2008-11-06T19:58:00.004+11:00

The other day I planted some cucumber seeds. These seeds came from my elderly neighbour who passed away a couple of years ago. So, I call the cucumbers Orbrad's cucumbers, after him. I'm not sure of the exact variety, but they are good sized green cucumbers which are quite tasty.

What I like about them most is their association with a kind old gentleman who was a fellow gardener. He produced the most magnificent tomatoes each year and tenderly kept his garden in pristine condition. A couple of times I came out the back door to find him hastily zipping up his trousers after fertilising his lemon tree (chuckle!). His fig tree is one of the very best I've seen in Canberra. Although he could hardly speak English, we'd have great conversations about our gardens over the fence. So, every time I plant these cucumbers, I remember him.

Last season, I was lucky enough to find yellow egg tomatoes growing in my garden. They reminded me of my Pop, who used to grow them when I was a child. One of my fond childhood memories was visiting my grandfather and walking down the back to pick and eat these yellow tomatoes.

Some of the tools I use in the garden once belonged to my father and also to his father. The same goes for some of my gardening and self-sufficiency books. And when there's something a bit tricky to do and I'm having trouble with it, I ask Dad for help and things go smoother.

Then there's the plants given to me by various friends over the years - the tiny loquat seedling, no more than a twig with two leaves, rescued from the Crone's garden before she left for warmer climes is thriving and ready to be planted in the open ground. Her daughter's birthday rose is in the front garden and still going well - see pic.

And there's other treasures, like the Goji cutting another friend gave me last year, which came from her uncle's garden. Or the bees, which remind me of some of my blogging friends.

The point of all this is that my garden is more to me than a producer of food and flowers. It's also a place of lovely memories and lots of garden friends. I hope yours is too.

love and light
naturewitch

Awards!!

2008-11-06T19:17:00.007+11:00

Well, I've just been given two awards - I'm very humbled.

The first one is from flmom who has a lovely blog about her journey to a more sustainable life.

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.
The rules are:
1. Accept the award and post it on your blog along with a link to the person who has awarded you.
2. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The second one is from Molly who is a fantastically politically aware blogger who provides us with lots of well-researched information.

The rules are:
Put the award logo on your blog or post (right click on award, save as).
Nominate at least 1 blog that you consider to be Uber Amazing!
Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

Many of you have already justifiably received these awards, so please don't be offended if I don't award you again. Soooo, I choose to award (with both the awards):

Daughter of the Soil

My Wildlife Sanctuary

Shibaguyz

The Dance of Small Things

Towards Sustainability

Feel free to pass on (or not) as you wish.

love and light
naturewitch

Asparagus Brag

2008-10-31T19:32:00.004+11:00

The bees seem to have settled in nicely now, so I can tell you about the asparagus. I harvested some last Saturday morning and thought I'd weigh the harvest - 800g - and take a photo. This doesn't seem like much until you realise we are picking this amount every 2-3 days! Just thought I'd have a little brag . ..

love and light

naturewitch

First Lesson in Beekeeping

2008-10-28T20:35:00.005+11:00

Last night I had to put the remaining four frames into the hive, so duly put on my veil hat and gloves and headed for the hive. Feeling lazy, I had decided that my white top was enough and that the black trackpants wouldn't matter. Wrong!!!

Six stings later, I was feeling like the worst bee-mother ever. I didn't really care about my own discomfort, more that some of the bees might have died while defending their home. *sob*

Then my darling man found an article on beginning beekeeping I wish I'd read before being so cavallier with my new friends . . .

Finally, why are bee suits white? Well bees have odd memories. They cannot remember their owner from one day to the next but they do remember that their natural enemy is the brown bear. White is the colour least like their old adversary from way back. Conversely, dark clothing rings warning bells for bees. So be warned. If you approach a bee hive looking and behaving like a bear, never mind that generation upon generation of Australian bees have NEVER set eyes on a brown bear, the bees will regard you as a bear and attack!

So stupidly, I became a bear last night and even though there were only six stings through my clothes, I cannot be sure that the bees escaped unharmed. I can only hope that they were able to retract their stings from my clothes and that they were OK. Note to self: NEVER do that again!

The good news is that this morning they seemed to be back to their old selves, with the scary bear of last night having disappeared. And I can definitely smell honey now emanating from their hive . . .

love and light
naturewitch

Bees!

2008-10-25T12:56:00.004+11:00

Yesterday evening I went to empty the compost bin and on my way back to the house, noticed a swarm of honey bees in the pear tree.

Mega-excited, I rang the owner of the local beekeeping supplies place. He told me they could stay there for a few hours or a few days. Since it was late, we decided to leave them bee for the night and see if they were still there this morning.

They were!! So my darling man and I went to the store this morning and bought our first beehive box and some protective gloves. I used an old net curtain last night to make a veil for my straw hat and it looks simply elegant, darling! Well, more like sonething out of a C-grade 1950s sci-fi movie, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? :)

We came home and constructed the box, then I rubbed the inside with some lemon balm (to help the bees settle in). We placed the box in the wheelbarrow beneath the tree, gave the branch a quick jerk and the bees dropped down into the box. On goes the lid and hopefully (fingers crossed), we got the queen bee in and have started our very first bee hive.

Things are looking hopeful, as the bees are no longer clustering on the tree, but buzzing around the hive instead. Tonight I need to go out after dark and move the hive to the ground. After they settle in for a couple of days, we need to put in some more frames (you leave some out at first). After a week, we need to move the queen excluder from the bottom as she should have settled in by then.

I have been wanting bees for a while now and actively researching, etc for the past few months. Well, it looks like they finally came to me. And, when the fellow with the two hives rings me back to tell me they're ready, I'll still be getting them. After all, three hives in a back yard isn't too many.

love and light
naturewitch

Ramblings and a Challenge

2008-10-23T18:28:00.005+11:00

I can hardly believe it's a week since my last post. A combination of being busy during daylight and tired after dark! Apart from my usual work and study, I've been digging up weeds and laying paths in the garden, as well as digging holes for some sturdy posts to make an excellent grape trellis.

I've also been contemplating the challenge set by Belinda and already taken up by a few. It's the Back to Basics Challenge and here's what you have to do. Report weekly or fortnightly on:

1. Sowing seed or Planting

2. Planning for The Future - meal planning, the next seasons garden plan, working out storage plans or more long term goals and projects like plans for digging root cellars

3. Working for the Future - storing food, managing stores, preserving, building that home made cob or solar oven, adding house insulation, saving for manual grain mills etc

4. Building Community - volunteering, donations, joining an existing community group, forming your own community group, taking a cake to a friend having a hard time, calling someone you just let drift out of your life, etc

5. Learning a new Skill

So here's my first report:
1. Not much on this front in the past week, as I'd already done a bit of planting the week before, but can report that the seedlings are emerging.

2. Have been contemplating the amount I'd need to plant to supply our family for a year, given that we tend to have a shortish main growing season here. My conclusion was that I should go the way of the Shibaguyz! I've also spoken to a tree butcher about the cost of getting a truck load of mulch for the garden. Still pondering whether this would be a good thing to do or whether I'd be better off saving up for hay/straw. {Comments welcome!!}

3. Been paving between the garden beds to help keep the weeds at bay and to encourage others to go out into the garden more often. Also, been building that trellis and all is ready to go for concreting the posts in the ground.

4. Signed up to be a Climate Project Connector. Am awaiting my package of goodies to help spread the word.

5. Well, it's not really a new skill, just getting rid of the cobwebs on an old one - I've been walking more and actually walked to class yesterday (~6km) (against the wind, I might add!) and almost halfway home again. I want to increase my fitness level and to explore other forms of transport. I regularly use the bus, so this is the next step (tee hee :))

Have a look at Belinda's blog and take up the challenge. The more we all do our little bit, no matter how small, the more we'll all be working together for a sustainable future.

love and light
naturewitch

Telling The Inconvenient Truth

2008-10-16T21:11:00.005+11:00

At long last, I procured a copy of Al Gore's The Inconvenient Truth and my beloved and I sat transfixed two nights ago, watching it. If you haven't yet had the opportunity to view it (I'm hoping we're not the last ones on the planet!), please do. It is a great watch.

There is also a study guide, downloadable from: http://www.aninconvenienttruth.com.au/truth/guide.htm
The guide is primarily aimed at teachers and students, but there are lots of things in there that you could work through with your own children or even friends, family or colleagues.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is now calling for people to participate in the next phase - being a Climate Project Connector. These people will be asked to screen Telling The Truth, a documentary showing the experiences of the original presenters of The Inconvenient Truth. The aim is to have 1000 screenings of Telling The Truth by December 08 and to have 1209 connector projects by December 09.

They are hoping to create a grass roots movement of people with projects designed to help fight climate change. These projects can be whatever a community group decides, eg, a solar panel buying cooperative or a lobby group for more public transport.

If this interests you, please have a look on the ACF website: http://www.acfonline.org.au/default.asp?section_id=280

Hope to see lots of you Telling The Truth.

love and light
naturewitch

Economy = Ecology

2008-10-12T13:36:00.004+11:00

Isn't it interesting that at a time when we are increasingly concerned about climate change and sustainable living, that world economies are also beginning to collapse? Coincidence? I don't think so!

We humans have been living far beyond our means, both ecologically and economically, for far too long. Over-consumption has replaced the connectedness we have with Mother Earth and spirit and is rapidly driving us towards ecological and economic bankruptcy.

Many people today have hungry souls and instead of using spiritual food to feed their souls, they are using physical food and rampant consumerism. The trouble is, that by using the wrong sort of fuel for our souls, we are constantly looking for more and so the problem continues.

So, what can we do to address this issue?

Well, I garden and try to grow as much of my food as possible, even though it would undoubtably be easier for me to buy it in the supermarket (especially with my current work/study/home juggle). The reasons I try to grow much of my and my family's food are many - I

enjoy eating good quality food
like to know where my food came from
want to reduce my "food miles"
believe that those to whom much is given (and we in Australia have truly been given a lot!) have a responsibility to look after those resources
wish to preserve and develop the knowledge-base of sustainable living skills
want to show others they can do the same
love the connection it gives me to Mother Earth, nature and spirit

Apart from this, consciously choosing what we consume has led to a reduction in consumption. I am not content to mindlessly shop for things I do not really need. I am not happy to leave lights or appliances on merely for convenience and I choose to handwater my garden and re-use as much water as possible, rather than use convenient systems which consume much more water.

I am by no means perfect and still have a larger environmental and economic footprint than is sustainable - we live in a residence that might house a few families in other parts of the world and I still enjoy indulgences such as chocolate and television.

But I will continue on this journey. Once you start on a journey like this there is no turning back. Once your consciousness has been raised, you cannot become "unconscious". There are many of us taking a similar path - thank you for your company on this journey.

love and light
naturewitch

Solar Food Dehydrator

2008-10-06T19:16:00.009+11:00

Many of you are dehydrating food in order to preserve it. In a conversation recently with the Shibaguyz, I promised to post pictures of my solar food dehydrator. I bought it about fifteen or sixteen years ago from an advertisement in Earth Garden or Grass Roots (I can't remember which). It is called a Solar Safe and is manufactured in Euroa; the address is RMB 2317 Euroa, Vic 3666. I do not know whether or not they are still in production nor how much they would cost.

I'm thinking that a handy person could probably construct one of these. In deference to the intellectual property of the person(s) that designed it and also because they have a "Patent Pending" sign on the side, I'll just list a few of the measurements. You'll need to work out a detailed design for yourself if you want to make one. There are plans for various solar food dehydrators on Mother Earth News, but all are different to mine, so I thought I'd add it to the melting pot.

Here is the front view. The cover appears to be polycarbonate (laserlite) sheeting. It is held down by battens on the top and sides and by capped screws along the bottom. It seems to be pretty good at keeping any moisture out. There is an overhang of a few cm at the bottom, which shields the bottom vent.

As you can see, the bottom of the drier and the back panel are covered internally with black plastic.

This is the side view. Again, the side is covered with polycarbonate sheeting. The height of the side panel is 24" (61cm) at the apex and it is 28" (71cm) long on the base.

Because of the triangular side design, shelves are staggered and so each shelf gets a bit of direct sunlight. Food placed on the top shelf tends to dry fastest, so I often shuffle the food upwards, as the top layer dries.

I forgot to take a photo of a shelf, but they are basically rectangular wooden structures with plastic mesh attached. The bottom three measure 22" (55cm) x 12" (30cm). The top shelf is 22" x 8" (20cm). The shelves rest on wooden runners and are easily removed or fitted through the open back door.

Here is the back panel. It is 24" (61cm) high and 25" (64cm) wide. It consists of a top meshed part (the back vent), a door and a bottom support. The back vent is about 2.5" (6cm) high and extends across the entire back.

The door is held in place by wing-nut type catches. There should be a knob in the centre top of the door, but mine has fallen off (note to self: replace knob before next drying season!).

Here is a close up of half of the back vent.
Here is a close up of half of the front vent. It is about the same size as the back vent, only positioned at the lower front, under cover of the polycarbonate sheeting.

The principle employed in this drier is that the air is heated by virtue of the sun and the black plastic. Because warm air rises, cool air is drawn in at the bottom, warmed, and expelled at the top. This creates a nice air current for drying the food.

The dehydrator is virtually vermin proof, as everything is fairly tightly fitting. The only issue I have ever had is with ants, but that was solved by having a moat around each leg, so that the ants can't crawl up. The way to do this is to get four average sized tin cans (or similar) and turn them upside down inside larger tins cans (or ice-cream containers or similar). Rest the dehydrator on top of the four smaller tins and place water in the larger vessels. This way, you have water which the ants cannot cross and the wooden legs (which are about 6" (15cm) long) are not sitting directly in water.

Hopefully this is enough to get you started on your own solar dehydrator project. I like this design because it is simple and compact and can be carried by one person. Food dries in a day or two (depending on original moisture content, thickness, etc) and of course, it uses free energy and lowers our impact on the planet.

love and light
naturewitch

Some Meditations

2008-09-30T22:25:00.003+10:00

I receive daily emails from the Australian Meditation Society. Here are a few recent ones for you:

Tuesday, 30 September 2008 - Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. - Martin Luther King Jr

Sunday, 28 September 2008 - Live simply and take life more easily. Happiness lies in giving yourself time to think and to introspect. Be alone once in a while, and remain more in silence. - Yogananda

Saturday, 27 September 2008 - The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place. -- St. Thérèse de Lisieux

Enjoy!

love and light
naturewitch

Happenings in the Garden

2008-09-24T19:39:00.006+10:00

After surviving (cross fingers!) two exams today, I wandered out into the garden to clear my head late this afternoon. Here are some of the things happening . . .

Here is the first purple asparagus spear of the season. It may just find itself being eaten tomorrow night! This is the fourth season for the purple asparagus in our garden. Given how much it produced last year, I'm already thinking of preserving some.

And here is the first Greenfeast pea flower of the season. The Red Flowering Peas are yet to produce any blossoms, but when they do, I'll post a pic.
Some beautiful broad bean flowers . . .

And the first of the Solomon's Seal rhizomes that I planted a while ago is off and running.

Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) is a magic herb. Its tincture, made from the root, can be used to heal ligaments and tendons. Somehow, this amazing plant knows how to shorten stretched ligaments and tendons and lengthen short ones, bringing the body part (eg, ankles) back into perfect alignment.

Some people refer to Solomon's Seal as the "herbal chiropractor". Matthew Wood calls it the Indispensible Muscular and Skeletal Remedy.

Some blackcurrant cuttings I took a few weeks ago (from the prunings off the blackcurrant) now have little roots attached to them. I'm hoping they'll develop further and I can obtain some more big blackcurrant bushes.

Marshmallow seeds I planted back in Autumn have sprouted when I had almost given up on them (shame on me!). Here are some of the little darlings I hope will soon grow into rampant plants.

Marshmallow (Malva sylvestra) is great for treating dry irritating coughs and as a mild astringent for gastroenteritis.

Happy Gardening!

love and light
naturewitch

Herbs to Plant

2008-09-20T10:42:00.013+10:00

Many of you are looking at being self-sufficientish, so thought you may be interested in hearing about some basic herbs to plant in your gardens you can use to treat simple ailments.

Borage - for the worn down person with just too much to do (sound familiar? :)); include chopped leaves and flowers in salads and drinks for a refreshing cucumber flavour, but don't eat too much!

Calendula - such a gorgeous sunny plant, great for burns, cuts, grazes and nappy rash. The petals are also great in salads. Essential if you have children. Will post soon on making ointment of this - really I will :).

Aloe Vera - use the juice for burns, especially sunburn. Again, great when there are children around.

Thyme - fantastic for sore throats and chest colds. In some cultures, they drink a cup of thyme tea every morning during autumn and winter to strengthen their bodies against lurgies. To make the tea, simply place 3 or 4 sprigs in a small tea pot, add boiling water and let steep for 5-10 minutes. Delicious with juice of half a lemon and a teaspoon of honey, especially Manuka honey.

Sage - also great for sore throats. Make an infusion with thyme and gargle to aid a sore throat. And you can swallow this gargle if you like. Breastfeeding mums may want to avoid sage, though, as it will dry up your milk.

Parsley - chock full of vitamin C and iron, a great pick me up for everyone, especially those with heavy periods or anaemia.

Rosemary - great for soothing furrowed brows and aching muscles and for aiding the digestion. Also good for memory and a bee food in late winter.

Garlic - fantastic to eat whenever your body is struggling with an infection, it may also help some people during times of hay fever. Slice up fresh cloves and add them to your cooking in the last couple of minutes - this gives you the great healing properties of raw garlic, while reducing the breath and body odour. Don't ask me why, but it really seems to work.

Elder - see recent post.

Dandelion - don't pull them out, let them grow (well at least some)!! Use their leaves in salads as a bitter herb to aid digestion, brew up a tea of the leaves for fluid retention and dry and roast the roots for a coffee substitute, which is also good for your liver. Just make sure you have positively identified the plant as dandelion and it is not something that merely looks like it.

Chamomile - the flowers are great for soothing teas for people who find it difficult to relax and good for helping babies and children during teething; great for babies of all ages.

Feverfew - if someone in your house gets migraines, this may be the very herb they need.

Basil - a good digestive aid, it is also very effective at relieving some headaches. I combine it with lavender and peppermint to help reduce the severity of migraines.

Lavender - as well as being beautiful to look at, lavender oil is great for healing burns and the flowers can be used in combination with basil and peppermint for migraines.

Peppermint - great for colic and digestive upsets, but don't use for someone who gets oesophageal reflux; helps cool and soothe hot heads.

Yarrow - magic for deep cuts and wounds which are bleeding freely. Stuff some leaves into the wound to stop or slow the bleeding, while you seek further medical attention.

Melissa (Lemon Balm) - lovely soothing tea to help those "busy bees" in life calm down and relax.

Marjoram - as well as being a culinary herb of merit, some marjoram oil on the temples, a cup of marjoram tea or even a generous sprig under the pillow will help people get a restful night's sleep.

These are just a few of the wonderful healing herbs suitable for a domestic garden. As always, this information is intended for general interest only and is not intended to be medical advice. Please consult your health professional for assistance with any health issues.

love and light
naturewitch

Using Less and Valuing More

2008-09-17T19:56:00.006+10:00

Well, the energy and water bills are in for this quarter, so it's time to make a comparison with the same period last year. Our consumption of:

Gas is down by 8.5%
Electricity is down by 15.5%
Water is down by 8.9%

I am absolutely thrilled! And the best thing is that I don't think it has impacted on our lifestyle at all. We have simply tried to be mindful of what resources we are using. It's amazing what we can all do if we try.

So what have we been doing?

Not having mega showers, although from time to time we have to remind someone who is taking a while
Not heating as much - we reduced the temperature by about 2 degrees and covered up a bit more; we were still comfortable and upped the heat a little if people were sick
Consciously turning off lights and unplugging appliances not in use (except for the TV which is always plugged in because it's too hard to get to the plug and the clock radios and things like that)
Turning off our computers when not in use
Cooking some foods such as oats and rice by bringing them to the boil then turning them off and leaving them to cook in their own heat

Things we could do to further reduce our energy and water consumption include:

Eat more raw food ;} and/or obtain a solar cooker
Have shorter showers (we try to keep them short, but we're not turning the water on just to rinse or anything like that yet)
Install a grey water recycling system - we do put the water from the laundry out onto the garden (only with low sodium detergents, of course!) but we are not harvesting the water from the shower yet
Mulch more in the garden

I'm sure there's a lot more we could do; I don't think we are really doing the hard yards yet.

As for other areas of resource consumption, such as transport - we are using the bus more, but because my partner's children's other home is 90km away, trips back and forth do add up to a bit of petrol. Even so, we have reduced our petrol consumption to one tank or less per week. And growing some of our own food and trying to eat as locally as possible, means our food miles have come down as well.

The other side effect we've noticed over the past year is that we are generating a lot less rubbish. We no longer put our bin out every week and even when it goes out it is generally only half full. Most weeks we would only generate about two shopping bags worth of rubbish. Even the amount we put out for recycling has reduced, as we are endeavouring to re-use things before recycling - most of my purple asparagus seedlings are quite happily growing in tin cans and the potatoes are coming up through a cover of shredded paper.

The way I feel about all this was summed up nicely in an email from the Meditation Society of Australia the other day:

How inspiring it is to walk all day in the sunshine and sleep all night under the stars. What a wonderful experience in simple, natural living. Since you carry your food, sleeping equipment, etc., on your back, you learn quickly that unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. You soon realize what the essentials of life are - such as warmth when you are cold, a dry spot on a rainy day, the simplest food when you are hungry, pure cool water when you are thirsty. You soon put material things in their proper place, realizing that they are there for use, but relinquishing them when they are not useful. You soon experience and learn to appreciated the great freedom of simplicity. - Peace Pilgrim

love and light
naturewitch

Candida

2008-09-13T15:07:00.004+10:00

Many people can have problems with candida (yeast) infections without knowing it. Symptoms can include recurrent thrush and/or urinary tract infections, fatigue, malaise, lack of concentration, etc.

Candida Saliva Test
Here is a free and easy home test to check your system for a yeast/candida infection:

When you awake in the morning, before you put anything into your mouth, work up some saliva and deposit it into a clear glass of water. After about 15 to 30 minutes, look through the side of the glass. If there are strings coming down from your saliva, or if the water turned cloudy, or if your saliva sank to the bottom... you may have a yeast or fungal concern!

This site has another quick test you can do to see if you might fall into this category.

If, after doing these tests, you think you might have an issue, please see your health professional.

love and light
naturewitch

A Couple of Recipes

2008-09-10T18:54:00.005+10:00

Wheat-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free Date Loaf

This sounds somewhat impossible and you may wonder if it is actually edible, but I assure you that this recipe is not only edible, but quite delicious.

Ingredients
1¼ cups chopped dates
1 cup fruit juice (I use grape or apple, but any sweet juice will do)
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ cup oil (I use rice bran or macadamia oil)
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 large eggs
½ cup oat bran
¾ cup wheat free flour (I use a 50/50 mix of Orgran and FG Roberts plain gluten free flours)
2 teaspoons baking powder

Method
Place dates, juice, spice, oil and bicarb soda in a saucepan (large enough to mix everything in) and bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until dates are soft. Stir well and cool.

Add eggs to the date mixture and beat with a wooden spoon. Add the oat bran and stir in. Finally add the flour and baking powder and mix with wooden spoon until well combined.

Pour mix into a well-oiled loaf pan (about 21cm x 11cm) and bake in a moderate oven until a skewer comes out clean (about 45 minutes). Leave in pan until cool before removing.

This cake will last for up to a week in a sealed container.

Note: the presence of oat bran makes this recipe not gluten free, but it is wheat free. If this is an issue for you, simply replace the oat bran with gluten free flour. I like to include the oat bran as it is great fibre for our bodies, assisting our intestines and helping to clear out excess cholesterol.

Soy Eggs

Ingredients
Hard boiled eggs
Mayonnaise
Soy Sauce
Chives
Parsley

Method
Peel hard boiled eggs and split lengthways. Scoop out yolk halves and mash together. Place whites on plate.

To mashed eggs yolks add about 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce for every 6 eggs. Combine together until smooth. Add more or less mayo or soy to taste (especially as I cannot remember the exact proportions). Finely chop chives and parsley and add to mix.

Place teaspoonfuls of mix into the whites and they are ready to eat.

Bon Appetit!

love and light
naturewitch

Pics from the Garden

2008-09-08T19:26:00.014+10:00

I snuck out into the garden this afternoon after class and took a few snaps to show you.

In the vege patch
Here are the snowpeas ready to get climbing. They are Yakumo Giant snowpeas and they can get as long as 12cm or so and still be lovely and tender.
The unidentified leafy green, which I think is English spinach. Its leaves are thicker than usual. Consulting my open seed packets reveals it may be Mediana variety.

The artichokes are really getting ready to go forth and multiply when the warmer weather hits.

And you can see the baby beets around them, gradually getting chubbier and ready to munch.

But what has been eating my baby artichoke?

And here's one of my purple asparagus seedlings. Doesn't look very purple at the moment, but it does have quite a way to go . . .

Meanwhile in the herb garden
The Tarragon is just peeking through after its winter sleep . . .

And Yarrow has produced some babies!

Sweet Violet has just started to bloom . . .

And Melissa is growing under cover of last year's growth, yet to be removed.

The Applemint is creeping outwards . . .

And Pennyroyal is consorting with some mint (haven't worked out who just yet)!

Lovely Angelica has survived the winter thus far

And Rocket's in flower

Next to a self-sown seedling

And here's the first Comfrey leaf of the season

Over to the fruit trees
The nectarine is in blossom . . . .

And the quince is about to burst into leaf

For the soul
Gorgeous, fragrant blooms - Daphne, Jonquil (Erlicheer) and Hyacinth - what a lovely trio!

Hope you enjoyed your little visit to my garden.

love and light
naturewitch

This Weekend in the Garden

2008-09-07T16:53:00.008+10:00

I didn't get done anywhere near what I had wanted, but the snow peas are now weeded, hilled and mulched, with a few parsnip seeds and carrot seeds planted to keep them company. I also managed to put some wire between the stakes we put in a little while ago, so they now have a trellis to climb as they grow.

Excitement set in last week as I noticed that the purple asparagus seed I planted a few weeks ago has mostly germinated. Today I counted 44 baby asparagus plants, out of 65 seeds sown. Given they are just emerging (the tallest one would only be about 15mm high), I'm hoping for more little asparagus babies over the next few weeks.

Didn't do quite so well on the artichoke front. To date, only three seedlings have appeared, but there's still time for more. The seed was over a year out of date, so I'll try some fresh seed and see how that goes. Meanwhile, in other parts of the garden, the artichokes are growing well, so I'm sure we'll have heaps of artichokes to eat later in the season.

Wandering around, I noticed a couple of leafy green plants in one of the beds. Unfortunately, when sowing the seed I didn't label it, so was not so sure what it was. It looks like spinach, but maybe it's some sort of turnip? A quick feel underground reveals no tuber; a quick munch reveals spinach. Wish I could remember what type it was; I think it was something a bit different. The leaves are thicker than usual, but just as yummy. It's now three hours later and I haven't dropped off my perch, so I'm guessing it's OK.

The potatoes I planted about a month ago when I was planting the kiwi fruit have now made an appearance. They get a bit of protection where they are, so I'm hoping they will be OK if we get any late frosts.

Checking on the carrots led to three lovely long ones being pulled up and grated for lunch, alongside one of our winter lettuces. The beets are coming on and I must start pulling up some of the larger baby beets to thin the rows out for the others.

Apart from all that, the deciduous herbs are starting to wake up, with one of the comfrey plants, a French tarragon and some of the mints sporting green leaves again. It won't be long now before spring really will have sprung!

love and light
naturewitch

Elders

2008-09-03T20:23:00.006+10:00

A few of you are planting Elders and I am soooo glad. They are a veritable medicine chest, although not all parts are used these days. Here are some bits and pieces about Elders for your amusement and general information.

Elder is a smallish tree up to 10m tall, which generally has several hollow stems arising from the base of the plant. The leaves have 5-9 leaflets, which are ovate-lanceolate and lightly toothed. The small creamy-white flowers have 5 petals and are held in an umbel about 20cm across. Sambucus is fast growing (eg, my four year old plant is over 3 metres tall) with thin, spindly growth in the first few years. The trunks and branches thicken only in later years as the tree matures.

In Australia, Elder has the status of introduced weed and it is prevalent in cooler regions of southern Australia where it has been spread into bushland by the aid of birds. Elder enjoys high rainfall and rich soils, often colonising low ground. Low lying ground naturally attracts moisture, frosts and cold air, which tie in with the Elder's Underworld connections.

Elder has been used since prehistoric times. It was well known to ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates, Plinius, Dioscorides and Galen and was purported to be the tree upon which Judas hung himself and that Jesus was crucified. Pan pipes made from Elder were considered to produce the most haunting music and so the Elder was linked to Pan in Greek mythology. [Pan, in his pursuit of Syrinx, is left holding nothing but a reed when the nymphs turn Syrinx into a reed in order to protect her. Pan then takes seven reeds and turns them into the first pan pipes.]

In northern Europe, the Elder was linked to the Elder Mother (aka Hylde-Moer or Lady Ellhorn), who needed to be offered something in return for a part of the plant. In western Europe, the Elder was considered to be the door to the underworld and the fairy realm. Cradles were never made of Elder wood for fear that the Elder Mother would steal the baby away into the Underworld. Hans Christian Anderson used the Elder in stories such as The Daughter of the Marsh King and The Little Elder Mother.

Elder commands great respect. You should always ask respectfully for a part of her, be it the flowers, berries, leaves or cuttings. It is also prudent to offer something in return. So for example, you may acknowledge her importance, ask for her permission to pick her flowers and state that you will one day pass on and your body will be returned to the soil to nourish her kind and others in the plant kingdom. Above all, thank her for anything you take from her. You will generally find the Elder to be quite agreeable to your requests if stated in this way.

Many authors follow Mrs Grieve in stating that the word Elder comes from the Anglo-Saxon word æld, meaning fire. But latterly, Wood suggests that the word Elder comes instead from hulda, as in the Icelandic huldafolk, meaning the “hidden people” or fairies. The Elder is therefore associated with magic, fairies and Pan, Lord of the Underworld. In fact, my Elder is planted at the bottom of my garden, which is where the fairies usually reside. . .

Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who ruled the French empire from 768 to 814CE, decreed that every household in his empire have an Elder planted in the garden, to be readily available as a “medicine cabinet”. Parts of the Elder were used wherever bodily channels needed to be opened, eg, as a purgative, diaphoretic and diuretic, as well as an emetic, emmenagogue and expectorant.

Elder is traditionally used as a diaphoretic in fevers, colds and influenza; for sinusitis, nasal catarrh with deafness, pleurisy, bronchitis, sore throats, measles and scarlet fever; and topically for treatment of inflamed eyes, skin disorders, wounds, burns and liver disorders.

Constitutionally, Elder is a great infant remedy, especially where there is pale blue swelling across the nose and red, dry irritated skins on the cheeks and cheeky parts of the body. It is also suited to elderly people with blue swollen ankles and anywhere there is stagnation of fluids and blood with pale blue swelling and red, dry irritated skin. Elder is also well suited to sanguine children with strong personalities, who may be poorly socialised and resistant to taking directions and may be classified as "hyperactive".

In modern herbal medicine the main parts used from the Elder are the flowers and the berries. The fresh flowers are highly purgative and so they are generally dried before use. The fresh berries can also have a purgative or laxative effect, so I wouldn't recommend "pigging out" on them.

As well as making tinctures from the flowers and berries for medicinal use, you can make elderflower cordials or elderberry wine. Some good recipes for elderflower cordials are on the Selfsufficientish site. Elderflower cordial is very refreshing in summer, especially mixed with mineral water.

As always the information supplied is for your personal interest. You should consult a professional herbalist if you think you are in need of any herbal treatment.

love and light
naturewitch

Flea Collars

2008-08-28T17:58:00.003+10:00

My dear man asked me why I had a ready supply of vodka that I could use for the strawberry liqueur. Well, the answer was for herbal tinctures (although I mostly use brandy for those) and for flea collars. The thought struck me that others might like to know about them also, so here is the recipe.

For each collar:

2 teaspoons vodka
1 drop cedarwood essential oil
1 drop lavender essential oil
1 drop citronella essential oil
1 drop thyme essential oil
oil from 4 garlic oil capsules

Blend together and allow the collar to soak in the solution. Lay the collar out to dry, before putting on your pet's neck.

The collar should be an absorbent one - I found some suede looking ones at the pet shop that seem to do the trick for the boys.

The recipe is modified very slightly from the one in The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Ann Worwood. The author says that the collar should be effective for about a month, but I've found that after a few treatments, the collar is effective for up to three months.

The cats seem not to mind this collar anywhere near as much as the commercial ones. They've been wearing these for about five years now and I've not seen a flea yet.

love and light
naturewitch

Strawberry Liqueur

2008-08-27T19:35:00.005+10:00

We picked up some strawberry "seconds" at the farmer's market last weekend and I thought I'd make a few pots of jam. Well, I didn't get a round tuit on the weekend, but the berries (what we hadn't eaten) made it to the pot early this evening.

The strawberries were in the pot, simmering away when I noticed there was a fair amount of liquid in the pot, even though I'd only added the juice of a couple of lemons. The evil plan was hatched (tee hee :)). If I only potted up the berries and some of the syrup, I could use the rest of the syrup for strawberry liqueur.

Quick trip to the liquor cabinet revealed a bottle and a little bit of vodka. Some quick calculations and 800ml 40% vodka + 500ml strawberry syrup = 1.3L strawberry liqueur at 25% alcohol. Should work.

Scurry back to the stove, skim off the fruit and some syrup - two pots of strawberry jam. With assistance from my dear one, we strained the syrup, mixed it with the vodka and bottled. Taste test (of course!) revealed a fruity drink, obviously quite alcoholic. Will taste sooo great this summer on ice with a sprig of mint!

Oh, and we are so having oat cakes for breakfast to check out the jam.

love and light
naturewitch

Shredding and Milling

2008-08-20T19:58:00.003+10:00

Inspired by the Crone's Mount Mulch, I decided to get the shredder out of the shed on the weekend and convert some prunings into mulch. Well, I ended up converting Mount Prunings to Mulch Molehill! It is absolutely amazing how much the pile shrinks when shredded.

On a totally unrelated note, I finally got back to milling some soap a little while ago and thought I'd share the results with you.

I know a lot of you are making basic soaps, but I'm not sure how many of you are milling your soap. Milling soap is when you grate up your basic cured soap and remelt it. You can then add all sorts of things and they don't react with the soap ingredients, so you don't lose the fragrances, colours, etc.

To mill soap, add 3 parts of water by weight to every 4 parts of grated soap, eg, to mill 600g basic soap, you add 450g water.

Slowly remelt it over a low heat, stirring occasionally but not too much or it will go frothy (if it does, you can always turn it into floating soap by giving it a good stir to incorporate lots of air).

When the soap is remelted, add whatever ingredients you like, eg, nut butters, pureed fruits, oatbran, honey, etc. Remove from the heat and stir gently until the soap stops shrinking and is relatively thick. Pour into moulds. Lightly tap moulds on the bench or table top to remove air pockets. Place in a warm spot. Remove from moulds in a day or two, then leave to dry for a couple of weeks before using. You can trim off any little extra bits if you like to neaten them up, but I don't usually bother.

Most authors recommend milling within a few weeks of making the basic soap. I've found, however, that if you are patient with the remelting process, that you can mill soap at any age. The older the soap, the drier it tends to be, so you may need to add a bit extra water, but it still seems to work. For example, the soap I used recently was actually about 8 or 9 years (yes, years!) old. Admittedly, there are some white parts in the finished soap where the base soap had not melted completely, but I think that just adds to the charm.

For moulds, I use whatever little containers I can get my paws on - generally the little plastic containers they put camembert in are a good size. You can also use milk cartons, then cut across to make soap slices.

Now, to satisfy your curiosity - the soaps are (clockwise, from top left) mandarin and passionfruit (pulped mandarin and passionfruit fragrance); pawpaw (pulped pawpaw skin); jasmine scented yoghurt soap (out of date berry yoghurt found in back of fridge); and shea nut butter and honeycomb (from bees, not confectionery).

Milling soap is such a fun thing to do from time to time that I recommend you try it! And the finished products make great gifts.

love and light
naturewitch

Lunar Eclipse

2008-08-17T08:28:00.002+10:00

While I was taking the cats for a walk early this morning (between about 5:45 and 6:15am), there was a partial lunar eclipse. The earth was blocking the top part of the full moon. This is roughly what we saw.

love and light
naturewitch

Solar Rooftops

2008-08-12T19:32:00.003+10:00

From the latest Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) bulletin:

Take action: 1,000,000 solar rooftops in 15 years!

ACF wants to see a million solar rooftops within fifteen years. To do this at least 1000 Australian households need to install solar panels every week. An excellent way to achieve this would be if households get paid for all the electricity their solar panels generate. Send an e-mail to Environment Minister Peter Garrett now, asking for the introduction of an effective national solar feed-in tariff by July 2009.

This sounds like a great opportunity to lobby for solar subsidy.

love and light
naturewitch

Cosmetics

2008-08-11T19:50:00.007+10:00

Lots of us try to be careful about what we put on our skin for many reasons - our health, the environment and our finances, to name a few. But what are we really using?

A couple of friends have recently emailed me about a cosmetics ingredients site that may interest you as well. There is an American site: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ which tells you the possible effects of ingredients in cosmetic products. Although the site is American, because a lot of cosmetics companies are multinationals, you'll find heaps of familiar brands.

I looked at a few items and it was scary what they contain. My favourite body butter (my main cosmetic indulgence), for example, contains ingredients linked to cancer, developmental / reproductive toxicity, allergies, immunotoxicity, etc, etc. And it is one touted as being "natural"!

Well, it looks like it's back to the kitchen for me - I've never quite managed a moisturising cream that's completely satisfactory, but I'll give it another go.

love and light
naturewitch

Are Animal Manures Organic?

2008-08-10T19:04:00.004+10:00

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other night about organic gardening. He maintained that the animal manures we can purchase (eg, cow, sheep, poultry) are not truly organic products because of the hormones and/or antibiotics the animals are fed.

However, most advocates of domestic organic food production seem to use them, as I'm sure do most of us. The person I was talking to said that he considered the only "organic" fertilisers commonly available to home gardeners were fish emulsion, seaweed extract and home-made compost.

Granted, the fish emulsion and seaweed extract probably are "organic", but we know our oceans and waterways are often polluted and are therefore contaminants will most likely be present in the fish and the seaweed. As for compost, how many of us manage to have the only components in our compost fully "organic"? For example, I add shredded paper to mine, which I would almost guarantee is not totally "organic".

Which leads me to wonder about the time it might take for "non-organic" components to break down to the point of being relatively harmless. If this break down does occur within a reasonable period of time, maybe the manures we buy are OK, as they tend to be heat composted.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

love and light
naturewitch

Another Fun Day in the Garden

2008-08-05T21:44:00.003+10:00

Today was another productive day in the garden. I dug over a neglected area of the garden to plant my red pear and put the mattock through a dock. I decided to try to identify what sort of dock it was and I think it may be yellow dock or Rumex crispus, which is the medicinal dock. Before getting too excited, though, I'm going to confirm with my herb teacher tomorrow.

Yellow dock is great for a host of ailments such as liver congestion, gall stones, spleen and lymphatic conditions, psoriasis and constipation, as well as promoting the flow of bile and cleansing the blood. (As always, this information is intended for interest only and any treatment of these conditions should be done under the supervision of a qualified herbalist.)

Apart from the great find, I planted a few things today:

20 Lily of the Valley pips
40 Solomon's Seal tubers
the red pear
a female and a male kiwi fruit

It started to rain at that point, so I had to come inside, but the rain will water everything in nicely. Don't you just love the way that nature provides us with what we need?

love and light
naturewitch

Delightful Day in the Garden

2008-08-03T20:49:00.004+10:00

I cannot be cooped up for too long, so I've found the past couple of weeks or so very frustrating, as I've recuperated from my horrible lurgy. However, this morning dawned beautifully fine and feeling somewhat recovered, I headed for the garden.

The first delight that greeted me was a lovely buzz coming from our early flowering peach - about two dozen bees were already at work, drinking the lovely peach flower nectar. I tried to take a photo, but alas it didn't come out very well. Actually, this peach tree was one I bought from someone at the local farmers' markets. It was supposed to be a yellow fleshed bottling peach, but turned out to be a white fleshed eating peach. It has some of the best peaches I have ever eaten, so the mix up is long forgiven. Can't wait for the new crop.

Another delight was discovering some little waxy potatoes in an area I was preparing for kiwi fruit. I had planted potatoes in this area the summer before last and apparently, a few have continued to grow. They made a lovely warm potato salad for lunch, accompanied by fresh herbs, baby beets, carrots and winter lettuce, all from our garden - not bad for the middle of winter!

While I worked in the garden today, I was serenaded by a local family of magpies. The song from Australian magpies is indeed unique and is especially beautiful on a Sunday for some reason. I found a lovely fat scarab beetle larva while digging and threw it to one of the magpies who then watched me keenly for the rest of the day, awaiting further treats. No more fat grubs, unfortunately, but the family did come down and dine from our compost heap, as well as checking over my diggings.

During the day, I was also talking to my neighbour and saying that I wanted to get some bees. Apparently, he has had the same thoughts, so a hive in the back yard should not present any problems. I just have to source one now.

And at the end of this gorgeous day was a chat with my sister, a lovely hot shower and dinner with my darling man. Hope your day was just as great.

love and light
naturewitch

The Joys of a Hot Shower and a New Desk

2008-08-02T18:34:00.007+10:00

I stood under the shower late this afternoon and gave thanks to the sun for heating the water and thanks to our local authority for having dams that supply us with running water. How luxurious that shower felt! And how many people don't have that luxury?

The truth is that I have been a mad woman today, rearranging bookcases and other furniture about the house, all because I got a desk for my study so I don't have to take over the kitchen table any more. So I was tired and dusty and the shower went down a treat.

When I went looking for a desk the other day, I decided to check out the local classifieds first (always been a fan of second-hand items and op-shops). There were heaps of second-hand desks, many of which people were struggling to sell. I guess that people in Canberra generally just go out and buy things brand new. Anyway, I found the perfect desk in the next suburb for the bargain price of $60.

This got me to thinking about what will happen to all those other desks on the classifieds? Will they all find new homes? Will they eventually be dumped? How much are we, as a society, reusing items for which others no longer have a use and how much are we just going out and buying things new, just because we can? And what is this costing our planet?

I'm pleased with my desk. It meets all my needs and fits the space we have beautifully. The "desk miles" were not that many and we are using something that someone else no longer needed. It was a great purchase for us and also for our planet.

love and light
naturewitch

Tatie Planting Time

2008-07-30T18:14:00.006+10:00

For a lot of you, it's time to start thinking about planting potatoes. It's a little early here yet, but since there's been a bit of discussion about growing potatoes, I thought I'd share with you a great way of growing them without any back-breaking digging.

Choose your patch of ground and cover it liberally with newspapers.
Place potatoes on top of the paper at about 30cm or 12in apart in a grid.
Cover with a layer of mulch or hay (lucerne hay is best if it's not too expensive). On top of the mulch / hay, place liberal amounts of blood and bone, well rotted animal manures and/or compost. Water the lot in well.
Add more hay and more fertilisers / manures, watering after each addition. You want the pile to be moist throughout, but not sodden.
When you reach a height of about 60cm, finish off with a layer of mulch or hay.
Note: you can add shredded paper and lawn clippings in with your hay if you like.

The advantages of this technique are:

no digging!
when the potatoes are ready, you just lift up the layer of mulch and pick them up
you are left with an area ready to dig over and plant with new things
you end up with a heap of semi-composted hay, which is a great addition to the garden

The disadvantages are:

the hay can be expensive
you may need to top up the hay during the growing season, so the potatoes do not get exposed to light
it takes a reasonable sized patch of ground (compared with potato condos)

Happy planting!

love and light
naturewitch

Chris James is Coming to Canberra

2008-07-27T12:34:00.005+10:00

I normally wouldn't promote things like this on my blog, but this is a fantastic opportunity and may interest those in and around Canberra.

Chris James conducts the most beautiful singing workshops and he is coming to Canberra - thanks Felicity! The Innermost Sound Workshop will be held in Hackett on Sunday 7 September 2008 from 10am to 4:30pm. Cost is $150. Click here to get more details.

I've been to his workshops before and they are fantastic. You will not be disappointed. And for the first person who claims it, there is a Silk in the Clouds CD free!

love and light
naturewitch

Green Tomato Marmalade

2008-07-26T17:35:00.004+10:00

I've been meaning to put this recipe up for a little while. I'm not a great fan of marmalade normally, but this one is quite lovely. It is extra nice on oat cakes for breakfast - YUM!

Ingredients
1.7kg (3.75lb) green (as in unripe) tomatoes, chopped
200g (7oz) crystallised ginger, chopped
Rind of 2 oranges (no pith), shredded
Rind of 4 lemons (no pith), shredded
Juice of the 2 oranges and 4 lemons
8 cups sugar

Method
Place everything except for the sugar in a large, heavy-based pan. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until it is all soft and pulpy - this may take up to one hour.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved, then boil rapidly until setting point is reached. You may need to stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
Pour into sterile jars and seal.

Notes
Test if the marmalade is set by placing a small amount of marmalade on a chilled saucer; leave for about 30 seconds and see if it thickens up.
Sterilise jars by placing clean, wet jars and lids on a tray in the oven at 120C for 20 minutes or more. Jars with metal lids are the best.
Fill jars while marmalade is still hot, place lids on, then with knuckle inside a teatowel (to stop you getting burned), press on the centre of the lid and screw down. As the jam cools, you will hear a pop as a vacuum is formed. Jam bottled in this way will keep for years without going mouldy on top.

This recipe will make about 2.7kg (6lb) of lovely golden marmalade.

love and light
naturewitch

Been Crook

2008-07-24T08:39:00.002+10:00

FYI - haven't been posting in the last week or so due to a horrible lurgy in my chest. Feel like I'm starting to recover, but am still not up to much. Will hopefully post again soon.

love and light
naturewitch

Vacuum Sealers

2008-07-15T20:10:00.006+10:00

The other day, I was tempted enough to make Molly's Peanut Butter Biscuits - well, my version of them, using cashew nut butter instead of peanut butter and gluten free flour.

When I finished making them, it occurred to me that every time I do make something like these scrummy biscuits we end up throwing out part of it because we are not very big cake or biscuit eaters. So, I thought I would be proactive and save some at the outset. The obvious choice would have been the freezer, except that ours is rather full at the moment. What to do?

Light bulb goes off - the vacuum sealer!!!! I had just been using it to package the baby corn prior to freezing it (bottling seemed like too much work, on reflection). So, I set about making small packets of delicious biscuits for us to munch some time in the future.

Then it occurred to me - the vacuum sealer is an ideal way to package many foods we might dry. They can then be stored in the cupboard, without taking up valuable freezer space.

Actually, I originally purchased the vacuum sealer to package produce prior to freezing to reduce the risk of freezer burn. It works a treat - I have been able to store sweet corn in peak condition from one year to the next. And there is no need to blanch, as all air is removed.

We found ours on ebay (see picture from ebay store at left) and I've been very happy with it. Yes, it uses plastic bags, but I think the savings in food wastage more than make up for the environmental cost of the bags and the small amount of electricity needed to suck and seal. Also, with dry goods you don't need to use any more energy to store - a ccol, dry cupboard is all you need. Despite the fact they use electricity, I think they are a great addition to the household buffering themselves against peak oil.

If you are thinking of purchasing one, however, do your homework and check out the specifications. We found that some of the better known brands were not as good as the one we eventually purchased (for about $150, I think).

Apologies for the dead meat in the pictures for all of you who might be sensitive to such things . . .

love and light
naturewitch