preserved pears...

WOW!!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would get a response such as the one that I did from my last post... Thank you all so very much! Your gorgeous and kind words have given me a much needed burst of life and a renewed love for my poor ol' blog... I do enjoy writing my posts and now that I know people are actually out there reading it and willing to comment I feel so much better... I am slowly, but surely, getting around to replying to each and every comment - I've loved reading them so once again - thank you very, very much!!! 

You know that big box of Orchard Fresh Pears that I was gifted back here??? Well, last week I turned them into the most amazing preserved goodness    E V E R ! ! !

 

After the gorgeous Jane from Shady Baker emailed me a simple yet delicious recipe for poached pears I got to thinking..... This would be amazing if I could bottle it!!??

 

So.... I cored, pealed, and chopped/sliced about 5kg's of pears, made a light sugar syrup, added some of my favourite spice (cinnamon quills), put it all together in a big pot, boiled it, bottled it, then popped it in a water bath for approx 1/2 an hour...

 

Then, after a day in the fridge they emerged as the most perfectly, sweet, crunchy, succulent pear segments. I think I can safely say they are the best I have ever tasted!

 

We've been eating them straight from the fridge on their own, with fresh egg custard as a dessert, drizzled over creamy vanilla ice-cream - just because, and on my favourite breaky cakes too!

 

But, you know who loves them most of all??? My littlest guy, Tobie! And for me that's a win-win, right!!!

So..... Have you preserved anything this week??

note : : if you'd like my preserved pear recipe simply send an email to jellywares@bigpond.com and I'd be more than happy to share it with you... :)

Learning New things....

I must admit, I fell into a bit of a rut before I closed the doors on my little ol' shop in Cobar town just over 6 months ago. I'm not exactly sure why it happened, guess it was an accumulation of several things but one thing I do know - I was simply 'burnt out'!!!

It feels so good to SLOW things down, breath again so to speak! Get out and smell the roses, play in the dirt with my kids and learn new things - something I haven't had the desire to do (if I'm totally honest) for far too long...

These past couple of weeks in the evenings, when all my little people are snug in their beds (sometimes asleep), I've been searching... And searching.... And searching... For some form of chevron colour-worked crochet type pattern but do you think I could find one - ANYWHERE!!!???? Well I couldn't!!! So, that got me thinking - why can't I simply make a pattern up myself???

A few YouTube video's later and the help of this amazing lady and her super handy graph paper and I have now completed my very first piece of 'Tapestry Crochet'!!!

What do you think???!!??? (it's a washer for my 'Spring Washer Swap', don't forget sign-up's close tonight - I'd love you to join!)

 

I feel invigorated, inspired, refreshed, recharged!!! I can't remember the last time I got this involved with a craft that it totally engulfed me and it fells amazing... I can't learn enough!!! I'm now planning my next piece, with the help of my 7yr old daughter - she's thinking SPOTS...

And because my days are filled with many other things I thought I'd share a picture of what we harvested and preserved today - bulls blood beets... This is by far one of my all time favourite pantry staples. I dread the moment when I reach for the last jar of beets, usually months away from the next growing season. This year I'm trying my hardest to have a regular crop of this gorgeous root to keep me preserving for as long as I can - I'm stocking up!!!

So.....

Have you learnt something new lately? Something that totally engulfed you??

Have you ever heard of 'Tapestry Crochet'?? 

What are you harvesting on this last day of September? 

What's your favourite preserve? Do you like pickled beets as much as me??

Pin Point....

I'm not sure if I can pin point just one single reason why I love a 'Clearing Sale'... Seeing rows upon rows of rusty old goodies, sheds filled with generations of farming wives treasures, furniture that oozes stories from a time long ago when money was tight and 'thrifting' was necessity (depression era furniture is my absolute favourite - seeing meat safes made from old wooden boxes, cupboards for kerosene tins, I love it!!!), catching up with friends, 

 

seeing my littlest people form new friendships - even if they're only for the day, the thrill of buying that special little (and big sometimes too) something that just can't be found in a shop, gorgeous food cooked by gorgeous women - slices and cakes and sandwiches, fresh picked fruit and the like!!!

 

We're lucky enough to be able to attend at least 1 Clearing Sale a month out here - some see us travelling for a good 1/2 a day to get there, while others can be just down the road.... I can safely say that over 75% of my home has been furnished and filled thanks to purchases I've made at Clearing Sales and each and every purchase has been remembered fondly!!

Preserves are a constant staple in the pantry of my home and over the past couple of months the shift towards sweet over savoury has seen me producing jam and marmalade over relish and pickles... My cumquat tree is a prolific producer and after gifting several kilo's to family and friends I picked 1 last big bucket for my family and set to making the cumquat marmalade recipe with my girls that I found over here!  

 

I loved the slowness of this recipe! Usually - in my kitchen anyway, it's all hands on deck as we slice and chop and cook up a storm to preserve what ever is in season on the farm at any particular time. But with this recipe you take it slow; an afternoon spent slicing, an afternoon soaking and simmering, and an afternoon finishing it all off... This recipe is now a new favourite and has been added to my trusty old 'cookbook' and I can't wait to revisit it when my cumquat's are in season again... I've also made a batch of strawberry jam - a real favourite!!

In my garden, hidden in a corner nearly forgotten about are a dozen potted plants... I'm not sure if you can remember, but back here I struck some cuttings of a tree call 'rose of sharon' in a pot of water on the window sill in my kitchen... About a month ago I potted them all up and left them in a sheltered spot in my garden, hoping for the best, and now they're nearly ready to be planted out - awesome!!!!  

 

Lastly, don't forget, sign-ups for my 'Spring Washer Swap' close on Tuesday so if you'd like to join pop on over to this post and leave a comment...

Here's the Washer I made for the Swap I currently have running on my Facebook page... 

I loved making this!!! This is a new crochet stitch/pattern to me and it was so nice learning something new for a change...

So.... 

Have you ever been to a Clearing Sale??? Where? When? What did you buy?

Do you preserve?? What have you been making of late? Sweet? Savoury?

What's new in your garden this week??

Holidays...

School holidays are here and with it comes an essence of unstructured routine that we can't seem to get enough of here on the farm... It's so nice to be able to put the school books up for 3 weeks and enjoy each others company...

I always enjoy the Sept/Oct school holiday break - I'm not sure if it's because my b'day falls over this holiday or that the garden seems to be glowing at this time of year and there is always many a job that needs tending; planting, weeding, pruning, building, harvesting, re-planting, transplanting, propagating and the list goes on...

This past week I've been harvesting golden beets, my first for the season... 

 

I pickled this bunch the same way that I do my 'blood beets' here... From 4 medium sized beets I was able to fill a 400ml jar - approx 1 1/2 cups of chopped beets...

 

I've also been transplanting seeds that I've been raising with my girls - 'mini muncher' cucumbers (6 plants planted - for a start) 

and more 'bull's blood' beetroot (20 planted with this lot)...

 

My girls have there own veg on the go again this year. Their pea plants are by far their favourite! They grow so fast, the flowers are gorgeous and it's always such a thrill to see how quickly a delicate flower will turn into fruit practically right before their eyes.

 

My trusty old passion-fruit vine got a much needed pruning this year and has bounced back with glorious new growth to thank me...

 

After attending a garden party back in May and being super excited to rush back home and plant my 100+ cuttings I am happy to report a good 4 months down the track 75% of them have struck... So this school holidays I've started planning where all my new roses will live - in, amongst and around my garden...

 

My girls and I love a good slice!!! This slice is packed full of all the yummy things I love; organic oats, poppy seeds, local honey, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, coconut and good quality butter!!! (if you'd like the recipe simply say so in the comments, I'd love to share... )

 

And with the weather simply divine in the evenings at the moment we're still enjoying regular camp-oven dinners...

I now have a little 'fire-pit' right next to my vegetable patch (made from the base of an old water tank). So while DH lights a little fire as the sun goes down and works some magic with his old cast-iron pot the girls and I tinker in the garden - weeding, watering, planting and transplanting... A couple of beers and a wine later and we're all enjoying gorgeous food and it's so nice to not of had to cook for a change - I love me a camp-oven dinner... And now that Tobie is up and walking he just potters around too, taking it all in...

And to finish off a rather long winded post (thanks for hanging in there is you've made it all the way to the end)... This month I've been married for 8 years - WOW!!! Where has that time gone??? 3 kids and a hell of a lot of good memories later and I can safely say that the man that made me his wife back in 2005 is still the love of my life!!! - how lucky am I!!!

Happy Anniversary Brad... xx

Holidays...

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if my little family lived near a town, where when holidays were over kids toddled off to the local school while the Mum (and Dad's too in some homes) got the chance to organise the home again after a hectic holiday. But then I remember that my family lives on a Sheep Station, 70km's from any school with no access to buses, so school for us is done here on the farm and that sometimes means that actual 'holidays' so to speak are few and far between... 

So this weekend I didn't feel as guilty as I normally would when most of my time was spent doing very little as I readied myself for another Term of Home-schooling here on the farm... I mended busted knees in my eldest girls favourite pants...

 

Watched as DH taught the girls a thing or 2 about fencing...

 

Finished off a batch of Tomato Relish, with label writing help from my girls of-coarse...

 

Made bread - lots of bread. 

 

Picked oranges from our tree,

 

and made the sweetest orange juice I've tasted in a long, long time...

But most importantly I chilled out, a lot!!! And it felt really, really good... What did you do this weekend?

On My Table....

My cumquat tree is ladden with fruit and has been for a good 3 months.... A favourite way of preserving this bitter little mini mandarine looking fruit is to turn them into sweet little citrus balls of golden deliciousness....

Preserved Cumquats are super easy to make and take no time at all... They taste delicious served on a plater with some good Blue Cheese, spooned over ice-cream or custard and the syrup is delicious poured over a freshly baked buter cake....

Here's how I preserve my Cumquarts..... Simmer 1kg of cumquats in a pot of water for 15mins, drain. Make up a sugar syrup while the fruit drains like so; mix 1 cup of water with 600g of sugar and bring to the boil. Add the drained fruit to the sugar syrup and simmer for 20mins. Using tongs, stack the cumquats in sterelized jars until full, then top up jars with the syrup. These need to be stored in a dark cupboard or they will discolour. Preserved fruit will last for 6-12 months. I get 4x250ml size jars from 1kg of fruit.

The mood struck today to make a Spinach Pie.... We love these in our house, especially when they're made with home-made Ricotta....

So while a fresh batch of Ricotta hung from the kitchen tap, draining, I went out to the garden and picked a big bunch of coloured chard (similar to silverbeet)....

 After only 10mins hanging my Ricotta was ready,

fresh and creamy and tasting better than anything you'll every buy in the Shop's!!!!

So armed with freshly picked coloured chard, home-made cheese and a few other ingredients I made a Spinach Pie for lunch (which we finished off for tea)....

Here's my recipe....

Spinach Pie

Big bunch of Coloured Chard/Spinach/Silverbeet, chopped.

1 onion diced

3 eggs

200g Ricotta

1/2 cups of Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Salt and Pepper

Freshly Ground Nutmeg

And that's it!!!!

Heat the spinach in a pan until it is a 1/3 of its harvested size, put aside.

Saute onions, put aside.

Mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl, add the Spinach and onion, mix well.

Spoon mixute into a loaf style dish and bake at 190'C for 45mins.

If you feel like a little bit of a crunch use 10 sheets of buttered filo as a base for your pie.

This is great served cold with salad or even sliced thinly and used as a meat substitute on a salad sandwich for lunch is delicious!!! 

What have you been making today???

Seasonal

Last week we were gifted 2 big boxes full of the sweetest home-grown Nectarines I think I've ever tasted (thanks Hansen family) so what were we to do with this yummy, juicy, extra ripe seasonal fruit apart from eat it??? Make Jam of coarse....  

 

Having never made Nectarine Jam before, and a lack of being able to find a recipe in my trusty old preserving book, I decided to 'wing it'.....

 

My girls started by removing the seeds from the fruit and slicing the flesh, thinly, until they had enough to fill a 4 litre pot. I then placed the pot full of sliced fruit on the stove over a low heat for approx an hour (do not add any water or your jam will be too runny) - the flesh will be all nice and gooey like baby food after this time.

 

We then added 4 cups of sugar to our baby food goo and bought it to a simmer. Because Nectarines have a very low pectin level we had to simmer our mixture for approx 2 hours before the 'setting' stage was reached. A good way of telling if you've reached this 'setting' stage is to have a small plate handy in the freezer, place a teaspoon of your hot mixture onto the cold plate and freeze for a couple of minutes. If, when removed from the freezer, your mixture wrinkles and separates when your finger is run through it than your jam has reached the 'setting' stage - remove it from the heat and bottle it. If the mixture doesn't wrinkle simmer for a further 10 mins and repeat....

 

We've also got an abundance of passionfruit here on the farm at the moment so I tried my hand at some passionfruit syrup, so far so good it's a hit with the whole family!!!!

 

For our syrup we took 2 cups of fresh passionfruit pulp, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and bought it all to a rapid boil for 10 mins.

 

While it was still hot we poured it into some sterilized jars....

 

And then I couldn't help but pour it all over a butter cake that we'd made the day before and fill it full of cream - so delicious!!!!!

 

I'm still knitting away happily and have been dying to share this shawl with you all...

 

The pattern is Sand and Sea from the Coastal Knits book and the yarn I've used is Malabrigo (lace for the green and sock from the edging)

 

What can I say.... I simply loved making this shawl. There was just enough detail to keep me interested the whole way through and I even learnt something new - picking up wraps from a purl side. I can see another one of these simple lightweight Summer shawls whipped up very very soon....

 

And thanks to my little Millie, it's being modelled just beautifully..... :)

{{{{Big Hugs}}}}
Jodie