Garden Harvest!

It has been a busy few weeks.  I've been working away in the wilderness and time at home has been spent preserving the last of the Autumn harvest.  Phil has been busy; removing the last of the tomatoes from the garden and replanting with winter crops.  The tomato haul was very big!  We have been busy making tomato passata, red tomato sauce (ketchup) and my favourite, yellow tomato sauce (ketchup). 

I'll miss fresh tomatoes from the garden,but I am already planning the varieties for next seasons planting!

All that preserving made for a healthy appetite!  We took some time out to bake scones and have afternoon tea out on the lawn.

Rosehips at Dawn

The kinder run in the morning is normally pretty routine.  That is, until I found these beauties growing on the roadside.  We stopped the car and inspected the bounty - it was an exciting moment.  I am a big fan of rose hips and have been wanting to make syrup for some time, but could never find a source.  Until now.  We have discovered a lone bush that provides us with the best rose hips I've seen!

 So I set about finding a recipe to turn these into syrup.  The River Cottage Cookbook provided all the information I needed to transform these rose hips into something special.  After washing them carefully..

I blitzed them in the blender.  They don't look particularly appealing at this stage!

Then into a saucepan of boiling water.  Remove from the heat allow to steep, like tea, for half an hour.

Then strain through a muslin lined sieve and repeat the process above - (into boiling water, steep and strain). 

 Boil the strained syrup (it started to smell amazing and filled the house with a rosy perfume!) until it's reduced by a third.  Then add golden caster sugar and simmer until it is thickened and reaches a syrupy consistency.

Pour into sterilised bottles - isn't the colour just amazing!

Enjoy on pancakes or ice cream - divine!

Making Butter

We had a go at making butter the other day.  There were several cartons of good quality cream reduced to clear at the supermarket, so we took the opportunity and bought all six of them!  We found a good recipe to follow in this book.

Making butter was easier than I initially thought.  Just pour in the cream and let the mixer do the rest!  

It takes a while for the cream to separate...........

Then as soon as the buttermilk and butter separate, put the butter into a sieve lined with muslin to drain a little more squeezing the buttermilk out by hand.

Then back into the mixer for another brief stint of whipping to get the last of the buttermilk out

Back into the sieve lined with fresh muslin for the final drain (see all the buttermilk in the jug!)

However, it was a little fiddly when it came time to shape the butter with the butter pats (these were my grandma's I think).  There is definitely an art to it.

and voila, homemade butter! 

We made seven 220gram parcels all together

We have frozen most of the parcels as the recipe suggests that homemade butter doesn't last as long as the shop bought stuff.  The buttermilk made lovely pancake batter too.
Our butter was lovely spread on homemade bread with lunch.  We will certainly make this again!

These Days

The Summer garden harvest is in full swing here.  Tomatoes, chillies, zucchini, capsicum, basil and watermelons (of which Phil is particularly proud!)to name a few.  Our kitchen is also a hive of activity, preserving the season's bounty ready for the leaner months ahead.  We have been making harvest tomato sauce and tomato and thyme tart from this book.

 I have had a little time to finish some sewing too.  A skirt and top set as birthday gifts for two of Ava's little friends.  I am quite happy with the way they turned out. The appliqué (of an elephant in case you are wondering!) on the T shirts was an experiment that turned out better than I expected.  

And a little light reading from our recent trip to the library

Have a great day.

Say Cheese!

A few days ago we decided it was time to unveil our homemade cheddar.  About six months ago, I attended a cheese making workshop with the Dexter Cattle Society in Tasmania. Over the two days we made lots of different cheeses - camembert, feta, ricotta, mozzarella and cheddar to name a few.  We were  able to taste test most of the cheese I made straight away, but cheddar needs ageing in order to mature and develop good flavour.  So, after many months of waiting - we unwrapped our cloth bound cheddar.  It was well worth the wait, with lovely creamy flavour and a slightly crumbly texture.  We served it up with homemade green tomato pickle.  It was really good and we are now hoping to make more cheese with milk from a nearby organic dairy.

Lemon Cordial Tutorial

It's been quite a while since we last bought cordial from the supermarket - at least 2 years I'd say.  Once we found this recipe for homemade lemon cordial, there was no going back!  Aside from the fact that this tastes so much better than the bought stuff, you know exactly what's going into it - no artificial colours, flavours or weird numbered additives.
Over time, I've adjusted the amount of sugar in this recipe - there is quite a strong sugar syrup as the basis for this cordial - but you use so little and dilute it with water, so it's not so bad really!  It contains far less sugar when compared to the supermarket stuff.
This is a staple in our house.  Phil isn't a huge fan of drinking water without some kind of flavouring!  You can adapt this to include any kind of citrus fruit, but we like lemons the best.  
You will need:

  - 1400 grams of sugar
  - grated rind and juice of 8 lemons
  - 1100 mls boiling water
  - 1 tablespoon citric acid

Finely grate the rind of the lemons.

Then juice all 8 lemons.

Measure out the sugar into a large heatproof bowl.

Add the citric acid to the sugar.

Pour the boiling water over the sugar and citric acid mix.

Add the finely grated lemon rind.

Stir thoroughly until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Then pour in the lemon juice and stir again.

Cover the bowl and leave to stand overnight or for several hours.  The longer you leave it, the stronger the lemony tang!

The next morning, strain the mixture and pour into sterilised glass bottles.  Keep in a cool dark place. Once opened, keep it in the fridge.


Enjoy!

Over the Weekend

We had a great weekend with the lead up being a frenzy of preserving the garden's harvest. Phil was away at a fly fishing clinic on Saturday and Sunday, whilst Ava and I caught up with family and friends in Melbourne - including a trip to the (very busy) Museum on Sunday.

 Phil learnt some serious fly fishing skills to help him land this 6 pound Brown Trout which was catch and release in a sustainable fishery.  He looks so happy!

 Ava was very busy mothering her 'babies' and dressing them in new outfits!

 Ava and I picked these flowers from the garden - spring is here.

 We also made Granola from these ingredients................. 

 and it turned into this.

 We picked more berries from the garden - we are at risk of being completely over run by the berries in the garden!

and we made more of this lemon cordial

from these ingredients.  I'll post a tutorial on how to make this cordial later in the week.

Hope you had a great weekend too!