Greening the rose

Have you made nut milk?

2012-02-16T06:00:00.000+11:00

I first came across the concept of nut milk when doing Heather’s 30 Day Vegan course last year. Although I like yoghurt and cheese, I am not and have never been a fan of dairy milk, which is no doubt a legacy of being a 1960s primary school child who was forced to drink the free school milk left in the Australian sun for a couple of hours each day.

Aware as I was of soy and rice milks, I was not familiar with nut milks, so this was a new foodstuff as well as a new way of becoming more self reliant with food.

Nut milk can be made from practically any nut (and some seeds). The only addition is water and nothing need be wasted as the nutmeal (solids) that are left can be used in baking. In fact, if you’ve recently purchased almond meal, you may welcome this recipe for that alone.

Overnight or for eight hours soak one cup of nuts or seeds of your choice in a cup of water. I make a point of using rainwater from the tank.

Drain the nuts and rinse thoroughly.

Pour the nuts into a blender with four cups of rainwater.

Fit the lid on tightly then pulse for ten seconds at a time until well blended.

Line a jug with muslin, a Chux wipe or pantyhose and carefully drain the nut milk into the jug, reserving the meal for freezing or baking.

Chill and enjoy, the nut milk will keep for about three days and is excellent in baking as well as for drinking.

Price wise, nut milk is reasonably frugal considering the nutritional bang for your buck and the lack of waste. I picked up 750g (one and a half pounds) of non-organic Australian almonds for $6.99 from which I can make about four litres of nut milk at $1.75 a litre. Factor in the almond meal left for the freezer and this is a pretty good deal, nuts purchased in bulk would produce even cheaper milk.

Nuts are high in oils, most of which is mono unsaturated (a good fat which may reduce LDL cholesterol) unlike regular dairy milk. They have significant complex carbohydrate, fibre, B vitamins, minerals and phytosterols.

Nut milk works for everyone who can tolerate nuts, it’s dairy free and the almond meal is gluten free and works for those on carbohydrate restricted diets.

Try almonds, cashews, walnuts, sesame seeds – your imagination is the limit.

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-02-14T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

Sometimes

2012-02-13T18:28:00.000+11:00

it feels really crowded around here!

Switching it up, changing

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000+11:00

We are in the process of creating change around here.

One of the changes we are making is in the kitchen. I'm doing Heather's three month Whole Food Kitchen course and today, when module one started, I was like a kindergarten kid starting school -- just full of anticipation and I wasn't disappointed. I'm so lucky that my friend and Down to Earth moderator buddy Sue is doing the course with me.

The incredibly unseasonable summer we've had means that we've experienced garden problems like never before -- the worst of fruit fly, moulds, rust and rampant weeds. There are snail parties like you wouldn't believe out in the back garden.

So we are reviewing plantings for autumn and, with some luck and maybe a little less rain, we'll have a bumper autumn harvest.

The best thing about this simple life journey is that you can make mistakes and have things go wrong and be so much smarter when you come out the other end!

Making better bread is on my agenda. I'm thinking of ditching the convenience of the breadmaker dough making and doing the lot from scratch.

I'm also in the process of streamlining the household routine, doing more before I go to work so that there is less to do on days off.

The Rose Marshall project is being revived.

Most of all, we are ridding ourselves of negativity. Choosing a positive place to work from was never on our agenda until we got to a place where choosing the positive was a necessity.

Good wholesome work out in the fresh air is more important than I ever gave it credit for. If negativity and introspection influence you, it doesn't matter how positive and outward looking you try to be, you'll be drawn in to those things.

We choose change and looking forward.

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-02-07T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

Figgy Fun

2012-02-02T06:00:00.000+11:00

from theplantwhiz.com

My friend Nomes gave us a dozen figs from her landlord's tree. This afternoon I noticed that they were starting to soften so I decided to cook them. I made a basic sugar syrup with lime juice and vanilla and gave them five minutes in the saucepan. Then I took it off the heat and poured in 100mls (about half a cup) of Frangelico.

To serve I put out the figs, some liquid and a half in half mixture of yoghurt and cream.

Divine!

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

Making the freezer work for you

2012-01-23T21:58:00.000+11:00

When I decided to regard my freezer as a cold storage place rather than something to be filled it started to serve me a lot better. These days the freezer holds bits and pieces that are ready to add to meals or ready to provide quick meals rather than storing large quantities of meat or other things that we don't consume.

Tonight for example we had a roast dinner. I cooked extra roast pumpkin for risotto and froze it in a meal size portion, diced up extra chicken for sandwiches/risottos/pasta and will chuck the carcasses in there to be made into stock later down the track when I have the time.

Any leftovers are bundled and labelled and find themselves in the freezer as extra meals or fillings for sandwiches. Bread and biscuit doughs are frozen, lasagne and other such meals that freeze well are double cooked so that there are always ready meals for busy nights of the week. Baked loaves are sliced and frozen, as are pizza bases and other baked items. Cake for example is rarely cooked but, when it is, I serve it for only two desserts and freeze the rest before it goes stale and it becomes a treat down the track.

When I cook a rice based dish I cook more than I need, freeze half and again have a meal for later or at least, the basis of a meal.

When we have a roast as we did tonight, I buy very slightly more than we need, then slice and freeze some.

It's amazing how stretchable things become when you immediately freeze what is leftover. Naturally, items such as lemon juice, herbs, and other garden produce when in surplus find their way into the freezer.

If you adhere to proper wrapping, labelling and listing of what's in the freezer it becomes a great servant and save masses of time and waste. Left in the fridge all of these items become science experiments in no time, whipped into the freezer they become useful meals.

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

What's in the freezer?

2012-01-16T22:06:00.000+11:00

Although I preserve some items, most of the foods that I prepare for future meals come from double cooking or leftovers. We usually eat fresh ingredients, cook what is needed and have little over. That said, throughout the working week I find that there is a bit extra here and there, if I freeze it immediately it doesn't become a science project in the fridge, it becomes a useful item down the track.

So, it gets double wrapped and labelled (the work of thirty seconds) and goes into the freezer ... but how to remember what is there?

I've tried paper lists of various descriptions, they involve numerous crossings out and are hard to maintain at an up-to-date level. Writing on the freezer door with a non-permanent marker is quick and easy, the note can be crossed out, swiped out with a finger or cleaned off with Windex when an item is removed. This is easy!

At this stage of summer my freezer doesn't contain much as I haven't yet done a lot of preserving. But there are bits and pieces that can feed one, two, three or four; some are cooked and ready to go, some are raw. I can easily do a "freezer meal" on a lazy night, add fillings to lunches any day or whip up a soup with stock.

The marker lives on top of the freezer so that, as each item is added, it is written up with an approximation of how many it will feed.

Anarel Garlic

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000+11:00

The delightful Celia has led me to The Chefs' Warehouse and Southern Cross Supplies at Marrickville, both of which are sensational so, when she posted about Anarel Garlic on Saturday, I knew this was something to go for.

I sent my order on Saturday, heard from Diana on Sunday and received this beautiful package yesterday.

The bulbs are beautifully full and heavy and look dead easy to break apart. Tony plans to plant some and the rest I'll divide to hang and freeze.

Thank you Diana, Ian and Celia!

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

Showery Sunday

2012-01-08T13:52:00.002+11:00

Little spitty showers are drifting across the escarpment, they're moving so slowly that some of the clouds are forgetting to move on.

Down here it's a little damp and a whole lot colourful. This is commonly known as the red flowering gum.

Perfectly poached chicken

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000+11:00

During our holiday time I got a bit lazy and picked up one or two (free range) BBQ chickens to supplement meals. That's OK, but it is not a way of going on.

As return-to-work time approaches I need to have cooked chicken available for sandwiches, risottos, salads and other meals so, yesterday, I picked up a kilo of lean chicken breasts and poached them. Tonight the saucepan of poached chicken and liquid is sitting in the saucepan in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll skim off the small amount of fat that will have risen to the surface, then chop and shred the meat into eight meal sized portions and freeze them.

The liquid will then be strained and frozen for chicken stock.

It's such small efforts that dispense with cured nitrate-filled meats that might otherwise be used. Poaching chicken is ridiculously easy if you are gentle with it.

Simply place your meat in a saucepan and cover with cold water 3cm (2 inches) above the meat. Add some mild herbs, bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring to the boil with the lid on, then turn off the heat and leave untouched for one and a half hours.

Move your cooled saucepan to the refrigerator and deal with the contents the next day.

2012: Vegetables in focus

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000+11:00

Like Gavin, we are aiming to eat more vegetables and less meat this year. I haven't put a figure on the amount of meat we will or will not eat but I am focussing on vegetables/beans/lentils as the first port of call when planning meals. Meat will be a secondary consideration.

Our reasons are threefold: health, green issues and cost.

We purchase our meat from the excellent Hawthornes Meat in our local shopping centre. Bruce Hawthorne runs a brilliant old fashioned butchery which cuts to order and offers the best of free range/grass fed meats -- Otway pork, Thirlmere poultry, grass fed lamb from Cowra and grass fed beef from Milton. Everything is chemical and hormone free. Such meat attracts a premium that I am willing to pay, there are no additives, no fillers and the beasts have lived a humane life.

image source: www.choice.com.au

This week I focussed on putting vegetables first when I planned our meals so we were/are having:

Monday was a salad with lots of greens and tomatoes with chargrilled haloumi and softly boiled eggs, based on Lisa's lovely recipe.

Last night was fish in lemon sauce with potatoes and freshly podded peas.

Tonight we are having Annabel Langbein's Chili Bean and Corn salad with a little mince and some taco shells on the side.

Thursday is risotto night -- asparagus and kumura.

Friday night I'm going to cook up a bunch of our yellow summer squash using Elise's recipe.

It's amazing how different menu planning is when you think vegies first.

Tuesday: something to sing about

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000+11:00

Remember when we rattled down the vinyl records onto the spindle on the stereogram? Wasn't it simply great? Tuesdays in 2012: something to sing about.

Summer breakfast

2012-01-02T17:52:00.001+11:00

For much of the year I eat fresh free range eggs for breakfast although sadly, they are no longer our own. I am lucky to have a local supply from Berrima Ridge Farm which I purchase from Manic Organic at my local shopping centre.

Now that summer has arrived I am feeling like something a little lighter on some mornings and decided today that it should be muesli. I looked up Celia's recipe for Pete's Muesli Enhancer and used that as my base, tweaking and changing according to what was to hand.

I prefer a grainy base so I added half 100g of rolled oats to the 200g of spelt flakes. There were no pepitas in the cupboard so I added more sunflower kernels, substituted dried dates for figs, apricots for blueberries and then mixed it all together. It took ten minutes tops.

No salt, no added sugar, at least half organic and all wholefood.

At half the cost of the shop-bought equivalent.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000+11:00

It's been so cold! The coldest December in fifty years.

The water is grey and foamy down at the beach.

We try to pretend that it's summer but you can see from the green grass here and here ...

that it's not even remotely an Australian summer yet. The last time I saw grass this green it was in Ireland it was 2005!

But, as Bill will tell you, you can still have fun on the beach, no matter what the temperature is.

And I agree!

Summer is coming next week, the weather man told me so.

And so is the new year with heat and renewal.

2011 in review: Bread and chocolate

2011-12-21T21:00:00.001+11:00

Looking back over 2011 I can see that I've made some strides forward in the bread baking department. In January I went back to bread, and in February I started to think about sourdough.

In March I experimented with sourdough starter, ran up some artisan bread and experimented with freezing bread dough. In April I tried out the use of baking paper and thanks to Lisa and Christine, tried even more flexible bread baking.

In May I tried a crazy sourdough starter (devised by me) and in June a more traditional one.

July produced my first satisfying loaf of fruit sourdough bread and, in October, I experimented with making sourdough starter based on Brydie's method.

Good times!

I now whack up the weekly loaves in the breadmaker, do the second rise in a loaf tin and bake in the oven. I'm pretty happy with the results but, in 2012, there will be a lot more sourdough and more loaves made in the mixer rather than the breadmaker, and more loaves with different flours.

Last week because of (our) shop demands, I resorted to commercial bakery bread and found it light and fluffy and distinctly unsatisfying even though it's a whole lot better than any supermarket bread.

Next year's challenge is also making good chocolate, using the brilliant Callebaut that the delightful Celia told me about.

Brydie and Celia have been two of my fun discoveries this year!

What a rich community we have in this simple living blog land.

La Nina

2011-12-10T09:45:00.001+11:00

source: abc.net.au

The La Nina effect is the opposite of the pervading El Nino effect here in Eastern Australia. During La Nina conditons, the sea surface temperature of the Eastern Pacific is three to five degrees celcius cooler than normal. In this part of Australia, La Nina produces heavy rains.

Couple La Nina with an unusual and predominating south westerly wind and you begin to understand why we have had our coldest and wettest start to summer in fifty years. We Aussies love to grouch when the weather is not perfect so the grumble factor is pretty high at the moment. However, it must be said that we are experiencing the most extraordinary skies.

More on ice cream

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000+11:00

The chocolate ice cream recipe I posted here has turned out to be a winner for other flavours as well. The half cup of cocoa can be substituted with a half cup of any chopped fresh fruit lightly crushed. Espresso coffee also works.

I am a great fan of eggs but I like that this recipe doesn't rely on raw eggs or a custard mixture or a lot of cream.

You could even dispense with the cream altogether and just use more milk or yogurt. I've tried adding a dash of liqueur occasionally and it too works well.

Keep in mind that a recipe such as this is not emulsified because it does not contain eggs so it will tend to crystallise after a while. If you take it out of the freezer twenty minutes before you plan to use it, you can beat it with a fork or heavy wooden spoon to break up the crystals.

This really is a wholefood ice cream.

My Mum

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000+11:00

Mum turned 85 yesterday which surprised both of us. Not the fact that she got there, but that she is actually 85 ... how odd, we didn't quite realise. Because we both think she's maybe 59 or 60, or something. Oh no, she couldn't be because I am nearly that.

So what's Mum's amazing secret? People love to ask that of older people. How come you are so "sprightly"? (offensive word) Mum's not sprightly she's what she has always been, a person who gets up in the morning with a genuine interest in the day ahead and what will unfold. Just as she has been for 85 years.

Sure, at 85 she has a couple of issues: she doesn't sleep quite as well as she once did, she has a dicky knee and macular degeneration. But that's small beer, she's got stuff to do everyday and she is the most enormous help to us and we love her to bits.

She whinges and complains about some things, now...what are they? Oh yes, Tony Abbott, John Howard, Manly Warringah football team, and people who pontificate. She doesn't suffer fools gladly but she is very kind to them.

And she's my Mum and my very best friend.

A versatile fruit cake

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000+11:00

This is the recipe I cook when I want something for the week's morning teas and I want the process to be straightforward. In the middle of a busy day yesterday, I realised I hadn't baked anything for this week so it was the work of a few moments to prepare this cake.

Best of all, the cake can be mixed in the saucepan you use early in the process which will cut down on washing up. The ingredients can be swapped and changed to produce different sorts of cakes so it's never quite the same twice.

You do need to plan to boil the fruit and let it cool completely but, other than that, this versatile cake is a cinch to pull together.

Ingredients
375g mixed dried fruit -- yesterday I used raisins, currants, sultanas and apricots; use what you have on hand and there's no reason this can't be just one fruit if you choose
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar or other sweetener I used a big blob of molasses yesterday
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup water
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup plain flour
1.5 cups of self raising flour
nuts: optional

Method
Combine dried fruit, butter, sweetener, bicarb and water in a saucepan, bring to a rolling boil, maintain for two minutes. Cool completely.

Add nuts if using (walnuts, almonds and pecans are all good), eggs and the half cup of plain flour. Combine with a wooden spoon, then work in remaining self raising flour.

Put in tins of your choice -- round, loaf, muffins etc and bake in a moderate oven.

If you are wondering whether you could cook this as a Christmas cake the answer is yes. Because the fruit is boiled rather than soaked and baked in for a long period, the cake won't keep as long as traditional fruit cakes, but this could be made a few days before Christmas and enjoyed.

Raindrops on roses

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000+11:00

An afternoon storm blew up the other day and, as I'd be anxious to try out the 'pin hole' setting on my camera, I went out the moment storm blew over to see what I could do with the camera. I rather like it.

On Sunday we walked across MacAuley's and then looked back to Sandon Point. We set out early so we could enjoy the soft summery light and the cool of the early morning.

I'm going to plan this more often.

Having met Lucy over at http://attic24.typepad.com/ I've been doing all sorts of practising hooky stuff and I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot more.

Imagine crocheting a whole heap of rainbows!

Artiness

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000+11:00

Twelve years ago I knew nothing about art, it was something Tony Did, something that I had bad memories about.

One was from primary school when I was in third class, every week (or so it seemed) on Wednesday afternoons we painted bright coloured circles or squares which were outlined by thick black lines. To say this was tedious is putting it mildly. Then, in first form, we made clay dogs and I was very very excited to see mine when it came out of the kiln. As he handed it to me Mr Ranby, our Art teacher, made sarcastic remarks about my effort and my early art career came to a close.

For thirty years I lived in ignorance of all things arty except that Tony Drew and Painted so I had some vague idea of art.

Twelve years ago when I joined Tony in our art business my role was (and is) strictly clerical and managerial, he did the practical framing and chose art supplies, I managed the finances and the paperwork.

For our customers it was a different matter. They assumed I was arty and knowledgeable, my advice would be sought on matboards and timbers and, along the way, I developed a strong theoretical knowledge about art supplies. As I was working with arty people some of their “eye” and “taste” rubbed off – a lot didn’t! -- and I began to understand art a little more. Such as black not really being "black", that it is entirely possible to have thirty seven versions of white matboard and that, even though “blue and green should never be seen”, they actually go quite well together.

There were hilarious moments “That’s a really good picture,” I said one day. “That’s a Monet,” answered Tony drily.

When people learned I’d been a high school teacher for twenty five years they'd assume I had taught Art, it was a bit of a come-down for them when they heard about the Geography, Commerce, Computing and Retail Studies.

When you have a little art shop people constantly ask you what you paint so I decided I would do a short art course with a good friend of ours. Bad move. She is a terrific artist and a good teacher but all of her concepts were way beyond me. J wanted me to “look at the world” and “draw what [I] saw” but she didn’t want me to draw outlines, I was to feel the movement and the contours so err, not a lot happened.

One day I let loose with my charcoal and paper when no-one else was around. I drew a charcoal picture of Charlie Brown and then forgot all about it. The Artistic Gardener was so taken with this he insisted on framing it and hanging it. It's in a good spot, everyone walks past it and doesn't notice it so I don't get embarrassed by it.

And it's quite handy when people say "Do you draw?" and I can say, "I have done."

Sunday

2011-11-14T06:00:00.001+11:00

Well we did stuff, even though the sun was struggling.

We wandered along the beach.

And we walked and saw things ...

Boats too close to the shore ...

Toadstools ...

The indigenous tent embassy ....

Kids exploring ...

and kids being optimists.

Simply Saturday

2011-11-13T06:00:00.001+11:00

Such simple pleasures on Saturday:

My new tote bag for work, the holey old shopping bag is in the bin.

Saving a slice of banana cake for Mum's dessert. Mum and most cakes are Very Good Friends.

Such a fun note and gifty from Elle after she went to lunch. Her 80 year old Greek grandmother made Greek filled pita bread starting at 5am, we scoffed it fresh and fast -- there was no time for photos!

The view looking north from the shop backyard.

A seat in the sun, a salad lunch and the current book.

Sunset on the escarpment.

Lemon carbonara with spring greens

2011-11-11T06:00:00.001+11:00

Half of this household likes carbonara sauce, half does not. New Zealand cook Annabel Langbein has often provided us with recipes that have become family favourites so, when I read her Lemon Carbonara with spring greens in Eat Fresh, I decided to give it a go. Except for the parmesan it's dairy free and that can easily be substituted, there is no cream sauce.

Ingredients:
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
100g snowpeas or sugar snaps (I had broad beans)
3 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
ground salt and pepper
1 cup (50g) finely grated fresh parmesan
400g dried or 600g fresh fettuccine
2 tbsp butter
180g bacon, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil. Blanch any vegetables that need it then plunge them in ice water. Bring the water back to the ball and put in pasta, stirring well initially.

Meanwhile, heat butter in a fry pan, cook bacon over medium heat until crispy. Add garlic and vegetables and stir fry 2-3 minutes, turn off heat. (Before turning off the heat I put in two ladles of the pasta water to deglaze the pan.)

Beat eggs, egg yolks, zest and lemon juice. Drain pasta when cooked, return to hot pan. Toss through egg mixture tossing thoroughly, then vegetables and parsley.

Breakfast on Tuesday

2011-11-09T06:00:00.001+11:00

During the boiled egg cracking and the cereal pouring this morning Joy's birds gave us a quite a show.

They started out innocently enough with some grooming and pecking ...

But things escalated pretty fast ...

and it wasn't very long before there was a lot of squawking and some very ruffled feathers.

And one flew off in a huff.

Column 8 and AM are nothing in comparison!

An early taste of summer

2011-11-08T06:00:00.001+11:00

After another warm night the mercury climbed steadily all morning, so salad for lunch followed by chunks of new season watermelon seemed like a good idea.

Just last week a toasted sandwich seemed just right for lunch but today fresh greens, tomatoes and watermelon were a lot more welcome. We also have our first (market) peaches of the season ripening on the bench.

The Gardener was hoping for a storm at the end of the day but the threatening clouds blew past us and headed north so he had to water the vegies using his precious tank water.

And we must get another layer of mulch on the front rose garden before the constant heat arrives.

Its getting hot

2011-11-07T06:00:00.001+11:00

I spoke too soon. Today the mercury began rising significantly and, it's going to be getting warmer all week.

Yesterday Tony pulled out the sweet peas -- it's always sad to see them go. He came in looking quite flushed with the heat although it was nothing much that a morning coffee, the newspaper and two brown boys couldn't fix.

I forgot to feed my [refrigerated] sourdough starter last weekend so I took it out of the fridge this morning.

As you can see it's looking good, I was surprised to see how bubbly it was before I attended to it and it has a strong pleasantly yeasty smell. I didn't bake with it today, I had three other loaves on the go, but I plan to bake with it next week.

Yep, it's starting to look like summer.

Driving to work the "back" way

2011-11-05T06:00:00.006+11:00

If I take the back road rather than the highway or expressway, my five minute commute becomes fifteen or thirty minutes because I get diverted and distracted.

First, there is often a wait at the level railway crossing:

If you enlarge the photo you may be able to pick out a boat down on the water.

Then the train hurtles by or, in this case, creeps by as it's just stopped at the local station.

Then it's down to the point for a look-see:

The cargo ships are lined up out on the horizon as they wait to go into Port Kembla.

People meet and enjoy the incomparable view to the north.

The old cemetery sits on the hill with it's eternal views of sea and escarpment, I wouldn't mind being buried there but I've decided to donate all my bits.

As I turned to go back to the car, these two guys were whacking it out -- t-h-w-a-c-k! t-h-w-a-c-k! t-h-w-a-c-k! They kindly didn't whack me when I asked if I could take a picture.

Then, just as I got going to the shop, I got diverted again.

Aren't they gorgeous?

And isn't my place in the world?

Pepper mint - a new magazine

2011-11-03T06:00:00.004+11:00

Source: http://peppermintmag.com/

While having a rare browse through the shelves in the newsagent's I came across this relatively new magazine. It impressed me so much I bought a copy, it being about all things "vintage, organic, recycled, fair trade, sustainable, fresh and green" to quote the Web site.

Each page is chock full of links to Web sites that further explore the topic. I had planned to hand it on to one of the young women in my life but, it's so good, I've decided to buy another copy for her.

And I'm definitely going to make use of this!

In the spring vegie garden

2011-11-02T06:00:00.003+11:00

It's been a cool spring to date -- just watch that temperature soar now! -- but the vegie garden is coming along nicely. It's early days yet so we aren't harvesting a lot but things are certainly growing.

Soon it will be time for pesto or bruschetta.

The celery sticks should be long enough to harvest shortly.

The chard put on a second burst, time for freezing I think.

Tony's corn crop is enjoying its position against the garden shed.

The mini-cos lettuce is powering ahead.

The first of the tomatoes has appeared!

And before it enters its seasonal beserk-dom, the button squash is looking relatively calm!

Cooling the house in summer

2011-11-01T06:00:00.001+11:00

When we first built the north facing window wall in the lounge room we anticipated splashing the house with sunshine and we did. However, in summer that sunshine needs to be toned down. One of the ways we achieve this is by hanging sails under the awning, which helps prevent the glass on the window wall heating up.

Usually the sails are up by this time in spring, but this year's cool spring meant that Tony didn't put them up until last weekend.

Getting knitting right

2011-10-30T06:00:00.001+11:00

Sometimes you start knitting something and it goes more backwards than forward. This happened to me with this little garment that I am knitting for a friend's daughter.

After fooling around for a few weeks today I spent half an hour undoing. The back had a dropped stitch (!) just above the rib. The lace pattern fronts were not right.

I typed up the simple lace pattern in a large font with rows to mark off as I go.

I knitted one front to the armhole in an hour -- sans TV and other distractions -- the other is halfway there, perhaps another half hour is needed. Then I'll do the stocking stitch back and I expect it will all be done by the end of next weekend.

It's OK to undo, and if you are doing an unusual pattern, make it easier by having the pattern to hand to mark off and keep up with. Your work will go much better.

Happy cat

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000+11:00

Charlie Brown is demented -- literally. He is, as of last week, fourteen years old. In the two rooms he frequents he has a pheromone plug in the power socket, it calms him without freaking him out. Does that sound weird? Without the pheromones he is the devil incarnate who wees everywhere; with it, he is a [relatively for him] calm cat who behaves himself.

I feel better when his pheromones are in the socket too, I feel a lot less demented. It's a win-win situation.

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 7

2011-10-24T17:20:00.000+11:00

On the night of Day 6 I made up two sourdough starters, the one below for pancakes from the recipe here. The sponge sat overnight and the rest of the ingredients were added in the morning.

We all liked them, they were distinctly sour. We liked them so much I forgot to photograph them so had to pull out the lucky last.

For the sourdough bread, I used Daniel Stevens' sourdough recipe from River Cottage Handbook No 3.

The sponge included 500g baker's flour and the dough had another 600g added. I quickly found this was too much for my mixer to handle so I split the mixture into three and then combined it in the proving bowl.

The final loaf was okay, not brilliant but okay. The dough needed to be developed more as you can see in this photo and I think I lowered the oven temperature too much because the crust was scorching.

The dodgy colour is my fault, the loaf wasn't green!

I fed the remaining starter, put a lid on it but did not screw it down and refrigerated it. It needs to be fed only once a week now.

A trip to Sydney

2011-10-22T23:25:00.000+11:00

On a blue and white spring day, Sydney is incomparable.

Driving up College Street, St Mary's Cathedral stands out

Even when you fling your camera out the window, you get a good, if skew-whiff shot.

Then you drive along further and park in the Domain and eat lunch.

And when you are on this side of the city with trees and gardens, you walk along the road, slip down into the Botanic Gardens and look ...

and marvel at glimpses of the harbour (with snitches of the Opera House) ...

you focus on the touristy stuff and then you stand back.

It's truly marvellous how the city sits behind the gardens from some angles.

The trees in the Gardens are so varied, this is a Queensland Bottle Tree.

And this is that incredibly old tree ...

Gotta love Sydney Town.

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 6

2011-10-22T17:57:00.001+11:00

Look at Etna now!

Day 6, the starter is again fed with the weight of itself -- 100 grams of bakers flour and 100ml of water. Yesterday, while at the Chef's Warehouse, I read in one of the professional cooking books that sourdough starter should be whisked, so that's what I'm doing from now on.

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 5

2011-10-22T16:35:00.000+11:00

This post should have been written yesterday but I didn't get to it after our trip to Sydney.

Day 5 is the first day you need to divide your sourdough starter. As you can imagine, if you kept doubling the size of your sourdough -- and, to feed it that is what you must do -- the thing would eventually need a house to contain it! So, at this point we divide the starter.

The starter needs to be halved at least. I weighed mine and took it back as Cityhippyfarmgirl does to 100g, then added a feed of 50 grams of bakers flour and 50mls of water. This brings Etna back to a weight of 200g.

Addition: I halved the amount removed and popped it into another container and fed it liberally, I'll let you know how it goes.

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 4

2011-10-20T18:24:00.000+11:00

Etna -- named today -- is beginning to bubble! This morning she greeted me with her first signs of life.

Those two black spots are bubbles

Prior to today's feeding Etna weighed 200 grams so, today, 200 grams of baker's flour and 200ml of water were added to the mix giving a total of 400 grams.

If you're wondering why the colour looks so much better in the second photo, let's just say I'm sometimes a little slow with technology.

Tomorrow I'm playing hooky for a few hours and going here.

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 3

2011-10-19T20:41:00.000+11:00

This morning my starter looked like this:

Healthy looking but no signs of bubbles

Day 3 is the second feed, now things will begin to happen. We started with 50g of flour and added 50mls of water, then we did the same yesterday. We have a total of 100g so today we are adding a feed of 100g white baker's flour and 100mls of water, stir vigorously. Watch for developments!

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 2

2011-10-18T20:45:00.000+11:00

My starter this morning, twelve hours after mixing

I've included a photo of my starter as it was this morning, as you can see nothing appears to have happened, it looks like a thick batter and not much else, but keep the faith.

To feed your starter on Day 2, just add another 50 grams of rye (or whatever you have) flour and 50mls of water (rainwater or cooled boiled) then mix vigorously. As you can see in this second photo, I didn't quite incorporate all the flour today but that's okay.

Starter after the first feed today

See you same time and place tomorrow!

Come make a sourdough starter - Day 1

2011-10-17T17:23:00.001+11:00

Sourdough starter is easy to make -- it's also very easy to forget and ruin, I know of what I speak I chucked the last out only yesterday because I neglected it and a red mould grew.

However, sourdough starter can easily be made, it will bubble up rewardingly and can then be safely housed in your refrigerator (so you can ignore it).

You'll need to make a commitment of one minute every day for six days, those one minutes will ideally be twenty four hours apart. Check your calendar before you start this: what time of the day will work best for you morning? afternoon? evening? Mark off the times on your calendar, diary, week's schedule or in big fat writing on your fridge with a non-permanent marker.

I love Cityhippyfarmgirl's sourdough starter method, it's foolproof -- unless you forget it, it's authentic (no mashed potato, commercial yeast or sugars) and it works.

What you'll need:
1) a clean dry large glass jar or jug;
2) kitchen scales or a measuring jug;
3) rye or wholemeal flour -- organic if you can, also white baker's flour which can be called strong flour. You don't have to use rye flour but it ferments well which makes the job easier, but use whatever you have on hand.
4) water -- rainwater is ideal, cooled boiled water is fine (I often use what is left in the kettle), we are trying to avoid additives such as chlorine.
5) a piece of fabric to fit over the jug or jar.

Day one: Add 50 grams rye or wholemeal flour and 50 mls water to your jar or jug. Mix vigorously with a clean spoon, cover with your fabric of choice, secure with a rubber band, leave in a non-draughty place out of direct sunlight.

Gather your supplies

Pour in the 50 grams of flour

Pour in the 50 mls of water

Stir vigorously

Cover and leave in a non-draughty spot

Tomorrow we'll give the starter it's first feed.

Edited to add: Rye flour makes it easier, join in with whatever you have.

Guest blogger: Mr Potato Head

2011-10-11T06:00:00.001+11:00

Experimentation in the vege patch continues. A few months ago I found several spuds in the cupboard had started to soften and sprout. Ah ha! Time to try growing potatoes!

The "seed" potatoes were promptly carried to the spent brassica bed and unceremoniously plonked into the soil. I had read that it is a good idea to grow root crops after leafy. Within a week lush green growth appeared, it was looking good. A few weeks later masses of greenery filled the space -- better and better.

It's important to heap up the soil or mulch to prevent spuds turning green. Check! Feed well. Check! Sit back and await tons of yummy spuds. Check!

Then we had weeks of drenching rain. Could this be a problem? Maybe it's a good thing? After all there is lots of rain in Robertson where the best spuds grow so it must be a good thing. Smiles all round.

There was a sudden wilt of once lush green --not good -- the soil wasn't just moist it was absolutely saturated! Quick..rescue as much as you can! So there wasn't much of a crop but I have never tasted spuds with such flavour.

One group of wilted plants started to look OK. Could this be salvation for the rest of my crop? Let's wait and see.

Lesson so far: drainage! Encouraged, I will try again. This time I will plant at the correct time in correctly prepared soil with lots and lots of drainage. Keep in touch for next instalment in the saga of the spuds...

October is a good month to ...

2011-10-10T06:00:00.002+11:00

clean without letting it overwhelm you. Take it a room at a time and decide what must be done to make you feel better about your home. For me it's pulling out the furniture, cleaning behind it, wiping down the cobwebs from the ceiling, sweeping down the walls and applying some elbow grease to the skirting boards.

Fresh water in a bucket, a good pair of rubber gloves, continually rinsed cloths and a towel to kneel on are essential.

Go for one room at a time in little bites. If you can do a room a week you'll be done before Christmas.

Perfection is not your friend. If you are looking to clean, then clean the room not everything within the shelves and drawers, you can always backtrack through the warm lazy days of summer and do a bit here and there. Clean now when it's cool and energising, clean what matters and then move on.

Mr Jobs

2011-10-09T06:00:00.004+11:00

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not." Robert F Kennedy

RIP Steve.

On my mind

2011-10-07T06:00:00.006+11:00

This piece of satin/silk? was wrapped around a customer's work but they had no interest in keeping it. It measures 19" by 15" and I'd like to sew something with it. I can sew only straight lines. Has anyone a suggestion?

Thank you Rhonda for the this is on my mind concept creating our community of sharing what's on our minds.

Bread baking -- which way for you?

2011-10-06T06:00:00.001+11:00

As I work outside the home I keep trying to refine my breadmaking to make the most efficient use of the time available. Other than on weekends it's hard to find a straight three hours to get a loaf done.

I use a bread machine for the mixing, kneading and first rise, then take it out of the machine to push out the air, set it for the second rise in the loaf tin and then bake it in the oven.

I've had success with putting the dough for the second rise in the bread tin in which it will be baked and then rising it overnight slowly in the fridge. By baking it for an extra five minutes the following morning I get a good result.

At the moment I'm experimenting with freezing the dough before the second rise. The dough rose a little in the freezer so a little plastic first aid had to be applied. My plan is to defrost and do the rise in the fridge and then bake a little extra time as before. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sunset: A wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T06:00:00.001+11:00

Facing the fear

2011-10-04T06:00:00.001+11:00

and doing it anyway is a pretty good mantra but, if like me you are a baby boomer, facing the fear and using your new pressure cooker is a big ask. I bought the pressure cooker a few weeks ago and it's sat in its box until today.

It was unseasonably cold at 10am when I decided that split pea soup would be good for lunch. Of course it was a little late to make such a decision -- unless I used the pressure cooker. So I braved it.

Although the cooking time was fifteen minutes (I know!) getting the pot to the correct pressure took about fifteen minutes as did the natural cooling process, so these times have to be factored into the overall plan. It's not a matter of getting split pea soup in fifteen minutes but it certainly did shave oodles of time off the process.

Reaching the correct pressure is a simple matter of locking the lid and putting the pot on a heat source, the pressure is reduced after cooking by allowing the pot to cool down then opening it.

Once the pot was opened we put in the stick blender and had a really good soup in a few seconds. The nature of pressure cooking also means that all the nutrients are retained. We sat down to a late-ish but good lunch.

And the whole process wasn't too scary, well, not much.

On my mind

2011-09-30T09:06:00.000+10:00

Over at the Down to Earth forum we've been having a Christmas cake bake along, quite a few members have made their Christmas cakes but I seem to have gone quite mad -- I keep making them! These cakes are made in 10cm springform pans, get wrapped in calico and will be stored away until it's present time.

Thank you Rhonda for the this is on my mind concept creating our community of sharing what's on our minds.

Solving the planet's food problems

2011-09-28T06:00:00.003+10:00

During the last weekend in August some of the best food minds met in Copenhagen at the inaugural Mad FoodCamp. The event was the brainchild of Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer, the co-founders of Noma, the number one restaurant on the S. Pellegrino's World 50 Best List.

250 foodies of stature and experience gathered to speak, listen and debate. Part of the thrust was to get chefs to make more responsibility for their part in the food chain. Scientists, food foragers, geneticists, activists, policy makers on sustainability all had something to say on this and other topics.

This wasn't a conference held in an air-conditioned auditorium, it was held in the open on a 55,000 square metre wild meadow on an island in Copenhagen Harbour. It rained heavily on the marquees, porta-loos, organic food stalls and still the project went on.

Urban gardens, soil management and diversity, less meat and more plants, thinking locally, foraging were all on the agenda. Diversity and innovation were encouraged and an optimistic conclusion was drawn.

Power on Mad FoodCamp, may there be many happy returns.

The Rose Marshall Project: 333 Pickles

2011-09-27T06:00:00.001+10:00

The company
How delightful to find an independent Australian-owned company! The Three Threes company had its origins in Redfern, New South Wales The family business has been handed down through the generations and is now run by a couple of husband and wife teams who are direct descendants of the original owners Stanley Roy McAlpine and his wife Winfred Grace.

Products produced include sweet mustard pickles, pickled onions, sweet spiced gherkins, olives, spreads, dolmades, sauces - mint, apple and the premium sauce range.

Ingredients
For those times when we don't have pickles to hand, I buy the Three Threes brand.
vegetables 38% (onion, cauliflower, cucumber)
water
malt vinegar (barley, wheaten)
colour 150c Caramel III – ammonia process
sugar
wheat flour
salt
modified maize starch (1412) Distarch phosphates
mustard
turmeric
colour 102 Tartrazine, yellow #5
contains sulphites

Conclusion
Finding an Australian owned company manufacturing an Australian product is a great win. The ingredient list is reasonable although I'd prefer some of the preservatives weren't there. Using it as I do, as a fall back for when I've run out of my own product, makes this product acceptable in my view.

Saturated Sunday

2011-09-26T06:00:00.003+10:00

Difficult as it is to see in this unfocussed photo (try clicking on it), I was attempting to show the rain.

A south-easter has been whipping along the coast all weekend, drenching us in some much needed rain and bringing back winter temperatures. Having smelled the summer scent of bush fires (through back-burning) last week, this weekend we were back to cool grey days.

So the bicycle ride went on hold

as did the plans to plant these and

these.

Instead, a batch of biscuits (in a slightly too hot oven) were baked, with the leftover dough rolled ready for future baking popped into the freezer.

Wednesday at work: a wordless Wednesday

2011-09-22T06:00:00.001+10:00

Gin, the dancing dog

2011-09-19T10:38:00.000+10:00

This has got to be shared -- meet Gin, the dancing dog.

Sunday in the garden

2011-09-18T11:05:00.000+10:00

These geraniums grow in a pot on the balcony. Geraniums are hardy souls who don't mind a little neglect such as you forgetting that they are very woody or that you didn't notice something was eating them until you looked through your camera.

The sweet peas get planted in the same place along the driveway every year. Pick, pick, pick, they fill the vases in the house, the leaves eventually yellow and out they come until next year. My late great aunt, who was a manic and successful gardener in her tiny terrace in (then) distinctly unfashionable Bondi, always said that sweet peas must be planted on St Patrick's Day so every year you'll find us out in the driveway doing just that.

The iceberg roses are very showy and overblown but they look good and require little care.

This rose smells just like you think it would, a heady rich rose scent that intensifies as the temperatures rise. The plant is quite woody despite numerous prunes and the branches are prickly -- roses of all descriptions to be tend that way don't they?

Chocolate ice cream -- nailed!

2011-09-14T06:00:00.001+10:00

For some time I've been fiddling with home made ice cream recipes. The usual egg/cream base is reliable and delectable but it's also quite rich and heavy. Frozen yoghurt is good but, if you're looking for ice cream, it doesn't quite cut the mustard (as it were).

I've used an ice cream maker for this recipe but, if you don't have one, do as I used to: scrape the mixture hourly for three hours after you pop it into the freezer.

In a blender blitz:
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw)
1/2 cup baking cocoa
2 cups combination yoghurt and cream (I used 1.5 cups of yoghurt, the rest cream)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Process mixture in ice cream maker until desired consistency is reached. Freeze.

This should be a good base for all the warm weather fruits that are about to come in. Maybe ditch the vanilla and try a pinch of chili and mixed spice or any other combination that you like.

Charlie

2011-09-13T06:00:00.002+10:00

Sitting in the morning sunshine, Charlie is on the right, no the left ....

On the right, no the left.

In the kitchen

2011-09-12T06:00:00.003+10:00

Heather's 30 Day Vegan course has been a very practical and informative one. A suggestion she made was to incorporate bean and grain preparation into the weekend so that weekday meals (especially the evening one) were quicker to prepare. I thought that an excellent tip and decided to tack it on to my usual baking time, the kitchen is in use anyway so why not?

We attack multiple jobs at once so, even when the pace seems frenetic, an ordered yield comes out of the oven. Having done the week's bread yesterday afternoon, here I'm putting together three small Christmas cakes, Tony's juicing oranges in the new juicer and Mum's about to come in and clear the drained items on the dish rack for me.

We've been making these Christmas cakes in a bake-along at the Down to Earth Forum. In my last batch I made a full size cake, then I bought these 4.5" springform pans for cakes for gifts.

The Gardener spent some time sowing seeds in the seedling pots he made based on the instructions from Laura -- thanks Laura! These will feed us all in the late spring and early summer.

As usual, in the afternoon, Mum went down to the clothesline to collect the dry washing. She's very fond of that green and red tea towel, it is the colours of her favourite football team and an official souvenir. Note her curly companion who is posing for the camera.

The whole thing is a team effort.

The Rose Marshall Project: Robert Timms coffee

2011-09-08T06:00:00.000+10:00

As a rule we make espresso coffee in a stove or counter top machine but, when we want a quick convenient cup, we go for the coffee bags. I must admit that this product is probably our most wasteful in terms of packaging – the bags come in a cardboard box, each sachet is paper on string like a tea bag and that is covered with a foil envelope. The pay-off for coffee afficiandos such as ourselves is that we can brew a cup of “real coffee” anywhere we can get boiling water.

My initial foray for The Project into Robert Timms coffee bags was promising. Timms was the Australian son of a twentieth century merchant, he worked hard in the family business, in the sixties he initiated the import of New Guinean coffee into Australia of which he proudly said 'I would personally sign every bean if I could'.

Timms won a supply contract with Ansett (then an Australian domestic airline) and was the official supplier of coffee to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. When vacuum sealed cans of ground coffee arrived from Europe and the USA he began exporting 'New Guinea Gold', pure soluble coffee to both America and Europe and turned the game back on them.

The Department of Trade awarded him the Gold Medal Export Award. Mr Timms passed away in 1993.

Coffee beans are still imported by the company and roasted and bagged here in Australia and, after checking out my usual online sources, it looked like we had the ultimate Australian company carrying on the good work of its pioneer … until it all fell in the usual heap.

Fresh Food Services Pty Ltd purchased the Robert Timms company but, oddly enough, they don’t have a Web site so I rang to ask if they were an Australian company and if they were independent – or owned by someone else. Interestingly enough the young man I spoke too was able to tell me that, although Robert Timms still operates as an Australian company owned by Fresh Food Services Pty Ltd, he was only able to tell me that a parent company from overseas owned FFS not who the foreign company is. I’m still waiting for him to “get back to [me].”

My sleuthing took me to the Bushells site where I read In 1998, as part of an acquisition of coffee brands from Unilever, FreshFood Services Pty Ltd purchased the Bushells coffee brand. The tea brand still remains with Unilever. The coffee continues to be produced at the Concord Factory. FreshFood also purchased the New Zealand division of Bushells coffee. So it looks like Unilever is the parent company.

Unilever is one of those behemoths that has factories on every continent except Antarctica, their products are chosen "160 million times a day!"

Ingredients

Coffee

Conclusion

The production on this end is acceptable but I wasn’t pleased when my contact informed me there is no general policy on Fair Trade coffee although a line of Fair Trade coffee has been produced. It’s pretty sad that Robert Timm’s lifetime’s work of building a viable Australian company was sold to a big player.

Yoghurt success

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000+10:00

I've been making yoghurt off and on for years with varying ranges of limited success, as with pastry, yoghurt and I didn't seem to have an affinity -- until last weekend.

While reading Sue's blog I saw that she used a thermos flask for making yoghurt which I hadn't done for a long time. I'd been down the slow cooker road and a variety of other roads but all of them had come to a dead end. We have three thermos flasks, only one has a wide mouth and, as it's a 500ml one, I used less milk but not less yoghurt for the starter.

With the findings of my recent (and ongoing) project I decided to use unhomogenised milk

and organic natural yoghurt.

I heated the milk to 70 degrees celcius:

then added a quarter cup of yoghurt after it had cooled to 30 degrees celcius. After mixing it I poured it into the thermos

wrapped the thermos in a blanket

and left it from 5pm until 6.45am. Then I drained off the whey and was left with this:

thick delicious yoghurt.

Little Austi revisited

2011-09-05T06:00:00.001+10:00

Last year it looked like this and in November like this, how much things change at the beach! The winter storms and wild seas of the past few months have gouged the sand at Little Austi rendering quite a different appearance.

Sunday morning presented quite a change at our favourite dog-walking beach, half the sand has been eroded away, channels have been gouged deeper and algae covers many of the rocks.

See how close the water is to the land's edge? There is perhaps half the sand that formed the beach in previous photos.

Looking across the old rock platform out to the horizon (east).

These channels are narrow and surprisingly deep ...

Big Bill went past the narrow inlet and was immediately out of his depth.

Looking back towards where we started from, I've let the glare drown this photo so that you can see how it looked to us.

Little Austi is beautiful even in its difference.

The boys

2011-09-03T06:00:00.002+10:00

This one was gardening, note the hand (!), when the chelsea-style buns came out of the oven so I offered him a parfait spoon to scoop the toffee out of the baking dish and he rushed up to the kitchen.

This one has an affinity for pillows.

Note the colour of hair on the heads and beards: dogs looks like their people or ...?

On my mind

2011-09-02T06:00:00.003+10:00

I'm thinking about the warmer weather approaching which means planting seeds in the vegetable garden, taking cuttings and beginning to harvest the young leaves of spring. The weather man has promised us a fine warm weekend so you'll know where to find us.

Thank you Rhonda for the this is on my mind concept creating our community of sharing what's on our minds.

The Rose Marshall Project: Dilmah Tea

2011-09-01T06:00:00.001+10:00

It was surprising to learn that Sri Lankan Dilmah is the third largest brand of tea and that it is sold in 92 countries. The company was established in 1974, the founder Merrill J Fernando believes that business must operate in symbiosis with its environment and community so he incorporated a principle of human service in the business.

10% of the gross profits of Dilmah are donated to the MJF Charitable Foundation whose activities include post tsunami rehabilitation, education, womens empowerment, prevention of abuse and violence towards women and children, village reawakening and entrepreneurship development in Sri Lanka.

Ingredients
Single origin tea

Conclusion
I am old enough to remember teaching in Commerce that countries of the world had an advantage in producing a commodity, good or service because of their particular natural resources, manufacturing infrastructure or other resources. I remember the advantage was described as absolute or comparative. I think it made a lot of sense, today too many countries are trying to produce everything and do nothing particularly well.

The climate, soil and altitudes in Sri Lanka in combination form ideal conditions for tea growing, it makes sense to me to buy my tea from such a country although I am not adverse to buying Australian made. I think however that Dilmah is a good company doing a good job. This is the first product I have been completely happy with and the result surprises me -- pleasantly.

Made in Australia?

2011-08-30T06:00:00.002+10:00

Food labels, you gotta hate them. Made in Australia, Australian Grown, Product of Australia (or insert your country's name). What do they mean?

Here, unpackaged fresh food must be clearly labelled with country of origin, so that's easy.

Product of Australia means that each significant ingredient must come from Australia and almost all processing must happen here.

Australian grown means each significant ingredient has been grown here and production has been done here.

Australian Made means the product has been substantially transformed in Australia and at least half of the production costs have been incurred here.

Products can also be labelled Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients or Made in Australia from imported and local ingredients. The item listed first indicates where most of the ingredients come from.

So next time you are choosing what you believe to be an Australian product, read the label and I hope this well help.

Spring at the shop

2011-08-27T18:13:00.000+10:00

In the little back lane we share with our shop neighbours, spring is in evidence.

The wisteria is flowering a treat and covering Judy's boundary wire fence beautifully.

Back against the common fence the volunteer sweet peas are doing their thing.

And, in our shop garden, the long wished-for vegetable garden has been prepared and planted with a few seedlings. The Gardener at home is the Framer at the shop so his opportunities to create a vegie garden at the shop are few and far between. It seems that, after all, there is something to be said for a light trade week.

We've planted some pick and grow lettuce and some tomatoes. What else do you think would be good for a shop garden?

The Rose Marshall Project: Vegemite

2011-08-25T06:00:00.001+10:00

We are still at the breakfast table yet even our toast spread, the beloved Vegemite, is manufactured by one of the world’s largest food companies. Kraft Australia is 100% owned by Kraft Foods Inc which is second in size to Nestle globally.

Kraft had humble beginnings but, during the twentieth century, morphed and expanded as its range of “foods” grew. In 1998 Philip Morris Companies (renamed Altria in 2003 – I wonder why?) purchased Kraft, and in 2010 Kraft purchased Cadbury.

At that time Kraft had 14.8% of the global candy and gum market and it argued that it could take advantage of the Cadbury distribution in developing the markets of India, Brazil and Mexico. As incomes rise in these developing nations, Kraft hopes that products such as Oreo will become impulse buys for children.

I digress.

Kraft Australia produces Vegemite and it is manufactured in Australia. Kraft Australia has been cited for the use of genetically modified ingredients, poor wages for coffee farmers, workers rights, its BPA policy, and fined for anti-competitive behaviour.

Kraft Australia also makes Bonox, Cadbury products, Captain's Table, Caramello Koala, Cherry Ripe, Crunchie, Dairy Milk, ETA peanut butter, Freddo, Green and Blacks Chocolate, Kraft products, Lyons coffee, Maxwell House, Milk Tray, Nabisco, Pascall, Philadelphia, Picnic, Planters, Red Tulip, Roses, Tang, Natural Confectionery Company, Time Out, Toblerone, Twirl.

Ingredients

yeast extract

salt

mineral salt (508) Potassium chloride

malt extract (from barley)

natural colour (150d) Caramel IV – ammonia sulphite process (contains preservative 220) 220 Sulphur dioxide

vegetable extract

niacin

thiamine

riboflavin

folate

Conclusion

Kraft has me over a barrel. I could ration my Vegemite consumption, I could limit the occasions on which I eat it each year but I could never give it up entirely.

Winter Wednesdays #13

2011-08-24T06:00:00.002+10:00

"Big Bill it's almost September."

"The days are getting longer, the sun is setting later. It's Winter Wednesday #13 Bill, it's time to reflect on winter ... yes Big Bill, the days will get longer from now on. You want to go where?"

"Really Big Bill? That's where you want to go?"

"No more Winter Wednesdays - how does that really make you feel Bill?"

"OK Bill, I'll tell her." Thank you Ms Hazel for making Winter Wednesdays fun.

Nut milk

2011-08-23T06:00:00.001+10:00

My New Roots - How to Make Nut Milk from My New Roots on Vimeo.

Have you ever made nut milk? I hadn't until I watched this video which made the making, to use the vernacular, too easy. I had a vegan recipe for cookies which required almond milk so, after watching Sarah's video, I knew I had to make it myself.

Literally, I soaked a cup of almonds overnight, rinsed and drained them today, then blended them with four cups of water. The result was a smooth nutty textured milk, quite thin but tasty. I am not a milk fan at all so this is high praise indeed.

The leftovers looked like almond meal but were fairly tasteless so I composted them but I will research this before I make nut milk again.

I must admit to thinking prior to this, that nut milks and rice milk were only for those who had a lactose intolerance, I didn't realise these could stand on their own as ingredients. More to the point they offer a highly nutritious product without the lactose and cholesterol.

Surfacing

2011-08-22T06:00:00.001+10:00

Ah, August. The end of winter, the first signs of spring, the mental ha ha, the 'flu didn't get me this year. Do not think this! It is bad karma, I know of what I speak.

Since Tuesday of last week the three of us have been bowled down like the proverbial bowling pins: first Mum, then me, then Tony. However, today we turned a corner and are on the way to recovery, so here's a little of what has been happening during this time of little activity.

The chair minder has undertaken his duties quite seriously, if a chair became empty, he deposited himself to maintain its warmth until the sitter returned.

Lavendar for cuttings was supplied by Naomi, Narelle ensured our recovery with a bag of lemons, some of which were the size of bowling balls.

Charlie was on hand (or foot) at all times.

The very last of the winter vegie garden supplied fresh organic greens for a hearty vegetable soup.

Winter Wednesdays #12

2011-08-17T06:00:00.001+10:00

Winter Wednesdays are warming up, look at what's stirring to life at our place!

The first of this year's roses as opposed to last year's, these have emerged since The Gardener gave the rose bushes their boy hack back in July.

Our neighbour Joy not only has birds, she also has camellias which flower brilliantly late in the winter.

The living room orchid is doing it's annual thing.

But best of all, the first sweet pea is out!

Pop over to the fabulous Ms Hazel's to find out what else is happening on Winter Wednesdays.

The Rose Marshall Project: Logicol margarine

2011-08-16T06:00:00.010+10:00

Despite repeated requests for information Goodman Fielder, who produce Logicol, have not been able to answer the eight questions I asked them in July.

Goodman Fielder manufactures and distributes bread, small goods, margarine, oils, dressings, food ingredients in New Zealand and Australia. Brands include Cornwell's, Edmonds, Quality Bakers, Champion, Irvines, Meadow Lea, Olivani, Diamond, White Wings, Praise, Ernest Adams, Top Hat, Tararua, Meadow Fresh, Puhoi Cheese, Kiwi Meats, Huttons, Holbrooks, Leaning Tower, La Famiglia.

Logicol margarine is a functional food, ie., it is manufactured by the food industry to achieve certain nutrition levels/functions in the body.

Ingredients
vegetable oils
water

phytosterol esters (plant sterols (8%) from soy)

milk solids

salt

emulsifiers (471, Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids 472c Citric and fatty acid esters of glycerol from soy)

preservative (202) Potassium sorbate

food acid (lactic)

flavour

antioxidants (ascorbic acid, citric acid)

colour (beta-carotene)

Virtually (my emphasis) free of trans fatty acids

I don't know the source of the ingredients or additives but research shows Australian manufacturing.

Conclusion

This is not a food I would choose but for those who do, I believe on the basis of current information, that it is a reasonable choice.

A weekend away

2011-08-15T20:46:00.000+10:00

With my good friend Naomi I travelled down to Canberra last weekend to see the Quilt and Craft Fair. What a treat that was, it's so inspiring to see what people can do with needle and thread!

Canberra is two hours away from us inland so, to our coastal eyes it looked dry, though that may have been the effect of the frost at the end of winter.

Early on Sunday morning we went to the Kingston Markets where we bought free range eggs, plants, chutney, honey and a few other delightful morsels.

And, nicest of all, I met Tammy with whom I moderate at the Down to Earth Forum and whose blog I've read for quite some time. It's lovely to meet online friends in person.

Winter Wednesdays #11

2011-08-10T06:00:00.001+10:00

The spirit of this series of posts is meant to be about the things we enjoy about winter, but I'm afraid I'm cheating a little today, because I'm posting about signs that winter will soon be coming to an end.

The first of these is the snowdrops -- this tiny little bunch of bulbs has come up every year since we moved in thirty(!) years ago and it's aways a reliable sign that winter is soon coming to an end. Planted by a long ago hand, we don't know how long it's been there (certainly it wouldn't have been planted by the people who lived here before us), it's our personal groundhog on the end of winter.

In the last month of winter the freesias riot across our tiny front yard. After The Gardener's mother died twenty five years ago we unearthed some freesia bulbs from her coastal garden and now they serve as a fine reminder of both Maureen and the approaching spring. And they smell divine!

Pop over to the glorious Ms Hazel's to find out how others are spending Winter Wednesdays.

Fresh this week at the greengrocer

2011-08-09T22:41:00.000+10:00

I've decided to add this little list to the sidebar as I make a point of following what's happening at the fresh food markets each week. My overseas readers won't find it particularly useful but I hope it's at least interesting for you. I hope my Aussie readers will find it useful -- I'll be updating from the produce markets I go to each week as well as the freshest produce the Sydney Markets are trading.

In the garden

2011-08-09T06:00:00.001+10:00

The great tomato experiment has been remarkably successful. A few weeks ago The Gardener tossed some fertiliser on the plants to eke out a little more fruit and we've gone barely a day without harvesting something! If you are a fan of Burke's Backyard magazine, do make a note to buy the January 2012 issue for the winter tomato inclusion, it's well worth the cost! Had I planned ahead I could have had some young seedlings growing in the lounge room by now, but that's a job for next year.

Over the weekend Tony pulled out most of the winter crops and he has been feeding the soil with well rotted compost to prepare for spring planting. There is a good layer of mulch down in the vegie garden, so he pushed that back and dug through the compost. It's time now to start sowing seeds after making our spring plans.

In this photo you can see the results of my paper shredding, admittedly not completely broken down but on it's way and mopping up the moisture in the compost.

In which I answer your questions ...

2011-08-08T20:47:00.000+10:00

In my first report about juice a couple of questions arose:

Hazel said: i wonder how many times you will come up against commercial confidentiality?

which was a great statement. Commercial confidentiality also appears to equate with keeping us ignorant: don't answer emails, direct people to brand sites, dazzle them with one's "green-ness" and sustainable options and leave aside the uncomfortable facts. I think I'll be coming up against this more often than I even anticipated.

Thenewgoodlife said: Did you tell them you were blogging about the results of your research?

Yes, I did, I was upfront from the start and also told companies I would publish about promptness and delays to answers.

In the fourth report on oats, I was asked:

Jenny: I usually buy Lowan's oats when I get them from the supermarket. Are they OK do you think?

A couple of other readers mentioned Lowans and I must say they do look good. They appear to be Australian owned and use Australian produce, I just need to check out if there are any parent companies and I will report back on this.

Butter you may like

2011-08-07T11:19:00.000+10:00

Devondale products are made by the Murray-Goulburn Co-operative which appears to be an above board 100% Australian owned and producing company. I still haven't heard from Fonterra Foods about Allowrie butter so switched my purchase this week.

Please note that I have not contacted the Murray-Goulburn Co-operative yet but the online research looks promising. I will update on this.

The Rose Marshall Project: Uncle Tobys Oats

2011-08-06T06:00:00.002+10:00

100% oats grown in Australia, what could be better? A lot!

Company/ownership
Uncle Tobys Oats is owned by Nestle Australia which is owned by Nestle SA the largest "food and nutrition" company in the world. Nestle SA's other interests include Jenny Craig, Nescafe, Gerber, Aero, Carnation, Lean Cuisine, Maggi, Dog Chow, Feast, Perrier, Purina.

Nestle SA has been cited for control of water in North America, irresponsible marketing, commodifying water, child labour and workers' right issues, water pollution in China and poor wages for coffee farmers.

Ingredients
100% Australian oats which are rolled into flat oats, then steamed and lightly toasted.

Conclusion
This is a company which I don't wish to be associated with any further. "Incident No.: 0016128440" is checking out of her association with Uncle Tobys.

Reka

2011-08-04T06:00:00.003+10:00

When we bought a run-down little business twelve years ago, we had few expectations other than Tony making a living from it. Then we needed to take on some part-time employees and what a joy that has been!

One of our family of employees has been with us for about eight years now and she is a main-stay of our business so, this morning, finding words to help her along her journey was both easy and very tough. She's moving on soon and that's exactly how it should be.

Our girl, Reka, is very special. She works like a demon, she laughs like a river, she gives you belief in the coming-of-age generation.

She's going to Canberra to work for Reconciliation Australia and she takes with her generational hope and belief in change.

We're holding the baton forward, Reka. Scoop it up and fly high and good. Cling to your ideals, make sense of the work-a-day and always be yourself.

Winter Wednesdays #10

2011-08-02T18:05:00.000+10:00

It is much too early to suggest that spring has arrived but the days have been delightfully warm of late so, at our shop at least, lunch has been taken in the backyard.

Check the angle of the rays:

Put the feet up:

Stretch under a blazing midday sun:

And enjoy:

Pop over to Hazel's to find out how others are spending Winter Wednesdays.

Juice problem solved

2011-07-30T22:18:00.000+10:00

As you may recall, I wasn't happy with the results of my juice investigation. I did look around and was tempted by Macquarie Juices which are available at one of our local greengrocer's but I decided I liked the idea of being independent of the main supply.

Today I had to replace our iron so, I took the opportunity to look at juicers while in the appliance store. I had seen a gorgeous cold press juicer, the Juicepresso in our local organic shop but it was beyond our budget. I picked up a nice Breville juicer today, not as good as the Juicepresso but affordable, so juice is now something else to make from scratch with no worries about sourcing or additives.

Aussie citrus farmers are begging us to buy oranges at the moment so I got all these for the crazy price of $2.40. In other seasons other fruits will be a good price and it will be a much better product for all of us.

Kitchen bench space is at a premium so I'm going to incorporate the dining room into the kitchen further down the track. Five more minutes in the morning is a small price to pay for lack of convenience. There will also be less to throw out as the pulp and skins can go into the compost or green bin depending on the fruit.

Win win.

The Rose Marshall Project: CSR sugar

2011-07-28T06:00:00.001+10:00

Like most Australian households our sugar comes from sugar cane grown in tropical and semi-tropical regions of Australia. Most Australian school kids do a project on sugar at some stage so they know the names CSR (Colonial Sugar Refinery) and Bundaberg Sugar well.

Company/ownership
CSR is now a brand name under the auspices of Sugar Australia Pty Ltd, a joint venture between Sucrogen Ltd (75%) and Mackay Sugar Co-operative (25%).

Sucrogen Ltd is 100% owned by Wilmar International Ltd, a Singaporean-based company. The Malaysian Kuok Group owns 30% of Wilmar and Archer Daniels owns 15%.

Wilmar is the world's number one palm oil trader and palm biodiesel manufacturer, they have been criticised about deafforestation and human rights issues.

The Kuok Group deals in shipping, real estate, media, agribusiness and Shangri-La hotels.

Archer Daniels is an agribusiness that turns crops into food ingredients, animal feeds, derived fuels and chemicals. They have been cited as a significant player in the palm oil chain, child labour and contributions to global warming.

Ingredients
Sugar cane is highly refined to make sugar products, essentially it is washed, boiled, centrified, filtered and dried.

Raw sugar: refined sugar and molasses
Coffee sugar: large crystal refined sugar
White sugar: refined and bleached
Caster sugar: as white, fine ground

Conclusion
I find my choice of CSR sugar is not one I can sustain into the future. I intend to investigate independent sugar suppliers in this country, I will report back on this.

Winter Wednesdays #9

2011-07-27T06:00:00.003+10:00

Winter sunsets arrive early in this part of the world and are over very quickly. We’re located 34 degrees south of the equator so we don’t experience the drawn out twilights those of you in further away latitudes do but our sunsets are quite magnificent. Winter sunsets tend to be rather mid-blue, pink or orange, the impressive fiery colours nature reserves for summer.

With the escarpment to the west, we tend to get reflected sunsets. In the western sky though it’s pretty..

In the southern sky day and night court each other more dramatically.

And in the eastern sky it’s quite quite spectacular.

Pop over to Hazel's to see other ways winter is being enjoyed.

Third Update on the Rose Marshall Project

2011-07-26T23:22:00.000+10:00

In my efforts to get data up on this site for this project I am not being greatly assisted by those who make the products this household buys. This seems significant.

A couple of emails seem to have been "lost" according to the advice I have received. Some, at my urging, have been passed on to relevant departments/people.

The silence appears to occur when I refuse to simply go back to the brand site but ask more of the company.

It seems that my "role" as a "partner" in the consumption process is to pay my dollars at the checkout and go to the brand sites. If I ask questions about the ingredients, ownership, packaging and distribution, things go very very quiet.

At the moment I'm waiting to hear from:

Woolworths, The Fresh Food People. They wanted the barcode of the product I bought. Maybe their pigs are housed according to barcode?
Robert Timms -- deafening silence.
Fonterra Foods -- automatic server replies only.
Goodman Fielder -- lost the emails, found them, now silence.
Uncle Tobys/Nestle -- deafening silence.

No doubt each of these companies is researching the necessary information so that I can be a fully informed consumer.

Or maybe not.

The Rose Marshall Project: Dairy Farmer's Milk

2011-07-25T06:00:00.026+10:00

Company/ownership

The milk doesn’t fall far from the breakfast table, like the juice it is made by National Foods.

I must admit that the Dairy Farmers label has been a winner for me as it represents the Dairy Farmers Co-operative which was formed in 1900 by 65 stakeholders (mainly dairy farmers) from this region. By combining as a group they were better able to market their milk and butter to city customers.

After 107 years of Dairy Farmers being 100% Australian owned by Australian dairy farmers, with 11 processing facilities in the country, the company is now foreign owned by National Foods Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kirin Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, which is part of the Kirin Group of Japan and ultimately the Mitsubishi group.

The current Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative (DFMC) is an independent farmer owned co-operative governed by it members. Its role is to use its collective milk volume, capital and membership to manage mutually beneficial milk supply agreements primarily with National Foods. (A follow-up email admitted that the milk supply agreements 100% supply National Foods. A buyer's market as it were.)

Ingredients

Milk is a mixture of water, fat (also called butterfat or milkfat), and milk solids. The milk solids are made of proteins and carbohydrates. The major milk protein is casein, which is dispersed throughout the milk, lactose is the primary carbohydrate found in milk.

Milk is pasteurised (heated) to kill bacteria, then separtated in a centrifuge to separate the cream and milk solids. Homogenisation breaks the fat particles into small pieces producing a very smooth product with no cream rising to the top.

Three of our household use Dairy Farmers Lite White which includes skim milk, milk (whole milk) and milk solids (some of these would have been separated during centrifuging and then put back).

One of our household uses Farmer’s Best Original which includes

skim milk;
concentrated skim milk;
monounsaturated vegetable oil (undefined);
maltodextrin (derived from corn);
emulsifier (471);
vegetable gums (401, 412);
mineral salt (339).

This is one of those medicalised products that Michael Pollan refers to in The Omnivore's Dilemma.

The packaging for both types of milk is made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), the majority of the bottles are produced on site in each state. National Foods seeks “to source our packaging primarily [my emphasis] from Australian companies.”

Conclusion
The milk is Australian, as is the manufacture and distribution channels, all of which are pluses, it’s a shame about the multi-national stretch of ownership.

Rain, storms and wild seas

2011-07-23T06:00:00.002+10:00

This has been our wettest July in fifty years, winter is usually the second driest season in this part of the world, but not this year. The winds, which usually are strongest in August, have been blowing all month from the south (Antarctica) bringing very cold temperatures.

When leaving the shop at 5pm, I haven't seen the escarpment in days.

Knowing how wild the sea is at the moment, I went down to the beach to check out what is happening.

Everywhere the water is churning and breaking, it's grey to green if it isn't sudsy with white foam.

My beach stretches grey and misty ...

The water tunnels and funnels and swirls ....

Bits of light break through the cloud until another dark cloud comes and drenches us again ...

And all crashes and swirls in the torrent of the storm. It's quite beautiful.

On my mind

2011-07-22T06:00:00.005+10:00

Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma fired me to start more thoroughly investigating the foods our household purchases. Leaving aside the fresh produce whose origins I know, I’m undertaking research into all the packaged foods in my refrigerator and pantry.

I’m starting with breakfast items and working through the day’s meals.

Already I’m finding that packaging has seduced me even when I thought I knew better, branded Web sites are designed with the bottom line in mind rather than information for the customer, and that the more processed the food the longer it takes the manufacturer to respond to email.

Worst of all, I’ve only just started on breakfast food items and already I’m finding my food dollar disappears into the cavern of international conglomerates.

But knowledge is power and knowledge should be shared, so that we can all be more powerful and informed.

Thank you Rhonda for the this is on my mind concept creating our community of sharing what's on our minds.

Second Update on the Rose Marshall Project

2011-07-21T23:27:00.002+10:00

Thank you for the comments and emails (so many of the latter!) in response to my first post on food investigation today.

Innocently enough I thought reading labels, checking Web sites and following up with email would provide answers but, no, it's much more.

I've dug my heels in for the long haul and started a folder to document this journey and all the sources. If you have a query about something I say, please ask, and I'll check back through the documentation.

Today I put an addendum on the first post, I'm now adding all the brand names that I can find that companies supply on the Australian market. I think we need the whole picture, not just a brand and ingredients, we need to know the diversity of product.

Choosing brand is a personal thing. I think it's rather emotive, we like to support our own country, our own farmers but, in supporting them, we need to know who else we are supporting. We need to know if we are supporting a local brand or industrialised farming and, once we know that, we can go with that or choose another option.

I will not ever again let emotive packaging, or "apparently" green sites determine where my food dollar goes. I encourage you to look at where you are spending your food dollars, dig around the Web, go beyond the "brand" sites. Don't rely on Wiki, but let it guide you to other places.

This is going to be a helluva ride, even though some of the eaters can't quite see the point.

The Rose Marshall Project: Australian Grown Juice - addendum

2011-07-21T06:00:00.006+10:00

Company/ownership

Australian Grown fruit juice is manufactured by National Foods which is part of Lion Nathan National Foods, in August of this year they will be known as Lion. Lion Nathan National Foods is owned by the Japanese Kirin Holdings Company Limited which is part of the Mitsubishi group, a Japanese conglomerate.

Any of my nostalgic associations and illusions with the now defunct Berri Fruit Growers Cooperative have disappeared. Berri is part of the fruit and wine growing area of South Australia and that yellow label “Berri Since 1943” is fondly regarded by many Australians as representative of the area, fruit and the co-operative. However it now has nothing to do with the current product or that product’s origins so it must be there to create a brand aka warm fuzzies.

Ingredients

Australian Grown juice is made from 100% Australian fruit. A blend of cold stored juice and fresh juice is used depending on fruit availability. Cold stored juice is fresh juice that has been heated for a short period (a pasteurization process used for all the company’s juices), and then refrigerated. When cold stored juice is used, “the amount varies and it is generally a relatively small percentage of the product.”

Ascorbic Acid is added to the juice because Vitamin C is very unstable and degrades during shelf life, adding ascorbic acid ensures that there is enough Vitamin C at the end of shelf life. The main raw materials for manufacturing Ascorbic Acid are Corn (hello Mr Pollan) Starch and Sorbitol.

National Foods advised me that, as they do not make the Ascorbic Acid, they don’t know where the individual components come from, their suppliers only have to give them basic information about allergens and nutrients. In our third email the company acknowledged that the Ascorbic Acid comes from China, “the company details are commercial in confidence.”

The manufacturing is done at Leeton, NSW and packaging is provided by Visy. I suspect Visy will be getting its own post.

Conclusion: I’ve been paying a premium for this product because I assumed it was Australian own and grown (which it is but the ownership reaches beyond Australia) with pure ingredients and no preservatives. I’m not thrilled about the corn starch or the sorbitol. Overall a reasonable result.

Other brands made by National Foods:
Cheese
COON, King Island Dairy, Tasmanian Heritage, Mersey Valley, South Cape, Cracker Barrel, Australian Gold, Mil Lel, Heidi Farm

Dairy products
Yoplait, Frûche, Dairy Farmers, YoGo, Divine

Milk
PURA, Dairy Farmers, Moove, Farmers Union, Big M

Juices
Daily Juice,Berri Australian Grown, Just Juice, Berri Super Juice, Mildura, Berri Prima, Sunnyboy, Zooper Dooper, Summit, Kyneton Springs, Berri Quelch

Soy
Vitasoy

Winter Wednesdays #7

2011-07-20T06:00:00.006+10:00

This gorgeous quilt was handmade by our friend Naomi so you would think that Mum would make her bed a little more tidily to show off the quilt. But hang on...what's happening there, what's that dark shadow underneath the quilt at the bottom of the photo?

Why it's Mum's grandcat, Charlie Brown Marshall, enjoying a Winter Wednesday underneath the quilt!

As Hazel's grandson said last week:

"Grandmothers are like cats.

They can do whatever they want."

Out of the mouths of babes. Pop over to Hazel's to see other ways winter is being enjoyed.

Update on the Rose Marshall Project

2011-07-19T21:24:00.000+10:00

When I began this project I anticipated considerable research and a need to define terms. What I didn't expect was quite as much Web site spin and doctoring as I have encountered over the last few days. I'm still working on breakfast and just on four items so far but, even with just those few, I've had an eye opener.

My research is well underway for the above mentioned items. I've already had a few surprises about inputs and manufacturer transparency or lack of.

I'm even more excited about this project than when I started! I thought most of my purchases of prepared food were simple and straightforward but, already, there is a spider web of sources, some clear information and some that is decidedly fuzzy.

It appears that even when you think you are making good, clear, simple, obvious choices you're not. The complexity of food's industrialisation and medicalisation seeps into even the most apparently simple foods.

Please bear with me as I learn to report on various foods I investigate. I'm way less clear than I was on how to report, how far to take each investigation, and I'll definitely need to edit and update reports as I go along.

At the moment it seems obvious to investigate to the end of the chain but, if I do that, it may be months before I get reports up. Instead I'll research the best I can and edit and update as I go.

Please remember I am not a nutritionist, dietician or journalist. I'm an ordinary woman asking questions and reporting them as I find them.

I hope to put up the first investigation on Thursday.

Slideshow

2011-07-19T06:00:00.001+10:00

Some of you would be much too young to remember slideshows but I can assure you they were painful events, you'd sit for an hour or more looking at other people's hoilday photos being projected onto a wall. Because the room had to be dark there was nothing else to do, you couldn't read, play games or anything, so you'd sit and look and look until you fell asleep.

The event was worst when someone got a new camera, then they'd take heaps and heaps of photos of nothing in particular and you'd be subjected to viewing those photos. Thank goodness for the digital age where you can simply press the close button!

Where does my food come from: The Rose Marshall project

2011-07-18T06:00:00.004+10:00

Michael Pollan's writing is astounding, he has started me on a humungous journey. I want to know where all the food that enters this household comes from. Until I started reading Pollan's book I thought we were doing OK. The fresh food comes from either our garden or free range/ local farmer sources. But what about the food in tetra packs, jars and tins? It may be Australian (or is it?), what about the stuff it is packaged in? Is it packaged in reasonable industrial conditions?

I have decided to interview every single manufacturer of food that we purchase from. I may not get an answer from each one but you'll be hearing about that if I don't and you'll also be hearing the answers I do get.

I'm starting with breakfast. I'll do the juice, the butter and the margarine, cereal and the coffee. Then I'll move on to lunch. Later on I'll do dinner ingredients. It might take me a year or more but it needs to be done.

A new camera!

2011-07-17T21:41:00.000+10:00

Poor old faithful camera has been held together with rubber bands for some months but he's limped along just fine until last night when I was trying to attach him to the computer but the cable just wouldn't fit, then we found the socket from the cable inside the camera port.

It's probably a futile hope but I plan to see if we can get some repairs done, a second camera would be nice. Unusually for us we trotted out immediately today to purchase a new one. Isn't the choice overwhelming! I had some good advice from the Down to Earth Forum girls which helped us sift through the vast array. This time I wanted something palm sized that would fit in a bag, with good zoom options and a rechargeable battery.

We agreed on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT3 which fit all that criteria and our budget. It's also completely sealed so it's shock-proof and water-proof which will be excellent for when I drop it down at the beach in my quest for photos for you.

To demonstrate it, here are some bread rolls we cooked today:

and here is me "shooting" myself being happy we bought the new camera.

I never used to have cheekbones but in middle age I'm giving Ms Streep a run for her money!

Michael Pollan

2011-07-16T06:00:00.001+10:00

Currently on my bedside and lunch table is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

His name will be more familiar to our American cousins although we have heard of him here and I was delighted to come across this book. In just 54 pages I have been gobsmacked as I realise how woefully out-of-date I am about industrialised farming. I see this book as being representative of many first world countries, including Australia and it is frightening.

Pollan's premise "What's for dinner?" is researched through supermarkets, farms and factories to see how food ends up on our tables.

To date I've read part of the section on corn. The farmer who is case studied has a huge farm in Iowa where he effectively feeds 127 Americans, he is described as "one of the most productive humans who has ever lived" but, if his wife did not go to work in town, his farm would not survive.

The high yield of modern corn is not due to variety or more kernels per cob, it's due to the ability to plant even more of it per acre, now 30,000 plants as opposed to the traditional 8000.

Synthetic nitrogen exploded corn yields in the 1950s. In the 40s a surplus of ammonium nitrate (used for explosives in WWII) was repurposed into chemical fertiliser. Indian farmer activist Vandana Shiva said, "We're still eating the leftovers of World War II."

It takes more than a calorie of fossil fuel energy to produce a calorie of (corn) food.

I'm agog to know what I'll learn in the remaining 390 pages.