Food forest- phase 2

On the right is what it looked like before the chickens went in. See the left for how they cleared it. They ate and scratched all except the kikuyu roots. Time to move them to the next piece on the right. And plant the left side! Hooray for planting season!

First summer dinner

For all those volunteers coming this summer, here is a taste of what you may eat. My favourite kind of food.

Mixed salad of lettuce, tomatoes, olives and sunflower seeds.
Slaw of cabbage, sour apple and radish dressed with lime and ginger.
Chickpea and brocolli salad with creamy garlic dressing.
Fresh homemade bread.

And since it's only 12 degrees outside  And probably too early for this cold food- sweet potato chips (fries)!

Hooray for August because spring is coming!

Learning to live self-sufficiently

People often tell me that they wouldn't know where to start if they had to live as we do. We didn't either.  It's been progressive learning. Some was conscious and most was learnt on the fly out of necessity.

I think you have to change habits one by one until they are your new normal. Small things. Take water saving. When we moved here and had to re-use every drop of water, we soon discovered that our wash basin took about 50L a day. A real shocker. Its because of the work we do- in the garden/ workshop /chicken yard. No-one thinks twice about washing their hands and I am not saying we shouldn't,  just that we should reroute the water.
If you pour a glass of water- drink it all! Don't throw half down the drain.
Use a glass of water to brush your teeth not a running tap.
Save the water from boiling eggs/potatoes etc for your compost heap or just in the garden. It's still water.

Jan says since cold air sinks, you lose 30% of the cold air in your fridge as you stand gazing and trying to remember what you opened it for. Put everything in the same place so you dont have to hunt. Your fridge will work less and therefore use less energy.

Max says he has learnt to turn off lights every time you leave a room. Even if you think you are coming back.

Maybe I think too much about the cost of everything. Not the price but the total cost. We are really trying to use more local products and support small businesses.
We mostly eat locally grown barley instead of imported rice. Cost vs price.
Jan is a meat eater and we source meat from small local producers or go without. I realise that for some people that is too extreme but it makes meat eating a fabulous pleasure for him.

I guess conscious living is what I am suggesting.  If you think of each thing you do in a day, you'll find habits to change. Start with the easy stuff or you may give up too soon.

First straw bales!

Just test setting and making the small bales to fit into small gaps. Phew. We have begun.

Homemade custard

Jan made custard from scatch. The free range eggs from our hens are so yellow that it looks like there's colouring in the custard.

500ml milk ( nice to use 50ml of cream too)
1 vanilla pod - split
4 eggs yolks only
2 level teaspoons of Cornflour
2 heaped tablespoons sugar

Simmer vanilla pod in the milk. Remove the pod once hot. Beat cornflour, eggs and sugar until smooth. Add the milk slowly to the eggs stirring as you go. Return to pan over low heat and stir until thickened.
Yum!

It went over nutmeg and cinnamon stewed apples.

Abundance in the gatden

These christophene (chou chou) and limes came from 1 tree/plant in a friends garden. I think this is the red batch of lines and the tree is still full. It is about 1.8m tell and only a few years old.
The Christopher plant is a come and has run rampant through their garden. Probably around 100 fruit still on the plant.
So dinner tonight has christophene salad- thinly sliced like cucumber and dressed with lime, salt and olive oil.

Plant some!

Doggie bed

My 2 girls needed a carry- inside bed. My solution is a feed bad stuffed with shavings from a local workshop and of course a cuddly blanket. Shavings can be easily changed and the old ones dumped on the compost heap. I tacked the bags closed with a large darning needle and thick cotton. Lucky dogs!