From the Farmer to my Pantry

The best food to eat is what you grow yourself. It's free and healthy and tasty.
BUT, sometimes you have a bad year, like I did this last summer when it was so hot and dry. We hardly got any apples or pumpkins.
However, the next best thing is to buy from the local farmers, either from Farmers' Markets or roadside stalls. It is usually very cheap and you can help the farmer by buying his crops too.

I bought 3 big bags of apples from a farm that we passed on our way to Yarra Junction for a bike ride,














peeled them and cut them up for pies, cakes, apple crumble and apple dumplings,












cooked them with some water, lemon juice and sugar,































got some old spaghetti sauce bottles and cleaned them with boiling water,













then put the cooked apples into them. Now I will have plenty of apples in my cupboard (and some in the freezer) for all those lovely cakes and desserts later on in the year.












I also bought a huge pumpkin, cauliflower and a peach tree from a road side stall. Guess where the pumpkin will go? (Soup)












Here is Ella helping make a lovely big pot of cauliflower soup.
(delicious!)





 

Winter Veges and Walnut Slice

It has been a beautiful week here in Nanne's Garden and I have enjoyed working outside making things beautiful and putting in some new veges.

First job is to dig over the soil. I
had 4 little helpers who went crazy over their first 'dig'.
OOOhhh! the bugs and worms, better than
Maccers.



















YUUUMMM!  "Is my beak dirty?"























                                         Peas






















 Cauliflower and also some brown onions and brocolli










 I've also done some cooking with the walnuts that the girls picked up for me last holidays (remember when Ariana climbed to the top of the tree?) They are delicious

What to do on Rainy Days

A nice warm fire and some knitting needles

make warm woolly socks for around the house. Just the shot for after school on a cold winters day.                                          Who would like some? Pick your colours.

 

And look what those clever chooks have laid already. I'll soon be filling up all those cartons

They're Here

Hi Kids
The new chickens arrived today. The lovely old man who brought them last time came again. He said "they should be laying eggs any day now". You can see that they are only young by the little 'combs' on top of their heads.

They need new names. Would Sammy, Ariana, Hamish and Braden like to think up some names this time?

They like their new home and are already happily scratching around the coop.