There have been several disparate themes mulling around vying for attention as my focus for 2013. I’ve been thinking about packaging, community, and how sharing food is so central, and I’ve been thinking about the conversation that is surfacing in permaculture circles lately about the misconception that permaculture is about self-sufficiency
Our new solar system. So exciting, and it has been surprisingly affordable – solar technology is moving ahead so fast now. Eighteen 250 watt panels – way more power than we will ever use in the house, but enough, so the plan is, to run an electric car.
I love this time of year, when everything I harvest is the most magnificent colour. I ate the first of many mangoes for the season today. Mangoes are biennial but not every second year is good. It’s a complex mix of rain and heat at the right time that makes this kind of luck.
I’m very proud of my sourdough these days. I’m making an eleven grain and seed mix that costs cents, takes minutes, and tastes good enough that I’m making it twice a week most weeks with little incentive to experiment. Here it is in pictures.
This Tuesday Night Vego Challenge recipe uses egg noodles, which are exactly the same as pasta. I’m a relatively recent convert to home-made pasta and noodles. For years I used to think home-made pasta 1. required a pasta machine, and 2. was just a carrier for the sauce anyway. In fact I was wrong on both counts.
Two years ago I posted Part One of Homegrown Coffee. If you ignore the fact that I skipped ahead a couple of years, we’re now up to Part Two! This year’s coffee crop has been drying on a screen door on the verandah for a couple of months now. The beans are hard and dry and ready for the final stages.
Home made from scratch pasta, made with real eggs, meets all the Witches Kitchen definitions of good – it’s high protein nutrient dense good-for-you. It’s made with local, in season ingredients without excessive packaging or storage costs good-for-the-world. And it tastes very very good.
The paw paws have been prolific this year. We’re eating one a day most days, but they’re starting to slow down from now on. The strawberries weren’t as good this year as last year, mostly because I got too busy in winter to plant out a new bed or mulch up and compost the old one, so they were a bit neglected and they paid out on me for it.…
One of the interesting things I’ve got out of this nearly-a-year-now of Tuesday Night Vego Challenge recipes is how often all that is needed is a bit of pre-thinking to allow fast, easy weeknight vego recipes. I guess it’s because besides eggs, the main vegetarian protein foods are beans or ferments.
I am really loving tromboncino. Usually by this time of year, my garden is so full that I skimp on the sweet corn because I just don’t have room for it in my intensively fenced beds. This year though, I haven’t planted any zucchini, and it’s amazing how much space that saves.