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This year is rushing by but in a good way I feel like every time I got to town I buy more fencing supplies but we are yet to actual start fencing.

fencing the to be veggie garden

fencing the to be orchard

fencing a goat yard, which if all goes to plan will be holding 6 goats not 1 .

 Since we moved the children have turned into free range children.
They are all about exploring,  the dogs go with them every where and they spend lots of time looking for hidden treasures in the long grass and getting up to mischief.

A little farm to call home

Its been so long since I have been on here.. lots of good stuff has been happening.
We have a new family member Henry the english pointer, he is still a puppy and his favourite past time is to chew on things. 
Me an the kids have been busy moving out west more in to the upper hunter valley. Its all been very exciting and stressfull at the same time.
 So far we have been
Exploring 
Planting out garlic that my dad started for me (thanks Dad)
Watching the local wedge tail eagle
Puting up our rustic home made mail box

So much to do and so little time

Really sums up how this month has felt. More then once I would of loved to have had a pause button.
The last 9 days in particular went way to fast. Rob and I left the kids with family and headed to Qld for Emma and Clayten's Wedding which both me and rob were apart of so I don't have any photos of the wedding. We spent two nights on the way up near Bundarra fishing and chilling  and on the way home we spent two nights at Coffs Harbour with the kids and family.

Starting

Starter. I have had attempted this a couple of times in the past, the best I achieved was a funky smelling goop that did not result in anything. This time around I borrowed The River Cottage Handbook No 3 - Bread from my local library. The only thing I have did different this time around to in the past was I used my Kenwood mixer to mix the batter for 10 min as was suggested in the book. The results while the weren't instant, they were obvious over the first week. I started by mixing 1 cup spelt flour with 1 cup of water and mixing with food mixer for 10 Min's then this step was repeated every day for the next 7 days and each time I would take half the starter out ( its great to add when making piklets, you don't need to waste it). I didn't always add 1 cup some days was half a cup, from what I have read it doesn't matter as long as it is equal volumes of water to flour.

After a couple of hours the first bubbles started to form, this is a good thing. It means the starter is fermenting.

First feed, the starter grew quickly the first photo is after 2 hrs and the 2 nd photo is after 6 hrs.  After 7 days I  used the starter to make my first ever sourdough bread. The process is slightly different to making bread with yeast but in no way more complicated.

Two loaves I made a day apart the loaf which is rectangle was risen an cooked in a bread tin, while the other was risen and baked an a standard baking tray.

T is for

Tomatoes.Yesterday I got 3 boxes of tomatoes, maybe I was just excited but it didn't  seam like much. That was until I got home. Depending on how you want to look at it, 3 boxes equals 30 kgs of Roma tomatoes, 1 day slaving in the kitchen or 46 jars of final product. Using  a mincer to separate the skin an seed made a huge difference time wise, I would hate to think how long it would of taken me if I had to do it all by hand. All the onions an garlic added was from my garden and thanks to this the total cost was $45. So while it was a long day making all the sauce then bottling it, it was well worth it.

Food for free

 

I have mentioned before about finding food for free .

This time it was blackberries that are growing wild on my Dads place but there are lots of spots where they grow wild on the side of the road.

End result three yummy pies, two for the freezer and one has already been eaten.

Pears in Jars

Part of the reason I decided to start preserving more was the fact that I don't want to be buying canned products from the shops where half the time it says in the ingredients list from local and imported ingredients. I refuse to buy any fruit and vegetable either fresh or in cans that are imported.
 Tricia over at little eco footprints is doing a great challenge this yr where they have decided to skip the supermarkets for a year. I would like to think that by preserving fruit and vegetable myself I am slowly going to get to a stage where I am organised to join in on the challenge. Even though I prefer to buy fresh  in season fruit, both my kids  eat a lot of it an I want to have a variety preserved for when winter comes around and I can only get apples and oranges in season. So far I have 10 jars of peaches  and a ton of homemade fruit roll ups which mainly consist of plum or peach. So next on the list was pears.

 Yesterday at my local fruit and veg shop pears were only 99 cents a KG so I grabbed 2.5kg to preserve. Ever time I try a new canning recipe I only do a small amount so that we can the open a jar in the first wk and see how we like the final product an if its thumbs up them the aim is to go ahead an make more. As different fruits are coming into season  my aim is to preserve  anoth so that we don't have to by said fruit or veg out of season.

 I am still new to the whole canning or is that jarring process. and as you can tell from the above photo the pears were not as well packed into the jars as I thought. But now I know for next time to pack them even more. I have no idea why they took on such a pink/ peachy colour when I water bathed them but I think it looks  pretty. I was impressed with the results from the 2.5kg of pears we got 8 jars, though I am sure if I had packed them better it would of only been 6. Most importantly the taste, the kids loved them they finished of a whole jar in one setting.