Yarn Lovers Tour- Northern Tasmanian Trip

It's on again!

We had so much fun last year we are going on another knitting/crochet day tour (or quilting as the places we are visiting also cross-over with quilt shops too).

If you are local in and around the Launceston area or from the south and want to be introduced to the delights of the northern yarn lovers come join us.

We leave Launceston on Saturday

13th June 2015

at

9am

from the Brickfields Park, Canning St side

We'll be travelling to Deloraine first where we sill stop at the Alpaca Shop and have a talk with producers and spinners about the benefits of alpaca fibre. 

We will also have morning tea here.

Our lunch stop will be in beautiful Ulverstone where there are many cafe choices or you may decide to pack your own lunch and give yourself more time for shopping.

While in Ulverstone we will be visiting 

Cranberry Crafts

Sew and Wool

Under the Oak

  

for some hand spun and hand dyed yarns and a large range of commercial produced yarn as well.

Along the way we'll be having a charity knit-a-long to make a blanket and lucky door prizes.

We are not for profit. Just a bunch of ladies (most of us don't know each other) getting together with a shared passion and having a day out.

The cost is $30

This covers the hire of the coach and driver for the day and morning tea is provided. Lunch is buy or pack your own. We recommend you bring a bottle of water and a pair of needles or crochet hook suitable for 8ply eg: 4mm. Most of the ladies also bring along their current projects to work on during travel.

Send me an email if you would like to come. The more the merrier (and the plusher the coach!)

Here is our Facebook event page link

pattern and yarn notes

Hot, Hot Savings

.... in the vicinity of $700 in chilli products alone!

As you know from previous posts, we grow and preserve most of our food for year round eating right here on our ordinary suburban block. In addition to all the varieties this year, the Shearer planted 50 chilli bushes of more than 10 varieties. This might sound excessive, and indeed I thought it was, but when you preserve the harvest and do the sums, it's a very wise and fruitful thing for our household.

Louisiana Style Hot Sauce

recipe here

So far he has fermented more than 4kg of chillies into a Tabasco style sauce. This makes approx 9lt of sauce, some of which will be given as gifts but much will be gradually consumed over the next 12 months. 

Given that the commercial sauce sells for $6.60/100ml, that means ordinarily if we purchased 9lt it would cost us $594.00.

The total cost of the ingredients was about $12.

A saving for the year of $582.00

Pickled Chillies

try this recipe here

In addition to the sauce he also pickled 7 pint jars/ approx 500g each of jalapeno peppers with more to come. We use these on our pizzas every Friday night. The commercially canned ones sell for a unit price of $1.89/100g which works out so far to about $66.00. The cost to make these jars was a mere couple of dollars at most for ingredients and probably the same for rubber rings. So the savings have us way out in front. 

A saving so far for the year of $62.00

Fresh Chilli

Even if you were calculating savings for just harvesting and eating fresh chillies the savings are enormous given that they sell on average for $20-$25/kg. We have even been harvesting the jalapenoes at the mid stage and chopping them into chunks and eating them steamed alongside our other vegetables. They have a slight bite but still a fresh capsicum flavour.

A saving of let's say $25

And I have also made several jars of chilli paste too but I think you get the idea...

While chillies may not be everyone's cup of tea, if you were to add up all the chilli condiments you might purchase over a year you might be surprised.

At a conservative estimate we have saved ourselves $669.00 just in chillies alone. Perhaps the Shearer is not as mad as I thought him to be. By learning to preserve your harvest and value add to create product, you save hundreds with every crop variety that you grow.

Sugar Free Sesame Seed Squares

I tend to bake on a Sunday afternoon for the Shearer's lunch box. He takes fruit salad, fresh and seasonal, for lunch and keeps it minimal and light. He finds he can't bend over looking at his feet all day with a full stomach but expending energy like that all day he needs some quick replenishment. He loves to have something more substantial like a sandwich while he is driving home. Baking with dried fruit, oats, nuts and seeds etc are good fuel snacks for him.

Anzacs are a favourite and are unusual because they cook in a slow oven unlike most everything else, but I have found another recipe I can make and cook at the same time taking full advantage of the oven. Sesame seeds are high in calcium, magnesium and iron.

Slice in the tin while hot and turn out when cool.

Don't you just love this tin? My brother Paul made it at school and the thickness of the metal means it cooks really well and I love the shape.

(I think of you every time I use it Paulie. Love you x)

Sesame Seed Squares

1 1/2 cups of sesame seeds

1 1/2 cups of desiccated coconut

1/3 cup peanut paste

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup rice malt syrup (or you can use sugar)

1 teas vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients and press evenly into a lamington tin or slice tin and bake in a slow oven (160C) for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares while hot and cool in the tin.

Tip- I place all the ingredients into a metal mixing bowl and pop it into the pre-heating oven for a few seconds to get the honey, syrup and paste warmed and runnier and easier to combine. I also find combining easier done with the hands rather than a spoon too.