Quinoa and Black Bean Bake

It's not a great "foodie shot" so please take my word for it, this is delicious and if you are a bit stumped about what to do with quinoa (kee-NOO-ah) here is a good recipe to try. (If you are looking for a good dried bean recipe...also a good one to try!)

I had to buy the quinoa, capsicum, spice and cheese but even so this costed out for us at about $4.25 and would feed 4-6 people.

Quinoa is high in protein and contains iron, calcium and phospherous, B vitamins and vitamin E. 

Quinoa and Black Bean Bake

3/4 cup of white quinoa

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic crushed

2 med carrots chopped

1/2 a red capsicum chopped

approx 400g of prepared black beans*

approx 600g of chopped canned tomatoes

1 cup of water

generous seasoning of salt and pepper

1/2 teas cayenne pepper

1 tabs of smoked paprika

a handful of chopped parsley

grated cheese for the top

Wash the quinoa well to remove saponins and then soak in a bowl well covered with cold water overnight if possible. Rinse and drain. 

Place the quinoa in a saucepan with about twice the amount of water and chopped carrots. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer till the quinoa is translucent and looks like it has little sprout tails and the carrot is tender.

In a baking dish, combine all the ingredients except the cheese.

Bake in a moderate oven covered for about 30 mins then remove the cover and top with grated cheese. Cook till melted and golden.

*By "prepared black beans, I mean dried beans soaked overnight and rinsed and cooked till tender or use canned or tinned beans. 

I grow and can my own using a pressure canner.

All Free...But We Couldn't Give It Away!

Last week I was very excited to be a part of the Colony 47 Spring Share Market.

Colony 47 works for the community and their mission is

"to create a fairer community, eliminate disadvantage and improve the lives of Tasmanians" 

A share market was organised to coincide with fair food week and timed for encouraging spring planting.

All the seedlings above

Free.

A picnic blanket to sit and read gardening magazines and maybe take one

Free

The seed box with hundreds of seeds

Free

A speaker about compost making

Free.

Just look at that great teaching tool created from half a bin and some Perspex. Learning about nitrogen and carbon layers and the additions like comfrey (bottom right).

The Tasmanian community food garden group were there with activities for kids

Free

A demonstration showing fun with food and how to be creative with it.

Free

I drove from Launceston and did a talk about beans, how to grow, how to harvest and how to use dried beans.

Free

I talked about nutrition and feeding through the "hungry gap" and had made baked beans from scarlet runner beans, a bean salad in seconds and a white bean dip even faster! Note the Good and Cheap book- I was so excited, it turned up just the day before. It's a not for profit book that aims to teach people how to eat well on $4 a day. I love it!

Trestles under blossom trees and little marquis 

And the Colony 47 garden putting on a good show and even mushrooms coming up from the compost!

Being a typical spring day it was a bit breezy and cool and clouds were scudding across the sky. It was beautifully organised. About 60 people had rsvp-ed to this all free event...

But we were lucky to have a dozen people show up I reckon.

I'm starting to wonder,

if you make something free, is it then perceived as valueless?

Is something only worthy if it has a dollar value attached?

Adventure Day for the Simple Stylers

I'm "sort-of" on holiday so I planned a brief adventure trip with one of my girlfriends for a long overdue catch up and killed a couple of birds with one stone.

Now you don't have to go far and you don't have to be long, just plan a cluster of activities.

Cindy and I travelled only 20 mins to Exeter in the picturesque Tamar Valley chatting all the way about gluten and grains all the way taking in the beautiful Tasmanian scenery.

Our first stop

Inspiration Seeds

This place is like seed porn for me. David is so exciting to talk to and he and Steve Solomon have invested years of knowledge into seed saving and selecting for a cool climate like Tasmania. 

Their bean selection alone is huge and exciting. On our last stop here I purchased some Cherokee "Trail Of Tears", a beautiful pink mauve bean in "green" pod stage and I am longing for summer to plant it out. 

Clockwise from top left;

Le Monde piamonte (French bush bean)

Yin Yang (black and white) and Pea Bean (red and white)

Haricot Crevette

All these heirloom beans and more are available at Inspiration Seeds and also via their mail order.

You can drool here.

Next stop

Lime Cafe

A small place, clean and quiet, with an all day breakfast menu and I'm told the hot pork sandwiches and rolls are especially good but I'm always too early and have to be content with smelling it cooking. Link to their facebook page.

After a coffee and a restorative bite

Calico Crossroads

Before crossing the threshold, I warned Cindy that I would only consider her a true friend if she ensured that I did not walk out with any fabric purchases, the only exception was vintage print cowboy but unfortunately there was none. Poor Cindy did not escape scott free and I'm very keen to see how her new Block Of The Month works out heh heh (sorry Cindy)

Pauline has a beautiful range and lots of inspirational ideas and patterns and has a talent for colour and depth co-ordination. We easily spent the best part of an hour perusing.

(Site here)

And that's how a simple suburban girl can spend half a day on a quality adventure not far from home and without breaking the bank.

Green Bean Pickle

We also taste tested green bean pickles at our last Living Better meet up - I tell you there is not many meetings when we don't seem to be passing around some preserve, cordial or bread!

This is yet another type of pickle and a great way other than freezing or drying to preserve green beans.

This is Cindy's mother's recipe!

For every kilo of fresh green beans (chopped) use the following

3 cups of vinegar 

4 large onions chopped

3 cups of sugar

1 tabs salt

3 tabs curry powder

1 tabs each of turmeric, cumin and mustard powder

4 tabs cornflour

6 fresh chillies (or to taste) 

Par boil the beans and drain

Mix dry ingredients into a paste with a little of the vinegar

Add sugar to the vinegar and dissolve

In a saucepan mix the paste, vinegar and beans, chillies and onion together.

Bring to a boil and cook for 5mins

Bottle hot into warm sterilised jars.

Green bean pickles recipes can usually be found in every family and are simple to make but boy are they delicious. Excellent with cheese sandwiches and cold meat salads. They never last long in our house.

Next Living Better With Less meeting is the 27th February 2014.

Hydrating, Saturating and De-hydrating

Actually it is more than just re-hydration of the beans. I'm following the theory and method from the Nourishing Traditions book. I'm soaking the beans which contain phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in order to deactivate these properties and avoid digestive stress and allow protein assimilation and absorption. The beans are so inexpensive and nutritionally packed but they do need to be processed properly. I know some books don't even suggest soaking the beans and certainly the cooking time is usual given as "till tender". According to the Nourishing Traditions book it is suggested the beans are soaked for 12-24 hours and some in acidulated water (lemon juice or whey) and then simmered for 4-8 hours.

Here is a high definition photo of the beans soaking showing them covered in tiny air bubbles. (Looks similar to the pencil drawing of Richard Klekociuk) I've tried eating dried beans without soaking and simmered till tender and although they are certainly edible, the stomach "discomfort" and "wind" is not pleasant. I tend to soak the beans and then cook them for several hours in a slow cooker as part of a meat casserole. In summer after a good long simmer, I rinse and refrigerate and use in salads.

I'm also dehydrating. Can you guess what they are?

Blackcurrants.

These currants are so tart not even the birds touch them (well almost never) but they are full of pectin which makes them great to mix with other berries and fruit that may be low in pectin required for jam and jelly setting (more about pectin here). They are rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants and also make delicious cordial but instead of making cordial this year with them I have decided to dehydrate them.

While they are fresh and plump and round, just one can make your lips purse tight and your cheeks contract hard over the teeth but when dehydrated they seem to concentrate their flavour and though still "tangy" they are quite delicious and incredibly tasty in a pumpkin and cous cous or quinoa salad with some mint and maybe a honey/chilli dressing. These could also be used in place of the dried currants in the Beetroot and Carrot Salad with Pomegranate Dressing 

All very good reasons to include easy growing black currant bushes in your garden.

Can you guess what these are? They are not marshmallows...

Daikon

The long white radish.

I'm pickling these in a natural fermentation method same as we did for the beetroot (in this post) and cucumbers (this post here).

In the one on the right I have also added a modest amount of my home grown caraway seeds. Lee from Killiecrankie Farm Nursery has warned me that growing and using your own caraway is much more potent than the shop bought seeds so I am being conservative with the amounts.

After a couple of weeks saturating in the brine fermentation should be complete and my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

So we are still keeping busy waiting for summer to arrive in Tasmania and filling in the days before the tomato glut processing. 

What are you preserving at the moment?

Feeding Through The Hungry Gap

Even in the "hungry gap" you can make nutritious meals for less than $2 by growing your own.

In the past I have been a bit anti home growing carrots; they're fiddly and slow and finnicky and lets face it, cheap to buy anyway right.

Craig persevered.

We have tended to take the advice of our Italian friend Lisa who simply sows them in lines and harvests them in lines as she needs them. 

Her words,

 "you take them as they come, as they grow, some are straight, some are small and sometimes they are big, wassamatta? They are all carrots"

freed us from the commercial expectations we had been placing on our crop.

We had been conditioned to think carrots were straight, one colour and one size and we were failures if we didn't produce like that.

You do need to ensure that the seed is kept moist till germination and that the weeds are not too vigorous among them. A good tilth to the soil is helpful but if you are using your compost like you should for all your vegetables your soil will be great anyway. A steady supply of water during their growing is also important, like any vegetable you don't want them to go for days on end without water, it will tell in the taste and texture.

Think about that carrot...

it is essentially a root taking up from the soil and creating it's goodness.

I know farmers who will not eat bought mono-cropped sprayed carrots for that very reason.

Another incentive to grow your own.

One of the best reasons of all I have discovered is it's slowness as it turns out. The late sowing in summer has been steadily feeding us for months and what's more I haven't had to preserve them or store them, they have done just fine in the cool ground. I literally pick them as I need them. Within minutes of them being in the ground we are eating them.

Fresh, chemical free, cheap and versatile.

This week for dinner I slow cooked a whole chicken, one of the roosters we culled a couple of months ago. I based it around the Chicken Soup recipe in Anneke Manning's seasonal cook book.

I used a huge bunch of parsley. I mean a huge bunch like a vegetable quantity rather than a herb flavour quantity as it is about to go to seed and I am using as much as I can of it's lushness. I added a bottle of last seasons' tomatoes from the cupboard and juice from a lemon from the front yard. Next some dried beans (4 different types)  from last years harvest that I had soaked for 24 hrs and of course lovely carrot straight from the patch and some garlic still feeding us from last years crop.

The next night I took those leftovers from the slow cook and strained the liquid from the meat and veg. I added some mashed potato to the solids and baked the mix in a pie for dinner the next night. 

Craig took leftover pie for lunch the next day and I took the leftover "soup" for my lunch.

The chick cost us $5 and the cost of feeding it till dispatch is more than covered by the eggs from the pullets.

All the veg was produced from our own saved seed.

I won't get into a breakdown of energy costs to produce the meals suffice to say the initial cost of the slow cook....around $5 plus electricity

The pie say $1.60 for the butter and flour in the pastry and the potatoes (we've run out)

For a total of $6.60 plus whatever for electricity for cooking I made three meals for us.

It's the end of winter (spring doesn't really start here properly for another month yet) and we are in the "hungry gap" of the garden. We still have perpetual spinach and lettuce, carrots and parsley growing. Lemons are in glut and the chooks are laying. We are on our second last pumpkin and though the Turks Turbans are shocking hard to cut my word they store well!

 We are still using garlic and there is also Tas pepperberry leaves, bay leaves and hardy herbs still for the picking. We are down to our last dozen of bottled tomatoes and haven't run out of paste, sauce or condiments. The dried beans are something else. They are a meal in themselves and a little handful goes a long way. We have just finished the frozen peas and broad beans and green beans. 

Though I am starting to crave fresh fruit (we still have bottled cherries, pears, apple and plums) there is no way we would ever go hungry.

All from a suburban backyard.

I cannot urge you enough, just grow two things.

Next year grow four

Next year you'll never look back again.

In the southern hemisphere sow a couple of rows of carrots and keep sowing a row every month till autumn and you'll be feeding yourselves the whole year through. It is surprising how much you will harvest from a short row so gauge it by your family size.

Before You Drop That Bomb...

Some green beans climbing the federation fencing wire. Lush, happy and producing loads of beans.

Let's have a closer look though....

Does the sight of this cause you to gasp and quickly head for the pesticide? 

It certainly does for most people. Even organic growers reach for pyrethrum (because it's safe and natural right?) or some other concoction of rhubarb leaves or tobacco. 

WAIT, can I ask you to spend 10 minutes before you do and really look at the plant and ask yourself a couple of questions first.

There is some leaf damage but there are also more flowers and plenty of beans. The vines seem to be in good health. Healthy plants should tolerate a reasonable amount of attack from pests.

Don't reach for poison just yet.

There are a couple of dead cabbage moths (bottom left) within but I think they have sought shelter here. I bet they have laid their eggs elsewhere. I can't see their eggs hanging from the underside of the leaves or their chubby bright green caterpillars munching away.

I've searched and searched but can't give you a definitive identification of this common garden moth we get here in Tasmania. It is sheltering from the mizzling rain. The moth itself is not a problem but the larvae that hatch are leaf eaters. During my quick inspection I only see two so they are clearly not in outrageous numbers yet.

Here is a green shield bug. Shield bugs make up a large common category and are sap suckers. In great numbers these could definitely ruin your plant. They are easy to spot because they don't particularly hide from predators. They do tend to be a colour that blends with their surroundings but they also have stink glands that secret a foul smelling liquid, hence their other common name of stink bugs. Because of their harder shell, pyrethrum is usually not effective anyway. So hold that spray!

KEEP LOOKING....

Ahh, the nymph stage (young before adult stage) of the above green shield bug. I am no entomologist but I suspect the colourings are for warning or "foxing" as it probably hasn't developed it's stink glands yet.

This is significant though. I can see six nymph shield bugs in a small space. Numbers are multiplying and definitely could do significant damage but experience has shown me that the plant will take a bit of sap sucking.

Some baby spiders show me that other predators are in the area.

Consider first and remember that spraying a control substance will also kill the predators that are helping you with your problem. Within this vine is probably small frogs and stick insects who also rely on bugs for food.

So standing back and weighing it all up....

The plant has been producing well and I have been picking beans for about six weeks. yes there are some holes and webbing leaf damage but the beans are tender and juicy. Reasonably I can expect another few weeks of picking and I weigh that up with wading in and killing the bugs. What would I gain? Another week or two of cropping? By then the beans are getting tired any way.

The shield bugs perhaps look like they are increasing but natural predation could take care of that within the next week. Given that pyrethrum isn't effective there is no point spraying. My preferred method of control is manual in most cases anyway. In this instance you would use a small brush to move them into a jar or a pair of forceps because remember, they secrete smelly stuff and you don't want that on your hands.

From my experience in the garden, I find the key is to keep things in balance and everything will cycle and take care of itself. 

You definitely DO NOT want to eradicate any one thing.

 Just because it is a pest doesn't mean that it doesn't have a vital part to play. Everything is reliant on something else. It's all part of the cycle  or the chain. Think of yourself as the custodian of the garden rather than the controller. Your job is to aid and assist not to seek and destroy.

I haven't used any sprays in my garden, organic or otherwise in at least 20 years. 

Spend a little time and weigh it all up, including the consequences of wiping out not one but several species. Could you be in fact doing even more harm than a few chewed leaves?

Living Better in October

We talked about 

Christmas gifts

Making decorated candles

Making home made paper hanging ornaments

which led to memories about 

saving foil milk bottle lids for decorating

and stories of painting pop corn for stringing.

(Milk bottle top bells image from here)

We talked about making simple salves from Calendula in the garden

soaps,

herbal tea bags for bath soaks

We talked about 

simple Christmas traditions, each family member taking a turn to stir the pudding for luck and the hidden objects in a plum pud.

We talked about the overwhelming amount of "stuff"

Georgia's family give the children coupons for fun things to do together. It's about spending time with children rather than buying more "stuff". They have coupons for going to the movies or an afternoon at the swimming pool or a trip to the beach.

We talked about broad beans;

The difference between planting in autumn or in spring,

their tendency to get rust, a fungal disease, as the weather warms up, 

About not composting affected plants.

About not trying to squeeze that last 6 pods from the crop and knowing when it is time to harvest and call it quits, ready for the next crop.

We talked about artisan pasta making and Brad is going to share his recipe for beetroot pasta and roasted capsicum pasta.

Gemma shared her recipe for Beet Leaf Ravioli. 

A great way to use the leaves from beetroot, both thrifty and nutritious, not to mention delicious.

Filling for Ravioli:

500g Beet Leaves (stalks Removed)

Maldon Sea Salt

1 small red onion

100g unsalted butter

4 tblsp marjoram leaves

1 garlic clove (finely chopped)

150g Ricotta (lightly broken up with fork)

100g Parmesan

1/2 nutmeg (freshly grated) or just use nutmeg spice!

Gently fry onion in butter until onion begins to brown. Add marjoram and garlic and stir for 1 minute then add beet leaves. Cook together briefly, season then allow to cool. Stir in Parmesan and ricotta. Add nutmeg and season to taste.

Make fresh pasta to your favourite recipe (or buy fresh lasagna sheets) Cut pasta into squares. Add small amount of filling to each square. Top with another square and pinch around edges to seal (ensuring you have removed as much air as possible - to stop them exploding in the water!).

Add to boiling water. Allow them to float to the surface but ensure they have had enough cooking time so that filling will be heated through.

We talked about poultry;

laying hens,

different breeds,

free range turkeys,

quail and their housing,

incubation,

chicken raising

We talked about growing up in small communities

outback towns, the syncronisity of life and the bravery of those a little different who swim against the current of life's stream.

We talked about Killiecrankie Farm's Open Day

We talked about Mount Gnomon products and Langdale Farm pork (also at the Killiecrankie open day)

we talked about Eliza's great video and that ham ordering had begun.

We talked and talked and reminisced and talked some more.

I probably have forgotten to mention lots more.

The most important thing is that everyone shares and brings knowledge of some sort with them and we all leave a bit richer for the experience.

Thank you everyone for a lovely time

xxx

Beans - A Winter Harvest

Someone said to me the other day,

"I suppose you are not getting anything from the garden now"

Incredibly though that is absolutely false.

Still, in winter, there is produce to be had in the garden.

We are still harvesting Granny Smith apples, silverbeet, coloured chard, rocket, leafy greens, stinging nettle, carrots and protein packed beans of many kinds.

Beans are something that Australians don't seem to embrace very well.

We tend to grow beans for harvesting in summer when the pods are tender but rarely for dried beans in the winter.

Some varieties like Blue Lake and Scarlet Runner are well suited for blanching and freezing while others like bush Butter Beans are better used fresh in glut. They tend to be very flaccid after freezing.

Once I have had enough of beans and they are starting to over-mature on the vines, I let them go and leave them to fully develop and dry. A handful are saved for sowing next year and the rest are harvested for dry beans for casseroles and bean salads.

The variety is huge and they take up very little space and are easily stored.

The only preparation required is soaking for about 24 hours prior to a gentle simmer till they are tender. 

They are a good source of fibre and protein and other minerals and give nuttiness and meatiness to lovely tomato based casseroles or curries. 

A small stash may not look very much but they go such a long way and provide more meals than they look.

There is nothing more satisfying than sitting in the sun and breaking open a few dried pods for hearty winter meals. They really are the ultimate in low maintenance, low cost, high yield, high nutrition and a must for every child's backyard. Grow them simply up some bamboo sticks like these and create a living hideout or cubby house.

I'm a big fan of beans.

Recreation Day

It's a holiday today in the north of Tasmania and it is aptly named Recreation Day.

The south has a public holiday in the beginning of the year for Regatta Day and to make it fair the north got Recreation Day and some bright spark opted to have it in the later end of the year where holidays are few and the weather is gorgeous.

So on this day of recreation I watered the garden and attended the chooks, and swapped some eggs for some seeds with Mr Jones across the road.

The table is covered with drying rose petals and another two trays of candied lemon peel.

Plus....

I am delving into the world of re-batching soap.

One of my class attendees had a bit of a fail when her stick blender blew up and she tried to complete the process with hand stirring. Instead of wasting the batch I have brought it home to try to save it.

I chopped all the soap up small and placed it in the slow cooker on low. It melted well but it goes to a state that is more gel than pouring liquid. Even though I thought I had packed them into the moulds, you can see that we have gained air pockets. The soap is much improved but unfortunately the appearance is very rustic.

I harvested some stinging nettle from a farm yesterday and have washed it thoroughly and will use some of the leaf for a new batch of hair rinse. I like the rosemary but I think it is turning my hair darker. I rather like my grey hair and where it as a badge of honour. I have put some on a tray above the hotwater cylinder to dry and I have chopped the roots up into a jar to which I add pure alcohol to make a tincture.

Clearly the seed I have been saving is ready! The doves have come down and are tapping the pods, bursting them open and eating the seeds. I am happy to share but I high-tailed it pretty quick to get the best seed. This is from the Italian/Asian leaf mix we grew all through winter and is a real winner. Even the flowers are good to eat and it provides beautiful fresh salad leaf as a change from the winter root crops.

I have rendered 10kg of sheep fat for soap making and it's not so much the rendering as the cleaning up that is the real chore!

My hands don't know whether they are chapped and tired or smooth and soft!

And next I am going to start on the Broad (Fava) Beans. This is the harvest now and I will have to freeze the excess after I bundle some up for Craig's mother.

And then that's pretty much Recreation Day over!