Autumn Preserves

Summer preserving is a mad time but I would have to say that autumn is the same, if not, it at least comes a close second. In the autumn my preserving comes from some cultivated crops like chillies, lemongrass and various herbs both culinary and medicinal but it also comes from foraged plants too like rosehips and hawberries and plantain and late red clover.

When I moved into my house nearly 30 years ago, there was a hook in the corner of the ceiling in the dinning room. I suspect it was from a macramé hanging of the 1980's and rather than deal with a hole I left the hook and painted it inconspicuous white. I'm so glad I did and I can't tell you how often I use it. Once I got past the "my home should look like the pages of Home Beautiful" stage and actually started to live in my home, I started drying my herbs here because the heating tends to get a bit trapped towards the ceiling here and it makes it perfect for drying. At the moment I am drying large bundles of wormwood in flower. If you can get hold of one of these old fashioned onion, shallot, garlic keeping hangers of collapsible hanging baskets do so; currently my beans are finishing off here for dried beans but I use it often for curing my soaps too. 

Here I am stripping and storing previously hung wormwood. This will be made into nesting box potpourri for the chickens and also insect repelling sachets for the linens and storage cupboards.

The jar behind contains the rose hips that I foraged the other day. Having them dried and stored means I can use them for salve making or tincturing or cordial another day when they are needed. I might even use them hot glued on a Christmas wreath!

I'm collecting seeds and podding dried beans and making dried teas. Above is the head of a Giant Russian sunflower and the purple king beans dried and ready, also a bunch of dried lemongrass that has been air drying. The lemongrass has been chopped in the Thermomix and is now ready for herbal tea blends and adding to tub teas.

The dehydrator is great for small herbs and holds the colour beautifully. I'm drying oregano, calendula, mint and parsley. These ingredients will be used when needed for meals, salve and soap making and herbal blends for bath, body and chickens! There is still so much to be gleaned and harvested.

Drying

another important preserving technique.

Sunflower Central

This is my attempt to try to show you how tall the Russian Giants are reaching. They are not fully open yet but they are climbing amongst the apple tree boughs. 

It's sunflower central around here this year with multi-headed bronze varieties

So cheery and enchanting to the children visiting our garden this year.

They tower above everyone's heads but the Russian Giants are reaching about....

8 feet tall !

Seed Freedom Fortnight

Seed Freedom Fortnight

2-16 Oct 2012

Some of you may not know this but there has been an insidious move by a few companies over the last few decades to make whole country's agricultural business their business!

They have produced chemicals and fertilisers that only lead to more chemical and fertiliser dependency and to wrap the whole up in a nice oligopoly package they have also patented seed.

They OWN the seed.

The farmer must buy the seed, he can not save the seed and he risks financial ruin should his seed become accidentally cross pollinated with their seed thus making it the company's seed.

You may have heard of Monsanto in America. What you may not realise is that some of the dirtiest work by these oligopolies is occurring in struggling third world countries. 

We are losing seed varieties every year but it is most important that you start saving seed now. Seed adapts and evolves for the area it grows in. If we lose that, we lose the ability to feed ourselves. We become instead reliant on a system that holds all the cards and reduces diversity.

We lose our freedom from hunger and independence.

Please, each one of you, in your area, save your seed and buy only local heirloom/open pollinating/GMO free seed.

In this fortnight get together and swap seed.

That's what we did to wrap up our Living Better group last month.

After we finished the cakes we had a sit down and shared seed.

I gained beetroot, lupins and peas and NZ yams.

I swapped multi-headed sunflowers.

This Saturday I will also take to market some Turks Turban pumpkin seed.

Hope you watch the video; Dr Vandana Shiva has been fighting for seed freedom for decades and Costa is own special Australian gardening legend.

NRG Bars

These bars are a great lunch box food for high energy so they are ideal for children and shearers.

NRG Bars

125g of melted butter

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup sunflower kernals

1/2 cup pumpkin seed kernals

1/3 cup sesame seeds

4 cups of rice bubbles or similar

Simmer the butter, honey and sugar for about 5 mins

Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Add the honey mix and combine well.

Press into a slice tin with damp hands.

Refrigerate.

We are not the packaged cereal eating kind so I was shocked when I went to the local shop to find that rice bubbles were twice the price of corn flakes. You will observe my mixture uses lightly crushed corn flakes instead of rice bubbles. I also had a scant handful of sultanas so they went in too.

As I said, ideal for lunch boxes and less sugar than a muesli bar. Great for the 3pm afternoon flag.

These are best made in winter as summer heat tends to make them a bit soft and melty in the lunch box by midday. 

Cost is about $4 to make and you would easily get at least 10-12 serves.