Just peachy!

 

I love late summer flowers. Dahlias and Gladiolis are popping up all over the garden, I'm so pleased as I have a new found love for them. They remind me of my Nan who loved Dahlias. I, for some strange reason, did pull up a whole heap of bulbs and tossed them away when we first moved in here. I have no idea why but I'm so pleased most of them still thrive out there.

Rat damage

There has been an invader in the orchard. Pesky rats have been chewing their way through the start of our summer crop of peaches. I'm not putting up with that at all - we have hardly any fruit this summer (codling moth has got just about our whole apple crop) so I got out there on the ladder, a big deal for height-a-phobic me, and put plastic bags (with lots of holes cut for air and moisture to escape) around each and every ripening peach. I'm happy to say that we are now enjoying beautiful big juicy peaches, and the rats are no longer beating us to them!

 

I'm loving the water lillies that have graced our pond as well, it must be a fairly healthy environment at the moment as we have some baby goldfish to go with our other six guppies in there at the moment. Obviously when a school friend of my big girl dropped off a couple more goldfish for us one must have been a boy! The girls are loving seeing these baby fish and really enjoy feeding them.

You can even see one of the baby fish (little brown thing) if you look closely enough.

The husband has always liked to drink Lemon & Barley water as a thirst quencher, but at $5 a bottle when we go through it quickly it seems a bit pricey. So he googled a recipe the other day and made some. About 50c worth of barley, a bit of sugar, water, lemon and there you go. Plus the chooks loved the left over barley once it was strained off. Homemade Lemon & Barley - much better for us too as sugar isn't the main ingredient anymore.

Recipe here

It's been a weekend of getting ready for school again. After 7 weeks finally school is going back tomorrow.  I've loved most of the holidays but being a working parent means that the last two weeks have been a bit of a juggle. Bags are almost all packed and baking has been done.

Have a lovely week xxx Kylie

Hits and Misses

It’s been an interesting week or so. A few good things, a few more not so great things. I won’t dwell on the bad stuff (except for a heavy cold I currently have – splutter, sniff, sniff seems to be my day at the moment), but I have been enjoying this early spring weather and have made the most of it out in the garden the last few days. Spring has just blown a gentle wave over the garden and there is so much new life – really quite magical. I can sit out there for hours and enjoy the sweet smells and the prettiness (well, as long as the children let me sit!).

The Vege garden in looking in great shape, Fennel, Kale, crazy cabbages that never "cabbaged" but just grew huge, and the biggest abundance of Broccoli EVER. We are eating it with every meal (no lie). Any Broccoli recipes gladly welcomed.

 

The spring bulbs are just stunning. One I am loving in my little Peony Tulip (the Peony is my favourite flower but unfortunately I can’t grow them in this warmer part of NZ – I used to have success further South in NZ) so this is a little pretend Peony.

 

I have loads and loads of seedlings growing as well, my sweet peas and coriander are ready to harden off out, and I'm bound to have a heap more ready shortly. Better make some spaces in the garden for all of these delights!                                              

 

Baking has been definitely full of hits and misses this week. I've made some fabulous biscuits.....

And some I’d rather never try again. I didn't photograph those ones though..... Even the girls won’t eat them (chooks didn’t mind though).

I have a great recipe book from the library “The Aunt Daisy Baking Book”  which has some great old fashioned recipes. Aunt Daisy was a NZ radio host back in the 1930s, well known for her handy home hints (Aunt Daisy's home hints) and Baking secrets.  Her recipes are interesting though. Most of her techniques assumed that baking was second nature to all with instructions such as “Bake in the usual way”, and never stated oven temperatures. This book has been adapted to fit more a more modern style of baking.  The Afghan Biscuits were the best I have ever made (although the recipe only made a very small batch – obviously they were more rationed back in the 30’s than we are with baked goods now.

 Afghans
170g butter
85g Sugar
170g Flour
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon Cocoa
60g Cornflakes
Cream butter and sugar. Add dry ingredients. Roll into small balls (heaped teaspoon sized amounts) and cook on a cold oven tray in a moderate over (180C) for about 15 minutes.

I also have a new lush early evening weekend treat drink. “Tangelo Gin & Tonic” that I found here. Divine!!

And the blanket – it’s been decided by daughter number one that daughter number two will have it (as she wants more “blues” in her colours – is coming along nicely. And I’m sewing in the ends as I go now. Much better!

 

Have a wonderful week xxx Kylie

P.S if you are quick you can enter a fabulous giveaway on my my very dear friends blog whydidntanyonetellme

Sunshine Sunday

After a few days of heavy rain we have had a lovely day today, the sun was shining when I got up this morning - just the ticket to motivate me. And get some of that pesky washing dried!

So I've been a busy little Bee.

Our lovely neighbours have a Kiwifruit orchard, so at this time of year we are given loads of Kiwifruit. The girls love them but we can only get through so many. I usually try chutney or jam, as well as giving some fruit away but I found a recipe for Kiwifruit sorbet the other day that I just had to try.

Easy to make too, just a few photos from the process.

I made our favourite Lemon Cordial  (recipe from NZ Gardener - can't find it online but you may be able to search for it) - really yummy.

Do you remember the Macadamia harvest from last week? Well we put the Husker into operation and husked the lot of them within minutes, a job that used to take us hours!!

41Kg of nuts, all we have to do now is to dry them before we can crack them.

We've made a few things with some that we cracked already, Sweet and Spicy nuts and Macadamia Cookies.

I've also made a couple of new things today - Natural Vanilla Extract (made from Vodka and Vanilla Beans). The longer they are left the better the flavour is. I've heard of it lasting years, you just keep topping up the Vodka and replace the Vanilla when it breaks down too much. I didn't have enough Vodka left (its not a drink I really like, but I did use it in a couple of Summer cocktails), so will have to top it up more when I pick some up next time I go to town.

And I also made some Witch Hazel Toner. My skin is a bit funny at the moment - I think it's from being stuck inside so much.... I hunted out a few of my natural remedies books and a good toner for skin prone to oily patches was made from Witch Hazel, water and Lavender. Mix together, store in a dark place and dab on cotton wool before using with the cleanse and tone routine.

It's a long weekend here thanks to Queen's Birthday so I have the girls home tomorrow as well. I have a few ideas of what we could do tomorrow so watch this space.

Bye for now - Kylie x

Harvests and Hearts

I made a wee surprise for my big girl last night - a row of hearts to wake up to under her name above her bed. That sure put a smile on her face.

We've had a busy day with Netball and then we decided to harvest this years Macadamia harvest. Well we got one tree half done, with a huge amount of nuts harvested with another tree still to do (we have two big trees). Wonder where we will store them all to dry?

I knew it would be a good harvest with the amount of blooms on there at the start of summer!

Nothing like a bit of child labour to help around the farm ;)

We've had a bit of fun op shopping (charity shopping) to find a couple of outfits for a 70's party in a few weeks - loving what I found for me! I think I'll crochet a headband to go with it.

I've taken the dress up to be a bit of a mini, and worn with knee high boots it'll be fabulous. The jacket is more Turquoise than it looks here, just gorgeous to wear for non dress-up too.

The Chief is making Cider with the last of our apples, lots of frothy mixture fermenting away in the laundry now. We'll bottle it next week and put it away for a few months. I'm not much of a cider drinker but I love it in cooking!

Loving the Orange Pokers (Torch Lillies) in front of the Barn

Have a happy weekend everyone xx K

Super harvest

I found these fabulous vintage crochet books in a secondhand shop and I had to get them. I have a 70's party to go to in a few weeks and there are a few goodies in there that will be perfect accessories. I love the slouch beanie on the front cover and the cushion would be perfect for the caravan!

I've been doing a few more hats too, I just can't get enough of this pattern (McKinleys Springtime Hat again as per previous posts)

My book group (really an excuse for a group of school Mums to get together for a glass - or two - of wine each month and look semi intelligent about books) is doing New Zealand Authors this month and I have to say it's been one of the best topics/styles/Authors we have done. I was already a fan of a few NZ authors (Nicky Pellegrino, Deborah Challinor etc) but I currently have 3 that I'm reading(see the photo above) and I'm loving each and every one of them in different ways

Now I have a new favourite vegetable - Jerusalem Artichokes. I planted three plants (replanted tubers from last years meagre harvest) and I harvested this years crop today (with the help of a amazed 3 1/2 year old). I can't believe the amount and the size of them. I'll cook up half of them and replant the other half - I think I will have to invest in a stall at the farmers market next May to sell some of them off as I will never get through as many as that will produce.

I made a beautful Spiced Jerusalem Artichoke Soup tonight from Choosy Beggars  - divine!!!  (my photo didn't turn out so you will have to check out the one from there as it did look pretty similar).

But the task of peeling the knobbly little suckers though - urgh!!!!

We have a bit of a glut of apples too, so we are having lots of apple sponges, apple cakes and I'm making plenty of applesauce to store away for winter.

Spiced Apple Cake

Well hope you all have a lovely start to the new week xxx K