Not Your Average Flower

We have this amazing bromeliad in our shade house.

It is quite large and has very spiky leaves so it is well away from the path.  When it flowers it sends out these amazing flower spikes with little spiky berries on them.

 The berries start off green with red spikes on the end of each berry.  Then they turn black and keep the red spike on the end of each one.
I have never seen one like it and have no idea what it is called

Meat Chickens - An Update

This post is a bit delayed and since these photos were taken the chickens have grown a lot and I will no doubt be posting about them again very soon.
So where are we at with the journey and what have we learnt so far.
Well I can tell you one thing for sure, these little buggers eat a lot!  In fact all they do is eat, poop, drink and sleep.
We are really treating this as an experiment in a a number of areas:
How do we feel about raising our own meat and butchering it ourselves?
How do we feel about a commercial breed vs a heritage breed for meat?
How much does it actually cost? Does this save us any money
What are the yeilds from the birds?
What is the meat vs fat ratio?
And importantly how do they taste?
It will be a while before we can answer all of these questions but we have already made some observations.

"What you lookin at?"

There are some behaviours that these chickens exhibit that I think has to do with the comercial breed and the rate at which they grow.  They seem to need to streatch a lot for one thing and you often see the streaching out a wing or leg.  Now I have to be realistic in the fact that we do not usually spend as much time looking at baby chickens (these ones spent a few weeks inside) and perhaps all little chickens spend time stretching but I am not convinced it would be so often.

They also seem to spend a heck of a lot of time sitting down.  This is something we knew to expect as the commercial breeds are so heavy.

It is always dinner time.

One final thing that has become obvious is that there can be big differences in the size between some of the chickens.  They were all hatched over two days but some of the chicks are twice the size of others.  Check out the difference between the three in the photo below.

The chicks are now living in their outside residence and I am quite glad to have them, the noise and (yes mum) the smell gone.  We have had some cool weather lately so they still have a light to keep them warm but this week should be the last week for that too since they are now fully feathered.

NB Apologies if there are spelling mistakes but blogger does not want to check it for me, grrrr.

Bi- Carb Cream Cleanser

Over the last 12 months we have been working our way through an array of cleaning products using them up but not replacing them.
For some reason the last owner of the house left behind all sorts of cleaning products plus we had the ones we brought with us.  We had  over 20 half bottles of all sorts of things that we would not normally purchase, but did not want to be wasteful and throw out.
I while ago we made the decision to switch to simple green cleaners that are cheap and easy to make at home.
The basis of most of these cleaners is Bi-Carb Soda and for $25 we purchased 25 kg bag that I blogged about way back here.
In the past I used to purchase gumption for use as a cream style cleaner.  I have also used Jiff  in the past but find the smell unpleasant.
So now I make a cream cleanser using 1 cup of Bi-Carb Soda, 1 tablespoon of Glycerine and just enough water to make a smooth paste.  And that's it.

It s slightly abrasive so don't use it on anything that will scratch.  We have a ceramic top stove and that is one of the places we do not use it.
The way I use it is to put some on a cloth and clean the area that I want then give the area a spray with white vinegar.  This activates the layer of Bi-Carb left behind by the paste and helps pick it up.

 

I also keep a shaker of Bi-Carb under the kitchen sink too, great to sprinkle where ever it is needed then spray with vinegar for a quick and easy clean.  The next thing I want to make is some citrus cleaner.
What do you use at your place?

Coriander and Macadamia Nut Pesto

After my last post Wendy from Duchess Declutter asked for the recipe so here it is.

I will say though that this is a recipe that you have to adjust to your taste.  Personally I like mine quite nutty and with a generous helping of cheese and garlic.  But you can adjust to suit your own tastes.

Before starting roast your macadamias in a 180 degree oven until just starting to colour.  Remove and cool before making pesto.

Pesto

3 packed cups Coriander
1 1/4 Cups Roasted Macadamias
3/4 Cup Parmesan
4 Cloves of Crushed Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the coriander, garlic, macadamias and parmesan into a food processor and blend till broken down a bit.  The add olive oil till it becomes a paste.  Add salt and pepper to your taste.

In the Kitchen and Garden

Over the weekend I spend a few hours in the kitchen whipping up some tasty treats.

I made some sourdough sweet chilli scrolls using my standard bread mix and adding sweet chilli sauce and grated cheese.

I also made some coriander and macadamia nut pesto.  We have coriander growing like mad in the garden and it was a great way to use a whole lot up before it all goes to seed.

I will let some go to seed to attract the good bugs to the garden but there will be plenty to do that even if I harvest all of what is in the veggie garden.  Last year my coriander went to seed and I left it so that I could harvest all the dry seed for cooking.
But just as the seeds were ready to harvest we got rain and they got washed off the bush and all through the garden.  Now we have coriander popping up everywhere.  Oh well not really an issue just more to let go to seed  for next year.

Coriander growing in the wood mulch paths around the raised beds

Coriander in the driveway

And growing in the garden edging

Do you have any self seeded herbs of veggies popping up in strange places at your place?