Life is really busy at the moment. I have 2 University assignments due Friday which finishes up two subjects and then I have an exam on the 16/06 which wraps up the last subject I am doing. I also have about 6 weeks of work left before I take long service leave followed by maternity leave and boy am I hanging out for that leave.
But I did find a few interesting reads this week when taking a break from all the study.
Most of us have heard of companion planting but what shouldn't we plant together? Check this out
Incompatible plants
Ever heard of Pemmican the survival superfood?
Retrofitting the suburbs from Milkwood Permaculture
Here is a great recipe for Peppermint Headache Salve
Sad report about the Barrier Reef
I am sure you are all aware of the big push to support dairy farmers and independent milk suppliers. The reality is that we all make a difference even when we just change what band we buy on one product. Check out the thanks from Maleny Dairies which happens to be the milk we buy.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Monday, 30 May 2016
Soup Season Starts - Pumpkin And Leek Soup
I love the cool season and all of the warming nourishing food that goes with it. Our summer just went on and on and to be honest I was a bit over salad so I am glad to be moving on to comfort food.
I love the simple, humble, nourishing and tasty nature of soup and I have kicked off soup season with a thick and tasty example, pumpkin and leek.
Pumpkin and Leek Soup
1 kg of Pumpkin
1 Leek
2 Brown Onions
1 Sweet Potato
1 litre of Chicken stock
4 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Ground Cumin
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Peel and dice your pumpkin and sweet potato and place in a roasting tray along with the peeled garlic cloves. Drizzle with oil and give it a good stir before placing in a 200 degree oven and roasting till they are cooked and starting to brown around the edges.
In the mean time halve and finely slice your leeks and dice your onion and cook over a low heat with a bit of oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until they are soft and translucent and turning a bit mushy then add the coriander and cumin and cook for 1 minute before adding your stock and roasted veggies.
Cook for 5 minutes, season to taste then blend with a stick blender then cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add some water if you need to thin it or leave it thick.
Serve with a drizzle of cream and serve with hot buttered toast.
Have you started soup season yet? What are you cooking?
I love the simple, humble, nourishing and tasty nature of soup and I have kicked off soup season with a thick and tasty example, pumpkin and leek.
1 kg of Pumpkin
1 Leek
2 Brown Onions
1 Sweet Potato
1 litre of Chicken stock
4 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Ground Cumin
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Peel and dice your pumpkin and sweet potato and place in a roasting tray along with the peeled garlic cloves. Drizzle with oil and give it a good stir before placing in a 200 degree oven and roasting till they are cooked and starting to brown around the edges.
In the mean time halve and finely slice your leeks and dice your onion and cook over a low heat with a bit of oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until they are soft and translucent and turning a bit mushy then add the coriander and cumin and cook for 1 minute before adding your stock and roasted veggies.
Cook for 5 minutes, season to taste then blend with a stick blender then cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add some water if you need to thin it or leave it thick.
Serve with a drizzle of cream and serve with hot buttered toast.
Have you started soup season yet? What are you cooking?
Sunday, 22 May 2016
Leibster Award Fun
Liz recently nominated me for a Leibster award which is to recognise bloggers that you enjoy connecting with and hearing about. There is 10 unique questions to answer. Liz has asked some interesting questions then I need to come up with my own 10 questions for my nominated bloggers, Over to Liz's questions:
9. Which famous people would you have over for dinner and why?
10. What is your guilty food pleasure?
1. If you had a big lottery win what would you do with it all?
We are in the process of setting our new farm in NZ and it would go towards making this a reality in a shorter time frame. I would also go on a world tour for six months and put most of it in the bank so that I can set up a business combining psychology (my current field of study) with my passion for growing and cooking food.
2. How do you think you'd fair in a zombie apocalypse?
Even though we have been without power, phone and access for 5 days without an issue and we are seasoned campers currently not so well. We have a good stock pile of food but have been whittling it down in preparation for our move to NZ. Once there and set up I think we would do much better.
Even though we have been without power, phone and access for 5 days without an issue and we are seasoned campers currently not so well. We have a good stock pile of food but have been whittling it down in preparation for our move to NZ. Once there and set up I think we would do much better.
3. If you had six months warning do you think you could grow all you needed to feed yourself and your family?
Not here at our rental as easily as on our future property in NZ but I think we would do ok with 6 months warning. We would have to bring in a lot of soil as we currently have about 5mm of topsoil over rock, but once we had soil we have the skill to manage quite well.
Not here at our rental as easily as on our future property in NZ but I think we would do ok with 6 months warning. We would have to bring in a lot of soil as we currently have about 5mm of topsoil over rock, but once we had soil we have the skill to manage quite well.
4. What life-skill should every child have to learn in school?
All children should learn how to cook from scratch, basic sewing, growing food and basic budgeting skills.
All children should learn how to cook from scratch, basic sewing, growing food and basic budgeting skills.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Back to NZ to be close to my family with good soil and regular rainfall to enable our 5.5 acre farm to thrive and us to garden and farm with greater success.
6. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to live more self-sufficiently?
Just start. Every skill you gain brings you one step closer. Read as much as you can and search the web for tips and tricks. Don't be afraid just have a go.
7. What's your most hated food?
Tripe but this is easy to avoid. Bananas are the regular food I hate. I want to like them as I know they are good for you and they make a great snack but every few years I give them another go and I still hate them.
Tripe but this is easy to avoid. Bananas are the regular food I hate. I want to like them as I know they are good for you and they make a great snack but every few years I give them another go and I still hate them.
8. What is your favourite quote/saying?
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
9. Is there a time you've made a massive fool of yourself in public that you laugh about now?
I once went to a costume party dressed as a nun and it was a really convincing costume and after the party my friends all changed back into their normal clothes and we all went into the city to the night clubs with me still in my costume. It was hilarious and people often wanted to get deep and meaningful and ask for advice.
10. If you had a warning label what would it say?
Ideas person - Likes to come up with the concept and do the fun bits but leave the boring stuff to others while moving on to a new project.
My five nominations are a bunch of interesting folk sharing their lives with us via their blogs:
My ten questions for these lovely people are:
1. If you had to choose 3 charities to give $100,000 to which charities would they be and why?
2. What is the worst job (at home or work) you have had to do?
3. What strange food combination do you love?
4. What is the one skill you don't have but would love to master?
5. If you could create a new law what would it be?
6. If you could change the perspective for every person on the planet about one issue what would it be?
7. If the shops closed tomorrow how long could you feed your family for?
8. What do you think the 3 biggest environmental issues are?
10. What is your guilty food pleasure?
Monday, 16 May 2016
Awesome Op Shop Finds
As I have mentioned we are all for buying second hand when it comes to our baby due in October and last weekend my friend Sandra and I went Op Shopping to see what I could get.
I did have a bit of a list including some maternity clothes and baby stuff that I would be keeping an eye our for but have plenty of time to source including a nappy bag, baby wraps, and baby carrier.
Do you ever find that some days when you go shopping you can find everything you want and more and other times you cannot find a single thing? Well it was the former for me last weekend.
In one op shop I came across this baby gym with all the bits and pieces, even the battery operated kick pad, included plus a few extra things (2 rattles and a couple of fabric books and a teething ring) that had been added to the bag. I had thought we would not bother with one of these as they are not that cheap but this one was only$10 and in great condition. It was only after I had decided to purchase it that I noticed the original price sticker was still on the bag, $129.95. Yep bargain.
At another op shop I found a nappy bag that can be worn as a back pack, over one shoulder or hooked on your pram. It fods out to be a change mat and is is an older version of this one which retails for $119.95 and I paid just $14.50. The only thing it is missing is the toweling mat to change on, no biggie. Another bargain.
The same op shop delivered up a couple more bargains in the way of modern cloth nappies. The blue pair turned out to actually be swimming pants but the others were nappies that just happen to be the brand (peapods) we have been looking at. Both of these normally retail for $20 a pair so the $1.50 price tag was amazing.
Back in the car and the next op shop turned up the biggest bargain of them all along with some of the maternity clothes I had been looking for.
A Caboo Close Carrier RRP of $139 was marked at $5. Yep just $5. It is made of organic cotton and does not look like it has even been used. I suspect no one knew what this funny bundle of fabric and rings was, the staff had no idea and I had to explain it at the counter. It was just stuffed on a shelf and is missing the very outer support that is optional to use if you still want to be using it between 10 and 15kg. If I wanted I could make the additional support but we will not need it for quite a while and we may want to switch to a backpack by then anyway.
Sandra also managed to find me some great maternity clothes. She found me some jeans $8, a merino jumper $12 and a polar fleece jacket $7.50. Both the jumper and jacket are XL and I normally take a M - L so there is plenty of room for the bump this winter and the Jeans are a 16 and I normally take a 14 so I will just deal with them being a little baggy in the legs and butt (who knows I might fill them too).
So for less than $60 I got over $600 worth of things which is an amazing haul and even though a nappy bag and a baby carrier were not on our radar to purchase just yet I could not go past these bargains.
Have you picked up any amazing bargains lately?
I did have a bit of a list including some maternity clothes and baby stuff that I would be keeping an eye our for but have plenty of time to source including a nappy bag, baby wraps, and baby carrier.
Do you ever find that some days when you go shopping you can find everything you want and more and other times you cannot find a single thing? Well it was the former for me last weekend.
In one op shop I came across this baby gym with all the bits and pieces, even the battery operated kick pad, included plus a few extra things (2 rattles and a couple of fabric books and a teething ring) that had been added to the bag. I had thought we would not bother with one of these as they are not that cheap but this one was only$10 and in great condition. It was only after I had decided to purchase it that I noticed the original price sticker was still on the bag, $129.95. Yep bargain.
At another op shop I found a nappy bag that can be worn as a back pack, over one shoulder or hooked on your pram. It fods out to be a change mat and is is an older version of this one which retails for $119.95 and I paid just $14.50. The only thing it is missing is the toweling mat to change on, no biggie. Another bargain.
The same op shop delivered up a couple more bargains in the way of modern cloth nappies. The blue pair turned out to actually be swimming pants but the others were nappies that just happen to be the brand (peapods) we have been looking at. Both of these normally retail for $20 a pair so the $1.50 price tag was amazing.
Back in the car and the next op shop turned up the biggest bargain of them all along with some of the maternity clothes I had been looking for.
A Caboo Close Carrier RRP of $139 was marked at $5. Yep just $5. It is made of organic cotton and does not look like it has even been used. I suspect no one knew what this funny bundle of fabric and rings was, the staff had no idea and I had to explain it at the counter. It was just stuffed on a shelf and is missing the very outer support that is optional to use if you still want to be using it between 10 and 15kg. If I wanted I could make the additional support but we will not need it for quite a while and we may want to switch to a backpack by then anyway.
Sandra also managed to find me some great maternity clothes. She found me some jeans $8, a merino jumper $12 and a polar fleece jacket $7.50. Both the jumper and jacket are XL and I normally take a M - L so there is plenty of room for the bump this winter and the Jeans are a 16 and I normally take a 14 so I will just deal with them being a little baggy in the legs and butt (who knows I might fill them too).
At our final stop they were having a sale and I picked up a polo shirt and an elastic waisted skirt for the grand total of $3.
So for less than $60 I got over $600 worth of things which is an amazing haul and even though a nappy bag and a baby carrier were not on our radar to purchase just yet I could not go past these bargains.
Have you picked up any amazing bargains lately?
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
A Post To Share
Sometimes when you are on a simple living journey I think there are things you need to remember and this post really sums it up well.
Check it out: When Simple Isn’t Easy : 5 Ways to Cope with Homestead Overwhelm
Check it out: When Simple Isn’t Easy : 5 Ways to Cope with Homestead Overwhelm
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