Slow Living May 2014

Linking up with Christine again this month and this month seems to have been quite busy.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
All of our meals were cooked from scratch again this month and I have been thinking about how living in the country gives us a real advantage in this area.  We just do not have the temptations that exist when you live in or close to suburbia.  We are still really focused on using up the food we have on hand and making good use of what we have growing in the garden (even if this means 1000 ways with Pak Chow) rather than doing any shopping.
I made a huge Bacon and Egg Pie (with Pak Choy of course) that used about a dozen eggs and it kept us going for days.

Pear and Almond Cake with Ginger Syrup

Bacon And Egg Pie

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.
Mostly we are making use of our stockpile rather than adding to it since we are currently in a situation where we have had to cut costs.  This is an incentive to not go shopping and to use up things that we have on hand, so the pantry is also getting a clear out.  This month I did add a few things, some preserved lemons and some cherry chutney which we to use up some lemons I was given and some cherries I had stored in the freezer.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
In our ongoing efforts to reduce the clutter in our home this week I finally got around to sending off all our old phones and chargers for recycling.

I also found out that soft plastics can be recycled and located the nearest drop off point to us.  It is 50km away but we do tend to be in that area at least once a month so for now we are washing out all out plastic (where required) pegging it on the line to dry and then bagging it up ready to be dropped off.

This month I also turned an old blanket into a dog coat for Jessie which cost me a total of fifty cents.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Just the usual happening on this front.  As it is citrus season I have a catch of citrus cleaner on the go but since there is just the two of us we do not go through that much of our cleaning products.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of Pak Choy, cherry tomatoes and beans at the moment plus herbs and the odd eggplant, we also have plenty of citrus.  I am having another go at broccoli but I may have gotten them in too late and I am growing spinach for salads and rainbow chard for us and the chickens.

Pak Choy growing really well

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

Creations have been on hold this month and reading has taken over.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading lots over the last month.  Liz lent me some great books and I am working my way through them.
This month I read You Can Farm by Joel Salatin and a few books about farming from the library.  The Joel Salatin book was inspirational and filled with great information but the books from the library were about very traditional farming methods based on high chemical usage which is not what we are about.

Enhance - Community
This month I am working with a number of small business owners in our community to get feedback from shoppers about their spending habits and what prompts them to shop outside of our community instead of locally.
We are also undertaking a campaign of encouraging the community to shop locally and what the benefits of doing this are.  I have been writing weekly press releases for our local paper and so far they have been well received.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

During May we celebrated mothers day with my mother in law and my sister in law who became a mum for the first time in March.

My brother in law, sister in law and baby

All the Men of the family

Proud first time grandparents

It is such a joy to share these moments with Hubby's family knowing that they will not happen as often once we move to New Zealand.

What have you been up to?