Chocolate Zucchini Cake

So what do you bake when you have truckloads of zucchini? Well Chocolate Zucchini Cake of course.

This is a really easy recipe and my friends kids loved it although I never told them what was in it, I just called it chocolate cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

115 gm Butter or 1/2 Cup Olive oil
2 Cups of Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp salt
180 gm Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Instant Coffee dissolved in 2 Tbs of water
3 Large Eggs
350 gm Unpeeled Grated Zucchini
160 gm 70% Cocoa Chocolate roughly chopped or chocolate chips.

Pre Heat your oven to 180 degrees and grease a 25 cm round or 22 cm square cake tin.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then add the eggs one at a time mixing well between each egg.  Then mix in the vanilla and coffee.
Add the grated zucchini and chocolate to the dry ingredients and mix together so that the zucchini is well distributed and not clumping together.  Fold the zucchini mix into the batter and mix until just combined,(the mix will be quite thick).
Pour into the cake tin and bake for between 40 and 60 minutes (it will depend on your oven) until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Transfer the tin to a rack and cool for 10 minutes then run a knife around the edges to loosen before turning out.

Worth Watching

We don't get SBS at our place but I like to keep an eye out for any really interesting documentaries that are on.

There is a really interesting series about climate change and the different ways impacts are being felt across America and the world.
Separate stories around climate change unfold across nine episodes, told by a cast of A-list Hollywood celebrities and high-profile journalists, including Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, Michael C. Hall, Ian Somerhalder, Olivia Munn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, America Ferrara, and more. These correspondents travel to areas throughout the U.S. and around the world to interview both experts and ordinary people affected by, and seeking solutions to, the impacts of climate change. 

I have only seen the first 2 episodes so far but I have been really impressed by the way it has been put together.  I really hope that our polititians are watching this too although I am not hopeful.  I know that Julie Bishop announced that Australia will contribute $200 million to the UN Green Climate Fund but I son't think this would have even happened except that many of the world leaders have put pressure on the government.  We really need to do a lot more since according to the latest OECD Greenhouse Gas Emissions Index Australia is ranked as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita how disgraceful.


Years of Living Dangerously - Dry Season

Years of Living Dangerously - End of the Woods

Years of Living Dangerously -  A Dangerous Future

The other series I found really informative is What's the Catch? presented by Matthew Evans the Gourmet Farmer. This documentary series highlights the complex and sometimes shocking truth about Australia’s seafood. It also launches a campaign around seafood labelling that will enable all Australians to make better choices when it comes to buying and consuming seafood. 
We do not eat a lot of seafood and most of what we eat is a locally caught fresh water fish (therefore not sea food) that is a pest species, but it has made me think a lot more about the other seafood we buy.

Whats the Catch? - Episode 1

Whats the Catch? - Episode 2

Whats the Catch? - Episode 3

Have you seen any of these documentaries?  What did you think?

Raw Milk NZ Style

While we were in New Zealand we learnt that just around the corner from my parents place a dairy farm had set up their own little self service milk store right at their farm gate.

It is a purpose built bottle filling station open to the public 7 days a week.  Inside there are 2 filling stations, a vending machine selling glass bottles and lids, bottle carry bags and rechargeable milk cards that you can load with money.

The filling station fills 1 litre bottles and all you do is put in your money or card, put your bottle in the little cupboard under the spout and press the button and the machine automatically dispenses 1 litre of milk.

You could bring your own bottle from home but you can also make a one off purchase of one of theirs (or if you forget to bring yours).  This dairy farm have clearly invested quite a bit of money to set up this farm shop but from all reports the shop is doing great and the community is really enjoying having easy access to raw milk.

Oh how I wish that it was so easy to access raw milk here in Australia but our laws are different and mean most of us have no access to raw milk let alone raw milk that came from the cow that day.

If you are interested in more information about the benefits of raw milk click here or here or here.

At least we know where we can easily access raw milk when we first move over and eventually we hope to have our own cow.

Do you have/wish you had access to raw milk?  Is it important to you?

More Work On Our NZ Farm

One of the big jobs we wanted to tackle while were in NZ was planting out the rest of our fenced of shelter strip.
Last year when I was back in NZ we got the fencing started and planted out about 150 trees.  But that did not even get us half was down our 190m boundry.  So the goal this time was to get it fully planted, get the fence finished and get the big dirt pile moved that I dug through by hand last year.
Over the past 12 months my parents have been mowing around the trees and replacing any trees that did not make it (including those that got ring-barked by a rogue whipper snipper operator).

So on our first morning we packed the trailer with a barrel of rainwater (we do not have water at the property) all the plants, spades, carpet squares for placing around the plant to help keep the grass down and the moisture in the soil and a picnic lunch.

The plants almost all come from mums garden and are a variety of natives that I listed in this post.  And this year half way our trip we also got some different natives from my Aunties garden.

On arrival this year we first inspected the plants from last year some of which were a bit had to fin in the long grass.

Hubby and Mum checking for plants in the long grass

We made our way down the fence line checking on the growth of the plants.  Some seem to be doing really well others had not done as well.

Then it was on with the work.  Hubby used the whipper snipper to clear the grass around all the trees and the rest of the strip that was yet to be planted.

Once the grass was trimmed back it was easier to see the trees and which had done well.

Then Mum and I cracked on with more planting.

By the time day 2 rolled around we had a good system going with Hubby going ahead digging holes and mum and I planting behind.  Then we all took time carting water, collecting up empty pots and putting the carpet squares around the plants.

As we got closer and closer to the end it was a great feeling.

Nearly at the end

Our boundary starts about 50 meters past the second power pole

While we were there I organised for a digger operator to come and move the big pile of dirt inside our planting strip that I dug through by hand last year.
It took him less than 30 minutes to move the entire pile (compared to my trwhich he spread out in the gateway to fill in the hollow there.  It turned out there was quite a lot of stones in the pile so I am really glad I did not have to move it my hand.

The dirt pile dug through last year

To remove the dirt pile we had pulled out the timber end fence for the digger driver to get access. Once the dirt pile was gone we could finish wiring the fence and put the stay posts (these stop the end posts from being pulled inwards) in place.

Dad and Hubby finishing the fence

Below is a photo of the entire boundary.  Our property ends at the third power pole in the distance.

We almost made it to the end but we need about 30 more plants to completely fill the strip. Unfortunately mum did not have any more seedlings big enough to transplant yet.

Check out how much the grass grew in a week since Hubby whipper snipped 

After planting out all these trees we spent another day in mums garden digging up more seedlings and potting them up to get a good root system going in the pot.  We potter up about 100 more plants so mum has plenty to fill in any gaps for ones that do not make it plus extras as we will need lots more shelter trees in the future.  In fact I think we will be planting out hundreds of trees a year for many years to come since we are starting out with a blank canvas.

We have now planted nearly 400 trees in just this strip and it is such a good feeling to have gotten so many in the ground.  And hopefully all these natives will attract native wildlife in the future.

Have you had to plant out lots of trees/plants at your place?

Harvest Basket

Every second day this weekI have been filling my basket  from the garden.  Most days there have been a number of zucchini and eggplants and a few tomatoes.

This year I grew small varieties of eggplants as the large ones tend to get attacked by bugs before they are ready for harvesting.  This also happens to capsicums so this year I am growing the long sweet peppers and mini capsicums.
Then there is the bug that turns my tomatoes to mush grrrrr.  I have grown both beefsteak and russian black and I have just picked the last of the fruit on them (most of them green) as they were all either getting affected by the bug or were damaged by the hail storm we had last week.  Thankfully they ripen up pretty quickly on the bench in this weather since tomatoes don't need the sun to ripen just warmth.
All of my lettuce has bolted to seed with the heat and so has the parsley.  This really hot weather has also stopped my tomatoes from flowering and since they are already 4 foot high and not looking so great I am considering pruning them back and letting them shoot again.  This is not a method I have tried before but I figure I the established root system should be able to produce new shoots.

My sad tomato plants

It will be a bit of an experiment but since I had considered pulling them out all together I am prepared to give it a go.

Has anyone else ever tried this?