making and freezing pesto

Look at all that lovely fresh, pungent basil! Doesn't it just make you think of hot summer days, long lazy lunches and good friends? Yes, yes, me too! 

Since we erected my favourite garden structure, the poly tunnel, I have been growing bunches of basil......lots of bunches! The first year I just used it in every dish I made and we had pesto with every meal - okay maybe not breakfast, but it was close! Then last year I thought it would be better if I made pesto all in one go, popped it all in the freezer and then pulled a jar out whenever I needed to add it to a meal. Only I didn't use it much over summer, still having the fresh stuff in the tunnel and when I did use it in the depths of winter, I realised that this what I was going to do every year! What better way to inhale just a small part of the summer glow, than with a delicious jar of fragrant pesto! 

                     

So with the help of children and a visiting family friend, we picked armfuls of basil, peeled clove upon clove of garlic, whizzed walnuts and grated parmesan. Oh the smell was delightful, so lovely I wish I could send a bit of the delicious smell through to you!

Fresh Green Basil Pesto

4 cloves of garlic

3/4 cup of walnuts

4 cups of fresh basil leaves

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Himalayan salt

fresh grated pepper

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil

In a food processor, add the garlic and walnuts and give them a buzz until they are roughly chopped (see above) 

Add the basil leaves, Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste (maybe 1/2 - 3/4 tspn)

With the machine running, drizzle the olive oil into the mixture until its all fairly finely ground and well mixed. 

Pour into small jars and cover with a tiny bit more olive oil to stop the top going brown. 

Cover with a tight lid and eat now or freeze for winter! 

I have kept this pesto in the freezer from April until December and its still delicious. I'm sure it can be kept frozen for longer though, without any loss of flavour. 

We mainly use ours as a flavour bump in sandwiches or to add to pasta with extra Parmesan, butter and fresh cracked pepper.....ooh its making my mouth water just to think about it!! Yum yum yum!!!

PS - I'm writing this up on a friends computer because I am having a little jaunt in NSW. Its quite a bit warmer up here and I'm enjoying it immensely! Back soon!

how to make seed packets from old book pages

Very early this month, our home eduction group held a Garden Swap. The idea is that everyone brings along something either from the garden or pertaining to the garden - you receive a token for every item you bring and in return you can take one item per token. As you can imagine there were a lot of different goodies to swap with……loads of potted plants of course and seedlings, fresh seeds and abundant vegetables from autumn harvests, jams, baked goods, garden magazines, big bags of seaweed and manure, even some kombucha starters. I brought home a few bags of the afore mentioned seaweed, some potted herbs, big bags of onions and two different jams, chosen by my children! To swap, I took along rhubarb, coriander seedlings and some fresh dill and chive seeds.

I may have mentioned that I have a tendency to do things at the last minute and the seed packets were no exception!! I realised very late (well, ok the day before but thats pretty last minute!) that I needed to put the seeds into small packets. Naturally I wanted something pretty but fairly quick to whip up and I came up with the idea of using old book pages which I have a lot of and a simple sketch to tizzy them up! The end result was a bunch of quirky little seed packs that looked cute as well as repurposing something that was no longer used.

In case you want to make some too, here are some step by step pictures which are mostly self explanatory. If I knew how, I'd add a link to a pdf doc with the pattern for you, but I've googled and it all seems a bit complicated for this time of night, so you'll have to make up your own. Its not hard!

I used a book that I picked up for free. Its written in Dutch so I can't read it but the cover will make another journal and the pages will get used up in all sorts of ways!  

It didn't take long to draw up a very simplistic dill seed head and then with just a teeny bit of watercolour they were transformed into a unique seed packet!

I put one heaped teaspoon of seed into each one and wrote the amount in small lettering on the back of the pack. They were stuck together with a glue stick.

While the paints were out, other artistic folk came along and had a painting spree too! 

I also made some coloured packets for chive seeds although I didn't like the end result as much but they did the job. A friend has a chive problem in her garden. Can you believe it? She has them popping up everywhere and they just keep self seeding, so we lopped all their lovely heads and I spent a few hours winnowing the seeds from the husks. 

By the time I'd huffed and puffed and blown all the husks out of the bowls, I was beginning to have some idea of how the wolf felt!! 

And just for fun, here are two creations made of pumpkins! There was a competition for best pumpkin sculpture and these were the two entries. I also wanted to take some photos of all the goodness that was there for swapping but I forgot and then it was all gone!! You'll have to take my word for it!!

Let me know if you think you may make your own seed packs. I think its something useful and arty all in one, and that suits me just fine!

monthly9 march 2015

And I'm late again!!!! Oh well, here it is…… I'm joining in with Linda at Greenhaven Goodlife for a round up of whats been achieved in March. I've noticed that we seem to have a birthday every month so far so at least we have been celebrating if nothing else!!!

Nourish - for a week or two this month we were eating beans but now we are eating beans no more! Jack Frost has bean been for several visits and left lots of shrivelled leaves in his wake. Same for the zucchini which were going so well and we were so enjoying. The tomatoes, capsicum and cucumber are still providing us with lots of food although they are slowing down as well. We are eating more potatoes and I'm starting to buy more winter veg which is always a sure sign that a) theres been a frost and b) the weather is cooling down!
And Im not sure how nourishing the chocolate birthday cake for my sons 20th was……or the brightly coloured and icing sugared Minion biscuits either!! But they were consumed and by all accounts they were delicious so perhaps nourishing of the soul counts for those!!

Prepare - pesto has been the big preparation here this month! I processed loads of basil, parmesan and walnuts and stored all that green deliciousness in the freezer in lots of cute little jars. I'm hoarding it until mid winter when the smell of basil will momentarily transport us out of the winter doldrums and
into a warm summery state of bliss! On a more mundane note, we started digging the potatoes although thats still in progress -  I think it won't be a huge harvest this year as the weather was so dry over summer and there seem to be a lot of small ones.

Reduce - I have an odd little item that I reuse, so please don't think me too silly! I can't bear to throw out a good bit of fabric, no matter whether its just fabric or……um…..well…..undies!!! Yes, by the time the  children grow out of their smalls, the elastic is usually gone or they have a hole somewhere or other and no one in my family wants hand-me-down undies! Over the years I've mostly used them as cleaning or dusting cloths but now that the Small Elf and I have regular art sprees, I've started using them as paint cleaner uppers. They are nice and small which means that theres not a whole heap of spare cloth to drag through the paint pot or painting and they are made of cotton so are quite absorbent. I do just throw them out when they are all covered in paint but at least I've given them a second life! (ok, you can stop laughing now!)

Green - okay, so I'm going to mention again that I'm still using bicarb soda as deodorant and I still love it! All summer….no smelly armpits! I tell all and sundry about the marvels of my 'bio-dorant' and I can't believe why everyone is not using it! My teens, of course, think I'm bonkers but I have noticed that the older they get the smarter I become….so, I know they will eventually be converted too!!

Grow - I've got a lovely cabbage patch coming along and an equally beautiful broccoli patch which were all planted a little later than they should have been….never mind, we'll eat well in late spring! Last year I saved some big bunches of coriander plants that had seeded but never got around to putting into seed packs - so I just flung the whole lot into some empty garden beds and hoped some would sprout. Well, they did. Everywhere. Now I have whole green mats of young coriander plants, squeezing out the carrot and beetroot babies. Most of my family are not keen on coriander so there has been a bit of gifting to others!

Create - other than lots of arty stuff, I haven't created much this month. There was a dashing brown cape for my Fairy though, which I made using a piece of fabric from the op shop.

Discover - I have been listening to a few cd's from Clarissa Pinkola Estes and thoroughly enjoying not only the content but her lovely soothing voice.

Enhance - hmm, not sure. I've started keeping a list of things for each month as I seem to forget quite a bit of the stuff that goes on, due to always being late for this linkup!

Enjoy - there were a couple of very enjoyable weekends this month - the first one was Steamfest, which I always love. We didn't have a stall there this year but still managed to go two days out of three. Then there was a three day campout for the annual homeschool camp - another relaxing weekend which I'm keen to repeat.

So, here's to another month well spent!

easter part 2 - intrepid adventure

Once upon a time (when all our children were younger, still living at home and less opinionated) we often spent a day in the bush just for fun. We'd pack up whatever good food or leftovers we had hanging around, throw in some blankets, eating utensils and the pram if there was a baby, and head off in our old Landrover down a dirt track to find a nice spot to picnic. Usually it involved a river, a campfire and a bit of walking. Sometimes it was winter and cold and we'd need the fire to warm up and stop everyone me from whining about the chilly day. Sometimes it was summer and whatever water source was available was used to cool off and provided much entertainment for the littles. Occasionally I had time to do a quick sketch for my nature journal, to be finished off at home the next day, although most of the time was spent feeding children, making sure they didn't drown or worrying about the possibility of snakes!

These days, its different. Most of our children are grown and are very opinionated (we did let them 'express themselves' when they were younger, so I suppose its to be expected…sigh) so going on family outings is fraught with much more than just snake dilemmas! Now there has to be a family parliamentary session and after much debating and discussion, laughter and loud words, we finally agree on a destination. Those older women who warned me to enjoy them while they were little, since it got harder when they got older, were most certainly right!!!!

So after Easter breakfast this year, ten of us departed (mercifully, without too long a discussion) for a jaunt into the foothills of the highlands. Destination - Devils Gullet. I'm always the one that is the keenest to stay home but I'm also always the one that is so enraptured and awed by wherever we end up….. as usual this was the case! After a brief walk through some lovely high country bush, we came to the very high lookout. Sadly for the rest of the family and thankfully for me, it was misty so we couldn't see really well to the bottom but from what I did see, it looked spectacular - a loooonnng way down! Apparently, if its windy, you can throw a small rock into the abyss and the wind will send it hurtling back up to you. Amazing. We are so fortunate to be living just a short distance from some beautiful World Heritage areas.

While the others waited for the mist to clear, which it did, I amused myself taking photos of all sorts of rocks and shrubs. My children may be older and more opinionated but the upside is that they are able to step over snakes, swim out of the river and refrain from falling in a campfire, leaving me to be inspired and invigorated in the great outdoors!!!

easter, part 1 - its all about the food!

I love food. I love to eat food. More than that though, I love to feed others. My children laugh at me and warn visitors that they had better be hungry because mum will feed them! And its true. Food and the act of nourishing both family and friends, gives me a great sense of satisfaction, a feeling that I've cosseted and nurtured and filled hungry bellies and now all is right with my beloved ones.
This means, of course, that there is always an abundance of food at my table - in fact, I like so much abundance that there are leftovers! Leftovers are good because that means that everyone has eaten their fill……if all the pots and dishes are empty then oh dear, maybe someone hasn't had enough; maybe they had to stop before they were properly filled up; perhaps they will leave the table with rumblings in their belly and thoughts of raiding the fridge on their mind!! (Leftovers are also good for man-lunches the next day which saves me from extra preparation of sandwiches and suchlike!)

So that brings me to Celebration Food. In my mind celebrations always need food. Outings always need food. Just a quick jaunt to the local park, always needs food! Someone is bound to be peckish and the inevitable question "mum, is there anything to eat?" will arise and then what would I tell them? Wait till we get home? Sorry, eat grass!

Anyway, I digress. I wanted to tell you about our Easter - because a large part of our Easter is food! For as long as I can remember, right back to when I was a little girl, we have been having a bountiful Continental breakfast after our early morning basket hunt. My mum used to set a fine table with all sorts of cheeses and breads, jam and coffee, all of which were eaten right along with chocolate bunnies and coloured eggs. And I have continued the tradition. We head out into the cold morning to search for our baskets that the 'Easter Bunny' ahem, has hidden sometime in the earlier hours (in the dark!) of the morning. Then when everyone has tromped through the garden beds, upturned all the empty plant pots and eventually found the basket with their name on it, we return to the house to eat ourselves silly with loads of chocolate bunnies good food and warm beverages. Naturally there are always leftovers!!

Some years we head off after breakfast to explore, an as yet unknown to us, part of our island and I'll share this years destination tomorrow.

steamfest 2015

Oh how I love Steamfest!!! All the smells, the sounds, the sights…….every year I think 'oh maybe I won't go this year' and every year I go and remember how much I like it! From the spinning shed with all the lanolin smells and friendly spinning ladies, to the bullocky controlling his huge, horned steers with a long whip and a few incomprehensible words. I love all the old household wares - pitchers, bottles, knives, chisels, baskets - all priced and stacked on tables as if they were items still in everyday use, not long redundant and now just mere curiosities.

This year there was an old fair organ that ground out its raucous never ending tune while the wooden ladies danced the hula and the soldier marched bravely on. This year, and every year, the medieval group had a mock battle while we wondered once again, how the heck they coped in all that heavy armour! This year there was another contest for the best dressed person wearing steampunk style clothes and without a doubt it went to a woman with a marvellous set of wings that could be folded and unfolded. Amazing! This year the children are all older and spent most of the time rummaging around on their own leaving me to meander along at my own pace when Stuy wasn't there or sharing thoughts with him when he was.  I'm sure the children sampled all the sweet dishes available and I only just managed to snap a pic of the Dutch pancakes before they were devoured! 

And for the first time, we were treated to a wonderful display by the TasmanianLighthorse Brigade  and it really was a spectacle - theres certainly something special about a horse and a man in uniform ;) But my most favourite thing of all is the grunt of the tractor pulling competition followed closely by the smells from all the old engines! True!! I just love the deep throaty roar of the big tractors as they strain to pull the weighted trailer to the end of the course, and the tension that mounts, the slower he gets….until he stops short of the finish line and its on to the next tractor. Yes. Yes I do. I love it all. And I come home every year and think, 'oh, that was so much fun, can't wait till next year!!'