Free ranging egg machines, and veges

leeks, super asparagus and spring onions out of control

the latest additions to the family, isa browns, very settled now - they are very sociable

and me making some pasta for dinner, to go with the home grown leeks!

Cathy's Ranunculus

From the garden of Cathy M today  16/10/10

Home made bacon!

Dry cured pork belly

The cure:
750g coarse salt
25g smashed black pepper
400g soft brown sugar
20 juniper berries squashed
A couple of bay leaves chopped finely
A spunky fiance to do the hard work!
Mix all in a bowl

Rub all over the pork belly, make sure you get all sides. Cover and store for 4-5 days - removing any liquid from the container each day and adding more fresh cure. Rinse and store in muslin bag - in the fridge or somewhere cool. If not using in a month, stick it in the freezer.

That's the plan... testing next Saturday... to be continued

Preserved Lemons

Salt, lemons, juice from more lemons, cinammon stick, bay leaf and a chilli. Stick in a sunny spot for about 6 weeks and enjoy in moroccan cooking

Home made ginger beer - the finished product

Bubbly and gingery. Just what I hoped!

The start of Spring 2010

What an interesting couple of days... washed out of camping in the hills to return home and manage the possibility of flooding here! River is rising and will for next 24 hours or so. Here are some photos from today - it is an absolutely gorgeous spring afternoon. Welcome spring!

Recent outputs

Ginger Beer

My first attempt at home brew - has now been bottled and I am (im)patiently awaiting the end of next week when it will be ready for tasting... 

Pretty straightforward, boil up a premixed kit with water, add yeast and leave in a warm place (20-30 degs celcius) for a couple of weeks until fermentation complete (ie it stops bubbling), add the ginger flavoring (sachet), + 2 days, bottle (I used PET Coopers bottles this time as they were easy) with 2 carbonation drops (but you can just use sugar). 










Grapefruit Marmalade

Home grown grapefruits, lemons and oranges

I used mostly grapefruits (yellow, not pink), and raw sugar in this batch and the result seems to be much darker marmalade, compared to the previous lot, which was mostly made of oranges (with grapefruit and lemon as the support act), with ordinary white sugar, see below:

The chooks


(don't worry, only eating their eggs!)

The Araucana "Chilli" laid her first egg today:

Keep em coming girl!

the inaugural post

Hello and welcome to my blog: home...harvest...cook

It is nearing the end of our first winter living on the banks of Goulburn River in northern Victoria. Surviving the rat-race during the week, the weekends are the time to play in the garden and the kitchen.

Poached pear and vanilla bean gem cakes, Sunday morning 29/8/10

Albeit a long way from self-sufficiency, we grow loads of our own produce - the previous caretakers of this land planted an amazing orchard of stone and citrus fruits, so we are the lucky beneficiaries of their efforts.

We are experimenting with lots of different veges in the garden, as well as some foraging for bush-food (nettle soup and wild fennel have been some recent successes).

I plan to share my home harvest creations and other ideas to hopefully inspire you to grow your own, create your own and bake your own. Hope you enjoy :o)