Roast lamb and crust less quiches

This week my husband is working nights, being the good wife I am, I came home from work early and started cooking his favourite meal for when he gets home.
A Lamb roast, potato bake (as roast potato is never really that nice reheated), roast pumpkin, with a side of peas, beans and carrots.

Growing up on a farm, raising fat lambs, eating roast lamb was often a Sunday ritual in our house. Now as I am older and raising my own family, we often enjoy a roast on a Monday (partly because it's a dish my husband cooks well, I don't often get home from work till late). Left over roast lamb is great on sandwiches and amazing on pizzas (especially with roast pumpkin and rocket).

I still carry on the tradition of pancakes Sunday morning. My mother makes the most amazing pancakes, I could never manage to get her recipe right (I am sure she is keeping the exact recipe a secret) but I have found another great recipe that our family enjoys way too much!

I am also making some yummy individual crust less quiches for lunches this week. These quiches are a great way of using up all of the odds and ends in the fridge. I am always finding myself drawn to the vegetable patch to pick fresh produce to add. The star of the dish has to be the fresh eggs from my girls.

Today's version  

leg ham cut fresh from the bone
Spinach leaves fresh from the garden
spring onions fresh from the garden
roasted capsicum
roasted pumpkin
mushrooms (my husband often comes home with lovely mushrooms from the markets
6 eggs
1/2 cup thick cream
1/2 cup grated cheese
freshly grated pepper

I just mix all of the ingredients together and bake on 180 until set (usually about 20 minutes)

This time of year is what is often referred to as the "Hungry Patch" (a time when not much is growing in the garden) I can usually muster up at least a couple of goodies from the garden).  Next years plan is to have an abundant supply of preserved produce to see us through the winter season.

last summer I remember giving baskets full of  fresh produce to everyone and anyone. I am currently looking into classes to learn about preserving my harvest and ways to freeze and store, to see me through next years hungry patch. I so detest buying produce form big corporate chains, when I can grow the freshest seasonal produce in my own backyard.

Rain in Flynn

The thunder rumbled,
The lightning lit up the sky.

The chickens are safe in their coop tonight,
I bet their glad they are warm and dry.

The heavens have opened,
watering the food forest in Flynn.

Giving the gift of liquid nutrients,
to the spring bulbs about to begin.

Too busy enjoying the rain I forgot,
the washing is on the line.

too late now curled up on the couch,
reading a gardening book and enjoying an amazing bottle of wine.

RIP My Girls

We had a bad night, 2 of my chickens were attacked by something last night. I woke to find only 4 of my girls greeting me at the gate. After further investigation I found 2 had been killed. I can only assume it was a fox or maybe a cat.

Our yard is very secure, however I don't lock the girls in at night. I like to let them free range as much as possible by leaving the door of their coop open for them to come and go as they please. I have had chickens for about 3 years now and never had a problem.

I will have to make some adjustments to make sure they are much safer.

A gift for my best friend

These are the first of my bulb flowers for the year. I took them over to my friend last night, because I was thinking of her xoxo.

Nosy Neighbour

Do you have a nosy neighbour?

I have one of those, that thinks my business is her business. It's often difficult to have any sort of privacy in the backyard.

Now that our garden is evolving we like to socialise out the back (having the neighbour adding to our conversation is really not part of the plan).

You can purchase fence extenders etc but I think they are quite unsightly.  At the end of last summer I purchased these pittosporum to form a hedge. Hopefully by the end of next summer we will have a little more privacy.

From what I know about pittosporum, they like full sun and to be well watered. I have been tip pruning regularly to keep them bushy and giving them an occasional treat of liquid fertiliser.

At the base of the hedge I have planted mass, white carpet roses. I had a magical display last year.

I purchased the pittosporum from Willow Park Nursery at Pialligo. I do quite a bit of shopping around. I wanted to get the biggest plants for the lowest price.

I will post some more pictures later on.....

Secrets to the success of snow peas

Growing snow peas is a joy everyone should experience as they are one of the easiest crops to grow, particularly in Canberra, even in a partially shaded position.

A week before sowing my seeds I prepare the soil with well rotted manure and a sprinkle of lime.

This year I have massed planted my snow peas, mostly because not many of them end up in the kitchen as they are enjoyed by family and visitors straight from the garden ( I can tell you there isn't much better in life).

I have tried something a little different this year mixing my snow pea seed with sweet pea seeds for a spectacular visual effect.

Snow peas need support while growing, my husband found some heavy duty plastic netting in the skip bin at work, so we use this as a trellis. It's all part of my plan to recycle in the garden.

Here are some that I planted a few months ago.

I will post again once they are more mature and we can see if my plan of growing sweet peas and snow peas produce the visual effect I was hoping to achieve.

Growing carrots all year round

Many of people I speak to have issues growing carrots.

My secrets is preparing the bed 3/4 compost and 1/4 sand. Mixing the seed with prepared soil in your hand for a more even distribution . Liquid fertiliser once a fortnight, I like to use seasol. Recently I purchased a powdered form of seasol from Bunnings ( it has proven it self to be very cost effective). Once the seedling have established, I thin them out to allow room for growth.

I plant a new row of carrots every 3-4 weeks, we use carrots regularly. For the past year I have produced carrots all year round.

These are some of the carrots I planted a few months ago. I tried to maximise space by planting spinach around the perimeter of the planter box.
I will post some pictures of these carrots at harvest time.

Baking Bread

2 weeks ago I purchased my new bread maker from The Good Guys in Belconnen.

I had previously experimented with an old second hand machine, however I did not have great success. I found packing lunches everyday, we were consuming a loaf a day.  Now I am baking everyday, programming my machine every evening to bake at 3am. Oh my gosh words cannot describe the Devine smell of waking up to fresh bread!!

I am using bread flower I purchased from the health food shop at Belconnen Markets.

I am so proud to say it is Australian made and owned !!!

I have been experimenting with different recipes from the instruction. Manual and have produced the best results with the crusty bread.

Sowing from seed

I have always tried producing all of my vegetables by directly sowing seeds into my vegetable patch. My experiences have worked well.

The first reason is that it is far more expensive to grow vegetables from potted plants. The second is I don't have a green house, nor do I have room for one.

The only exception to my rule is tomatoes. I buy heirloom varieties because of their flavour and the many unusual varieties available.

Another tip is, I try to buy my seeds in bulk whenever possible to save money.

A fisherman lives here with the best catch of his life

I am very fortunate to have a husband that loves to fish!
This means quite often I get a weekend to myself and when he returns I can load my freezer with glorious fresh fish.

 We often enjoy fishing as a family our boat has a cabin with 2 beads inside and the kids often play in there as if it was a cubby house.

Being the independent woman I am, I have invested in my own boat. A Hobie kayak that has foot pedals so I can fish and a paddle so I can exercise (ha ha ha).

I'm not so good with the whole exercise thing and often don't mind getting a lift!!!

These pictures were taken at Wallaga Lake near Bermagui NSW (our fav fishing spot) and Tilba Waterfront Cottages (our fav place to saty)

Daffodils Dancing

Driving to work today (my 1/2 commute I like to call my sanity drive because it's the 1/2 hour I spend on the way to work planning and preparing for my busy day ahead and the 1/2 hour on the way home I unwind from the day and prepare for my second job at home with my busy family)
I realised spring is approaching. The wattle trees are all in flower and there are gardens proudly producing their daffodil and jonquil bulbs that had been lovingly planted, most probably multiplying over time.

It's a lovely drive with views over Coppins Crossing, around Black Mountain, passed the lake where you can just see how windy it is by the Australian flag on Parliament house and then down the parkway looking up to the Brindabella Ranges (often capped with snow). Today, even though it was misting rain, Canberra looked spectacular with rain clouds and one of the most magnificent rainbows I have seen in the longest time.

Bulbs are a great passion of mine, I have Dutch heritage and have always been fond of tulips. I have been adding to my bulb collection each year with bulbs purchased online at Garden Express or from the variety of nurseries and garden centres here in Canberra. So far in my garden I have a few different varieties of Tulips, Daffodils and lilies. I can't wait to fill the house with bunches of fresh flowers and give gifts of flowers to friends.

Some pictures of the daffodils dancing by the breeze in my garden this morning.

I am so looking forward to a spectacular display of tulips. This is a photo I took this morning of the tulip bulbs emerging from the ground.

I recycled and look what happened

Christmas a few years ago grandad gave me my first 3 girls ( 3 at the point of lay Isa Brown chickens) Ella, Bella and Stella. This welcome
addition to our family was the kick start Flynn Food Forest needed. My girls reduce the amount of waste we are sending to land fill, fertilise my garden and produce the yummiest eggs I have ever eaten!!! Our friends are delighted to receive gifts of eggs from us when we are in abundant supply.

It's always nice that they come to the gate to greet me each morning and keep me company when I am working in the garden ( the girls are often rewarded with some plumb, juicy worms from the fertile soil).

My friend is about to start a worm farm this week and we have decided to trade worm castings for chicken manure ( a fair trade). I'd like to start my own worm farm, maybe I'll wait and get some expert advice from my friend.

Farming is in my genes but I had never got my hands dirty

I come from a farming family in the riverina, I rember as a child the taste of fresh milk from the cow still warm and my mama's amazing sponge roll made from eggs collected that day.

A funny story:
My grandparents lived a couple of kilometers away from us and grandad would often ask my brother and I to help him with his garden. My brother and grandad would spend hours mowing weeding and hedging. Mama would welcome me inside for a cup of feshly made tea and lamingtons ( my favourite ). In what would seem like no time at all, grandad and my brother would invite us to inspect their hard work. They would be sweaty, dirty but proud. Grandad would would pay us for helping him, both of us equal amounts. Back at home my bother would be furious, was it fair I should get paid for doing no work? To this day I am embarrassed to say I've never mowed a lawn.

The kids would come home from school and on went the telly,
there was fights over iPads because someone forgot to charge theirs and 1 wasn't enough!! I was spending and excess of $300 a week on groceries and I was felling more unhealthy by the minute.

I work a full time job in management, have 2 primary school aged children and a husband with his own business. I am busy but I needed a hobby of my own. I started reading gardening magazines and investing in books about simple living and self sufficency and I was hooked. I started to transform my  block in  Flynn.

The veggie patch is looking sad over winter, I can't wait till spring!!!

My new addition, 5 stone fruit trees. I have planted peaches.nectarine and plums, all bare rooted fruit trees I purchased from the holt nursery on Friday. I now have 17 fruit trees.

It has been raining all day today and all I can think about is how wonderful it is for
The garden. My husband and kids have been busy building a model car whist the
house is filled with the aromas of the lovely fresh bread I have just finished baking.

An 800 square metre block in Flynn

I've always longed for a more sustainable life, now the dream has begun. Over the last 2 years my husband and I have built a vegetable garden, introduced chickens and planted  fruit trees in our 800 square metre block in Flynn.

I have always enjoyed reading other blogs on this subject and have decided to share my own story with others.