by Krista | Jul 20, 2015 | Winter
It’s been rather quiet around here as I continue to recover from the spider bite I received last week. After further research of symptoms we learned it was almost certainly a redback, and that I’m one of the “1 in 5 people” who get the full body symptoms – nausea, fever, aches, and exhaustion. It’s been hard, but I’m trying to just accept what is and look for ways to thrive in it. Farm life doesn’t stop for spider bites, so I’ve been trucking along with lots of breaks for naps and rests.
Today I set up a stool in the meadow so I could keep an eye on the goats while they grazed. Although the fields looked brown and dry without anything to eat, close to the ground was a veritable feast of green clover, herbs, weeds, and grasses that goats love. It did my heart good to see that Spring is indeed just around the corner.
It was so nice to be outside instead of huddled in bed shivering from cold and fever. The sunshine filtering down was lusciously warm and the fresh air wonderful. Wrapped up in Bear’s flannel jacket I spent a happy couple of hours reading “wild” by Cheryl Strayed as the goats wandered about noshing on the green undergrowth. (Nothing quite like reading about someone else’s miseries to make your own more bearable. :-))
Apollo, one of our Maremma dogs, kept coming up for cuddles, nosing under my book and wriggling into my lap before bounding off to bark protectively at “dangerous” trucks and horses across the road.
After a good lunch and long rest, I bundled up again and went out to the goat yard to see how our babies were doing. I found this fellow newly born, snoozing contentedly in the sunshine. I don’t know where he got his light coloring, but he sure is cuddly and cute.
The two sets of twins born over the weekend are doing well, learning to jump and always finding the sunniest spot to curl up for their naps. I can’t get enough of their cuteness.
Now it’s time for me to head to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a big day as we spend it in our orchards pruning trees, harvesting the last of our citrus, and planning where to plant our cider trees that arrived last week. I love their names – Improved Foxwhelp, Brown Snout, and Tremlett’s Bitter – and can’t wait for them to start producing well in a couple of years.
What project are you looking forward to tackling this week? xo
by Krista | Mar 30, 2015 | Autumn
With great delight we welcomed the cooler temperatures of Autumn this weekend. I can’t tell you how lovely it is to not need a fan blowing on me all day just to keep going. I’m a happy camper.
With the decrease in temperature came an increase of energy, and I’ve been working hard putting up all sorts of fruits and veggies for the cold winter months.
Our markets are currently full to bursting with inexpensive boxes of ripe tomatoes, fat apples, and oh-so-juicy pears, and Bear and I happily load them into our car each week to be turned into delicious things.
This weekend I made trays of roasted tomatoes and pureed them into scrumptious tomato sauce that is now frozen and ready for winter pasta dishes and hearty soups.
I hauled out all three dehydrators and have kept them humming as they dry stacks of tomatoes, apples, and pears. The dried tomatoes will be packed in jars with capers and garlic then covered with olive oil. The apples and pears are for snacking now and to be used in dried fruit pies and puddings down the road.
I also did a lot of baking, two dozen whole grain sunflower seed flat bread rolls and a loaf of sunflower seed bread.
Mmm, it smells so good in here.
I ended the baking, cooking, preserving frenzy by making a quick and easy Maple Fig Cobbler using up the last of the figs I picked with my friend Katy a couple of months ago. They’ve been waiting in the freezer for a just right recipe, and this was it. The hearty whole grain cobbled crust was a wonderful accompaniment to the melt in your mouth fig filling. It was a delicious way to end a busy day.
What is your favorite part about the season you are in? xo
Maple Fig Cobbler
Ingredients:
10-12 fresh figs, washed and quartered
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp real maple syrup
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp maple extract
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F (200 C).
2. In large saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 2 Tbsp butter and add fresh figs. Drizzle with maple syrup and simmer until sauce forms from the butter, syrup, and fig juices. Pour into pie plate.
3. In medium bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using fingers, work in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Add milk and maple extract, stir with fork until soft dough forms. Will be quite wet.
5. Using a tsp or your fingers, cover fig mixture with dollops of dough to create cobbled surface.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until crust is golden and fig mixture bubbling.
7. Serve warm or chilled.
by Krista | Mar 6, 2015 | Bits 'n' Bobs
I’ve been waiting eagerly for Autumn to arrive. For sweltering hot days to be replaced with cool mornings and breezy afternoons. For markets to fill up with crisp apples, juicy pears, and plump grapes.
It’s finally here and I’m so happy, body and soul. My Canadian self is not cut out for Queensland Summers. As much as I love the sunshine and brilliant blue skies, the heat knocks me flat and mornings are the only time I feel remotely energetic.
So this morning, when I woke to overcast skies and cooling breezes blowing in our windows, my whole being gave a sigh of relief.
Autumn is here.
Bear and I spent yesterday doing a trial run of all our cider-making equipment, processing apples and pears to turn into hard cider today. I’ll tell you all about that soon.
This morning, however, is about resting and basking in Autumn weather and getting caught up on reading and dreaming and planning.
It’s about wandering through gardens to see what’s flourishing and what is on its way out, checking on newborn goats and growing ducklings, and sitting down with a big mug of Lemon Verbena tea to relax before the next big project.
It’s also about studying and researching, for Bear and I have embarked on writing a medieval cookbook together. We are having a marvelous time expanding our current knowledge and experience and putting our discoveries to the test. Our study times are punctuated with exclamations of, “Hey babe, listen to this!” or “Ohhh, we’ve GOT to try this!” We’re both loving it.
Summer on the farm is marked by feverish activity, each day packed with watering, feeding, building, managing, etc. We fall into bed each night utterly exhausted but strangely satisfied from knowing our weariness is simply the result of a job well done.
But Autumn brings a reprieve, giving us time to sit back and be proud of what we’ve accomplished, to work steadily but leisurely harvesting and enjoying what we worked on so hard all Summer long. We’re gathering rosellas and the last of the green beans, plump yellow heirloom tomatoes so sweet they’re almost candy, and the few apples that our fledgling orchard produced.
It’s also exciting as we see the new growth of the few things that thrive in our Winter: citrus trees blossoming and filling out with baby lemons, limes, and oranges, and hardy winter veg gearing up to produce Brussels sprouts, cabbages, and spinach during the cold months.
Yes, I love this time of year and am looking forward to every day.
What is your favorite thing about the season you’re experiencing? xo
by Krista | Jan 27, 2015 | Summer
“Life is just a lot of everyday adventures.” Carol Ryrie Brink
Yesterday Bear and I saw storm clouds building and went outside to get the goats into their pen before the rain came. Unfortunately, the goats also sensed the storm coming and decided the best thing to do would be to hide under our house. All thirty of them. So under I went, hobbling along ridiculously like a crab wearing rubber boots, trying neither to fall over laughing or klonk my head on the floor beams. I shooed and waved my whip most awkwardly while Bear stood outside and hollered encouragement and finally, finally the goats moved on out. We got them to their pen in time for them to beat the storm, but not us. Within seconds we were thoroughly, utterly drenched. We laughed and shook our heads and sloshed our way back to the house where we dried off and Bear made us cuppas.
Such was one of our everyday adventures on the farm.
We never know what’s going to happen each day. Our goals are loosey-goosey at best, for just as soon as we make plans, animals or weather toss a monkey wrench into them while cackling gleefully.
I grin as I look back at my rose-colored views of farm life when I arrived here three years ago. I envisioned a cute, tidy house set in a pristine farm yard where darling animals fed happily and gardens and orchards grew lavishly.
Sometimes those things actually happen. And when they do we look at each other in wonder and amazement.
Because most of the time it’s a mix of beauty and mayhem.
Amidst the flower-filled meadow are old cars we keep meaning to haul to the dump, but never seem to get around to. Our cute little house is cute and little, but it’s also a bit of a disaster during those times when you have to dash into the house with muddy boots on, or stack projects up in tottering piles because your “free afternoon” has suddenly turned into “get the goats out of the neighbors yard before they eat anything!” or “quick, make a newborn duck pen because two mums’ eggs just hatched and we have eighteen babies to look after!” While the animals are adorable, they’re also a pain in the neck! It’s rather like having a farm full of furry toddlers who get into absolutely everything and have no concept of why you’re perturbed with them. And the gardens and orchards are wonderful when they aren’t withered by drought, drowned by floods, or eaten by goats, mice, possums, kangaroos, or all of the above.
I wouldn’t trade this madcap life for anything, but it isn’t easy, and anyone who says it is, is clearly trying to sell you a farm.
I do love it, though. Yep, even when I have to replant my garden for the fifth time in 12 months, when we grieve the loss of animals who die for no apparent reason, and when my dreams of a tidy home aren’t anywhere near coming to fruition.
I love it because it’s ours. Because everywhere we look is something we’ve done, something we dreamed about, worked towards, and made happen through our own toil, ingenuity, and careful saving. I’ve learned a lot about patience living here, about celebrating every little thing because the big things take so long to come to pass. I’ve made peace with the unfinishedness, the undoneness, the may-never-be-completedness, and I can even look at the old cars with love.
So today I celebrate our everyday adventures: laughing in the rain with my sodden hubby, a mama goat about to give birth any minute, a tidy (for at least the next five minutes) house.
What everyday adventure are you celebrating today? xo
by Krista | Jan 11, 2015 | Summer
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside…As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” Anne Frank
My heart doesn’t know what to do with the onslaught of pain, grief, and fear that has inundated the news recently. I’m gutted for those who’ve lost loved ones in horrendous attacks. I ache for the families whose homes and neighborhoods have been destroyed by floods and fires and now have nowhere safe to go, no place of their own where they can rest and connect with those they love. I feel like throwing up after finding out an old friend has been horrifically abused by her husband for years and none of us knew, none of us could protect her.
I feel helpless and angry and afraid and sad. And I don’t know what to do.
So I cry and I grieve and I wish for healing and comfort for all those in pain. I look for ways to do good in my small part of the world. In the grand scheme of things they are insignificant, the sending of a card, or giving of a hug, but they’re things I can do that hopefully convey “you matter”, “you’re not a burden”, or “I’m so glad you’re in this world.”
For my own well-being I go outside.
I wander through our orchards, smiling at tiny fruits that have somehow survived in spite of drought, searing heat, torrential rains, and the ravages of wind storms and hungry creatures. They seem so brave and plucky.
I stroll through the remains of my garden that was recently ravaged by our goats when they broke through the fence and devoured everything they could find. Amidst the trampled plants and torn vines I find a few survivors: red and purple carrots, one cucumber, a handful of green beans. And I remember that even in destruction, you can find something worth salvaging if you look hard enough.
And I create good things for my people, tiny things that don’t end wars or heal broken hearts but somehow help make the painful things a little easier to bear.
This weekend I made a big batch of ginger beer, that delicious concoction of fizzy, zingy goodness that is so refreshing on a piping hot day. I loved seeing an unappetizing slurry of ginger root, molasses, raisins, and other things transform into something delectable and restorative.
Today I got to share it with Bear and our friends Ann, Neil, and Katy. It was so good to sit in front of the fan, sipping the cold, bubbly drink and talking for hours. The ginger beer didn’t fix or transform anything, but it brought us together in love and friendship, and that always makes a difference.
Yes, there is deep pain and cruel people in this world, but there is also much goodness and kind, loving people from every race, religion, and political affiliation who wake up every day looking for ways to build, protect, heal, and support. To you beloved life-enhancers I raise my glass today. Thank you for making the dark places brighter. xo
What helps you process the painful things?
Ginger Beer
Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup ginger, unpeeled, cut in chunks
2 cups raw or white sugar
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
juice from two lemons
1 Tbsp molasses
1/2 cup raisins
14 cups water
sterilized glass bottles
Directions:
In a blender pour 1 cup water and ginger. Blend until a slurry forms.
Pour into medium saucepan and add sugar. Place over medium high heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow mixture to steep for at least one hour.
Pour mixture through strainer into large stainless steel bowl or pot and add yeast, lemon juice, molasses, and water. Stir until molasses dissolves.
Pour liquid into sterilized bottles, add 2-3 raisins to each bottle and seal.
Set bottles in warm, dark place for 2-3 days. Every day VERY slowly undo the lids to allow gases to escape. (If you don’t do this, your bottles will explode!) Re-seal.
Ginger beer will be drinkable within 24 hours, but for more fizz wait 2-3 days before drinking. You will know it’s ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top.
When the ginger beer is ready to drink, remove lids to release gases one more time, then re-seal and refrigerate. This will slow down the fermentation process and your ginger beer will be out of danger of exploding.
Serve cold.
