Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Backpackers

We have recently had the pleasure of welcoming a French Backpacker to our farm. Seb arrived last week and we already feel like we have known him for ages. It's great to be able to have someone to help out with everything. Maitland is about to leave us so we thought we needed to get someone in to help with the pigs. Kim is on the mend with his broken arm, but still not able to do a lot of the heavier jobs.

The best part about Seb is having someone else who is as passionate about food as I am....maybe he is even more so. I never thought that would be possible. He has a huge desire to learn about everything to do with food and especially the whole paddock to plate concept. The second night he arrived he cooked dinner for us. It was absolutely delicious - roasted duck, stuffed with this fantastic combination of vegetables and herbs, including some of our latest mushrooms that arrived after the recent rain. There was too much stuffing for inside the duck, so the rest went underneath it and the whole lot was baked in the oven. YUM!


We had some nice rain recently so the grass has really freshened up - our spring is finally here. I find it strange when people talk about spring growth etc, as we don't get it until we get rain. We also get mushrooms when we get spring (or winter) rain.....they were everywhere and we didn't have time to pick them all! We (Kim) did pick a lot and we've packed them into bags in the freezer - great for taking out and adding to meals. They are a bit squishy, but fine for cooking.

2 comments:

  1. we are getting some spring growth now too. Please tell me more about the mushrooms. I tried to grow some in mushroom compost, but couldn't keep it moist enough. Are you picking wild mushrooms? How do you know which ones to use? I would love to learn how to harvest wild mushrooms as we still buy lots of mushrooms, I love them, and growing them didn't work....

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  2. We pick wild ones and have been doing so for years. I did do a blog about them last year, but basically they look just like field mushrooms that you buy, just smaller and more fragile. They are white on top, sometimes with a tinge of colour and brown underneath. I would never eat any that aren't brown underneath or if they are gold and pointy on top. I would do a link to the blog, but don't know how, so you could look through. I do have some good photos. I am sure that you would have the same sort.

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