Tired!

I sometimes worry that there's something wrong with me because I'm tired all the time! I've been pondering this and have decided that maybe it's just because I'm always doing something!
Last weekend was the markets and yesterday we had a 20 hour round trip delivering pigs to the abattoir and then driving to Kingaroy to pick up a new boar and a ram.

And because I like to cook I do things after dinner instead of sitting and watching TV!

Tonight I pickled some beetroot, bottled my kefir, bottled kombucha, cooked sausages and tomatoes for breakfast, put some sourdough in the bread machine, pickled a piece of belly pork for bacon.

Dinner tonight was pulled pork with homemade tortillas.

Ummmm, I feel tired just thinking of all that! Lucky for all of us that Tanya made a lemon meringue pie for desert. I don't do desert, but I ate it so that she didn't think I was rude! (Sorry no photos I'm on my phone tonight).

I think I'll enjoy my beauty sleep tonight!

Home Grown, Home Made and Foraged

The only problem with growing or making home made things or foraging, is the time it takes. I choose to make time because it's something that I really like to do. Usually it will taste better and it's healthier than any store bought alternatives. And the feeling of satisfaction that you get when you eat something that you've invested time and effort into creating is so incredible.

My garden is finally looking like a garden and is providing us with some of our vegetables. If it was only Kim and I, we would easily feed ourselves out of it, but having extras in the house (2 sons and usually 3 backpackers) means that I would need to quadruple my garden! At the moment we are eating spinach, silverbeet, kale, eggplant, cabbage, lettuce, rocket and various herbs. Okay, if it was just Kim and I, we would get sick of leafy greens! Tomatoes are not far away. And the asparagus gave a little spurt after the last rain, and the garlic and potatoes have a while to go yet.

Potatoes weren't covered originally,but the chooks have given them a touch up, so they are now protected and looking okay.

My rocket is going to seed - that seems to happen with rocket. The lettuce are too as the weather warms up.

We've just planted some perenial spinach amongst some kale and silverbeet. Not sure how it will go as we do get quite hot, but the bird cover might help with sun protection over the summer.

We did get about an inch of rain (25mm) over a week last week. It was lovely - you can water the garden all you like, but once you get rain it just explodes! The other thing we got was mushrooms. We only spent the one afternoon foraging, as there weren't as many mushrooms as we've had in past years, but we still got enough for breakfast and mushroom soup for lunch.

Mushrooms fried with kale, garlic tops and parsley.

You need to brush all the grit off the mushrooms. If we pick in damp weather, we often have to wash them, but they were dry so we just brushed. You do need to be careful when eating the mushrooms that you don't scrape the bottom of the pan, as there is always a little sand left!

My cows are producing lots of milk now, so I recently decided to have a go at making some fresh quark cheese to see how it would go in a cheesecake. Needless to say that it was delicious! I just did a very simple baked cheesecake and served it with some frozen berries that I cooked up into a Jus, and some fresh raw cream. I love my dairy cows!

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