Foodie Updates

I've been enjoying going to a regular weekly farmers market since we've been in Canberra. We started  going to the EPIC Farmers Market, but it's not really a true farmers market. It has a few local stall holders, but mostly resellers. We've been going to the Bungendore Farmers Market, which is a lovely little market. Only a few stalls and one is a community stall, so has bits and pieces from other suppliers. Right now is quite a prime time for vegetables by the look of it, and the produce has been really good. It's also lovely to be able to talk to the person who grows my food!

The last two weeks we've been going to a pick your own apple orchard, which also sells other local veg and the yummiest apple ice-cream! I preserved a few jars of diced apple, which will go nicely with porridge once it gets cold enough, as well as making some apple scrap vinegar. Well I haven't made the vinegar, that's quite a lengthy process, but I currently have the peels and cores of the apples sitting in some sweetened water. It's 1-4 weeks for this first process and then I strain the liquid and keep fermenting the liquid for another few weeks or months until it becomes vinegar. I'm following this method from Milkwood. I also bought some rhubarb which I stewed with some apples - yum!

I'd bought a previous batch of rhubarb, which I added to some plums and apples to make some jam. We had bought some jam at the markets which was too sweet for us so at least this way I can reduce the amount of sugar and have jam more suitable to our liking.

With the purpose of meeting people, I've been trying to get involved with the Canberra City Farm. We originally went along to a workshop about what to plant now for winter growing, which then led to going along to a working bee. We are now paid up members and will probably go along to a few more things. It's a lovely example of urban farming, and includes allotments for individual gardeners, as well as some communal areas and some completely separate enterprises.

Working bee attendance has the side benefit of getting some lovely organic veg as a thank you. This included potatoes, tomatoes, parsley and zucchini this week. I made a batch of zucchini pickle using my mums green tomato pickle recipe which tastes pretty good. And way nicer than the pickles I bought from the markets the other day.

One of the worst parts about making these preserves etc, is that I've had to buy jars! I've got boxes of jars at home, but that's not much good to me. Fortunately the local Vinnies had a few so I've been able to recycle and reuse - much better than buying new jars, which also cost more.

Apart from preserves, I've been making sourdough bread very regularly, and wow, have I got it going good! Ever since I had the opportunity for a lesson from Katie from Twofold Bakehouse in Daylesford last year, I've been making really good bread, also the starter from Jonai Farms has been a help I think. Read more about Katie and the Twofold Bakehouse here.  We miss out on so much in regional Queensland. Fancy having a CSA bakery to subscribe to! There's a vegetable CSA here, but I really like going to the markets so we haven't signed up for it yet.

Sourdough crackers is another thing I've been playing around with. I made some really nice cheesy ones the other day, and then more recently, some sesame seed ones. Although I think I prefer my regular seedy crackers. But it is a good way to use up starter when you have too much, which tends to happen when I feed my starter and leave it too long for bread making and have to re-feed it. That's the other thing I always do now, and that's the float test for starter. I think some of my failures in the past have been from using a starter that has gone too far. It's far better to feed it again and use a more active starter then to make bread with it.

This is a 70% hydration loaf shown half way through the  folding/proving process.  It's a very sticky dough and as such difficult to handle, but makes good bread! 

Cheesy starter discard crackers. I adapted this recipe by adding grated cheese to it. 

All in all, the last month has meant I've enjoyed myself by having access to local food and by having the time to cook with it. I'm certainly spending plenty of time in the kitchen and as that's my "happy place", then I'm happy :)