Face paint

Turns out my precious boys are allergic to face paint. Awesome :(.

They are sensitive to many/most/all artificial chemicals so I really should not be surprised. I really in hindsight should not have let them do it. But I thought the sensory experience would be wonderful for Igloo, and just plain all round fun for all of us. Facepainting is super fun right?

Well it is not for us. It turns them into feral little ferals. Unable to control their emotions, unable to control their fists. No they were not exposed to any other unsual food or chemicals. It was the facepaint. I gave them headaches, it messed with the connections in their brain causing malfunction. Like a computer with a virus nothing works right until the foreign being is gone.

I am feeling so incredibly upset for them. Just one more thing to the list of activities and foods they cannot participate in. I know they have a great life and there are alternatives for most things. A life without facepaint really is nothing massive in the scheme of life, but for now it feels massive and tragic.

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September Working Together

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.  -Buddha

With the start of the school year, getting organized, and home school planning, many of the items on the farm to-do list have been either postponed or neglected.  This past weekend was the perfect time for us to host another community work party.  The feeling of so much productivity and being able to check almost everything off our list was extremely satisfying.  Our group has been wonderful, helpful, supportive, and super hard working!   

   Before the work party we harvested a lot of the
squash to make room for new seedlings.  

As our co-op has evolved, all the participating house holds have learned that so many hands working together can go through way more tasks than anticipated.  Hence, the ambitious to-do list below. We accomplished almost everything, and we are especially grateful that all the hard jobs are done!  Like moving the huge truckloads of manure and mulch all over the property.  

We all broke up into groups and one crew had the sweet job of picking all the ripe tomatoes.  Maybe not so sweet, since we have had no time to keep up the tomato patch and it was completely overgrown with the cages falling over (a favorite hideout spot for renegade chickens who want to hatch their eggs).

The harvest was made up of such beautiful colors...soon to become sauce and salsa.  

The crew who moved most of the manure had the hardest job.  (We didnt get any pictures of their sweaty faces because we were too busy being sweaty ourselves.)  Our hugelkulture bed in the front garden now only needs a layer of soil/compost before we can plant.  We are thinking of planting a mixture of lettuce and more purple tree collards--you can NEVER have too many of those, by the way.  

And some new semi-sheet mulched beds in the backyard kitchen garden are now filled and waiting for rain to compost them down.  

Oh, and we cant forget some of the best helpers of all- the children! They did a superb job of shelling favas for fall cover crops and painting garden signs.  

Some friends stayed for the after party and added a much needed new layer of cob to our oven.  After weathering the last winter without a roof, it needed some attention.  We added something new to the bottom, the arabic word Haq,(??) meaning Truth.  

An end of the day trade looking gorgeous in the basket, staples of farm fresh bread, milk, and eggs.  We must never forget how truly blessed we all are.  Thank you to all who came to help and who added their special touch to our farm.  Much Love!

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Mustard

Igloo wanted me to share the mustard plant he has been growing. I is really proud of his little vegetable garden. I am proud of him looking after it too.

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More preserving with one working hotplate

Last night Damo and I decided we should sort out the second bucket of plums. The morning saw us fill the 5 tray dehydrator with plums, most of which are ready just the last few still in the machine. Then once it cooled down last night we tried to tackle the rest. With a pot big enough to only fit 5 jars we still had a good few dozen left (plus todays bucket worth). You will notice that there is only one pot on the stove, this is because there is only one working hotplate on the stove. Makes thing difficult and we could only cook one thing at a time and it all just took forever.

But last night we made Plum Chutney it was getting rather late so I did not reduce it enough creating more of a sauce, but it is still yummy and I think will work well in a chicken stir fry. Do wish we had some smaller jars for it though so I could have preserved in one meal quantities. Recipe below.

We also made some plum and apple sauce. Now this one tastes like store apple sauce but with a background flavour and tang of the plums. It is really super nice. Once again tiredness kicked in and we created a chunky sauce as neither of us could be bother to blend it or push through a sieve. We can always do that when we use it if we want. Recipe below. We ended up with about 550g apple and same of plum and used 800g sugar and about 350ml of water. I also threw in a 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid (I am just a little terrified of poisoning the family right now). I did cook for less time so it didnt reduce too much as I wanted more of a sauce than a jam, I had trouble finding a simple plum and apple sauce recipe.

Plum Chutney

Recipe Ingredients
900g / 2lb plums
1 large onion
200g / 7oz raisins or sultanas (optional)
450g / 1lb brown sugar
570ml / 1pint malt or cider vinegar
1 thumb / 3cm ginger
1 Tblsp cinnamon
1 Tsp nutmeg
8 cloves
2 tsp salt

Mise-en-Place:
Sterilize the jars and lids with hot water and a kitchen sanitizer spray
(Or the old school method is to wash the jars then heat to 100°C - 120°C for 10 minutes in the oven)
Cut the plums into quarters (or if very large into eighths)
Slice the onion
Weigh the sugar and measure the vinegar
Roughly chop the ginger, measure the remaining spices

Cooking Method:
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan
Rapidly boil until thick (about 30-45 minutes)
Stir from time to time to ensure that the chutney doesnt stick or start to burn.
To test if the chutney is thick enough rapidly draw a ladle across the bottom of the pan, if you can clearly (yet briefly) see the pans base before the chutney flushes back into place the chutney is done.
If not continue to thicken the chutney by boiling.
Check the seasoning, remove and discard the cloves and sliced ginger.
Pour hot, but not boiling, water into the preserving jars (this is to heat the glass so that it doesnt crack when you add the hot chutney)
Remove the water then pour the plum chutney into jars.
Seal and label.

Adjust:
Its quite difficult to get a real taste of a chutneys flavours while it is still hot. Once the chutney has cooled the flavours will develop and the longer you age the chutney, again the greater the flavours will develop. However if a chutney tastes quite bland when hot, this is an indication that the final product will also be quite flavourless.
Too bland: Add more spices / or salt
Too thin: Continue to heat the chutney until it thickens
Too thick: Add a little water

Chef Tip:
If you dont have a funnel roll up a non-stick baking mat into a cone, then use this to easily pour the chutney from pot to preserving jar.

http://cooking4chumps.com/Chutney%20Plum%20Recipe.html

Homemade Plum and Apple Jam

ingredients

yield 2.5kg (approx)

750 g plums
3 1/2 cups (750 g) apples (peeled and cored)
450 ml water
1.5 kg sugar

method

1. Wash the plums and put into a preserving pan with the apples and the water.

2. Cook the fruit slowly until the skins of the plums are softened.

3. Add the sugar, stir over low heat until dissolved, bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

4. Remove the stones as they rise to the surface (a stone basket clipped to the side of the pan is useful for holding the stones, and allows any liquid to drip back into the pan).

5. Alternatively, the plums may be stoned before cooking.

6. Remove from the heat, skim, pot, cover, and label.

Cooking time 45 minutes (approx)
http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-032o55.html

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