A fruitful Investment....

 Do you remember my fruit tress that fell victim to the Qld floods, they were removed from their wells and nurtured to a point that I could give no more. We allocated a new spot way out beyond which I named the Special Care Nursery (previously named the Graveyard, but I now remain very optimistic, read on. . . )

  

The Special Care Nursery



I confess, we did actually give up on that last lot, put them in Gods hands we did and  decided to start from scratch and invest in a dozen or so new healthy fruit trees, the holes were dug, the soil  prepared and in they went . . .

 


This is an Elli tree, this one is three years old, lets see how big she grows.

  

Washington Navel, Lanes Late Navel, Blood Orange, Lisbon Lemon, Tahitian Lime, Kumquat, 

Tangelo and a Lemonade Tree.

Also managed to squeeze in a Fig, Two Custard Apples, a Tropical Apple, an Angel peach and a White Mulberry, oh and two little blueberry bushes.

 So you wouldn't believe it but this is what's been happening up in the special care unit

Look. . . Signs of new Life....



Meyer Lemon



Pear

 So we now also have, or should I say originally had, or have once again, pear tree, Washington Navel, Blood Orange, Tahitian Lime, Lisbon Lemon, Kumquat and Tangelo...There's going to be lots and lots and LOTS of Marmalade making here one day in the future...

Still waiting to see how the stonefruits go,

 

Tropical Peach

   We have four that still look like dead sticks but I am hoping these will still miraculously bloom in Spring

In the meantime, we already have a Navel Orange and Two Mandarin Trees well established and loaded with fruit. They sit in our yard next to the Mango Tree and Macadamia Nut Tree....

I have a new Paw Paw or actually I think it's a Red Papaya growing strong and should produce next season and a small handful of banana trees well on their way too....

I'm ready for the next raspberry season, am hoping to double the size of my crop this year...

Oh nearly forgot the passion fruits that are growing crazily out of control over my chook coop, two yellow panama and a purple panama.

 

Near that I have a large Black Mulberry I planted about 12 months ago along with a hand full of wild Mulberries I dug up from the side of the road.....

 

So all in all we've actually got quite a good fruit bowl planted....I didn't realise until I sat down just now and wrote this post...Oh and the Gooseberries. Well, they say in some climates they are perennials and other climates they are annuals, I found out mine were only annuals...

Not to worry I have a bag of Cape Gooseberry seeds ready to plant this spring along with a good handful of Rosella.

So fingers crossed now for a  Productive and Fruitful life ahead.....

The Little Red Hen

Today I thought I would  share with you one of our Favourite

Bedtime Stories. . . 

 

  

 

And the moral of the story is.. .. .. .. .. ..

Marmalade

It's way to early to have anything else On My Mind this morning.....

I have made myself a nice cup of tea and some toast with my favourite homemade  Marmalade.....

I promised to send this recipe to Mrs Moo, so here it is:

Sweet Orange Marmalade

 4 oranges

Juice of 2 lemons

4 cups water

4 cups sugar

Cut the Oranges and lemon in half and squeeze out the juice. 

Keep the pips and tie them in a muslin bag.

Thinly or coarsely (depending on how chunky you like your Marmalade) chop the skins

Put the cut oranges, juice and bag of pips and water into a saucepan, bring slowly to the boil and simmer gently for approx 2 hours or until the skins are tender. 

 Add sugar and stir until it dissolves, remove bag of pips and boil rapidly for approx 15 - 20 minutes or until a little will set on a chilled saucer.

Remove from heat, allow to settle then bottle and seal. 

I think I did pretty a pretty good job with this considering it was my first ever batch. With citrus season just around the corner, I am looking forward to trying a few other variations to this recipe this year.

 Anybody got any hot tips for making a Good Marmalade?

Please join me at Down to Earth to see what's on everybody else's mind today

Finding the Time. . .

 "Lose an Hour in the Morning

and you will spend all day looking for it"

Richard Whately

 At the start of each day I write myself a 'To Do' list, it usually involves a few or a lot of household jobs, what to cook for dinner, maybe a phone call to make, bills to pay and something fun like a craft project, some planting in the garden, a special treat to bake or preserve, or allow myself sometime to Blog.

 I find if I set myself just small goals everyday then they are much more achievable.  I do not hold as much expectation on myself, if it does not get accomplished it simply gets moved to the start of the next days list and so on...

I do pride myself on my organisation skills, however I do have many times of major procrastination and minor meltdown...!

So with all that said this was my  weekend project 

Just crossed off my list . . .

Beef Jerky  

&

 Dried Apples

On My Mind...

I have, for various reasons had a bit of spare time on my hands this week, I have spent heaps of time out cleaning up the garden, played a little in the kitchen and also caught up on a few of my favourite Blogs and also found some fabulous new ones.  I'm sitting out in the sun this morning having my morning cuppa, It's a little bit cooler here this morning, the air has that real Autumn feel to it...no other word can describe it best as just Nice...

I'm looking at my new Granny Blanket I picked up at the Salvos just the week before last for a bargain $6.  It's actually a good queen bed size, in near perfect condition and I just LOVE the colours....I have held many a granny blanket in my hand at the op shops only to put it down again because as lovely as it was and as much as I am fully aware of the traditional anything goes colours of a granny square blanket, they just never really spoke to me like this last one did. It had a wash yesterday and is hanging over my deck rail to dry, As I sit here admiring it I realised that I should be grabbing the crochet needle and starting on one of these myself.  This has been On My Mind for a number of years now... I'm off to my mothers place for a visit this weekend, I shall get into her old craft cupboard, steel myself a needle and next time I sit out here in the sun, I shall start on my 2011 Winter Project - Crochet a Granny Square . . . !
What's on your mind today?  Join me over at Down to Earth today and see what is on everyone else mind too...

Making IT - Not Faking IT

OLD FASHIONED SWEETS

No Artificial Flavours, Colours or Preservatives in this Lot, just good old SUGAR and WATER

 It was Big kids only in the kitchen this time:

Toffee

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

Boil all ingredients for approx 10 - 12 minutes, or until a little hard ball can be formed when a little of the mixture is placed in cold water. At this time the mixture will starts to turn a light caramel colour. Take off the heat immediately and allow bubbles to settle (which I did not do) and pour into Patty Pans. Allow to harden.  If you like you may sprinkle them with hundreds and thousands or maybe try some crushed nuts before they set.

One taste of these toffees and I was taken straight back to the confectionery stall that stood outside the tuck shop at my old primary school fete.  I remember making these with Mum when I was younger and through my high school years I experimented with other sweets like, chocolate fudge, coconut ice, sugar coated peanuts, peanut brittle, caramel popcorn balls, homemade honeycomb and marshmallows...

It's been on my list to do for a while now, to make the kids some real homemade treats, my eldest two can't believe that these sweets  taste so good, I caught them sneaking some into their lunchboxes this morning to share with their friends.  It has been so much fun to get the old  recipe books out and make these once again

I know I sound like an old granny, but you just don't see them around anymore, recipes and trends have changed so much.

 I'm actually off to a local Country fete this weekend and I shall be keeping an eye out for any of these goodies on sale.

Marshmallows

1 1/2 tabs gelatine

100ml cold water

pinch salt

1 1/4  cups sugar

140ml hot water

Toasted coconut

Place gelatine, cold water and salt in a mixing bowl

Place sugar and hot water in a saucepan and bring to boiling point

Pour over gelatine mixture and stir until dissolved

Beat until thick and white (holds it's form when lifted) 

Add colouring and flavouring (if desired)

Pour into a greased tray

Cut into squares when set

Toss in toasted coconut

* To toast coconut, spread approx 1 cup of coconut on a large plate and place under the grill, keep tossing coconut until golden all over.

(alternatively you can cook in microwave, just tossing every 20 sec or so for approx 2 - 3 minutes) 



Chocolate Fudge

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tabs butter

2 tabs cocoa

1/8 teasp cream of tartar

Vanilla

Place sugar, milk, butter, cocoa and cream of tartar in a saucepan

Stir over low heat until dissolved

Allow to boil for approx 8 min or until a little soft ball can be formed when a little of the mixture is placed in cold water

Remove from heat, add vanilla and beat until stiff

Pour into greased tray

When partly set mark into squares

Allow to harden before removing from tin

*Be careful not to over boil as fudge will harden while beating and set brittle and sugary. (Like mine did - Still YUM though)

*To make Vanilla fudge, just omit the cocoa

ENJOY !!!

"The Banging Wall"

   

Cling Clang, Bang Bong

We play music all day long

Ting Tang, fun for all

Playing on our BANGING WALL

I have to say I feel quite proud of my latest creation, Our Banging Wall, What do you think? This was inspired by the one and only Soule Mama mother of "The Creative Family".  I finally found a way to use and display some of my collection of old  kitchen wares...the ones that are a bit too rusty and crusty to actually keep in the kitchen...It's been so much fun to make, I have tied them to the fence with old scraps of leather I had in my craft box. A few weeks ago there were only a couple of pieces then I found a few more to add, and a few more and well luckily we have a big fence because I see this thing growing for a while yet.

It sits right in the middle of our backyard so not a day goes by without someone having a bash... well my little ones don't really bash they tend to just tinkle a little and sing,  precious little things they are.  But, we have had a few visitors here of late and it has certainly been put to the test.
Cling Cling...Ting Ting...Clonk, Clang,  BANG!!!