Hope Farm Journal

Out of hibernation, into a Spring stew

2009-10-25T18:20:00.003+11:00

The coming of Spring has roused Hope Farm out of hibernation and we've been watching the artichokes blossom outside our bedroom window. It's a reassuring reminder that Summer is on its way. Also, that it's time to get back into the garden.

Artichokes seem to me a luxury of the season. Perhaps because they're a flower, or maybe because of their complex flavour. Thing is though, they're a bugger to prepare.

But they're worth the trouble and once you have a method, it's not that bad.

Here's what I do:

Submerge the flowers in a sink full of cold water with a couple of lemon halves (I juice the lemons - and use the juice in the recipe below - and chuck the skins in the water). The lemon will stop the exposed artichoke flesh browning and the water bath will coax the bugs from their homes amongst the petals, so I wear gloves for this!
Pull off the external petals until they are no longer coarse and green, but white and smooth.
Chop the top off the flower at the indent and the stem off just below the base.
Using a small paring knife, trim off the outside of the stalk and around the base, exposing the white flesh.
Then use a teaspoon to scoop out the choke, making sure you remove the little white hairs. (You can cut the artichoke in half as I have done to get a better view).
Keep the trimmed artichokes in the lemon water until you're ready to use them.

Good old reliable Stephanie Alexander had just the recipe to make the most of the first artichokes and carrots of the season Al presented to me. This stew actually turned out far more delicious than I had anticipated and made for a wonderful lunch the next day.

In the last part of the cooking, I panicked, thinking that it might not be substantial enough to feed a hungry, post-gardening Al, so I threw in a handful of penne and a splash more water. It wasn't really necessary, but it allowed us to have leftovers for lunch. I think it would also work well to add a handful of dried, soaked beans at the beginning. You can't go too far wrong with slow cooked, home grown vegies flavoured with garlic, olive oil and fresh herbs - a statisfying reward for a hard day's Spring cleaning.

Artichoke Stew
(Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion)

5-6 artichokes, trimmed and quartered (halved if small)
5 small carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
6 small onions, peeled and halved
3 potatoes, washed and quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tbs flour
A few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
Juice of one lemon
2 tbs chopped dill
Grated parmesan
Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-based pot. Add all the vegetables, thyme and bay leaves and fry for a few minutes, stirring to coat in the oil and slightly brown.

In a small bowl, mix a little of the stock with the flour to form a smooth paste. Then add the flour mixture into the rest of the stock. Add the stock to the vegetables and stir to combine. The vegetables should be almost or just covered by the liquid, if not, add a little more water. Season with salt and pepper.

Place a sheet of greased baking paper over the vegetables, put the lid on and leave the pot to simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the vegies are tender. (At this point you could also add some dried, soaked beans or pasta, if you do, just add some extra water).

Remove the lid, increase the heat and boil to reduce the liquid to a sauce, checking for seasoning as you go.

Top with parmesan and dill and serve with crusty bread.

From the garden: artichokes, carrots, lemon, thyme, dill

Dark, damp soil.

2009-10-25T16:17:00.014+11:00

Victoria has had some rain. The farmers are happy, their crops are going well, as are ours. The inner northern suburbs of Melbourne never get the rain of the eastern suburbs, but what we have had has made a noticeable difference.

Carrots, Beetroot and Silverbeet in a raised bed.

In our time living here and growing our own food we have never had even close to average rainfall, so we didn't actully know what difference a little of the wet stuff makes. The garden has taken off giving us plenty of food (and weeds).

Golden acre mini cabbages in a raised bed.

One of my favorite additions to our back garden has been the nasturtiums, I bought an Alaska seed mix and love the way they wind around the raised beds.

The trailing habit of Nasturtiums.

producing abundant bright flowers that attract lots of bees and add a nice touch of pepper to a salad.

Nasturtium flowers.

Another delight this time of the year brings is the Globe Artichoke harvest. Globe artichokes are a member of the thistle family, the edible part is the base of the unopened flower and about 10cm of the stem just below.

Green Globe Artichokes

Every year we look forward to the first artichokes and then fifteen minutes into their fiddly preparation we start looking forward to the end of the artichoke season. It is worth it though when you get them on a plate.

The Brassicas have done well with a drop of rain and a weak Seaweed, Comfrey, Wormjuice etc. tea kicks them along nicely.

Green Calabrese forming heads with splashes of Seaweed tea.

Remember when harvesting members of the Brassica family to lift the entire root from the ground to prevent build up of soil pathogens such as the Brassica disease, Clubroot.

Cabbage root.

The summer veg seedlings are also coming along nicely. I have four different kinds of Tomato; Roma, Tommy Toe, Tigerella and Grosse Lisse. As well as Black Beauty Eggplant, California Wonder Capsicum and Jalapeno Chilli. The general rule here in Melbourne is to plant your Tomatoes out not before Melbourne cup day, so they are currently enjoying the protection of a plastic sunhouse.

Tomato seedlings.

The nicest part of this lifestyle is to feel the seasons, and to come back around to Spring after a Winter hibernation feels great. Our Summer harvest is planned and the work we put in only a few months ago is giving us a bountiful, healthy, organic Spring feast.

Basketful of Spring goodness.

Cheers.

Spring Dinner

2009-09-23T20:36:00.010+10:00

I had a craving today. After a night out overindulging I felt an absolute need for garden greens and the freshest food I could get my hands on. Then I had an awful thought, "what is there that is ready to eat right now?" It's early spring, we've had some much needed rain, and the daylight hours are extending. Everything is looking beautiful but the Beetroot are young, the Carrots are young, the Cabbages haven't formed heads etc. etc.

All of our summer seedlings (housed in a greenhouse tent), are up and running including Eggplant, Capsicum, Jalapeno Chillis, and four different varieties of Tomato - Grosse Lisse, Roma, Tommy Toe and Tigerella.

In my pleasant little amble around the garden I grabbed a few young carrots (that needed thinning anyhoo), a Chioggia and an Albino Beetroot (more for the leaves), a handful of Sugar Snap Peas, another handful of Diplotaxis (wild Rocket), another handful of Spring Onions, and a few sprigs of Lemon Thyme and the Dill whose seed I sprinkled in amongst my Silverbeet and Beetroot. Even just a few young vegetables can make a meal that will have you feeling great.

We decided that having felt early in the day that the garden was going to be short on what we felt we needed, and having been proven wrong, our meal was going to be made of only what was in the garden. Thankfully the chooks had done their job and the wonderful harvest below made a beautiful Frittata. The Sugar Snap Peas didn't even make it as far as the frypan, to eat them anything other than fresh seems criminal they are so delicious.

The love of Carrots

2009-09-13T14:46:00.019+10:00

Carrots are a wonderful vegetable that grow easily in most climates given adequate water. They're very useful in the kitchen and contain loads of nutritional goodies. The idea that carrots gave you great eyesight was an invention of the RAF during world war 2 when England had developed radar technology to detect the German bombers. Not wanting the enemy to realise the threat, they invented a story about 'cats eyes' cunningham, a fighter pilot who could see in the dark as a result of all the carrots he'd eaten.

Carrot Seed are tiny and the biggest hindrance to successful germination is keeping them moist. They're sown quite shallow, so regular watering or covering the drill with wet newspaper will help to keep moisture levels up. Well cultivated loose soil is essential for long straight roots, over fertile soil will cause forked or hairy carrots (covered in fine roots).

As the seedlings come up they need to be thinned to allow the roots room to develop.

<==from this to this ==>

If you are happy to thin your carrots more than once as they grow, you can first thin them to about 5cm apart, and then to 10 cm apart. The second round will probably be large enough to eat as baby carrots.

When your remaining carrots have enough room to continue growth unchecked, make sure you give them a foliar feed with a weak seaweed solution, comfrey tea or the like. The foliage will droop as they will have provided some mutual support, but within 48hrs they'll be back up and growing.

Remember when harvesting any root vegetable to cut off the tops as soon as they are out of the ground to keep the foliage from drawing on its stores in the root.

Any thinnings too small to eat will be interesting to scratch around in for the chooks.

Spring has Sprung.

2009-08-30T17:04:00.005+10:00

Hello again,

After a winter break, we have returned full of vigor and ready for the spring action. The growing season starts this coming Tuesday, I will have a quiet glass of wine with Sarah to celebrate. Winter has not been particularly cold, however the reduced daylight hours have a big impact on growth rates. We have noticed in the past couple of weeks just how quickly things start to take off when the day length starts to creep up.

The occasional mild frost has made the garden look nice at the expense of the poor suffering seedlings... Currently we have
Carrots, Silverbeet, Beetroot, Cabbages, Broccoli, Black Kale, Garlic, snap Peas, Lettuce, Wild Rocket (Diplotaxis), Spring Onions and some past its prime, bolting, Tatsoi. I have also just put in seed of Tomato, Eggplant, Capsicum and Chilli, it is early but they are under cover.

As the jobs get done, the victories get victored and the failures get failed we will let you know via the Hope farm journal, so please come back and see how we are going.

Cheers AL

Monster Marrow Chutney

2009-04-29T10:23:00.000+10:00

Have you seen this zucchini that Aldrum grew?

It weighed in at 2.5 kilos. I think he might be trying to prove something.

Yes, honey, I'm very impressed.

But now I have to do something with the monster and I think a chutney is the only way to make a meal of this beast.

This is a very English-style chutney - quite fruity and mild and goes particularly well with a sharp vintage cheese.

Monster Marrow Chutney

1 over-sized zucchini (I used around 2.5 kilos), diced
4 green apples, diced

4 med onions, diced

1 cup brown sugar

500 ml white wine vinegar

1 cup sultanas soaked in vinegar

2 tbs salt

2 tbs powdered ginger

Bouquet garni:
1 tbs cloves
1 tbs whole peppercorns
1 tbs coriander seeds

Place the ingredients for the bouquet garni in a muslin square and tie tightly with string.

Combine the marrow, apple, onion and salt in a large bowl and leave for about 3-4 hours. The salt will leach a lot of the moisture and any bitterness from the marrow. Drain well.

Combine vinegar and sugar in a large, heavy-based saucepan on the stove and bring to the boil. Add the vegetable mix, the sultanas, ginger and submerge the bouquet garni.
Reduce heat and cook until the mixture has reduced to the point when, if you run a spoon along the base of the pan, the sea of chutney stays parted. This should take about 1-2 hours.

Bottle in sterilised jars and leave for two weeks to mature before eating. It will store for about a year, but once you've opened a jar, keep it in the fridge.

This quantity of vegetables yielded about 1.5 litres of chutney.

From the garden: monster marrow

Zucchini Schnitzel

2009-04-29T09:09:00.009+10:00

Yep, the zucchinis are still coming...

I was running short on ways to make the most of our zucchini abundance and this seemed a simple way to jazz it up for a satisfying meal. Truly, you'd be surprised how filling these crunchy little rounds are. You could give it the whole tomato-sauce-and-melted-cheese treatment, as you might do with a schnitzel, but they went perfectly with just a sweet, spicy tomato relish (my sister-in-law's famous-but-secret recipe). You can even serve it, as I did, with the raw zucchini salad and almost believe you're not eating an entire meal of the same vegetable!

Zucchini Schnitzel

1 medium zucchini, sliced into 5mm rounds
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tbs Parmesan, grated
salt
pepper
olive oil

Oil a shallow pan and place in the oven. Preheat oven to 180C.
Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan, salt and pepper in a wide bowl and the egg in another. Dip each zucchini slice first in the egg, then in the bread crumb mixture (you can repeat these steps if you want a thicker crust).
Place the zucchini slices in the pan and bake for about 10-15 minutes, check and turn over once the bottoms have browned. Continue to bake until both sides are brown and crispy. Serve immediately.

Note: You can add any flavourings you fancy to either the bread crumb or egg mix, depending on whether it is wet or dry. Try: curry powder, grainy mustard, paprika, herbs, chilli sauce, etc.

From the garden: zucchinis, egg

Cinderella's wheels...

2009-04-21T17:28:00.021+10:00

Cucurbita maxima, moschata and pepo make up the pumpkin family, within the family are many siblings. There are Grey ones, Orange ones, Green ones, long ones, lobed ones, tiny ones and huge ones... Cucurbita pepo is the scientific name for the Zucchinis also, so many of the growing techniques used for the production of Pumpkins are the same as for Zucchini. The seed (pepita) is elliptical, about 10mm across, and should be sown (with the flat sides up and down) about an inch deep after the last frost or early to mid spring.

Pumpkins require a long growing season so in cold areas they will benefit from being sown early in a propagator and transplanted when the soil has warmed. Pumpkins like to be planted in a mound of earth well enriched with compost. They grow quickly and appreciate regular water. The leaves and flowers look almost identical to Zucchini, they mostly grow as a sprawling vine rather than a large bush though. The vines love to have room to ramble so planting them well away from each other (1-2m), or training the vines will help.

Pumpkins also have tendrils (left) like
peas, beans, etc. for climbing, and can be grown up a trellis or over a garden structure (you can support developing fruits in string or net bags).

Early in their life Pumpkins predominantly produce male flowers (right), which have no embryonic fruit behind the flower, female flowers (with fruit, below) come later. Pinching out the growing tips can force the vine to send out side shoots which will usually produce more female flowers. Hand pollinating may increase yield in areas with poor pollinator activity. It is quite common to get 4-6 fruit developing on a plant, but if you want larger fruit thin out a few, If you want competition sized fruit thin to only one fruit per plant and watch 'em go.

Wait until the vine withers and dies, the fruit has developed full colour, and a hollow sound is produced when you tap the fruit before you harvest. When you harvest ensure you get a good (10-15cm) length of stem on the fruit and allow the fruit's skin to harden in the sun before storing for up to 6 months with some cultivars. Seeds can be saved when you prepare the fruit for eating for next years pumpkin patch, or you can throw them in you compost and watch them take off. Powdery mildew is the major threat to your crop (look at my post on Zucchinis for a milk spray recipe) and, less commonly, mosaic virus.

Fire in the belly...

2009-04-19T18:30:00.019+10:00

As far as I'm concerned there is no savory dish that cannot be improved by the addition of two ingredients, one is the tang of a squeeze of lemon juice and the second is the bite of a finely sliced chilli. So that brings us to today's post, chillis.

Chilli was one of Columbus' gift to the world from the Americas, although there are suggestions of a pre-South American history of chilli in Europe. It is a member of the Solanaceae family with tomato, eggplant, capsicum, potato, etc.

The heat in the chilli is provided by 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide or capsaicin, and I reckon I can taste every one of them 6 nonenamides. Heat, or quantity of capsaicin, is measured in scoville units which I think tells you the number of sips of icy water you need after a hot one (not the best solution, try dairy). Most people erroneously believe the Habanero to be the hottest, and although it is about 100 times hotter than a Jalapeno, the Bhut Jolokia or "Ghost Chilli" is about three to five times hotter then the hottest Habanero.

Chilli seeds (left) are about 2-3mm across and need to be propagated in warm (18-21C) soil. The usual rule of thumb of planting a seed applies - bury the seed 1.5 times its width, deep in a good seed-raising mix. Once up and running, chillis need very little special attention. Apart from some water and the occasional feed, the most important variable for success is temperature; they are a very warm-season crop.

Chillis make beautiful container plants, with the added functionality of being able to move them under cover if the nights turn cold. As the plants mature and you see the first suggestion of flower buds, you may want to give them a little extra potassium. An easy way to do this is to add some rotten banana skins to the soil or potting mix before transplantation.

Setbacks may include aphid attack (left), red spider mite attack, whitefly and/or verticilium wilt - but these are nothing pyrethrum, soap/oil spray, crop rotation or companion planting won't manage.

Seed saving is easy, let the fruit ripen, open it up and voila! **BEWARE though that if you plant hot and mild together the gene for heat is dominant so the progeny of your mild chillis may yield a sharp surprise!**

Depending on your taste, one to two plants is often said to yield enough for a family. As far as I'm concerned they can stuff that advice in their Scotch Bonnet, I go for six to eight plants for Sarah and I with a mix of Thai and Jalapeno (right).

Bread

2009-04-14T21:32:00.000+10:00

Nothing is more satisfying in the kitchen than baking your own bread. And, if you've never done it before, it's easier than you think and never fails to impress your friends! This is a herb bread, so I could incorporate some garden ingredients, but you could just as easily leave the herbs out or add any other flavourings you fancy.

I use several 'proves' (allowing the bread to rise) in this recipe, which gives the bread a lighter, finer crumb, but this isn't as necessary if you're using the recipe for a foccacia or a pizza base. Another thing I find makes life easier, is to buy a large container of dried yeast, rather than the little sachets, and store it in the freezer. Ours has kept for at least six months this way.

Herb bread

Bread:
4 cups plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 pint tepid water
2 tbs dried yeast
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt

Herb mix:
A handful of mixed herbs, such as thyme, sage, rosemary, chives, oregano, etc.
2 cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
1 pinch of crushed dried chillies
3 tbs olive oil
1 pinch salt

Make a well in the centre of a pile of flour. Carefully pour the water into the well and sprinkle over the yeast, sugar and salt.

Use a fork to work the flour into the water, continue til the dough comes together, so your hands don't get gooey when you stick them in.

Knead the dough with your hands, turning and pushing it into itself and adding extra flour as needed, til your ball feels smooth and silky and springs back when you poke it. This should take about ten minutes. Form it into a neat ball and score a cross in the top with a knife.
Place the ball in a large, floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and set in a warm place. Leave to prove for 45 minutes to an hour, til the ball doubles in size.

While the dough is proving, tear your herbs and place in a mortar and pestle with the garlic, chili, salt and oil. Pound to combine (you can easily remove the garlic skins once the cloves have been crushed), until the oil takes on the vibrant green of the herbs.

Remove the dough from the bowl and 'knock it back', meaning punch the air out of it. Knead in the herb mixture til well incorporated and, again, form into a neat ball, score the top and leave to prove til it doubles in size again.

Knock the dough back once more and halve it. Shape each half into a loaf (I plaited one and left the other plain) and place each in a floured loaf tin. Leave to prove again for another 20 minutes before baking in a hot oven for around 30 minutes or until the loaves have browned lightly and sound hollow when you tap them.
Serve with good butter.

From the garden: herbs, garlic.

Raw Zucchini Salad

2009-03-31T09:44:00.007+11:00

I had my doubts about eating zucchini raw. I don't know why, I guess it's just one of those entrenched preconceptions. Or maybe I was just used to bitter old store-bought zucchinis.

When I came across this recipe though, I thought I'd give raw zucchini a chance - it certainly worked out for my tomato sauce. I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's even my favourite way to eat zucchini now and makes a fabulously refreshing salad alongside grilled trout.

Raw Zucchini Salad

1 good quality zucchini
1 finely grated clove garlic

Grated rind of one lemon and juice of a half

salt (good quality salt is worthwhile here - I have a pink Himalayan one found at the local hippy shop)

cracked pepper

Combine the lemon zest, juice, garlic, salt, pepper and a few glugs of olive oil in a bowl (you want about twice as much olive oil as lemon juice).

Use a vegetable peeler to slice thin ribbons of the zucchini into the bowl. I imagine a mandolin would do a good job of this too; I used the largest side of a four-sided grater and got a reasonable result.

Toss to combine and serve immediately.

From the garden: zucchini, garlic, lemon

Zuck.. Zuchin... Zukee..... Courgettes!

2009-03-27T11:23:00.020+11:00

Hello again! This post will be necessarily short on account of the chappy (shown left) who's taken up residence above the computer... Another argument for getting a laptop.

This post is on my favourite Veg to grow, Zucchini. The Zucchini plant (shown right) is a member of the Cucurbit family, same as pumpkins, melons, cucumbers etc. and is a beautiful, fast growing, summer plant, that produces masses of delicious fruit. It will grow to need an area of about a metre and responds well to some good compost incorporated into the soil.

There are several different types, my fave is the Black (beauty) Zucchini (avoid hybrids such as the F1 Black jack if you want to save seed). The seeds are large, about 10mm in length, and disc shaped. Please note I am not sponsored by the seed company shown left, however if they ever read this, leave a comment we'll sort something out ;0) Basil would also like it known that she is not yet sponsored by any dog food companies-->

Zucchinis grow as a short vine (shown left), if you are wondering if that's a pot around the base of the plant, in the soil, it is. One of the wonderful things 'bout living in a multicultural suburb like Brunswick is you pick up tips from the European gardeners around. Cutting off the base of a large pot and half burying it allows you to deliver water, compost, organic fertilisers etc. straight to the root zone and stops invasive plants, mint etc. from spreading.

As the plants grow you'll notice two different kinds of flowers. The male (shown right) has a single, pollen covered anther on the stamen, no embryonic fruit behind the flower, loves football and does not clean up after itself.

The Female flower (shown left) has a more complex ruffled stamen, an embryonic fruit behind the flower, lots of shoes and navigates poorly. Transferring the pollen from the male to the female is the job of Mr. Bee, or you and a paintbrush (see tickling tomatoes post).

The result of successful pollination is a swelling fruit (shown right) and a plentiful harvest (shown left). Both images here show fruit that would have been tastier when picked at about 15cm, however, once they start, you also will struggle to keep up with the harvesting and eating. The flowers are also a bit gourmet.

Zucchinis can suffer from several different issues. The most common I see is mildew, (shown right) which appears as a fine white powdery deposit on the leaves (be careful not to mistake dried shaving foam for mildew when using your grey water on the plants.... Hi Dad). Mildew can be avoided by not crowding your plants together (thus avoiding a humid micro-climate), keeping them healthy and well fed, and spraying fortnightly with a 1 to 10 full fat milk to water spray. If it does strike, bin the leaves affected (don't compost), spray with the milk solution, and wash your hands before touching any other leaves/plants. If you have to remove an entire plant, so be it, they will lose their vigour anyhow. Fortunately they grow quickly so you may get another in in time. Another problem to look out for is blossom end rot, look it up and make sure you don't get it confused with unpollinated fruit. It is usually caused by inconsistent watering.

I wonder if there is a recipe coming that involves Zucchini.....

Aldrum

Simplest tomato pasta sauce

2009-03-02T15:53:00.012+11:00

In the heat of summer, the last place you want to be is in front of your stove and when the first trusses of tomatoes redden, you don't want their freshness and vibrancy muted by the process of cooking. Yes, this pasta sauce requires no cooking. It is simply the best of your tomatoes in their simplest form, surrounded by their greatest friends.

A good friend brings out your best qualities and helps you show your true colours. A tomato's best friends are salt, to draw out the sweetness; olive oil, to round out the tartness; and basil, to brighten the flavours. And with a preparation time of five minutes, this has to be the fastest way to enjoy the fruits of your gardening labour.

Oh, and be sure to slurp up the juice that has gathered in the bottom of your bowl - it is pure, liquefied summer! Come to think of it, this sauce would make a great cold soup - a gazpacho of sorts - and with a hunk of crusty bread, would make a fabulous meal.

Tomato sauce

5 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped (they have to be the best tomatoes - soft, juicy and aromatic - there's no point doing this with those cardboardy, supermarket varieties)

a handful of basil leaves, torn

1 clove of garlic, crushed
balsamic vinegar

olive oil

grated parmesan or fresh ricotta

salt

pepper

Place the chopped tomato in a medium-sized bowl and, with clean hands, dig in, sqeezing the tomatoes (this is the best bit), til they have a pulpy, lumpy consistency. Stir through the garlic, a good glug of olive oil, a splash of balsamic, basil and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve atop your pappardelle with a drizzle of olive oil and crumble over the cheese.

From the garden: tomatoes, basil, garlic

Pasta most worthy

2009-02-28T15:05:00.014+11:00

When making a pasta sauce from your home-grown veggies, it seems only fair that the pasta it's presented on is worthy of such an honour. And naturally, the only pasta worthy is going to be home-made. It's actually surprisingly easy.

I use a pasta machine, which is a lovely piece of equipment to have, but not essential - you can substitute it's use with a rolling pin and some elbow grease (it will take longer, but you'll save money on a gym membership - swings and roundabouts).

The result is a bowl of delicious, yellow ribbons of eggy pasta; the perfect companion for your sauce. This time I made double the quantity I needed and froze the remainder for a speedy meal in the future.

Pasta (serves 4)

Measurements for this recipe are easy, just allow one cup of flour and one egg per person. This pasta is far more filling than regular dry pasta, so you'll need less per meal. Also, I'm making pappardelle here, but you can make any style you wish.

4 cups plain flour
4 eggs
salt

Pile the flour on your work surface and make a well in the centre. Break the eggs into the well and sprinkle with salt (approx. 1 pinch of salt per egg).

Use a fork to break the yolks and work the flour into the eggs. Continue with the fork until the combined, then you can get your hands in and start kneading. The dough will be be quite firm, but keep kneading until its texture is smooth and silky to the touch, then divide the dough in half. Now you can let the pasta machine do your hard work.

Place the machine at the largest setting and roll the dough through. Fold the sides into the centre and roll through again. Repeat this process a few times. Then you can begin to pass it through each of the narrower settings, one at a time (I skip the smallest as I find this makes the pasta too thin and easy to tear).

Lay your thin sheet out flat (you may want to cut it in half to make it more manageable) and sprinkle with flour. Loosely fold the narrow edge of the sheet in about 10cm and keep folding it in until you have a small square of many layers. Use a knife to cut along the long edge - forming ribbons (about 2cm in width). Unroll the ribbons and hang to dry. Repeat this process with the remaining half of the dough.

This pasta freezes well - simply dust the ribbons with flour, set on a tray in the freezer til hard, then break up and place in a plastic bag and return to the freezer for easier storage.

Of course it can also be cooked immediately in a pot of boiling, salted water and will only need about 5 minutes in the pot. Drain and and serve with your equally worthy pasta sauce (stay tuned for recipes)!

From the garden: eggs

Sad Days

2009-02-27T10:33:00.010+11:00

Well, as I am sure you are all aware We've been having a terrible time here in Victoria with the bushfires. The air has been thick and pungent with that characteristic smell every time we have northerly wind. The sun has been covered with a golden fog making everything look eerie. The tragedies of Marysville, Kinglake, Flowerdale, Strathewen, Narbethong etc. are ever present in peoples minds. There have also been some great stories of survival and heroism. Today, as I write, we are suffering another high risk day with temperatures in the high thirties and strong winds but still not like what they now call black Saturday when it hit 46.5 with wind gusts up around 100kph. Here in Brunswick West we are safe as it is very close to the city. We are counting our blessings a little though since we have spent the last year looking for land around Kinglake and Flowerdale and had not yet purchased. The people we have met on our search are ok with varying degrees of property damage. It has been a reality check for us and fire safe considerations have now hit the "what to look for" list in number one position and I've turned my mind to looking for fire resistant plantings such as saltbush etc. We haven't changed our thoughts on where we were looking as wherever you head you face the risk, besides it will be an important part of our lives to watch and play a part in a community rebuild.

The two photos on either side are pics of the last two blocks of land we visited, one in Kinglake and one in Flowerdale, a couple of weeks before the fires, following a visit to st. Andrews market & a jug in the Kinglake pub. The argument in the car on the way home was which one we loved more.

On a more positive note the garden has picked up following the intense heat and provided a magnificent harvest of Tomatoes and Zucchinis, I can't wait to see what Sarah does with all of these...

Love and best wishes to all in our fire affected communities.

ALdrum

Lemon sorbet

2009-02-15T12:40:00.008+11:00

My new obsession with aioli has left me with an excess of egg whites that couldn't go to waste.
Neither Aldrum nor I are particularly keen on meringues, so I needed another idea and the recent heat has led me to crave something cool and refreshing.

I didn't think you could make any decent sort of ice cream without an ice-cream maker, but that's simply not true. Lemon sorbet is easy to make and the result is tangy, refreshing and has a soft, cloud-like texture, without being hard or icy.

To be honest, I didn't even use a recipe for this, I just made it up - it's that easy. Here's what I did:

Lemon sorbet
2 egg whites (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of sugar
juice and rind of 1 lemon

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar, a little at a time until the mixture is thick and glossy. Add the lemon juice and rind. The lemon rind here is optional - it won't be fully incorporated into the sorbet, so if you don't like bits, leave it out. It does add an extra tang though.

Put mixture in sealed plastic tub in the freezer. After half an hour, take it out and beat it again. Then after another hour, do the same. Finally, allow it to freeze fully.
Scoop out and serve.

From the garden: eggs, lemons

Saucy Tomatoes...

2009-02-04T17:57:00.007+11:00

Ahh... Faith in vegetables.

Even though it's been up to 45.1 degrees c this summer which has resulted in:

This sun damage to the growing tips of the toms ==>

and this scalding damage to the fruit==>

We have still managed to harvest more "Tommy Toe" and "Grosse Lisse" tomatoes than we could need, and considering the "Tigerellas" are a later season Tom and are currently covered in unripe fruit we are hoping for a few more yet!

At least enough so we can share with all those interested anyhoo==>

Cheers.

New potatoes

2009-02-04T11:20:00.011+11:00

Our first ever potato harvest yielded several handfuls of tiny baby potatoes, about the size of your thumb knuckle. Clearly too small to peel; I was unsure what they'd be good for.

Then it dawned on me - their delicate flavour and texture would make a perfect potato salad and surely give these bite-size babies a sense of purpose. Especially when swathed in a silky cloak home-made aioli.

New potato salad with herbed aoili

Several handfuls of new potatoes, washed (cut any larger ones to match the size of the smallest)

1 egg yolk

100 mls olive oil

juice of 1 lemon (and rind of half)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbs capers

2 tbs dill

salt to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain and set aside. While the potatoes are cooking, place the egg yolk and lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Have the oil in a small jug that allows controlled pouring.

Sit in a comfortable position where you can wedge the bowl between your thighs so you can free one hand for whisking while drizzling in the oil with the other hand. Pour the oil in very slowly, just a tiny bit at a time while whisking vigorously. This will emulsify the egg and give you a smooth, gloopy mayonnaise*. Continue until all the oil has been added, then stir through the garlic, salt, capers and dill.

Place your potatoes in a bowl and smother with the aioli. Serve.

* Tip: If the emulsion happens to split, add a little of the mixture to another egg yolk in another bowl and start again, slowly adding the split mixture to the new yolk. I've never had this happen though.

From the garden: potatoes, eggs, garlic, lemon.

Hell's Vegie Patch

2009-01-29T18:14:00.021+11:00

It's not often we get temperatures like those in the chart above in Melbourne, but when it does get in to the high 30's or low 40's (c) the vegies need a little help.

To avoid the kind of damage shown at left a shade cloth cloche is ideal.

My raised beds are rectangular and have wooden stumps at the corners and along the sides, the stumps not only hold up the sides of the bed, they allow me to fix things to the top.

Drilling down into the top of the stumps allows lengths of dowel to be inserted which are capped at the top end by a length of pine which stretches across the bed to the opposite stump/dowel structure.

recessions are drilled into the pine to allow them to sit securely on the dowel. Next I cut shade cloth to incorporate the length and width of the bed as well as side and end flaps to allow for the depth (which is equal to the length of the dowel).

To secure the shade cloth simply screw cup hooks into the top of the stumps, one for each side stump, and two, at 90 degrees to each other, for the end stumps, all hooking/opening out from the bed. You can also use this structure to support bird netting.

I also fix the filter/pressure regulator unit for my drip irrigation system to the top of one of the stumps for easy access.
**BTW remember that if your Veg. require pollination open up the shade cloth cloches in the mornings before the heat of the day to let the pollinators at them or you'll be doing a lot of tomato tickling **

Bean and Tomato Mites

2009-01-21T18:13:00.011+11:00

So what turns beans and tomatoes from <==this to this==> ??

Well the answer is Mites. Mites love hot dry dusty weather, just the kind of environment you get in an Australian summer. There are different kinds and colours, brown russet mites, red spider mites etc. They attack the plants from the lower leaves and move up the plants leaving dead brown foliage.

A close inspection of the leaves (and I mean close, they are tiny) shows small critters often congregated around the veins of the leaves (red circle).

Occasionally you may see eggs and sometimes a fine cobweb like material is apparent (blue arrow).

The leaves become progressively pale and almost silvery (red arrow).

You will most commonly see them on the underside of the leaves (green circle).

The solution is to treat the leaves with a soap/oil spray made by adding 1/2 cup of liquid soap to 500ml of vegetable oil and then taking a tablespoon of this solution and diluting it with a litre of water, shake before use. This suffocates the mites. By the way always remember what Hector the safety cat says about keeping stored garden solutions out of reach of little 'uns and never keep them in a container they recognise as a food product ie a fruit juice bottle full of homemade chilli spray (mwahaha...)

Cheers Aldrum

Indian carrot fritters

2009-01-19T09:46:00.017+11:00

This recipe was inspired by Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion, which has proved invaluable for when Aldrum presents me with a basket overflowing with the latest bumper crop and I'm left to find a use for it. And boy did we have a bumper crop of carrots.

I have found carrots somewhat boring in the past, until Stephanie kindly suggested Indian Carrot Fritters. As always, I use recipes as inspiration, so the recipe below is more of a guide than a strict set of instructions.

They make a nice addition to a platter of nibbles or as part of a main meal and can be adapted to suit whatever flavours you have on hand. Just last night I did a version replacing the Indian spices with feta, thyme and lemon zest and gave it a yoghurt and tahini dressing. You can basically use the batter as a base and add whatever grated vegies, spices or herbs you have at hand.

Indian Carrot Fritters

2 cups carrot, grated (2-3 large carrots or 5 small)
1 1/2 cups plain flower
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbs curry powder
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
3 spring onions, chopped
3 dried chillies, crushed (or more if you like the heat)
1 tsp ginger, finely grated
1/2 to 1 cup of beer (home brew in our case!)
1 egg
1 handful of coriander, roughly chopped (mint is good here too)
vegetable oil for frying
salt to taste

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (reserving some of the coriander for garnish). Add the egg and mix well. Add the beer until the mixture has the consistency of thick, lumpy pancake batter.

Heat a frying pan on med-high and add enough oil to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, drop dessert spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. Allow to cook for about 3-5 minutes before turning and repeat on the other side.

Sprinkle with the remaining coriander or mint leaves and a drizzle of lemon-tanged yoghurt.

Homegrown ingredients: carrots, garlic, spring onions, lemon, mint, egg, beer.

Backyard Basil & Tomato Pizza! (Gluten free)

2009-01-17T21:19:00.013+11:00

O.K. so this is the easiest recipe you'll ever learn but once I've taught you it you'll look forward to it every year..

First you need one of these==>

<==Then get yourself one of these

Stick step 2 on top of step 1 and you get to eat one of these==>

Chicken feeder hat...

2009-01-11T13:55:00.005+11:00

We found that our Chicken feeder was constantly being raided by pest birds such as Mynas, Pigeons, sparrows etc. and tried so many ways to discourage them, even resorting to catching them and giving them a ruddy good talking to, I maintain that this worked for brief periods of time. We also tried beaded curtains across the entrance to the chook house but it seemed as though the chickens took longer to learn they could get through it than the pest birds did. After watching some of the bolder birds I figured out that they either climbed the wire sides and fed over the edge of the feeder, or they flew onto it and ate whilst perched on the edge, whereas the chickens reached over the edge of the feeder with their necks. So voila! problem solved, a small roof for the feed has done the job! I used some packing materials from my work but an upturned cheap plastic salad bowl, or the like, with a hole cut in the bottom for the tower part of the feeder would work just as nicely. I had to lower it slowly so the chickens could get used to it but now they are fine and reward us each day for being such thoughtful owners.

Tickling Tomatoes

2009-01-08T12:12:00.011+11:00

What do you do when there ain't all that many pollinators around?
Well you try and rectify the situation by planting all those lovely plants that attract the pollinators, flowering species that are indigenous to the area is a good start, buying a beehive and a trainee queen is also a great move. If you don't have the room or knowledge or just want a tomato or two on your balcony then you may have to do some of the dirty work yourself. Every flower on a tomato, or eggplant, or pepper etc. is the precursor to a fruit and when the flower is pollinated the flower dies off and a fruit forms in its place (left pic of new Turkish orange eggplant fruit with dried up flower on end), quite simply the more flowers pollinated the more fruit you'll get. The pollinator, i.e. Mr Bee, transfers pollen from flower to flower thus pollinating the flower and allowing the fruit to form. So enough about the birds and the bees, ART or Assisted Reproductive Technology for plants involves a fine little paint brush (top right pic) and fine motor skills. All that needs to be done is a gentle brush of the stamen (bottom right pic) of each flower, moving from plant to plant, flower to flower doing Mr Bee's job for him. I find that making a soft buzzing noise as you do it helps also...

Cheers Aldrum

Plentiful Spring harvest...

2008-12-28T19:25:00.008+11:00

So what's done well this Spring? Lots of things it's been a good season! Our best discovery has been the white or albino beetroot, sadly I don't have a pic, but they outgrew any other beetroot we've grown, didn't have the overpowering earthy flavour some beets have and cooked easily without staining anything. It has also been a good Spring for green globe artichokes, They're all gone now but all have nice fresh suckers coming up for next year's harvest. Truth be told we are as glad to see the end of artichoke season as we are to see the start, delicious beasties but the processing can be time consuming and a little messy. The Fordhook giant silverbeet has been a constant performer as has the Black Kale (Cavolo Nero), I think we will try a 'perpetual spinach' variety of the silverbeet next. The dwarf beans 'hawksbury wonder' have also been productive and tasty. Early Spring saw a great harvest of 'Aquadulce' broad beans and 'Mammoth Melting' snow peas.
Right now the garden is ticking along, all the potatoes are flowering, the tomatoes are fruiting, the 'Jalapeno' chillis are flowering and the Zucchinis are producing. I have put in half a dozen new silverbeet seedlings into raised bed 2 behind the black kale, they have settled in nicely.

Cheers Aldrum

Garden Tip...

2008-12-17T10:49:00.003+11:00

Got any old bicycle inner tubes lying around? Both Sarahbelly and I commute to corporate slavery via treadlies, along debris ridden roads and bike paths. When your tube becomes more patch than tyre why not cut them into strips and use them as soft, stretchy, recyclable plant ties. You can cut them as long as you like for different needs, and you get a lot of them from one tube.

Must acknowledge Garden Oz's Josh Byrne for the idea and Hope Farm Journal's Sarahbelly for the patient scissor action.

Cheers Aldrum

Put the kettle on

2008-12-16T11:16:00.010+11:00

Hi there. By now Aldrum has given you a rather thorough tour of the garden and you must be parched!

How about a cuppa?

Something both refreshing and relaxing - peppermint tea should do the trick. It just kinda makes everything right in the world.

I've found the flavour of organic peppermint tea to be so different to ordinary peppermint tea bags, far more mellow, it made me wonder what they actually do to the non-organic stuff. But of course they sell organic tea by the gram and it costs a fortune.

So how hard could it be to make my own? Not very, I discovered, now I have free, fresh and organic peppermint tea whenever I like!

We picked up a peppermint plant at St Andrews market.

Several months later it has taken off and every few weeks I'm able to borrow a few of its bright green shoots to make some tea.

Here's what I do:

Snip off a couple of handfuls of shoots and remove leaves from the stems.

Wash really well in a salad spinner and spin off as much water as possible.

Set in the sun for a few hours to dry some more.

Place leaves in a paper bag, loosely closed and put bag in a warm place (mine is next to our hot water system in the laundry).

After about a week the leaves should be dry and brittle to the touch (like Autumn leaves).

You can either grind these up manually - with your hands or in a mortar and pestle - or, to get a more even leaf size, blend them in the bowl of a stab mixer.

Store tea in a dry, airtight container.

Put a teaspoon of the leaves in an infuser and steep in boiled water for five minutes to enjoy!

A Garden Of Earthly Delights...

2008-12-14T18:24:00.041+11:00

What do we harvest here at Hope Farm? Anything we can, is the short answer. This is all an experiment, we intend to head to the country some day get ourselves at least an acre and create a more appropriately sized permaculture development. I have a good friend who specialises in indigenous species for the native garden but I want to provide the kitchen garden know how myself. I have spent as much of my time reading Royal Horticultural, Diggers Club, Monty Don, etc. texts as I have in the garden. I also read blogs and participate in various community forum-style websites. All research in preparation for a close to self sufficient lifestyle, away from our corporate slavery, in the country.
Seasonal vegetables are just that, seasonal. You appreciate the taste of your first red tomato a thousand times more when you had to wait through winter for it, and two thousand times more when you grew it yourself. Even though we cannot possibly grow enough fresh tomatoes on our small block to keep us all year we do not buy them in winter and prefer to wait, making the moment something to savour (a moment we had on the 10th). For us the experiment is to find out what grows well in our climate, what produces well, what quantity we need etc. The pics down the side are some examples of what we grow and harvest.
This year we have red, ripe tomatoes in December. If you can do that in Melbourne (outdoors) apparently you're doing quite well. Nuthin to do with us mind... This is all because we let a "volunteer" or self seeded tomato grow wild. I think it is very important to not intervene in any way with at least one plant in your crop, ie do not stake, prune axils etc. only then do you have a control by which you can know if what you do to your other plants is helping or hindering.. Allowing this volunteer to do its thing has also shown me that tomatoes can go in a lot earlier here than Melbourne cup day. This one started back in August.

Cheers Aldrum

The setup...

2008-12-03T18:59:00.007+11:00

So how is the garden set up? well the front garden we try to keep for ornamental plants. Not that vegetables don't look great, vegetable gardens can be very ornamental, but the back garden raised beds were designed and built with budget before appearance. Fruit trees and Artichokes are all in the front as well as one raised bed bordered with aesthetically pleasing red bricks.

The back garden is more functional, it is home to the chooks, four of the raised beds, a large ground level bed, the garage, laundry (homebrew centre of excellence), washing line etc. The front garden therefore is like a permaculture zone 3, it doesn't need a hell of a lot of attention, the fruit trees get the benefit of a grey water hose which comes from the shower. We have found a local organic shop that sells organic shampoos and conditioners (for Sarah's benefit, look at my pic) and we use them sparingly. The back garden is like a mixed permaculture zone 1/2, and with a little forethought we can plan to have the labour intensive crops in raised bed 4, which is a little closer to the back of the house. The ground level vegie bed in the back gets the benefit of a grey water hose from the laundry and we buy a garden safe laundry powder. This is the best solution for us because the ground level bed carries taller crops, so the edibles are further from the ground and also therefore the grey water, and because in a drought stricken land every drop counts.

Cheers Aldrum

The dream begins...

2008-11-30T18:53:00.010+11:00

What we do to try and provide our own requirements is to a certain degree based on the permaculture principles, however when your block is as small as ours there are certain compromises to be made. Our front garden is made up mostly of ornamentals some of which I'm proud to say are native... Pretty much what we have is inherited from the previous owners, neither myself nor Sarah Belly are very knowledgeable regarding ornamentals. There is also a miniature peach tree, a miniature nectarine, two miniature apples, a kalamata olive (a must in a very European/Mediteranean Brunswick), several artichokes and as of recently a 2.5*1.2m raised bed (owned & operated by Sarah Belly).

In the back garden we have a laundry containing the hot water service which gives us a warm microclimate for homebrewing. Besides this we have a chook run and hen house, 4 raised beds, and one standard (non-raised) bed. Initially I had to construct raised beds along one boundary to lift vegs out of the reach of the roots of a neighbours peppercorn tree. Very shortly after I had lost blood sweat and tears constructing the raised beds (an accident prone with his first angle grinder experience), they removed the tree...

Here is the first raised bed, (along with the wicking experiment), the wick was never going to work in a high raised bed built with the "no dig" method as the drainage is too good and you can't create a shallow enough sink to wick from, kids learn from my mistakes...

Then the second smaller one...
Jemima and mascara were suitably impressed..

Then there were four...

O.K. so they weren't pretty in the classical sense, but, they are very practical and extremely productive. imagine them with healthy, tasty, fresh veg pouring out of them.

Cheers Aldrum

To Introduce Ourselves...

2008-11-30T15:14:00.005+11:00

Hello and welcome to the first Hope Farm journal post. This journal is our attempt to maintain some order in our garden. Its number one purpose is to remind us what we did, when we did it, and whether or not this improved our yields.

First to introduce, there are two authors Aldrum and Sarah Belly, we live on a small property in a suburb ten minutes to Melbourne's north, on this property we try to grow or produce most of our own food. We do not claim to be self sufficient, however, at certain times of the year we do get pretty close.

Living with us is a small dog named Basil who was found by the council dog catcher at a train station with paws stained with paint, amongst empty spray paint cans, nearby a freshly done mural. We have adopted her and reformed her delinquent behaviour.

Also living with us are four chickens; Jemima, Mascara safety trial no. 32a, Steve mcqueen and Tigerella queen of the jungle. They are productive, happy chooks who have no concerns about Basil.

I spend part of my time as a medical scientist, part as a musician and part as a keen horticulturalist. Sarah Belly spends part of her time as a corporate high flyer, part as a dancer, and part as an amazing cook.

In this Blog I (Aldrum) will record my garden thoughts and activities and Sarah Belly will amaze us with recipes and ideas for best use of the harvest.

Over the next few posts I will try and establish where we are up to and what has been done so far.

Cheers Aldrum