tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28053269055609579172024-03-07T09:02:00.918+13:00cabbage tree farmCabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.comBlogger589125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-15217623783141819372016-05-17T20:46:00.000+12:002016-05-17T20:46:10.001+12:00An update and a farewellAfter much thought, I have decided to finish this blog. At the start, blogging was a new thing to me but as time has progressed, as per usual, I've slowed down. Most of what we are doing here at CTF hasn't changed much in the last couple of years. Some new fruit has come on, persimmons for example, for the first time. So what I have decided is that, if in the future, unless things change or something new happens, I will not be updating my blog. It is with sadness that I do this as I have had some really nice people visiting my site, offering thoughts, ideas or just generally being nice. So, that said, I shall now give you a final update.<br />
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We're well into our Autumn here on CTF and the weather has been just fantastic. We've had some lovely warm days, not too much wind and hardly any rain. Last night we had a thunderstorm but it passed quite quickly with no damage. It is still a bit breezy this morning but there is blue sky to be seen.<br />
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In the gardens I have been trying to clean up a bit. We have a lot of overgrown plants and self sown trees and plants that need to come out. I've chopped down a couple of very large rosemary bushes (trees!) which had outgrown their locations. I held off doing this over summer as the bees were regular visitors to the rosemary flowers. I do have other rosemary bushes around so it's not that great a loss (to us and hopefully the bees!). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaffir lime</td></tr>
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We have lots of monarch butterflies around, probably a combination of both the recent mild weather and the fact we have lots of food for them. While their caterpillars like to munch on the leaves of swan plants the butterflies like the flowers. The butterflies also seem to like the flowers of our native koromiko tree (pictured below). These trees self seed everywhere and we have mostly left them to grow where they come up, in one place they formed a nice hedge.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monarch butterfly on Koromiko flower</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monarch butterfly on swan plant</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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It has been an added bonus to see the butterflies up close as well as provide extra food for the bees. This is important as they do the job of pollination as we all know. The bumble bees sure enjoyed this big sunflower!</div>
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In the orchard we've been harvesting lots of apples, lots of raspberries, the first of the persimmons, plenty of feijoas (pineapple guavas) and juicy sweet mandarins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Satsuma mandarin</td></tr>
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This year I have frozen quite a lot of fruit as we will eat it in smoothies (especially the raspberries). I also cored and sliced up several batches of apples for the dehydrator. These make a tasty snack, although they don't last very long once they are dried and bagged up for storage! I put them in the freezer until needed as this keeps them from going moldy as has happened in the past.<br />
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Excess fruit usually gets given away, or else we feed it to the cows (and pigs if we have them).<br />
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We got a very good amount of pumpkins this year and I have been making pumpkin soup and pumpkin curry. Again we tend to give away what excess produce we can as there is only so much of one thing that can be eaten!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pumpkin 'Musquee de Provence'</td></tr>
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And so to close, we continue to work on the land in tune with the seasons. I make meals from the produce we have grown and/or traded with others in our local Crop Swap, and learn how to preserve it for the months ahead. We have learned from others, from our own mistakes, from what we read, and we are still learning. We have a big property and lots of work, many projects on the go and only so much time, inclination and energy to do them!<br />
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So finally, I do hope that you have found this blog of some interest and for those who have just found their way here, I wish you well in your homesteading journey and your new lifestyle. Enjoy all the happiness and pleasure it will bring you along with all the hard work!<br />
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Love and best wishes Bridget<br />
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Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-86446949289231031202016-03-15T14:59:00.001+13:002016-03-15T14:59:19.498+13:00MelonsThis summer we've had a little bit of success with melons. I think that has something to do with the unexpected rainfall, as a drought had been predicted. I didn't plant very many - one rockmelon which did not ripen very well. We enjoyed x2 watermelon, these were pink fleshed but had yellow skins and I forgot to take a photo of them - sorry! Have saved seeds to try to grow them next year as they were good.<br />
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I would say the most success however has been with these little Korean melons pictured below: <br />
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They are sweet and crunchy and as you can see by the comparison with the pen, only very small. This means one is a nice serving and you don't need to worry about storing excess cut melon in the fridge as you would with a large melon. Also the small size means that there seem to be more per plant than with normal melons. I have a couple of vines that have about 5 each on them, almost ripe so will be harvested any day now.<br />
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Otherwise in the garden things are starting to slow down a bit. Although having said that I am still picking tomatoes!<br />
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The pumpkins are just about done, have picked some and they are curing in the sun - we have had no rain for a few days now but I think it's forecast for the weekend.<br />
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Time to get in there and clear out a lot of stuff now, get the soil turned over ready for some seeds to go in for over the winter season. Mostly will be hoping to grow a decent amount of carrots. I have had some success with carrots in the past, tending to be a case of numbers - the more seed sown the greater chance of getting some to harvest. I normally just scatter the seed too rather than sowing neatly in rows. I also want to get some greens going, spinach and chard. My Cavolo Nero kale is still producing really well however.<br />
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How is your garden shaping up this Autumn, and what do you intend to grow over Winter?Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-76068305533734346612016-02-18T10:24:00.000+13:002016-02-18T12:19:25.893+13:00Plums!Plums. Lots of them this season. And the best ones so far here at CTF have been the Luisa variety, which is a Japanese type of plum. We have 2 trees of this variety and they have done really well, producing lots of huge juicy fruit.<br />
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The Luisa plums can get pretty big...<br />
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Here's a link to a page telling about the history of the plum in NZ - you need to scroll down to almost the bottom of the forum to see the post. Very interesting.<br />
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<a href="http://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1490840/luisa-plum">http://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1490840/luisa-plum</a><br />
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We are suffering with very high humidity here at the moment (approx 96%) and many of the other stone fruit trees are succumbing to rot, but not the Luisa plum. It's fantastic. We have picked numerous kilos of fruit, it's a real winner! I have bottled them in the past but we are not eating much bottled fruit now that we have cut down on sugar, and besides these plums taste best when fresh.<br />
<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-80175826351988273712016-02-11T10:39:00.000+13:002016-02-11T10:39:02.758+13:00Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes........!Yes it is that time of the year again. We have loads of big juicy tasty tomatoes ripening daily. The varieties I grew this season are beefsteak, the red one is 'Brandywine Pink' and the green is 'Aunt Ruby's German Green'.<br />
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And they can grow pretty big, especially the Brandywines. Here we have a few heavy weights, the first weighs in at 444gs:<br />
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This one a little heavier 474gs.<br />
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But this is the winner (so far), 603gs! A record.<br />
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I should also note here that these tomatoes have done well pretty much all by themselves, they were planted with a good amount of compost in the hole, I haven't fed them much other than a slosh of liquid manure and they have pretty much relied upon rain to keep them alive (thankfully we had a fair amount in January while I was away). So these are winners!<br />
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So what do with all those tomatoes you might ask? Well we've been eating them almost at every meal, and are not sick of them yet! Last night they were made into sauce to go with meatballs and spaghetti (zoodles for me).<br />
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I've cooked up a few batches just simply with onion, salt and pepper, then processed preserving jars full of cooked tomatoes in my <a href="http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/herbal-colourants-for-soap-making.html">Fowlers Vacola</a>. I now have several lovely jars of ready to use tomatoes lined up on the shelf for when needed.<br />
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Apart from preserving the tomatoes, I have also frozen quite a lot of them. I just chop them into big chunks, freeze them on trays then when frozen bag them into Ziplock bags. That way I can just take out however much I want for any particular use (i.e. making a pasta sauce or pizza sauce, or adding to mince for bolognese sauce).<br />
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Here are the Aunt Ruby's German Green variety:<br />
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These are quite big tomatoes also. They are ripe when slightly yellow. They are not quite so disease resistant however, but still a very nice tomato, and the green colour is pretty. This biggy weighs in at 456gs:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tomatoes in the garden, early January 2016</td></tr>
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Note to self: always stake tomatoes well! The sheep netting affair I have here is not adequate to keep them staked properly and with the weight of all those heavy tomatoes they are now flopping all over the ground :-(<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXbKE6YSCyBQolfOy0_wpp-sOLtApt3SgH6nUfFOdLaZiO8qdxNT4PVA2KxtJtFBCMuSVeApap2r4kNj1pHIBBTl6zz_h1om_PaYJxCE2zZISEuuBTEpZGu-bLhY-ui14MaynNpkme-s/s1600/IMG_0433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXbKE6YSCyBQolfOy0_wpp-sOLtApt3SgH6nUfFOdLaZiO8qdxNT4PVA2KxtJtFBCMuSVeApap2r4kNj1pHIBBTl6zz_h1om_PaYJxCE2zZISEuuBTEpZGu-bLhY-ui14MaynNpkme-s/s400/IMG_0433.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunt Ruby's German Green</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The garden late January 2016</td></tr>
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This was the first season in the new garden space. It is flat, and fenced from the wind. Next time round however I will do things a little differently, like not having pumpkins and melons trailing everywhere! More photos and blog posts to come soon on these.Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-17950863334075354752016-01-30T14:58:00.001+13:002016-01-30T14:58:43.599+13:00JanuaryHello and a very happy new year to all!<br />
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I have been away in England for a month and am slowly getting back into the swing of farm life again!<br />
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The main adjustment has been the weather. Coming from a UK winter (albeit a mild winter) to the peak of NZ summer with 100% humidity and temps up in the late 20s has not been easy! The morning I left England it was minus 4 degrees C! We are however enjoying some beautiful sunny days, mostly with a slight breeze and some lovely sunsets at the end of the long summer evenings.<br />
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In my absence, the garden has been growing like crazy. Hubby did a great job of watering my plants in the grow tunnels, and harvesting the produce as it ripened. The Brandywine Pink heirloom beefsteak tomatoes are doing really well, I have picked several kgs of these already with many more to come. We've had some nice homemade tomato soup and they are also getting used up at every meal, fried with bacon and egg for breakfast, sliced up with cheese inside a bread roll for lunch, and made into sauce for pasta for dinner.<br />
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We're also harvesting cucumbers (Indian variety - Poona), Italian zucchini, peppers, scallopini (patty pan) squash and potatoes.<br />
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The plums were very good this year, we had lots (most of these eaten while I was overseas!).<br />
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A handful of blueberries from off our young bushes, not many at a time but they are very tasty! <br />
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The pumpkins are growing well, this variety is Musque du Provence a very large French heirloon variety, it will turn yellow/brown when ready. I also let some self-sown pumpkins grow where they sprouted so will be interesting to see what type they are. Can't have too many pumpkins as they also make good stock food for when we are raising pigs.<br />
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Scallopini or patty pan squash<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-51599644350709241042015-12-10T13:26:00.005+13:002015-12-10T13:26:58.595+13:00UpdateAs always time is whizzing along very quickly. My blog posts are now very few and far between. So sorry for that and for this longish update.<br />
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Next year I'm thinking I may be changing the way I present this blog, perhaps just a monthly round up (might be more achievable) and possibly more photos than text.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOtVJvKNqWLFR0hHWc0uj-g7dAo_Vg-FwpOMEwzjdIgme-scn9OHxiTm_QFZq2V-Jr2SvmGH_wXvlYkS3xbtgQWGxVJJSk_UTU3pFpcialNOJTwzoYnR0RpWP4FU0wGSQ9JbeVe1WtTY/s1600/IMG_0240.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOtVJvKNqWLFR0hHWc0uj-g7dAo_Vg-FwpOMEwzjdIgme-scn9OHxiTm_QFZq2V-Jr2SvmGH_wXvlYkS3xbtgQWGxVJJSk_UTU3pFpcialNOJTwzoYnR0RpWP4FU0wGSQ9JbeVe1WtTY/s400/IMG_0240.JPG" width="400" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first of the Early Red peaches</td></tr>
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Anyhow at the moment in the garden we have growing:<br />
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Tomatoes<br />
Sweetcorn<br />
Yard long Beans<br />
Melons<br />
Pumpkins<br />
Zucchini (harvesting now)<br />
Potatoes<br />
Garlic<br />
Kale<br />
Strawberries (harvesting)<br />
Raspberries (harvesting)<br />
Coriander<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jocky cap flower</td></tr>
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In the polytunnels we've got:<br />
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Tomatoes<br />
Basil<br />
Peppers <br />
Chillies<br />
Eggplants/Aubergines<br />
Yakon <br />
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Pepino <br />
Coffee plants<br />
Curry leaf plant<br />
Ocra<br />
Galangal cuttings<br />
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All doing well although I did have a few aphids attack my eggplants, the ladybirds took care of those though! The coffee plants are ones that were planted outside but had not thrived. They are now doing really well although still a long way off producing berries!<br />
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We also had our large heifer butchered in November, and now have plenty of delicious beef in the freezer. As she was part Jersey the fat is very yellow, the meat is still just as tasty however!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our own beef fresh from the butcher.</td></tr>
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In November we also enjoyed a visit to the wonderful Hamilton gardens.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Indian garden - very pretty</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rose garden was spectacular in full bloom</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Italian garden - fabulous pergola with grape vines</td></tr>
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This was our second visit to the Hamilton Gardens and will not be the last. The first time we were there it was pouring with rain so we didn't stay all that long. However, the Japanese garden was especially lovely in the rain as it had a large pond. This time round we saw some of the other areas we'd missed previously. Still at lot to see though and I could have spent ages smelling the roses! Hoping to get back there again at the end of summer.<br />
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Meanwhile our excursions are closer to home, namely walking the dog! Not that walking the dog is a bind though as we get to enjoy the beautiful Kaipara harbour only a few minutes walk from home.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roxy enjoying 'walkies'</td></tr>
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-33633073454408226832015-11-04T10:12:00.001+13:002016-01-25T22:39:10.889+13:00Cabbage tree flowering seasonIt's mid Spring and right now the cabbage trees are in blossom. Not only do they look stunning, but the air is full of their sweet scent. I love to come outside especially in the evening when the wind has dropped and enjoy their perfume. It is truely a delight for the senses.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up view of cabbage tree flowers</td></tr>
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It's hard to capture the scale of these lovely trees (actually they are giant lillies). They are quite tall now, approx 4-5m, hard to believe they have only been in the ground for about 12 years, so quick growing.<br />
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Also fast growing are these native 'Puka' trees. Just look at the size of the leaves! They are huge. Looking totally tropical and awesome. <br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-53270626970760231802015-11-01T17:28:00.001+13:002015-11-01T17:28:51.707+13:00Halloween treatsJust sharing the cupcakes (aka Slime cakes) and some small bread rolls I made up for D to take along to a local community organised 'fright night' last night. They were both last minute knock ups otherwise I might have got some special Halloween sprinkles for the cupcakes - oh well, maybe next year!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cupcakes</td></tr>
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These were chocolate cupcakes - I always use Dutch cocoa which is a far superior cocoa to the standard cocoa in the supermarket, gives a lovely rich flavour and colour. The buttercream icing/frosting has natural green food colouring. Both D and G rated these very highly! I had extra cupcakes which I left unfrosted, while the frosting looks better for presentation it's too sweet for both my boys! I usually don't pipe too much on top as some folk do for this reason.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bread rolls</td></tr>
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The pumpkin shaped bread rolls were delicious and easy to do, just a little bit of time involved to make from scratch (same applies for the cupcakes!). I found the inspiration on Pinterest (of course!). Lots of ideas for some amazing looking food.<br />
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How was your Halloween? What special food do you make?Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-72347370136107028222015-10-16T11:45:00.000+13:002015-10-16T11:45:05.070+13:00The new blenderAfter a bit of research I've purchased a new blender to make green (and other) smoothies. I decided on getting a Ninja Nutri blender. They have a few in their range, but I opted for the Auto -IQ one with a 1500w motor and it has a large pitcher blender jug as well as 3 sipper cups of various sizes. It is GREAT! You just put the ingredients in the cup/jug, fit it to the motor base and press the button. EASY!<br />
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Having a lot of fun experimenting with ingredients and steadily working through my green smoothies recipe book.<br />
<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-54424437468441834472015-10-15T22:54:00.001+13:002015-10-15T22:54:22.510+13:00Asparagus time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm harvesting our first asparagus spears from the garden right now. It's been a while since these were planted and I've patiently waited 2 seasons so that the plants can get established. This has meant letting the spears grow fully (they develop feathery foliage) and then die off before I've trimmed the dead plant matter away. The spears grow rapidly - I harvest a few most days. I should be able to continue harvesting for about 4-6 weeks so far as I'm aware.<br />
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Some of the plants did not survive so this year I planted out another 10 'crowns' - and we will have to wait for about 3 years until these ones are producing.<br />
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Here we have dinner of rump steak, mashed potatoes and fresh homegrown asparagus baked in the oven with garlic and parmesan.Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-24232784871460828222015-09-22T11:53:00.000+12:002015-09-22T11:53:23.011+12:00A healthy spring lunch and a bit of an updateHey guys, how's your Spring going? Mine's a busy one with work, family, puppy training, gardening and cooking from scratch. Also getting a bit of a health kick going with some 'clean eating' and exercise. Booya!<br />
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Walking and running with the dog is great for weight loss, but doing yoga and weights/exercise/aerobics not so cool with doggie jumping on me during my workout!!<br />
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Being a bit of a sucker and not putting her outside in her kennel.......!<br />
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Anyhow, here's what I had for lunch recently:<br />
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Homemade roasted red pepper hummus with wholemeal pita and some nice greens, plus a few herbs and some nastutrium flowers. Yum.<br />
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I'm still doing well with avoiding cane sugar (as much as I can) and trying to kick the cravings for sweet food. In fact, the times when I have given in to my cravings I have instantly regretted it and found the sweet 'treat' all too sickly. A good sign huh.<br />
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Next up is green smoothies. I'm currently researching a suitable blender, although I have a gutsy stick blender that will suffice for now. I fancy one of those blend and go machines with sipper cups.. Bought this recipe book to get me started:<br />
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With green smoothies in mind I now aim to harvest the kale and celery doing great in the garden, blend it up and freeze in ice cubes. With warmer weather on the horizon (although you wouldn't think so today with a cold southerly wind and rain), these crops may soon come to an end. Some of the celery I spied yesterday trying to flower/seed and the kale might follow suit soon. Time to harvest these babies before they spoil.<br />
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Also on the gardening front, D wants to have a vege garden this year so we have got him his very own garden bed. On the weekend we sowed spinach, basil, carrots, and radishes. Indoors he has sowed some sunflowers in newspaper pots, and we 'repurposed' a plastic food container as a mini greenhouse:<br />
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This year I used my heat pad to help raise the tomatoes and it did seem to make a difference to germination - they now need potting on and moving to my small outside greenhouse.<br />
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Tons of stuff still to do outside, it never ends. More mulch to apply to the garden and orchard, and loads more weeding. As always these things will get done time and weather permitting!<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-27792007761872730602015-09-01T22:40:00.001+12:002015-09-01T22:40:36.376+12:00Today marks the beginning of our NZ Springand it definitely feels Spring like now. We have buds on our almond trees:<br />
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And on the plums:<br />
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the days are getting longer and the sun is warming up.<br />
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Work on the driveway has come to a halt as we've had a bit of rain lately so the ground is soft - not ideal conditions to have earthworks done. Hopefully it will dry up a bit soon so the digger guy can start up again. There's a fair bit of work to get done before it's finished.<br />
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Gardening wise I've planted out some cauliflower seedlings and sown my tomato, chilli, capsicum, and ocra seeds.<br />
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Weeding like crazy whenever I can, applying mulch to the beds as I go. I'm building up several compost piles and working with the compost that is ready.<br />
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Keeping the dog out of the garden is a priority because there are several entrances and no gates yet! Propped up sheets of corrugated iron are working as a barrier in the meantime.<br />
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How's your garden shaping up this Spring time?<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-55347803449744997632015-08-20T22:43:00.001+12:002015-08-20T22:45:30.168+12:00Driveway improvements sneak peek<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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and a touch of Spring colour<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-74810180860180723062015-08-11T10:11:00.001+12:002015-08-20T22:38:06.195+12:00Big bug came for a visitI've been living in NZ for 25 years now and in that time I've seen various bugs of all sizes, including the renowned <a href="http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/local-insects/tree-weta.html">Weta</a>.<br />
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But in all that time, I've never seen one of these 'little' critters:<br />
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I say 'little' but......it wasn't little at all. Eek, this NZ native millipede (oops I mean <b>centipede</b> - thanks upcoming treechanger) measured up at nearly 10cm long. And with all those legs..it sure moved quickly. Hubby found it buried in a big pile of composting kumara. So long as it stays outside that's fine... Have to say it made my skin crawl somewhat!<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-32424821167275653542015-08-06T21:40:00.000+12:002015-08-06T21:40:07.018+12:00Tangelos, cake and some sugar free chocolate cookies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Tangelos, in case you didn't know, are a cross between mandarin (tangarine) and a grapefruit. We don't have a tree but someone that does (and doesn't use the fruit) let us pick some of the ripe fruit. Most of this will probably be juiced, but I do intend to try it in as many dishes as I can. I started off with <a href="http://www.bakeyourday.net/glazed-vanilla-bean-tangelo-quick-bread/#_a5y_p=3219157">this lovely citrus loaf</a>. It was really quick and easy to produce and made a nice dense, citrusy, satisfying loaf cake.<br />
Hubby and D both rated it highly so the cake disappeared very quickly!<br />
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However, while this cake suited the boys, I am still doing my darndest to steer clear of sugar so it was off the menu for me. Instead I made up some of these fantastic <a href="http://www.homegrown-kitchen.co.nz/2014/08/05/double-chocolate-sea-salt-cookies/">chocolate and sea salt cookies</a> from Nicola at Homegrown Kitchen. These are really good! I will definitely be making these little treats again, perhaps trying some slight modifications - this first batch was made using standard plain white flour but I could test out different flours for the best texture and flavour combinations. I would also like to try almond butter instead of peanut butter.<br />
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Even G ate more than one of these and thought they tasted quite nice! Hooray, success all round this baking day!<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-90136428964690105002015-07-23T18:41:00.001+12:002015-07-23T18:41:33.458+12:00Lazing in the sun todayWell not me exactly.....guess who?<br />
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Although I did sit down to relax a few times...! So nice to enjoy the sun and lack of wind in the middle of winter.<br />
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Spent the day tidying up a lot of gardening 'stuff' (seedlings and planters mainly) and moving it from where it was to where the potting shed will go. <br />
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We are also getting some earthworks done which is great, widening the drive, putting in drainage and repairing the surface. It's been sometime since we had the driveway formed (from grazing land) and there's been a certain amount of wear and tear since then. Here are some then and now shots.<br />
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2007<br />
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2015<br />
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Still a bit more work to go before it's done.Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-24468237906764145572015-07-15T21:29:00.000+12:002015-07-15T21:29:17.968+12:00Homemade doggie biscuitsSharing a couple of easy recipes for homemade doggie biscuits. Cute and healthy treats for the wee pooch.<br />
She loves them. I want to get a bone shaped cookie cutter! Still tiny hearts and paw print rounds are cute enough eh!<br />
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The yellow ones are made with pumpkin puree (or you can use babyfood for ease) organic brown rice flour and egg. The darker ones are made from organic buckwheat flour, peanut butter, mashed banana, ground flax seed and rice milk. Loads of recipes on Pinterest. Basically mix all ingredients to make a dough, roll out and cut out shapes, then bake in the oven.<br />
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Little Roxy sure enjoys them.. <br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-57675819192287536612015-07-14T10:09:00.000+12:002015-07-14T10:09:06.329+12:00Frosty weather over the weekendJust sharing a few photos from over the weekend. Here in the "winterless north' we don't usually have many frosts and they aren't usually very heavy. This weekend however, we had 3 in a row and they were very heavy. It was cold! Yes I know if you are further south in NZ it was REALLY cold. We just aren't used to it here!<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-59578027680707226432015-06-30T20:10:00.000+12:002015-06-30T20:11:10.734+12:00I've been somewhat distracted..........<br />
by a new arrival - meet Roxy the labrador cross.<br />
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Isn't she a cutie? Of course being a puppy she is requiring a lot of attention right now, just like having a new baby really! Consequently getting time to spend on to most of the gardening jobs is a little difficult. But I'm not complaining, we're having a lot of fun!<br />
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I have however planted my garlic and am finalising plans for planting out the new walled garden.<br />
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I'm steadily making more and more compost, and preparing new beds for planting by digging in lots of kitchen scraps (since we no longer have pigs - yes they are now bacon, ham and pork in the freezer). I then lay wet cardboard on top and put mulch on top of that to keep the moisture in and the weeds under control.<br />
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I'm also applying mulch as and when to the fruit trees, and onto the existing beds in our original vegetable garden. This is going to be more of a herb and flower garden this coming season. It is on a slope and quite exposed to the wind, and gets quite dry in the summer, so it's never been really suited to growing vegetables. The herbs and flowers on the other hand are doing well there, and I've got lots of plants self-seeding all over the garden. Looking forward to seeing the flowers in bloom come spring-time.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-79835090438701419532015-06-09T13:21:00.001+12:002015-06-09T13:21:11.446+12:00Big carrot and a few photos from around the farm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We are so lucky living here. Especially at this time of the year which is "officially" winter (although the winter solstice is on 22nd). I say lucky because this morning I have been sitting outside in a T shirt (and pants!!) enjoying my morning coffee. The sun is out and it is so nice - calm and warm.<br />
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Just sharing a photo of a huge carrot I dug up the other day as I was clearing the carrot bed. I had no idea this biggy was lurking there! D found it very amusing!<br />
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It will probably be turned into carrot soup. I picked up some kaffir limes the other day (I do have a tree but no limes on it at the moment), so I am feeling a Thai inspired soup would work well, with some coconut, lemongrass, ginger, garlic and chilli. Mmmmm.<br />
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Talking of citrus, the mandarins as I mentioned in my last post are producing super well right now: <br />
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We're having no trouble at all eating these and they also keep relatively well (although we don't need them to keep!).<br />
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Here is the soap I made recently. I'm really pleased with how it came out, and it's lovely and creamy, lathers up well too.<br />
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Lastly, here's Polly the goat enjoying the sunshine. D took this photo and I think it's really good.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-1750232996804347742015-06-03T11:42:00.001+12:002015-06-03T11:42:43.079+12:00A very long time away from the blog...Hello everyone!<br />
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A post as last. Gee it has been a <i>very</i> long time since I did any blogging, sorry about that chaps.<br />
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We've had a busy time here with G being pretty unwell - he was in hospital for a week and then laid up at home for a while with me running round playing nurse. He's now back at work (on blood thinners), not 100% better but improving gradually. Makes one realise truely how much we should live for the moment and I'm trying hard to remember that it's all about the NOW - not dwelling on what's been or what's to come. I'm thankful for every happy moment on this earth.<br />
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Following on from that we had school holidays and the busyness of that. D pretty much commandeering the computer full time for Minecraft...! Oh how he loves Minecraft. He creates some amazing things in that virtual world that's for sure.<br />
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On top of all that there have been the seemingly never-ending jobs to do around the farm! So I've been busy busy busy and to be honest I've not had the energy for blogging at all.<br />
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But, I realise it's been over 2 months now so time for a general roundup of happenings here (other than the above!).<br />
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I did a LOT of bottling this year, after all the delicious peaches came lots of feijoas so I bottled up loads of these as requested by G. They are quite delicious done like this. Now he's getting to eat them all as I've gone on a no (or as close to) sugar diet for a bit! Ha ha! I know you can bottle in water but that doesn't sound very tasty to me, and honey is another alternative, but for my purposes I'm avoiding the sweet aspect regardless of how 'healthy' that sugar is. <br />
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We had quite a good crop of apples too, but I didn't end up preserving any of these this year. We ate a lot fresh of the trees, so delicious, crunchy and sweet. Each variety a different taste. I particularly liked the Cox's orange, but also the Golden Delicious and a Japanese one called 'Akane'. G likes the Braeburn. Also the French biggies 'Reinette du Canada' which double as both dessert and cooking apples. And of course the cooking apples Bramley Seeding, which cook up to a lovely fluffy pulp. We gave quite a lot of apples away at a community group we attend 'Crop Circle'. At this group local folk meet up to swap produce and seeds etc, have a chat about growing food. It's a nice social environment and the kids enjoy meeting up to play while the adults talk food (and other subjects!). Some of the dessert apples we wrapped in paper and have tucked away in a box, we will see if they store OK like this. I've heard of people storing them in a chest of drawers but we don't have the space for that right now.<br />
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We also got a small amount of Chilean guavas, which although they are tiny, have a really nice flavour. I used them in pancakes (instead of blueberries) which we enjoyed for brunch.<br />
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Now we're enjoying the citrus, and have already harvested a heap of mandarins (Satsuma) from our trees, one in particular had a whole lot of ripe fruit. Not bad for such young trees (these only went in a couple of years ago). We had to pick most off as the little silvereye birds were pecking at the fruit. I think they've done so well because of the location they are in, it's north-facing and nicely sheltered from the winds.<br />
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I have been busy applying citrus fertliser while we are getting regular rainfall lately, and both G and I are working away steadily at the very large piles of mulch ('post peelings') we had delivered recently, putting round all the fruit trees and along the driveway hedges - edible along one length (feijoa) and ornamental along another (<a href="http://www.plantman.co.nz/afawcs0158272/CATID=0/SUBID=167/ID=1288/SID=750666993/productdetails.html">Griselinia littoralis</a>). Since our Summers get so dry it is really essential to have mulch down and we've been a bit neglectful of doing this properly so I'm really pleased it's happening now. Once our feijoa hedging has filled out it should provide the much needed shelter for our rather wind exposed lemon orchard.<br />
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We've also got a huge pile of sawdust which will go on the vege garden. We prefer to use the sawdust (untreated of course) on the garden because the post peelings are quite dry and spiky. The sawdust is good both on the garden beds and on paths. I will be putting down a lot of wet cardboard first to suppress the weeds.<br />
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I'm still getting quite a bit out of the garden, beetroot, kale, Swiss chard, spring onions, plus all the usual herbs, and my Asian ingredients - lemongrass, coriander, chillies, galangal.<br />
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Indoors I've been making soap again. This time using the <a href="http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/2015-is-starting-in-holiday-mood.html">tallowate we prepared back in January</a>. I used the recipe from Suburban Jubilee (see <a href="http://suburbanjubilee.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/soap">here</a>) making half the amount at a time. The soap came out well and we are using it now, it lathers up well and is nice and creamy. Only one slight thing I used a different lavender oil which was cosmetic grade and the smell did not last! Not really a problem but next time I will go for the more expensive essential oil, obviously cosmetic grade is no good for soap! I also bought a <a href="http://www.gonative.co.nz/shop/Moulds/Loaf+mould.html">nice silicone mould</a> from GoNative and one of their <a href="http://www.gonative.co.nz/shop/MiscellaneousBooks/Straight+blade.html">soap cutters</a> which made the job of slicing the soap a whole lot easier than using a knife.<br />
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I'm wanting to try out making salt soap bars too, using pink Himalayan salt. This will be happening soon as I need to build up our stock of soap. We ran out recently and I had to buy it. The soap I bought was very pretty and smelled great, but did not last very long at all (plus it was expensive!). A little reminder that home made soap is best, and cheaper too.<br />
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Will post some more photos soon.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-26454439305031275622015-03-17T19:52:00.001+13:002015-03-17T19:52:50.842+13:00Damson jamA couple of weeks ago I spotted Damsons for sale at our local organic shop. (Yes it has taken me all this time to write about it sorry!). We do have a Damson plum tree but it is very small and a long way off fruiting, so I was thrilled to see Damsons for sale and promptly bought the lot!<br />
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These little tart plums are excellent for jams and sauces. They are definitely on the small side - almost the size of very large grapes, and as such it would have been a bit fiddly to try to remove the stones (I don't have an olive pitter, probably would be a good investment for next time!). Instead I just cut into the fruit before putting it in the pot, and spent a bit of time once the jam was set removing the stones prior to bottling. I used <a href="http://hiddendomestic.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/damson-jam.html">this recipe</a> and made up several batches. I'm really pleased with the quality of the jam, it set really well and has a lovely dark colour and taste.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-82276426816246934332015-03-03T08:35:00.000+13:002015-03-03T08:35:08.454+13:00Busy bumble bees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just sharing a couple of photos of a bumble bee. It is feeding on the flower of our native Hibiscus, which grows like a weed and forms a ground cover out the front here - it seems to love the stone we had put down when our driveway was formed. As you can see the bee is totally covered in dark orange pollen!<br />
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Here is the flower without the bee on it:<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-1743936799611744822015-02-28T13:50:00.001+13:002015-02-28T13:52:26.656+13:00Rangpur lime marmaladeIt's been a while since I've made any marmalade. In fact, it seems I last made up a batch of <a href="http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2009/04/rangpur-lime-marmalade.html">lime marmalade</a> in 2009 according to this blog!<br />
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The Rangpur limes have by far been the hardiest and quickest growing of all of our citrus trees. They have handled drought, storms and a bit of neglect pretty well. They consistently have fruit on them. All this is much appreciated since the other citrus, especially the lemons, are growing quite slowly.<br />
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Recently I was giving the lower branches a prune so that G could mow underneath and in the process knocked/chopped off a few fruit. It seemed appropriate to turn them into marmalade!<br />
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This time around I used a recipe from a fantastic book I received as a gift from my dear Mother and Father, The Gentle Art of Preserving, by Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi.<br />
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The recipe I chose for this batch of marmalade was the Vivien Lloyd's Lemon and Lime Marmalade.<br />
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And I'm very pleased with the result. To some of the jars I added a tablespoon of Cointreau or Rum as per the "Merry" marmalade recipe this one refers to. Will make some very nice gifts. I will do this one again for sure.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2805326905560957917.post-60479794677159562362015-02-22T08:56:00.000+13:002015-02-22T08:58:24.321+13:00More bottling!As the stonefruit continues to ripen on the trees in the orchard, I've been busy with bottling for the last week. This time it's the small local peaches, known as Pahi River. This peach is small but tasty. I did have to use a peeler to remove the skin, but otherwise they weren't hard to prepare since I put them in whole. They are freestone however so for other purposes are easy to deal with.<br />
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The 'River' peach was 'discovered' locally in a farmer's paddock and saved by Kay Baxter, founder of the organisation known as Koanga Gardens which used to be in Kaiwaka. The River peach was the peach which started Kay on her journey to save NZ heirloom plants (for more on this see one of my earlier posts <a href="http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/tree-planting-time.html">here</a>). And it was Kay Baxter/Koanga that started us on <i>our</i> journey and for that we are very grateful.<br />
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I've put up 15 jars of the peaches so far and hoping to get a few more done as the last of the fruit ripens.<br />
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Not bad for a small tree that has only been in the ground for 4 years.<br />
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<br />Cabbage Tree Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13035566919486082520noreply@blogger.com3