Fresh figs

G came home with a treat the other day, some lovely fresh figs. Unfortunately these figs were not from our trees, not having much success with them so far, probably too exposed a site for them as they are staying like stalks!

Anyway, these lovely fresh figs, although only a few, went straight into a cake that I've been wanting to make for simply ages. Fresh fig, raspberry and almond cake.

Fresh fig, raspberry and almond cake

The recipe is from Kylie Kwong's book 'Heart and soul' and contains raspberries and ground almonds. If you know how to make a friand, it's basically the same mix - egg whites, icing sugar, ground almonds, melted butter, a little flour and milk. The figs were sliced and lightly pressed on top of the cake.

 Yummy!

3 little piggies

It's pig raising time again here on CTF. This year we have 3 pigs, this time we have 3 boys and the breed is 'Long White'.

They are very shy at the moment and run away pretty much whenever we are around.  In their run they have some small pumpkins (and I mean small - we had a very disappointing crop this year - not enough rain!) and some kikuyu grass to munch on. This is supplemented with vege scraps and more pumpkins. Also they are getting cow's milk - we're hoping to source a good supply of that this year.

The ground in their run is very hard at the moment so it will take a bit of rain to soften it up enough for them to get their snouts in action. They will have a 2nd area to move into, a large paddock - when the grass has grown long enough, and they have turned over the soil for us. Pigs really are living ploughs, and they also fertilise as they go too, so it's 'win-win'.

Hopefully by shifting them to 'pastures new' this will work a lot better than previously. It means we can then plant out the original run with more fodder for the next lot of pigs. Timing, as always, is everything.

Grape juice

As you know I've been really busy in the kitchen lately, preserving  lots of lovely peaches and tomatoes. I've done several bottles of peaches now, which I know we will enjoy in the coming winter. The tomato sauces, both Italian and spicy Indian versions, are lined up in the pantry at the ready for future pasta dinners and curries, both of which are a big favourite here at CTF.

However, this past week I've been picking bunches and bunches of juicy ripe red table grapes. Now there are only so many grapes we can actually eat 'au natural' - I say 'we' but the truth is I don't actually like them much! So there was only really one other alternative - grape juice!

It's easy to make, just a little time consuming. Here is a quick guide to making:

1. Pick your grapes
2. Wash your grapes and remove stalks, insects, leaves..
3. Put into clean stock pan
4. Mash with potato masher
5. Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 mins.
6. Cool for about 10 mins
7. Pour into 'jelly bag' aka old clean pillow case.
8. Suspend 'jelly bag' over another big pot to catch juice, leave to drip for a while. N.B. Juice will stain so use newspaper on floor
9. Squeeze out any extra juice you can
10. Bottle up and sterilise in water bath as per preserving fruit.
11. Drink - we dilute with water but I'm thinking soda water would be lovely.

Note - no sugar was added and the juice is sweet enough for us. It's delicious!