Cider vinegar recipe
Easy to make and very useful product for other recipes.
Basically just fermented apple juice.
Basically just fermented apple juice.
Forest garden bounty
Details
A nice assortment of root veges foraged from the forest garden while weeding. Includes parsnip, carrot, radish and potato. These make a great roast.
Date
July 17, 2017
Baking apples with waste heat
Details
With the recent installation of the chimney oven we have been looking for things to bake and roast. The last of the granny smith apples chopped, drizzled with honey, a scattering of frozen blackberries and a splash of water. Fantastic.
Date
July 20, 2017
Harvest
Constructing and working with a chookhouse gardening system
Combining chookhouse and glasshouse is one of the classic permaculture examples of stacking functions, closing loops and all that but not something I had ever come across. It makes sense on a lot of levels:
- Why have 2 buildings when you can have one
- Waste products from chickens are great inputs for plants (manure, heat, CO2...)
- Chickens eat insects and plant material and are great for preparing soil for planting
- Plants grow well in sheltered, warm environment
May 05, 2016
Homemade Nixtamal (Corn/Maize Masa)
Details
nixtamalization recipe
makes about 550 grams of dough (masa)
- 2 litres of water
- 225 grams (about 1.5 cups) of maize
- 1 cup sifted fresh wood ash
Natural woven flax weed mat
Details
Here's a simple technique for reducing weeds in a small garden. Biodegradable woven flax mats with seeds or small plants added in the gaps.
Date
September 11, 2018
Perennial Brassica from the forest garden
Details
Having freed ourselves of the expectation of eating vegetables that resemble the unnatural size and uniformity of those found in the supermarket we have reduced our efforts and disappointments in the garden. Perennial brassica are one way that we produce more food with less work. Foraged fresh from the surrounding landscape, these baby broccoli heads (flowers) are tasty and tender.
Date
September 03, 2019
Chimney Oven
I first came across this novel concept when I was a kid and friends of my parents had one. Seems like a pretty common sense idea so I've been on the look out for something like this for years.
Finally I got the chance to purchase this stainless steel beauty. On the initial test firing we easily got the temperature up to 350 centigrade and it hovers nicely round 200 with the vents closed and the fire idling.
We have used the oven to cook bread, muffins, roast nuts, muesli and veges. A very versatile and useful addition.
Finally I got the chance to purchase this stainless steel beauty. On the initial test firing we easily got the temperature up to 350 centigrade and it hovers nicely round 200 with the vents closed and the fire idling.
We have used the oven to cook bread, muffins, roast nuts, muesli and veges. A very versatile and useful addition.
July 17, 2017
Books for kids
Details
Fun rhyming stories by NZ author and illustrator...
Clavulina rugosa - edible fungi
Details
After several attempts to inoculate and produce edible mushrooms I decided I might be better off educating myself on the local edible varieties that grow themselves. On several occasions we have found and eaten large field mushrooms but these are less common as the land rapidly returns to forest.
One species that I felt comfortable identifying due to lack of poisonous lookalikes is Clavulina rugosa, commonly known as the wrinkled coral fungus. Knowing that it occurs in symbiosis with conifer roots I went looking and was surprised to find some growing less than 100m from the house. Now that I know what I'm looking for I have found them in other locations.
One species that I felt comfortable identifying due to lack of poisonous lookalikes is Clavulina rugosa, commonly known as the wrinkled coral fungus. Knowing that it occurs in symbiosis with conifer roots I went looking and was surprised to find some growing less than 100m from the house. Now that I know what I'm looking for I have found them in other locations.
Date
August 05, 2021