Eco friendly yays and nays for me

For the past couple of years, my work has really been stepping up into the eco friendly spirit when considering employee gifts and activities. For Christmas a few years ago I was given a reusable coffee cup and drink bottle, and a package of mesh produce bags.

My eco conscious little self loved those, and I use them all the time, so they've been a wonderful gift, and quite forward thinking since being eco friendly wasn't as big back then as it is now. Those were a total yay from me.

For the Christmas just gone, I was given a Rocketbook Everlast, which touts itself as the 'endlessly reusable intelligent notebook'. I don't have any pictures of me using it, so here is a link to the website where they explain how it works.  Essentially, you write on the pages, and then set up your phone so the symbols at the bottom of each page link to the Cloud somewhere - maybe Dropbox, OneNote, email, whatever you like. You then scan the page, and it's uploaded into the Cloud. It's even smart enough to be able to convert handwriting to text and name each upload appropriately as designated. You can then wipe the pages off and use them again and again. It's a super nifty bit of technology, and really, quite a perfect combination of eco friendly and tech. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

I tried, but I just didn't like how plastic-y the pages felt as I was writing on them. I also didn't like that I was limited to only certain types of pens (and yes, I could have gone out and bought more, but that would mean the stationery I have now was wasted too). I couldn't get used to searching for old notes electronically, instead of flicking through my paper notes, and I didn't like that I couldn't use my organisational stickers to mark days and give me a monthly overview (shout out to my wonderful friend Decade Thirty whose beautiful handwriting features on her organisational stickers I so love). 

So... I've retired the reusable notebook and gone back to my favourite paper ones. I just find it so much easier to flick through them and add brief notes to my day, and I don't have to worry about adding things to a page that has already been uploaded and erased. Sadly, the eco tech notebook was a nay for me.

Finally, I just wanted to share another form of being eco friendly. We had our biannual company conference a week or so back. Often, I find that I walk away from conferences with a bag full of merchandise I don't really need (or want). So, I thought it was great that at our conference, we took a bit of a corporate social responsibility route and partnered up with a company called SolarBuddy (created by a Brisbane man no less!). One of the conference activities was to have all 300+ attendees  put together lights for children in energy poverty who don't have the same opportunities that having a reliable light source can offer. We built the lights and each wrote a personal letter; SolarBuddy will deliver what we built to kids in energy poverty around the world, giving them a light to study at night and a chance at a brighter future. Here's the light I put together:

Where does the eco bit come in given that this light is made of plastic and will be shipped across the globe? Well, this little light is solar powered, designed to be waterproof and have a life of 10 years. Each charge can last up to 10 hours and will allow the recipient to study, and replace their previous non-electric light sources, which may have been burning kerosene or firewood, both of which are definitely not eco friendly, or safe. I thought it was a great idea to have all the attendees do something nice, but even better, instead of putting money toward merchandising, going toward something that encourages children to learn by providing light, decreasing the burning of non-environmentally friendly fuels, and, who knows what the next generation will create given the opportunity to learn? Sure it's a company tax deduction, but I choose to look at the positives here too. On balance, yay from me. Does anyone else dislike the trend of excessive corporate branding and merchandising?

Anyway, I thought a blog post was overdue. It's school holidays now and after a much anticipated night of Tim Minchin this Thursday, we are flying off Friday for a family holiday in Vietnam. It's the kids first time overseas and I hope they love it. I am looking forward to having a break, seeing how everything has changed in the ten years since we last visited and consuming vast amounts of local food! 

Life is good! Any last minute tips for travelling with small children or must see places in Vietnam?

I spark joy with upcycling

Everyone is talking about Marie Kondo, and the mantra that items should spark joy in order to have a place in the home. If an item doesn't spark joy for owning it, then it should be moved on and the result is a lovely decluttered home that is easy to keep clean and has wonderful energy because everything in it brings joy. I think this is a wonderful idea, once it's been put into practice.

Of course, this has inevitably meant that there has been a rush of people decluttering their house and moving things on - op shops in my area are turning away donations and the buy/swap/sell sites I follow are overflowing with items. I love the idea of only owning things that bring happiness. This is something that I have practiced myself for a long time - considerate buying, and thinking about whether the item I'm purchasing is a need or a want. Often, if I walk away and think about it, I realise that I don't really need it after all, or I have something already that will fit the purpose.

The frugal Asian side of me also delights in a bargain, in fixing things that others might discard, and reusing or repurposing what I already own. I like to hoard things, just in case they might spark joy come in useful in the future. With that in mind, here are two of my most recent projects:

Dining room chairs
Our dining room set was a bargain. A friend was going to send it to the dump because she was redecorating and it didn't suit her new decor. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the set, so I claimed it and we suddenly had a new (to us) set for free. It's a wonderful solid wood table that expands from seating 6 to 10 comfortably. It also had 6 wooden chairs with plain upholstery. These chairs serve us well, but as the kids grow, so too did the wear on the chairs. There were stains I couldn't get out and holes in the fabric that my small man has been picking at so they were no longer discrete holes but great gaping tears.

Mr Fork wanted to get new ones. I convinced him that they had good bones so instead to come to choose new fabric so I could re-cover them. For $5/m (on sale!) and half a day of labour unpicking staples and re-stapling (we already had one, and staple guns are fun!) we have chairs that look just like new again (if perhaps a little crooked on the pattern).  $12.5 worth of fabric, a little bit of work and I saved 6 chairs being sent to waste, and having to buy new ones that would never match the table properly. Also, I love that no one else will have chairs like ours.

New fabric on the left, old stained fabric on the right

I even had some time to use the leftover fabric I'd bought to whip up a quick cover for the ottoman, and added some pockets for tv remote storage to help tidy things away. Win!

Reuseable makeup wipes
I just knew that my love of flannelette pyjamas and keeping my sewing scraps would pay off. As soon as I saw the tutorial on Fiona's blog for making reusable makeup wipes, I knew that was a project I could pull off. An hour later, and I had a tidy little pile of cute wipes. I won't go into the method as I pretty much just followed Fiona's guide. All my little offcuts and threads went into the compost heap so no waste here!

I've been using them for the past couple of days and they're just as good as the bought ones, and heaps better for the environment. I followed Fiona's tip to keep a delicates bag nearby and they go straight into that as I use them ready to be washed. During this process, I also remembered just how much I hate sewing curves though. If I make another batch, I'm doing square ones!

Life and garden notes

It feels like the year has only just started, and yet, here we are past the halfway point of November. It's nearly Summer, and in a few weeks my daughter will have finished her first year at school. Where does the time go?!

On the days where I do not work, and it is just my youngest and I alone together, there is still a tangible empty space beside him that is quiet and missing a small person in it. He looks to me to fill the gap, to play with him, to lie with him, to be his childish companion and explore on the same level. Sometimes I can do that. Sometimes I am just so exhausted with the minutiae of life that it's all I can do to make sure he eats something nutritious for lunch and does something stimulating that doesn't involve lying in front of the television for long stretches.

Our days are bookended with school drop off and pickup. The mornings are a whirling dervish of packing lunches, checking that books, folders, hats, and everything necessary for the school day is packed into that overly large bag of hers. Afternoons are spent with a cranky child, tired from a long day of concentrating, yet bursting with so many new things to share with her brother and I.

School day evening meals are quick, where I have done the preparation in advance or meals so familiar I can cook them in my sleep so that I can have dinner on the table early, so she is fed, bathed and in bed with plenty of time to stock up on sleep for the next school day.

Days where I work are even more frantic as we leave earlier; I have the small man to drop at daycare, and we do before and after school care. She quite likes those days as she gets a second breakfast before school, and they feed her "better treats for after school snacks than you do mama". Cough.

This is my new normal. It is frantic, and new and sometimes so shiny that I'm afraid to grasp it with conviction in case it pops the fragile bubble that's working for us right now. The end of the school year is so close I can almost touch it, and is there anything full of more sass and exhaustion that a child near the end of term four? Maybe her mother...

I know in a few weeks we will have another new normal with school holidays starting, and the activity of the festive season. And then, the cycle, in all it busy-ness will start again, but this time it will (hopefully!) be easier and more familiar. In the meantime, I take solace in the garden - it's predictable, slower moving and not so much blink and you'll miss it. Here is my hedge flowering, and the beginning of an agapanthus flower in the background.

My geraniums just do their thing and continue to bloom and spread out happily. They're quite glorious to come home to and admire as I walk up the garden path.

My monstera grows new leaves in a delightful manner: a new stem grows along an existing one, then splits out separately and the leaf gradually uncurls from its tightly rolled light green shape, to form a darker green, more easily recognisable pattern. Now if only my children would allow them to unfurl in peace instead of trying to make it happen faster and ripping the poor fragile things (excuse my very dusty blinds!).

Speaking of gardening, I've talked before about the (free!) Science of Gardening university unit I did awhile back. I did a follow up unit as well which I immensely enjoyed, and I've since learned that the University of Tasmania is again offering the (online) unit starting again in December. You can learn more about it here. Applications close on the 1st December and the course starts on 3rd December.

Since it's online, you can work at your own pace. I don't get anything from mentioning this, but I will say I really enjoyed the two units I studied and had my brain stretching in ways that it hadn't had to in some time! It saw me investigating the role of climate and soil in shaping which plants grow in different regions. I mapped my garden on drafting paper to scale, taking into account soil type analysis and acidity, land slope, sun angles and block positioning, as well as localised predators (e.g. possums), pathogens and friendly garden critters. There is so much that I just never considered when planting my garden out - how it has ever survived my wilful neglect is a wonder! I'd love to hear about it if you do sign up.

Is it just me, or does life seem to be travelling in the fast lane at the moment?

Oh hi! Or maybe O Mai!

I know, I know, things have been very quiet here on the content-front. It's not strictly a planned thing, but I find that although I have lots of time to scroll through other people's content, it's really hard to keep up with my own.

I've been busy, and real life just gets in the way of online life sometimes. Of course, there has still been lots of eating, and baking, and interacting with my small people going on. I just haven't felt the need to blog in detail about it so much.

However, recently (as in, a few months ago now), I dragged Mr Fork and the smalls to a new-to-us pho (pronounced 'fur') place for lunch while we were out and about. We liked it so much, that we took his parents to eat there the next day and they were impressed. I may not have mentioned it before, but Mr Fork's parents are Vietnamese, so for them to give this place a tick of approval means it's pretty darn tasty. So I thought I needed to tell everyone about it, because good pho deserves to be shared!

O Mai!

Cafe O Mai and Pho Queue (love those pun names) are located side by side and are owned by the same family. We like them both and they serve pretty much the same pho - O Mai is a little bit rustic and casual and opens earlier so you can indulge in pho for breakfast if you choose (it's delicious!). Pho Queue is a bit fancier, opens from lunch through to dinner time, has a glorious open dessert kitchen to sticky beak into and produces some wonderful French desserts. Mr Fork has a preference for Pho Queue because they offer normal washable chopsticks instead of wooden disposable ones, and he prefers to eat with those so we probably frequent Pho Queue slightly more because of that. They also offer baby pho at reasonable prices, which are smaller sized bowls specially for the kids, so my children love that they can order their own bowl and not be overwhelmed by adult sizes.

Another feature that I love is that both stores practice sustainability where possible. Straws are reusable metal ones and in an effort to reduce wastage, bean sprouts, basil, chilli and fresh lemon are all available (free) pho additions, but won't be served unless they are asked for. I'm all for being eco friendly and reducing single use plastic so I'm fully supportive of this practice but you better believe I'm piling those additions into my pho! Now if only O-Mai would get rid of the disposable chopsticks...

I should also mention that both stores serve a delicious Bahn Mi, the Vietnamese crusty bread roll. There is a dedicated bahn mi station where they bake the baguettes onsite between the two restaurants and it's always busy. I get the lemongrass tofu option (minus the mayo and pate), but Mr Fork raves about the traditional pork one. I have no pictures of those because they get devoured far too quickly but take my word that they're amazing.

Pho Queue branded bowl

From my perspective, I'm impressed because they also have a completely vegan pho option made on a super tasty mushroom broth. You can choose to have it with tofu and vegetables (regular), or with a medley of gourmet mushrooms and crispy soy pieces (deluxe).

Regular vegan pho

I'm hard pressed to choose my favourite but maybe I'm leaning ever so slightly to the deluxe mushroom medley because a) I love oyster and enoki mushrooms and b) the crispy soy tastes amazing after absorbing the broth and it gets that wonderful texture where the inside is soggy and delicious but the outside is crackly and perfect.

Deluxe vegan pho

If you're ever in the area, I 'pho sure' recommend stopping in for a delicious bowl of pho, vegan or not.

Recipe: Fire Cider

Some time ago I went to a fermenting workshop and got to try a whole bunch of fermented goodies brewed by the workshop facilitators. One of the things I tried was a Fire Cider, and I remember at the time thinking it was amazingly delicious. I took my booklet of recipes home, and promptly put it aside, making nothing more exciting than my constantly-on-the-brew kombucha.

Recently I was chatting to a fellow school mum and she mentioned that she'd just put on a new batch of fire cider to ferment away. I remembered my workshop, went home to dig out my notes and made a few jars as soon as I collected all the ingredients. I posted about it on my recent In My Kitchen post, and I had a few questions about it so I figured I should post about it all by itself.

Google tells me that fire cider is rooted in folk medicine and is a great remedy for winter colds and ailments. Packed full of good things, it's a great immunity booster, helps with digestion, and is delicious all in it's own right.  It does take about a month to six weeks to ferment fully, so now is a good time to get started if you want a batch. Many people take a tablespoon or two daily throughout Autumn and Winter as a preventative, and more often if actually ill. I also like to personally have it as a tea (added to hot water) or a salad dressing, and dilute it in a little juice for my smalls.

It's very flexible, so please just use the below as a guide and adjust to your tastes.

Fire Cider 
clickable link

Equipment
Jars (sterilised)

Baking or waxed paper

Ingredients

1/2 cup peeled and shredded ginger

1/2 cup garlic

2 large white onions, diced

4 lemons

4 chillies (the hotter the better in my opinion, I like jalapenos), diced

1/4 cup peeled and diced turmeric

peppercorns

sprig of rosemary

1/2 cup peeled and shredded horseradish (optional)

Apple Cider Vinegar

Method

Add everything into your jar. You can dice it, slice it, shred it, arrange them prettily if you like. For the lemons, I peeled two of them and use the zest and juice of those, then slice the others and arrange them (skin and all) in the jars. Pack everything down semi firmly and top off with the apple cider vinegar. You want everything to be under the vinegar so it doesn't go mouldy - either use the heavier roots at the top to hold everything down, or put a weight on the top (the herbs and chillies tend to float so arrange accordingly). Keep in mind that some of the roots will expand during the process, so top it all off well. 

If you're using a metal lid, line it with waxed paper so the vinegar doesn't rust it. That's it, you're done. Pop those jars somewhere out of direct sunlight and leave them alone for a minimum of 4 weeks.

It does look all pretty fermenting away in the jar

When they're ready, give the jars a shake, then strain everything out through some cheesecloth. Store the liquid in the fridge and consume as needed. You can add sweetener to taste, but I don't bother.

Just a note here. I'm all about reducing waste, and this cider is so packed full of goodness I didn't want to throw away all of those veggies and roots after I'd strained them - what a travesty! After some thinking, I decided to blitz them up in the food processor. There was a lot of it, so I portioned it out into my old pods that I used to store baby food in. This one comes with a silicon lid so it reduces the potent smells that might take over the freezer. 

Smells so good all blended up - glorious colour thanks to the turmeric

Here are some other suggestions that I have in mind for using the pulp up:

• It was delicious added into a minestrone soup (although it did add a serious kick so was not at all kid friendly)
• Shaken up with a bit more vinegar and used as salad dressing
• Use as a flavouring for stews or lentil loaves
• Mixed into smoothies
• A marinade (I'm thinking tofu and eggplant would just soak up the flavour!)
• A sandwich condiment

I'd love to hear if anyone else makes fire cider, and how you use it (and the leftover pulp!)

2018: Reducing single use plastic

I am unashamedly frugal, sometimes to the embarrassment of Mr Fork. I take great pride in being eco conscious and reducing the impact that I personally have on the environment. Now that I have children, it's important to me that they learn to be respectful of our planet as well. Two years ago, I put up a list of ten things I do to help the environment (and you know, also save money). This year, I'm going to step it up a bit and try even harder to reduce my household waste and single use plastic items.

There are so many things that are simple to do, and don't even have to cost much, if anything at all. Here are some more of the things I already do, and some ideas that I'm working toward as well.

Say no to consumables. Who needs plastic straws, paper napkins or utensils when there are awesome glass or metal straws, fabric serviettes, and cute reusable utensils out there? I've had my glass straw for years, and I love it. I've been reading a lot about beeswax wraps and I really want to find a good source of local beeswax so I can start making my own (and you know, maybe use up some of my fabric stash while I'm at it!).

Avoid plastic shopping bags. Similar to the above, but it needs saying again. Our two major supermarkets have plans to phase out plastic bags this year, which I think is a great idea. It's easy to put cloth bags in the car boot, and I always have a small fold up bag in my handbag for incidental purchases. I've also embraced bringing along mesh bags for my produce shopping so I can avoid those thin plastic ones they offer. If I have a choice between pre-packed produce, or picking my own and using my own bags, it's a no brainer.

I got these ones as a Christmas present, and they come with their own handy little bag to stash them in when not in use. They're so simple to make though that I'm going to whip up a few more with some of the mesh material I have in my stash.

When I get my produce home, I can also prolong it's life by storing it in my fabric Swag bags (which are awesome by the way!)

I'm also lucky enough to have some bulk health food stores near me. These stores let you scoop and weigh your own produce (like nuts, flours, salts, beans etc) from bulk bins and either use the brown paper bags in store (which are compostable) or bring your own container to hold them. 

Use reusable bottles and cups. It's important to stay hydrated, but not at the cost of all the litter it generates. A friend of mine recently moved to the beach and has been telling me horrifying statistics about the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean and on the beach. There are so many bottle options out there - foldable ones for the space conscious, insulated ones to keep your water cold (or hot!), glass, and ones with super cute covers like my beloved BBBYO ones! (the 'bits' below are barley from when I brewed up barley water to soothe a chest infection)

I'm also a huge fan of reusable coffee cups - I have one at home and one at work for ultra convenience. Many of the coffee shops near where I work even offer a small discount for bringing your own cup. I've heard statistics that it can take more than 500 years for a plastic coffee cup to break down, which is horrifying.

I've noticed a huge shift in awareness when shopping, and many shoppers now bring their own reusable bags as a matter of course (could be that some shops have started charging for terrible quality plastic bags as well). Where I used to get odd looks for bringing my own coffee cup to a cafe, now I'd say from my own observations that there are more BYO cups than not. This is definitely a movement I'm happy to get behind and so pleased to see individuals and businesses taking up.

Do you bring your own bags and cups when out and about? What are your tips for reducing plastic consumption?

Urban trading

My eggplants are producing far too prolifically for me to eat and enjoy them all at the moment. Here's a picture of this week's harvest alone - eleven good sized fruits, and many more nearly ripe still weighing down the plants.

I mentioned my dilemma to a colleague and she said that her lime tree was doing the same. We just looked at each other and brought in a bag of produce to swap the next day! I enjoyed those limes as salad dressing, with gin, in soda water and numerous other ways. Limes are amazing!

Speaking of salad, I traded more eggplants to another colleague for some cucumbers and a lettuce. I generously ended up with too many cukes to use while they were good so I traded some of them plus eggplants for a pawpaw (which was delicious, and I'm hoping some of the seeds will sprout for me).

I have not yet properly learned the art of planting in appropriate amounts or staggering my planting, so soon I’ll have oodles of chillies to play with... anyone interested? 

Gosh I love my gardening friends. Who says that the bartering economy isn't alive and well?!

Do you have a group of like minded people you trade with? What's a hot commodity for you right now?

Resilience

Today, my (little) big girl has her kindy graduation. Next year she starts prep at 'big' school and will attend 5 days a week. Until now, she has attended daycare 3 days each week and spent the other two at home with me. We fill our time with extracurricular activities (swimming, acrobatics), social catch ups with friends and learning through doing regular every day activities like library visits, cooking, gardening and playing.

It will be strange to hand over the bulk of her days to someone else. I used to think having one child was hard, and then I had a second and wondered what I complained about. Now as I prepare to have days with only one child again, I wonder how I will cope. How he will cope without his big sister and constant companion. How she will cope at school without me. Have I laid a strong enough foundation for her to build on? I hope so.

I was harvesting my neglected garden recently. It's a bit sad - the basil is defiantly dry and crispy, the leafy greens are present but wispy and bug eaten and the rosemary is looking rather brown. Surprisingly though (or not) because of all the drenching rains we've had lately, my eggplants are thriving. The other herbs are lush and green, and the onions that sprouted in my pantry are pushing through green growth and developing seeds in an effort to preserve themselves and give me future onions. If I'm honest, if I cut the basil back it will come back better than ever. The greens are seeding and when planted will be so strong and healthy. The rosemary will come good with love. I guess it's the compost and chicken poo I lavished deep in those beds paying off for me.

I even have a little self seeded marigold, standing proud next to those previously mentioned onions and doing it's best to repel pests and bring in bees.

What I guess I'm getting at is, gardens, just like people, are resilient. Putting in early work and enthusiasm and love is so worth it, and even with a little distance there, the things you grow and reap are wonderful surprises.

 

She'll be fine. And so will I.

What's in my kitchen, February 2017

I'd originally intended to talk about what I've been cooking and eating lately, but I had some other photographs ready, so this is more of a hybrid between a proper in my kitchen crossed with what's growing in my garden. With the weather being as hot as it has been recently, I've been loathe to plant anything new in the garden. I grow most of my produce from seeds, and it's far too hot for brand new seedlings to be outdoors. That, and my brand of gardening means my plants need to be hardy enough to thrive on careful neglect means I don't have the time to baby along new plants.

I do however like to see things grow and I thought in the interests of being scientific and letting the smalls get involved, that we might put a few things in water and watch what happens from the relative cool of my kitchen window sill, where we can easily top up the water as it evaporates.

When avocado prices dropped a few months ago, I was on those little green/black morsels like a pig in mud. Eventually, I got tired of just throwing the seeds into the compost... they take so long to break down so I thought we'd grow one. I admit, I was spurred on by an ad that seems to be appearing regularly on my Facebook page, where someone has invented a sort of floating mini boat to put an avocado seed in and grow. I thought that it seemed a bit ridiculous to need a specific device so I determined to do it armed with nothing more than a tall glass and some toothpicks.

I peeled the avocado seed, then impaled it on a trio of toothpicks and submerged about half of it into a glass of water. A monokuro boo glass as a matter of fact; I love those little black and white pigs! I digress. It took some time, but eventually, we saw progress. This seed has probably been growing for at least 6 weeks, possibly a bit longer.

It has shoots and roots, and the interesting thing in my opinion is that as that shoot grew, it cleaved the seed entirely in half! The only thing holding it together now is the shoot/root structure. I don't know whether it's providing any fuel or its now purely decorative, but it's sure interesting. The kids are more interested in the fact that if they turn the glass around, the shoot will orient itself to point out the window toward the light. I'm debating where to plant it in the garden when it gets big enough. I'm not sure how long avocado trees take to produce fruit but I suspect a long time.

I saved the top of my tiny piney and let it dry out a little after scraping off the bulk of the flesh so that it didn't get smelly. When it was dry, we strategically placed some toothpicks (left over from a cheese tasting from the look of them) to stop it from falling into the jar, and left the bottom part submerged in water. A few weeks later we have tiny roots growing (you can see one at about 7 o'clock in the jar), and the top is getting a bit taller as well. When the root system is better established and the days are less hot, I'll relocate this little baby into the garden. While we likely won't get any fruit for at last two years, rough leaf pineapples are so delicious and the chickens decimated my last bed of pineapples so I'm starting over.

We've also been saving the roots of spring onions and planting those directly in the garden, and re-establishing a sweet potato patch from a sweet potato that was neglected and sprouted in storage. These have gone directly into the soil in the hope that I will again have thriving sweet potato vines to use for cooking (turns out the chickens were huge fans of them as well).

I guess this post demonstrates that I've been growing a lot of things on my kitchen windowsill lately, which is true. In the heat, I've tended toward not cooking as much as possible, so many of our meals have been simple, fast and not very photogenic. Hopefully as summer rolls to a close, I will start posting more food posts!

I'm sending this to Lizzy, of Bizzy Lizzy's Good Things for linking in to her monthly IMK roundup.

How does your garden grow, January 2017

I've had the most glorious gentle beginning to the new year. It's been a very slow pace, and very unstructured. There has been lots of catching up with family, lots of feasting and festivities, and lots of cheer. There has also been plenty of time to potter around the house and garden doing all the little things I always put off during the busy-ness of the year.

I regularly sign up to do courses online as I hate feeling like I'm stagnant and not learning anything new. My most recent course is called Science of Gardening, it's actually a HECS scholarship unit offered by the University of Tasmania, which means that domestic students don't incur any tuition fee or debt for the unit. It actually counts toward the UTAS Bachelor of General Studies, but I'm just taking it for the fun of it (nerd alert!). UTAS often do HECS scholarship units and I find it a good way to keep my brain ticking away.

I'll just steal the explanation about the course and leave it here:

Important and interesting questions for gardeners include why are plants arranged into families, and what features do they share? What are plants made of, and how do they grow? How do seeds know when to germinate, and how does the environment shape the way they grow? What are the crucial factors determining when plants flower and set seed? Why does soil type and nutrients affect plant health? Answers to all these questions and more when you study Science of Gardening.

It's actually a really interesting learning curve for me. It's completely online which is fine, but although it's called the science of gardening, I didn't really think I'd be delving into the chemical composition of soil, admiring the biological cross sections of plants, or re-learning the periodic table and how to recognise deficiencies or toxicities of soil and then diagnose how to correct them.

It's made me look at my garden in a whole new light and consider how I might tweak my gardening practices to make my plants more productive and happy. I appreciate just how much effort these little clumps of cells go to just to end up on my plate!

All that said, here's a peek into my garden right now.

I grew a tiny pineapple and it was delicious, if extremely small (dirty looking Sophie the Giraffe for comparison). It was so sweet and the acid was barely there at all. It was just enough for a morning tea for the smalls and me.

My eggplants are producing prolifically, as they usually do. My soil must be appreciated by eggplants. Although these two are different sizes, the right time to harvest eggplants are when they are plump and glossy. I have taken a batch over to my mother in law's house so that she can use them for Chinese New Year dishes. Yum.

Here is a picture of my sad looking lemon tree. I had an assignment where I had to diagnose citrus deficiencies, which was interesting. As my tree has healthy new growth, and the yellowing is mainly on the older leaves, I suspect magnesium deficiency, which is easily adjusted by watering in some epsom salt. I think there may also be a minor zinc deficiency also, which could be adjusted with a kelp solution spray. It's a sad tree, there is also some leaf miner activity, but it has improved of late, so there is still hope.

The chilli, eggplant, and what I'm 90% sure is a pumpkin are doing well, despite the recent heat. Mr Fork has been putting the water from his fish tank onto my garden when he does water changes, and they seem to appreciate all the fish poo.

One of my assignments also involved testing the ph of my soil. It's something I never really gave much thought to, but now I know that my soil is definitely on the acidic side. I suppose that means I should stop dumping my coffee grounds directly onto the soil and compost them instead. I also need to get some dolomite lime and see if I can raise the ph a bit for happier plants.

Our girls went rogue and built a secret nest under the house where it's lovely and cool. They were sneaky about it, continuing to lay in the regular box too, so I just thought they were slacking off in this heat. It's such a pretty nest, lined with bits of purloined sugar cane from the garden and dried grass. Sneaky things. These will be the last of our eggs as Mr Fork has gotten sick of cleaning chicken poo from the deck and has promised the chickens to a friend who has a large garden, doesn't care about chicken poo and swears not to eat them. I think perhaps it's an unlucky move, especially so close to the Chinese New Year when it switches over to the year of the Rooster, but who am I to come between a man and his BBQ-ing space. Especially when I don't eat eggs myself!

How is your garden growing?

Review: The Swag reuseable produce bags

Recently I've been using something new to keep my fruit and vegetables in. We've never been a family that produces lots of waste, and even if we do, I'm very eco conscious and odds are it will end up being eaten by the dogs or the chickens, or the compost heap will get it. However, I am also conscious of the amount of plastic that is used these days too. It particularly irks me when I see fruit and vegetables pre-wrapped or portioned into plastic containers, and I will deliberately go out of my way to choose to fill my own (reusable) bag with the portion I want to buy.

The Swag is an Australian product for storing produce. It's made of three layers of natural unbleached cotton - the outer layer protects the fruit and veg and stops the water in the middle layer drying up. The middle later absorbs and holds water, but draws moisture away from the inside produce, therefore increasing the storage life. The inner layer is a dry barrier which sits against the produce but allows them to absorb the water and air through the fabric too.

I have them in a few different sizes - the green one is a longer size which is great for things like celery and spring onions. The white one is the large size, and pretty much anything fits in there. The red and blue ones are small bags, and I love that they're colour coded so I can identify individual bags in the fridge.

They're super simple to use, and in fact, the instructions are sewn onto the bag! All you have to do is make sure the swag is a little bit wet, but not dripping. Put the produce in and then store it in your fridge. Make sure the Swag is a bit damp and there you have it! I need to sprinkle them with water every few days but that's not a big deal for me at all.

I don't even have to separate different types of veggies and fruits, in fact, I find it convenient to store all my veggies together, all my fruits together etc. I even use one of the bags to store my potatoes in (but that one lives in the cupboard, not the pantry, and isn't kept damp at all).

I've been using my Swags for a little while now and I love them. Here's some carrots stored in one of the small bags. They're just loose in there, but they're perfectly happy and still crispy and good. I definitely think that these bags are helping to prolong the life of my fresh produce - and actually, my mushrooms are quite happy to be stored in a Swag as well (although like potatoes I don't wet their bag).

I'm very happy to be cutting down on plastic storage bags, saving money by not having to discard food (although the chickens might not agree!). I think it's a great product.

Note that this review is not sponsored, I just love the bags and wanted to show how I keep my fruit and vegetables fresh for longer.
 

How does your garden grow, November 2016

This season I've taken a different approach to my kitchen garden. Instead of planting things out in neat rows and sections, I've decided on more of a laissez-faire strategy. By that, I mean that I'm letting seeds fall where they may. I'm letting things from the compost grow and revelling in the mystery of what comes up. Yes, it's a bit of a lazy approach, but it seems to be working pretty well.

I've got a new crop of chillies fruiting. The original plant was grown from a chilli Mr Fork's father gave me. They've got a great amount of heat, so I love these chillies. The plant is a prolific producer, so I've always got a well stocked freezer supply too. The kids don't tolerate heat as well as their parents do, so spiciness is always something we add at the end of the cooking process to individual portions. It doesn't taste as good in my mind as cooking the heat in, but what can you do? I hope to gradually build their tolerance up so we don't have to prepare quite so many separate meals. You can also see a small section of my chicken proof fence.

Part of my natural approach includes letting my plants with good properties go to seed so that I can save them for later planting (and let some fall where they may as well!). Coriander flowers are so pretty. I have this herb constantly growing as the Queensland heat makes them go to seed so quickly. I like the contrast of white coriander blossoms with purple eggplant flowers.

Speaking of eggplants, my sad plant has perked up with the recent rainy weather. I've got a bumper crop of eggplants. I'm never quite sure when the ideal time to pick them is, but they're a welcome addition to my cooking - such a versatile ingredient.

The weather has made my basil plant very happy. It's started to grow at a very rapid rate and keeps me busy pinching off the flowers so it doesn't go to seed.

I *think* this is some sort of purple basil. Mr Fork's aunt gave me a cutting. I thought I'd killed it but it seems to have come back with a vengeance. We use the leaves when we are making Vietnamese rice paper rolls. I'm not sure what else people use it in, but apparently it's quite hard to grow. It definitely smells and tastes delicious. You can also see my clumping sweet potato in the background. I grow it not for the tubers, but for the leaves which are great in stir fries and similar.

I found a few organic corn seeds left from last year so popped them in garden bed too. They're about six inches high now and looking very happy. There's also some tomato seedlings coming up, I think some lettuce seedlings, and I admit I have no idea at all yet what that round leafed plant in the top left corner underneath the corn is.

The rough leafed pineapple I planted from a leftover top some years ago is fruiting again. I'm quite glad as the chickens ate all the other pineapples I had planted in the garden so this is the last one left. It probably only survived because it was in a pot and it has the most delicious fruit, so I'm looking forward to that, and also having a second top to plant out too. Waste not, want not!

Finally, here are Vanessa and Jemima, greedily eyeing my vegetable patch. Chickens are much messier and destructive than I ever imagined, but they're so useful. They eat my scraps and leftover plants, they do fabulous things for the lawn and give me a great source of fertiliser. My family and neighbours are also grateful for their eggs as well. While not technically in my edible garden, Mr Fork has recently put lots of effort into the lawn and it's lovely to see it looking so lush.

How is your garden growing lately? I'd love to hear tips about when to harvest the perfect eggplant.

What's in my kitchen, August 2016

Although our usual hostess Maureen is not formally hosting the IMK event while she focuses on getting well, I'm still putting up a (late) post. I know that I've let my blog post frequency slip of late, but reading (and writing my own) kitchen posts really is something that I look forward to each month. It seems that the year is just flying by. Where did July go? How is it August already? With that said though, bring on Spring! If I'm honest, the weather in Brisbane has been unseasonably warm for Winter so it's almost as though Spring is here. Some of my colleagues from Melbourne were up recently and they were happily walking around in short sleeves and soaking up the sun while I was shivering in tights and a trench coat. It's what you're used to I guess!

The 'cold' weather has been playing havoc with my sourdoughs lately (hence the lack of posting results online) but I am discovering other things that I can ferment...

In my kitchen is...

The beginnings of kombucha and a weird looking scoby. I recently attended a food fermentation workshop and came away inspired to have a go at making my own kombucha. While I'm a little grossed out at the way scobys look, I can't deny that I like to drink the results, and so I decided to give it a go. The workshop included a bottle of kombucha to take home, so I drank most of it and then used the last of it to start a scoby off. The first picture was taken a few days after I made up the jar of sweet tea, and the second picture is perhaps two weeks later. Probably could have given the jar a clean before I took the photos though...

I have since bottled my first batch, and the second is well on it's way to being ready. I still think it looks horrid, but I can get past that. Mr Fork despairs that I'm taking up significant kitchen bench space with all of my food projects, but I think home made deliciousness is worth it! 

In my kitchen is...

A new dishwasher. Our old one finally just gave up. We couldn't repair it anymore and all of the tweaks and love that Mr Fork tried to give it didn't work either. I think it had a good run - it was in the house when we bought it, and I'd estimate it's age at about 12 years, so that's pretty good for something used with frightening regularity (frightening because we go through an astounding amount of dishes here).

We procrastinated about replacing it as I wasn't sure I really wanted another one, but I'm happy to give up having to hand wash everything (see previous frightening amount of dishes comment), and it's quite exciting to have a new appliance. I'd thought that dishwashers were a standard size, but turns out there are small variations. This one was a mm or so too small for our existing space, but Mr Fork was able to take off part of the top cabinetry to make it fit. It's only obvious from the angle that I've taken this picture from, otherwise you don't see the gap.

In my kitchen is...

Cashew and dill cheese. I'm always excited to support local companies, and Peace Love and Vegetables from Byron Bay tick loads of boxes for me with their ethos, products and general way of doing business sustainably.

I haven't tried many commercial non-dairy cheeses, but this is so dangerously more-ish. It was good as a dip with vegetables, spread on a sandwich and even eaten by the spoonful. It was creamy and just really, really good. It wasn't cheap, so it's not something that I'd have very often, but for a treat and an occasional luxury, it's definitely something I'd get again.

In my kitchen is...

Again from the Peace Love and Vegetables company is a jar of sauerkraut. It was another attendee bonus from the fermentation workshop, and I've been adding it to just about everything in small amounts. It's a mild tasting kraut, and I've not found much that it doesn't go with. It's even quite nice and not too overpowering on it's own. When I've finished this - quite large - jar I'm well convinced that I'd have great fun mashing cabbage and salt about to make my own sauerkraut too. Stay tuned for that adventure :)

In my kitchen is...

A Costco find, a large box of vegan felafel sausages. While it's quite odd to me to have felafel in anything but ball form, I can't deny that it's super handy to have this sort of product on hand. One of the first things that I do after a Costco shop is to divide the large packages into normal portions. These sausages are now packaged in pairs in the freezer. I find them quite tasty - not too dry and certainly flavourful.

They were great for a quick meal of hotdogs one night. Mr Fork had meat dogs, and we made a variety of sides to share - sliced mushrooms fried up, sliced onions just on the cusp of being burnt (Mr Fork's favourite way of eating them), cheese, sauerkraut, tomato sauce, mustard. Everything was put in the middle of the table so that we could all make hot dogs to suit own personal tastes. Dinner win all around!

There is no official link up for the In My Kitchen this month, so I'm just going to throw it out there to all... what's going on in your kitchen this month?