Today is a happy day. I am taking much joy from some very simple things. This morning at the Farmer's Market a nice man gave me a bag of soggy apricots. So now, as I write, I can hear that lovely little breadmaker making me up some apricot jam.
The other day I was musing about how lovely it is to have neighbours and work colleauges with fruit trees and jam making skills. I was gifted jars of freshly made apricot and fig jam for feeding Caroline's doggies for a week, and the biggest hippy gave me some of his WONDERFUL marmelade made with special oranges from Mildura. Each year he makes the trek to Mildura with his beloved to spend Christmas with her family. One of the side benifits of this trek is that he can source the perfect marmelade oranges - and I am quite a fan of perfect marmelade! In exchange, the biggest hippy relishes the duck eggs I frequently gift to him. That the next day, they return to the office in the form of luscious cakes for our morning tea is neither here nor there....
And what better way to indulge in these wonderful jams than to have finally cracked the "how to have fabulous bread when you don't eat wheat" conundrum. The little machine makes sublime wholemeal spelt bread, enriched with olive oil and whey flour, linseeds and sunflower seeds.
My Nanna made jam. As well as a long list of other elegantly frugal delights. I have never bothered because I don't see the point of buying fruit to make jam, and as yet, I don't have the orchard of my dreams. I did make cumquat jam once, but while pretty, cumquats are not my favourite fruit, and they certainly don't make a superior marmelade. The apricots are from a grower near orange. They are a different variety to apricots generally grown aroung ONC*, obvioulsy later - with a very different flavour.
And I feel very close to my Nanna standing at the sink cutting off rotten bits, seeding and chopping. I also feel a bit naughty siting here blogging while the super bread maker stirs the jam - when she would have had to stand at the stove stiring for an hour. I am also cheating by simulataniously sterilising the jam jars in the dishwasher - SHAMLESS. But I don't care! Chances are when we move to a farm next year, there will be no dish washer - and I will have to do it the old fashioned way - or buy a baby bottle steriliser......
And there is not much cuter than a bakers dozen fluffy white chickens squabling over a seriously rotten apricot - silkies are MADE for pottering under orchards - they love soft fruits more than any other chook breed I know. I look forward to that day when the flock can beetle around under an orchard.
* Our Nation's Capital
Showing posts with label farmers markets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers markets. Show all posts
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Where did the week go?
It has been a bit of a whirlwind week down here in ONC
Nice things that happened way back last Sunday included the discovery of the Woden Farmers Market. Being a bit of a traditionalist, I have continued to trek out to the original Farmers Market held at the Showground. This is a whole 18km away. BUT, I can happily say that the newer, smaller Woden Farmers Market is bustling with a small but excellent selection of my favorite growers.
This is such a wonderful development - it means that growers can come to Canberra over the weekend for the 8:00am – 11:00am market on the northside then travel 25km for the Queanbeyan Farmers Market from 1:00pm – 4:00pm, and then turn up for the Sunday morning market at Woden from 9.00am – 12:00am. Very effective use of food miles says I!
What this means for the duck herder is a sleep in and less travel!. LOVE IT!
I love that ONC is large enough to support a thriving bunch of local small growers and farmers.
Here is a little shot of my stash. The organically grown PRINCE EDWARD potatoes are my absolute favorite, and the organic beetroot was sensational. As you can see, I have stocked up on loads of organic free range lamb and organic free range no breeding pen pork mince – yum yum. And the chocolates, well, proceeds from these go directly towards building wells for villages in Africa. How could I refuse? The hydroponic tomatoes are a nutritionally bereft indulgence for Mr Duck Herder.
Other exciting news includes the arrival of my new 1000 liter water tanks. Here is one here, all ready to be hooked up to the overflow of my existing rainwater tanks. This one will be used to fill up the duckpond. They were really cheap – less than $200 each, although Paul the Chaffman and I almost killed ourselves trying to navigate them up through the wilderness to the duckyard. You can see where I had to dismantle the fence to get it into position. I somewhat prematurely made a base for the tank out of an old pallet, not realizing that it has one attached, so this morning when the FROST clears, I will get out and remove the wooden pallet and have the tank just sitting on the grownd.
Speaking of FROST, here is a picture of this morning’s! I bet this makes you miss ONC Sherdie! .
Paul the Chaffman was amazed at the fecundity of our garden, ooohing and aaahing about it looking like a rainforest – quite a feat for drought and frost ravaged ONC me thinks. SoI took this picture to see what other folks think – and I reckon that even with no water, it is amazing what a duck poo powered garden can look like!
Oh, and here is Mr Duck Herder. I will quickly put this up to see if he reads my blog – I am sure he will demand I remove it if he does. But what a cutie – I love him, and I wanted the doubters who know about his slothful ways as a professional athlete to observe that SOMETIMES he does dress up and go to work – even if it is for just an hour or two….
And finally, a small achievement during the Lacuna Sabbath was the pruning of the kiwi vines. What would we do without baling twine?? This will be their fourth spring in the ground, so I am hoping for that first bumper crop - fingers crossed. Total number of kiwi fruit produced to date = 1 (and that was 3 years ago)
And super finally, here is a stupid fluffy chicken photo for Sherd.
seeya!
Nice things that happened way back last Sunday included the discovery of the Woden Farmers Market. Being a bit of a traditionalist, I have continued to trek out to the original Farmers Market held at the Showground. This is a whole 18km away. BUT, I can happily say that the newer, smaller Woden Farmers Market is bustling with a small but excellent selection of my favorite growers.
This is such a wonderful development - it means that growers can come to Canberra over the weekend for the 8:00am – 11:00am market on the northside then travel 25km for the Queanbeyan Farmers Market from 1:00pm – 4:00pm, and then turn up for the Sunday morning market at Woden from 9.00am – 12:00am. Very effective use of food miles says I!
What this means for the duck herder is a sleep in and less travel!. LOVE IT!
I love that ONC is large enough to support a thriving bunch of local small growers and farmers.
Here is a little shot of my stash. The organically grown PRINCE EDWARD potatoes are my absolute favorite, and the organic beetroot was sensational. As you can see, I have stocked up on loads of organic free range lamb and organic free range no breeding pen pork mince – yum yum. And the chocolates, well, proceeds from these go directly towards building wells for villages in Africa. How could I refuse? The hydroponic tomatoes are a nutritionally bereft indulgence for Mr Duck Herder.
Other exciting news includes the arrival of my new 1000 liter water tanks. Here is one here, all ready to be hooked up to the overflow of my existing rainwater tanks. This one will be used to fill up the duckpond. They were really cheap – less than $200 each, although Paul the Chaffman and I almost killed ourselves trying to navigate them up through the wilderness to the duckyard. You can see where I had to dismantle the fence to get it into position. I somewhat prematurely made a base for the tank out of an old pallet, not realizing that it has one attached, so this morning when the FROST clears, I will get out and remove the wooden pallet and have the tank just sitting on the grownd.
Speaking of FROST, here is a picture of this morning’s! I bet this makes you miss ONC Sherdie! .
Paul the Chaffman was amazed at the fecundity of our garden, ooohing and aaahing about it looking like a rainforest – quite a feat for drought and frost ravaged ONC me thinks. SoI took this picture to see what other folks think – and I reckon that even with no water, it is amazing what a duck poo powered garden can look like!
Oh, and here is Mr Duck Herder. I will quickly put this up to see if he reads my blog – I am sure he will demand I remove it if he does. But what a cutie – I love him, and I wanted the doubters who know about his slothful ways as a professional athlete to observe that SOMETIMES he does dress up and go to work – even if it is for just an hour or two….
And finally, a small achievement during the Lacuna Sabbath was the pruning of the kiwi vines. What would we do without baling twine?? This will be their fourth spring in the ground, so I am hoping for that first bumper crop - fingers crossed. Total number of kiwi fruit produced to date = 1 (and that was 3 years ago)
And super finally, here is a stupid fluffy chicken photo for Sherd.
seeya!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
ONC Farmers Market
Most Saturday mornings start with a quick cuddle and tea in bed, followed by a dash to the Canberra Region Farmers Market. We are very lucky here in ONC*, with a wonderful weekly farmers market that attracts two huge pavilions full of growers from a 200kmish radius. Even more happily, around 3000 ONCish folk travel past numerous supermarkets each week to relish in the wonderful experience of buying the freshest, tastiest food and meeting the folk who grow it.
Yup, between 8.00am and 11:00am, its all on at the Canberra Showground. Sometimes I go with a friend, sometimes I meet up with my sister or mum and dad for a coffee but today I had to go early and get back so that Mr Duck Herder could take the car to do the Googong Half Marathon.
Today I bought some lovely King Edward potatoes from some folks who farm out at Murrumbateman. Here is a picture of their stall. The other picture is of half the farmers market, from a distance.
Yup, between 8.00am and 11:00am, its all on at the Canberra Showground. Sometimes I go with a friend, sometimes I meet up with my sister or mum and dad for a coffee but today I had to go early and get back so that Mr Duck Herder could take the car to do the Googong Half Marathon.
Today I bought some lovely King Edward potatoes from some folks who farm out at Murrumbateman. Here is a picture of their stall. The other picture is of half the farmers market, from a distance.
Other purchases included restocking on Olive Oil. The olive oil folks are also from Murrumbateman. They sell lovely reusable 1 liter bottles of cold pressed olive oil. A quick wash out with hot water and bi-carb and we are ready to go again! It is lovely oil – they usually have between 2 and 3 varieties to choose from, all cold pressed and grown without pesticides or artificial fertilizers.
Really we don’t need to buy many veggies – most of what we need is here. The main reason I go is for the meat – beautiful, free range pork from happy pigs, organic lamb from a lovely family farm up at Ando, and salt bush lamb from the western slopes. Oh, and oranges.
Well, that’s it really! Time to get out side and potter about in the garden. Joe just rang – he is coming to pick up Byron tomorrow morning to do the Hall Markets. We love Byron! And it is unusual to have a chicken that is gainfully employed to sell chicken runs!
*Our Nation's Capital
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