Slow Living in October

Join me as I share the days of October with you, as we lived them in our house on the hill.

This post is inspired by Slow Living Essentials

NOURISH

What better way to nourish the body and soul is there than sharing breakfast with visiting loved ones on the mountain above the farm with views over the Caledon River and into Lesotho.

Extra thick flapjacks served with farm yoghurt, walnuts, honey and last summer's fruit preserves are best eaten out of doors.

Spring treasures: jewels of luscious strawberries and tangy rhubarb wands combine with Rosie's cream into a delectable ice cream. October saw us flavouring and freezing her thick yellow cream into all sorts of spring flavoured ice creams.

Other spring garden delights have graced our table... from broad beans and asparagus to spinach, rocket, coriander, and a few cherries too. The leeks are flowering faster than we can eat them, and the last of winter's potatoes have been turned into many meals this month.

PREPARE
My niece's helping hands have prepared butter for our market croissants.

She learned the dairy dance during her two week visit here. We use a lot of butter in our sweet pastries, so whenever there is surplus cream around, it is churned into golden blocks which I then freeze.

Rocket took over in our vegetable tunnel until I cut most of it down and turned it into rocket pesto with toasted almonds, garlic, rocket leaves, olive oil, salt and mature cheddar cheese.

I am excited to announce the tasting of my first camembert. It was a bit underripe, but amazingly, tasted like camembert. Most of the stockpiling around here is in the form of cheese in many of its guises.

We also have some scary looking blue cheeses on their way.

Grant is experimenting with our first twenty liter batch of beer. Home brewing can be very rewarding. A friend of ours makes beer that is absolutely delicious. I am keen to try a bit of wine making in the near future too.

REDUCE / RE-USE / RECYCLE
Leftover soap scraps and the off cuts from soap making are too precious to lose, so I gather them up into an organza bag and tie it closed. This makes an excellent shower scrubby.

GREEN
I keep buying beer with the intention of making snail traps in the veggie tunnel, but, alas, it hasn't made it out of the house yet.
Soap making has been on my to-do list for the whole month, but the cheese monster has stolen my time.

GROW
This is what happens when you feed surplus whey to your roses.

Our vegetable tunnel is flourishing in the warmth of Spring. In my enthusiasm I have filled seed trays with so many seeds, that the emerging seedlings have nowhere to go. Grant is making a plan to extend our vegetable garden.

CREATE
I spent one precious afternoon sewing this month, and then paid the price with pain in my neck for the following few days. I managed to make a whirlwind block, this patchwork cushion and a quilted gift which cannot be revealed in case the recipient sees it here.

I forgot to show you September's cow cushion. I love the fabric and hope to make another one.

Each patchwork cushion was made from four blocks of the basic double-four patch, just arranged differently. I have treated myself to a quilting course subscription where I receive the template and instructions for a new quilting block each week. 

DISCOVER

Look what I discovered in the field.

My mind has been out in the garden with all the sap rising, so my turn-to books for October have been The New Self Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour and Jane's Delicious Garden by Jane Griffiths. Both of these books are wonderful practical resources for vegetable gardening at its best. The latter is written specifically for South Africa which saves a lot of mental month skipping when planning perfect sowing and harvesting times.

ENHANCE
We shared a delightful poetry tea with some special friends. Each person read some of their favourite poems while enjoying a cup of tea and some delicious bakes.

We also hosted a home schoolers picnic. A few home schooling families came and the picnic ended up on our verandah followed by a stroll in the nearby poplar forest.

ENJOY
October was definitely family month. My mum came to visit. While she was here, my brother and his little family came, then the following week my niece flew up from Cape Town. What a spoiling to have  time with our loved ones. The gorgeous weather called us outdoors for hikes, swims in the dam and picnics.

Heart to heart time while enjoying the view.

Our first swim in the dam was enhanced by sharing it with our family.

The girls found this farm oven - anthill hollowed out by an aardvark.

 Holly, the sweet Rhodesian Ridgeback stayed with us for a week. She fitted in perfectly with our three dogs, joining us on our walks.

My farm friend and I are hoping to start exercising together again. I so enjoyed our first long walk.

Slow Living in May

The past month has heralded the arrival of frosty mornings and icy nights. The frost-bleached grasses cover the landscape in a golden cape. Orange berry bushes provide bright accents of colour along the bleak roadside. As autumn makes way for winter, our daily routines adjust too. Join me as I reflect on the month of May, inspired by Slow Living Essentials

Nourish:

There has been much busyness in the kitchen lately. I have been making a lot of different soups this month. They make great lunches. I always make more than we need and freeze half for another meal. Brassicas are on the menu again as they are currently being harvested on the farm. Our cow is in full milk production without a calf to share the flow, so in the past two weeks, we have been eating more dairy products than ever. In the last week I have made feta, ricotta, halloumi, gouda cheese, ice-cream, butter, mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella, buttermilk bread and yoghurt. Milking is usually my children's job, but even Dad has been roped in on the odd occasion to help with the milking.

I found a fantastic recipe for  a quick pastry, perfect for venison pies...or any other filling... Cream together 200g cream cheese, 200g butter and then mix in 2 c flour. Roll it in a ball. Chill for 30 min. Roll out, cut and fill pastry. Seal and glaze with a beaten egg. Bake at 200 degrees C until golden. So simple and delicious.

My son enjoys cooking. He baked hot cross buns for a friend's birthday.

He takes after his dad who has become such a pro baker, producing top quality pizza bases, loaves of  yeast bread and rolls so regularly that I hardly have to bake bread anymore.

Prepare:

The last of the apple harvest has been turned into dried apple rings. Our clear, dry winter days are perfect for drying fruit. Dried apples are lovely chopped into muesli or eaten on their own as a snack. I also have racks of herbs, thyme, rosemary and sage, drying in preparation for bottling.

Some of the cheeses that I have made will only be ready in a few months time. I have bottled feta, maturing for a couple of months in brine. The picture below shows the curds in two moulds, draining off the whey. 

 Here is undyed gouda cheese, fresh off the press, waiting to be cut into two rounds for brining for 24 hours and then maturing for a few months.

I think my most exciting stockpile is this bottle of halloumi cheese. Although, judging by its popularity, it might not last us very long.

Reduce, Re-use:

In an attempt to reduce veterinary expenses, I have overcome my fear and learned to give injections to my cow myself. My husband and son have also re-used pencils in an innovative way. On separate occasions two of our hens were stepped on by a cow and broke their leg, so they devised effective splints for them, using the said pencils.

We re-use all our teabags by drying them in front of the fire, soaking them in paraffin and using them as firelighters. We also re-use our coffee grounds, scattering them at the base of broad beans and roses to discourage ants from bringing aphids. All the cheese making produced more whey than I could handle. After using it to make ricotta,  I use it in soups, baking and to feed the dogs and chickens and my garden. The surplus whey has found a very eager recipient. There is a pig in the staff village up the road who gulps it down in a minute, squealing loudly whenever it sees us arrive with more buckets. 

Grow:

Our vegetable garden is looking rather bare. The asparagus and rhubarb are all mulched into their winter beds after being frosted. All the frosted beans, tomatoes, marrows, cucumbers, peppers, and brinjals have been pulled out and the last fruits eaten or preserved. The current stalwarts are the last turnips, some leeks, cabbages, cauliflower, onions, spinach and rocket. As the grazing frosts over, we are hoping for rain to irrigate the field of oats growing next to our home - winter grazing for our animals. The oats that I sowed in our tunnel as green manure is flourishing in comparison. 

Create:

My clever husband has been creating lovely saddle racks for storing tack indoors after our last lot were stolen from the outdoor tack room. I love the vertical use of space.

I made and sold beeswax, olive oil and honey lip balm along with April's soaps at the May farmers craft market.

My cream cheeses were sold out. I am hoping to create a name for myself as the local cheese lady.

Discover:

I am devouring Ricki Carroll's book, Home Cheese Making, and learning so much as I apply the new skills to the buckets of milk s they enter our kitchen. Her website is a great resource for cheese makers too.

Enhance:

The only community enhancement that I managed this month was to help in fattening up the local community pig. Oh yes, we also helped babysit my friend's six children. 

Enjoy:

We are so enjoying the horses... Saturday morning rides with my man, my son setting up jumps in the field and Sundance behaving like a dream, training Omega, exhilarating father and son outrides, nuzzling soft noses looking for apples and affection. Thanks to a wonderful kindness shown to us after a burglary that cleaned out our horse gear, we have tack again and are able to enjoy riding again. I love watching them doze in the early morning sunshine, warming up after chilly nights. 

Brilliant Bread Recipe

 Every now and then I plan to post a BACK TO BASICS recipe. These standby recipes give stretch to my Elastic Mom lifestyle.

I live too far from the shops to buy fresh bread regularly and so on most days I bake a hot, steaming loaf of bread for lunch. Lately, due to frosty weather, our daily bread has frequently been seen gracing the table alongside fragrant bowls of soup. My current favourite bread recipe is so easy and quick to make, and best of all, it is versatile. I vary the ingredients daily, just ensuring that I follow the basic pattern of ingredients. Baking this bread uses up all the odd jugs and jars of dairy products that are lurking in the fridge. I make my own butter and yoghurt, so often have buttermilk and whey, but you can use any milky thing really.


So, here it is:

BRILLIANT BREAD
Turn your oven on to 180 degrees celsius (350 deg. F) - your dough will be ready to pop in the oven before the bread heats up.
Grease a loaf tin. I keep a little oil and a pastry brush in a mug the fridge for quick tin-oiling.
Grab two bowls - one for the wet stuff and one for the dry stuff.

In the dry bowl, stir together :
31/2 cups flour - any combinations of flours will work. (Today it was white bread flour, yesterday it was half white flour and half freshly ground wheat. Just use whatever you have)
1 t salt
1 t bicarbonate of soda (or if using self raising flour, leave this out)
Now add your special ingredient of the day (see below)

In the WET bowl, whisk together:
2 cups yoghurt, or a bit of yoghurt and the rest milk, or buttermilk, or whey, or sour milk, or milk with a bit of lemon juice added to make it sour. (It needs to be sour to react with the bicarb ... to make bubbles ... to make your bread rise.)
2  dollops of honey, or sugar, or syrup. We keep bees, so I dollop the honey from two table spoons.

Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff. Stir quickly, and spread evenly into the greased loaf tin.
Bake for roughly an hour.

That's it!

Easy-peasy-puttsticks!

Oh yes, if you forget to make it in time for an hour of baking before lunch, (as I did this week) just spoon the dough into a muffin pan and your muffin shaped bread rolls will bake in half the time.

OK, now for those SPECIAL INGREDIENTS. This is what makes your bread brilliant, and keeps your family enjoying the same bread every day. I vary this part according to whatever I have plenty of in the house, or whatever needs using up, or whatever I am in the mood for.

Today I chose to add a handful each of wheat bran and raisins.

Here are some other ideas:
- grated cheese and mixed herbs
- assorted seeds.... sunflower, sesame, poppy, linseed etc.
- grated apple and chopped walnuts
- half a teaspoon of ground cumin or coriander
- crushed garlic and some rosemary
- olives
-sun-dried tomatoes and fresh herbs



Use your imagination and have fun.

The Dairy Dance

My children run over to collect a bucket of milk, and the Dairy Dance begins. The sequence of the steps depend on my mood, but the dance is choreographed to use every last drop of the milky goodness. My Elastic Mom philosophy of USE IT, DON'T LOSE IT is all about milking every lost drop from my resources. This time it is literally milking the milk. 

 We are blessed with buckets of creamy unpasteurized, unhomogenized jersey milk. When a fresh bucket arrives, I stand it in the fridge for a few hours to allow the cream to rise to the top. Them I skim off the CREAM to use for butter, whipped cream or ice-cream.

Butter is so easy to make, even without a churn. It took me a year of farm living to even give it a try. Now I wonder why i waited so long.

Here's how I make BUTTER:

1.  Beat the cream in a food processor until it forms tiny yellow globules floating in a whitish fluid, buttermilk.

2. Press the globules together with a wooden spoon, and pour off the buttermilk. A bit of ice in the bowl helps the butter to stay in a lump.

3. Work the butter on a wooden board with a wooden spoon. Press out every last drop of buttermilk which can make it go rancid. Rinse repeatedly under a running cold tap.

4. Add a pinch of salt. Then press into a dish and refrigerate your butter. 

As for the BUTTERMILK, I USE IT within a day. I doesn't keep well. It is delicious in baked goods, such as buttermilk rusks, flapjacks, bread and whatever you like. 

Then there is ice-cream. My generous husband gave me an ice-cream machine for my birthday. 

Here's how I make ICE-CREAM:

1. In the morning - Make an egg custard on the stovetop with milk and/or cream.

2. Stir the cooled custard into some fresh cream along with pureed fruit or your favourite flavouring.

3. Chill the mixture all day.

4. Pour the well chilled mixture into the ice-cream machine, and run it for around half an hour while you are eating dinner. Serve the soft ice-cream immediately and hope there is enough leftover to keep some in the freezer. 

If you don't have an ice-cream machine, then freeze the mixture, beating the crystals down every so often while it is solidifying.

Now that just about completes the the cream part of the dance. If it happens to go sour before I can use it, then it goes into my baking, or into a pasta sauce. I make sure not to LOSE IT.

Next it's the MILK. I use it in white sauce, porridge, puddings, smoothies, and in baking too. But the best of all is when my husband makes me a creamy cuppachino with that morning's milk. Hot and frothy foam, sprinkled with cocoa, floating on delicious espresso... mmmm

I make yoghurt with the milk too. It is also really so easy to make, and I wonder why I found the concept rather daunting. 

Here's how I make YOGHURT:
1. Heat the required amount of milk to just below boiling point.
2. Cool the milk to blood temperature. Test it on your wrist, like a baby's bottle.
3. Pour the warm milk into a clean jar, or jars, over a dollop of live yoghurt, from a previous batch, or from the shops to get you going.
4. Keep the jar warm overnight. I have a small warmer, but you could use an insulated box wrapped in towels, or a thermos flask. I have even heard of using a crock pot on its lowest setting.
5. Chill and serve with honey, fresh fruit, or your flavouring of choice.

Then there's my 'CREAM CHEESE':
1. Simply suspend some yoghurt in  muslin / cheesecloth / hessian / clean tea towel over a bowl.
2. Leave it for a good few hours. The contents of your 'bag' become the 'cream cheese', and the WHEY collects in the bowl underneath.

WHEY is protein-rich  and good for us, and so to USE IT, and not LOSE IT, it goes into soups, breads or sauces.

And those are the basic steps of my dairy dance. It is a dance of thankfulness for food on our table, and happy satisfied tummies and taste buds.