I must admit that I am not at all phased about this self isolating stuff. Milking cows for 30 years certainly trained us up in the art of staying at home and not going anywhere.....especially in the middle of calving season when you were lucky if you had the time to get to Simpson and back!
Country people are also used to only doing the grocery shopping once a fortnight, and keeping our pantry well stocked just in case you couldn't get in to town. Since leaving the dairy farm 5.5 years ago....yes it's been that long since I last milked a cow.....we have really concentrated on becoming more self sufficient on our 3 acres. Many of you know that we grow a mountain of fruit and vegetables every year, which we use and sometimes store or freeze for use over the off season months. Some years are better than others.....this year hasn't been great for tomatoes, but we still have some in the freezer from last season, and have our fingers crossed that the best looking plants that we have had in years, will still give us some fruit. Our stock of tomato sauce, passata and relish is getting low and really needs to be replenished. The beans and cucumbers are now all finished, and the peas are also done. We have about 150 x 1 cup bags in the freezer, which will be well and truly enough to see us through....especially as 40 bags were from the year before! To say that Russell was just a tad over podding peas is an understatement.....lol!
The carrots and parsnips will last in the ground until August, just can't get them to last any longer before they bolt to seed. The pumpkins are still growing and we waiting on the weather to change before we harvest them, although we did pick some a few weeks ago for the Retreat.
The spring onions are looking good; and I'm still getting the odd zucchini off my bushes. However, the brussell sprouts have been attacked by cabbage moth, so I doubt that they will amount to anything (sad face by me, happy face from Russell.....lol!). The capsicums and chillis are another casualty of the milder Summer weather we have experienced here, and are still green and need more hot weather to turn red - but as they are destined for the freezer it's not really a problem.
The golden shallots are already dried and in storage; and we still have 2 sweet potatoes left from our harvest last May........this season's crop is still growing in the hot house. My strawberry patch is in need of a good overhaul, but still produced well this year, and with about 50 bags still in the freezer, I should have enough to see me through.
Like my strawberries, my raspberries are in need of some cleaning up, but they have recently decided to flower again and are starting to produce a second crop of fruit.
My Red Razz rhubarb needs a little tlc........well mainly watering. It's a little out of the way so I need to change that. I am still hoping that the watermelons and canteloupe might ripen before the weather turns too cold, and that the newly planted lime tree will provide some limes to go with the mint for mojitos next summer. My lemon tree continues to grow, although our windy winter weather tends not to be too kind to it.
With the erection of my Total Harvest Protection orchard cover last November, I have an abundance of apples this season to select from. The early Gravensteins are almost finished, with just a few last ones holding to the tree. My favourite eating apple, the Cox's Orange Pippin are almost ready.....I have managed to pick a few ripe ones to eat. The Golden Delicious has a very light crop this year, but the Jonathon is quite laden with fruit. The other varieties that I have include: Jonagold (we had one of these at the farm and it was such a reliable cropper) Fenouillet Gris (just because I wanted something different); Snow Apple (because my Grandad had one); Alexander (my Grandad's name was Alexander); Democrat Black (it's a very late apple); Pine Golden Pippin (Peter Cundall's favourite apple); Ribston Pippin (it's Cox's Orange Pippin's mum..... or is that dad?); Sturmer (very late apple, keeps well, not very attractive....so I felt sorry for it!); Tydemans Early Worcester (another early apple so the Gravensteins weren't lonely); Ida Red (it was a freebie); Lord Lambourne (self pollinating); Hubbardston None Such (a good all rounder and I like silly names....lol!); Magnus Summer Surprise x 2 (a brand new variety.....I love the pink flesh of this apple); and my beautiful Crab Gorgeous (the best crab apple variety......and this year I will be able to make Crab Apple Jelly again!). After not having any apples last year....damn Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos, we are looking forward to making lots of apple pies for the freezer (usually about 20), as well as containers of stewed apples to use later on.
With the meat in the freezer getting low, we decided a few weeks ago that it was time to get our last beefie done. Whenever we have had home kill done, I always do a lot of cooking and freezing while the meat is fresh, and then meal times are so much easier to plan. This came from our days on the farm, especially in winter when you would get in late from the dairy, and after working all day, milking and feeding calves, it was nice just to grab something from the freezer. So on Thursday I set about and made 9 large meat pies.....yes I make my own pastry.......lucky I always have lots of flour on hand!
Followed that afternoon with two trays of lasanga. On Friday it was the sausage mince's turn.......120 sausage rolls.......I don't make puff pastry though........less a few for lunch...
and 8 meatloaves, all mixed and frozen.........ready to defrost and cook.
So the four freezers....yes we have 4 freezers.....are almost full. We have meat, fruit, vegetables, preserves, sauces and even eggs from our girls. One of our hens hatched out 11 chickens three weeks ago, and by the way a few of them are facing up to one another, we may just have rooster for the freezer as well in a few months. They may be cute now but if they start crowing at 2am that will be a different story!
Yesterday Russell started on the beverage side of our self sufficiency journey. He managed to net one row of trees in his orchard, and on Thursday he bought himself a 150 litre fermentation vat.
He spent the day washing, pulping and pressing his crop of Bulmer's Norman apples.
He eventually had enough juice to fill his vat (after I took this photo).
It will be quite a few weeks before this is ready for 'testing', and hopefully his 2020 brew will be a good vintage!
Apart from the basics of flour, sugar, milk and bread......we should be right. Oh and chocolate......and toilet paper.....lol!
Take care and stay safe everyone!
Linda :)
PS. If you would like to know more about the different varieties of apples that I mentioned, click on the highlighted names and it will take you through to the Woodbridge Trees website. We have bought many trees from them and they are brilliant to deal with. Not just apple trees either, but all fruit trees. I also have cherries, mulberries, plums and nectarine from them.