Ruby Tuesday – Page 4 – Head in the Clouds

Ruby Tuesday – “Oops, We Cooked the Wrong Chook”

When I am writing down various “Ruby Stories” I feel sad I can’t get into a time machine with my camera and snap some photos of the people, places and events that she talks about. To have a photo of the Chinaman who delivered vegetables by horse and cart to the more remote farms, or capture an image of ‘Toddler Margie’ being wheeled down to the blackberry patch in a barrow, because Ruby had a taste for blackberry pie that night, and the path was no place for a proper pram!

So as I tell tonight’s story, I’ll just have to run a tandem picture story of the current events in Ruby’s garden!

Huge heads of broccoli!! I am so envious!

When Ruby was about 14 years old, the property they lived on had (among other things) around 50 chickens. There were always hens and young roosters, plus plenty of chicks. Eggs were plentiful, and a fresh chicken dinner was a much welcomed change from corned meat.

Remember – no fridge to store meat for longer periods of time like we enjoy today!

Do not pull up your broccoli when you harvest the main head. Side shoots will keep growing that you can break off. That can last you all winter!

At this particular time, Ruby’s Granny had fallen ill, and Ruby’s mother made the trip over the water (to Melbourne) to take care of her for a short while.

Well, Sunday rolled around, Mum wasn’t home and the usual roast chicken dinner was in danger of not happening because Ruby’s father was much to busy to sort that kind of thing out. The kids (Ruby, her sister and two brothers) were not keen on missing out on their fresh roasted chicken dinner.

They convinced their father that they could do it because “they knew everything” (don’t we all at 14 years old?)

Healthy patch of broad beans – they self seeded, so they have been left to do their thing

So between a visiting girlfriend of Ruby’s and the two boys, they ran down a fat healthy rooster, dispatched, plucked and cleaned – just as they saw their mother do!

Unfortunately at this point Ruby realised that she didn’t know how to do the stuffing and came to the conclusion that you can’t actually bake a chook if it didn’t have stuffing!

Hothouse tomato – a winter experiment. So far they are looking really happy!

Enter plan B.

Boil Chicken.

They knew enough to put some vegies in the pot with the chicken – some onion & carrots.

Ruby’s dad got in and checked on progress – only to find wheat floating around in the water with the chicken & vegetables! “What did you put in it??”

Turned out, even though they did a great job of cleaning the bird, they didn’t take the crop out so the unfortunate chickens last breakfast was now floating in Sunday’s dinner.

Big beautiful pumpkins stored all around the shed

Ruby can’t recollect how her Dad saved Sunday dinner – she suspects he threw out the water and started again.

Things were totally fine until her mother returned from Melbourne and couldn’t seem to locate her recently purchased prize breeding rooster!!!!

There were scolding’s all around, but most of the heat was taken by her father for not supervising the children well enough!!

Apparently they were not popular!!

Dug a bunch of my brassicas to plant at Ruby’s

Ruby said even she could see these plants! They were a bit further along than she expected.

I wondered what they did with all the eggs. 50 chickens really means a lot of spare eggs, and because all the nearby farms had their own poultry as well, you couldn’t give or sell them to your neighbours.

Apparently, once motor vehicles were a bit more common, a fellow with a truck did the rounds of the out of town properties with groceries. You could make an order with him and he would deliver to your door. At the same time you could offload all your excess eggs as well – which would reduce your grocery bill

Ruby is off to put the kettle on so we can sit in the warm and have a cuppa

It was the job of the kids, of course, to collect the eggs.

After school, eggs needed collecting, someone needed to gather the ‘morning sticks’ (kindling to start the fire the next morning) and someone needed to bring the cow in.

Bringing in the cow really was the most sought after job because you got to ride the pony!! A few sibling squabbles took place over this, even though they were meant to take turns. Really – some things never change no matter what decade we live in!

Protea – Bill’s (Ruby’s first husband) favourite plant in the garden

I enjoyed my cuppa with Ruby and writing the story down – she had a real chuckle when I told her I wanted the story of cooking the wrong chook!

I left her in her warm lounge room with her knitting

Cheers

Nearly winter, but a nice bright afternoon. Ruby with her garden stretching behind.

Ruby Tuesday – Fun With Newspaper

Ruby reflecting on the daily use of newspapers in earlier years

Righto! I am speed-blogging at the moment as my super-amazing-high-speed-NBN-internet connection keeps going doo-lally on me. I may or may not get this done.

Something I was talking about with Ruby the other week got my attention. When I was talking to her about things you could buy when she was young & the amenities they had, I asked what toilet paper was like (because you have to know don’t you??)

The answer?

“What toilet paper?” (There was a Ruby-Grin attached to the answer I might add)

It got me thinking a little about newspaper and its uses.

The old newspapers were cut up into roughly the size shown above and placed on a shelf in the dunny (loo – toilet – bathroom). I think I am inadvertently cringing on behalf of my bottom thinking about this. I did ask if it wasn’t a bit rough – however “That’s all you knew” so I guess they had tougher nether regions in the olden days!

The toilet was outside. Apparently there were two side by side toilets… one for adults and one for little kids. The theory was it was easier to do whatever business you had to do if your feet could be firmly planted on the ground.

There was a pan at the back that was removed and contents taken and buried. Not too far away – the less distance travelled with the contents the happier everyone felt (No-one wants to trip with a full pan do they?)

Anyway… to digress a little… I was getting right in depth on the whole newspaper thing when one of our MP’s turned up at the door to say hello. Local fellow, Brett Whitely. Doing the door knock meet & greet. (An election coming up here for those of you non-Australian readers, although I promise you, the lead up to us choosing our new Prime Minister is not half as entertaining as the lead up to the USA Presidential Race!)

Nice fellow and we enjoyed a chat plus he was good enough to stay a bit longer and answer one or two questions I had regarding some policies, so that was good!

Mr Whitely had noticed the paperwork coming through for Ruby’s upcoming 100th birthday. You get all sorts of grand birthday wishes when you turn 100! Like from the Queen for instance!!

Anyway, back to newspaper.

I am starting to use it for more things around the house. Jeff sometimes gets a nice big bag full from a workmate whose son has a paper round – the extra’s accumulate and we especially use the newspaper over winter starting the fire.

Using just the fire ash and water with a wad of newspaper, you can easily clean up the glass door of the heater.

(There was an overnight hiatus between the photos above and now. Internet came on briefly then crashed, hence Ruby Tuesday now being Ruby Wednesday)

Newspaper was the material of choice when it came to cleaning.

Cut lunches were wrapped in newspaper to take to work or school

Wrapping & packaging – it was newspaper all the way.

A visit to the butchers in earlier days would mean your meat wrapped in many many layers of newspaper to absorb the blood/juice. No plastic or ice bricks to transport it home either. (and if you had a 10 mile journey via horse and cart its possibly you didn’t get much more than sausages, just to be on the safe side. Especially in summer!)

Draw liners were a must with newspaper

The newsprint was considered hygienic – I have read a little about its ‘almost sterile properties’ (more research required)

Shelf liners too were a ‘thing’. Not only were the shelves lined, but some of the newspaper would overhang the edge, and the housewives would scallop the edges or create other fancy patterns.

My efforts really look a bit dodgy, and with a curvy mantle, I don’t think I have mastered the proper effect!! 😀

Of course, school would be no fun at the end of the year if you weren’t making miles of paper chains from newspapers to decorate for Christmas!

If you missed the earlier post you can read here how to make these nifty origami bins – once full you can compost the lot if it has food scraps.

I also once wrapped all my Christmas presents in newspaper with the addition of a fancy ribbon.

I have changed the toilet roll, just for fun. So far I haven’t had a reaction from Jeff…

If you get stuck, at least there is some good reading at hand

Hope your day is great!

Let me know if you make specific use of your newspapers & how.

Cheers

PS – I plan to go help Ruby make some lemon butter. It’s not only ticked in her recipe book but has the additional “Good” penned in, so I am expecting grand things!

Ruby Tuesday – Chocolate Apple Cake

As I dashed into see Ruby this afternoon the weather had gone from on again-off again sun to completely off along with a drenching downpour, and icy winds just to round things off!

I found Ruby in her lounge room, rugged up with the heater on knitting, as cosy as could be!

I didn’t stop for a cuppa today – just caught up on news of her weekend travels with Margie as they visited several friends & overnighted with family in a posh rental house! 🙂

I promised you the Chocolate/Apple cake recipe, and Margie was kind enough to write it out for me! I think I will have to cook this tomorrow. The weather isn’t going to let up its current behaviour, so will be stuck with indoor tasks.

Chocolate Apple Cake

4oz butter (125gm)

1 cup sugar

1lb apples (cooked) (500gm)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

4oz plain flour (125gm)(all purpose flour)

2 tablespoon cocoa

1 cup Self Raising Flour (self rising flour of course)

1 level teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)

Seriously!! Translating English into English!!

Anyway –

Cook apples with a little water until soft

Sift cocoa & flours together

Cream butter and sugar (Apparently Ruby pops the butter and sugar in the oven as it begins heating to soften it for easy beating)

Add vanilla essence

Stir the bicarb soda into the apples and while all is ‘frizzling’ (A Ruby word) add creamed butter and sugar. Beat well.

Add half of the flour mixture at a time, beating well.

Put in 8″ sq tin (or equiv.) and cook at 180C (350F) until cooked. (Skewer test)

I’ll let you know tomorrow if I can do one as well as Ruby can! (Doubtful)

Have a great day & if you want to see my salvia dancing in the wind, head on over to facebook to see my dodgy time-lapse efforts!

Cheers – I am heading back to my fire! Its a bit icy this evening! The weather page says its 7.9C (46F) but they also add that it feels like 1.9C (35F) I won’t disagree! I am totally going to turn on my electric blanket too! 😀

Ruby Tuesday – Knitting & Reminiscing

I love turning up five minutes after Ruby & Margie have had a baking afternoon!! Poor Ruby. I didn’t let her cut that beautiful cake until I had gotten the photo I wanted so I could share it here 🙂

The weather has been continually filthy. Although I won’t complain about the rain – we needed it badly. We woke to no power for a few hours this morning – so I went on my walk. It must have been a wild and woolly night as there were branches and bark strewn everywhere and I counted 16 trees down across the pathway, or nearby.

Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift, and Mana & I mostly knitted. In the end we decided to pop over and see Ruby & Margie, have a cuppa, hear some stories and brush up on our crocheting skills.

While Margie taught Mana the basics of crochet, I sat with Ruby on the couch and asked about her early life in Natone – about 10 miles from Burnie, the ‘major’ town.

Even though your nearest neighbours were a mile away, people helped one another. If someone did a beast, all would often share. Meat that wasn’t consumed within a certain time had to be salted or kept in brine. It was better if people took turns to provide fresh meat.

The post was delivered to the shop about a mile from the house. Whoever went up to the shop collected all the post and left it in a box that was set up outside Ruby’s family farm. It saved a lot of people a long walk in a hilly area. Not many used bikes, the horses were mainly work horses & there were no cars.

Ruby’s father was the first to own a car in that district.

He had a large wagon (they called it a truck) a big flat affair that was about 5mt in length. He would load it up with produce (usually potatoes) and drive the horses into Burnie, where the produce would be put on the ship and sent to the mainland.

It was an all day trip – he mostly walked to spare the 3 or 4 horses that pulled the load.

On one of these trips in about 1924, Ruby’s Dad met a car salesman. The salesman offered him a car, and Ruby’s Dad said, I would buy one if I could drive it! The reply was “I’ll have you driving by this afternoon”

Would you believe it, he was! Got his licence that afternoon as well from the police station and drove it home!! Ruby, who was 8 at the time, said they couldn’t believe their eyes!! She can’t remember who brought the horses and wagon home!

Despite Ruby’s almost total lack of sight, she continues to knit. Bright colours on grey needles help.

The cooler, darker (& decidedly wetter) weather will prevent a lot of time in her beloved garden, so she really needs something to be doing. She is not going to let a little lack of vision stand in her way!

Ruby is not happy ‘sitting around being a useless old woman’ Creating something, growing something, helping someone. It keeps her young!

These strips, Margie will sew into rugs when done, and very smartly, Ruby has three on the go at once. So that way if she makes a mistake on one, it can be put aside for Margie to sort out in the morning, and another one picked up to continue knitting!

Mana leaves us in a couple of days, so its nice to have some family snaps (& cake) before she heads off to the Big Smoke (er – Melbourne)

And the cake was good – better than good. I was so engrossed in eating it, writing stories & relearning my crochet that I forgot to get the recipe! I will have to make Note To Self and post it at a later date (it had a pound of apples in it!!!!)

Have a super day!

Cheers

Ruby Tuesday – On Wednesday!!

Flowers from Ruby’s garden for us to take home! Lucky!!

So what do you take with you when you visit your 99 year old Aunt? Flowers? Cake? Sweets?

I once brought Ruby a bucket of worms and she was so excited (her sandy soil doesn’t have the worm population our red soil has). She immediately dragged me & my bucket of worms all over the garden with a little spade to bury them here and there!! 😀

Today Mana & I brought a trailer load of seaweed. Nothing says love like fresh seaweed hey?

I did promise Mana some beach time today, but she probably hadn’t thought she would be stuffing and lugging multiple feed bags full of seaweed around the neighbourhood!

East Wynyard Beach quite often has lovely big piles of grassy seaweed that I like to use as mulch. You just pick a spot to park with beach access –

By the look of those pavers I bet the locals just walk over with their wheelbarrows!

Probably better at low tide, but we were out with the trailer, so I thought we might as well fill it again with something

Not much beach today – I think we managed to time it for the highest of high tides! 🙂

We got our feet wet a couple of times as we filled our bags

working – yes, but at least the view is great!

The sea was really choppy today

Once we had all our bags chokkas, we dragged them up to the car and headed to Ruby’s.

First things first… cake and coffee!

We had had a busy day and it was oh so good to sit and have a cuppa

While we recharged our batteries on Ruby’s excellent raisin cake, we chatted about her first fridge.

Of course, way back in the day people used meat safes to store their perishables in wooden or tin safes, usually with mesh sides.

When Ruby and Bill moved into the cottage on the current site in 1948, they had a main safe and also a small tin one that hung in a tree where it gained a nice breeze in a cool area.

They had to shop frequently for meat as it would only last a couple of days in the safe. Apparently you “Let your nose tell you” when you needed to hurry up and finish the meat!! If things were smelling a bit funny, you got it out and washed it and made sure it was cooked quick-smart!! (Do we know how easy our lives are these days?)(I don’t know about you, but if I smell “something funny” about meat, then the chickens get an expensive treat!!!)

When they moved into the cottage, there was no electricity connected to the property. There was electricity in the area, so Bill took himself up to the energy supplier to arrange connection. The fellow wasn’t so helpful – put them on a list that had a vague waiting time of a few weeks.

Bill said they were hoping to get it on a lot quicker as his wife was finding it difficult to get things done and out to work on time. Foolishly the man asked “What’s so special about your wife?” Ouch. Apparently Bill told him – in no uncertain terms that his wife was the “Matron at the hospital so I hope you don’t get sick mate!!” (You can see Ruby’s proud look telling the story as her husband championed her) Then she giggles because apparently she had to drop home at 2pm that afternoon and found the power connected!!! 😀

Ruby’s current modern convenience – a far cry from a meat safe!

It wasn’t until around 1954 that they got their first fridge. A lot of items were hard to get following the war years, and Tasmania is that little bit more isolated again.

Word went out that a container load of converted kerosene to electric refrigerators was arriving at the port of Burnie. They were all snapped up for the most reasonable price of around 40 pounds!

Oh the convenience!! Bill was especially thrilled because he had “Never dreamed he could have all the ice-cream he wanted”

Well, story time over, Mana and I unloaded our seaweed and spread it over the two gardens that we weeded last week.

With luck, the weed population will be slowed

While Ruby picked us a beautiful bunch of chrysanthemums (pretty sure that’s what they are! I am a bit wonky on my flower names)

Hope your day has been wonderful

Cheers

Ruby Tuesday – Garden Update

It’s great to have minions… well… mine aren’t yellow, but they are willing workers, so we managed to get through a couple of garden beds for Ruby today.

Ruby had some visitors, so I didn’t go in to get stories – but we had a lot of fun in the beautiful sunshine.

The second potato patch has sprung a lot of potato plants at the end of the season, as well as a blanket of weeds

A couple of stinging nettles in here made gardening that much more exciting!

We left the potatoes. Even though Ruby wont get a lot off them, there will be something, and food is food!! 🙂

The next task –

The pumpkin/zucchini patch, while totally finished with only weeds growing, yielded a surprising amount of potatoes!! Too funny!

I weeded this quite a few weeks ago and the weeds have stayed away (mostly) due to the good layer of seaweed I dumped on top of it.

I will take Mana down to the beach next week and we will stock up on seaweed and cover each garden as it gets dug to slow down the weeds.

Ruby keeps finding nice sturdy little tomato plants popping up here and there! So it made me laugh to see that she had moved what she could into the hothouse to see if they would last the winter!

I got these ones to put in my hothouse

Ruby’s broccolini are looking great!

Tunnel of broccolini with rogue broad beans at back!

Even better I saw the start of the vegetable already!

These will be on the plate before we know it!

This zucchini got its second wind!

Emma and Mana got up the ladders and tidied up the man ferns

All the dead fronds were brought back to our place. They make excellent kindling.

At Half Time in the gardening, Ruby came out with a little plate of banana passionfruit (with ice cream) for us to try!

I’ll have to take a photo of the fruit for you to see tomorrow if you are not familiar with it

The vine covers a good portion of the back fence and has a lot of flowers right now!

I will be testing a beetroot recipe soon this week, so stay tuned. Its one of those vague old fashioned things that give you a guide and basically wish you good luck with it!

I thought I better test it out before writing it down here!

In other news, there soon will be a serious meeting & afternoon tea with a couple of cousins, friends & Margie with Ruby to pow-wow about her upcoming 100th birthday! (I’ll eventually let Ruby know about this haha)

Its all very well to say you don’t want a fuss, but when you have been around this long and are very well known in the community, along with a massive extended family, I am afraid fuss is what you are going to get. 🙂

I wouldn’t be surprised if around 200 people turned up on the day! Its to be a gathering at Ruby’s church hall, but not much else has been sorted out, and even though we are talking September, it will go fast. I think poor Margie has been having kittens about it! And really – a gathering of that size needs to be organised, so in a week or so we shall turn up with cake, put the kettle on and really get some proper plans in place!

Cheers everyone!

Ruby Tuesday – Garden Flashback

Since Jeff and I have been a bit pathetic with colds this last week, we have been staying away from Ruby, since she is under all this pressure not to “fall off the twig” before we can celebrate her 100th birthday later in the year – so why make life harder by sharing colds around?? 🙂

So I will write up a little look over Ruby’s garden from a season or so ago, which some of the One Hundred Dollars a Month readers will possibly be familiar with.

Its only been the last couple of seasons that Ruby has enlisted me as “Garden Staff” to help a bit with the heavier digging around the place – I guess when you are in your late 90’s its ok to call in the cavalry. Not that she slacks off! Still a familiar site to see her in the garden, perched on a milk crate digging up weeds.

Ruby’s soil is a dark sandy soil. Quite a lot different to our red soil just up the road. It requires a bit more work, and a bit more water. As you can see, she has several patches that she rotates her vegetables around each season. At the beginning of the season she maps out where each of her vegetable plots will be, and we try to get the peas in early enough to make sure there are fresh ones on the table for Christmas dinner!

Its a massively productive plot and you would think she was growing food for an army! Very little goes to waste. Food is stored and preserved and given away – and of course eaten!

Even the weird shaped vegies go in the pot!

Plenty of potatoes

Tasmanian’s are serious about their potatoes!

Even tho Ruby’s eyesight has almost failed her, she knows her way around well enough to go up into the garden to pick something for lunch and then cook it up. Main meals are in the middle of the day and dinner is usually a sandwich

And oh, can that woman bake a turkey! Yum!! You can float on the aroma from the front gate!

The hothouse is a really important part of Ruby’s garden. She can get her early tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber on the go in here.

Hothouse in full swing – getting a drink

I discovered that in years gone by, she has manually taken out last seasons dirt, and wheelbarrowed in new soil from somewhere else in the garden so it didn’t get too stale! Wow!

This season just gone, Jeff and I got a trailer load of mushroom compost and dug it right in – and didn’t her hothouse go mad! She was pretty proud of the massive crop of early tomatoes that just kept on growing!

I have totally given up on trying to beat her with the first ripe tomato of the season!

Beans & peas of various sorts are a staple here too, so each season we get out the rebar, old clothes horses and anything else handy for climbing vegetables and set it all up. Usually before I can get back, Ruby has it all fertilised and planted!!

Ruby also has a beautiful variety of flowers, flowering trees and shrubs all through her garden. No matter the season, there is usually something pretty to look at that is attracting the bees

16 flowers one — Always something colourful & gorgeous to see

Its a space that gives Ruby an independent lifestyle as much as she can and a reason to get ‘up and doing’ in the morning.

An impressive sized yard for someone of Ruby’s age to manage!

Each week I will try to share a gem from this brilliant tatty old diary-recipe book!

PLUM WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE

This is one of my favourite sauces to come out of Ruby’s cookbook.

She has a beautiful dark plum tree up the back which generally produces a ton of fruit.

new plum — Plum blossoms – the first stage of sauce!

I enjoy using Worcestershire sauce in a lot of my dishes, is an ingredient in my BBQ sauce recipe and it makes home made rissoles/hamburgers fabulous!!

You need a really big pot

3lb dark plums

3lb white sugar

2lb Brown sugar

3 tins of treacle (approx. 850gm tins each)

7 pints vinegar

1/2 lb garlic

1oz white pepper

1oz allspice

1oz whole cloves ( I use ground)

1/4oz cayenne pepper

1/2oz ground ginger

2 tablespoons salt

Put all ingredients into the pot and cook until stone leave the plums.

Strain out stones & skin and reboil for about an hour. Bottle up.

This will last you a LONG time! So its worth the effort.

Once you are done, copy Ruby and have a little rest!

Cheers

Ruby Tuesday. Cows, Cream & Sponge Cake

I really enjoy sitting down with Ruby & a cuppa and listening to stories of years gone by. Funny, happy, & sad tales and very different to the lives we live now.

I dropped in this afternoon (bang on afternoon tea time when the sponge cake was ready for eating!! – more on that later) and asked about her cow.

Ruby and her first husband Bill bought the 2 acre property that had a small dwelling and built up the house that is there now. When they showed it to her Dad, he was very keen that they should run a cow. Ruby and Bill didn’t have the money to buy a cow as they had spent all their money acquiring the land.

So her Dad gave them a cow – a big Durham. It was really too big for what they needed and the property size, so one of the neighbours swapped her for a nice little jersey heifer.

Clearly not Ruby’s cow. This is one of our neighbours that is helping illustrate the story, even tho its not a milking cow, let alone a jersey!!

It was 2 years before she was able to be milked. Ruby said she did the milking as the jersey was small, and Bills hands were too big to effectively milk her so that was Ruby’s job.

They had a separator and a butter churn. The milkman came by about three times a week and collected the cream – and the cream cheque was enough to cover the grocery bill!! Ruby said she made butter about once a week from the cream or when necessary.

This is my butter – just to illustrate the story. 🙂

The best story that was related to the cow, was when Ruby was pregnant with her daughter, Margaret. She was having contractions and reckoned she was at about the second stage, so she thought she had time to milk the cow before trotting off to the hospital. She made Bill bring in the cow… but ended up pushing him out of the way as he wasn’t doing it right and speed-milked the cow! She told me “I don’t know how well she got milked that night, but she got milked!!”

Contractions getting stronger, so off they go to WALK to the hospital!!! This is at about 5pm. Spied by a neighbour they were asked if they were out for their evening stroll. Bill was a bit agitated by this time “No!!” he says they were “off to the hospital to have the baby, so bring the car around quick!!” Ruby on the other hand was quite determined not to make a fuss and walk. She lost that argument and was put in the car.

By 8pm she had a baby girl!!

Can you imagine?? Milking the cow at 5pm and walking off to the hospital to have a baby by 8!

Things are a little different today.

Ruby’s Recipes.

Each week I will try to share a gem from this brilliant tatty old diary-recipe book!

SPONGE CAKE RECIPE – Ruby’s Special

So I stroll in as the kettle is boiling and the first sponge cake is ready for testing!

In her heyday, Ruby would make a lot of these whenever the church had a fete.

This is the current recipe she is using.

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs (room temperature)

1 small cup sugar

2 tablespoons cold water

Vanilla essence

3/4 cup of self raising flour

1/4 cup cornflour

tiny pinch salt

It was my job to slice this in two! Was a bit nervous!! Margie adds the cream!

METHOD:

Separate the eggs & beat the whites until fluffy in bowl

Gradually add sugar and beat again until sugar is melted

Add yolks and beat again with the cold water and vanilla essence

Fold in dry ingredients

Place in two (pre prepared) greased & floured round tins, 7″ diameter or equiv.

Cook at 400F (200C) approx. 20 minutes.

Today Ruby and Margie experimented with coffee, which was added to the water. It made a lovely cake, but plan to make it more ‘coffee flavoured’ next time rather than todays ‘Hint of Coffee’ (todays had a teaspoon of instant)

Distressingly easy to eat a lot of this! 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse into Ruby’s past.

Cheers

PS Don’t forget there is still time to “Guess the weight of the zucchini” in yesterdays Sloth Post. I am enjoying the messages and guesses so far! 🙂

Ruby Tuesday – Autumn in the Garden

A familiar sight smiling over her front gate

I dropped into Ruby’s this afternoon and found her in the midst of preserving her peaches in possibly the oldest steamer I have ever seen! It really looks like it has done some miles, and then some!

Why buy new stuff when the old stuff works?

Apparently it was bought in a ‘mighty hurry’ as years ago she was preserving some peas when her mothers canner sprung a leak! Being very serious about their peas and panicking about losing their gardens harvest, a very speedy trip to the shop was made. (And back then things weren’t as easy to come by as the department store shopping we have now!) The shop owner said he didn’t think he had one, but found this copper one out the back! Not thinking twice, Ruby snapped it up and raced home to rescue the precious peas! Clearly it has worked well ever since.

Just before Easter I got out into Ruby’s garden to do some overdue weeding. Its probably the worst weeding job I have done, as to stop the seed heads spreading I simply yanked the tops off as many plants as I could – I will return to dig the roots up properly garden bed by garden bed. Ruby gets out and pulls out what she can too of course

What I DID notice in her garden was pumpkins

Orange ones –

Pale salmon coloured ones –

Big ones –

And generally pumpkin vines running amok all over the place!

There are at least 10 pumpkins hiding in this patch

Ruby is a classic for burying peels and food scraps all over the garden, which eventually turn into plenty more random potato and pumpkin plants!

I counted 23 established pumpkins growing – she was a bit surprised when I told her how many she had! ‘Oh well’ she says with a grin and a shrug ‘I like my pumpkins and eat them everyday, so that’s good!’

We went up the back for a look at what needed to be done and got side-tracked picking beans. Ruby got a cardigan full – no doubt they ended up on the plate that day

I hope I am this photogenic when I am nearly 100!

I finally got around to checking out the broccolini that I had put under one of my vegie nets a while back, and decided they needed a good weeding! I was amazed at how healthy and sturdy they were looking (not like my poor manky things)

I knew Ruby would have had no idea how they were coming along, as she is nearly blind and there was no way she would have been able to see through the white netting

So cleaned up and mulched with some remaining seaweed, I dragged her back up the yard to check them out. She was so thrilled – I think she is planning her meals with them already!

Her artichoke plants are reaching the sky –

And the new lettuce, despite the oxalis, is thriving.

RUBY RECIPES

I thought I may try to share a recipe each week from this crazy recipe book of Ruby’s. As you can see, its a falling apart, tatty old diary that is stuffed full of notes, newspaper & magazine clippings and other collected recipes from friends. It’s a family heirloom in itself I reckon!

Today I will share the “Apple Slump” recipe – some readers from One Hundred Dollars a Month may have seen this already…