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Meet my Great Aunt Ruby!

I know a number of you may be familiar with Ruby via some posts Mavis put up on “One Hundred Dollars a Month”

My aunt is an amazing woman – she is 99 years old, lives by herself, keeps herself fed via a fabulous garden and is an all round wonderful person to know.

I thought I might reserve Tuesdays to write an anecdote or two about Ruby, her life and stories from way back. (Yes – Tuesday – are you singing the song yet ?? 🙂 )

While Ruby’s daughter, Margaret and myself help out in the garden, Ruby does an awful lot of it herself. It gives her the independence to be able to trot up the back and ‘get herself a feed’

During a recent afternoon cuppa together and chat, Jeff and I discovered that Ruby had never tried Fairy Floss before!! (Cotton Candy) How is it possible in nearly 100 years that someone hasn’t given fairy floss a go??

Ruby is a nurse from way back – and hospital matron! She informed us that she couldn’t believe people were eating what looked like cotton wool! She knows what cotton wool gets used for and eating it just wasn’t something she could bring herself to do!

Recently at Steam Fest, I found a van selling fairy floss, so I cheekily bought a packet then took it around to Ruby. She giggled so much, but she is such a good sport about the mad things I ask her to do, she dutifully tried it to please me!

After inspecting it carefully and working up some courage, Ruby tried some fairy floss for the first time in her 99 years!

She said it was nothing like she expected and it wasn’t bad at all. But she didn’t need to have it again! 🙂

I suspect Great Aunt Ruby is happier with the fresh goodness of her garden than sugary carnival food!  Probably why she is still with us!

Cheers

 

I am not generally a list person. But today I thought I would give it a go as I am pretty much an aesthetically relaxed procrastinator so I thought it would help.

Plus crossing things off is quite satisfying.

I had been meaning to make up some cherry ice-cream for a while. I had bought some cooking cherries locally and froze what I hadn’t used.  My parents bought us an ice-cream maker for Christmas! (I think they were playing favourites here as I do like ice-cream, but Jeff has an addiction)

I made a traditional vanilla ice-cream base recipe and then just poured the pureed cherries in.

The final colour turned out pretty fabulous!!

It taste tested up really well 🙂 But it has to freeze overnight to be ‘proper ice-cream’ (waiting – waiting – I wonder if its ok to have ice-cream for breakfast?)

It was a beautiful day outside and I couldn’t let that sunshine go to waste without putting a couple of loads of laundry through –

It was a good excuse to get out of the kitchen a few times and soak up the sun.

I got into those windfall apples and rescued what I could. Even the dodgy apples still have plenty of good bits to use. We have codling moth unfortunately that we haven’t got under control yet. At least they mostly burrow to the core so they are easy to cut out.  This one was a bit more manky looking –

But I still got plenty out of it –

It was hard eyeing off the blue skies out the kitchen window, I wanted to be in the garden, but I knew the tomatoes were going feral, so I had to sort them out too.

I used a good amount in a slow cooked meal. I thawed out some stewing steak last night and added a couple of onions and a mix of beef stock, mustard powder and a liberal helping of my plum-Worcestershire sauce. (one of those make-it-up-as-you-go-along dishes!) I know these recipes call for browning the meat & onions first, but I am a huge fan of not adding to the workload or dishes – so, into the pot altogether at once!

It worked out really tasty, which is lucky because it is going to be dinner tomorrow night too.

The rest of the tomatoes got sorted – either chopped and frozen or given to the chickens. I did not even glance at the tomato plants when I was in the garden!! I don’t want to know what’s ready to pick until tomorrow or the next day!!

Eventually I made my way down to the beach, but there was less kelp than yesterday.

I was strong and stayed away from the shells

Funny thing was, as I was walking up the beach picking up lumps of kelp I could hear a conversation coming up behind me. I thought… that’s nice. Friends out for a stroll on the beach. Ha – one woman on a phone. She walked all the way along the beach above and back and she was still on the phone! I felt a little sorry for her. I guess I love it that I completely unplug when I leave the house.  I see a walk on the beach as a way to unwind and just be with a friend or your own thoughts for a change, rather than organising those busy lives of ours!!

Anyway – I found it easy to fill two bags with kelp. There is a lot of grassy seaweed on the Wynyard beaches which makes fantastic mulch. (But there are a couple of girls coming to stay in April and that is a perfect job to get them to help me with -saving that task up for later)

I was a bit naughty and put the bags in the car 🙂

If you live by the sea and are allowed to collect kelp – this is how I make my ‘kelp juice’

Then your vegetables can grow big and strong –

Recipes below if you are interested!

Have a great day!

 

Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream

300ml milk

pinch salt

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or 5cm piece vanilla bean)

1 egg, beaten

250ml cream

Combine milk, salt, sugar, vanilla into saucepan – cook over medium heat until nearly boiling.

Gradually stir half the milk into the egg – stirring

Add all back into the pot and cook over low heat until mixture thickens slightly.

Refrigerate  – chill well.

Mix cream in with wisk and pour into ice-cream maker to  do its thing.

(This is where I added in the cherry mixture. Raspberry is next on my list!)

 

Mostly Made Up Slow Cooked Beef recipe.

1 kilo stewing steak – cut into chunks and coated in flour

600gms chopped tomato

two thickly sliced onions

Broth: Mix:

1 cup beef stock

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

Mix all together, splash more Worcestershire Sauce in and add some garlic salt.

All into oven at 100 deg. C (or slow cooker if you have one)

I did this one for about 4-5 hours and thickened at the end with a bit of cornflour, served with rice.

PS 😀 😀

 

 

Despite my pessimism about the weather and a chilly start – it was a gorgeous sun drenched day, with minimum wind! Sometimes Mother Nature gets it exactly right!

I found my spot and parked the car and of course grabbed the camera and dashed down to the beach! All that kelp!!! (yes yes – the sunrise was quite lovely, but I was making plans for a return to stock up on kelp for the garden!)

By then I was sufficiently awake enough to start unpacking the car and setting up.  I would like to take a moment to let you know that Jeff piked out on me and stayed home!! The advantage to this is he is not wandering the market unsupervised spending the money I am trying to make. The downside  was at the end having to cross my legs a bit! 🙂 (The public loos (toilets) are waaaay down the other end of the market)

One of the regular stall holders that I have gotten to know came and helped get my gazebo up – I can do it myself, but its quicker with more hands of course! One of the nice things about this area – friendly helpful people – although I must admit the man in question did tease me about actually turning up today!! He thinks I am a fair weather person!! I would totally agree!!! If you had experienced having a market stall on the foreshore when the wind was howling, the rain was coming in sideways and unexpected hail in summer – then you would think it was perfectly reasonable to pull the covers over my head and stay firmly at home!

Today was one of the more perfect days!

There were lots of people out and about today, but not so many reaching into their pockets to spend.

I was really pleased though, to offload almost all the boxes of vegetables that I brought with me. The jams & sauces keep, so no drama and less cooking over the next couple of weeks!

I also put a nice big jar filled with parsley on the table and offered it free to people who stopped to chat or buy. I have so much parsley I am happy for it to be used, and a small free thing cheers people up I reckon!

I love meeting new people & chatting to the regular stall holders that I have gotten to know. I have made new friends with a couple and their young daughter who moved to Tasmania in their old bus less than three weeks ago and I have already run into them about 5 or 6 times. I am wondering if I should try to convince them I am not actually stalking them! 😀

People watching is fun, and customers are varied but mostly friendly and chatty. One lady made me chuckle a little today as she wanted some of my cherry tomatoes… I was offering that people could fill a bag for $2 (and telling them not to be shy about stuffing it as full as it would go)  Anyway, she only wanted a few unripe ones, so she filled the bag about a quarter full or so and asked how much… 50 cents I say confidently. Her face fell and she spent the longest time trying to decide what to do!! I thought it was a pretty good price (hey we are talking organic here too!) Maybe I should have just said to take them gratis!! Sometimes I think of the best thing to do too late!

By 2pm, everything had died down, so I packed up as fast as I could (remember – crossing my legs now) and drove literally across to road to see my Great Aunt Ruby, as its tradition for me to drop in after the market and have a cuppa!

I caught her cat napping in the sun (perfectly reasonable for someone who is nearly 100 years old!) So I dashed past with a breathless “Hi Ruby  – Its Lisa – I need your little girls room right now!!”

Once that was sorted I could give her a big hug and catch up. The darling had cooked me lunch!!!

Everything from her garden fresh!! Oh did that go down well!!!  Of course we finished up with coffee and sponge cake before I took my leave to get home and unpack the car. (A job almost as bad as folding washing, but not one I can avoid – pretty sure Jeff would say something about having to drive to work with boxes of sauces and market tables in the car with him…)

It was nice to sit down with Jeff and count up all my loot – $130 today which turned out a lot better than I had supposed so was totally worth getting out of bed early and spending a day not in the kitchen!

A quick wander about the garden is necessary – just to see what is happening. Jeff had done a lot of work weeding and trimming trees etc. Then I saw someone – who shouldn’t have been – in my vegetable garden!!! Bad Chook!

After throwing the chicken back over the garden fence I ate a bean –

and picked the last small corn cob to discover it had about 20 fat kernels  – so I ate those too! So sweet – they just explode in your mouth!

I hope your weekend has been a lot of fun

Cheers

 

 

After a wet, howlingly miserable day that forced me into lighting the fire for the first time this season, Tasmania chose to say goodnight with a spectacular sky.

So I grabbed my camera and dashed across the highway so I could get some photos to share.

Enjoy.

 

Clearly I didn’t think I had quite enough fruit and vegetables to sort out, so I picked up 3kgs of distressed banana’s to add to my list of “things to chop”

Well, I couldn’t help it. I recently made a couple of banana/raspberry bread loaves and they were stonkingly good. Pretty sure we needed more. (Will add this recipe at a later date)

Since the raspberry harvest this season was fabulous – I have a freezer stuffed with packs of frozen raspberries. Brilliant to be able to just make any raspberry item that takes my fancy at any time.

Unfortunately what took my fancy included bananas that I didn’t have!

So I peeled and mashed my box of banana’s (note – peels chopped and will be fed to the rose bushes as I read somewhere about that being good for them) and bagged them up to join the raspberries in the freezer to cook at a later date (After all – my food processing day had hardly begun!)

It wasn’t raining, so I set the stall out the front again. Funny thing, when I checked it an hour or so later there was a random dollar in the jar but nothing  had been taken!

I have two theories:

1.  Someone thinks I am busking.
2. Someone short changed me yesterday and has conscientiously made the effort to pull up and give me my dollar.

I am good with both these theories.

Todays total take was $11.90 😀

I am a bit puzzled about the 90 cents, but I have decided it goes with the sign that says “take what parsley you need and donate something” 🙂

I finished my current lot of tomato sauce, filled the dehydrator with apples again, pre made dinner for two nights – and then decided to get on with the chillies!

 

I really don’t know how I ended up with so many varieties. I don’t think I pay attention to a lot of the things I put in the ground – but its a lovely surprise when random things grow. Like those round fat chillies! They were meant to be normal capsicum!

This time I ‘suited up’ to tackle the chopping and deseeding part. I suspect a lot of my friends got sick of my whinging and whining about stinging hands for three days after the last effort – seriously – chillies are diabolical!!

How awesome is the colour tho??

Happily there will be enough chillies there to make up another batch of sweet chilli sauce – there is a market on Sunday which I am aiming to get to if the weather is agreeable.

I don’t think my dinners are really that interesting all the time to bore you with – but I can’t tell you how good it was to sit down this evening to a couple of home made hamburgers. (I had forgotten about lunch so was a bit peckish by dinner time!)  As I mentioned somewhere in an earlier post, we get out beef locally, and its great having the (mostly) home-made/grown bits and pieces to make the patties and build up the burger!

Hope your day was great

Cheers!

It was as windy as all getup here today. Keep looking at the gums looming over the house hoping their roots are holding on tight.

Regardless – it had to be an outdoor day. Too much kitchen time not enough garden time. There is a lot of work to be done – I am sure I will get around to it! 🙂

The corn stalks weren’t really properly dry, but they are messy and providing slug/bug homes so I had to do something with them.

So I reduced them from this –

to this –

Lovely scraps to be put in the compost! Very pleased we bought the little mulcher – such a useful tool for this place!

Still plenty of food other than tomatoes. I took time to enjoy hanging out with my ever growing zucchini!! I am curious to see just how big it will get. Was quite awkward trying to get the selfie – lucky I am not too precious about scrounging down in the dirt!!

While I was lying back in the vegie patch, this is the view that myself and (Insert name for zucchini here when I think of one 🙂 ) were enjoying in the sunny afternoon –

So besides madly oversized zucchini’s, I have pumpkins –

Heirloom capsicum (these were an accident as I planted ‘normal’ capsicum and got these instead – and I am totally converted! They taste SO good!!) They also change colour from green to yellow to orange and then red! But edible from yellow –

One struggling eggplant –

My beautiful runner beans! They haven’t made it up and over their arch yet, but I live in hope –

Living on the beans at the moment is quite a colony of very cool little bugs. I don’t think they are doing any harm, but they are really pretty.

There were also little family groups!

I suppose they are all very cute until they start munching their way through your garden!

To finish the day I did eventually have to get back into the kitchen. Due to tomato problem, I made tomato soup for dinner. Have no clue where my recipe is for it so I just had to make it up, throw in what I thought should be in there and hope for the best. Happily it turned out pretty fab (if I do say so myself) and even better I used up a stack more tomatoes.             Happy Days!

And to round off the day with apples, I made an “Apple Slump” A wonderful old fashioned recipe from my Great Aunt Ruby (who is 99 years old!). Its not fussy or pretty but it tastes great and is a good recipe to have on hand when apples are in season. (I will post a ‘how to’ recipe for this at a later date)

Aaaaand – I totally forgot to feed it to Jeff before he went to work!         Bad Wife!

He said he is looking forward to it for breakfast!

That rounds off another day from Norwich House!

Cheers!

PS The stall is on the up & up – I got $9 today!! 😛

 

 

I had never been to Steamfest before, so I rang my friend Margie and asked if she wanted to go for a drive into the country with me to check it all out. (Husband on nightshift so he is no fun during the day)

I got a yes from Margie, so up we went.  Of course, being all grown up, the first thing we did as soon as we got through the gates was get ourselves onto the teeny steam train for a ride!!

We parked ourselves in the First Class Carriage for the trip up –

 

And then braved the elements and soot in the open carriage on the way back –

Lack of husbands on this trip meant a guilt-free dawdle through the craft halls – I immediately found some beautiful hand spun and dyed merino wool which I purchased… later to be made into someone’s birthday or Christmas present I reckon!

After some exhausting browsing and chit chatting (its quite amazing how many people you bump into that you know when you drive an hour from home!) we (Margie) spotted a small sit down tent area where the lady was serving scones with a cuppa of your choice.  In need of fortification, we immediately sat and ordered some wood-fired scones!!  I am sorry to say there are no photos of those little clouds of delicious-ness because we scoffed them before I thought of getting my camera back out.  But I did get a photo of the very cool oven they were cooked in:

A bit further up the track we found a sight worth seeing – a squadron of primary school kids having a tug-of-war with a steam roller! Not something you see everyday and there was great excitement each time the kids managed to pull the engine in their direction! (I do suspect some mechanical help may have played a part)

There were really interesting, working machines everywhere.

It was great hearing them fire up the engines and seeing the process of the wheat being separated out and the remaining hay baled.

It was a different way to spend Sunday and a lot of fun. A small escape from the kitchen with its waiting kilos of tomatoes!

The afternoon brought the sunshine back and once home it was nice to sit on the back veranda with a cup of hot chocolate, enjoying the view and listening to the delicate sounds of cows bellowing in the nearby paddocks!

Ahhhh – that’s the life!

Cheers