Rundle St Farmer
Ventured out into the vegie patch in the rain this evening to find something to go with a steak.
Seems like we have had a visit from the purple alien veggies. Here’s what I came back with:
Purple Vegetables
From Left to Right:
1. Kohl Rabi. How good is this! Looks like it just came in on the latest meteorite shower. It’s a bit like a turnip, with a milder flavour. I sautéed it in butter, and glazed it with salt, sugar and white balsamic vinegar. Yum.
2. Purple Broccoli. Do not adjust your monitor. It really is purple. Stir fried this one with garlic , olive oil and a little soy sauce. Yum.
3. Artichoke flower. Picked this one for a vase on the table.
4. Beetroot. Sautéed in a little (tiny I swear) knob of butter, and a dash of orange juice, black pepper. Yum.
So I ate all my veggies tonight, left most of the steak on the plate.
I often think, if I was just cooking for myself, I’d just cook the veggies and be perfectly happy. Alas, it is not to be. Not until I can convince the littlens that alien veggies are cool.
Do you have a veggie patch? Got any crazy veggies to share?
Um actually I haven’t bought a single gift yet. Or planned the Christmas day festivities… but have a look at my christmas bauble collection! SORTED!
Christmas sorted in clear shoe boxes
Every Christmas we pull all this gear out of the shed. It’s a mess of old plastic bags and dusty cardboard boxes. And every year I tell myself that I’ll get it sorted this year… after Christmas. Of course by the time New Year comes around (often later) I’ve had a gutfull of the stuff and it just gets jammed back into the shed as is.
Today we sorted all the decorations into these clear shoe boxes from Cheap as Chips. They are a great size to store all the tree trimmings and lights. The littlens helped me sort all the baubles by colour.
The boxes are a great size to store the lights too, eahc set fits in a box with it’s own transformer.
Tree lights go in the box with its own transformer.
Then all the shoe boxes go nicely into these great el cheapo bags also from Cheap as Chips ( great to know we are keeping the Chinese manufacturing sector alive). 12 shoe boxes fit perfectly into each bag. The bags zip up and keep out the dust.
Christmas is stored in here.
Christmas is now sorted…by colour! Heaven!
How’s your Christmas planning going? I’m looking for an online toy shop to do most of my gift shopping, can you recommend something?
Brassica Bed is in full fling.
We have lots! The brassica bed is in full fling with about 6 Cauliflowers ready YESTERDAY. The heads are a bit overblown looking, I’m pretty sure it’s just a cosmetic thing ( is it? it’s not poisonous is it? Ek!). The cabbage butterflies have been having a bit of a feast, most of the time I try to take deep breaths and ignore them but when it gets too much for me I bring out the Dipel which seems to keep the little suckers (chewers?) under control.
Cauliflower peeks from behind the leaves
This afternoon I’m making cauliflower and bacon soup.
I put in the soup:
1 really big cauliflower head
500g bacon
1 big potato
2 big onions
1L chicken stock.
2 Tbsp cream
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil
Here’s the results:
RundleStFarmer's Cauliflower & Bacon Soup Yum.
It’s pretty good if I do say so myself! Absolutely no chance that I can convince the kids to eat this one so I’m boiling a couple of “baby” eggs that the neighbours bantam laid. The leftover soup will be good to freeze and save for a lazy night.
Do you have any preschooler friendly cauliflower recipes? Brainwashing methods to teach them to eat vegies? Let me know…
Well here’s the results of our attempts to grow garlic this year, drying out in the sun before they are put away:
Not terribly exciting really. I had a bumper crop last year in the roast hedge, enough to make 3 big fat plaits which hung in the shed for ages.
This year the rosemary and thyme took over in the roast hedge, so I planted the last of the cloves along the other side of the vegie patch.
Disappointing effort. Must try harder next year.
How about you? Any luck with Garlic this year?
Hahndorf Lantern Festival 11 Nov 2011
We took the littlens to the Lantern Festival, great kid friendly event and FREE, gotta love that.
Have you been to Hahndorf lately? It’s looking, well, kinda, almost, cool. Amongst the usual tacky tourist spots here are some really interesting new eateries.
We walked past The White House, it had a great vibe with live music and lots of people. We would have loved to eat there but the small menu didn’t seem to have anything right for our littlens. Maybe we’ll save it for a kid free day (lol).
The White House Hahndorf. Check out that beard!
Close by there’s the Farm Gate Providore, full of macarons and choc dipped anything.
Farmgate Providore for anything choc dipped or sugar laden mmm
It was a nice evening, and we’ve vowed to come back to Hahndorf again soon.
Have you eaten out in Hahndorf recently? Send me your recommendation!
We have tiny buds on the lipstick maple! Look closely:
We bought this guy in it’s leafless state, as an advanced tree. It was quite an investment. All winter PS has been frowning at it, saying ” I think we’ve lost it, it’s dead.” Um, no PS , maybe it’s dormant? Lol.
Finally, we have signs of life! Phew!
Also “springing” in the garden, the California Poppies.
They are soooo brightly orange, it almost makes my eyes hurt! The bees seem to love them, I do too.
My mum always used to say at this time of year:
“Spring has sprung, the grass has riz.
I wonder where the birdies is?
The bird is on the wing!
That’s funny, I thought the wing was on the bird.”
(I guess you had to be there.)
No kidding. Cat brought home this little guy:
I think he might be a native duck. He’s in good condition, seems like the cat was just playing with it. Evil Kitty. Must get a bell for his collar.
Took him for a walk down to the dam in an attempt to find his parents, but no luck.
We’ve put him in the shower recess with a heat lamp, and according to instructions found online, are feeding him twice daily with scrambled eggs, toast and greens. Hopefully we’ll be able to house him with the chooks when he gets a bit bigger.
Another hungry mouth to feed!
Celebrating Anti Fashion Day
Orange wool socks with crocs. Shame on me!
Like the idea of spending some time in Clarendon, South Australia, between the McLaren Vale wine region and the vibrant city of Adelaide? Do you have a luxurious, well located or just charming and interesting home that you’d like to swap with us?
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