So I am back again again :-)!

The back to school rush has kept us busy, and that won’t stop anytime soon with back to uni/extra work commitments/extra volunteer roles/kids activities all resumed or resuming this coming week.

We have visited family :-) so that was a lovely weekend away.

And I have made more cheese – the mascarpone made some lovely orange and mascarpone icecream and the wonderful Freddy made a tiramisu – yum!

The feta unfortunately I am calling a ‘learning opportunity’ (= failure :-().  It came out ok but the brine was way, way, way too salty (I did actually follow the recipe quantities…) and it was very smooth on the outside, not dryish like I am used to – so next time I will use the loose weave muslin and see if that makes a difference – and I will be very ginger on the salt for the brine!

Rosy Roger has been joined in the rooster crowing brigade by Big Al (our bantam Favarolle rooster) – and by Fred (one of the Black mottled Wyandottes) – who we are still hoping is a girl!!  But I fear it is looking like we might have another 4 roosters "-( - all the Wyandottes are looking like they have the long feathers developing on the necks…watch this space, if you see a few chicken dinners…well you will know why….

Here are Roger, and Midnight and Fred - what do we reckon???

We had some hot weather a week or so ago – the strawbales did their job nicely :-).

And I have been Kon Mari-ing the house :-).  It is working well for me – soooo much stuff has left this house!  The linen cupboard was the last to get a make-over.

Before and After.

I like it so much better now.

And finally, for your viewing pleasure - black gold my friends, this here is black gold!

My very own home-made compost – l.o.v.e. IT!

It has been a busy week of preserving here J. 

I took the hard way to preserve the tomatoes and made paste instead of my usual pasta sauce.

 

      

 

It was all going great until I popped into the shops and the edges burnt…still there was plenty to save and I do hope it has the intense tomato flavour I am looking for – will let you know.

Then there was the cucumber overload – turned into pickles.  First time I have ever made them, so I used this recipe:

I do like the thought of eating these in a week or so when they are ready.  And I liked going down to our local health store and buying all organic spices – I figured if I was going to preserve our organically grown cucumbers, I might as well do the right thing.

I also crushed this weeks’ dried egg shells for our girls.

And we had fun opening the gate so the chooks can explore their new run – first across the line are Midnight and Sunset J but it didn’t take the others long to follow.  They especially seem to love sitting under that wattle on the left.

Our beautiful rooster starting crowing this week too - quietly is how he does it – which could well be all he does as the Brahmas are known for being quiet chookens.  Let’s hope so or decisions will have to be made…and we all love Rosey Roger!

And yesterday, I made ricotta – my very first cheese J.

It was very easy and tastes yum!  Will be trying mascarpone next, then feta (the one I really want to make!).  And like all good cheese makers, I need to find a use for all that whey…