Eat Local Challenge #3

Posted on April 30, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Corn, chilli and lime.

It’s a cracker of a combination, and that’s a known fact. But the issue was I needed a little butter or something like it to get the finely chopped chilli to stick onto the corn. I didn’t have any and refused to step outside my Eat Local Challenge so I was left with…

1/ squeeze the lime juice on the corn and nibble delicate little pieces of chilli off at each mouthful…hmmm, not a great idea. I like my food hot but these little chillies are quite beastly on their own.

2/ I could finely, finely chop them and roll the corn in it, hoping some would stick.

3/ I could delicately drape the chilli over the corn, admire the contrasting colours and then push my hot little garnish to the side. Yep, I’ll do that. (On thinking later, I should have cut the chilli and gently rubbed it over the corn cob. It would have given the bites a little zing, but not the kick in the pants that a big one would have given.)

So with the corn sorted, what did I have left? While I do love corn, there still needed to be a little something else to the plate.

To avoid a line up of wrinkled noses and pouty lips I didn’t bother serving this one to the rest of the family. Brussel sprouts is an acquired taste it seems and every one in this household? Well, they haven’t acquired it yet.

So what’s on the menu and where is it from?

Brussel sprouts- Kurrawong Organics, Kirkconnel (175km)

Radishes- Rita’s Farm, Kemp’s Creek (50km)

Granny Smith Apple- from Orange

Sheep’s Curd- Willowbrae, Chevre Cheese– Wilberforce.

Olive Oil- Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

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How about you? Interested in taking the challenge?

Just how local is local? Well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

For Eat Local Challenge #1 see here.

For Eat Local Challenge #2 see here.

When you can’t stop saying the F word

Posted on April 27, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

water kefir grains

It quite often brings on a wrinkle of noses, pouty lips, raised eyebrows and sometimes, just plain disgust. It’s a word certainly not to everyone’s taste, and yet…

I just can’t help myself.

I repeat the word again and again, while most people switch off. Sometimes there is a low mumble of vague fained interest, with their silent words screaming bloody hippy, and yet I still can’t stop saying it.

fermented vegetables || cityhippyfarmgirl

Fermentation.

See I said it again. I say it again with joy and amazement. Fermentation, it’s not the dirty word that so many us think that it is, I promise, it really isn’t. On the contrary it’s a word that brings life and excitement to a conversation, just as it does to our palate and gut health.

The joy of coming across another fermenter in everyday daily life and talk is beyond exciting. It’s a conversation of respect, excitement and happiness. One of curiosity and intrigue and a use of words that generally don’t get thrown around together in the after school pick up line. There’s an understanding and unparalleled enthusiasm to hear more.

I’ve seen it before in other conversational areas that are usually thrown to societies fringes, (as that’s where I frequently lurk), an excitement that truly is contagious. When you hear another person, mention the mere whispered word of kefir or scoby…

Ohhh, you’re talking FERMENTATION! Yes you are, yes you are!

Sandor Katz at a recent fermentation talk and Nick from Milkwood

So with that enthusiasm in mind, I will not curb my tongue and lessen the frequency in eliciting the F word. I will shout it loud and shout it proud, to anyone that cares to listen. I will drop the F word into conversation where ever I see fit and from this day forth I shall proudly say…

F#%* yeah! I’m a fermenter!

the Art of Fermentaion Sandor Katz || cityhippyfarmgirl

Fermentation Bible

For more rather exciting dabbles in fermentation see these posts-

sourdough– how to make a starter

ginger beer that will put hairs on your chest

how to make sauerkraut

pride of the pickles

mead– not just for Vikings

The music of apples

Posted on April 23, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

apple and almond tart || cityhippyfarmgirl

As his little body seemed to hover above the water for far longer than normal. I couldn’t help but smile. With legs bundled beneath him, his arms outstretched in an open air embrace, and that smile. That huge smile on his face.

Pure and absolute joy.

And it was contagious. Days later I still smiled at the thought of it. That summer imagery of my son’s face mid jump into the pool, will be forever etched into my mind. This was joy at its very best, but it also got me thinking. As an adult, how often do we feel an emotion in its purest form?

When those little legs jumped, he wasn’t performing, he wouldn’t have even known I was watching. He jumped with an expectation that it would be fun and that simple happiness radiated out of him. It shone out of him.

As an adult those true emotions seem to be too easily brushed away. Too often we seem to squash, ignore, or simply refuse to acknowledge them. Never letting them see the emotional light of day as it’s either deemed; not acceptable (quickly brush those tears away) no time for proper acknowledgement (yes, we really need to get going/ do something else) or maybe just too confronting (that feels way too hard!)?

Small feelings of contentment, frustration, annoyance and briefly happy no problem, I can easily visit all of those within the same day. But those whole emotions, that’s something else. Something different.

I think it starts with noticing these smaller ones too though, being aware and really sitting with them for a moment. As an adult our emotions seem to get watered down a bit- so many things to do, multitasking, rushing, clock watching, looking ahead and most of all dismissing. But what about the here and now? What about noticing those tiny bubbles of excitement in the pit of your stomach at that knock on the door. Or stopping to watch your child experience something right before you. What are they feeling? As children, they are usually feeling a hell of a lot, and it can be pretty amazing to be a part of.

Obviously, it’s not always a positive thing. I recently saw something, that in the past had stressed me out greatly. The instant adrenal response was actually really interesting.

Every. Single. Fibre of my body was lit up. Fight or flight, I didn’t have to make that decision but the body response, that was interesting. Really interesting. In this moment, my curious brain actually over rode the stress of it all, (which helped.)

Going back to absolute joy, and that’s what I watched on my daughters face recently. For a music loving family, somehow she had got to being past two years old and had never held ear phones before. Watching her little face discover that there was music coming out of those tiny ear pieces was…exquisite.

To her ear she would hold it, take it back down to her hand, examine it, frown a little and laugh in amazement as she would hold it up to my ear for me to listen to as well. Back to her ear, and then to her hand. This was the most amazing discovery of her morning and it brought pure absolute joy, to both of us.

apples || cityhippyfarmgirl

While I can’t begin to imply that this tart will bring that kind of pure emotional happiness on eating a slice or two. I can vouch for tiny bubbles of excitement on eating a great apple. Supermarket ones, yep, won’t cut it, not at all. Visit your local farmers markets, find out when the season is, and buy up.

Like watching a little person discover the joy of music coming out of earphones for the first time, a great seasonal apple?

It really can, be absolutely joyful.

Apple and Almond Tart

4 apples- peeled, cored and diced

100g raw sugar

zest of half a lemon

50g almond meal

Pastry

150g cold butter

50g sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp bitter almond aroma (or say 75g marzipan)

300g plain flour

1 tbls cold water

In a blender, pulse flour, sugar and butter until resembles bread crumbs, (add the marzipan in here if using it.) Tip out to a bowl and add almond aroma (omit if using marzipan), egg yolk and cold water. Knead lightly until it comes together to form a smooth dough. Cover and and chill in the fridge for about half an hour. Then roll out for your pie shape.

For your apple mixture, add diced apples, sugar, lemon zest and almond meal. Mix together and spoon mixture into pastry lined dish.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes at 180C.

Star Cake

Posted on April 16, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Some birthdays are show stoppers with meaningful presents and surprises that are so happy they bring a tear to the eye. Some birthdays, just slowly sort of slip on by. A tiny reprieve in a normal week. It’s never meant like that, but occasionally that’s just how things fall, (well for the big people anyway.)

Not for this birthday though for him. No, no. For this birthday I was jumping out of my skin with excitement on giving a little piece of paper.

No flashy expensive pieces to gather dust on a mantel. No clothing vouchers and stiff napkined dinners, because seriously it’s not our style.

What he did have was an afternoon and evenings trek up a mountain to watch a sunset with a lunar eclipse. Followed by a little star gazing. An opportunity to take an obscene amount of photos and maybe, just maybe throw a birthday wish on a shooting star.

And in the mean time, we had cake…well, there will always, (always) be cake.

The Lamington Cake was revisited…and yes sticky fingers, VERY sticky fingers. The temptation was a little too much for her.

Lamington Cake

125g butter

3 eggs

150g (2/3 cup) sugar

2 tsp vanilla

225g (1 1/2 cups) s/r flour

50g (1/2 cup) desiccated coconut

125mls (1/2 cup) milk

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1 can condensed milk

50g cocoa

Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla, beaten eggs, and milk together than fold in dry ingredients. Bake in a greased and lined spring form pan (approx 23cm) at 180C for about 35-40 minutes. Bake until golden in colour.

While cake is still hot, leave it in the cake tin, prick it all over with a skewer or fork then pour on the condensed milk mixture. (Whisk together in a bowl, condensed milk and cocoa together beforehand.)

Leave cake to soak up mixture, occasionally bringing the condensed milk back to the centre to soak in at the top a little more. Once room temperature, pop into the fridge for a couple of hours (or over night- you want as much of the condensed milk soaked in as possible.) Take the cake out of the tin and cover in desiccated coconut.

Kitchen Crumbs

Posted on April 9, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Bench tops are groaning, the sink is over flowing, and there is rather a lot of flour wedged between the kitchen floorboards. If you can ignore the growing number of scattered crumbs and butter smeared finger prints on the drawers, I’ll give you a quick peek into my kitchen at the moment.

There have been some teeny tiny locally grown famers market pears.

sourdough baguettes || cityhippyfarmgirl

Some crunchy bread ends and lazy coconut biscuits- slab style.

Lots of home grown chilli that certainly gets your attention. Hot? You betcha.

Then there was Moon Bread, as it was aptly named. Over proved thanks to crazily humid afternoon- which is never forgiving with my bread. Still passed the taste test though, (this bread had sprouted millet, sunflower kernels, linseed, dark malt flour and water kefir in it.)

And lastly the ever present kitchen window sill of sprouting things. While the shadowed bench tops are full of things fermenting, the sunny sill is where sprouting action is. Window sill farming at it’s very best.

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What’s happening in your kitchen at the moment?

Linking up with Celia this month for more sneaky peeks into other peoples kitchens, see here.

Sticky Buns of the Spelt and Hot Cross kind

Posted on April 6, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I do wonder what food memories I’m creating for my kids sometimes. I occasionally ask them if they have seen any food from other kids school lunch boxes that they might have rather liked the look of and would perhaps like to try as well? I’m yet to get an answer of anything different to what they generally get though. Whether they really aren’t that fussed or they are keeping those wishful lunching thoughts to themselves, I’m not sure.

Me, I longed for white bread, devon and tomato sauce sandwiches. With more butter than should be legal slapped up on the side. Plastic cheese was longingly looked at and don’t get me started on packets of chips for recess. That’s what I wanted when I was a pint sized school girl. Did I ever get it? Nope, not a once. ( Thankfully I did grow out of that one.)

Would my own kids get it, if that’s what they said they were lusting after while watching someone else unpack their lunch box. Oh hell no!…but I’m still curious.

Spelt Hot Cross Buns is what the small people are packing at the moment. Easy to make, easy to eat, and easy to keep in the freezer.

Every year I seem to fiddle with my Hot Cross Bun recipe. Sourdough, semi, yeasted, chocolate and now spelt. Wholemeal spelt flour is a firm favourite round here. So much so, that I buy the 12.5 kilo bags, so it’s always on a high turn over round here, (it’s good stuff, really good stuff!)

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But before the recipe, for something completely different…*small polite cough*. I was wondering if you would like to vote for me for the AWC- Best Australian Blogs- Peoples Choice. Would you like to? It will be super quick, promise. Either click here, or the badge on the side bar, and a huge thank you, to those that do.

(If wholemeal spelt isn’t your thing, easily switch these recipes to a regular wheat flour.)

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (sourdough)

250g dried fruit

150mls hot water

2tbls brandy

(soak this mixture of three ingredients the night before)

300g starter (100%)

600g (4 cups) wholemeal spelt flour

1 tsp dark malt flour

200mls water (approximate)

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

100g (1/2 cup) raw sugar

100g softened butter

2 tsp salt

Add all ingredients together except, 200mls water, softened butter and salt- either by hand or mixer. Mixture will look shaggy and dry. Now slowly add the 200mls water. This an approximate amount, depending on the dried fruit mixture and your flour. If it looks too wet, don’t add it all in, too dry, a touch more.

Let it rest for 30 minutes and then mix through your softened butter and salt. Dough should look smooth and coming together off the sides of the bowl.

Place a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bag over the top of the bowl. This creates a gentle humid environment for your bread to rise. Leave it for an hour or so.

On to a really lightly floured surface, give your dough a brief three way fold or knock back. Back into the bowl for another hour or so.

Divide your dough into equal portions, (this recipe makes roughly 16 portions) rolling them into balls and then on to your baking trays. Allow them to prove for roughly another 1-3 hours, (depends on the temperature- dough should neither spring back or leave an indent.) Or overnight in the fridge. Again covered by either a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bags.

Crosses

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

100-125mls water

2 tbls raw sugar

Mix ingredients together and use a piping bag to squeeze out crosses just before popping buns in the oven.

Bake at 210-220C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Sugar Glaze

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup water

Heat the glaze and brush buns as soon as they are out of the oven.

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (commercial yeast)

250g dried fruit

150mls hot water

2tbls brandy

(soak this mixture of three ingredients the night before)

600g (4 cups) wholemeal spelt flour

2 tsp dried yeast

1 tsp dark malt flour

200mls water (approximate)

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

100g (1/2 cup) raw sugar

100g softened butter

2 tsp salt

Let it rest for 20 minutes and then mix through your softened butter and salt. Dough should look smooth and coming together off the sides of the bowl.

Place a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bag over the top of the bowl. This creates a gentle humid environment for your bread to rise. Leave it for an hour or so.

On to a really lightly floured surface, give your dough a brief three way fold or knock back. Back into the bowl for another 40mins- to an hour.

Divide your dough into equal portions, (this recipe makes roughly 16 portions) rolling them into balls and then on to your baking trays. Allow them to prove for roughly another 40-60 minutes, again covered by either a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bags.

Crosses

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

100-125 mls water

2 tbls raw sugar

Mix ingredients together and use a piping bag to squeeze out crosses just before popping buns in the oven.

Bake at 210- 220C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Sugar Glaze

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup water

Heat the glaze and brush buns as soon as they are out of the oven.

The inconvenience of Fairtrade Chocolate at Easter

Posted on April 1, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Easter eggs is tricky business in this household. It’s not something I grew up with a great deal. My grandparents would always buy us a modest sized egg to eat as fast or slow as we wanted and that was kind of it. No easter egg hunts, no mysterious rabbits leaving Easter themed gifts and household bombardment of chocolate. It was all kept rather simple.

As an adult I get that, I totally get that. But as a child I wanted to be ill on chocolate easter eggs, I wanted to swim in it like every other child seemed to be doing but me.

So as an adult and now parent myself I come to this tricky line. While Easter doesn’t hold a strong gift giving significance to me, I do like giving a little chocolate something as I remember the joy I had of eating the same. I like adding a hunt for it, as hey, it’s exciting- who doesn’t like a good hunt? But, and it’s rather a big BUT…

I don’t want to buy those chocolate eggs that have been on the supermarket shelf since just after Christmas.

I don’t want to buy those eggs that have food miles to the moon and back.

I don’t want to buy compound chocolate that has palm oil in it’s ingredients.

I don’t want to buy that chocolate that has a multitude of layers of packaging.

And I sure as chocolate eggs don’t want to buy that chocolate that sources it’s cocoa from child slavery conditions.

To give my children a small inexpensive chocolate treat at the expense of all that? No, no I wont. I simply will not buy into that.

I make this decision by thinking about where my dollar goes. I am happy to pay more for an ethically made chocolate that is produced as locally as I can source. Not because I want to buy something more expensive but because I value all those things above and think chocolate should never be cheap. I will pay more for a chocolate that I know won’t have palm oil in it. And I will plan ahead, take the time to find out where I can buy them, avoiding last minute unconsidered purchases. I think chocolate is a luxury and a pretty amazing one at that.

So this Easter, I want to treat that small gifted chocolate with a little respect and hopefully pass that on, even just a little to my kids. Showing that every last delicious sweet crumb that I buy is to be valued, (whether they eat it quickly or slowly it doesn’t matter). I don’t see buying fairtrade chocolate as an expensive inconvenience, it’s a carefully considered treat…and that’s the way I think it should be.

Where to buy some Fairtrade Easter Chocolate

World Vision Fair Trade Chocolate Guide (Australian based- but many of these brands are available internationally, so would still be relevant.)

Tribes and Nations– stockists of Fairtrade easter eggs.

Spencer Cocoa– Single plantation chocolate, grown in Vanuatu and made in Mudgee.

Chocolatier– does Fairtrade options for Easter.

Eat Local Challenge #2

Posted on March 26, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Say what? More tomatoes? Well um yes, that’s what kind of happens when you eat with the seasons, there can be quite a few dishes with the same key ingredients. I don’t mind though, it’s not like it’s six months of cabbage you have to get creative with.

Now for the Eat Local Challenge, I thought I would be a little more prepared this month. Well, I was really. I just hadn’t anticipated riding my bike for an hour and a half to find cheese. It seemed my known and trusted local cheese company was no longer where I thought they were and the French cheese company standing in it’s place certainly wasn’t going to cut the proverbial mustard.

So I kept riding.

I did wonder at what point is the line crossed. How much inconvenience is expected and should be expected in order to support locally produced food?

I ended up with a fetta that’s made in the Wauchope, approximately 6 hours north. I didn’t feel it was a great option as I had wanted to always be able to buy directly from the producer or at least one person removed. However, Hastings Valley Fetta was (at the time) the best I could do. What I could do though, was contact the company and find out a little bit more about them.

I got an immediate response back from my querying letter, and along with encouragement of me doing the Eat Local challenge, I was also happy to read- “All our products are manufactured from our Wauchope facility from the milk sourced from our local farmers. We are proud to support our local farmers and community.”

What’s on the menu?

Beetroot, fetta, tomato salad

Beetroot from my Ooooby box*

Tomato from my courtyard- hurrah!

Fetta from Hastings Valley, Wauchope

Mint from my courtyard

Chilli from my courtyard

Olive Oil- Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

Verdict? Delicious. This salad was really tasty and I would happily serve it up to anyone else that sat at my kitchen table.

Butternut, Fennel and Barley

Butternut from my Ooooby box- Pickle Creek Farm, Cattai

Fennel from my Ooooby box*

Kale from MU Organics, Southern Highlands

Barley from Dementer Farm Mill, located around Gunnedah

Fetta from Hastings Valley, Wauchope

Chilli from my courtyard

Verdict? Well…if you love fennel you are on to a good head start. If you don’t, (as I don’t) you have to think a bit more strategically to get the best out of the vegetable in front of you- and that goes for anything else as well. I should have roasted the fennel and butternut beforehand, it would have given the dish a bit more flavour and less, well fennell-y. If you are not using stock, spices or salt to create more complex flavours you do have to think a bit more on how to make the most out of your dinner time tastes.

No kids versions of this months locally sourced meals, (not a chance they would have eaten these.)

* I did know where the fennel and beetroot was sourced from but mislaid the vital piece of paper.

Tidbits

Planning- Eating locally does take a bit of forward thinking. The vegetables are relatively easy, but it’s the proteins and fats that need a little more planning beforehand.

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How about you? Interested in taking the challenge?

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

For last months Eat Local Challenge #1 see here.

tomatoes, a tart and just a smidge of pride

Posted on March 23, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

The quietening effect of looking at the tomatoes on the bench even surprised me a little. Eyes slowly scanning over their little green surfaces, searching for that hint of red that would soon burst through. Their tiny foliage hats slowly shrivelling as their connection with the plant in which had shoved them into their small tomatoey glory was now gone.

Unceremoniously yanked out, their yellowing leaves and and wilted limbs telling me it was time. The caterpillars had also moved in, my vigilant watching had wavered and they had seized their opportunity. A greedy multilegged stampede towards the prize line- launching themselves on to the not yet ready fruit. With green tomato stuffed through out their squishy bodies. They would seemingly wave to me in indignation and a last hungry effort as I plucked and squished them off in annoyance.

It was me or them, and I had no intention of it being me. This was my biggest crop this year. No easy feat growing from those small pots in the midst of the concrete city courtyard. No easy feat.

So it was with a smidge of growers pride I made this tart. A simple one, with onions, mozzarella, fetta and those sweet little tomatoes.

Home grown little tomatoes…I salute you.

Tomato, onion and Fetta Tart

Pastry

200gms cold butter

2 cups plain flour (300gms)

110gms natural yogurt

In a food processor pulse flour and butter until resembles bread crumbs. Tip out into a bowl and add yogurt. Mix through, a quick knead until a smooth consistency and then roll out pastry on a lightly floured board. Roll to the thickness you want (I find this amount is enough for two large sized tarts, and adding it to a greased tart tray.

as many cherry tomatoes as you have

half a finely chopped spanish onion

about 100g of mozzarella

one small block of crumbled fetta

one sprig of rosemary

Lay all ingredients in a layered fashion until it reaches the top of the pastry sides of the uncooked pastry shell and bake until it smells delicious at 190C.

Mead, not just for Vikings

Posted on March 9, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I’d never really paid much attention to mead. I had heard of it certainly, but had never tried it. Not because I didn’t want to, I just well…didn’t pay it much attention.

But then fermentation stepped into my life. Sourdough certainly. Sauerkraut became a staple. Pickles started appearing and then I got a box of plums.

See it was the box of plums that pushed me to the mead. I needed to process the whole box, but space (as always) was an issue. I couldn’t store that amount of jars of jam or chilli sauce, nor could I freeze a huge amount either. I went looking, flicked through the trusty bible, figuring there must be some other way of fermenting with plums I hadn’t thought of.

So that’s how mead stepped in.

I read, planned and hesitantly started. Within 24 hours there was fermentation action happening and that was just a little bit exciting. There are just three ingredients in there- honey, water and plums. That’s it, and then the bottle started bubbling like an excitable volcano. The excitement was contagious. I continually checked and stirred it. I thought it would take about a week for bubbles to ease off but it only took 5 days (Sydney, Australia summer time). Strained and bottled, the taste test.

It was good. I thought.

I say I thought, because at this stage, I still had no idea what mead tasted like, so had nothing to gauge it by. It’s hard to tell whether there is much alcohol content. The test would be to down the bottle on an empty stomach and see what happens, but that didn’t seem likely to happen.

Ten days into the fermentation, (second fermentation period) the mead developed a thin mould layer. It had a closed lid, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I did what any hack city hippy would do, and shook it in, ignored it and popped it in the fridge.

But not before I had a good smell of it. I have finally gotten to trust my nose. With all my fermenting experiments I always smell them along the way. Observing differences, subtle changes and really trying to identify when and where things start to change. I trust my nose and if I’m not sure, well I don’t use it- The Plum Mead smelt fine, and while several weeks later into the fermentation process the taste was fairly underwhelming, I am keen to try it again.

Next, I started on a Honey Mead, (or honey wine). Raw honey and unchlorinated water, that’s it.

Now according to Sandor Katz, (who I was lucky enough to hear speak recently) raw honey already contains abundant yeasts- with pasteurisation or cooking killing them off.

“The yeasts are inactive so long as the honey’s water content remains at or below 17 percent (as it is in fully mature honey). But increase the water content just a little bit beyond that and the yeasts wake right up.”

And so I did. I woke those little things up with a ratio of 1:4, following the instructions, and intermittently smelling it. At the end of three weeks I have a lovely light (green) sweet tasting mead. I can’t liken it to anything else I’ve ever had, but it’s good and I think this could be the beginning of many more meads to come.

So what do my two experiments with mead making have to do with Vikings?

Well according to Norse mythology, mead seems to be heavily linked with the Norse god Odin and along with it, anyone that drinks mead may become a poet or scholar. I’m still waiting for poetic inspiration, but perhaps I simply haven’t made or drunk enough of the honey gold beverage?

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All of my mead making inspired by

The Art of Fermentation- Sandor Katz

Eat Local Challenge #1

Posted on February 26, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

The challenge was on. My Eat Local challenge, and this was the night to be doing. A chaotic evening after a rough day. Not the best choices to start off an challenge but I was wearing it. However it was what we were eating that was more important.

The Menu

For the adults- A raw kale salad with hard boiled eggs. (rice, kale, shallots, brown onion, flat leafed parsley, corn, carrot, lime juice, olive oil, chilli and eggs.)

For the kiddo’s- A similar tamed down version, swapping the kale for lettuce. (rice, corn, lettuce, carrot, olive oil and eggs.)

Where it was from

Rice- from Randall Organic rice

Olive Oil- from Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

Vegetables- from Kurrawong Organics and Champion’s Mountain Organics, Mangrove Mountain

Eggs- Ed’s Eggs, Jirandali Farm- Mangrove Mountain (85km from Sydney)

Chilli- my courtyard

Over all dinner was a success. The kids were happy to eat it all and Mr Chocolate said it was all delicious. He did throw a little Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar on top of his jazz it up a bit- a company that produces 250km’s away. I didn’t, but was kicking myself three hours later for not putting a little more protein in there or fat of some sort…I was hungry!! I guess this is the tricky bit, locally produced vegetarian protein. Besides eggs, what other alternatives do I have? To find out next time.

Tidbits

– Foodconnect- Sydney is no longer, and OOOOBY has taken over. Similar concept, and just as committed. This is from their $39 delivered veg box.

– The Locavore Edition– for Australian east coast readers, there is a comprehensive guide to both NSW and Victoria so far, (with Tasmania in the nominating stage.)

How about you? Interested in taking the challenge?

For more details see this post here and for the nitty gritty of ‘how local is local’- well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (I will be post here in the last week of the month). It sounds easy enough at this stage, but as the year progresses will it continue to?

Edit– Have a peek over here at Christine’s Eat Local deliciousness

Slow Living Essentials- Eat Local #1

Blueberry Cake and how did two happen?

Posted on February 23, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

There is a little lump in my throat this week,

she turned two, and I’m not sure how that happened.

Feels like nothing since I birthed that baby bundle in a pool by the dining table windows-

I still think of the afternoon light and the peaceful way she swam into this world.

Turning two meant there was birthday cake with her favourite, favourite “blues”.

She helped me make it, but we had to be quick-

one blueberry in the mouth and one for the cake.

There was a doll- the most beautiful doll you ever did see.

And after that, she will be two and one day, then two days and so it continues,

gulp.

A Little Vintage Store, is where the lovely doll is from. Beautifully handmade by Jennie in Brisbane, Australia- I’m in awe I really am. Love, love, love that this birthday present didn’t come from a department store with a ‘made in china’ tag.

Blueberry Cake

300g softened butter

300g sugar

4 tsp vanilla

zest of one lemon

4 beaten eggs

600g self raising flour

125mls milk

approximately 300g blueberries or enough to cover the cake surface

Cream the butter and sugar together, add vanilla, eggs, lemon zest and milk. Then fold through flour. Into a greased and lined tin and arrange blueberries.

Bake until golden at 180C.

(Depending on your cake tin size, this recipes bake time will differ. Cooked as I did, it took forever (23cm)- but I wanted it tall. Baking it in a much wider cake tin will ensure a shorter cook time…or half the recipe, (but where’s the fun in that.)

cityhippyfarmgirl

simple connected living, city style

Category Archives: Food Glorious Food