Soup, glorious soup

PUMPKIN soup to me signals the start of winter.

So after heading down into to the garden and picking a 6-7kg pumpkin, I decided today was the day to celebrate winter with some sustaining soup.

It's fun to make and I love saving the seeds which I'll keep to pass onto friends, plant next season and give a few to the hens.

Step 1 - pick and cut up your pumpkin

Step 2 - Add chopped pumpkin to carrots, tomatoes, carrot,

red capsicum, pepper, bay leaf, garlic and onion and just cover with water

before simmering for about an hour.

Step 3 - Once cooked, blend it smooth then add yogurt or cream

and some coriander / basil and enjoy!

Email me if you want the recipe - surfychic @ shewrites .com.au

Oils aint oils

IT pays to read the label on the olive oil bottle carefully.

And go organic when you can.

MOI International has paid two infringement notices to the ACCC totalling $20,400 for misleading claims made on its olive oil products

MOI International's Mediterranean Blend oil product was prominently labelled as extra-virgin olive oil and "100% Olive Oil".

Winter breakfasts

WINTER is the time to enjoy really nourishing breakfasts.

 

For me, brekkers is the best meal of the day.

 

Starting with great coffee. I don't have a machine, but a friend makes the best darn press-cafe I've ever enjoyed.

 

Pancakes made with my hens eggs and lemons from the neighbours = yum

Followed by porridge with low-fat high-taste Greek yogurt, blueberries and passionfruit or scrambled egg with thyme and spinach on good sourdough or a stack of half wholemeal and half regular flour pancakes, I feel ready to get through the rest of the day.

Down and dirty

DIRT baths when it's wet can be a challenge for chooks when it's wet and muddy.



 

Hilda and Gidget enjoying a relaxing dirt bath

 

There's an area under my back deck with gravel and limestone crush which the girls love to roll around in when it's pouring.

 

Not only do they get to keep the mites at bay, a dirt bath allows them to extend their wings, roll their feet into the air and enjoy a good stretch.

 

If your chook run is getting ab it muddy, toss down some shredded newspapers, some straw and then add a good pile of grit or fine gravel they can loll about on. Don't worry it will soon resemble a mess, chooks love a bit of chaos! 

 

This time of year you should also add some crushed fresh garlic to their water as a bit of a tonic.

 

Keep on adding as many fresh greens as you can to their food.

 

Plus a teaspoon of linseed to their pullets will give them a twinkle in their eye. As though they didn't already have one when looking at your broccoli seedlings. 



Chook book

THERE'S a great new guide to keeping chooks from those lovely people at Organic Gardener magazine who have produced a their Essential Guide to Backyard Chickens.

 

When wandering about my local ABC shop the other day I saw this publication and had a quick flick through.

Robust information, well written and chock full of no nonsense details, plus great photos make this hard to resist guide perfect for experience poultry people and newcomers alike.

Like my friends who keep chooks, I cannot resist reading books, magazines or online publications about these fascinating creatures.

Hakea heaven

A COUPLE of years ago I planted a hakea bush on the front nature-strip amongst some grevillias and now it's a blooming delight.

Bees make straight for the nectar as do honey eaters and other native birds and the flowers are such a lovely beacon on these grey winter days.

It is not simply a gorgeous shrub with its beautiful flowers, fast growth and thick foliage it is also a marvellous screening plant.

Recently the local council put in footpaths on my side of the street and they dug up most of my nature strip garden, despite not needing to place the concrete there. In their wisdom, the workers dug up most of the plants leaving the grevillias roots to the sky.

Somehow amidst the carnage the bottle-brush and hakea survived.

I managed to save a couple but the majority have died.

But every morning when i walk outside and see the hakea in flower, I'm grateful it's still there.

Rain on me

OK, it's been raining long and hard and I'm ready for some serious sunshine now so I can get outside and weed, turn compost and chase chooks.

Tomatoes are still popping up and I'm pulling them out as fast as I can.

The tank is overflowing and the lemon trees are looking fantastic considering they are in such clay-like soil. This is probably due to all the composting I've dug in over the past few years, because they struggled when first planted ans spent a couple of years sulking.

Looks like there's a break in the rain so I'll pull on the wellingtons and do what i can before the next cloudburst.