Pottering along

Rye flour has always been expensive but now it's expensive and hard to find.  Most places have rye premix but I don't like using that, I prefer pure flour. So when I dug out a small chicken from the bottom of the freezer yesterday, I was very pleased to find a bag of rye flour.  I made up a loaf yesterday and it's delicious.  I used to bake bread every day. Now it's maybe twice a week but it's still an important part of my house work routine. Supermarket bread, and often bakery bread, contain preservatives and I'd much prefer to eat food without it. Preservatives keep bread on the shelves longer and it stays soft longer when you bring it home. When our bread is three days old, I toast it.  After baking bread and when the loaf is cold, I slice it, put it in a bag and store it in the fridge.  If I keep bread in the bread bin during spring and summer mould grows after a couple of days so for now, the bread stays in the fridge.

Chillies ready for picking and (below) soil almost ready for the garlic to be planted.  That black and white tube in the garden is Hanno's worm hotel. 

I've just come in from the garden and after a little bit of rain over the past few days, the mosquitoes have arrived.  Nevertheless, while I was out there, I sowed seeds for Golden Nugget pumpkins, dill, Marketmore cucumbers and Deep Green silverbeet. I should be able to plant them out in about 3 or 4 weeks.  Yesterday, Hanno almost finished preparing the soil for the garlic crop. All he has to do is add some compost and dig it in. Then it will settle for a few days and the garlic will be planted.

The White Icicle radishes have taken off.  These should be ready to start picking in a couple of weeks.  Don't you just love radishes - they are such fast growers.  Below: the butter lettuces are growing well and after I discovered I have about a 1000 bok choi and pak choi seeds, I cleared a small bit of the tub and threw some in with the lettuce.

Everything in the boxes is growing well. The lettuce is tiny but healthy, the Welsh onions are getting bigger and multiplying and the White Icicle radishes are racing ahead. This afternoon I'll go out again to fertilise a few things and harvest the red chillies. Tomorrow I'll dry them, then crush them up and store in the cupboard as chilli flakes.  I'll also grab some oregano this afternoon and dry that too. The oregano will slow down in the cold weather and having some dry in the cupboard will see me through winter without having to buy any herbs.  Of course the parsley, dill, Welsh onions, bay, thyme and rosemary will keep growing through winter and if everything goes according to plan, I'll save money because I won't have to buy herbs every week.  Big savings are rare because we don't often buy big ticket items but if we keep on top of our small purchases and grow or make what we can at home, at the end of the year the savings are well worth the time and effort they take.

This rough and ready mob are starting to regrow their feathers.

Also outside in the backyard, the chickens are starting to regrow their feathers after their summer moult.  The egg supply is well and truly down but in a week or so it should get back to normal.  And as you can see by the photo above, the rest of the garden still needs work.  There are pockets of prepared soil and star pegs and trellis have been removed but it will all be done in good time.  I'd say it should be finished and the seeds and seedlings in and growing inside two weeks.

And now I'm inside, I have coffee and water here within reach and the fan is on. As soon as I finish this post, I'll be concentrating on the notes for my writers' workshop.  I have a great group of women signed up for it and I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing where each of them will go with their writing.  Good times ahead!

How is your garden going?  If you don't have a garden, where do you get your fresh produce?