down to earth

Writing a book and gaining an amount of public exposure because of it has been rewarding but also had a down side. The down side is that I don't enjoy the public recognition but one of the rewards is that I meet people I otherwise would never meet. A while back my editor and friend Jo Rosenberg told me about a couple she and her husband Eli know. They were about to set off on a trip to cycle up the east coast of Australia and proposed writing a book about the journey - a journey where they spoke to people who were living simple lives. She wanted to know if she could give them my contact details and eventually meet them. The trip was far off into the future. "Sure," I said, thinking it was so far off I didn't have to think about it.

They arrived Sunday evening.

Greg and Soph are the kind of young people that make me feel optimistic about the future. They're articulate and engaging and have a hint of uncertainty that smart young people usually have that I always find endearing. They told me they're on their journey to talk to people who are living simple lives but like all of us they're on a self-discovery journey as well. Many of us say that we have no like-minded friends or community to tap into, too few mentors and real life role models. Greg and Soph are bypassing that problem by travelling around, in a very low impact way, to meet people they can talk to and see first hand, how distinct and effective all these simple lives are.

It is a pleasure to meet young people who are respectful but also treat you as a contemporary. They asked a lot of questions but also shared some of their own views and dreams. They have so much ahead of them that it makes me a bit nervous to think of it. When I look back and see all that has happened in my lifetime I wonder what they'll face, along with my own children and grandchildren, and how they'll deal with it all. One thing is for sure, having more books and blogs about how we all live will help enable others to see this as an achievable sustainable life choice. The combination of more information, combined knowledge and guidance is always a good thing.

We invited them to stay the night so we had time to talk over dinner and again in the morning. And then they were off - cycling to Cairns, another 2000kms, dodging cars and trucks, looking for the good life. It is out there, we all know it is, so if you see them in your town north of here, offer them a drink, a meal or let them put their tent up in your backyard. Like all of us, they're working to a budget.

If you can suggest people they should meet or places you think they should visit, drop them an email here simplelivessuggestions@gmail.com. To read about them and find out more about the trip, you'll find them here at their blog - http://simplelives.com.au

I've been harvesting a lot from the garden lately and the excess, as usual, is either frozen or pickled. I did up a nice batch of beetroot last week and still have another batch in the ground to process later this week. Beetroot is delicious juiced, grated and eaten raw, or roasted and served with other root vegetables - either hot or in a warm salad. These beetroot were boiled, then sliced and pickled in a spicy vinegar. I have two large jars and they'll do us for our salads for the next few months. My recipe for beetroot in spiced vinegar is here.

I also did up a delicious sweet mustard pickle made using a variety of vegetables I harvested or had in the fridge. The cauliflowers were picked too late and the florets had gone all over the place so I decided to use them in a pickle instead of as a hot or cold vegetable for the table. Mustard pickles were the obvious choice to make. I grew up in a family that loved relish, chutney and pickles and sweet mustard pickles was my father's favourite. This is very similar to the recipe he loved.

These two pickles involve cooking vegetables, then adding either a spiced vinegar or a spiced sauce. The sauce I added to the pickles is hot and very spicy with mustard powder, turmeric, pepper, chilli and curry powder.

SWEET MUSTARD PICKLES

Mix 1½ litres of water with ¼ cup of salt and stir until the salt is dissolved.
Cut up about 1 kg/2lbs vegetables such as cauliflower, cucumbers, capsicums/peppers, celery, zucchini and onions into small chunks and place the vegetables in the salted water.
Cover and leave overnight.

The next day, pour off the salt water, add a fresh litre/quart of water with a ½ teaspoon salt to the vegetables in the saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until tender - about 20 minutes.
When the vegetables are cooked, drain then through a strainer and make the sauce.
Pour 750 mls/1½ pints cider vinegar into the saucepan and add 1½ cups sugar.
Place it on the stove and bring to the boil.
When it's boiling, add 1 tablespoon mustard powder, 1 tablespoon curry powder, ½ tablespoon turmeric, as much chilli as you like, salt and pepper and stir.
Mix two tablespoons cornflour/cornstarch in a cup with a small amount of water to make a thin paste. Add that to the hot vinegar and stir immediately. This will thicken the sauce. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for one minute, then turn it off.
Add the vegetables to the sauce and stir thoroughly. Add the hot pickles to a hot sterilised jar.

These mustard pickles may be eaten immediately but they improve as they age.

All the jars I use for storing these pickles in are washed and sterilised by placing them in an oven on 150C for 15 minutes. Boil the lids for 10 minutes. If you use sterilised jars, boil the pickles and add hot pickles to the warm jars, the vinegar and sugar will help preserve the pickles and they do not need a water bath. I make one or two jars of these and store them in the fridge but they can be stored in a cupboard for up to six months. I know my American and Canadian friends water bath preserves like these but here in Australia and in England we don't, and we're all still here to tell the tale.

Do you have a favourite preserving recipe, using excess vegetables, that you make every year?

Laura and Daniel's baby boy was born yesterday, another tiny baby for our family to love and nurture. Congratulations Laura and Dan, and grandma Tricia, my beautiful sister, who will be a wonderful grandmother.

♥♥♥

We have two long seasons where we live - summer and winter - and two much shorter seasons - spring and autumn. Officially summer starts here on 1 December but really, about half way through November, the humidity sets in and we all feel like taking to the hills. I usually start preparing for summer in October because sometimes the hot weather arrives early and then all hope is lost of doing the heavy work.

I guess the major part of the heavy work is done outside but as I've been helping Hanno with the outside work since he cut his hand, this year, that is on my list too. We generally let the garden go without any new plantings after November. We planted new greens a few days ago, I still have to plant up those tomato plants in pots I told you about, we have sugar cane mulch to go down on the beds, some pruning, I have to attach a steel frame to the fence to let the berry canes grow along them and a quick mow of the lawn and the backyard will be done.

The bush house is tidy. Soon the pink cactus and orchids in there, and the violas in pots, will fade for another year. I need to repot a couple of hanging baskets for the front verandah and set aside some ferns for the wooden basket my nephew Daniel made for me. The front verandah needs to be de-spidered, the furniture spruced up, cushion covers washed and replaced, the ceramic fish pond cleaned out, scrubbed, refilled with rain water and moved back, out of the summer sun.

There are a few late strawberries, cauliflowers and red cabbages to be picked and already radishes are red and ready, tomatoes are ripening and cucumbers starting to climb their trellises. Beetroot is ready for pickling. I have calendula petals to collect for drying as well as mint and oregano to dry as a precaution, just in case a stray grasshopper wipes out the fresh leaves. There are many seasonal tasks here but they're enriching and pleasant and they remind me that I'm part of the natural world where nothing stays the same.

Inside, the summer sheets will be going on the beds and light quilts will replace winter doonas/duvets. It's usually such a beautiful time of year when I do that, right now the air is still coolish with the slightest touch of warmth. It gives me hope that this summer won't be as harsh as all those memories I have stored away. Soon the bedroom windows will stay open all night, soon a ceiling fan will slowly twirl over our bed.

We'll stop buying barley and lentils, making do with our stockpiled reserves over summer and replace them with the summer sisters - broccoli and radish sprouting seeds. In the freezer, I'll have to go in search of any stray soup bones lurking in the depths. A late soup will be on the menu if I find any but that's not such a bad thing; it will be months before hearty soups and stews grace our table again. Hidden bones mean an extra goodbye, and with people and with soup, that's not such a bad thing. And that reminds me, Hanno has been stockpiling smoked pork knuckles, sausages and kassler for his annual kale and pork fest. It's one of the last winter meals he has and the kale is ready to be picked for that now. Soon cordials will be mixed up, ice cubes will be clinking and salads being prepared for the evening meal will tell everyone within sniffing distance that summer is here again.

So while many others put away their knitting, I, and Sue in Perth, will be clicking away with our knitting needles when the first test cricket match starts in early November. That is the first real sign. The cricket and the ice cubes and summer sheets with a slowly twirling fan, they are summer to me. It will start soon. I'd better get a wriggle on.

Times marches on.

Madge asked if I'd show a photo of the baby quilt that Tricia's currently making by hand for her first grandchild. She worked on it while she was visiting with us and is happy for me to share it with you. I have to tell you that I am so pleased Daniel and Laura are having a baby and that Tricia will have a grandchild. It is such a fine and precious gift to be a grandmother or grandfather and Tricia has sat by graciously while Shane and Kerry had their babies, celebrating their births with the rest of us. Now it's her turn to look into her grand baby's face and see our family's history and its future.

It's all done by hand with the finest of stitching.

Having such a fine piece of hand made loveliness made me think of other beautiful handmade pieces and why we make these pieces. Usually they're made to beautify our own homes or as gifts for those we love. Now, more and more, people are giving handmade gifts at Christmas. I love that. It shows me the continued move away from everything commercial towards softer and more creative gifts. I've had a few comments about handmade Christmas gifts lately so I thought I would share these links with you. I've been looking around for gift ideas that I can start on soon so I invite you to look at these and maybe we can get started on our projects together so there is no pre-Christmas rush. I encourage you to go through the lists and work out what you have the skill, patience and time for. Make a list. Then try to do one gift a week, or two if they're really simple and easy. If you're a member of the forum, we'll make up a thread and post photos of what we're making.

If you have a wool, cotton or fabric stash, making these projects is a frugal way of making your gifts. They can be as simple and quick as a pin cushion or as beautiful and time consuming as Tricia's quilt, but there is a wide range in between too suitable for all skill levels. I love receiving hand made gifts. They're unique and I know that person has thought about me while they've made their gift.

There are two things that are always true in the lead up to Christmas: money will be tight and you'll have a lot of things to do preparing for the holidays. So think about making your gifts now. Just an hour or two a day, maybe after dinner, or on the bus going to work. Often these gifts are small enough to pick up and take with you. And if you'll have portable gift making sessions, make up a little kit in a bag that will keep everything together and clean. I'll check our collective progress in the coming months and hope you'll have some photos you can share with us. If you're not really a sewer or a knitter you can make up food or garden gifts with handmade cards. It is these small projects that help you increase your craft skill level. We were all beginners at one point and most of us improve by making small things one stitch at a time.

I'm trying to re-establish my routines - the main one that got me through every day before I modified much of it to write my book, but also other smaller planning exercises that remind me to plant tomatoes in a pot so we'd have home grown tomatoes at Christmas, and make soap and cleaning products so we don't run out.

I keep forgetting the bread. I changed to an overnight dough and often forgot to mixed it before going to bed. Now I've decided to change back because we were wasting bread. Unless you eat that bread straight away, just baked, or toasted, it doesn't taste so good. So were going back to the normal sandwich loaf and I hope that will bring structure to my day. It had always been part of my daily routine. I would make bed, wash up, make bread dough, then clean up the kitchen and that would set me up for the day. Once I got the dough underway, the rest fell into place. I have to get back to making the bed after breakfast, then going to the kitchen to wash up, clean up and make the bread. When I do that, when I get the morning organised and underway, the rest of the day seems so clear to me. One thing just follows the other when I start out right. Daily rhythm.

But there are many other things to plan along the way, especially if you wish to make your own cleaning products or produce vegetables in the backyard. We'll be scaling back on our garden fairly soon. We've just planted lettuces, pakchoy and calendulas that will keep us going another month and I have one cherry tomato to transplant and another to plant in pots. These pots can be moved around and while we'd have little hope here of having any of the larger heirloom tomatoes on the table for Christmas, we have a good success rate with the cherry tomatoes. We have one three-quarters grown and in flower cherry tomato in a pot now, so if I plant the other two, we'll have cherry tomatoes right through until January. But if I don't do something about that now, like everyone else, we'll be buying overpriced tomatoes for our Christmas salads. The planning is essential.

And speaking of Christmas, that's another planning exercise because we tend to make what we give and those things need to be planned now. I know I'll give a few soap and face cloth sets so I might have to make another batch of soap soon so it's dry and cured before I wrap it. Face cloth yarn will be added to my knitting basket so it reminds me there is work to be done.

Daily house work and all sorts of daily, weekly and seasonal tasks have to be done in a life such as ours. The work is there if we're full-time homemakers or if we have two jobs - working outside the home and when we come back again. If we want homemade jams, sauces and soaps we have to make them. If we want fresh vegetables, we have to plant them. If we decide that our gifts will be mainly hand-made, we must schedule times to make those items into our daily activities.

Creating efficient routines is one of the most important organisational skills we develop in this way of life - there are so many small things to do, so many things to remember. Having a routine the allows you to work to the rhythm of your own home, with one thing flowing from the other, will help you get through your work. I have always relied on memory before but it's not as reliaable as it once was. I think I'll make up a daily calendar on my computer and slot in reminders for bread every morning, soap and laundry liquid every three months, gift making sessions before birthdays and Christmas, planting sessions during our growing season - March to November, and reminders to preserve summer and winter jams, relish and sauces.

How do you organise yourself for daily, monthly and seasonal chores?

Even though I haven't written about our stockpile for a long time, it is still sustaining us. During our busy period with the book and Hanno's accident, we couldn't have done without it. No matter what stage or age you're at, whether single or married, having a stockpile will save you money and time. Of course the size of the stockpile will vary according to how many people live in your home. A friend of mine lives alone but she has a small stockpile of those things she can't do without - tea, coffee, baked beans, tinned salmon, sugar, honey, oats, flour, rice, toilet paper, toothpaste and soap. She buys milk, meat, fish, fruit and vegetables on a daily basis on the way home from work, but if she gets caught out through overwork and tiredness, or she's sick, she can leave the daily shop alone and still keep going on what she has in her home cupboard.

Our stockpile is in a cupboard in the kitchen, it's not the same cupboard we use as a pantry. The pantry contains the food we are using now and is usually stored in containers, the stockpile is all unopened.

We shop at Aldi for most things and the IGA and markets for the rest. I've just taken these photos of our current stockpile and it's looking healthy. This is because we ran it down a bit in the past few months and have just built it up again. It can sit nicely in our cupboard and although we don't have things like biscuits, crackers, cakes, muffins, sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressings, pasta and soft drinks in the cupboard, we have the ingredients to make a wide variety of those things.

Some of the soap and laundry products I made up last week. Below is my stockpile of laundry liquid and soap ingredients.

Of course, it's not only food we stockpile. We have ingredients to make laundry liquid, soap and a variety of vinegar and bicarb cleaners. You can buy these ingredients when you think of them and have enough to keep you going for almost a year. They won't go off and they don't take up much room, unlike the commercial liquids you buy.

We also have a stockpile of meat, chicken and fish in the freezer. I guesstimate that in the case of illness, being low on cash or wanting to use the cash for other purposes, we could live here using the stockpile for about six months. That stockpile would keep us going and we could supplement the stockpile using the eggs, vegetables and a small amount of fruit in the backyard.

Everyone sets up their own stockpile in the way that suits their own family circumstances. Whether you're part of a large family and use your stockpile and bulk buys to assist your frugal lifestyle or if you're a single fellow, with not much time to spare, stockpiling will serve you well. Along with budgeting, it's the first thing I recommend to people when they ask me what they can do to start living a sustainable, simple life. It's also a wise move if you know, or suspect you or your partner might lose a job. If that happens, get right back to basics. Find your tried and true recipes for things like salmon patties, meatloaf, pasta bake, fried rice, boiled egg salad and vegetable omelette, as well as a wide variety of soups and stews. They and your stockpile will keep you going through tough times and when you come out the other side, you can keep these strategies going to help save money to pay off debt and the mortgage.

My sister Tricia is visiting from the Blue Mountains so we took the opportunity to invite our cousin Susie and her husband, Nick, over for lunch. They live nearby and we don't often see them but when Tricia is here it always seems right to invite them over for a meal. Tricia came up to collect a very precious piece of our family's hertitage - the bassinet that our mother bought for Tricia and I to sleep in when we were babies. The bassinet has moved around the family since then. Our mum lent it to her sister, Joy, so Susie and her brother Stephen slept in it as newborns, and Susie's three children and her grandson all slept in that cradle.

Nearly 70 years old now, this basinette is ready to go back to work again.

Now it's going back into service again. Tricia's son Daniel and his girlfriend Laura are expecting their first baby in November. Tricia is set to be a grandma for the first time! It didn't take much thought for her to drive all the way up here to collect it. We've been talking about it for a while now and wondered if it had been repaired or if it needed to be. When Nick lifted it out of the car, it was just as beautiful as when our mother bought it - an old wicker bassinet, still white, still sturdy and sweet, and ready for our family's newest baby. I am really excited to meet Daniel and Laura's baby and to know s/he will sleep in the same tiny bed that Tricia and I slept in reminds me, yet again, of the value of a strong and loving family.

We sat around the table yesterday, looking at old photos Susie brought along and it dawned on me that these small and large pieces of our family memorabilia are part of what holds us together. The passing on ritual helps bring new members into our family while showing the younger members that they too are keepers of our family traditions and precious heirlooms. It reminds us that what we believe is important, is not always financially valuable, but always emotionally valuable and loved.

Yesterday, I looked around our kitchen table and all of us who were girls together are now in our 60s and grandmothers, or soon-to-be. Back then I thought I would always be young, probably just like you do. But here we are, talking about our children and their children and it feels good and right to be this age and passing on the important parts of our family's story, giving the material pieces of our family to those who come after us, and making sure our family remains strong and always supportive. Our babies will never be born into wealth or privilege but they are born into a loving family, and that, I believe, is far better than riches.

What important pieces have you passed along to your younger family members?

It's been a busy week here. I've been making soap and cheese, we had all the therapy and doctor's visits and then yesterday, Hanno's birthday. He asked me to thank you all for the warm wishes. We celebrated last evening, just the two of us, with pork cutlets, red cabbage and new potatoes freshly dug in the backyard. It was followed by a custard dessert and washed down by non-alcholic wheat beer from Germany, with a toast to the old country, the year ahead and to us.

Just a note on the blogging workshops I'm doing with Ernie. These are part of a business I'm setting up with him and are not related to my blog at all. It will be a separate website.

Oat milk

I had an email from a reader at Byron Bay recently telling me about her recipe for oat milk. I made it up yesterday and Hanno and I both tried it. It won't replace cow's milk for us but we'll drink and enjoy it.

It's very easy to make.

2 cups of oats
8 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar (or honey or maple syrup)

Mix all the ingredients together in a container with a lid, and place in the fridge for 24 - 36 hours. Remove from the fridge and blitz with a stick blender until the oats are finely ground. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a bottle or two. Store in the fridge and use as you would use dairy milk. It may suit you if you're lactose intolerant.

The oaty sludge left over can be given to the chickens, added to porridge oats, or used in bread, scones, muffins or pancakes.

Fermenting ginger for ginger beer

This is my first Blogger video. I have to apologise for having parts of this sideways but I didn't think about the orientation until after I watched it. Still, it shows what I wanted to show you and I'll remember this next time and do a better job for you. If you would like to make ginger beer, here is a link to my recipe and photos.

I guess this means that summer has started here. It's going to be 30Cish today and with ginger beer in the fridge, we'll be ready for anything. And that's good because my sister, Tricia, will be here today so who knows what we'll get up to.