They look ugly. The dry skin is brown with blotches of mildew, they look heavy but they are deceptively light. Yes, I'm talking about our luffas. We have a very small crop this year, mainly, I think, due to the amount of summer rain we had. But I'm grateful for whatever grows and they'll do Hanno and I, plus our guests for the coming year. There are about 10 luffas almost ready to harvest but two have been waiting for me on the outside table for about a week after dropping off the vine. So today I have photos of what I did with them yesterday. It's a simple thing to skin them, save the seeds and clean them well enough for use. The entire process took me about 10 minutes yesterday.

The trick to easy processing is to allow the luffas to go brown and dry completely before you process them. That can be done either on the vine or picked. Our luffas tend to develop mildew in our warm and humid summer weather, and if that happens to yours too, it's not a problem. Just let them dry naturally. They will be ready for picking and processing when the skin is dark brown and very dry. If you pick one up in your hand, it will be very light, because all the flesh inside has dried up, leaving only a skeleton of fibres. When they're at that stage, pick them and lay them on a table outside in the shade for a day or so to completely dry out.

Break the end off where they were attached to the vine. That little disc will come away from the luffa really easily. When it does, tap the luffa on the table a few times to dislodge the seeds, and tip them out. There are quite a few seeds in each one so keep tapping them until all the seeds are out.

In the photo above you'll see one luffa that has no mildew and one (behind) that has.

Listen ... it's sublime.

This is Australian man Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu singing Bapa. Geoffrey has been blind since birth and he sings in "language". He speaks and sings almost no English. His language is Yolngu from Elcho Island. There are subtitles on this clip so you will know what he's singing about. But the true reason for listening to this is to hear and see his extraordinary talent.

There is a cyclone off the coast heading towards us. Currently a category 3, it is predicted to move up a notch and be category 4 later today. Here is the latest map. We live just under the bottom of the cloud mass, about half way up the east coast of Australia. If tropical cyclone Hamish doesn't move away from the coast, it will move south, towards us. Later today we'll move the sun shade sheets of roofing iron in the chook yard and generally tidy up so there is nothing to fly around in the strong winds. I'll come back on Sunday to let you know what's happening.

I always like doing those simple tasks that connect me with my history - washing up, sweeping, raising chickens, gardening and stitching are all things my great, great grandmas would have done. And they would probably have reflected that the same things they were doing had been done by their many times great grandmothers as well. Many of the things we do in our lives now are far removed from the past, but I rest assured that when I plunge my hands into warm soapy water to wash the dishes, when I pick up my broom and when I stitch, I am doing exactly what's been done by women and men throughout our long history. That makes me feel good.

This throw/rug/afghan/blanket/blankie pattern will be as simple as you want to make it. You choose the stitches you're familiar with or follow what I'm doing. The stitches I choose will be easy - just a combination of plain and purl - but they'll produce textured squares. I found this list of knitting abbreviations that has many videos of the stitch they're describing, attached. If you're a beginner, look at "K" for the plain (knit) stitch and "P" for the purl. Both have videos attached that show the stitch.


I started off doing one garter stitch square, which is just cast on, plain knit stitch, cast/bind off, and one in stocking/stockinette stitch. That is cast on, one row of plain, followed by one row of purl until the desired square size was reached, then cast/bind off. My squares are using 28 stitches. If you're going smaller or larger, go up or down four stitches, because the textured patterns I'm using work in sets of four. Using 28 stitches gives me 7 sets of 4 stitches. I'm using 8 ply yarn on no.7 needles. You will also need a straight ruler.

Let me say right here that I'm not an expert knitter. There are many very good knitters here though so if you get stuck, make a comment and I, or one of our knitting buddies, will help you.

A couple of the ladies commented that joining the squares together is a bit of a task, so I'm going to join strips together as I go, and then join the strips at the end. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to join the squares? I would like to hand stitch with yarn but I'm not sure how practical that is.

This is the textured stitch I'll be doing today:
MOCK DOUBLE RIB - It looks like rib but doesn't stretch like normal rib.

Abbreviations: p = purl, k = knit (plain)

Cast on 28 stitches
1st row: k to the end
2nd row: p1, k2, p2 and repeat until you get to the last 3 stitches - then do k2, p1.
Keep repeating rows 1 and 2 until you have what looks like a square. Then measure your knitting - whatever the width is, you will need to keep knitting until you reach the same measurement in length.
When you've reached that length and you have a square, cast/bind off.

Everyone will have different tension in their knitting, so our knitting will either be tighter or looser. Your 28 stitches might be 6 inches, mine might be 5.5 inches, someone else's might be 4.5 inches. That is all good - the measurement we are aiming for is a 28 stitch square and whatever size your knitting tension gives you is fine, as long as all your squares turn out the same size.

It's always wonderful starting out on a new knitting project but this one has that added bonus of knitting alongside friends, all doing the same project. I really like that! Thank you for joining me - now let's begin and make up some fine looking blankets.

I don't make a list for myself any more, I used to, but now my daily rhythm sweeps me along. But if there were such a list in my home, every day, in among the housekeeping tasks, without fail, Rhonda-keeping tasks would be listed too. 'Talk to Hanno, smile, relax, sew and knit, enjoy yourself and get enough sleep' have as much to do with keeping my home in order as sweeping the floor and baking bread. Without those elements in my day, it's just a list of chores, and while I find joy in working at home now, it wasn't always so and might not always be. I need to relax, smile, talk, knit and sew to enjoy what I'm doing.

I know I'm in that laid back phase of my life now, and there are many of you who are run off your feet with the work you need to do each day, but my days are also full to bursting at the moment, so I make sure I look after myself as I go. If I don't who will? No one. It's not Hanno's job to walk around with me and make me smile, I have no personal assistant who tells me to sit down and have morning tea while she types up a report for me, or does a couple of pages of book writing. It is my responsibility to do what I can to look after my well being as I work. If I don't do that, my well being will run off down the street screaming "I told you so!"

So every day I make time for morning tea on the front verandah. Hanno and I reconnected out there when we both gave up work. For years we'd worked in our jobs, separated every day, and too busy to talk at night. Those morning teas and the talking that went with them brought us back together again, it reinvented US. That 30 - 40 minutes not only gives us a rest after our early morning work, it also sets us up for the rest of the day, we discuss plans, solve problems and draw closer to each other. It also helps us do an extra 60 minutes work for the investment of that restful 30.

I have written before about not seeing knitting and sewing as a craft, but instead as part of my housework. I love to sew, but when I do, I am producing items for our home, or mending clothes or sheets, making curtains, or sewing on buttons, applying patches or restitching a hem. All things that allow us to keep using what we already own or to create what we need from what we already have. Looking after our clothes and soft furnishings is part of my house work. And so is knitting dishcloths, rugs, tea cosies, hats, mittens and scarves. So I don't feel I'm taking time for myself when I knit or sew, even though I love doing it, it's part of my housework.

Finding joy in daily life is just one of the ways I have made this housework thing work for me. Instead of being the misery it used to be, I look for ways to enjoy my day, I smile, talk, relax and rest when I feel like it. It makes a difference, especially on the busiest of days. But you have to remind yourself to do it when you start, so make a written list, or a mental one, and list what you need to do to enjoy your day. And then, even if it puts you behind a bit, do it - look after yourself so you can look after your family. If you get sick, or if you hate what you're doing, everyone will suffer. So give yourself time to do a few things you enjoy throughout the day. Rest. Sit down with a cup of coffee and talk to the children, or who ever is in the house. If no one is there, email or phone a friend. Look for joy in your day, find happiness in the pantry, reinvent your routines so they work for you, and respect the work you do for you are making a warm and comfortable home, and that is one of the most important jobs there is.

Although I knit all year long, autumn and winter seem to be the seasons I dive head first into it. I love knitting, not only do I make those things I need around the house and unique gifts for family and friends, knitting keeps me sane. It's like meditation. The repetition, the clicking of the needles, the feel of the yarn between my fingers, and the slowness of it as one by one the stitches form a new creation, all combine to comfort and calm, even on the hectic days.

In the first bag I came across "The Art of Knitting", a series of booklets for new knitters. They are full of small and easy to knit projects, with clear instructions and good photos. The thing that caught my eye was a reoccuring project that features in every edition - a Shaker-style throw rug. It's made of wool scraps and leftovers from other projects and each edition features a different stitch, colour or decoration. It's like a sampler quilt in that you can be learning a new stitch on the 15cm x 15 cm (6 inch x 6 inch) squares that are all joined together to form the rug. This is the perfect project for me. It's something that is portable, small, easy, yet it will make up into something more complex and very functional. I'm starting on it this week.


If you can find "The Art of KNitting" at the newsagent, it looks like a good investment to me. If you'd like to join in on this project, I'm happy to share the details of what I'm doing with you. I'm not following their instructions, I'm just going with the idea of it and working with whatever stitch I feel like doing. The squares are made sometimes of textured stitches and sometimes garter stitch or stocking stitch. The textured squares still use plain and purl stitches, but in differing ways that make up textured patterns. You can either make many squares using different patterns in different colours, or find a pattern you like and knit it into squares, just changing the colours. We will be making squares, like patches for a patchwork quilt. The size you make is your decision, it could be a knee rug, a baby's crib rub or a larger queen size bed quilt. All you need to do to make it bigger is knit more squares until you have the size you want. I think it would be a nice idea to show our finished rugs, if you have a blog, you can show your progress and the finished rug on your blog. If you don't have a blog, send me a photo of your finished rug and I'll include it in my final rug post at the end of winter.

I'm starting on a ladder pattern square, but if you have a knitting book of stitch samples (or search online), you could choose any pattern you like the look of and knit it to the 15cm or 6 inch square size. I'm using no. 6 (4 mm) needles with 8 ply acrylic yarn. I usually don't knit with acrylic but I have a fair bit of it here that's been given to me and I'd like to use it up. If you want to use pure wool, or a natural pure yarn or blend, go ahead. As long as you end up with squares the right size, you'll be right. I'll be decorating some of my squares with simple embroidery and backing it with polar fleece, but we can talk about that later.

So, do I have anyone willing to knit along with me?

Autumn is creeping up on us, slowly but surely, it's cooling down at night, and while the days are still hot, I know Autumn is there, waiting. It's my favourite time of year. We don't have pronounced seasons in the sub tropics, some say we have only two - summer and winter, but the subtlety of autumn, and the explosion of spring are there, but they're most noticeable to a gardener. So as I see the leaves yellow on our neighbour's magnificent front yard tree, and veins appear on our wisteria, I prepare myself for the new vegetable garden.

It's taking shape slowly, the way gardens should. One day a mass of weeds, bare patches and old plants hanging on, the next, weeds have gone, perennials transplanted, soil dug and raked. Compost is turned over and moistened. Plans are drawn. Bricks realigned, herbs cut back, vines trimmed.


A pineapple is moved. :- ) A garden inches its way towards a new season.


Hanno has planted corn, bok choi, chives, green onions, red onions, brandywine, amish paste, moneymaker and oxheart tomatoes, Richmond Green cucumbers, green beans, potatoes, capsicums (peppers) and lettuce. Yet to go are leeks, sugarloaf cabbage, kale, peas, carrots, radishes, turnips and white onions. There may be other odds and ends that go in too, but that is the basis of our food for the next few months.


Now they're in and growing, the seedlings will need extra care until they're properly established. If there is no rain, we'll water them every day, the tomatoes have already been mulched right up to their stems to encourage extra roots to grow where we place the mulch. The more roots we encourage along the stem, the more tomatoes we will get. Newly transplanted seedlings have been watered in with a seaweed solution to help with transplant shock, the newly established plants, like the potatoes, are watered with a weak solution of blood and bone and potash. The flowers are slowly arriving, when most of the plants have flowers, we'll give them a good watering, then wait while the potatoes grow big enough to harvest - first with us pinching new potatoes from the sides, and then later, digging the whole garden up and storing what we find. There is always something to do in a vegetable garden. The work is rewarding and interesting and you get paid in the freshest organic produce. No wonder gardening is a big part of us now.

So what are you planting this year?

It's been a very full weekend here. From the minute I wrote the Biggest Kitchen Table post, It's been non-stop. I've been visiting friends, Shane and Sarndra have been here, and we've been settling in some new chooks and Princess, Sarndra's little black cat.

But the most important new addition to our home has been Sarndra. In all these years of being married, then having babies, I've always been the only woman. Shane and Sarndra are staying here, on and off, while they prepare to go to New Zealand for a holiday. They finished up at their jobs last Friday and have brought all their worldly possessions to our place for safe keeping. Having Sarndra here these past couple of days has been an absolute pleasure for me. There is giggling, someone else's dresses and skirts, and order; Sarndra is tidy. So the bed is made, she helps with dishes and folds things, and she talks, the way we women do. She seems to be very comfortable with Hanno and I. :- ) We talked about babies the other day, and Shane, and a whole lot of other innocent inconsequential topics that, with another person, may not seem important, but between us, are creating a glue that will hold us together for many years. It's the first time I've formed this kind of friendship and I know it could go wrong, but I've seen no bad bits yet, it's been the best kind of discovery. I know we are all flawed, well I know I am, so I hope when I see her not so good side, and she sees mine, we will take it all in and accept it as part of our all too human package. She is all I ever hoped for in a daughter-in-law and I am really pleased she's here and part of our lives now.

Hello all. Our dish/tea towel and pot holder swap seems to be chugging along just fine. Don't forget to e-mail Rose (rosmar at 1earth dot net) or myself Sharon (cdetroyes at yahoo dot com) if you have any problems. Now for another, ahem, yes, you guessed it, swap. Rhonda would like to start up a seed swap. We will be swapping heirloom seeds only. The rules for this swap are very strict. You may only swap within your country and even with in specific territories or states of some countries, such as Australia. If you are interested in swapping heirloom seeds (not the seeds you get at your local big box store), please leave me your name, your country, your territory or state, and your e-mail address (spelled out please). Those ladies who had offered to help with seed swaps please e-mail me, Sharon, (cedtroyes at yahoo dot com) if you wish to help with this seed swap. Rhonda is thinking of making seed swaps a regular happening around here, so if you are interested in this please leave a comment for us, too. Sharon

The concept of the world's biggest kitchen table was hatched in January when we discussed chickens; now we go on to preserving/canning in a water bath. The idea is that I write my post here, and if you have a blog, you write a post about preserving/canning the way you do it. When you write your post, leave a comment, with a link to your post and we'll all move around, reading all the kitchen table posts. If you want to use the biggest kitchen table badge (above) please do so. When you visit someone's blog who is part of the kitchen table discussion, please be kind enough to leave a comment. If you're a learner, and want to ask a question, do so in the comments section, and anyone with experience can answer. Hopefully, each question will have a few answers. I don't have time to transfer the links like I did last time. Please leave your link in comments, and we'll all find you from there.

The weather is to blame. Cold, snowy winters in the northern hemisphere and mild winters in Australia, have given us differing ways of processing our food. My understanding is that in North America, meat, fish, vegetables and fruit are all processed in pressure canners and stored for those long cold months when nothing can be grown on the farm or in the backyard and it's too cold and snowy for hunting. Of course, people back in long gone days relied on having those stores to tide them over, now many of us are able to go to the store to buy pineapples from Thailand, salmon from Alaska and peaches from Greece. Modern commerce has bypassed the seasons and the need for having the skills to 'put up' enough food to keep a family going for many months is fading fast.


In Australia, where the climate is not so harsh in winter, preserving food to see families through the winter hasn't been seen as such a priority. There is a long, fine tradition of homesteaders 'putting up' food, because they were so far away from the shops, and they would do that when the season was high and crops were plentiful. But in the cities, apart from bottling a favourite tomato sauce, jam or chutney, or backyard peaches, plums and cherries, which were all done in a water bath, preserving took a back seat.

So let's acknowledge that southern and northern hemispheres do things differently, and work from there. Also, this post is about preserving/canning in a water bath, not pressure canning. I don't have a pressure canner so I cannot advise you about them. However, these kitchen table posts work because we all write about what we do, so if you're preserving/canning with a water bath or pressure canner, and want to write about that on your blog, please leave your link so we can read it, and learn.

I also want to warn you that preserving food in jars has been done for a long time so many different methods have been developed. But there are dangers. People have died from Botulism poisoning, but it is very rare. Don't use an old preserving/canning book as a guide. Most of the guidelines have been updated in the past 20 years. Please be guided by your thermometer, the information available and your common sense.

Water bath processing is suitable for high acid foods like tomatoes, rhubarb and sauerkraut and some foods to which acid, in the form of vinegar or lemon juice, has been added.


FRUGAL SETUP
I have written about preserving in the past, and will give you those links for easy reference later in the post, times and methods are in those posts. I want to use this post to tell you about setting up a water bath from scratch and, hopefully, from what you already have in your home. You can do that by using the largest stockpot you have. You will need a pot that you can boil on the stove, that will allow you to have at least an inch of water over the top of your tallest jar. You'll also need a tea/dish towel folded up to prevent the jars touching the hot bottom of the pan. You could also use newspaper or a round cake cooler.


RECYCLED JARS
The other requirement for this poor man's preserving setup is a collection of jars. Jars that have been used for food, can be used for this task. Check the lid, it's best to have those little poptop lids, that have a thin ring of rubber on the inside. That will help you seal the jar. I have a large collection of jars of all shapes and sizes. I use them for preserving and for storing a wide rage of odds and ends. Jars are valuable - don't throw them away. Some people advise against using old jars but I have been using them for many years and have never had a problem. You must make your own decision on what equipment you use and make sure you check your jars and lids and throw away any that are damaged, dented, rusted or chipped. When recycling jars, don't use anything larger than a litre/quart as there is no guarantee that the heat necessary to kill bacteria will penetrate into the middle of a firmly packed large jar.

CHECKING THE JARS
When you've finished processing your jars according to the times suggested, take them from the pot and place them on a towel on the bench. Now you'll have to check that the jars have sealed correctly, because if they haven't, you won't be able to store them in the cupboard, they'll have to be eaten straight away, or stored in the fridge. To check the jars, look at the poptop on the lid. Sometimes they invert while they're in the pot, sometimes they invert when sitting on the bench. Push them with your finger to check. When they're cool, if any have a poptop that hasn't inverted, it hasn't sealed properly; put it in the fridge.

You will need a thermometer. I use a milk thermometer that I bought for $15 at a kitchen store. I clip it to the side of the pan and monitor the temperature while the jars are in there.


PROCESSING
The basic idea behind preserving/canning is that you add your fruit or vegetables to a jar, or make up your favourite jam, sauce or relish as normal, then add it to hot clean jars, seal and place in the stockpot, not touching. Bring the water to the boil, then time the load, keeping it at the necessary consistent temperature. A time guide is in the instructions for water bath processing below. And that's it - you remove the jars when the time is up, let them cool on the bench, check that they have sealed correctly, then store in your cupboard. This sort of food is not suitable as kitchen decoration, light will make the food lose colour and the shelf life is much shorter if it's exposed to light. Use recipes suitable for preserving, there are many books around with a wealth of good preserving recipes.

Most of the preserving I do is not to keep us going through the leaner seasons, our garden does that, it's to make a delicious sauce from a glut of tomatoes, to make the most of a cheap or free box of peaches, or to make jams and relishes. All those things I make are family favourites now and all much tastier and cheaper than anything bought at the supermarket. If I make a small amount of jam, chutney, beetroot, bread and butter cucumbers, I pour them into hot jars, and when they're cool, they're stored in the fridge instead of being processed and stored in the cupboard. Larger portions of all those things would be processed in a water bath and stored in the cupboard. At the moment, I have three jars of rosella jam, six jars of strawberry jam, and some relish. At other times I might have double that amount, plus a few jars of peaches. All our beans, corn, carrots and peas are frozen, we dry other things like chillies and herbs, but most of our food is fresh.

So as you can see, a lot depends on your climate, whether you have a garden or not, or access to cheap seasonal fruit and vegetables. I think preserving/canning is a great skill to develop. Used in conjunction with other methods of long term storage, it will give you good food out of season, or allow you to make your favourite jam or tomato sauce and have it ready in the cupboard.

LINKS TO MY PRESERVING POSTS
Instructions for water bath preserving + some recipes
More water bath preserving
Preserving your harvest
Rosella Jam
Making ginger beer
Fruit cordials
Roasted Capsicum and Tomato Relish
Bread and Butter Cucumbers
Beetroot
Strawberry jam

If you're already well into preserving/canning, please share your knowledge with us. If you're a novice, I hope you decide to learn about processing food this way. Do some reading, if you know someone who is already doing it, ask if they will teach you. There is nothing like hands on learning. Start small, by putting up a few jars using recycled jars and a big stockpot, and if you like the process, and intend to carry on in larger quantities, look around for a cheap processing unit. Make sure you're aware of the dangers before you start, and we guided by that knowledge and your readings. It's a big topic, but well worth the effort. I hope you enjoy this discussion around the world's biggest kitchen table, now it's over to you.

Thank you for coming by, leaving your comment and sharing yourself with me. I so enjoy reading about what you are doing. I live in my world, but I also live in THE world, and I am thankful that we can connect here and learn from each other. Take care.