I have been amazed and delighted in these past few months to see the mainstream media finally give time and space to the problems associated with Global Warming and Peak Oil. It’s been a long time coming. These two problems alone, even without factoring in the current drought conditions we’re experiencing, are enough to worry a lot of us. Some people seem to be so frightened by these problems that they are unable to do anything. Some believe that technology will save us all. Others believe there is little we can do. The vast majority though do know a little about the mess we’re in, but continue on regardless. While I’m aware that no one is really one hundred percent sure how to assist in the recovery of the environment, I do know we got into this mess by each and every thing we all do in our modern lives, and we can lend a hand in reversing the trends by stopping such careless extravagance and by taking small steps back to equilibrium - by living simply.

Every one of us has a part to play in this recovery. It is not too difficult. It requires that we all monitor our spending, cut back on our excesses, produce some of our own food and work towards a healthy future one step at a time.

One of the small steps to take when you’ve got your spending under control is to learn how to produce some of your own food. With worldwide food shortages now in their second year and the drought continuing, countries like Australia and the US, that supply much of the world’s wheat and meat, just can’t keep up with the demand. It’s a worrying sign that most people are ignoring. In the future, food will be much more expensive as there will be less of it grown on an international scale and less fuel to transport it around. The fuel that is used will be more expensive. The days of cheap food are coming to an end. Now is the time to learn how to garden and store food effectively, and to cook well using those foods you produce and stockpile.

If you don't already have a productive vegetable garden, now is the time to start one, or to plan one for the next growing season in your area. There is much to be done. First audit your own food preferences and work out how much of that food you could grow in your own backyard. You should work out a plan for bartering in your area. Swapping what you can grow for things you can't is a great thing to factor into your food plan. You'll also have to learn how to store all your food safely.

We've talked about budgeting here and having a spending plan, we talk about menu plans but we also need to think about a food plan. Where will the food come from that you use in your menu plan? How much will you have to put aside in your spending plan for food next year and the year after?

As wives and mothers we are the organisers of food in our homes. If the food shortages continue and grow worse, as they are predicted to do, how will you continue to feed your family within the confines of your budget? Your food plan should answer questions like: 'how much food do we eat in a month?', 'what kind of foods do we eat?', 'where does that food come from?', 'can I produce some of our food?', 'what foods are produced in my local area?', 'can I produce something that I can barter for local milk, eggs, bread, meat etc?'

I'll continue to write about food plans as they're an important part of our simple lives. In the meantime, start your own food plan and ask yourself all those important questions about the chain of supply. It will stand you in good stead in the coming months.

I've had a few emails recently from people wanting to simplify but they don't know what their first step should be. No matter what style of simple life you want for yourself, you'll need to have your finances in order, so the first step is to track your money. This is a simple process where you take a small notebook with you wherever you go and every time you buy something, you write it down in your note book. You must be consistent and mark down everything, even the smallest amounts.

You'll get a fairly good idea of what you're spending habits are at the end of a week, but keep your tracking going for a month to get a more accurate picture. Tracking your money might not reveal what's really important to you but it will show you what is important enough for you to spend money on it. You'll discover what your priorities are, what your spending patterns are and you can then use this information to change habits and focus on positive spending, like debt reduction.

I doubt there is anyone who hasn't wondered at some point where their money went in a particular pay period. Often we're so tied up with work, or the children, or things that are happening in our lives that we spend without knowing it. We may also be spending small amounts frequently without thinking how those small amounts add up over a longer period. For instance, if you're buying a coffee every morning on your way to work, or when you meet your girlfriends after you've all dropped off the children at school, I bet you'll be surprised how much that will add up to over the course of a year. If that coffee is $3.50 a cup, that's $17.50 a week, $70 a month and if you buy it for ten months in a year, that's $700 for one cup of coffee. I'm not saying that you should stop having your coffee, but make it at home, put it in a Thermos and take it with you. Or invite the girls back to your home for coffee. If there are four of your, you're all paying someone $2,800 to make a cup of coffee for you. That money could make an extra payment on your mortgage or be saved in the bank for an emergency.

Once you'll got a month's tracking done, look critically at what you're spending your money on. I bet you'll be surprised. Who knew those weekly magazines would add up to $800 over a year, surely your $5 lunch at work isn't costing you $1000 a year, your new mobile phone deal, with all those cute extras, can't be costing $900 a year! It's incredible how all those tiny amounts, when added up, cost far more than we thought and far more than they're worth.

I'm not telling you to give up all your small pleasure, but choose your pleasures wisely and know, really know, what they are costing you. When you know the full cost of something - not just the monetary cost, but also what you have to give up and how long you have to work to pay for something, you often don't want it anymore because the cost is too great.

So if you're wanting to simplify, start by tracking what your spend. It will be one of your first exercises in the self discipline of simple living and hopefully it will show you not only how your money is slowly leaking out of your life, but how to stop those leaks and start using your money to help you live the way you want to live.

Today is a day of preparation for me because aside my normal daily chores, I’m preparing for the arrival of my sister. We’ve finished breakfast and Hanno has been to the farmers market near here to buy some fruit and a few odds and ends he needs. I will wash up shortly, clean the kitchen and sweep the floors. Instead of baking bread this morning, I’ll bake this afternoon so we’ll have fresh warm bread with our meal tonight. That simple meal will be pasta with my own preserved tomato sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. We’ll have a crisp fresh salad from the garden as well, and cold watermelon wedges for dessert.

My most put off task, ironing, has been half completed and I’ll finish it off before lunch. After lunch I’ll make the bed up for Tricia, pick a small posy of flowers for her room and arrange a radio for her bedside. She is one who wakes in the middle of the night and likes to listen to the radio while she settles back into sleep. I will check her bathroom too and make sure there is homemade soap and some organic shampoo, and maybe another posy of flowers should find its way in there too. After lunch I have more lettuces and cucumbers to plant and I’ll tidy the front verandah as I know it will be in constant use over the coming couple of weeks.

It is at times like these, when I want to welcome someone special to my home and extend a healing heart, that I realise how much my home means to me. It really is so much more than bricks and mortar. It then becomes a place of shelter, not just from the weather but from everything else too. When we are here, it is just us; just this family, with no thoughts or cares for what is outside our fence. When we are here, this is a place where we can reconnect with each other, slow down time, or ignore it; we can wake when we choose, sleep and rest in the warm spring air on the verandahs and listen to the birds zip by. The breeze will rustle leaves and make them to spin gently to the ground and we will sit and talk and drink cool cordial and hot tea and forget for a while that the outside world isn’t as enriching as this.

Christi from Leah

Tami from Elizabeth

Tracy from Jayedee

Marianna from Morgan

Morgan from Marianna

Deb from Rhonda Jean

Rhonda Jean from Deb

Rhonda Jean from Kimberly

Kathleene from Emme

Lenny from Niki

Niki from Lenny

Linda from Aimee

Polly from Mrs Mk


Cheryl (cooper'swife) from Jenny (wren)

Jenny from Cheryle (cooperswife)

Heather from Lisa

My sister Tricia is two years older than me, next year we will both be in our sixties. When I look at that sentence, I know it is true, but I can barely believe it.

She has lived all her life in Sydney and the Blue Mountains (just outside Sydney). Her husband, she was also married to a German man, died suddenly a few years ago so the past few years have been hard for her. She's been trying to keep a business going, keep a family together and keep her sanity. When we were younger, we were worlds apart, now we've grown much closer and we have a very good relationship. It's one of the great parts of growing older. You mellow (well I did) and accept people, warts and all. I wish I had done that when I was younger. I had very strong views in my younger years and I wish I would have lightened up a bit much earlier than I did. I have said before in this blog, I'm a slow learner sometimes. Tricia's main wart, as far as I was concerned, was that she liked football. See! I told you. Dumb.

Anyhow, all this is the preamble to tell you that Tricia is coming to visit us tomorrow. She'll stay for a couple of weeks. I'm really happy that she'll be spending some time with us. She wants to relax, swim, visit, sleep, come to work with me and read. Oh, she's also helping me make some curtains - she is bringing some curtain fabric she bought for me in Sydney. I'm really looking forward to it.

Tricia loves fruit cake. I made her this one that we can have for morning teas while she's here. Brandy was poured over it while it was still hot from the oven. For medicinal purposes, of course.

FESTIVE FRUIT CAKE

This cake will keep for many weeks. Wrap it in greaseproof paper and the tightly wrap it in aluminium foil.

Before you start your preserving session, wash all your jars and lids and run your fingers around the rims to check for chips or cracks. Check the lids for dents, rust or holes. Never use damaged jars or lids.

I only sterilise the jars and lids if I'm not going to process them in a water bath. Sometimes I know something won't last a long time, so after it's cooked, I place it in a sterilized jar and store it for a few weeks in the fridge. If the jars will be filled and sterilized in a water bath, they need to be warm/hot when the hot food is placed in them to prevent cracking.

Always use new rubber rings and soak them before using them. It makes them easier to put on the jar.

Now you are ready to deal with the contents of the jars. This can be either a recipe like jam or chutney that you cook and pour, boiling hot, into the jar, or fruit that you add syrup to, or vegetables (pickles) that you add spiced vinegar to.

If you're cooking jam, make it according to your recipe and using your wide mouth funnel, pack the jars to within about 7mm (¼ inch) of the jar top. This is called headspace and is the space you allow for the content to expand, when boiling, without bursting out of the jar. If you're using FV jars, put the rubber ring, lid and clip on. If you're using screw on lids, screw them on fairly tightly, but not too tight.

If you're packing fruit or pickles, pack your jars firmly and neatly, using a packing stick or wooden spoon handle to remove any air bubbles. Air in the jar will cause mould to form when the jar is being stored. When the jar is packed, pour syrup, fruit juice or water over the fruit and the spiced vinegar over the pickles to within about 8mm (¼ inch) of the jar top.

Wipe the jars to make sure no jam or syrup is on the jars. Place the jars into your processor/pot. If you can cover the jars by 1 or 2 inches or so of water, do so.

Bring the processor/pot slowly up to the boil - this will take 45 to 60 minutes. When it's slowly boiling, hold it at a slow boil for another 45 minutes for small jars, for 1 hour for large jars and for 90 minutes for very large jars. When the time is up, using your canning tongs, remove the jars to sit on a tea towel on the bench to cool slowly for 24 hours. The prolonged heat will form a vacuum in the jars and you'll notice the lids will be slightly inverted, or the poptop will be inverted.

When the jars are cool, check that all poptops on the lids are inverted, remove clips from the FV jars and make sure all the jars are sealed. If you're unsure, or it there has been a spillage, put that jar in the fridge as use it as soon as you can. All the jars must have a perfect seal to be stored in a cupboard.

Don't be tempted to display your jars on an open shelf. They will lose their colour. If you want long term storage, the jars should be stored in a cool dark cupboard. They will keep well for about a year without losing their nutrition.

TO MAKE SYRUP FOR FRUIT
Light - 1 cup sugar to 3 cups of water makes 3½ cups of syrup
Medium - 1 cup sugar to 2 cups of water makes 2 cups of syrup
Heavy - 1 cup sugar to one cup of water makes 1¾ cups of syrup

Add the above quantities to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Allow to cool. You could also use fruit juice, honey, molasses or golden syrup instead of sugar but it will add another flavour to your fruit. Fruit may also be preserved in plain water but it won't keep as well as that preserved in a sweet liquid.

Artificial sweeteners are not recommended for preserving as they develop a bitter taste over time.

TO MAKE SPICED VINEGAR FOR PICKLES
Please note, good quality vinegar need to be used for preserving, with an acetic acid content of at least 5%. The following vinegars are all good to use: brown malt, white malt, balsamic, white wine, red wine or apple cider.

1½ cups vinegar
¾ cup water
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon peppercorns
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon pure salt (sea salt or kosher salt)
2 bay leaves

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain off the chunky bits before using.

MY TOMATO RELISH
Will make up approximately 3½ kg or 7½lbs of relish

2 kg (4½ lb) ripe tomatoes
1 kg (2.2lb) chopped onions
3 chopped capsicums (peppers)
3 sticks celery very finely chopped or you could use 2 zucchini
2 green apples, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon pure salt
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder
650 grams (1½lb) brown sugar
900 mls (1½ pints) vinegar

Place all in a steel saucepan and mix. Slowly bring to the boil with the lid off and allow to simmer until it thickens up. Stir frequently to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pan.

STRONG SPICED VINEGER
1 litre (1 quart) vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
6 whole cloves
4 small pieces of fresh ginger - slightly crushed OR ½ teaspoon powdered ginger
4 bay leaves

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain off the chunky bits before using.

I'll type up some recipes for jam and sauce later.

Preserving food in jars is something of a mystery to many people but bottling/canning is one of the skills of simple living that will allow you to extend the life of some of your seasonal produce, to eat good quality food with no chemical preservatives and to save money.

It's an old skill that our grannies took for granted and we forgot about because we could buy all our goods in jars already processed for us. The problem with those commercially processed goods is that we don't know what's in them and often they contain artificial colourings, flavour enhancers and preservatives that are not good for our health. Home grown and home preserved food, withus adding what we want to suit our own taste, is the way bottled food should be. Pure and simple.

I have never used a pressure canner and when I talk about bottling/canning here, I am only writing about water bath preserving. It is suitable for high acid foods like fruit, or foods that vinegar or lemon juice have been added to. It is not suitable for preserving meat, vegetables, fish, soups or any non-acid food. They must be processed in a pressure canner.

Some will come to this type of preserving as a step towards self sufficiency, others will do it for its economy and others still for the quality and wide variety of jams, chutneys, sauces and pickles that water bath preserving will help you add to your stockpiling cupboard. Last night I used the last of my tomato relish - bottled in November 2006. That one bottling session of about 3 hours last November allowed me to keep my home grown tomato relish in the cupboard for almost a full year. The relish is a recipe I've developed over time, has no chemical preservatives, colourings or flavours enhancers. I use it for pizza bases, on sandwiches, with salads and eggs. It's delicious and it's something I would never be able to buy at a supermarket. But I can make it myself and I make enough for a year and to give as gifts. These treasures should be part of your kitchen tradition. You can start your own tradition and teach it to your children so that these simple skills, even if they are forgotten in the general community, are never forgotten in your family.

The last of the tomato relish, about to be spread on some homemade pizza dough I had in the freezer. On top we had caramelised onions and two cheeses. It was truly a delicious and quick homemade meal.

I am going to warn you that you need to know what you're doing, and the reasons for doing it, if you are to safely preserve food in jars. This way of preserving uses heat to kill bacteria and to seal jars so that new bacteria can't enter while the food is being stored. On the other hand, storing food in a freezer stops most bacteria growing and frozen food can be kept for months. Food stored in a fridge is a kind of short term preserving. It does not kill bacteria, it just slows down the rate at which bacteria multiply. This is why if you keep meat of milk etc in the fridge, it will start to go off after a couple of weeks - the bacteria have multiplied enough to spoil the food. When you process high acid foods in a water bath, it kills the bacteria and the sealed jar stops further contamination - you've sterilised the food. This food doesn't have to be frozen or refrigerated, it can be kept in a cupboard because there is no bacteria present.

Vegetables are low in natural acid and may contain bacteria that is not killed by the heat generated in a water bath. If these foods are stored in a cupboard in a sealed container, the botulism toxin can develop. These foods need to be processed in a pressure canner which can reach the high temperatures necessary to kill this bacteria. In the US, there are about ninecases of botulism poisoning every year. That not a high incidence but botulism poisoning can be fatal.

Fruit is generally high in acid which stops the growth of bacteria and stops the formation of the botulism toxin. If fruit is processed properly, and stored in a cupboard in sealed jars, it is safe to eat. Some properly processed vegetables, with added acid in the form of vinegar or lemon juice, are also safe.

If you are new to bottling/canning I urge you to buy a NEW copy of Secrets of Successful Preserving - Fowlers Vacola Instruction & Recipe Book if you're in Australia or New Zealand. If you're in North America a NEW copy of Ball Blue Book of Preserving and if you're in the UK or Europe a NEW copy of The Basic Basics Jams, Preserves and Chutneys. Or the 9th edition, or later, or Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest: 150 Recipes for Freezing, Canning, Drying and Pickling Fruits and Vegetables is also very good. The reason I emphasise a NEW copy, is that all these books have been published for many years and the old versions may contain instructions for the old ways of preserving which are unsafe. If you have preserving books from before the 1990s, the recipes in them probably aren't safe to use. All these preserving/canning processes - worldwide - were updated in the 1980s after many cases of botulism in the US. You must use a NEW book with the updated procedures and processing times.

I hope I haven't scared too many of you off. I would understand that many people would read the information above and decide this is too dangerous and not for you. Please be assured that if you bottle the recommended foods according to the instructions given here or in the new preserving books, you will produce good quality safe food. Following the instructions will protect you, they are there for a reason. One or two preserving/canning sessions will stand you in good stead and set you on the way to safe and delicious preserved food in jars.

Colleen asked for some book suggestions after my last post. Here are some I've read and am happy to recommend:

Australian Readers Digest book - Back to Basics - ISBN 0 86449 028 3. This book has information about building, crafts, preserving, growing food, cooking and baking and a lot more.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

The Permaculture Home Garden ISBN: 0-670-86599-Linda Woodrow

Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting by Lyn Bagnall. This is the best Australian organic gardening book I've read.

Backyard Self-sufficiency - Jackie French

Simple Living: One Couple's Search for a Better Life by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska

Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson

Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs, is not so much a practical guide but a guide to slowing down and reinvention.

Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin will transform the way you think about money.

ON THE NET

David Holmgren's Retrofitting the Suburbs for Sustainability, available here on pdf.

MAGAZINES

Warm Earth, Grass Roots and Earth Garden. All available at the newsagent and your local library, I hope. I will have an article in Warm Earth in January. In north America, Countryside magazine is one I enjoy very much. I had a friend who sent me a couple of copies from Canada.

I thought this might be a good time to let you know more about me. A few people have asked for that in the comments and in emails. I understand if you're not interested, just return tomorrow when I'll be returning to simple living subjects. Tomorrow's topic is bottling/canning/preserving.

I was born in Sydney and have one sister, Tricia, and one pretend sister, Kathleen. Tricia and I grew up at Strathfield and went to a convent school. When I left school, I worked briefly at an advertising agency, then started nursing. I did my nurses training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. After graduation, I worked at the Transplant Unit at Sydney Hospital and the Emergency Department at Balmain Hospital.

Sick of city life, in the mid-70s I went to live on Cape York, which is the pointy bit on the top of Australia. I ran a small hospital there on an aboriginal reserve and found a whole new wonderful world living with tribal aboriginees. They taught me a lot of things I still use today. Important things like showing respect, not judging others, loving one's family, generosity, kindness and how to live within nature without doing too much damage. Older women hold an esteemed place within aboriginal culture - they are teachers and are expected to pass on information to those younger. It is a position of trust and honour. I have often thought about those older women I knew when I was much younger. They are a big part of the reason I am blogging. I am trying to emulate their example by passing on what I know to younger people. It is something that used to be done in our culture in the past, but now older women are invisible and often viewed as passed their use by date. Not me though! I hope I am improving with age.

After Cape York I lived for a few months on Thursday Island, which is in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea. I was on my way back to Sydney from there when I called into Mount Isa to visit a friend I had known in Sydney. It was just before my 28th birthday and my friend convinced me to stay and have my birthday in Mount Isa. It was on my 28th birthday there that I met a very handsome German man named Hanno.

I didn't continue my journey.

In March 1979 we decided to go to Germany so I could meet his parents. He met mine on the way over there as we travelled back to Sydney then so he could meet my mum and dad before we left. We were going to stay in Germany for two months but ended up staying for two years. We were married there and ten months later in July, Shane was born. When he was three months old, we came back to Australia. Shortly after we arrived home, Hanno's mother died.

We stayed in Sydney with my parents for a couple of months but both of us wanted to leave the city and go back to the bush, so just after Christmas we headed back to Queensland. We bought a caravan and decided that Hanno would work in the coal mines. Just after we got back to Queensland, on the day John Lennon died, and when Shane was 12 weeks old, I realised I was pregnant again. Kerry was born in July.

After living in various towns with Hanno working as a heavy equipment fitter and me looking after our babies, we eventually settled in a mining town in Central Queensland. When the boys were in primary school I went back to serious study. I did a degree that I could study at home and majored in Journalism, Literature and Communication. I was already working to produce the local newspaper and went on to create a business on contract to MIM Holdings to write and publish the paper. I did that for 12 years. During that time I was often asked to write technical manuals for the mine and went on to form technical writing business. When we left there, I gave the newspaper business to my good friend Susan, who worked for me. When I was living in the bush I learnt a lot of the skills I now use like gardening, keeping chickens, stockpiling, baking bread, preserving etc. It was through necessity then as we were over three hours from the nearest supermarket.

In 1997, we moved to where we are living now. Shane had just finished school - he and Kerry went to boarding school in Townsville - and Kerry still had one year to go. Kerry used to fly home for school holidays and we'd ring him a few times a week. Shane went to university and started a degree in environmental science. He dropped out in his last year to become a chef. Kerry went straight into his chef's apprenticeship when he left school. They're now both fully qualified chefs.

Hanno retired when he left the mines, they asked him to go back, he went back but hated being there alone. He left after a few months and came back home to retire again. I was supporting the family with my technical writing business and Hanno settled in to be a house husband. He nearly drove us all nuts because he wanted things to be perfect all the time. We convinced him he needed to do something else. LOL He bought a shop in Montville, which is a small tourist type town fairly close by. We ran that shop for almost seven years.

While all this was going on, I was working in my business, occasionally travelling to the mines to collect information and take photos. I had two other people working with me. Every year I grew more discontent with my life and when I finished a year long contract with BHP (Australia's largest company) I knew I didn't want to do that kind of work any more. I saw unhappiness and backstabbing in the corporate world and I didn't want to be part of it. When my BHP contract ended, I closed my business.

I had no idea what I would do but I did know that if I wasn't going to work, I had to get rid of my housekeeper and start saving money so it would lessen the impact of me not working. I'd had a computer since 1988 so I used it to find information about how to live frugally. I discovered there was a name for what I wanted to do although the American version of frugal living in those days had every little environmental awareness. I found simple living through those frugal living sites. I searched my memory for how my mother and grandmother used to work in their own homes and I read as much as I could find on sustainability within a household context. I learnt all I could about frugal and simple living but with an emphasis on environmental issues, that lead me to the permaculture forums, which lead me to start aussieslivingsimply with Dan and a few others. Over this time I slowly developed my version of simple living. I started writing a book about it but now here I am blogging. I have used a lot of that book information here and I'm now working on some ebooks that I'll soon be selling here.

Well, that's me in a nutshell. We'll be moving on to more important things like preserving in the next post. : )