down to earth

We have come to the sad realisation that we are not makings ends meet. In the past month our fuel costs have risen from $120 a month to $150, and we are spending more on food. We have lived on our current budget for three years but in the past six months we have watched as prices rose, however, with a bit of juggling have been able to absorb those increases. But not any more. In the past, we spent less than our meager income and we had money left over at the end of most months. That money went to our emergency fund or our savings. We have been hoping for an increase in the pension but last week when our new Labor government handled down their first budget, that didn't happen. They increased the baby bonus to $5000, increased the day care allowance, gave tax cuts to families with young children, and taxed the rich, and for all those things I'm grateful, but we pensioners got nothing. We are a group who must live on a fixed income with ever rising prices.

Hanno and I will go through our budget tomorrow and work out how we can shuffle things around and what we can cut out. We're voluntarily living fairly close to the bone as it is. I guess I can now cut the "voluntarily" out of my simple living sentences. One thing is clear, we can't take anymore little trips out like our trip to the chook lady last week. We'll have to be more prudent with our car usage. I will also cut back on postage. I've budgeted $15 a month for that so when I get my current lot of postings in the mail, I might have to pull my head in for a while. We will need to concentrate more of producing food here, I will make sure we don't run short with our continuous planting and we'll be ever vigilant about what we can store for use later.

I'm going to set myself up again today for reading my electricity and water metres. I need to keep an eye on our usage and pull it back if possible. I'll read both metres this morning and check the metres every day - noting what we've done during that day like washing clothes and baking bread. I'll also have to cost out what we're spending on feed for our chooks, dogs and cat. There may be savings to be made there. There are a few things I can do in the kitchen to scale back our costs, I'll write about those in the coming weeks after I make sure all the changes actually work well.

I am so grateful to be debt-free and already living small. I am also grateful for our garden and that we have already reskilled ourselves for a situation like this. We will have to do without things we like, we'll not be able to go on the little driving holiday we planned for later in the year, but overall, unlike many others, we will be okay. We have some money in the bank and are definitely not about to be carted off to the poor house. My thoughts are with the many pensioners who are really struggling - paying rent or paying off a mortgage.

I'm going to see if I can earn some money from writing again. I did that for over 20 years so I hope I haven't lost my touch. If anyone has any contacts or ideas for me, I'd appreciate them.

Of course the real test in all of this is to cut back while still living life to its fullest. Now, more than ever, we'll find our joy with each other and in our home. There are many trials in life, and this is certainly not the most difficult one, so I don't want anyone feeling sorry for us. What I would like is your help with any new ideas about saving in these tough times. What have you done? Or what would you do if in a similar position?

I'm really pleased so many of you are interested in starting to stitch. It's a wonderful way to make beautiful gifts and it will help you create a 'uniquely you' home. These little stitcheries can decorate cushions, tote bags, quilts, aprons, dresses and cardigans as well as be made into wall hangings. They can be personalised by adding someone's name and you can add your favourite sayings by printing the text out at the right size from your computer and transferring that text to your fabric.

Stitchery is just a drawing on fabric that you colour by stitching the lines with coloured thread. If you're a good drawer, go ahead and freehand your pattern straight on to your fabric. If you need some help with design, there are some of my free patterns below that you can trace. Please modify them to suit your tastes too, I don't mind at all.

I have written about starting stitchery before, so please read this and be guided by the links for transferring designs onto fabric and how to do back stitch.

A fully equipped thread box will take a while to build up, but start with your favourite colours and slowly take it from there, adding new colours or different shades when you can afford them. Try to buy pure cotton or pure linen fabric. They are lovely to work with, sit nicely on other fabrics and will last a long time. If you're in Australia, I've recently found "handkerchief linen" at Spotlight. It's a very nice fabric and a half metre will do you nicely for a few projects. You will also need a backing for the fabric which helps anchor your stitches and gives a better finished result. If your local fabric shop doesn't stock this, you'll find it at your craft store.

When you choose your first piece of thread you'll notice the thread has six strands. You will only work with two strands at a time so you have to divide the thread, taking two strands for your work. You do this by cutting the required length of thread, don't make it too long, and then carefully pulling two threads away. Untwirl the main thread as you go.

The one stitch you'll use more than others is back stitch. Practise a few lines of back stitch before you start on your pattern. It's personal choice whether you use a hoop or not. I use one sometimes for smaller patterns, otherwise I just hold the fabric. Like everything else, this is about developing your own style and seeing how you work best with it. Learn the basics and then modify it to suit yourself.

Stitchery is a wonderful thing to do in summer or winter and it's very portable so you can take it with you when you go out. I hope you enjoy this very likeable past time. Like everything else in our lives, start slowly, buy the best quality fabric you can afford and be mindful of your work. People have been stitching for hundreds of years so with your stitchery you are joining the long tradition of handmade craft.

My patterns are here, here and here.

ADDITION: I've just found this wonderful embroidery tutorial on Purlbee.

If you know of any good free pattern sites, please share them with us.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave a comment on by anniversary post. I was quite amazed at all the comments and read each one with a broad smile. I am truly humbled by some of the comments, particularly the ones who wrote that they have changed their life in some way. They mean a lot to me, thank you.

I can't reply to all of you but please know I appreciate every comment, particularly those who have delurked to say hello and those who said hello for the first time. :- )

Cameron Elizabeth Stearns, I'll have a post tomorrow that will give you some stitches to practise. Good on you for having a go.

Gee Rachel L, I don't know what to say. I hope I don't let you down.

Gayze, next stop chickens! That's great. Enjoy your journey and let me know how you go with the chooks.

Cindi check out my next post - it's all about starting your stitchery.

Hi Paula! I'm glad you enjoyed this area. Don't give up on the tomatoes. You learn so much when they fail. I love the confidence for this season. Good luck!

Thank you Pippa. I'll have a photo of my Pippa for you soon. :- )

Hi Rhonda, my love to you and Simon!

Virginia, if you plant the cherry tomatoes, and some Roma types, they are not bothered by the fruit fly. I buy exclusion bags for my peaches, you might try those. You might have something similar to this over there.

Chookasmum, thanks for the help you've given with the swaps, Lorraine. You've been a true blessing to me and have helped the swaps continue.

Julia, I haven't forgotten you, I think of you most days and wonder how you're getting on. There will be more emails in the future but at the moment I'm busy in the garden and with family. Take care love.

Sharon, thank you so much for being a dear friend and for all the help you've given me with the swaps, they would have stopped if you and Lorraine weren't here.

Hi Myra, thank you for your support and your comments.

Hello catsister, good luck with those eggs. Let me know when they hatch please.

Hi shyperson, thank you for going to all that trouble to comment. I appreciate it. I hope you keep reading for a long time.

Stacey wall, thank you for your kind words. It warms my heart to know I'm helping people move towards a better life. Our humid climate brings a lot of powdery mildew with it. It's better to grow upwards in thsoe conditions becasue the humidity can dry off the leaves if they're exposed to the sun. That diary is for my work. I write down my appointments and meetings as well as lists of things I have to do during the day

Good luck with your retirement, Lizzie.

Thanks Annikka!

Simple fancies, it did take ages to write them all down - 3½ pages! I did it in between doing other things. Thanks for the suggestion for Renee.

Thanks River!

Yabusame, I love it when you comment. Thanks for holding the banner high for the men. You remind me a little bit of my son who is just starting to build his own simple life. I think it's great you make that tote bag for your girlfriend. I think she's a lucky girl.

Craftcherry, we buy grain mash - it's a combo of all sorts of cracked grains like corn, wheat, millet, sunflower seeds etc. We also give them greens from the garden, bread soaked in powdered milk and porridge. If you're Australian I wrote an article in the current Warm Earth magazine about how to feed chickens.

Rachel G, your kids have a great mum. Please tell your ten year old I said hello to him today.

Teresa (ladyfromthewoods) thank you, I'm really pleased you found what you needed in the blog. I will come back to those comments when I'm wondering why I should continue. I get in that space sometimes and I know reading all that loveliness will boost me up again.

Fifi, I'm pretty sure I sent all the photos of bags etc on to Sharon to post. Have you checked on the flickr page? If it's not there, resend it and I'll forward it on.

Sharron in UK, I don't know where the name of bread and butter cucumbers came from. It is a strange name, isn't it. Glad to hear you're using some of the recipes. The book is The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It. I read his Complete Book a long time ago and found it very helpful. I think he was a great man whose life was a great example to go by.

Hi Patricia, I hope you use one of the dishcloths on dishes soon. ;- )

Hi bobbykins. I think a few people came from that great site. Say hello to all over there for me. I still go there when I have time.

Hi Tansy, thank you for your kindness. I hope you can start a small stitchery from today's post.

Lacy and Carla, thank you, you are both dear friends.

Liberty Star Farm Family, thank you. What a lovely sight that conjurs up for me of all you working in your garden ... love, the chicken lady.

Hi Nikki (ivoryfrog) keep up the good work, darling. Let me know how the girls go in the garden and how you find the square foot gardening.

HI Anna Marie of the bread. LOL!

Hi Stephb, thank you. :- )

HI Robbyn, thank you for you kind comment. Say hello to your DH for me.

Thanks Cheryl. :- )

Phew! I wish I could repond to every comment. Soon I will start visiting unfamiliar (to me) blogs from the links left.

Now I'll write today's post.

One year ago today I pressed the Blogger "publish" button for the first time and entered blog world. It seems like just yesterday but also a lifetime ago. I had been fiddling with various formats and names for about a week but suddenly it felt right and the button was clicked. I have never regretted that click.

I had two reasons to blog - one was to create a record for myself and my family of what Hanno and I were doing, the other was the hope of sharing what I knew and encouraging others to simplify. I have definitely created the record of a year's living that I wanted, it is up to others to judge whether encouragement fell where it was needed.

So this is my 565th post. It didn't occur to me to connect a counter until my second month of blogging but in the first month I had the counter attached there were 1705 visitors, last month that number was 44,473. Incredible!

I've had a lot of emails asking what makes a successful blog and I still don't know. Some days I write something I think is good and I'm quite happy with, but it will get few reactions. Another day a bit of flimsy that falls easily from my brain will create a lot of comments. Who knows what the formula is. I try to write honestly to give an accurate account of our days here, and those personal accounts are sprinkled with more formal (for want of a better word) posts that I hope will encourage and support readers in their own simple journey.

I have resisted the many people who've asked to advertise here and those who asked me to "review" their books and products. I have used an Amazon box though when I was writing about my favourite books and to my surprise I scored enough points from that to get two free books. To all those people who supported that, I am truly grateful. I would really like John Seymour's last book so I might try the Amazon box for a short time again in the future.

Reading blogs has changed me. When I discovered the blog world I was absolutely amazed at all the bloggers who were using this technology to bypass mainstream media to get their message out. This is people power at it's best - uncensored by governments, unfiltered by advertising and real. Sure, there are blogs that come no where near that definition, but you can easily steer clear of those and stay within the millions that are clever, insightful and inspiring. It has been a great encouragement to me to read about the ordinary days of other women and men who wish to live to their true potential and who show, by example, their own particular way of doing that. And in this age of overindulgence and keeping up with the Joneses, I needed to know all of you like-minded people were there, happily working away on your own lives, and that Hanno and I were not alone. I know it sounds cliched and silly but I really believe we have built a little community here. I have made real friends too and even if I stopped blogging tomorrow, I know those friendships would endure.

I haven't done a give away for a while and this seems to be a good time to remedy that. To celebrate this milestone, I will draw names from a hat to see who I'll post this little fabric picture to. It is one of my designs and is made up of applique, stitchery and patchwork. If you'd like to be in the draw, please leave your name with a comment.

Thank you for your visits here.

I want to encourage every one of you who choose to live simply to do it on your own terms. There is no rule book for simple living, we all do it differently. I think that once you’ve got it in your mind to change from being a consumer to a conserver, many of the practical day-to-day things will come from your change in mindset. If they don’t, and you’re unsure about what to do next, just be guided by how you live your life now. Examine the things you do – your work practices, your chores, your transport, your recipes, your cleaning, how you cook, how you do your shopping – and one by one, make each and every task simpler, greener and more sustainable. Now that might be 100% simple, green and sustainable, but if it’s not, that’s okay! You do what you can do, you add to it later. It’s fine, no matter what anyone tells you.

I stockpile and shop monthly, with a quick trip to the local supermarket for local milk and cheese each week. But that is how I find it works best for me, there is no rule that says everyone shops that way. Try several different ways, then stick with the one that works best with your way of living.

I see so many other homemakers apologise for using a breadmaker. Why! If you want to use a breadmaker and it makes baking fresh bread for your family easier, use it. There is no rule that states the bread is less if it’s made in a breadmaker. The point is to make bread so you know what’s in it, you make it to your exact requirements and it's cheaper. Yes, your bread maker costs money to buy and run, but it pays for itself in less than a year and if you stop buying bread because of it – the bread that contains preservatives, colourings and artificial flavours, AND comes packaged to the hilt in plastic, then the breadmaker option wins, hands down.

It’s okay to say ‘no’ to others and ‘yes’ to yourself. Stop living to the expectations of others, slowly build a life that is unique to you. Make things easy for yourself. For instance, if you want to compost your kitchen scraps, put a little bin in your kitchen to hold the scraps and empty it every afternoon. If you want to go completely green with your cleaning routines, start with one thing first – like homemade laundry powder, then when you’re working well with that first choice, add others. Think about all these little things you want to bring into your life and make them as easy for yourself as you can. That way they’ll become an easy part of your routine and not a struggle.

Be mindful, make your own decisions, work out what will work for you and don’t feel guilty if you're reading your favourite blogs and you’re not doing what others are doing. I know a lot of you a guided by some of the things I say but if I do something that doesn’t fit well with you, don’t do it. Make sure that everything you do is right for you, not just being done because someone else does it.

Imagine your own life, and how you want it to be, then work to make that vision a reality. Don’t be put off, don’t listen to the naysayers, go with your heart and do what is right for you. I’m a non-conformist and I don’t fit in the 60 year old woman pigeonhole. I have always walked to the beat of my own drum and I have never looked to those around me for validation. That has helped me build this life I live. If I’d listened to all the advice I got when I wanted to change, I’d still be running a red hot credit card and wondering “is this all there is?”.

One of the great wonders of this world to me is that we’re all the same but all so different. Celebrate your difference and custom-make a life that fits you perfectly. Forget the blathering of women’s magazines, don’t do what your next door neighbour is doing, don’t copy your friends – or me – unless it is exactly what you want and need for yourself. Make your own version of this simple life. Life is never a one-size-fits-all condition, pick and choose the portions of other people's lives that suit you and custom make the rest of it so that your life fits you perfectly. If you try something that doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to get rid of it, or modify it to suit yourself. Do it all slowly, take small steps. You will never build a simple life quickly – it’s a slowly evolving process that never ends, but one thing is for sure, if you dare to be different, if you are mindful of your choices, if you downsize, declutter and get back to basics, the rewards are there for the taking.

Here we are, just a couple of crazy kids, about to set off to pick up our chooks on Saturday.

I didn’t want to garden yesterday. I was tired, I could see everything growing well, what was the point! Well, the point was that if we want to eat food from our backyard everyday, we need to put the work in to make it happen. So I employed one of my many mind tactics to get myself to the place I needed to be. I told myself it wasn’t work, I was securing our future food. That did it, I was back in action. I really love gardening, but there are days, I’m sure you all have them, when I can’t be bothered. However, if we want food from our garden, we need to give it constant care. Oh, it will produce vegetables with a minimum of work, but it won’t fulfil its potential. Prime quality vegetables need work.

If you’re not prepared, or unable, to give it the time it needs, your garden will probably be a disappointment to you. If you're just starting out, small steps are essential. Make sure you've got the time and energy to look after the garden you plant. Start small and add to it each year. And make sure you build up your soil with organic matter each year as well. Adding compost and worm castings, or allowing straw mulch to break down into the garden each year, will add to your garden's fertility. It's much easier to get good results from fertile soil.

Menu plan and work out what you enjoy eating and then plant according to your tastes, not what’s currently in fashion. Make sure that you, or someone in your family, will eat every single thing that is planted in the vegetable garden. A productive vegetable garden can be a very beautiful thing but if you plant for anything other than eating what you grow, you might as well be growing flowers. And on that note, grow flowers - things like nasturtiums, yarrow, Queen Anne's Lace will not only look beautiful but will also attract beneficial insects to your garden. Bees, world-wide, are in trouble and need all the help we can give them. A healthy and productive vegetable garden in their foraging area might be just the help they need in your area.

You need to be thinking about how to manage your crops to get the best from them. Check what is ready to pick right now and plan for what should be picked soon. This is a constant juggling act. What to eat fresh and what to preserve for later? We had some freshly picked silverbeet last night for dinner but there is still a lot out there. Hanno will pick some of it today to go into the freezer. That will keep some in the garden for picking later in the week and allow the plants to put on new growth after the leaves have been picked. We'll have a continuing supply of fresh young leaves instead of allowing the leaves to grow old, and then pick them. If you have a long growing season, don't forget to sow your follow up seeds so you have a non-stop supply of veggies.

Plant heirloom seeds, not the general type of every-day seeds that you can buy in the supermarket. If you’re going to the trouble of planting, watering, fertilising and weeding, you need to get something special out of it. If you plant the same tomatoes that you buy at the supermarket, you just get fresh supermarket tomatoes. If you plant something like a Brandywine, a German Johnson or a Oxheart, you get a tomato you’ll remember for a long time.

Supplement what is in your stockpile with what is fresh in the garden. That way you end up with excellent nutritious food at the lowest price. Stir fried vegetables with rice, spicy pumpkin soup with hot bread, vegetable and barley soup with herb dumplings, semi-dried tomato and spinach tart, roast pumpkin risotto and colcannon and salmon rissoles are all favourites in our home.

Above all else, enjoy your time in the garden. Enjoy being the provider of food and nourishment for your family and yourself. Enjoy being an independent spirit. Don't let others dictate what you eat. If you have a liking for Darwin lettuce, Turk's Turban pumpkin, Lazy Housewife beans, black tomatoes, organic oranges or whatever else, grow them yourself instead of hoping you'll see them in a shop. Most of the things commonly grown in a backyard would never be sold in a shop and if they were, they'd be very expensive. Being independent will mean you will grow what you like to eat, when you want to eat it and you'll put it on your plate for a fraction of the cost that top quality organic produce would cost you at the supermarket or farmers market.

It's Mother's Day in Australia today. Mother's Day - the one day of the year when we eat strange looking breakfasts and wear macaroni necklaces; the day I remember my own mother and celebrate being a mother. I know as sure as I'm sitting here that my sons will phone me today. Since the day they were born, they have brought continuing joy to me.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who read here.

I became a mother to ten more chooks yesterday. Ten more pure breed chickens that will lay golden eggs for us and, no doubt, make our backyard better for their presence. It's quite a long drive to our chook lady, but the drive is a lovely one via back streets and long stretches of lonely roads no highway traveller ever finds.

I did my knitting as we drove along, glancing at the landscape as it slipped by.

There are two big dams along the way that make great stopping off points for morning tea. We were entertained by the skiers and of course, there is always a baby magpie to feed.

We had lunch, watching more water skiers, beside a very friendly family who came over as soon as we arrived to offer to share the BBQ they'd just lit. We weren't cooking though - we had our homemade rolls and tea.

It was a nice day out but the highlight was choosing our new chickens. Rhonda, the chicken lady, let me have one of her Barnevelders, which was a real treat. I'd been asking about them every time I called. We also came home with a light Sussex, three silver Sussex, three barred Plymouth Rocks, a little Faverolles and another golden Hamburg - a playmate for Jewels.

I'll take some more photos today once they've settled in. At the moment, the Pymouth Rocks are my favourite. They're three really big gentle girls who endeared themselves to me when they walked around in circles in the dark because they couldn't find the perch.

We'll keep them safely inside the fenced coop until they realise that this place is home from now on. It will be a lovely thing to live with these chooks. They've all got different personalities and they're all incredibly beautiful in their own ways. I've named the Barnevelder Bernadette and the light Sussex Stella Gladys; I'll choose names for the others later today, if you have any suggestions, let me know.

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!
My big Plymouth Rock girls are Dixie, Lulubelle and Blossom; the Barnevelder is Bernadette, the golden Hamburg is Rosetta, the three silver Sussex are Pippa, Poppy and Mrs Rudd, the light Sussex is Stella Gladys and the Faverolles is Anna.

We spent a relaxing day in the backyard yesterday. I did some gardening while Hanno continued on his nest building project in the shed. It's a pleasure to spend these gentle days of Autumn in the vegetable garden. I hear the chooks clucking and the weather is perfect, with a coolness not quite enough to add a jumper. Bare arms gardening - I should write a book about it.

Everything is growing well. The first potatoes have shown their green heads and the tomatoes are fruiting and backing up with a lot of their pretty yellow flowers. The tomatoes below are Amish Paste, a great tomato for sauce. They're a medium sized bush but need a lot of tying back.

The Lebanese cucumbers have started to climb their trellis and have a lot of flowers so it looks like I'll be making bread and butter cucumbers in a few weeks time. They're planted with French radishes at the front which we pick every day and often crunch on while we're in the garden.

The tomatoes below are pink Brandywines - a potato leaf variety. They grow big and juicy and one slice is enough for a slice of bread. The little bright green cabbage is bok choi, which we grow for the chickens. They love any strong tasting leaf and fight for the bok choi leaves when we throw them in morning and afternoon.

Here is Hanno's kale - this is a Siberian kale, which is commonly known as grunkhol in Germany. Every winter he looks forward to this big cookup. He cooks smoked pork, German sausages and kale together in a big pot and reheats it for about three or four meals. He says it tastes better each time it's reheated. I'll take his word for that because when he eats it, I have eggs on toast or soup. ;- )

Of all the things we grow in our backyard, the fruit would have to be my favourite. These bananas are ready to cut down and we'll probably do that tomorrow. We'll hang them in the shed and take a few from them as we need them. I'll also freeze a few batches of them for making cakes later in the year.

This is the orange I ate late yesterday afternoon. I can tell you with no word of a lie that it was the most perfect orange I've ever eaten. I remember eating delicious oranges from Greece when we lived in Germany, and I've had some had some excellent Californian oranges, as well as a lot of very good Australian oranges, but these ... these, my friends, outdid all others. And to know that my orange is perfect AND organic is the just the best thing. Could it get any better? Well yes, I ate this orange about three minutes after it was picked.

If you're not growing fruit but are in an area where you can grow oranges, I encourage you to try them. You'll buy a grafted tree - mine is a Washington Navel - for around the $15 mark and you'll get your first fruit about three years after planting. It really is the best investment.

And finally, the chooks. Here are Heather, our Faverolles with feather boots, and Martha, a buff Orpington. Below are black-eyed Mary, an Australorp, and Jewels our little golden Hamburg.

Today we are adding to our flock. We are driving over to our chook lady to buy ten more chickens. This time we're not buying anymore babies or smaller chickens, this time we're going for the big point-of-lay girls. We've decided to stay with the heavier breeds as we have too many snakes around here. The little chooks are sitting ducks, so to speak.

I have my bread on the rise, it's 5.30 am now, so I'll finish this, make the bread rolls, bake them and boil some eggs. When it's light I'll go out and pick some frilly lettuce and radishes. I'll pack a picnic lunch of fresh rolls with egg and lettuce, a little salad of tomato and radish, date loaf, a fresh orange each and a flask of tea. We'll stop off at Wivenhoe Dam and have lunch there and look for another spot for afternoon tea. It should be a nice day out.

I hope you enjoy your day too. Thank you for stopping by and for all the wonderful comments this week. If you're looking for something to read over the weekend, it doesn't get much better than life with this fine family over at Little Homestead in the City.

It's a constant challenge keeping the pantry and stockpile cupboards full and rotating. I've been going through my cupboards this week to check to see what needs using, making sure nothing is off and it's all in good order. One thing I noticed a few days ago is that we have too many cans of tomatoes that have been there too long - we've been using fresh tomatoes and left the canned ones to sit in the cupboard. We also had a lot of ripe capsicums (peppers) that had to be picked so I took advantage of both situations yesterday and made a roasted capsicum and tomato relish.

I think I've posted the recipe before but it's always changing. I'm an intuitive cook rather than a slave to an idea so I use what's on hand and constantly change recipes. Yesterday I made this version of an old favourite.

ROASTED CAPSICUM AND TOMATO RELISH

Makes 8 jars

3 large onions, chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
salt and pepper
6 cans tomatoes
an arm full of sweet ripe capsicums (peppers)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup malt vinegar

If you've grown your own open pollinated capsicums, save the seeds for planting your next crop and for sharing - Tracy, I'm sending you some of these.

Cover the capsicums with a tiny amount of oil and roast on high in the oven until they start to blacked. When they cool slightly, remove the skins.

Add chopped onions and a little oil to a large pot and slowly cook the onions until they're caramelised. Add salt and pepper and curry powder and stir into the onions. Chop up the skinned roasted capsicum flesh and add it to the pot, then add 6 cans of tomatoes. Squash the tomatoes with your spoon, then add the sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil, without the lid, and cook on a medium heat for about 90 minutes, or until the tomatoes have reduced and thickened to the consistency you like.

Put clean jars, without lids, into your oven as soon as the capsicums are finished and sterilise them in there for about 20 minutes on a medium heat. Boil the lids in a small saucepan of water for 15 minutes. When the sauce is cooked, add the hot sauce to the hot jars and put the lids on. Turn the jars over and cool while the jars are upside down.

I bottle relish and sauce like this when I'm not going to keep it very long. This relish will be given away or eaten within six weeks. I will store all this in the fridge, not in the cupboard. If I wanted to store the relish in the cupboard, I would process these jars in a water bath.

So that's our relish taken care of for a while. I also need to make some pasta sauce but that will have to wait until I either grow some tomatoes or see a box of cheapies.

Today I'll make a date loaf for an outing on Saturday and for lunches next week. I'll also pick a couple of bags of silverbeet for freezing. I try to pack away some vegetables into the freezer whenever I can. They always come in handy when there's a break in our backyard harvests.

Shane came over yesterday. There is a certain girl he's very serious about and luckily, she lives close by. I'm so proud of both my sons, they're like chalk and cheese, but both of them are smart, hard working and ambitious. Shane works at a fine dining resort about 3 hours drive from here. He lives in a small house on the property owned by the resort. It's isolated, cold and incredibly beautiful. Yesterday I loaned him my Carla Emery book. He's already build a vegetable garden, now he's buying some rare breed chickens and he needs to make them comfortable, Carla-style. Shane has always been a gardener, he did four years of an environmental science degree before he realised he wanted to be a chef instead. He knows about soils and plants, but this is the first time he's raised his own chickens. I think times are a-changing for Shane. ;- )

Times are a-changing for all of us. Ifeel the rise in fuel and food costs have awoken many people to the need for change. Let's hope it's all for the good.

How is everyone going with their seed swap? Tracy, I'll be emailing you later today. :- )