You all know by now I love my stockpile. It has helped us save a lot of money over the years but it's also helped me organise myself and it's stopped us wasting time at the supermarket every week. Now we shop monthly, but we could easily go a lot longer than that without shopping.

Most of the jars I use are canning/preserving jars but I also have a number of jars my chef sons have saved for me from their work places. These used to be large catering packs of pickles/gherkins/olives etc and they hold around two litres/quarts. They're very handy for storing rice, self raising flour or dry pasta noodles, which we use in Alice's food. I also recycle old jam and honey jars and although I used them mostly for the jams I put up, they're also handy for small amounts of beans or lentils.


Every pantry needs a few large containers that will safely hold about 5 kilos (12lb) I have a few icing buckets I got from my local baker and a couple of Decor bins that are currently holding groats and plain white flour. My icing buckets hold a couple of types of bread flours, it's mixed grain and rye at the moment. If you go searching for recycled bins and containers make sure you only use food grade containers. A good rule of thumb is that if a manufacturer originally used it to hold food, it's probably food grade. Most old food containers are safe to use, make sure the lids fit properly and if it has a metal lid, it's not rusty and has no small holes.


If you're in the process of establishing a stockpile it's a good idea to see it as an investment - both of time and money. Like any investment you need to look after it. ALWAYS be on the lookout for pantry moths. They're a small brown moth that can be brought into your home in newly purchased bags of grain, flour or rice. Putting dried good in the freezer for a few days when you first bring them home will kill any lurking eggs or larvae waiting to hatch out. But still be on the lookout for them because they can fly into your home and lay eggs in your uncovered and poorly stored goods.


Make sure everything you open is stored in a container that can be properly sealed. You don't have to have everything matching, I quite like the madness of my pantry with jars of all different shapes and sizes. We have a wonderful topic over at the forum where you can see photos of stockpiles and add photos of your own if you wish.

Thank you so much for the thought and consideration you put into yesterday's post. The young lady in question emailed overnight to say she was quite overwhelmed with the response. She doesn't live in Australia or the US and asked that I not say where she is from. She said both she and her husband read every comment and they had a good talk about their situation. Things aren't looking so grim for them now and they feel they have a direction to head in, whereas before they were quite confused. So thank you for your thoughts, you helped a couple who needed to read them.

Carrying on from yesterday's post I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore the feelings connected with being at home and knowing that you make your own home what it becomes - be that good or not so good.

I've written before that housekeeping and homemaking were very low on my list of priorities when I first came home for good. I say 'came home' because up until that point, my home wasn't what it is now - it was just a place to sleep and invite people around to if we didn't go out. Pathetic. I'm wiser now, my home has taught me many things, including that if I didn't take the time to be at home, if I didn't fluff my nest and make it the warm and secure place I wanted it to be, no one else would and I would continue to search shopping malls for junk to make me feel better.


That split second when you suddenly realise that home is not the enemy and that looking after it is an act of love for all your family and a gift to yourself, is a powerful moment of absolute clarity and insight. You're aware that you make your home what it will be, no one else will do that but you, and whatever work you put into your home will be a reflection of you. It is an opportunity and a challenge. It will show what is important in your life, it will highlight those things you treasure, and, in turn, will reflect your tastes and interests to all who visit you.


When you realise that your home is your work in progress you are given the opportunity to make it the comfortable and protected place that all families need to relax, renew their energy, and grow closer to each other. The real challenge here is when you don't have a lot of money to spend but want a cosy, interesting and welcoming home. Most young couples fall into this area and the trick is not to fall for all the advertising hype and rush to charge up your credit card with the latest fashionable furniture. Smart couples search op shops, thrift stores and road side throw outs for bits and pieces that will suit their purpose. They build their homes on older furniture that is either free or very inexpensive and then modify it to suit themselves. The end result is a home unlike a million others who fell for the advertising. They have the satisfaction of working together to find what they need, and no credit card debt. My own son and his new wife are doing this right now. They have our old lounge suite and picked up a dining suite from a road side throw out. Their home is a delight to visit, it's comfortable, inviting and interesting. We are going there for lunch on Thursday and I'm looking forward to it very much. Working together through hard times is one of those things that draws couples together, it bonds them like nothing else.

But the furniture and bits and pieces you put in a home are not the full story. This story is completed by the work done by the homemaker and the feeling of contentment that comes from it. And whether you're a homemaker who does most of the work in the family home or if you're the delegator of chores and director of operations, the result is the same. A functional and secure home will nurture all who live there.


When I worked for a living and shopping was part of my recreation I used to be bored if I stayed at home. I wondered what on earth homemakers did all day. Now I know. I was lucky enough to wake up to myself, ditch the shopping and return to my home wholeheartedly. And anyone can do that - those who work outside the home and those who work in it. Accepting the power you have to make your home what is can be, to provide nutritious food, to shop according to your budget, to keep a clean home, to teach young children that everyone contributes to the welfare of the family by doing chores and helping, to look after what you own, to mend, recycle and reuse what you can, to live in an environmentally sound way and to express the love you feel for your family within the confines of a safe and peaceful home is the true gift of a homemaker.

You make your home what it becomes - it is your work in progress.

Hanno asked me to thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes sent his way on the weekend. He is 69 now, the last year of his boyhood. Next year he'll have to start acting more sensibly. ; - 0 We drove down to the beach to have lunch with our friend Diane and god-daughter Casey. For those of you who remember Casey's accident (she was in a bus hit by a drunk driver two years ago), she is still in a wheelchair and has not been able to work since. But it's always good to see them, they are two of our most favourite people, and we talked and laughed for hours over lunch and drinks. Hanno is a member of this club and they had sent him a letter wishing him a happy birthday, offering a complimentary lunch and drink; of course we took up the offer. It was definitely a good way to spend a weekend birthday.

I received an email last week from a young lady here who is very upset about the prospect of losing her job. She wanted to know what I thought her best course of action would be and asked me to help her and her husband through this difficult time. I sent her a reply telling her my thoughts but said I would also post about it today and see if all of us could workshop this problem for her. Together we should cover all angles.

This girl is 29 years old, married for two years, pregnant and due to have their first baby in February next year. The pregnancy was planned, what they didn't plan on was that she would lose her job before she had a chance to resign. Her job finishes mid-October and she will get a payout of about $4000. Her husband has a good job that is stable, which is good news, but they have nothing for the baby yet and they don't have a stockpile.

I suggested that from now on, even though she is still being paid, they live on his wage. They might as well get used to it now and be ready when they only have one stream of money coming in. Her wage should go in the bank until they work out a plan of action. I think the priority is to sit down and make up a new budget - a realistic one that covers two adults and a baby. They only have five months until the baby arrives and during that time they'll be equipping the nursery, buying and making clothes, blankets etc. When they sit down to do the budget, they'll have to work out what they can get rid of. They have two cars, three phones - one landline and two mobiles, pay TV, no stockpile, no emergency fund, no health insurance and nothing ready for the baby.


It sounds pretty grim but the husband gets a good wage that I feel should be enough to get them by and pay the mortgage as long as they sacrifice a few things and live frugally. She said they are committed to living a green and simple life but have just made that decision; she found us and this blog two weeks ago. If they are that way inclined anyway, I think they should be okay with this.

My suggestion to her was to get rid of everything that isn't necessary to their present circumstances. They bought the second car for her to get to work. They'll be able to sell that when she finishes work, they think it's worth about $7000. I think that money should be put away for their emergency fund. They should get rid of one or two mobile phones. I know young people are really connected their phones, but are they really necessary? When their contracts are up, at least the most expensive one should go, I would like to see both go. Pay TV - out! There is enough drivel on regular TV to waste time on, no need to pay for more. I know this sounds harsh but they need to conserve money at this important period of their lives. In a few years, when things stabilise and they're more settled, they can get it back if they want to.

I would suggest the $4000 she gets as her payout should go to pay extra off the mortgage and everything they sell should go towards extra payments too. Getting rid of the mobile phones, TV and extra car will save a lot of money, probably the equivalent of her wage. So hopefully, if they budget well, and live frugally, they should get by quite well on what he earns.

When her paid job finishes, she should consider her job to be manager of the household funds, being able to feed the family healthy food on a weekly budget, searching the op shops and thrift stores for baby clothes, rugs, a pram and cot and paying all the bills on time. She will become a homemaker, with everything that implies. It will be her job to work to her budget, fluff up her nest and make a wonderful home, and I hope she finds satisfaction and contentment doing it. A first baby is such a special time for a family, this should not take away from such a special event. I see it as a challenge. She can use the time between mid-October and February to organise the home, to learn how to sew and knit, to start using green cleaners, to build a stockpile. Maybe she could also make cloth nappies/diapers. Does anyone have a good site with patterns and instructions? I wouldn't start a vegetable garden, not yet. But that could happen in the years to come. But now there are plenty of things to occupy her each day - learning how to cook from scratch, working out how to shop in a different way to get the best value for her money and getting ready for the arrival of her baby.

What started out as a catastrophe could be the catalyst for this young family to change how they live. They can build a good life, but it will be a frugal and simple one, one that is more environmentally sound and dare I say it, one that is more enriching. This will be an equal partnership in every sense of the word - one partner working for a wage, the other managing that money and the home for the benefit of all, while they build their family and future together. Sure, it would be a shock to hear you'll lose your job but once over that, with a few safeguards and budget strategies in place, I think this family will cope well. What do you think? What advice can you give this young couple?

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. ~ Mark Twain

It seems that quite a few people have problems germinating seeds and getting seeds to seedling stage which grow strong and healthy enough to plant out. The lovely Rose said the other day that she was having problem so I thought I'd write about my take on growing vegetables from seeds.

Food seeds are valuable items. They have the potential to feed the people of the world and without seeds, we have no corn, rye, barley, wheat, rice or vegetables. So it should concern us who controls our seeds. For the past 50 years or so, multi-national companies have been hybridising seeds so they grow to a specific type and size and in doing do they remove the ability of that plant to reproduce itself. Hybrid or F1 seeds cannot be saved at the end of the season and grown again the following year. You must go back to the store and buy your seeds every year. In the old days, before the commercial seeds market was established, people collected seeds from their own harvested vegetables and saved them for the following year. They swapped seeds with neighbours and bartered for goods with seeds - seeds were seen are a valuable commodity.


Guess what! People still collect seeds from their own vegetables and fruit, they save it and grow the most wonderful array of old time vegetables of the kind you will never see in any supermarket. These people, myself included, are growing open pollinated or heirloom seeds and they would have it no other way. Price, availability of old varieties, and the taste of these old vegetables attract people all round the world, but there is another advantage of growing open pollinated seeds - every year they grow in your garden, they acclimatise themselves to the specific conditions in your garden.

If there is ever a move by our governments towards giving seed companies control of all our seeds, that is the day we must all stand up and be counted. Monsanto, and other seed companies, already have the ability to sue US farmers who grow certain crops from last year's seeds. Whoever controls the seeds controls the food. And that is why it's important for us backyarders to save seeds and keep this valuable seed pool of old vegetables going. Our grandmas and grandpas before us have saved them all so we have this choice, we cannot turn our backs on this heritage because it's easier or more convenient to buy seedlings or new seeds each year. Please read this article on seed saving and look here for seed saving instructions. One of the concerns with seed saving is cross pollination so make sure you read all about that. There is a chart here that will help you.


BTW, I feel the same way about chickens. The caged poultry industry has hybridised chickens for their own benefit and many of the little brown chooks you buy no longer have the ability to reproduce. They're egg layers, nothing else. Those little brown chooks are all bred for the caged poultry industry, a few of the lucky ones are sold off to backyarders. Heirloom chickens are, sadly enough, known now are rare breed chickens. Again, it is the role of the conscientious backyarder to help keep these rare breeds going, just like it is with the seeds. If we don't do it, who will?


Okay, so let's get on to how you actually sow seeds. Large seeds and small seeds are generally sown straight into the garden bed. Large seeds like beans and peas are buried at three times their size - so if you have a seed that is 1cm thick, you'd plant sow that seed 3cm deep. Smaller seeds, like carrot and radish, are scattered on the surface and covered with very light soil or sand. It's better to use sand because it will indicate to you every time you're in the garden, that you have tiny seeds in that spot. All these seeds - the large and the small are best sown directly in the garden. When sowing very small seeds like radish and carrot, sow them together. Get an old spice or salt shaker, add the seeds along with a teaspoon full of fine dry sand. Prepare the furrow for sowing and shake the seeds in along the furrow and cover with sand. Water in very gently with a fine spray. In about a week, the radishes will start to germinate and will grow. While that is happening, the carrots will also germinate but they take longer than the radishes. By the time the radishes are ready to pick, the carrots will just be putting on the root growth and removing the radishes will make way for all those carrots.


It is the medium sized seeds like tomato, cucumber, lettuce etc. that can be planted in seed raising trays and grown to seedling stage before being transferred to the garden. There is also the benefit of raising these seeds to be ready to go in as soon as the chance of frost has passed.

I have written before about sowing seeds and there are guidelines here. Two important things to remember are that the seed raising mix you use must be very fine. The seeds need to be able to emerge from the soil and they can't do that if they are under pieces of bark or compost - it must be fine soil. Also, watering is important. When you plant in the garden bed, plant into moist, not wet, soil. Water large seeds once - they will absorb enough water to keep them going until they germinate. When you see green growth, water again. Small seeds can absorb much less water but will easily be dislodged if you blast them with the garden hose. A fine spray is all they need and keep them moist, spraying once a day until you see green growth. Then water as normal.

Light plays a part too. Seeds don't need any light before they germinate but when they do, they'll need strong light, not full sunlight, but enough light to cast a shadow. As soon as you see green growth, give them morning light, if possible, and keep when protected from the wind and rain. As they grow taller, they need stronger light. Just before I plant my seedlings out, I move them from the greenhouse into full sunlight in their tray. This gets them used to full sunlight before they're transplanted.

The last thing to remember about seeds is that they are a self contained unit of nutrition and do not need any assistance apart from soil and water. Don't fertilise seeds. You will end up with very thin leggy growth and weak seedling. They only need water to germinate.

Seed sowing and saving is a significant skill to have if you have a garden. Like most other things you learn it takes a bit of time to discover how to do it but it's a good investment of your time and effort. I hope you take the time to read all these links, this is an important part of sustainable gardening. And if we backyard gardeners don't do this, who will?

I love having a variety of meals I can make quickly using what I have in the pantry and garden. This is an old standby that I make every month or so - salmon mornay. I grew up eating this, although in those days it was considered a sophisticated and fairly expensive meal, even though it's made on tinned salmon. I remember loving this when I was a child, so I think it might be a good meal to encourage children to eat more fish, which is always a good idea.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over heat and add the flour, salt and pepper. Mix together into a paste. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the milk, stirring while you do it. Keep stirring to prevent lumps forming. Place the pan back on the heat and when you have a nice smooth sauce, add the cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted and take off the heat.

I always use brown rice in savoury dishes. It has a delicious nutty flavour and is much more nutritious than white rice. Even if your children don't like brown rice (or have never eaten it before) put it in because when this meal is cooked they won't be able to tell if it's white or brown. I used to sneak in all sorts of food into these dishes when my sons where small boys. It helped them develop the taste for good food without us arguing over what they should eat. I think there is a lot to be said for camouflage. BTW, both my sons are now fine dining chefs.
1 finely chopped onion, 2 finely diced sticks of celery, ½ capsicum (bell pepper) already cooked in a little olive oil
1 cup corn
1 tin of red or pink salmon 415 grams/16ozs
a few sprigs of finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all this together then add the cheese sauce and mix in. Pour into a greased baking tray and smooth down the top, sprinkle over about ½ cup cheese and bake in a moderate 180C/350F until the top is golden and bubbling.

Serve with a nice fresh salad from the garden. The recommendation now is to eat five serves of vegetables every day. This dish has the five vegetables (onion, corn, celery, parsley and capsicum), adding the salad is extra for that day - which is always a good option.

Hanno has been feeling ill the passed few days so I've been doing his outside chores. It does me good to get out there and do some physical work and to see with a gardener's eye again. The garden is looking good at the moment. It's green and lush and happily, at this stage of the season, there aren't too many bugs. I did see the last of the white cabbage moths searching for a suitable safe haven to lay their eggs, but a quick spray with the garden hose sent them along to another garden.

It does me good to wander around the garden, making sure it's all growing as it should. I was out there very early, before the sun was over our tree horizon, so the air was still hovering nicely between the coolness of the fading night and the promise of the coming day. The only noise I could only hear was the call of wild birds, mainly ducks and parrots, as they started flying around, and our chooks gently clucking as they patrolled the back lawn for early morning bugs.

One of the reasons our garden is looking so good right now is that Hanno is meticulous with his garden maintenance, so being the goodly wife I am ;- ) I carried out that task for him while he slept inside. Much of this maintenance is easy and only requires removing the outer damaged and old leaves from lettuces, cabbages and chard. All of them are thrown over the fence and the chook quickly rush over to get the best bits. We grow food for ourselves and the chickens too so they eagerly hang around on the other side of the picket fence peeking through to watch me.


Quince and Quentin, the two new Sussex girls (pictured above in the distance), are learning to eat greens. They didn't recognise them when they arrived, so every day we make sure there are lettuce, chard, cabbage leaves or radish tops for them to peck on and test taste. Chickens are creatures of habit and if you want them to eat green food, you'll need to introduce it to them early on, otherwise they might reject it altogether.

The other part of my maintenance is to remove diseased leaves. In our garden this is mainly powdery mildew which grows on squash, grape and zucchini leaves and wilt on the lower tomato leaves. If you see disease or damaged leaves, always remove them because they'll never renew themselves and improve, and leaving them is an open invitation to bugs that there is a weak plant to attack. BTW, a mix of 10% milk and 90% water sprayed over the leaves most susceptible to powdery mildew, if done when the leaves are still healthy, does help prevent it. If it gets out of hand, it's best to remove all the affected leaves and spray with a weak solution of copper oxychloride (it's organic).

It's an important part of growing your tomatoes to go around and remove the leaves close to the ground and any that are brown or with brown or yellow spots. Mulch around the tomatoes will stop water and dirt splashing up when you're watering. Soil borne diseases can be hard on tomatoes. Water your tomatoes at the base, not over the leaves. And pick out any new growth coming from the main stem and side branches. You will probably get the best growth if you have one main leader and trim off most of the side shoots, but many people, including us most of the time, don't like removing branches that look productive. I'm doing an experiment this year with the brandywines - we have two growing side by side, one has been trimmed to one main leader, the other left to grow naturally. We'll check later in the season to see which is the most productive.

I've been making cold pressed soap for a few years now and I had always wanted to add liquid soap to my shelves too. The first hurdle I had to cross was to find potassium hydroxide. That is the type of lye used when making liquid soap, whereas sodium hydroxide is used in hard soap and is easily found at the supermarket.

I think it's illegal in Australia to send potassium hydroxide through the post so you'll probably need a supplier close by where you can go and pick up what you need. Don't use the lye you buy at the supermarket, it won't make liquid soap.

I finally found a supplier close to me and a couple of months ago I picked up my supplies. The only thing standing between me and all those bottles of handwash, shampoo and dishwahing liquid was my own trepidation. I read the instructions and stopped, too afraid to go further.


I read about the lye groaning! And it being much hotter than the other lye, and to use a double boiler. I didn't do anything for a while, then realised what an idiot I was being, and made myself start up again. Well, the lye did groan but I didn't use a double boiler, I used a crockpot, and I didn't noticed that the lye was hotter than before. Imagine that - it all went according to plan and apart from being much more of a drawn out process than the cold pressed soap, it went well.

It turns the water white, just like bar soap does, but it retains a lather for a few minutes. The best thing though is that it cleans the dishes and pots really well. It cuts through grease. I think it's better than bar soap for washing up, but not much better. If you're thinking that this is going to be the same as detergent, it isn't. But it does the job it's intended for and it isn't made with petrochemicals, like every detergent is.


It's great as a shampoo and hand wash. It retains the natural glycerin, so it's not drying on the skin. My next test will be to wash some pure wool with it. I'm going to add some eucalyptus oil to the soap and use it as a wool wash.


As you can see, there are several uses for this soap. It does take a long time to make but you only spend a fraction of that time actually doing anything, there is a lot of waiting. I chose olive oil, rice bran oil and coconut oil but I won't give you the recipe I used because I have to fine tune it, when that is done, I'll post it. It made up about four litres (quarts). This is a useful skill to have under your belt, but you should make cold pressed soap before you make this. I'm not sure if I'll continue using it to wash dishes but I really like that it is also shampoo, hand wash and wool wash - all cleaning liquids that are quite expensive. I can already see a lovely cleaning basket gift that this features in.

Are you making liquid soap? I'd love to know how yours turns out. And if you have a fail-safe recipe, please share it.