plum jam

We were gifted with 15 kg of plums so the big pot came out and we made 60 bottles of jam.

My basic jam recipe is simple:
700g sugar
1000g fruit
spices to taste

Pour the sugar on the fruit, leave it for 6-8 hrs then heat and bring to the boil. Once setting point is reached, pour into sterilised jars.

To check for setting point, drop some on a frozen plate. Once it has cooled, push the jam with your finger. If it creates wrinkles then it is ready to be bottled.

So my plum jam had cinnamon stick and almonds in it..OH yum!

I cant eat sugar for health reasons, so I made a small batch for with Xylitol.
Sugar free Jam
350g Xylitol
500g Plums
almond slices
a small cinnamon stick

It come out perfectly, I'm really excited to be able to eat jam that won't affect my health.

Guavas

Oooh I love guavas, the only thing I love more is stewed guavas..


My recipe is simple, chopped guavas covered with 1,5 cups of water to 1 cup of Selati organic sugar and a cassia [or cinnamon] stick. Bring to the boil, and simmer until guavas are soft. Allow to cool poor off the syrup and keep in the fridge.

They can be stored in preserving bottles but we eat them so fast that I dont see any reason to squeeze them in small bottles. Instead I put them in a glass bowl in the fridge. They can last for a week but we usually finish them in 2-3 days. I strain and freeze the syrup and re-use this the next time I make guavas.

Best served with fresh custard, yum!

Spiced Honey Cake

Thomi, Olli and I baked a cake for Kalla's birthday.

We made a spiced honey cake [IOW- Imbolic Cake] Then had a visit from Terri, Greg, Caleb, Hannah and Sheth. They gave us a great combined birthday present of a beautiful tray, so we invited them to christen the tray and cut the cake. The kids ran outside and picked lavender.

Sweet Hannah was the decorator and did an awesome job! [dont ya think?]

Honey Cake
2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 heaping teaspoon allspice

3/4teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

4 eggs, beaten

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 cup raw honey

Preheat oven to 350ºF . Grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking pan. Combine all ingredients.

Mix well, pour into pan,

Then give children the bowl and mixer to lick . [very important part of the recipe!]

Then bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

YUM!

Propolis Salve

Here is a great recipe for a propolis salve, I cant wait to make it...



Melt together:

1 oz beeswax
8 oz oil of choice

Let it cool until around 110 degrees


Wisk in:

2 Tbs Propolis Powder
10 drops vitamin E oil
15 - 30 drops of healing Essential Oils


Powdered Propolis can be gritty, so fiddle around to get a smooth consistency.



This will have great healing properties! [anti bacterial AND anti fungal!]



I love Propolis it is another wonder of the world [thank you- kind sweet bees ]

Our Lipbalm Recipe

We had a great day making lip balm. It was really easy, we melted the following ingredients in a glass bowl floating in a larger bowl of boiling water ~

2 Tablespoon Bees wax
7 Tablespoon Jojoba Oil [or you can use Olive oil - thanks Kristie]
1 teaspoon honey
1 drop essential oil


Oliver points out his favourite ingredient. We bought the jojoba oil from Camphill Village yesterday and the lavender essential oil is from a very small lavender field in the midlands meander that we visited on our 3 week holiday last year.



Thomas pressed the honey out while Oliver did quality control. erm....



Thomas is fascinated with the alphabet at the moment, he is constantly in auto-learning mode.


We used unprocessed bees wax straight from the honey room. It had honey in it so we used a little less honey. The jojoba oil is such a lovely golden colour .


Here is our bottle of yummy lip balm that is a low environmental impact product. The bottle is a recycled pro-biotic jar, so this is a double score.

My discoveries over the last 2 days have highlighted the necessity to make my own skin care range.

The products available commercially have very little regard for the long term health and environmental effects.

The use of these products also feeds the large corporation wheel, which is also bad. So I urge you all to make your own products.

Next I want to make more soap so that I have stock for the year ahead.

Then I want to learn to make
1] A heel balm [I love going barefoot on the farm]
2] Anti wrinkle cream [erm... My age is marking my face]
3] Shampoo
4] sigh... anything else that can help me lower my carbon footprint.

Thomas and Oliver

Olicer helped me with some baking and he washed the bowl - LOL


Some older photos that I adore from March

Thomas decided to make an airoplane, so he set to work with scraps from the workshop.

Ricotta Cheese

This is so easy.... really... Today I am ill and Karl wanted Ricotta and Spinach Quiche for supper. So I made this batch, and did everything wrong, and it still worked! So if I manage today then you can all make it!



Place your RAW milk in a thick based pot and slowly heat till between 70'C and 80'C [165'F to 175'F ]. Take about 10 minutes.




Once it reaches this temperature range slowly squeeze the juice from your garden lemons into the milk. If you don't have lemons then use vinegar- apple cider is the best, but any will do.


The milk slowly starts to coagulate. Let the temperature rise a bit more but not over 85'C Continue slowly adding the lemon juice. Do not stir to much, this will disturb the coagulation process.


Coagulation becomes more obvious. Again do not stir to much. But continue adding lemon juice. The warmed milk starts to change colour. It slowly starts to become transparent and yellowish - but this takes time.


Hooray! Its working!!

At this point I take it off the hot plate. And leave it to rest for 5 minutes or so. This allows more coagulation to occur.




Yum! Check the colour of the whey [milky water] If it is whitish add more lemon juice,




If the whey is yellowish - like in this picture, then it is done, well maybe their is still a little to coagulate, but this is good enough for me!

If yours does not look like this you either need more heat or more lemon juice.

Ok, Harvest time...


Place a piece of muslin in your colander and pour the cheesy whey into the muslin. Join the corners and hang to strain. I tie it onto my tap... convenient heh!

Leave it for 1 hour or so... depending on you patience. LOL

Oh my! Its perfect, just a little moist still..
My solution is easy


Years ago [before my anti plastics era] I bought these 'soap dishes' from Makro. They are cheap and nasty, but ideal for straining cheese!
I leave the cheese in this container [in the fridge] till I cook with it tonight.

ENJOY!


I used 4,5 L and made 500g Ricotta Cheese

BEAUTIFUL YELLOW JAM

The last of our candlemas celebrations was a harvest.



We collected all of the fallen granadillas in the garden while Oliver harvested the green ones... I asked him to leave them till purple but he felt the green ones were special. I let him continue while considering that the green ones will be higher in pectin and could help the jam set.



Look at the beautiful boiling jam making a C for Candlemas - LOL



Oh the colour of glorious sun!




Bottles ready for gifts [and for eating!]

We painted a wet on wet painting of the yellow sun shining down and drying the wheat into a golden yellow. Tomorrow we cut up the paintings and make jam jar labels.

bread baking

Well in this family we love fresh bread. So at Karls suggestion I am now recording my recipe. Here it is:
BOWL 1
200g Rye flour
200g first grinding of stoneground flour
100g White stoneground flour
[Of course you can use 500g of any flour]
10g DRY yeast
salt, preferably hand harvested with all nutrients intact [shake,shake,shake]
60g mixed seeds [omega3 and 6 source- pumpkin,sunflower,linseed] yum yum!

BOWL 2
250g Boiling water
250g Cold Water
30-60g molasses or honey
15-30 extra virgin olive oil

Mix the 2 bowls together.
oil a bread tin [with olive oil of course]
pour in, sprinkle seeds on top and leave for 10 minutes.
Bake at 180-200'c for 55 to 60min

Once baked I usually leave it in the tin for 5-10min to cool before removing so that it does not break.

According to Guy there is nothing better that hot bread and butter, although I dont think he has eaten it for years [well if he has, he not admitting it!!]