Welcome rain…

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Peasants

We had great rain in May, though so far in June it has been warm and sunny…not really what is needed in winter!

The ‘complex’ complex has had a bit of a revamp which includes a fence around it. Traditionally what we have done is bury the left overs once we have prepared rabbits, chickens etc for the freezer, plus use animal manures freely. We haven’t been able to do this in this new raised bed garden as the dogs are big and agile enough to jump in and dig it all up again! The gardens were suffering from a lack of nutrients, so fencing was the easy answer. Once the fence was in, we were able to really nourish the soil in the raised beds and replant area, and it is really starting to take off now, especially with the rain we experienced in May.

Secure from the dogs!

Rabbit liver pate….

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Peasants

We made a yummy rabbit liver on the weekend! We used the livers of four rabbits and followed a thermomix recipe for chicken liver pate and just substituted rabbit livers. It was very easy to make and really delicious!

Home made rabbit liver pate

It has been a busy few weeks, but we now have a full freezer…..of turkey, rabbit, lamb, and chicken as well as pate and various stocks on hand.

The complex complex….

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Peasants

The new vegetable garden complex….we call it the ‘complex’ complex because it is full of raised beds, pallet gardens, water gardens and the pumpkin palace!

Growing well

The New Holland Honeyeaters enjoy it when the sprinklers are on too, and love to play in the bird bath under the orange tree.

Using what we grow!

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Peasants

This past year we have been much more successful using and preserving what we grow, and we have learnt a lot about what works and what doesn’t!! There are some great websites with successful recipes that suit what we grow, our resources and our lifestyle, so we thought we would share some of our successes in a ‘recipe‘ page- beauty/health products such as lip balm, calendula salve, aloe vera gel, calendula oil; and our favourite recipes for home grown rabbit, duck, fish, veggies etc!

Today we made Aloe Vera Gel, which is good for sunburn and dermatitis. Because of the gelatinous nature of the aloe, we made the mix in the Thermomix. This helped to blend it well with the coconut oil and Vitamin E (which is added to help preserve it- though it still needs to go in the fridge).

Aloe vera gel making

The finished product is certainly gel like, so we will see how it goes!! The recipe will be posted on the new ‘recipe‘ page once we know it is successful!

Growing season!

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Peasants

Apart from a few extra hot days here near Perth, the weather has been great for the garden and animals alike, and everything is in abundance!

We have had a great supply of nectarines and plums…

One day’s harvest of nectarines!

We have had a successful hatching of ducklings by one of our Australorp hens….

Mother hen and her ducklings!

We also had a successful hatching of duckings from a mother duck!

Cute!!

And finally…a check on hive number two showed all is well so far, with lots of beautiful coloured pollen and plenty of brood…

Lots of colourful pollen

Mead bottling

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Peasants

Finally the mead is bottled. It is tasting ok now, but should improve with age so is stored away for a few months.

Ready to bottle

We decided to bottle into beer stubbies as one bottle makes two glasses, probably quite sufficient! It also means there is less waste when we open a bottle in a couple of months to try it.

Mead racking…

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Peasants

Well today was the day we racked the mead….that is, we transferred it from the one container to another.

After two weeks, the specific gravity had dropped from 1.050 to 1.001. It was great to see a drop, because we hadn’t actually seen much fermentation going on. We decided to leave it another week as the weather had been very cool which had likely slowed the primary fermentation down. The following week, the SG had dropped to 0.999, so we decided to proceed with the racking. The glass carboy was sterilised and well rinsed, then placed on the floor below the tap of the primary fermenter.

Transferring the mead to the glass carboy

The tap in the primary fermenter is placed to allow the must to flow, but leave behind the lees, or sediment sitting on the bottom.

Once the transfer was complete, the stopper and airlock were put in place, and the carboy moved to the cool produce room to continue fermenting and clearing!

Winter update….

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Peasants

One of those days …….

We have had quite a busy time lately….with the robodog, now aptly named ‘Finndini’ after successfully escaping from a variety of cages, and so needing a high level of care…..and time!

Even so, we have managed to undertake a few projects, such as making mead, ginger beer, completing the establishment of new garden beds, and several preserving jobs, all in addition to the winter maintenance jobs like collecting wood, tidying paddocks and burning off.

Preparing new garden beds and a pallet garden

Sowing the back paddock

First attempt at making mead

Preserved lemons, herbs in oil, and the first batch of ginger beer!

New pool fence around the pool and aqua phonics system

Ginger cordial made from home grown ginger

Beeswax and honey….

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Peasants

After the last harvest of honey, we washed and melted down the wax cappings…….ready to make…..lip balm! It worked really well following this recipe. It made several tubs and tubes, and is just perfect for dry lips! The recipe has 4-5 drops of peppermint essence, but it really doesn’t need it- just the honey flavour is wondereful enough!!

Beeswax and Honey Lip Balm

Plenty of produce!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Peasants

The warm weather in Perth has meant quite an extended growing season for some of our edibles, so the produce room is filling up! We had to rearrange shelving to enable us to fit in more jars of produce on one side, but gave us space on the other for our beekeeping gear. We also purchased a ‘wine’ cooler in which to keep produce that needed refrigerating, as the main fridge was getting too full!

Produce shelves filling up!

Another honey harvest this week gave us over 3 litres of honey from two frames. We were a bit more ‘vigourous’ with scraping the capping off and left it to drain a bit longer than last time. Also this time, we cleaned up the wax capping to enable us to use the beeswax!

Plenty of honey and some beeswax ready for making lip balm!

McCarthy Park

Professional Peasants

Category Archives: Produce