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!

Busy Bees!

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Peasants

Our first harvest was a great success!! All the frames in the super were laden with honey and were well capped, so we removed two of the centre frames for harvesting.

Brushing the bees off a frame of capped honey

We used a very simple drainage system- the top bucket has a large hole through which the honey drains through a filter and into the bottom bucket which has a tap in the bottom.

Bucket honey draining system

After scraping the capping off, we let the honey drain for at least 24 hours, then poured it into jars. These first two frames gave us 2.3 litres of honey!

Once each frame had drained, we returned it to the super for the bees to tidy and rebuild! As our super was so full of honey, we also added an empty super for them to move in to.

Growing despite the heat!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Peasants

Well, it has certainly been a hot summer here in Perth, but despite this we have had an abundance of some vegetables! The aquaponics system is amazing…a couple of shade sails over the top to protect from the overhead sun, and there has been incredible growth in comparison to the dirt garden.

Aquaponics system in February

Although some of the veggies exposed to the sun, like the rainbow chard, wilt by the end of the day, they perk up beautifully and keep us well supplied! Warrigal (Botany Bay Greens or New Zealand Spinach) has been a prolific grower all through summer. The barramundi in the aquaponics system fish tank are growing well, though we haven’t caught any yet. We have had a few silver perch from the swimming pool though!

Perch from the pool

This is the pickings from just one day….rainbow chard, silver beet, perpetual spinach, warrigal, basil, kang kong, malabar spinach, and spring onions are all from the aquaponics system. Zucchini, cucumber, and spaghetti squash are from our ‘Pumpkin Palace’, and the mushrooms were growing in the paddock and were too good to overlook! There are also figs, chilli, tomato and capsicum in amongst the green!

One day’s pickings

Pumpkin Palace is covered in butternut and delicata pumpkin, cucumber, spaghetti squash and the beginnings of luffa!

Pumpkin hanging from the roof of the ‘Palace’

Spring update…..

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Peasants

Spring is such a lovely time of the year! Not too hot, enough rain not to need to water the garden, births, and overall growth…….

The aquaponics system is going very well, and we have eaten our first trout from it.

Smoked trout

With the warmer weather coming, we have been monitoring the water temperature as the trout are not happy if it is over 20C. to help extend the season, and reduce the algae that was growing in the fish tank, we put up a gazebo to shade the fish tank. This also provided a structure to attach a support for the tomatoes that are growing like crazy!

Aquaponics October 2012

The orchard is also going very well in this gorgeous weather, with the peaches, nectarines, mulberry and citrus all fruiting. We have high hopes for the olive trees too, after only two olives last year!

Olive tree flowering

We have even preserved some of the lemons, and made jam with mulberries for later….

Preserved lemons

In fact, we have been able to spend a bit more time preserving some produce, and decided to convert a room to store it in! We will be able to use this room for butchering as well, instead of outside where we usually have done it.

Produce room

We also have our very first bee hive, and have ordered our bees….so this room will also be where we can extract the honey safely (away from the bees!).

Naturally, being spring, there have been numerous births (and unfortunately some deaths). Two bantams successfully hatched chicks, though four were killed/taken by something, perhaps a crow. We also lost a duck, we think to an eagle, as there was nothing left but feathers and a beak. Two ducks are sitting on eggs, and three turkeys….so hopefully more births will follow!

McCarthy Park

Professional Peasants

Category Archives: Produce