Green Temple

[mischief]

That soil behind the potatoes looks lovely and black and not very clay like at all, looks great.

[Grahame]

Yeah, well. At that end of the property it has been built up a little more. The clay starts about where I have dug the hole down too. I think what must have happened is that a previous owner had the place 'levelled' for flood irrigation, what ever did happen there had some interesting effects on plants in the first couple of years - certainly not a rich happy soil. But now it is starting too show a lot more promise.

[LonerMatt]

What's your photoblog page? I might have missed it, but I didn't see any links.

[Grahame]

What's your photoblog page? I might have missed it, but I didn't see any links.

here

[Grahame]

For the first time we have been heavily hit by fruit fly and the quinces have been pretty well struck. But the beauty of it is that you can cut around the grubs and still make some delicious quince paste. If you have access to some quinces then this stuff is well worth the effort (especially when you see just how expensive the bought stuff is!). It almost feels like cheating when you get these huge slabs of something so delicious and normally so expensive and you can eat when ever the fancy takes you. And for such a small cost!

So rather than the 8 quinces the recipe calls for, I just used 14 or so. The chickens will be happy to receive the leftovers.

After this lot is done, I'm going to make some quince jelly too.

The apples have been pretty damaged too, but the girls and I just sit out on the trampoline and cut the good bits out, then we feed the eager chooks with the left-overs and grubs. I'll probably try a few new recipes with some of the effected apples too.

The thing to remember is that a bad fruit-fly season doesn't mean a total loss, it just means we get the opportunity to make a whole lot of things we might not have made otherwise - or more of the delicious things we may have made anyway. And the chickens get more fresh fruit than they might have.

Preserves, jams and jellies are some of my favourite things about growing my own food. This is the part that makes me feel like a king.

[purplepear]

The garlic king is into quince paste - well done. We did lots with wind fall apples last year making jelly. It looks and tastes great even though the apples were not the best we have produced. I too love jams - a great way to preserve fruit. Thank you for sharing your journey.

[eco4560]

Having a glut of quince paste would have to rate as one of the nicest things you could have a glut of!

[Grahame]

I agree Eco, and it keeps so well!

I just love that you can take fruit (or veggies) that most people wouldn't even look at and turn it into some of the best products available. The quality of home-grown, chemical free, old variety foods just makes the best tasting jams and jellies. It is like nothing you can buy in a supermarket these daze.

I often say that you can't really find any food in the Australian supermarkets anymore. Even the fruit and veg could barely be considered food - it is very close to being processed 'food'. It is all really just food substitute, empty, lifeless filler. And this is why we find children and adults no longer like fruit. The supermarket stocks these bland, made-for-shelf-life-and-looks varieties. People buy them and try them and think, I don't even like oranges, or apples. When, in reality they have very little resemblance to a real orange or a real apple. It has no similarity in taste, texture or experience. But it is too late, they already think they don't like them. Instead they buy flavour-enhanced, or salt and sugar drowned processed muck because it satisfies the need to have an experience in their foods. And there is really no value in going to the local greengrocers anymore either, because in general they are buying the same bland varieties, from the same grotesque city markets. It is only at the good stalls at good farmers markets or from a home orchard or vegetable garden that you can find this real food experience now. It's something that can get washed away in the conventional vs organic debate too - if the broad-acre organic growers are still pumping out the same tired old varieties then you may only find a small or negligible difference in taste and quality. When money is the bottom-line, quality will suffer. When quality is the bottom-line it is a whole new ball-game.

I was listening to the ABC on Sunday morning with one ear and happened to hear someone mention that the quality of our jam reflects the state of our society. It really struck a cord with me. Imagine if we got back to trying to make the best jam, rather than trying to make the cheapest one

Garlic King hehe.

[eco4560]

Agree with you 100%. Maybe rather than GPD we need the National Jam Index.

And you are the garlic king. My pickled ones are fabulous. Except now that the kids have discovered that they too like pickled garlic it is disappearing faster....