Spring 2012

A meeting at my place. Also some lovely photos from Kate here. Thanks to little Gene for being here, and Sadie and Scout for so much entertainment, beautiful girls.

Spring

We will be meeting on the 30th of September. Sneaking in a spring meeting to maybe even meet and greet some new members. I'm making horseradish. Neigh. Photo found by Adam. Thanks Adam.

Also just wanted to share our 51st Kiva loan, you can see the details here. And an open invitation to all to join us on Kiva.

Autumn at Don's

We had our Autumn meeting at Don's warehouse in Northcote. It was such a good day.
Nice to be in such a big open space, the rope swing was very popular. As was the record player.




There was quince chutney, rhubarb chutney, homegrown cherry tomato chutney, peach brandy butter and National Trust pickled onions. Nomnomnom.




I made a brioche plait, all soft and sweet. I also made watermelon rind pickle, the recipe is from the Time Life Good Cook Preserving book. It's a weird consistency, but tastes good! I also bought a couple of jars of bread and butter pickles, as I wasn't sure how well received the watermelon rind would be, and I have been making lots of pickles and jam. I also took a few jars of fig and vanilla jam, the neighbour's tree has been very abundant, and still has fat figs ripening. They aren't so good to eat fresh, but make very nice jam.

Bird's house

These photos from the weekend meeting at Bird's house. A really good bunch, including Don's green tomato, Drew's pickled cucumbers, Fleischmann's eggplant relish, Rachael's szechuan peppers in tomato, Dell's piccalilli, Simon's Baltic Sea relish, Bird's beetroot and horseradish, Kate's tomato relish, the Ward's tomato chutney and Estelle's hot Rococo chili sauce. Everything was very tasty, and we made plans for the annual Christmas Hamper raffle. I'll keep you posted!

Meeting early november

Not entirely sure what to make of the season. Piccalilli? Marmalade? Do you have a recipe to contribute? Please do!

Farm Chairs

Autumn and Farm

Equals good! The next meeting will be towards the end of April at the farm I think.
Prepare! Preserve!

Pickled Eggs!

Ominous, and also kind of interesting. Drew hosted our autumn harvest chutney club so he could make people eat his pickled eggs; as Kate understandably refuses.



It was a good one. There were takeaway eggs, feijoa chutney, jelly and quince and feijoa two tone jelly, tomato chutney, piccalilli, plum jam, crabapple, rosehip and pomegranite jelly and quince paste. Innovations in packaging from Rachael, Annie and Lydia. Poached figs with cream. Feijoa jelly with marscapone. If only I were hungrier at the time.

Haha harvest

It's that time again. Drew has offered to host this chutney club and open his pickled eggs. I want to suggest the 2nd of May, but am open to your suggestion.

I felt like making it a challenge.

Harvest. Make something with something you picked yourself. Easy for some, but I have a concrete backyard, and therefore have to skulk about alleyways looking for ripe fruit. Luckily it's autumn, there is fruit everywhere, so see what you can do. If you need help there is a map of fruit trees within reach of public property here.

Figs and feijoas, quince, apples and pomegranites are all over these suburbs. Make something of it.



I picked a some delicious apples up the farm, though not sure what to make of them, too good to cook with. Crunch Crunch Crunch.