June 22nd, 2009 AndrewD
We get fog, and no this is not a new discovery. But when we have it, it is usually a pea souper. The other thing about our fog is that they usually do not lift until 12-1pm.
The reason for this is that our place is not at the bottom of the valley. The main street and township of Yass is at the bottom, but we are approx 2km from the GPO and up the ‘hill’. So as I type this at 10.39 am the fog is infact getting thicker as it raises from the town. So sometime around lunch (or soon after) we will see the sky.
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June 22nd, 2009 AndrewD
After a long layoff it is back to some fruit plantings. Last year we planted approx 12-13 fruit tree’s this year not as many. The plan for this year is mainly for plum & cherry (and a few others). So what has arrived so far, and what we have named them (remembering we name all the fruit trees).
- Presidents Plum (Obama)
- Angelina Burdett Plum (Angie)
- Nottingham Medlar (Un-named)
Now as the medlar is unnamed, any suggestions out there. The medlar is a fruit you only eat when rotten, also it has been referred to as a dogs arse amongst other names due to the look of it.
From wikipedia
“In the 16th and 17th centuries, medlars were also bawdily called “open-arses” because of the shape of the fruits, inspiring the presence of boisterously or humorously indecent puns in many Elizabethan and Jacobean plays.”
From Romeo and Juliet
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
O Romeo, that she were, O that she were
An open-arse and thou a poperin pear!
I am still planning another apple, a sloe plum and a few more nut trees, but more on those when they arrive.
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June 14th, 2009 AndrewD
One of the trees we are planting is the Silver Birch (Betula pendula). Now if you had been reading this blog you would know that most plants here do have a reason for being planted. Well The silver birch is an amazing tree. It produces a sap which, like Maple Trees can be boiled down to produce a syrup (not as good as maple but a sweet syrup). You can produce a Silver Birch wine or beer and there is a ton of other things you can do with it. Anyway in a few years (I am hoping approx 5) I can start tapping them in spring.
I have 4 of them so far and I expect to buy another two. I think I should get a decent quantity of sap out of them and I will tap 3 per year. Wikipedia states “A small birch (trunk diameter about 15 cm) can produce up to 5 liters of sap per day, a larger tree (diameter 30 cm) up to 15 liters per day.”
As stated above you can either use the sap to make a dry white wine or a beer, in fact Queen Victoria’s Prince Albert made it his favourite drink when in residence at Balmoral.
And an old English recipe states “To every Gallon of Birch-water put a quart of Honey, well stirr’d together; then boil it almost an hour with a few Cloves, and a little Limon-peel, keeping it well scumm’d. When it is sufficiently boil’d, and become cold, add to it three or four Spoonfuls of good Ale to make it work…and when the Test begins to settle, bottle it up.
Anyway some other uses are
- Inner bark – cooked or dried and ground into a meal
- A tea is made from the leaves
- The bark is diuretic and laxative
And a bunch more.
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June 10th, 2009 Lee-Ann
well today is the first big frost of the season – everything is covered in frost - buckets with water in them have frozen over, broccoli have collapsed with frost, haybales all have a covering of frost. I should have brought the lemon tree up closer to the house although I think it is ok, but I guess I better start paying more attention to weather patterns around here to protect the more frost tender plants. It is a beautiful morning sight to see. I should take a photo but the sun is coming up and my hands are freezing and a bunch of other reasons why I don’t want to go outside again.
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May 31st, 2009 AndrewD
One thing I am really bad at is labelling my seedlings. I always think I will rememebr but never do, and when you have quite few different seeds in the punnets it makes for a mystery surprise. So today at our ‘cheap’ store’ I bought two packs of over sized paddle pop sticks. Hopefully this will solve the issue and no more mystery plants.
Garden Tags
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May 24th, 2009 AndrewD
For the past few months Alyssa has been attending Yass Cubs. Anyway this weekend was supposed to be her first camping trip. Now we were a bit nervous but as she had some friends with her we thought it would be all OK.
At approx 12.36 in the morning we got a phone call that Alyssa was crying, cold and wanted to come home. So we threw the clothes on, woke Lynsey and headed off (via the 24hr BP on the highway for petrol) so finally left yass town at 1am. Now to get to Wee Jasper you pass over two rivers and a few bridges. It goes up and down some hills, windy (quite a few hairpins) and steep drop offs. It is tight during the day, but during the night it is a completely different experience, and of course there are the wildlife to watch out for (for the record three wombats, one we had to stop for [suddenly]).
Now Yass is approx 55kms away and once you reach town the camping grounds are another 7 kms. So after getting there are 2am we collected Alyssa from the cubs camp site. Another hour drive home (a bit slower this time) and Lee Ann and I, feeling real tired, are home. Kids in bed and we fall into ours.
Now I wish the cub leaders had called earlier since she did wake up at 9.o0pm. Sure the drive would not have been any easier but at least we would have been more awake. Anyway all ended OK we got home safely. Alyssa while there had a good time. I just think next time we need to attend the cub camp with her. Apparenlty after we left another kid woke up and had trouble getting back to sleep so the camp leaders didn’t end up in their tents until 4am, they were exceptionally tired the next day when we went to pick up alyssa’s stuff.
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May 18th, 2009 AndrewD
Probably a bit late, but the garlic is now in the ground. Last year was the first time I ever grew garlic and was surprised at the great crop I ended up with. I planted Festival (a small garlic with that extra bit of punch)and 3 other varieties. The Festival seemd to do the best so I orderd 6 bulbs of that variety again from garlicfarmsales.com.au. They also sent two complimentary bulbs of Aria, so we will see how that goes as well. This year I have a dedicated garlic bed, and a bit more room so besides the above mentioned garlic I also included some of mine from last yeras crop. All going well I expect approx 80 bulbs come summer.
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May 10th, 2009 AndrewD
As we continue into the venture of country life we slowly become more ‘Yassified’, that for me is the knowing of how things here in this town work, and I would say probably work in a lot of country towns. The latest is knowing who has lambs to slaughter. Friends of ours here have some sheep running on a few acres, mostly they are on the pasture and a little bit of top up grain. So Lee Ann got the offer “do you want one?” The answer a hesitant yes and the price “$50″, basically for the butchering. We also gave them a dozen of eggs in the spirit of bartering (yes cash did change hands but really IMHO not enough).
These people make no money off it, they do it for their own meat supply. And a qualified butcher does everything else. They reduce cost by giving a lamb to the person that supplies the grain etc.
So really not sure what we would get, we basically said, give us the legs, shanks, shoulders (boned), scrag (neck) and the other main cuts, which has basically become various chops. When the lamb was delivered in a big tub we needed to separate the meat, this is where Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall (http://www.rivercottage.net/) and his book ‘River Cottage Meat Book’ comes into its own. And I do recommend this book. it goes thru all the cuts of different meats. We basically bagged and labeled each and placed them in the freezer (and we have a bag of liver, kidneys and heart).
Lynsey next to the lamb
The other thing about this lamb is that it is spring lamb. That night we made crumbed french cutlets which the kids devoured. Lynsey was gnawing the last bits of the flesh from the bone. mmmm meat. That should do us for a while anyway.
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May 9th, 2009 AndrewD
It was Lee-Anns birthday yesterday, the ripe ol age of 40 +1. Anyway the day started with eggs, (from our chooks), bacon and home made bread. And tea from the new tea pot. Then dinner and cake. Lynsey had said during the week she wanted to make it. So yesterday she did. Also we had an amzing dinner of slow roast lamb shoulder (more on that later).
Lee Ann and birthday cake
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May 4th, 2009 AndrewD
On Saturday arvo, there were dozens of little spiders floating thru the sky with their webs. And as I was working down the back planting a new grevillia in the waste area I had quite a few land on me. Anyway the next morning I took the dog out and there were literally hundreds of webs everywhere. In the early dew and frost it looked impressive.
Webs in the early morning grass
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