Gardening methods - My first Gardening post

For those who have been around me lately, you would be well informed about my new passion (obsession) with growing food.  I will use the term food growing as that is the part that is particularly exciting to me.

Again, with my desire to eat only food and ingredients that I know, this involves eating fruit and vegetables that have not been spray or treated with chemicals.  After much searching, buying organically grown, locally grown fruit and veg is surprisingly tricky to find.  The solution is to grow my own that way I know that there are no pesticides or herbicides in them.

So, I have been doing my research into various methods.

  

This is the photo of my newly prepared beds at the beginning of Autumn/Winter.  I had really done no research particularly into gardening methods, instead just went for it with the knowledge I had.  I diligently dug over the beds, forming raised rows which are only about 30cm wide. It was actually very rewarding work but there were a few things I needed to change.

1.  The narrow rows slowly started to fall away, with the plants in the middle running out of soil and being really difficult to water.
2. There were weeds growing absolutely everywhere there was bare soil, which was everywhere.

I started doing more research into other gardening methods and came cross this video called Back to Eden.  This promotes the use of tree or forest much in the garden to suppress weeds, fertilise and reduce water use. Sounds good to me.

I continued to do research, just because it is fun and the lazy person in me discovered the Ruth Stout gardening method.  Her book is called "gardening without work" which seemed to fit nicely with my style.  This talks about the "no dig" method and the application of straw as mulch to suppress weeds.

The next style that I have found was the 

The Biodynamic French Intensive System

This was founded by Alan Chadwick and is another method, certainly not what I would call lazy but looks like a highly productive system that seems to sit well with my ideas.

The parts that seem to resonate are, growing cover crops close together to avoid water loss and add nutrients to the soil, double digging, which in my soils that are very compact is really needed, and growing seedlings (some) in trays first then transplanting.

I'm going to stop writing now because I am going on too long but I plan to use a combination of these methods, mainly double digging, adding fertiliser (Alan), using tree mulch on paths (Back to Eden) and adding straw to cover spaces (Ruth Stout).  I will take some photos with some more updates soon.

For now I'm out.

Yummy Easy Dessert - No refined Sugar!

After I had put my son to bed last night I noticed that half of the pear that I had peeled and cut up for him was still left on the table.  After driving all of the way to the farmers market and searching diligently for my locally sourced, organically grown pears, I did't want to waste it.

As I already had the oven on baking the bread, I thought I would throw together a quick dessert.  So here is the recipe, for one.

Ingredients
Half of a peeled pear cut into small (1cm) pieces
2 teaspoons of water
2 teaspoons of plain flour (wholemeal or white)
2 teaspoons of butter (unsalted)
2 tablespoons of muesli (or plain oats)

Method
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Place the pealed and diced pear into a teacup
In a separate bowl, rub the butter into the flour until it is like breadcrumbs
Mix in the muesli or oats
Place the mix on top of the fruit
Place in the oven for 15 minutes or until brown on top

NOTE: That blob on the top was a small piece of dark chocolate i had started to eat but didn't finish. That's the only bit of added sugar, omit this and you omit the added sugar.

Baking Bread the Easy Way

Well I got onto baking bread last night, the easy way of course.  Using  my premixed bread flour mix and the bread machine.  I threw it in the machine when I got home, allowed the 2 hours and 20 minutes for it to turn to dough (using the dough setting) and then put it in the oven after that.  I think I have perfected this recipe so here it is.

Bread Recipe

2 tps of dry yeast
375g of bread mix flour
248ml of water (yep that is exact but I never really manage to get that amount exactly)

Method
Place ingredients in bread mixer in the order of yeast, then flour then water.
Turn the machine onto the dough setting and allow it to do all of the work.
When the dough is ready take it out and place it into a loaf tin lined with baking paper.
I drizzled a little rice bran oil on the top for some extra colour, you could also use milk.
Place it in a pre-heated 220 degree Celsius oven for 10 mins
Then drop the temperature to 200 degree Celsius for another 20 minutes.
Take it out and allow it to cool on a rack, done.

Macarons, not the lazy persons biscuit

I ventured into macron making and discovered that they are certainly not the lazy person's biscuit. They took the best part of the whole day, they were were quite yummy but I'm putting this on the "highly motivated cook" pile of recipes.

Baking Bread (the easy way)

Well, I have decided that I no longer want to feed my family ingredients in food that I don't understand.  I am a dietitian so have a fairly good idea about what most things on labels are, but these days, even I am confused.  I have started googling the "numbers" on my food packets to find out what they actually are.  Even then I am still not quite sure.  I've decided instead to just consume things that have ingredients I understand.  

For example bread.  Had a look at the ingredients in my bread recently and found quite a few tacked on to the end of the list that I wasn't so sure about. My solution, to find a bread that only contained, well, bread ingredients, something like, grains, flour yeast and water.  After much searching I found that the easiest (and laziest) thing to do was to buy it from my local Bakers Delight. All of the basic loaves only contain "bread" ingredients.

That worked well, and tasted good.  I always choose an wholegrain variety so it is healthy too, wholemeal flour and grains.  As I started this, I realised that my family eats a lot of bread.  Each loaf costing $4.10 each and we were eating at least 3 loaves per week.  On the whole not a lot to spend on bread, $12.30 per week (for the 3 of us) however I still felt like their might be a better way.

Here's where laziness and enjoyment come into balance.  I want to feed myself and my family good food, as well as getting the best value for money.  Prior to this revelation, I had gone through a phase of baking my own bread, when I was on maternity leave.  I even went as far as kneading it myself, but with a newborn this all became too much.

A happy compromise was to use a bread machine.  I knew mum had one sitting in her cupboard which was used quite a lot when it was first bought, probably 7-10 years ago at least.  I borrowed this and happily made loaves of bread.

What I did discover was that the loaves came out a weird shape, all tall and fat which made it tricky to cut.  My solution was to use the bread machine to knead the bread, then bake it myself in the oven.
Seems like more work but... not really, here's how.

Bread machine takes at least 4 hours (5 if you use the wholegrain setting).  If i do it myself it takes 2hrs 20min to make the dough in the machine and about 40 minutes in the oven.

Sooo... saves time, comes out easier to cut and lasts longer because its smaller and thinner.

One minor detail that I need to iron out is the flour I am using.  I grabbed a bag of Laucke bread machine mix for $12.60 and seems like it is going to make quite a few loaves, I will keep you posted on how many.  There is one ingredient that I am not particularly sure if what it is but out of convenience I still went ahead and bought it.

Next step is to find some normal bread flour, wholemeal and grain to use instead.  I know Foodland sells it. But for now this will do, remember I am lazy!

I will post the recipe when I get my hands on it for you.  I will make some more tonight and do a decent post with pics.  Enough for now, time for a cup of tea.

What is this all about...

I have discovered recently that the best way to do things is often the easiest, mainly cooking, cleaning and gardening. I read a lot of cookbooks, gardening books, books about sports people and stories of success and I have found that I have my own way of doing things.  I will share my findings here.  Lots of how to's and easy ways to do things.


We are all busy and I don't want to do unnecessary things unless I enjoy them.
Let's get down to it, easy ways to bake bread is next.