Growing, harvesting and drying garlic

We planted garlic cloves in June - July from organic bulbs purchased at the Fruit Market. We planted a lot because we enjoyed our own fresh garlic so much last year! We found that organic garlic grew much better than the other cloves, so this year we only planted organic cloves. It was fun to pull all our garlic out of the soil last week!

Mercy Joy sat under the shade of the potatoes.

We harvested 26 garlic bulbs, plus at least another four earlier.

We placed these bulbs on the deck in the sun for a few days. They are now in the shed. We are hoping to dry them successfully in order to eat our own garlic year round and maybe even sow our own cloves in July next year.

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Family Photo Christmas 2010

I look forward to having a family picture taken each Christmas. This one was taken on Christmas Eve at our family gathering at my parents' house. Last Christmas we had no idea that we would be blessed with another little person in the picture this year! This year we didn't try very hard to get Elnathan to smile, we were just content to smile ourselves! We love this picture.

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Double Peeled Broad Beans

We have a good harvest of broad beans this year, from two successive seed plantings. We have enjoyed a new-to-us way of preparing them, from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion. Double peeling broad beans is a great way to enjoy them in salads. As you can see from the picture, they have a beautiful bright green colour when prepared in this way.

1. Put water onto boil in a small saucepan

2. Pod the broad beans

3. Boil them for 30 seconds - 1 minute

4. Run them under cold water

5. Remove the outer covering of the bean. I find that giving them a squeeze causes the inner bean to come out well. I just eat the outer shell as I peel them, but if you are a bit fussier about your food you may prefer to compost these! They are not the yummiest things!

6. Add them to a salad and enjoy! We have enjoyed them with tomatoes, lettuce, spinach leaves, olives, and French dressing. I also prepared our own dressing of balsamic vinegar, parsley, chives, 1/2 a lemon and a crushed garlic clove.

Do you enjoy broad beans? How have you prepared them?

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Mercy Joy in her butterfly dress

I couldn't resist taking lots of pictures of Mercy in the butterfly dress a friend gave us.

Eyes open!

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Impossible Quiche

I obtained this recipe years ago from a mother of six, after enjoying it many times at their home. I enjoy making it because it is quick and you can use a variety of vegetables. I have often used fresh garden spinach. It has been even more fun to make it with our fresh eggs, which give it a lovely golden colour.

6 eggs

1 cup self-raising flour

3 cups milk

2 onions

Oil for frying onions

3 – 5 cups vegetables and/or meat (possible combinations: corn and mushroom, spinach and corn, mushroom and tomato).

2 cups cheese

1. Put onions on to fry until clear.
2. Combine the first three ingredients using a hand-held blender or a whisk.
3. Add the cheese, onions and vegetables. Mix well.
4. Pour into two greased dishes of suitable size.
5. Bake for 45 mins to 1 hour at 180-200 degrees Celsius.

Serve one quiche for dinner and put the other in the freezer!

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Babies Don't Keep

Babies don't keep, so it is important to spend lots of time doing things like trying to capture their tiny hands in photos!

Sitting with them just enjoying the soft skin on the back of their heads is also important . . .

and enjoying these fleeting days when they sit quietly for cuddles!

It is a precious thing to have a tiny baby in the house, and I am savouring it more second time around. We both feel like we are enjoying these early days more this time.

These pictures were taken on December 1st.

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Pretty in pink Bumgenius

It was fun to order our little girl some pink nappies! I have found that the new V4.0 Bumgenius with snaps fit a newborn just as well as the velcro version we had when Elnathan was born. Mercy has been wearing these since her umbilical cord stump fell off at about a week of age. It is great to be able to purchase one nappy that fits a newborn and a toddler. Elnathan is now wearing the same nappies he had as a newborn. They are only just beginning to show signs of wear and I need to replace the elastic in some. We have 13 Bumgenius pocket nappies for him and they receive almost constant use as I always choose them above the other nappies we own. Those Elnathan has been wearing would not fit Mercy as the elastic was too stretched around the legs. I will report back about whether the rescue operation with new elastic is a success!

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Naming our baby girl

Mercy - We chose this name because of the great mercy God has shown us. God has not only provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, he has also mercifully given us two children even though we had such little faith in Him for this at times. We hope that our little girl will grow to love God's mercy, and to show mercy to those who are poor, orphaned, or in need of the gospel.

Joy - Dave wanted a short second name that flowed on from the first name. We often call her Mercy Joy, although we chose not to hyphenate it. God has given us such joy through the gift of this child! From the moment I thought I might be pregnant, God gave me joy. Dave was also joyful when I told him the news. May our baby girl bring joy to many throughout her life.

Lorraine - God brought my mother Lorraine into relationship with Him in young adulthood. Most of Mum's family are not Christians. God has preserved Mum's faith through many trials and changes. Her faith has been the means through which God has revealed His mercy to me. I had often thought of calling our baby Lorraine, but we were not keen on three names. Then about a month before she was due I felt like God was speaking to my heart that adding this name would provide her with a reminder of what God has done for our family. I prayed that if this was from God, Dave would immediately agree. He did!

We hope that God will continue the work he has started in bringing Mum to faith in Him, through extending His mercy to many generations. We remember Exodus 20: 5 - 6 For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.


A few days ago I realised how applicable Psalm 90: 14 is to our the name of our baby girl:

Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our
days!

This has become my prayer for Mercy Joy.

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Advent

It has been fun to begin our Advent celebrations. We have taken out our decorations and started our Jesse tree devotions. I have printed out all the Bible passages for these, after compiling them in full in a word document. This makes it easier for our family to do them, as we don't have to look up each passage in a different part of the Bible each evening. If anyone would like this document for the purposes of your own devotions, please email me (sherrindrewATgmail.com).

Elnathan was mainly interested in removing decorations from the tree, rather than putting them onto it.

The tree is now safely on our dining table. We love to decorate it with stars and angels, and some meaningful ornaments such as a handpainted wedding momento given to us by the hostess at the bed and breakfast where we spent our wedding night. We look forward to adding Jesse tree decorations as well, which will remind us of what God has done for us through many Biblical events.

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Homecoming and introductions

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Mercy Joy Lorraine

God blessed us with the natural birth of our second child, Mercy Joy Lorraine, on Sunday November 21st. Mercy was born at 1.34am, weighing 3.725kg (about eight pounds). She is 52.5cm long. We came home at midday the same day.

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10 things that help me to feel good as a Mum

A friend once asked me what makes me feel good as a Mum. Here are 10 of the things on my personal list.

1. Meditating on God's word and learning to rest in His favour, promises, and guidance. I am refreshed and uplifted as I focus on what God says. This evening as I meditated on Ps. 46 God spoke to my heart about the upcoming birth and early days of parenting two children. My heart was encouraged as I believed that "we will not fear" because God is with us! At the moment I tend to meditate on small segments of Scripture rather than following a plan and reading large chunks. 

2. Being thankful for the abundance God has provided, and for the people in my life. The Revive Our Hearts ministry has a wonderful 30 day challenge that helped me grow in this area. I also recommend the husband encouragement challenge that made me enormously thankful for my husband! You can find these challenges here.

3. Making time to sit down and do something other than housework. I stop housework during Elnathan's morning room time and afternoon nap, and at 8pm in the evening. As we all know, housework never ends! I need time boundaries that make sure it does not take over every waking moment. This is a physical need in my case, due to chronic pain, but it also gives me special times to look forward to each day.

4. Pursuing peace in relationships. It is easy to become involved in pointless conflicts that sap our emotional energy and our time, distracting us from building God's kingdom. Minding our own business is one way we have found to avoid this. This is as important online as in "real life". There are many blogs that focus on conflicts or faults in particular people. I avoid these, particularly writers with razor keyboards.

5. Learning, particularly about topics that are not directly related to the day-to-day running of the household. Learning about diverse subjects will be of benefit to our family as we plan to home school. This year I have loved making progress with learning Zulu and teaching some words to our son. I set aside 10 - 15 minutes a day, and have been surprised at how much it is possible to learn with this small time commitment.

6. Having projects that can be completed. Reading books and completing quilts, scrapbook pages and educational aids all fit into this category.

7. Maintaining our home as a place of order, beauty , education and ministry. I am here most of the time, and it is important for my sense of well being that my home reflects God's beauty. Having pictures on the wall and places for most things is a wonderful help. I love knowing that my home is not just a physical place, it is also a place God can use to build His kingdom and reflect the things that are dear to His heart.

8. Feeding my family. This is a lot of work but it is also satisfying when I can put a yummy and nutritious meal or snack on the table. Lately I have loved giving Natey green smoothies. The process of growing food also gives me joy. There is nothing like being outside in the sun with your hands in the soil.

9. Discovering ministry opportunities that are within my capabilities and are appropriate for my season of life. I have written about some of these here. It is especially encouraging when I can include Elnathan in ministry opportunities.

10. Being content with what I am capable of doing in a day. Much of my frustration comes when I try to complete tasks that God has not given me the time or energy to complete! Often I have to be content with completing the most basic things, and the cobwebs have to wait. My days are happier when I choose contentment. Right now (5 days overdue and very sore) I am unable to do much except sit or lie down, and getting upset about that is of no use!

What about you? I'd love to hear from others about what lifts your spirits and helps you to live joyfully!

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39 weeks and waiting

We only have two days to go until the due date and have reached the waiting stage, with the continual question "will baby come today" on our minds. Everything is as ready as it can be with . . .

* pretty pink Bumgenius nappies on the change table
* lots of pink clothes in the cupboards and case
* a little scrapbook of prayers and scriptures compiled to read during feeds
* the garden almost completely planted out with corn, pumpkins, spinach, carrots, lettuce, beans, and much more
* 20 meals in the freezer
* presents for Nate wrapped in the cupboard
* just about every job I wanted to do completed, including sorting folders, organising bookcases, and baking banana cakes!

We can never be fully "ready" for the changes a baby brings to your life, but we can certainly prepare as much as possible in the nine months God gives. I felt like baby would come early, but it looks like I will be proved wrong! My pregnancy has been easy for the most part, except for back pain that I may have had anyway. The the last week has been more challenging. Right now walking causes a lot of pain, but we are learning to trust God with each day as it comes. Dave has been a great help. We are hoping for a natural birth again, in hospital this time, and that we will be able to draw near to God in the midst of it. I am hoping that second time around will be easier. We know that we cannot take this for granted, as smooth births are a gift from God.

Here is the first Drew munchkin . . . 

He reminds us of the great blessings we can hope for with the gift of our new child.

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Pumpkin and spinach risotto

After making the spinach pie, we still had some silverbeet to eat. We often enjoy pumpkin and spinach risotto, so I used it to make this. I recommend this dish as a simple and easy dinner. We make many different risottos, sometimes just using whatever we have on hand. I will give you the basic risotto recipe and then the specific additions you would use to make pumpkin and spinach risotto.

Basic risotto ingredients: 
1 brown onion, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of alborio (short grained) rice, depending on how many people you want to feed!
3 1/2 cups simmering vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine (optional, add more stock if you don't want to use wine)
1/4 - 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese
2 tbs fresh herbs

1. Fry onion and garlic in the olive oil.

2. Add rice and stir to coat it with oil. Continue stirring until rice becomes transparent.

3. Pour in wine (or 1/2 cup of stock) and allow it to bubble, stirring. When absorbed, add 1/4 of stock. Stir until absorbed. Gradually add the rest of the stock, a ladle full at a time. Stir and wait for it to absorb before adding more.

4. Once rice is al dente (tender but firm) add parmesan and herbs. Cover pan and stand for 5 minutes before serving. If you let it stand for longer, that is also fine.


Additions for pumpkin and spinach risotto:

3 cups chopped pumpkin - you can add this, chopped finely, with the rice at step two or (like we do) steam it and add it towards the end when you have a few ladlefulls of stock to go.

10 or so spinach or silverbeet leaves (you can use more or less to taste, but remember that it does cook down so what looks like a lot will look like much less in the finished risotto). Add silverbeet when you have a few ladlefulls of stock to go, or spinach with the last of the stock. Silverbeet takes a little longer to cook.

1/2 cup cashews (optional)

Oregano is a great fresh herb to use for this dish

Risotto can sound complicated when you read about it, but once you have made a few they are easy and you won't even need a recipe. Enjoy!!

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Spring at The Drew Patch

We have some beautiful spring flowers here at The Drew Patch! Mrs Green Thumb Jean hosts an opportunity to share these "Blooming Tuesday", which I am participating in today. I am a little late, but it is still Tuesday in the USA! At our home we are thrilled with the progress the jasmine is making in covering our shed. The daffodils in the border are also coming along well after a slow start.

Out the front we loved the blossoms on our ornamental cherry.

I pruned back our azaleas and they are rewarding us with a lovelier show than ever before. We are also thrilled that our tiny apple tree (to the left) is producing masses of blossoms and tiny fruit.

There are lots of blossoms at our patch, the hope of fruit to come. The two espaliered apples we planted in July have blossoms and fruit! This is an unexpected blessing and we are looking forward to seeing what comes of it.

In the vegetable garden I planted sweet peas to grow up a tee-pee, and they look just as lovely I imagined (a rare outcome for me)! 

The beauty of spring gives us so much to praise God for, and I'm learning to point out the beauties of God's creation to Elnathan. Visit the Blooming Tuesday post to view other gardens!

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Spinach pie in abundance!

Dave purchased a large pie dish and pie bird for my birthday. I had never seen a pie bird before. They are an old fashioned method of releasing steam from pies. The dish and bird are Austrlaian made and beautiful quality! Dave loves pies so I want to get better at making them.

First I pre-baked some shortcrust pastry and placed the bird on top. Then in went the filling . . .

I used the spinach and cheese pie filling and placed puff pastry over the top.I generally avoid ricotta and feta cheese during pregnancy but ensured this was fresh and well cooked. Here is the completed pie . . .

This pie used a huge amount of my silverbeet harvest. I doubled the recipe. As you can see, this is a large pie dish!!  I often substitute silverbeet for spinach. It is good to remember to pre-wash garden vegetables at another time, rather than doing it as part of the dinner preparations. Garden vegetables tend to be dirtier than purchased counterparts. Washing all the silverbeet took a long time and made my back very sore as I did it immediately prior to making the pie. I would have liked to have a thicker, healthier, homemade crust for this pie. Do any of you have tips for homemade crusts? I like the idea of Tammy's recipe as it can be frozen ahead (a must for me as I would probably find it too much physically to make crust and filling on one day). I want to learn to make really excellent pies!! Any tips will be appreciated.

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Spring silverbeet harvest

We recently harvested the remaining leaves from six silverbeet plants, to make room for more crops. They were about to go to seed, and I am learning to be a bit more ruthless with older crops in order to make room for new ones. We ended up with a huge pile of silverbeet! I will share what we did with the silverbeet in subsequent posts.

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Completed garden baby quilt

Our little girl's garden quilt is up on the wall! It will stay there until she is big enough to move into the cot, and Natey will move into the bed. That will not be for at least four months, and it is lovely to enjoy it on the wall until then. I love the way quilts have multiple purposes. They are useful for warmth, make beds attractive, and can be used to decorate walls. Elnathan's room is now full of quilts on his cot, the bed, and the wall. It was fun to use up lots of scrap green fabrics for this quilt, as borders for the blocks. It was a challenge to make them stretch to complete the quilt, but in the end I only had to purchase 10cm of binding fabric! This seemed fitting for a quilt with a stewardship theme.

On the back I have written a special message to our second child:

We were full of joy when we found out about you! We felt like God was blessing us in abundance because he gave you to us so soon after Elnathan. At the same time we were harvesting a lot of food from the garden, and you would be born in Spring. A garden quilt seemed like the perfect way to celebrate God's goodness, and your life. Psalm 65:11 says of our Heavenly Father "You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance."


We believe that God wants us to take good care of His world. We are to share the physical and spiritual blessings He gives. We hope that you will join us in this! May God give you every spiritual blessing in Jesus as "in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which he made to abound toward us . . . " Eph. 1: 7 - 8.

I have found it a joy to be able to make a quilt for each child that is not just a decoration or covering but also represents their significance in God's eyes, His plan for their lives, and their place in our family.

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