iSonto #43

This week we are thankful for the sunny days that have allowed more play in the yard.

The children have been playing better together. Here they are sitting happily on a chair reading together of their own accord!

We were able to have one set of neighbours over for dinner and take cookies to a new neighbour.

We have organised our midwife for a homebirth.

Elnathan was a happy napper during a couple of his rest times. Usually he sits in bed and looks at books but occasionally sleep overcomes him!

A verse we are studying together is Exodus 20:12 "Honour your father and your mother". I made four laminated picture memory verses for Elnathan as a nearly two year-old, and have added a couple this year with Mercy in mind, which we love to look at together at lunch time. This is just one of the verses we have been going over together. Mercy is very pleased to say each word after me and Nate is pleased that he can say the whole verse. Everyone is happy!


Mercy was dressed in her new apron which matches mine.We have had some happy times in the kitchen together this week, both children super thrilled to be involved! It is fun that they are getting to this stage. We don't mind the mess as long as everyone is happy.

Mercy also wanted to put away the cutlery, usually Elnathan's job, and she did a remarkable job for a first try considering that it took me months to teach Nate to do it! Maybe the teacher is improving!

From garden to tummies . . . kale for a curry. It is always a pleasure to hear Nate ask "what will we get from the garden for dinner today".

 A book we enjoyed together was Under the Ground, which created many conversations about hot lava and magma!

Now we are following this up with a book on volcanoes. 

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from the "Family Vision" devotions I put together when Nate was a baby. This is the first year he has been able to partly appreciate them, and it has been fun to enjoy object lessons like a gift to illustrate faith as a gift, or burning a picture of the earth to illustrate what will happen at the end of the world. The work is paying off with fun family times around God's word . . . and I am so glad I put these together when I had more time for quiet pursuits! Now I am developing a box for the illustrations/objects so I don't need to look for them yearly.

 One funny moment was Mercy bursting into laughter then saying "Mercy funny".

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iSonto #9

This week we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a whole week of festivities! Dave took the week off and we have enjoyed outings as a family for breakfast, time at home, outings to the beach and pool, museums, and more! Here we are at Franklin, the town where we met in 2005 and where Sherrin was born in 1981. On our anniversary we exchanged gifts.

We got out the wedding album and DVD slide show. There are so many wonderful memories of God's goodness to relive!

Elnathan was determined that at least one of the presents for our Family Celebration must be a car . . . the bell he is holding here was enjoyed but quickly discarded as he searched for cars. Thankfully there were some cars from Gran Gran, brought over in 2009 and being carefully given in small numbers as he gets old enough for them.

Here are the cars.

Natey's memory verse was "Honour your father and your mother" Exodus 20:12


Mercy was good at rolling a ball while on her tummy. She also thrilled us many times when she said "Bye bye" and waved!

From garden to tummies . . .

Our first delicious cauliflower for lunch on our anniversary, along with roast chicken and other vegetables, and cheese sauce.

A book we enjoyed together was The Natural History Book which we purchased last year and kept especially for Family Celebration.

We are thankful for the opportunity to relax and enjoy each other, the generally lovely behaviour of the children, and the many ways we see God at work in bringing us together and giving us four wonderful years of marriage. It is an amazing blessing to have a beautiful beginning to our family which we can now celebrate each year.

  Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put out each Sunday.

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iSonto #7

Elnathan was excited about putting Daddy's hat on during a skype call with Gran Gran, and on Mercy Joy and on Mummy.

Natey's memory verse was  "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 15:16.

Mercy was happy to sit for half hours at a time pulling toys out of her basket. So sweet and peaceful! You can spy her behind Elnathan here. Natey is doing his first ever finger painting here! Last time I got it out he tried to eat it, but this time it was planes and boats and circles and diamonds and squiggles.

From garden to tummies . . .

Kale and silverbeet on pizza.

A book we enjoyed together was Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Dave and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this aloud together, and finished it this week. Any suggestions for what we should have next?

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from a page of John Wesley Quotes.

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

We are thankful for the teaching we have received over the years about home and family life.

Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put out each Sunday.

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iSonto #6

Boxes were turned into a house.

Playing together is just beginning. 

Elnathan was genuinely helpful with putting nappies into the washing machine - and he finds it exciting!

We got out his set of farm animals which can be strung onto a thread. No threading happened, but he did line them up and said they were going on a walk to the community center!

Mercy was kept busy while we attempted to start a quiet reading time after lunch.

From garden to tummies . . .  
  
Kale is one of the few veggies that have thrived in our winter garden. All the seeds came up in summer so we had plenty to transplant, and it has grown well. Our silverbeet has been picked within an inch of its life, so kale is being substituted for it in some recipes. This week I made spinach pies and substituted kale for some of the spinach/silverbeet. There are lots of health benefits to eating kale. In this picture you can see our silverbeet in the foreground and kale behind.

A book we enjoyed together was Spot Goes to a Party. This book has been read and re-read and quoted at the dinner table.

It has also been acted out with little pretend letters from Helen appearing in our house. Elnathan is a great fan of parties!

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from Heart-tenderizing words. Having personal pity parties is one of things I am aiming to overcome, so this was a welcome additional reminder.

We are thankful for the fact that Dave has Saturdays off paid work so he can work in our garden. 



Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put ou
t each Sunday.

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iSonto #3

Elnathan was thrilled when I got the easel out. He has drawn more than ever before. He often begs us to draw something as well. What a difference four or five months makes! When I last had this out he just tried to climb into the middle of it!

Natey's memory verse was "Do all things without complaining or disputing" Philippians 2: 14. We didn't have to work very hard on this as we have been saying it for a long time now!!
 
Mercy was very pretty in a dress her great grandma Thelma knitted for Sherrin!

From garden to tummies . . .

When I wanted to pull the remaining broccoli off a plant in order to give the leaves to the chooks, I found Natey's little bowl handy. I filled it up. He soon found it and said "Natey have lunch" and proceeded to eat lots of raw broccoli!! 

A book we enjoyed together was Blessings Every Day: 365 Simple Devotions for the Very Young. Elnathan had a great interest in the illustrations of children doing lots of different things, especially the picture of a boy playing hide and seek with his tummy showing. "Please look at boy got a tummy" was a frequent request, and this book was carried from room to room!

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from The Valley of Vision: a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions. Here is an excerpt from "The Convicting Spirit". 

Make me willing to be saved in this way,
perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jusus:
Help me not only to receive him but
to walk in him,
depend on him,
commune with him,
be conformed to him,
follow him,
imperfect, but still pressing forward,
not complaining of labour, but valuing rest,
not murmuring under trials, but thankful for my state.
Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and th eprinciple and medium of all godliness;
May I be saved by grace through faith,
live by faith,
feel the joy of faith,
do the work of faith,
Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

We are thankful for the  privilege of caring for our own little plot of land and our children.

Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put out each Sunday.

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Summer crops near their end

This afternoon we were thrilled to still be harvesting some lovely heads of corn. Our staggered planting has worked well this year, giving us fresh corn for nearly two months. We ate these with guests tonight after cooking them in foil on the braii with some butter, salt and pepper. Delish!

Maybe Mercy Joy is thinking "Hmmm . . . should I start solid food?"

"What do you think?"

One of the challenges of autumn is deciding when to pull things out to make way for new crops. Today the patty pan below got pulled out, as it looked like it was coming to the end of its life. I am learning to be more ruthless.

It is always a challenge to find space for winter crops because summer plantings like squash, pumpkins, and tomatoes last well into autumn. The broccoli and beets pictured below were planted as seeds in January to replace spring crops of peas and broad beans. They will provide food in late autumn and winter.

Today we bought seedlings of parsley, coriander, celery and spinach, which we will need to find space for. I like to grow from seed, but it has been challenging this year due to lack of space in the garden and the many threats to seed pots from toddlers and chickens :)! There have been many successes (broccoli, kale, turnips, silverbeet) but some notable failures, particularly cauliflower! We are still getting heaps of tomatoes, and the vines pictured below will probably be taking up space in our garden for another month. Nate is enjoying a tomato in this picture. He is still learning to choose the red ones, a good lesson in colours!

Here is our bowl of food after wandering through the garden some more . . . chives for potato salad, our last patty pan for the braai, capsicum and radish for a green salad (and lettuce still to be picked). There are lots of tomatoes hidden away below there too - this week has been busy again working out how to use those! We have frozen some plain (peeled, diced and cooked), and others made into a sauce.

That is our garden in pictures for this week. How is your garden going? Are you nearing the end of summer/autumn crops like us or starting a fresh spring? I am so grateful to God that we can look forward to the seasons each year and the different crops they bring.

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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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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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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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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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Growing mini-cauliflowers

We have enjoyed growing mini-cauliflowers for the last two years.  I felt daunted when I considered trying to use a whole large head of cauliflower at once. These little cauliflowers are the perfect size for a small family to have as a vegetable with white sauce, or steamed with other vegetables as we enjoyed them last night. So far we have eaten seven or eight small cauliflowers this spring, and have more growing. The seeds are from the Erica Vale company.

It is important to harvest the cauliflowers as soon as possible after they form the head. If you leave them for long the florets separate. The plants require good soil and must be provided with extra fertiliser if their leaves look sickly, or they will not produce good heads. With a growing family I may also try growing full sized cauliflowers next year. Then we can try some cauliflower pie or soup. Planning what to do with garden produce is half the fun!

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The last broccolini for this year

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Our winter garden

I enjoyed Hannah Griotti's photos of their summer garden so much that I decided to post some pictures of our winter garden.

As you can see, our winter garden looks quite different from our summer one! We only plant in certain parts of it due to lack of sun in some beds.

Elnathan inspects the garlic shoots. We loved our garlic crop last year, and want much more this year! We have found that organic garlic cloves sprout much better. I planted lots more last week.

 Sprouting broccoli is delicious!

Ruby chard can be used in lots of dishes. Ours is looking a lot sparser since this photo was taken only about five days ago!

Elnathan received his own little trowel and fork for his birthday, which help to keep him distracted from pulling out plants and other destructive endeavours! As well as the crops pictured we have celery, parsley, coriander, mini cauliflower, turnips, and some sad looking carrots! We also continue to enjoy perennial herbs, and loved our first crop of lemons in April. We used lots of our lemons to make Elnathan a lemon, orange and coconut cake for his birthday.

We got a lot of our crops in late this year. This is only our second cold weather garden, and it would have been better to start our crops in early February. The trouble is that our garden was so full of summer crops we had no room! Next year we hope to start them in pots earlier, to be put in as the summer crops come out of the ground. We also need to be more ruthless in removing plants that are decreasing production.

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