Over the many years I’ve been teaching kids about food, I have learnt quite a few tricks and short cuts. When you have 24 students and only an hour to cook with them, these tricks are often the difference between getting the class finished on time, and running into lunch. The honest truth, is that […]

We’ve been picking tomatoes every day lately. Kilograms and kilograms of them. We’ve been taking them down to the post office to sell them (also the unofficial shop), as well as selling them directly to locals, and cooking them up and freezing them to make soup this winter. We’ve even tried drying them. If you […]

It’s zucchini season here. Zucchinis are one of those vegetables I can take or leave. They taste rather bland and (to my mind) need something added to them to make them tasty. Despite my ambivalence about eating zucchinis, Country Boy is enthusiastic about growing them. Probably because they just grow so darn well. It’s not […]

We are now well and truly inundated with fruit and vegetables from the garden. Each day sees more trays of tomatoes, bags of beans, and tubs of zucchinis being picked. We do sell some to locals, but we are always on the look out for ways to use up the vegetables in tasty ways, so […]

I have been meaning to share the recipe for this little treat we have been making over the summer holidays. While school is now back, the weather is still hot, so we are still enjoying our treat. It came about when Hannah saw it on a five minute segment on the SBS food channel, and asked […]

All the fruit trees along side the roads around here are laden with fruit at the moment. After living here for several years, we know where the good trees are and when they are ripe. On Saturday we jumped in the car and drove about ten kilometers to an excellent peach tree that was full […]

Anyone who has ever grown their own food knows this problem: One day you have hardly any fruit or vegetables, and the next day all the plants are ready to harvest and you have more than you can possibly eat. On the farm this is a constant issue for us. The plum trees are suddenly […]

I’m back at the farm after a week in the mountains with my family while the kids did some swimming lessons, and I enjoyed the convenience of living in town. Country Boy stayed to keep the farm turning over while we were gone. When we arrived home on Saturday, there was a bowl of tomatoes […]

Last summer, Country Boy’s chilli plants were prolific. We had chillies everywhere, and while I quite like a little bit of spice in my food, there was no way we could possibly eat them all. To use up the left over chillies I had a go at drying them. It worked beautifully, and was really […]

There is an old mulberry tree down in the paddock behind the orchard. We think it was planted by CB’s great grandfather, so it is well over 100 years old. It has stood through storms and droughts, cold winters and hot summers. Each summer we traipse down the hill and spend a morning or two […]

One of the things I love about having primary aged children, is that they are so much more independent than littlies. It is truly amazing being able to hop in the car without having to do up multiple seat belts, and I even occasionally (not always) get to go to the toilet without interruption (now […]

Once a week we get a box of fruit delivered to town. One day soon I hope our fruit will come from our orchard, but that is a few years off yet! In the meantime we order our fruit and get it delivered. Inevitably, the kids go through phases where one week they eat all […]

It is cold here at the moment. I mean chip ice off the windscreen in the morning, never warm up during the day cold. In weather like this, I always love to make homely foods. It’s almost as if by making yummy, warm food I can keep away the cold. Look at how cold it […]

Today is Food Revolution Day. Jamie Oliver’s day to promote quality food production, consumption, and education. I don’t need to be convinced about the benefits of knowing how your food has been made. I am fortunate to be able to cook the vast majority of our food from scratch, using food we have grown ourselves. […]