Mulberry season!

Perth is a tough place to grow food. However, there are a few exceptions - sweet potato, olives and most fun of all, mulberries. Here in our suburb, there are several cracker mulberry trees right on the verge. Great big trees, great for climbing and getting mulberry stains on your school uniform. 

Luckily we often ride to school and we have been watching the fruit on our favorite tree getting plumper and darker over the last week or so. And now they are ready to pick!

We picked enough to take some home and put in a pie. Funny thing was we collected them in an unused doggy poo bag. That freaked me out a bit because from the outside of the bag it looked like we were the very responsible owner of some kind of massive great dane. 

Anyway, once home we whipped up this yummy pie: 

• Short crust pastry: half a cup plain spelt flour/half a cup wholemeal flour or what every flour you prefer, a few tablespoonish scoops of butter. Rubbed in to the flour, add a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt, add a little dash of water and a little dash of milk and combine with a butter knife. Not sure why we always use a butter knife to mix it, but my Granny said this was essential. Who am I to question her wisdom?
• Mulberry mix: chuck in a good few handfuls of mulberries (no need to destalk), a peeled and grated granny (fruit, not the Grandparent), and a tablespoon of brown sugar - no water as the berries are full of juice. Let it reduce a bit. 
• Roll out the pastry, put it in a greased pie dish and pour in the mulberry mix and bake, 180 degrees for 20 mins or so.

Vola! Great with whipped cream!

I just love making use of food that would otherwise go to waste. Mulberries are so sweet and fragile, they only last on the tree a day or two before they drop and are ruined. So while they are in season its great to take advantage of them. You can munch them straight from the tree or you can juice them. We also freeze them in containers to keep us going between seasons. People often ask how they can get berries plastic free - well this is the answer for Perth peeps! They are great on ice cream or in smoothies after they have been frozen. You can also make mulberry jam - but be warned they are very low in pectin so you will need to add heaps of lemon juice (which can effect the flavour) or add commercial jamsetta. 

Go forth with your doggy poo bag and enjoy the bonanza!

Homemade yoghurt

We've been making our own yoghurt for a few years now and we're pretty happy with our method now. It's quick and easy once you get the hang of it. Here's how.

You'll need some starter (a few tablespoons of quality plain yoghurt) and milk. Don't buy expensive powdered starters, all you need is some yoghurt. Just don't use flavoured ones, use plain. We do ours in one litre batches but you can do less if you want. You'll also need a container to put the yoghurt in and an insulated container to fit that inside of. We use a 1L glass jar and an Easiyo maker or similar which the jar sits inside.

A 'pot watcher' also comes in handy. This is a glass disc which rattles when the milk is coming to a boil and avoids overflowing milk.

Firstly, bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan with pot watcher in. Turn it down and let in simmer boil for 5-10 minutes. This step is to reduce the milk a bit so you'll get nice thick greek style yoghurt without the need to add powdered milk. Turn off the heat and leave to cool. When the milk is cool enough to put your finger in and leave it in without burning (5-10 minutes) the milk is ready. Some people use thermometers for this but we've found the finger test works well and is simpler.

Boil the kettle while you're adding the milk to the yoghurt. To mix the two I use a licky spoon (a soft spatula). With the yoghurt in the bottom of the jar I add a little bit of milk at first (say 100ml) and stir it in well, then add another 400ml and stir again. Try to scrape around the jar to get all of the last brew mixed in. Then top up with the rest of the milk and stir well again. As soon as this is done put the lid on the jar and fill your container with the right amount of boiling water (enough to put the jar in without overflowing) and place your jar inside and put the lid on. There should be water up to the level of the yoghurt.

The photo above shows the 'false floor' of the container. This is what the jar sits on.

We usually leave this overnight, 8 hours plus is needed. If you open it up and it's still runny don't worry, just leave it another 4-8 hours and it should come good.

That's it, it's not too hard. Sure, you'll have failures but keep at it and you should be able to get it right every time. It's cheap and it's yum. If you want thicker yoghurt still (or a sour cream replacement) strain it through muslin for a few hours. And if you want sweeter yoghurt just add jam, honey, maple syrup, fruit, etc. This yoghurt costs the same as your milk, so for us it's about $1.30 a litre.

And it's thick!

Sugar!

While other mummy blogs are espousing the virtues of a sugar free diet, this one will share with you how to unashamedly love it! Call me old fashioned but I love the traditional baking trifector: flour, butter and sugar. Not very trendy I know, and I do love a little quinoa occasionally but on the whole I'm not into superfoods. Superfoods are for supermums and I'm not one of those. Hence this post about sugar and its use, specifically in lilly pillie jelly.

Quin and I were visiting friends on the bike the other day and he insisted on stopping to pick some lilly pillies to munch on. These are cute little fruit that grow on beautiful big trees that are common in old Hilton gardens. They are native to the east coast of Australia but do very well here. The texture is weird and slightly astringent. They are free and bountiful and so we eat them! We've done jelly and cordial before and both taste a bit like different forms of fairy floss. What's not to love?

Quin remember how much he wanted to raise some funds for his next Lego Movie Lego set and suggested we pick enough to make some jelly to sell to unsuspecting family and friends. Not wanting to quash his entrepreneurial spirit, I agreed to help him. Four o'clock in the afternoon - a perfect time to start a batch of jelly and I knew I'd 'get it done in twice the time' with Quin helping (as my Mum would say to us as a kid's with a smile and wink to Dad!). So, enthusiastically taking his life in his own hands he balanced on the fence and on the bike and we quickly picked 1.5 kgs. Perfect.

The recipe is from my favorite preserves book, A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise. The recipes are simple and never fail. This one is:
1.5 kgs lilly pillies
water
juice of one lemon
sugar

Boil lilly pillies in enough water to just cover them with lemon juice, then cook gently for 30 mins.

Strain through a colander, then through a sieve lined with muslin.

For each cup of liquid add a cup of sugar, stir until sugar is dissolved and then bring to a rolling boil.

When setting point is reached (ie test with a few drops on a saucer in the fridge - if it sets when cooled, its set) pour into sterile jars and seal. The jelly is beautifully clear and smooth and very fairy flossy.

Olive time

It's olive time again in Perth, so I went out picking today. My favourite verge tree is loaded again after a year off and the owner said no worries to pick from it. I picked 20kg for pickling in just one hour!

This should last us a year (we like olives in our family). I went to the supermarket and checked out how much this would cost me out of interest. The cheapest olives were $4 for 500g. This means my hour's work, plus a couple more for processing, has saved me $160. And they're organic and local produce, unlike the supermarket stuff...

My pickling method is described here, it's pretty simple and easy. When they're ready I don't even jar them up, I just leave the bucket under the kitchen table and scoop some out with a slotted spoon.

Don't be put off by the scummy look, once you rinse the olives they're yummy.

Home brew's best

I love beer (wine pales in comparison on most fronts for me). Being from England and growing up with a real ale drinker and home brewer (my dad) I know a good beer from a bad one too, so home brewing has been a natural  thing for me to take up.

The pros are many:

It's cheaper
It tastes better than the 'industrial' rubbish most brewers make
It's more sustainable (lower air miles, packaging, lower energy and water use)

The cons:

It takes a bit of time (2-3 hours the way I do it)

Here's how I do it. My method is a hybrid of the basic method and a full mash. I buy craft brew kits from my local home brew shop TWOC Brewing Supplies. My favourite kits are Paddy McKenna stout, Sierra Nevada pale ale, Ruthless Rye IPA, Czech This Out pilsener and Wee Stephan lager. I also buy a basic beer concentrate, usually Deliverance. This mix gives a good quality beer without the time it takes to do a full mash. The brew kits are made up of grains, sugar and hops in separate bags. First thing on brew day is to rehydrate the dry yeast. I do this by adding about 200ml of water to a pint glass, heating it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, dissolving half a teaspoon of sugar and adding the yeast. I cover this and leave it to activate. When you come to add the yeast to your wort it will be really cranking, the brew will start fermenting sooner and you'll be less likely to kill the yeast if your wort is on the hot side.

Next step is to bring the grain to the boil in a large stock pot, turn it off and sparge the grain bag (poor boiling water over the bag in a colander). Then you add the sugar and boil for another 10 minutes, then you add the hops and boil for another 1-5 minutes. You leave the wort for an hour or so to cool down in a basin of cold water, changing the water every now and again.

Sterilise your keg and other implements next. Then add the beer concentrate to your brewing keg and dissolve it in boiling water. When the first wort is cool enough add it to your keg, straining through a sieve. Fill the keg with water up to about 22L, preferably filling from a height to oxygenate the wort. If the wort is below 30C you can now pitch the yeast.

The brew will take 5-10 days to finish the primary fermentation. I usually leave it two weeks and then bottle it. This is where having a few good gadgets comes in handy. A bottle tree is a must to drain the bottles; a bottler to get the beer from the keg into bottles; a sugar measure; a bench capper to cap the bottles and of course some bottles! You can buy them at brew shops but I think a better way is to buy beer in suitable bottles, drink it and then reuse the bottles. In Australia Cooper's king browns are good and I love Little Creatures pint bottles too. Look out for non screw on types, since screw on caps don't seal as well. Last but not least you'll need some sterilising powder. Remember, the three most important things in home brewing are hygiene, hygiene and hygiene! If you've ever had a brew go sour then you'll know what I mean, all that hard work goes down the drain...

To bottle the brew clean your bottles, triple rinse with water and leave to drain. Then add the priming sugar and bottle up. Try to avoid moving the keg too much before you bottle or you'll stir up the sediment. Then cap the bottles and leave in a warm place for a week for secondary fermentation (to carbonate the beer). Leave the bottles for another 3 weeks to condition and then get stuck in.

A note on timing. In WA I don't brew in summer, it's just too hot and too hard to keep the brew at the right temp. It's much easier to warm a brew up than cool it down. I have a heater belt but I don't use it these days. What I do is brew stouts and ales in autumn and spring, checking the forecast for mild temps (these brew best between 20-25C). I brew pilseners and lagers in winter using special yeasts which brew at lower temps (Saflager W34/70), between 9-22C. This way I'm not using energy to keep the brew warm. It works out well too because I drink mostly ale and stout in winter and pilsener and lager in summer.

I know what you're thinking, it sounds like a lot of work. It's really not and you can always do it the quick and easy way (just add beer concentrate, water and yeast to your keg). It is worth the time and once you're set up it's pretty cheap to do. Have a look out for brew kegs on the verge too, so many people do one brew and give up! Give it a go though, you won't regret it.

Plastic Free July!

It's here! Welcome to Plastic Free July!

I'm doin' it for the third year and its a really thought provoking challenge. It motivates me to be a little creative and make some noise about stupid disposable plastic. The challenge was invented by the wonderful Rebecca Prince-Ruiz who I'm fortunate enough to work with (yes, I feel I need to make a full conflict of interest statement and say that Plastic Free July is an initiative of WMRC Earth Carers - my work). So Rebecca came to work one day three years ago and said, 'Hey, lets have a challenge where we don't use any plastic next month' and we all said great idea. Then the reality of how tricky that is hit home. Well what I've found is that its pretty easy to avoid about 80% of the disposable plastic you'd normally use and pretty tricky to get rid of the last 20%. It started off with around 40 people doing it in 2011, and now thousands are doing it. The challenge is on Facebook and there is a website to get lots of ideas.

But this blog is about us and our challenges - so I'm going to be brutally honest about our successes and our failures. First of all the admission that to get Quincey on board for PJF I've had to bribe him with...plastic, in the form of Lego. Now I actually don't take issue with Lego itself because it is wonderful stuff and has been for generations. It teaches kids hand eye skills and allows them to be very creative. Like my friend Rebecca said, you can tell its good plastic because you never find it in bulk rubbish or doing a beach clean up. And Quincey just loves it. But why, oh why does it have to come in plastic in cardboard. Just in cardboard is fine. Here is a pic of our last Lego purchase - good and bad plastic.

I'm going to attempt to post on the Sustainaburbia FB page one plastic free alternative every day - lets see how that goes! First one will be my home preserved pears with honey, lemon and vanilla. I found out recently that cans are lined with plastics that contain the chemical BPA (bisphenol A) that are (among other things) endocrine disrupters. Like lots of things to do with sustainability there is often more than one reason to make some changes in behaviour - in this case there are environmental and health reasons to avoid plastic. So in order to avoid them I'll be doing a lot more home preserving! Home preserving is fun and pretty easy once you get your gear and have a go. Yum!

The peeled pears that Ads picked up on his way home from a field trip (low food miles!)

 Pears, sugar, lemon, honey and vanilla in the pot.

Tools of the trade.

 The finished product!

A tsunami of olives!

Olive fever has hit town! As you know I had organised a communal press for Hilton Harvest peeps and Earth Carers. We did it in 2012 and took up a combined total of about 300 kgs. It was great and a few folk who didn't do it said they would have a go next time. Well turns out folk round here stick to their word!

The deal was to either drop the olives at my place before Monday 9 am or at work in Cottesloe by 10 am. Olives started to roll in on Sunday arvo. By 8 pm Sunday evening I suspected we would have a good haul - our veranda and front room were chokas with bags, boxes, baskets of olives. I was glad to turn the lights out for fear of more deliveries by enthusiastic pickers. By 9 am I was getting a little worried. I had packed the work Rav 4 to the brim when two more deliveries arrived! We managed to squeeze them in... But I was now freaking out about what I would find at work! I called my wonderful colleague Gabs and said 'please tell me we do not have a mountain if olives on our veranda'. Her reply 'let's just say I can't wait to see the expression on your face when you get here. Don't worry we can pack my car and I'll come with you.' The way Gabs said it made me feel a little more relaxed.

Quin and I squeezed in the Rav and off we choofed. I had to yell to Quin to hold the box which was balanced on the bucket every time we turned left so he didn't end up with olive concussion. On this leg of the journey I remembered that I had only booked in 400 kgs for pressing. I reckoned I had about that already. Hmm...

The expression on my face when we arrived at work was, well, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. There was at least double what I had in the car sitting on the veranda at work. And they were still rolling in. It was a tsumami of olives. How would we get them to the press? Would they even be able to press so many?

Luck was on our side. We had the Urban Tucker Women! Two lovely women who are soon to launch their website about urban gleaning were filming the event and had brought a car each! They were my olive angels - fun, super helpful and glamorous to boot (literally in their little black dresses, diamanties and gum boots!! I have never seen anyone pout over urban tucker before - gorgeous!)

So after Gabs crunched the numbers and concluded that we had 1.3 tonnes of olives we proceeded to pack up the cars. We headed off convoy style, each car groaning under the weight of our cargo. I was just praying they could manage to press them all.

After a long drive we arrived at Jumanga Olive Grove. We were greeted by the grandma of the house who drew breath when we told her how much we had: 'Oh my, that's a good pick!'. The lovely man who operated the press was also impressed and laughed when we confessed the weight of our haul. He said they were really booked up pressing 7 days a week but when he said they would do their best to fit us in I could have hugged him. The world was a bright and happy place again: I would not be letting down all those enthusiastic pickers, they will have their oil!

We unloaded and were invited to look around. The press was amazing; olives in the big hopper at the top, leaves and debris into the basket, oil out one end and waste out the other. The oil was a beautiful bright green.

They use the waste by either just spreading it back into the grove or by drying it and using it in their pot belly stove as fuel.

I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. My anxiety had eeked away on the drive home and was being replaced my a strong sense of relief and satisfaction. When i got home i noticed a post on Facebook from a garden friend: ''today collected my 10 kgs of olives from the olive grove in my local park, met a lovely family doing the same thing and had a glorious day. God I love community'. Well that just makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

Oil to nourish your soul

In the interest of honesty when blogging I have to tell you that our first lot of olives that Ads preserved are headed for the compost bin. Poop. We have noticed them gradually getting browner and softer despite changing the water religiously. Yuck!

Our neighbour said this happened to her lot last year and she had to compost hers too. It's so disappointing, particularly when we have no idea why they worked last year and not this year.

Not to be deterred, we set off this morning to pick olives for pickling and for our Hilton Harvest / Earth Carers communal press.

We picked 67 kgs in two days. Not bad hu? We think the key is to find small trees that are laden. That way you don't need ladders and its good and quick.

This is Quin's artistic impression of us picking complete with in themed t-shirts: me with a worm shirt and Ads (on a ladder) with a bike shirt. Cute!

Olive picking time

Olive season is here again and it seems a bit early this year. We plan to pick some olives in a few weeks for making oil with so I thought I'd do a quick pick for pickling. Our three trees are still too young to fruit so we go searching the burbs for unwanted gold. Last year we pickled a big bucket and it lasted about six months, so this year I picked twice the amount (we love olives!). Here's how we do it.

Olive basics (according to me): Small olives are best for oil (you get a much higher amount of oil per kilo), large ones for pickling (this is mainly due to ease of harvest I think, the best tasting pickled olives I've had are Olives de Nice and they're quite small). Green olives or ones just turning black are ready to pickle. Trees which are about two thirds black olives are best for oil pressing (but don't put in soft olives).

I loaded the bike up with buckets, step ladder and my harvest bag and set off to a new spot we've found (sorry, it's top secret can't say where). It's an area with lots of small trees on the verge which no-one seems to pick. Usually I would knock on the door and ask people but here there's no need here since they were planted by the developer and not the home owner.

I picked around 40kg in a couple of hours. When I got home I just filled the buckets with water and put a plate on top to stop them oxidising (very important since they will go off quickly if you don't do this).

For the next ten days I'll change the water daily to take out the bitterness. Then I'll pickle them in brine and wait 6-8 months. For more details of the recipe see this post. Once you pick your own olives it's hard to go back. I simply cannot buy pickled olives in the shops any more, it just seems crazy on so many levels (cost, food miles, taste). It's actually very easy once you learn. Last year I had planned to jar up all the olives from the big bucket into smaller glass jars. Then I thought bugger it that's a lot of work so I just left them in the bucket (it's food safe) under the kitchen table. When I wanted some olives I simply scooped some out with a slotted spoon and hey presto, they're ready to go. Here's the end result, plenty of olives to last the next 12-18 months for the whole family.