Big Dig for Change

My mind and my garden have been chaotic with more than just the usual summer challenges of watering, possums, rats and other wee beasties. Repairs to the septic system have been in process....the excavating to take place between a wall and a raised garden bed with a total width of 2 metres to maneuver.

Gardens were dug out, climbing roses pruned to within an inch of their lives to allow the side boundary fence to be taken down for access through the thankfully empty neighbouring block, fences, gates, paving, pots and plants needed dealing with. Everyone close was warned and asked to shut their doors and windows  and not hang out washing for the day.

My anxiety levels rocketed as the garden was dismantled with me wearing the hats of planner, site manager, gardener, accounts person and the tea lady. Plants ten years old and more were sacrificed, others pruned to within an inch of their lives. Fences and gates lovingly painted only months ago were taken down, some damaged beyond repair.

The night before the excavator was due, I stood in the garden at dusk, looking at what we had done and instead of sadness at the destruction of years of hard work, I felt a feeling of space, boundaries coming down. An opening up of new possibilities  - room for the new and a frisson of excitement for the possibilities of change.

It's a week on,there is paving to be relaid, gates and fences to be rebuilt. A massive pile of prunings, old irrigation and the carpet that was laid to kill the kikuyu grass 17 years ago are piled on the road verge. An unexpected couple of cubic metres of clay dug from the hole will be a bonus in the sandy garden soils and there is the buzz of planning new garden beds. There is relief that the destruction phase is over and rebuilding can take its time. The stress of the costs involved, dealing with various tradesmen, excavating power and phone lines, keeping  the mess and confusion to manageable levels have faded. The fears and the uncertainty of dealing with what was, for me, a huge project have blossomed into a new confidence in my abilities. By asking questions, treating others with respect and trusting their judgement, taking care to keep the workers safe and fed, everything progressed smoothly and with good humour. Well done all of us!

Dog food from the stars

I found the last of the chickweed hiding in the shade in the vegie patch today, a sign summer has arrived. During the cooler months it acts as a lush green ground cover over much of the garden.

Chickweed, named stellaria media for its small white flowers, is one of my favourite wild herbs. Rich in vitamin C, it is a useful winter green in salads and as a cooked vegetable if you can harvest enough of it.

Medicinally, chickweed is one of the best herbs for inflammation and itching and useful in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis, bites and stings.  Chickweed dries well so you can store enough to last the warmer months. Harvest before the flowers open and chop into 1-2 cm lengths before spreading on a rack.

My chickens love its soft juicy leaves and I encourage it to grow along the fence line where they can graze on it through the wire. My biggest animal success with chickweed has been with the dogs. I rescued Louis, my long haired dachshund six months ago. He was underweight, nervous and had scaly, itchy skin and scratched and lost hair continually.

I have fed my dogs a 50% meat/50% raw vegetable diet for years and to this I now added two big handfuls of fresh chickweed, 5 tablespoons of ground linseed for each kilo of lean meat and for Louis 2 fish oil capsules. I also make a strong brew of chickweed vinegar which I add one tablespoon of to the final rinse when he gets bathed. His coat is glossy and the hair loss is much reduced. He still scratches but much of that is due to the seeds and prickles he picks up while being the mighty hunter he thinks he is!

Never have the dogs had vet visits for anal gland problems. Toto lived to the ripe old age of 20, despite losing all his teeth when he was 11. Lady, the other dach, is now 17 and doing well on the diet too.

Dog Dinners

1 kg lean meat (I mostly use kangaroo)

800g carrots

2 stalks celery, with leaves

1 stalk broccoli (eat the florets yourself)

½ beetroot

Handful of fresh parsley

5 Tbsp ground Linseed (flax)

Grate all vegetables in a food processor and mix in linseed and meat.

Store in meal size containers and freeze.

Add fish oil capsules daily as needed.

I also feed the dogs chicken necks and the occasional raw bone and avoid processed food as much as possible.

A good boy

We said goodbye to Toto, our gentle little poodle, this week. An ancient little chap he was, possibly as old as twenty.

Christmas 2009

He was already thirteen and had been waiting a while for a new home when a kindly courier paid two weeks extra board for him at the vets.  I caught sight of his cheeky little face in a basket when I popped to buy some cream and took him home for ‘the weekend.’ 

A faithful and feisty little dog, he guarded us from ghosts and visitors, terrorised the dog clipping man and won hearts all over town. Greg, the courier called in to see him often.

In these last few weeks his blindness and deafness had left him vulnerable to accidents and injury. His brave spirit began to falter and he began to spend more time in his bed.

After much soul searching, we made the decision to let him end his life with grace and dignity in the arms of someone who loved him. 

That is a wonderful gift that we can give our animals. To the end of their lives they continue to trust in our care and love us unconditionally. Letting them go can be the ultimate expression of our love for them.

We miss him dreadfully; I hope his dreams are of juicy bones and having the teeth with which to chew them.

Travel well little man.

What quiet life in the country?

Catching our rooster that had been living next door didn’t fix the problem of the feral bantams. The two girls, with their clipped wings, had been leaping the fence to head for greener pastures. We hadn’t seen one around for a while and assumed that she had jumped one fence too many, ending up in a yard with an unfriendly dog. Last week she reappeared, fifteen babies in tow, all happily jumping backwards and forwards through the wire to have a drink of water in our pen.

The neighbours hadn’t mention the sudden explosion of numbers in their yard but their grass was two foot high since myxamatosis kicked in and killed all the rabbits that lived in the warren under their shed and used to keep the grass and everyone elses vegetables, trimmed.   I came home during the week to find they had whipper snipped their jungle. No sign of the feathered family. I heaved a evil secret sigh of relief. (We had agreed NO baby chickens this year. Our girls are so well treated they never die although we do eat the young boys and we reached our feathery limits in the Chook Palace last year.)

We awoke the next morning to find the renegade and  eleven of  her babies had travelled though two fences to end up in the veggie garden. All the plants that had been lovingly tucked into beds of manure and hay were now bare rooted, mulch flung everywhere. Lady (our dachshund) managed to kill a baby and then later grabbed the mother around the neck so the dogs were forced to spend the rest of the day locked in the house while the chickens roamed free.

At dusk, we spotted them all settled down close to the other chickens and with great stealth and much squawking (some of it from Amita screaming, get her! Get her!) Taking her to the front pen we chased the babies through the wire into the main chicken run where everyone had got out of bed to see what the noise was all about. On the way we managed to clip one wing down as far as we dared. The neighbour was soon out to see who was being murdered as the mother screeched for her babies while they headed off to hide in a tangle of jasmine next door. It was dark by the time I had herded them through the fence to mum and we settled down to a few wines to settle our nerves.

Next morning we were greeted by the whole family happily chirping...OUTSIDE OUR BEDROOM WINDOW! The front garden was looking a mess; the scratching had been going on since dawn. Herding them back in the pen, we barricaded the chicken wire with planks, filled in the excavations under the gate and threw in lots of yummy things for them to eat. They were out in minutes.

By the second morning out of their ‘safe’ pen AGAIN, they had knocked over pot plants, dug out some bromeliads, destroyed the ground covers and shat all over the verandah. Enough!  In my nightie, sitting in the dirt, I sewed a piece of shade cloth to the fence and the gate to a height of about 60cm, chased them all in again and went off to work.

When I got home, there they all were again, living the life of Riley in the FRONT GARDEN. This was war! I let the dog out to help me, again with sneaky evil intent. She happily ran off into the ferns to herd them. The next few minutes were pandemonium...the mother stood up to  the dog who ended up  howling, on her back trying to surrender to the bantam who  was attacking her in a frenzy of beak and claws. I rescued the dog, herded the chickens inside, shovelled soil up against the bottom of the shade cloth, returned the planks and propped them up with pot plants.

This morning we were greeted by mum and four babies, outside the window AGAIN. Things were looking up.at least the remaining six were still in the pen. No, by breakfast time another two had figured out how to escape.  Amita to the rescue, a drop cloth is now draped over the whole lot and is scarily blowing in the breeze. I have swept, raked and watered and generally tidied up the garden. Some of them are going to a new home today so I want them all contained so we can catch them. They are going to another neighbour two doors away who apparently took one to the vet to get a bandage for its sore leg!

I only hope they stay there.

I’m going away for a week without chickens, dogs or men...I've had enough of the quiet life!  

Nanna's magic cream

For many years now I have made a range of herbal products including a beautiful green healing ointment. Over the years the formula has changed and the current version contains 11 essential oils, 6 tinctures and extracts of 17 different herbs, chosen for their varying properties, nearly all grown in my garden.

Ointment is a simple way to preserve and concentrate the healing power of herbs. The ingredients are easily sourced from your local chemist and health food shop. The equipment needed is minimal and can be found in most kitchens.

Choose your herbs for the properties you wish to bring to your ointment. I like to always start with comfrey, lavender and rosemary. You will need to make a herb oil and if you like, a tincture, starting at least 10 days before you wish to make the ointment. If you make your oil extraction in advance,  keep it in the refrigerator until needed. Tinctures keep well at room temperature but store out of reach of children.

To make a herb oil extraction:  http://gypsysoul-au.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-bit-of-magic.html.

To make a tincture:  http://frompotionstopesto.blogspot.com/2010/01/summertime.html.   

Equipment:

Stainless steel jug or saucepan

Measuring jug

Plastic or wooden spatula

Scales

Clean jars with tight screw top lids to hold a total of 300gm.

Ingredients

120ml herb oil

20g beeswax, beads or block

120g lanolin

1 Tbsp or 30ml tincture of choice or tincture of benzoin (optional) 

2tsp or 15ml essential oils of choice

Method:

1. 
   
   Very gently melt the beeswax and lanolin together over a gentle heat. If you have a stainless steel jug, this works really well as you can melt and pour in the same container. Use a heat diffuser under the pot if you have one.
2. 
   
   As soon as the mixture is clear, turn off the heat. Remove pot to a heat proof surface and leave for a minute to cool slightly but not harden. The lower the temperatures, the more properties of the herbs are retained.
3. 
   
   Slowly stir in the herb oil, which should be at room temperature. If the mixture starts to look lumpy, sit the pot back on the warm stove but do not reheat.
4. 
   
   Add essential oils and tinctures and mix until incorporated.
5. 
   
   Pour into jars and lid. The ointment is at its best for nine months but I have used older pots on the animals with great results. Unopened will keep for much longer.

 

Any type of ointment can be made by the above method. Please note that wax based ointment is not suitable to use on burns, eczema or psoriasis or any conditions which require the skin to breathe. If any  adverse reaction or sensitivity is noted, discontinue use.

I use my multipurpose ointment on bites, grazes, blisters, cuts, nettle, nappy and reef rash, piles, stinging tree injuries, cracked feet and nipples and to draw boils and splinters. I have used it on chickens’ combs to cure stick fast fleas, on bald guinea pigs and injured dogs and cats with great success knowing it is a safe product  My son swears it cures mouth ulcers and my granddaughter is comforted by a dose of ‘nanna’s magic cream.’

The original formula was originally created by Nerys at Rivendell Farm. To take the lid off a pot and inhale the scent of the essential oil blend is a reminder of soothing words and gentle hands for our families and friends and many clients over the years. It is a wonderful reminder of the skills taught to me by an amazing person.

Green Healer (nanna’s magic cream) will soon be available via my website.

Go well,

nirala

Living with wildlife

With the rain come the pests. Baby snails are hiding under the soft baby leaves and the the larger snails are doing rude things on the footpath early in the morning. The parrots are fighting over the olives, the last of the figs and the ripening apples. It’s obviously a time to revamp my defences.

Snails

The first line of defence for snails has always been picking off by hand. This is fine if you have time or grandchildren you can pay per snail collected. They are then fed to the chickens, who adore them. Don’t be tempted to tread on them as it is said that their eggs will survive if they are squashed on a damp surface. This could be an old wives tale.

Two years ago I made snail ‘peppers’, a witchy Bio Dynamic preparation involving snail cremation, the grinding of ash and the making of a homeopathic tincture when the planets were in certain positions. I won’t go into here, contact your local BD Society for precise explanations. I will say that in a year when the snails had reached plague proportions (I had been ‘picking’ up around fifty every day) it made a stunning impact. After spraying twice, the snail numbers reduced dramatically and haven’t been seen in huge numbers since. It is really worth the effort.
The easiest, most time efficient and safe way I have found to control them is with bird and pet safe snail pellets. These contain a small amount of iron chelate which the snails ingest. It binds them up and they die of constipation. As the amount is very small, other creatures are not affected.  Scatter about two pellets per square metre, in the evening. They seem to work best on damp soil but dissolve in the rain. Two or three applications should keep them under control. You need to store these in a tin as rats and mice love them. I tried a glass jar but they soon discovered that a jar can be pushed off a shelf and smashed. I have to lock my dogs away when spreading these as they will seek them out and eat them one by one.

Parrots

Twenty eights are the main hassle here, they will taste and try everything in the garden from green olives to under ripe almonds and rose buds. If they don’t like the taste, they simply throw it away and try another one, just in case it tastes different. I am sure they destroy some plants just for fun.

The only way to totally keep them at bay is to net everything. I don’t use nets as they are impractical in a small garden. The last time I netted a tree a caught a snake, which died and a hawk, which I had to rescue with the help of a strong man wearing leather gloves.

These cheeky vandals are fearless.  Nothing works for long, so the plan here is to change methods all the time.  In the olive tree, I have a disco ball and a swinging CD and the fig has a shiny set of wind chimes. Last year I had plastic shopping bags rustling in the branches but as these are not environmentally friendly,I try not to use them. Christmas tinsel, owls on sticks with glass eyes, balloons, hawk kites, dogs trained to see the parrots off - I tried them all at different times. The new addition to my arsenal is Mr Scary, made by my grandson, Christopher. He’s been out there a couple of weeks now and the parrots haven’t been seen landing on him – yet! He certainly scares me when I pass him at night!

It is possible to protect some fruit by bagging. I use paper bags tied with string as they are biodegradable. You can mad bags that last with net curtains or shade cloth. Plant clips or pegs can be used to close them. If the weather becomes wet, check for mould and mildew on your fruit, especially grapes.

You can get one step ahead of the parrots with fruit that will ripen off the tree, like quinces, by picking them when the first parrot damage appears.

Tree house

Dwarf and young trees can be protected by sewing a cube of shade cloth with one side left open. Measure the height of your tree, adding 15 cm to allow a little room and cut 5 squares of shade cloth. Sew together with a bodkin or upholstery needle, threaded with string or nylon knitting yarn, using a simple running stitch.

Hammer four stakes in a square of the same size into the ground around your tree, carefully avoiding the roots. Slip the shade cloth over so the corners of the top rest on the top of the stakes. If the cloth doesn’t reach the ground, hammer the stakes in a little more. Weigh the bottom down with bricks or timber or peg with loops of fencing wire. This will keep rabbits out for a while too.

My worst strategy ever was to provide the birds with extra food. Every parrot for miles arrived to squabble and screech outside the window. They lost all fear of people, seeing them as a food source. As the feeder was next to the chicken pen, they soon noticed there was food to be had there too and began to steal wheat from there as well. With the black cockatoos flinging gum nuts to land like rocks on the tin roof on the other side of the house it was like starring in a Hitchcock movie.

The truth is, I can be a bit lax about controlling pests as I am rather fond of all the wildlife in my garden, even the twenty eights. The fact that they are here, with the beetles and praying mantis, the frogs, the blue tongues and the gecko's mean my garden is a safe haven for everyone. Before we build the front wall we used to have kangaroos visiting too The reality is that we grow more than we can ever eat, why shouldn’t they have their share too?

Fowl weather and the ETS

As Australian politicians enter the final few days of debate over an emissions trading scheme, all over Australia the weather is breaking records for the wettest, hottest and driest November, depending on where you live. Here, after a confused yo yoing between winter and summer the warmer weather has arrived and spring has been condensed into a few days in between.

The response of everything here has been amazing; the enzyme cleanser is bubbling away on the window sill, the sourdough is ready in four hours instead of twelve and rises right to the top of its tin, every green leafy vegetable has suddenly bolted skywards and we have had ten baby chickens hatch - a hundred percent success rate for the first time ever.

The easterlies from the desert have begun and the noise of dripping rain has been replaced with the crackle of gum leaves under foot as the trees begin to shed. Our town has has already had one serious wild fire that has threatened homes and left four hundred hectares of coastal heath blackened and ugly around one of the most popular beach side settlements.

In the rush to clear our gutters, plant summer vegetables, reset the irrigation and look towards fruit crops and all consuming madness of Christmas, it seems as if we are always running out of time.

My Christmas wish is that our pollies enter this debate with their eyes open and look to the faces of their children and grandchildren for guidance. We can't afford to run out of time this time.

Nirala.

More Chicken Talk

Eight baby chickens hatched last year. They were able to squeeze through the chicken wire so they could run, scratch and explore in the front garden under the watchful eye of our old poodle while their mother ran back and forth calling franticly from inside the pen.

Returning home one day we checked all the animals and found one baby was missing. I found it with a leg trapped in the wire, gasping for breath. Freeing its leg I lifted this tiny speck of life. Weighing nothing, it was a fragile two weeks old and had probably been lying in the sun all day.

Never one to admit defeat, I carried it into the house and fed it drops of water with Rescue Remedy added. I smeared the leg with Green Healer and settled it in a shoe box full of shredded paper. Every half hour I gave it more and although it was accepted it eagerly the chicken was not moving at all.

I sadly covered the box with a towel when we went to bed, knowing that small animals usually die from shock. At least it would die warm. I woke to the sound of a chicken having a nervous breakdown. On the window ledge next to the dining table stood the mother hen, screeching and scolding through the glass, demanding that her baby be returned to her. From the box came extremely loud cheeping. When I removed the towel, there was the baby, wobbling on the one good leg and telling its mother about what an adventure it had been having. They had been able to hear each other during the night and with such strong opinions about everything that I suspected the chick might be a rooster.

For the sake of the other babies who were missing their mother and the sanity of us all, I took the baby back to the pen. It was still touch and go as I had seen hens kill sickly chicks many times but it seemed she really wanted that baby back. By lunch time the injured one was hopping behind its siblings again.

We were glad to watch her grow into a healthy, if slow moving, hen and not a rooster. I always try to feed her a little extra away from the competition of the others.

One morning, there was some thing different about her. Looking closer I realised that her foot was missing! It had dropped off, leaving her with a tender stump.

Of course, she was “Stumpy” ever after. She has grown into a pretty, timid little hen who has just laid her first egg. She climbs the ladder into the pen but hasn’t managed to learn how to roost with the others.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

Chicken Tonight!

Roosters crowing from 2 am on full moon nights don’t endear you to your neighbours. Our girls hatch out one clutch of fertile eggs each year and there are usually one or two boys in the bunch. This year’s biggest boy was a handsome Rhode Island Red crossbreed that we carefully avoided naming beyond ‘that bloody rooster.’

Him watching me

As we eat meat, it seems right that we should participate in the processes that bring it to our table. The full moon antics meant ‘the deed’ could not be put off any longer. The boys were caught as they roosted and placed in a secure box to calm down overnight. Come the morning, things didn’t go as planned. We were in a hurry, snappy with each other and just wanting the business over with. The first rooster turned out to be a laying hen, sadly discovered after the deed. Then I cut my finger due and had to rush off halfway through gutting for a band aid while wondering if I could catch chook flu.

Later, as I packed the birds into freezer bags I realised we had forgotten to honour them. It has been a tradition since we dispatched our first roosters that we talk to them, praise and thank them for giving us food. These poor creatures had been shown little respect in their final hours, becoming just an annoying chore in a busy day and one had died an unnecessary death due to our unawareness.

The following day, I prepared a full roast dinner from our big boy, laid the table and lit candles and we gave him a loving send off. The remaining white meat was made into risotto for dinner and the carcass boiled down for stock. Today we ate chicken soup and froze two extra serves.

Maybe I am too sentimental about my animals. It is my nature to be respectful towards all creatures and give thanks for my rich life and full belly. I knew that rooster, watched him hatch and grow what he ate and his personality. It didn’t stop me killing and eating him when necessary.

Happy girls

I believe that if more of us took the time to become more responsible for and aware of our food sources and show them respect, there would be less consumption of meat in faceless packages and we would waste less of what we do eat.

The Pleasures of Summertime Farm

Do you like our new banner? It's the view down the lane leading to Summertime Farm where we have been staying for the past two months and is the home of my daughter and her partner.

The joy of living as gypsies (as we do) is that you have the benefit and pleasure but none of the responsibilities of sharing other peoples gardens and animals for a while--although we agreed to look after the chickens during our stay.

What a joy that has been! One of the Featherfoot Bantams was broody when we arrived and she hatched five of her eight eggs to disclose these little beauties. It's been such fun watching them grow and learn...she is the most fantastic mother although I just went to turf them out of the tractor shed where machinery was being moved around them!

Another pleasure is the vegetable garden. I picked these little beauties yesterday, smoothed and gently rolled them in a luscious blend of olive oil, basil, oregano and garlic. I placed the in a baking tray, sprinkled them with salt flakes and coarsely ground black pepper and ....

took them out of the oven when they were beginning to split and turn colour.

I also cooked mushrooms over a fierce heat and when they were brown I gave them a good slurp (technical term!) of soya sauce and sizzled them for a minute or two.

These, with grilled beef patties (tell me if you want the recipe), and homemade tomato sauce, were both part of my now-almost-famous Turkish Burgers that we had for dinner. The blokes here weren't used to being offered burgers for dinner and looked dismayed but minutes later, with sauce and mayonnaise running down their chins, they were moaning gently with pleasure and checking up if there would be 'seconds'. very pleasing for the cook :-)

There was one beef patty and a few of the tomatoes and mushrooms left over so today I fried a chopped onion, added a healthy slurp (that word again!) of red wine and the toms and mushies with their rich juices. I chopped up the beef pattie and added this with some spicy tomato sauce, simmered for a minute or two and...dinner for tonight with pasta.

Welcome!

The Gardener's Rest

'Potions to Pesto' is a celebration of the creative inpulse in us all.

We are two women (considered eccentric by many) who have been friends for more than thirty years and have shared many experiences together. We have run restaurants, dug gardens, created a skincare business, admired each others grandchildren, swapped ideas and skills and have even fought occasionally.

We all crave the healthiest, happiest and most beautiful environment we can afford for ourselves and our loved ones but with the hard financial times that are upon us we may be wise to return to the skills of earlier times and by using them in combination with the amazing technology and information resources we can easily access today, create an even better and more fulfilling life than ever before.

From the garden to the kitchen, bathroom to bedroom, we have fed, treated and experimented on our families, friends and animals with healthy produce, luscious skincare, sensual perfumes and healing remedies.

Making a lotion

We have discovered that the easiest and often the cheapest way to source
the perfect item is to make it yourself and to this end we are creating a range of e-books that can be found on our website From Potions to Pesto

Here is a recipe from our 'Easy' 150 recipes for one or two pot cooking book.

Huevos Rancheros

Huevos Rancheros

Serves 2

This breakfast (or lunch) dish will keep you feeling full and happy until the next meal.You can use a jar of ready made salsa if you don’t want to make the sauce.

1 tsp vegetable oil
½ finely chopped onion
¼ C chopped red capsicum (optional)
2 tsp bottled crushed garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
420 g can diced tomatoes
Slurp of chilli sauce
Left over Mexican beans (optional)
2 tortillas
2 eggs
Grated cheese

1 Heat the oil in a small pan, add the chopped onion and capsicum and cook for a couple of minutes.
2 Add the garlic and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, and chilli sauce.Once the sauce is boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened. Add the beans (if using) and reheat.
3 Drop the eggs into the sauce (and beans), put the lid on the pan and turn the heat off. A couple of minutes or so will be enough to poach them.
4 Heat a frypan with a small splash of oil added and, in turn, fry two tortillas for about 30 seconds on each side, remove and keep warm in foil.
5 Spoon the eggs and sauce onto each tortilla, sprinkle grated cheese on top.

We take the greatest pleasure in the concept of lifelong learning especially in a hands-on, practical way. 'Making your own' is a way of life that can help us to save money, recycle more, learn new skills and improve our quality of life.

Nirala at 'work'!

We'd love to share with you some of the excitement we feel, the recipes we use and the useful places we visit on the web and also to hear what you are doing too.