gippslandwildharvest

Well it’s that time of the year as if it doesn’t come round fast enough. just finished the last of the tomato puree- I think I ended up with about 20 jars- which might see us through- we use it a lot- stews, casseroles, pasta, lasagne, soup- it’s so user friendly.

Our wood heater has finally arrived ( I went and got it). Forklift onto the trailer- man power getting off- me!!! And some old fashioned round bits of wood- a lot of persistence and help form my 7 year old. Her job was to get wood form behind me and kept putting them in front of the heater while I kept pushing and cursing (a little). This is all part of the grand plan to minimize electricity usage. The heater has a water jacket which will feed into the hot water header tank.

I had a breakdown in the tomato machine so had to bring old trusty out.

The Summer Garden is starting to show signs of giving up, they have bared all for me and my family and for that I am grateful. I have started the next season with Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cabbage and some leaks- I will plant onion and garlic a bit later in the cold. I still have some more beds to fill with dirt- build my Wood shed, finish my Preserving shed, put up my old hills hoist, finish some odd jobs around the yard. I have some internal painting etc to do as well. Then there is the harvesting as well it’s close to Deer season. I have also done some jams that I am happy about.

Good time to do some swaps with friends and family.

It’s also time to start digging up potato’s- check these first lot

Something we did recently was to visit Churchill island off Phillip Island- Western Port in Victoria- great farm- lots of old fashioned tools and sheds- I felt quite at home- took some photos of the old weights they used to close their doors- which I will hopefully recreate here

Something has come to light- the chooks I have are no longer laying, they are too old to roast, so I might have to make some chicken snags from them- I am hoping to change over to bantam Australorps

I love this time of year- this is harvesters season- when all fruits and most veggie gardens are over flowing with goodness.

Finding little surprises like these is heart warming

Gold

Hidden Butternut pumpkin treasures

After all that collecting there is the processing- for this I use the traditional Italian way.

crush tomato with hand- squeeze out water
Run crushed tomato’s through my Tespade mincer with tomato attachment
place tomato flesh in pot
Cook for a while with salt, Garlic and fresh Basil
clean bottles ( sterilie quality)
heat up in oven
place hot tomato contents in hot jars- put lids on and as the cooling takes place- a vacuum is created
and vola – preserved tomatoes

a box full of tommies – ripening in a dark cupboard

Tomato Passata

Something else I love to make is tomato sauce with a kick ( chilli) I call is Ash’s Hoochie Mumma sauce

Tomato sauce with chiili

Its also another important time of year now that the weather has heated up enough to Home brew- first batch is for WIFE: Pear and strawberry cider

Brew time- hmmm

there was 20 green bottles sitting…………

Its that time of year and all systems are go. below are some photos of veggie gardens which you will have seen from simple wood structures to a blossoming overloaded food system. My mind is busy with plans to collect Blackberries, roadside fruit such as apples and plums to make jams, puree and sauce. Tomato’s can be a mirirad of things such as sun dried, puree, sauce, chopped, pasata and anything else you wish to do with them. This is the busy season for the home gardener, growing, watering, weeding, eating and most importantly sharing the excess with our loved ones.

jungle boogy

Tomtato Block- held up with Reo

corn grows better in a a tight square

Still the hunt continues for blackberries that are growing near water that have not been sprayed- pretty easy really but when you get blackberries- you must keep your eye on the prize because for sure you will bleed for the cause, prickles in legs and arms, stained fingers and the possibility of meeting a snake is high on reality. But if you are driven to succeed and bring home the bacon as it was then you will keep your family and friends happy with the great bounties that lye in the wilds of Gippsland

Just an update from gippsland- herb garden is going great guns and already we are sharing our spoils.

Some other photos from the garden that is slowly being filled with dirt- let over from a housing estate- free soil- now there’s a deal I can live with.

Also building up he shed- all materials were left overs from the housing estate and a miririad of hard rubbish, builders bins that I keep an eye out for. Hmm I am sure we dont need rubbish dumps we just need a place that you can sort your leftovers and other community members could come in for free to use. Or how about for the lower socio economic people that need wood for heating etc.

Then its always nice to have some new additions to the family especially when they will provide for me- its this concept that i think strongly about- I want to take some ownership over my food.

An o top of a another great day in Gippsland- this is my home made Rhubarb ice cream.

Another Meal- free form the Bush of Gippsland- Sambar Deer spaghetti bolagnase- harvested by myself and some other keen hunter gatherer’s. Its more than free, its about the animals- they are truly free. free in spirit and free in geography. To grow up in the wild, not in a fence, on a farm manipulated by man, to then be trucked in a foreign vesicle to another foreign factory with the sell of death lingering in the sir, no way out, then to be killed, with all that pent up fear.

I like my way, hunting down a free animal that’s only alarmed when they see me ( if they do at all). they know we are there and then that’s it- dead. no fear, no fence and no factory.

Its just a pity so many people think that hunting is cruel- whats cruel is that they support factory farmed animals by buying the supermarket meat- poor chooks growing up in a shed never seeing daylight, so artificial- How can we expect to be happy and healthy if the food that we consume is not?

Below are some snaps of the garden and food

Herb Garden

Mint, Raspberries and Rhubarb

This building my beds- the organic material is from a travelling Jamie Oliver ministry of food van leftovers

Venison Sausage rolls

Cooked Venison sausage rolls

Hall’s stump removal- 1 Shovel, 1 Sledge Hammer, 1 Axe and a lot of determinatinon

Bingo

Venison Hot dogs and Strassburg

Its been a while which usually been I have been busy pleasing the finance gods and working too much. I have still been busy beavering away, which is a good analogy- beavers keep working day to day on activities that will build a dam in the long term, provide them with more water for protection. Flood more forest so they can reach more wood safely so they can build more dams etc etc. Get the picture.

Except my goal is to live more sustainable, be more self reliant, and that includes my network of friends, my other foody gatherers.
so what I aim to do in the big scheme of things is to turn my house block into a food production place without loosing the yard for the kids. Food= vegetables ( all year round), fruit trees, berry canes, vines, nuts and herbs. basically if i eat it and I can grow it myself then I am growing it. Chooks for eggs and meat. other meats from my network and deer hunting and the occasional fishing trip. Yabbies, mushrooms etc anything that I can wild harvest.

Then there is the whole efficiency thing. Aim to get away from electricity as much as I can then put on a solar system- in that order I am not going to buy a large system to cover what I am using now, that would defeat the purpose. What I am going to do is to A. install a large wood heater, with a water jacket- this will heat my house and provide hot water. B. Change my hot water over to solar with electric boosted ( hopefully my heater will cover all that). C add another layer of insulation in the roof. D slowly overtime change all my windows over to double glazed. E. install a bottled gas stove – just for cooking. F. then look at solar. I am also looking at some water tanks and grey water systems to water various parts of my garden.

Somewhere in all that I wish to build myself a purpose mudbrick shed for all my food preserving stuff.

I am also trying to grow some native gardens for native insect and bird life. I am happy to grow fruit trees on the nature strip- happy to share.

no photos= sorry whom can I blame for this-

some new snap shots from turning the planks of wood into actual beds that will grow my food is very rewarding, seeing the image in my head slowly come to life

from wood to sustaining life- a short journey

Since moving in, and collating all my stuff ( steptoeville) I am trying to use everything sustain ably- cardboard packing boxes, I have used them to lay down in side the garden beds to form a barrier to stop weeds and grass growing up into the beds. I have also used the trees & shrubs mulched down as the bottom layer in the garden beds- this adds a layer that will help drainage and starts the foundation for good soils- It also minimises the cost of buying in so much soil- with raised beds there is no need to have soil from the bottom to the top- the plants will not grow that deep.

I have also build little beds, there are always plants that produce food for many years and years, things like rhubarb, strawberry, raspberry, josterberry, blackberry- many berries, with some mint thrown in.

Small beds

And then walking around I see little shoots on the new fruit trees and blossoms on the old apricot tree- hard to think that this trees, flowers and an insect will pollinate then from this flower an apricot will grow- apricots- mmmmm, Jam, strudel,preserved, turnovers- chicken- I’m in love with apricots

golden flowers!

This is for all the people that donate bits of themselves to the cause, mostly some skin and pride. Obviously things can get real ugly but for the most part, I have survived till the age of forty with all in tact- even battered through 12 years as a Butcher. Now this appeared like a good idea at the time. Hmmm lots of branches left over from removing trees on the new property, chainsaw still blunt- to sharpen or not to sharpen, what other tools do I have you ask?. Well I have my drop saw, that could cut this up, its sharp and powerful. dangerous- not to date!!!!!

OK, my father is a regular Frank Spenser and will bleed for any cause that he is working on, he has singled hand-idly donated enough skin to rebuild himself- if we could find it all.

So with that in mind I start cutting the branches- hmm this works great, fast, easy, and….

then within seconds it decides to bite me

skin for the cause

I suppose it could have gotten real ugly

A mixed bag of photos this time- some progression work on my garden beds- sourced from locally cut Cypress trees, milled by my Uncle I am planning on making about 8 Beds- When I do the math it will be about 30 square meters of veggie garden beds, + the extra for berries, rhubarb and the like.

Dads Helper

The Task Ahead

I was also lucky enough to take part in some Deer cutting up- 3 Sambar all told- Lots of steaks, Mince and some 80 Kilo’s of snags which in time will be on the butchering part of this blog.

Steaks

Mince

Snags

I also took some of the bones home and Vola the chooks had a ball- it occurred to me that there distant cousins got really good at this ( Vultures)!!!

Then to finish of a hard days work- we had some fresh locally caught Gummy shark ( Dad went out in the boat).

There is a lot more that I would like to add but time is of the premium at the moment, so I would rather be doing and then sharing my journey. anyone interested for further conversation feel free to facebook me.