Green and Thrifty

I made our weekly loaf, and a friend who was going on holidays left me the remaining half of his homemade sourdough loaf and also some sourdough starter so I can have another go at it. Historically it has been amazing!

The fabulous Bron provided Paul and I with masses of gorgeous Cox's Orange Pippins. I have been processing these today in two borrowed Fowler's Vacola units. So many winter crumbles and breakfasts!

Sometimes the greengrocer has boxes of seconds tomatoes for sale for making sauce - he keeps a box under the tomato display and fills it with the not-perfect tomatoes. I bought a box this week and made another nine jars of passata. I have about twenty five now, which I think will be sufficient for a year. Phew, done!

I made hot cross buns on Friday. I have run out of sultanas and raisins, so I made chocolate chip and date buns instead. I received no complaints..

While I was at one of my gardening jobs this week I asked about a plant growing in a gravel path. "Is it Queen Anne's lace?" I asked. Maggie poked at it with her toe and said, "No, it's a terrible pest, it's a baby elderberry tree." Well, how exciting! I want one of those for my future forest garden that is currently a jungle of very large weeds. I brought home the terrible pest and potted it up for future elderflower wine and elderberry syrup.

Last week I brought home some lemongrass stems from a friend's garden and potted them up. I dried the long leaves that I cut off the top and chopped them into short lengths for lemongrass tea.

I ran out of my favourite rooibos tea, but in the spirit of using what I have I did not run out to buy more, but instead have been drinking some of the other teas in my rather large collection.

I collected more walnuts! It is a bumper year for roadside walnuts!

One of my lovely neighbours brought Benny-the-lucky-puppy a large venison bone with plenty of meat still on it. Benson has been happily gnawing on it, burying it and digging it up again for days. So much joy! Here in Tasmania deer are classed as feral animals. They are not native but have escaped from deer farms into the bush and are eating up pasture and bush. There is plenty of deer hunting here in the autumn months.

I have been pouring just-boiled water from the kettle into a thermos to make cups of tea later in the day. Soon we will start lighting the fire, then I can have a kettle on the stove all day. Nice!

This week we have eaten from the garden: zucchini, tomatoes, basil, potatoes, tarragon, bay leaves, Cape gooseberries, pineapple ground cherries, capsicums, cucumbers. Dried or preserved we have eaten passata, cherry plum and greengage jam, dried pears and plums, garlic, dried celery leaves, dried oregano. From other people's gardens we ate lemons, figs, kale, eggs, lemongrass.

Tell me about your green and thrifty adventures. I love your stories!