A woodland winter

So I have been thinking about my Autumn/Winter home made craft products collection, which will make it's debut (hopefully) at Canberra's Handmade Market. Although, right now with this 38 degree heat and a fan violently whipping my fringe across my face it is almost impossible to imagine that it will ever, ever, be cool again. But we must hold out hope, my possums, my cherry blossoms, that the leaves will begin to fall, the frosts will begin to freeze, and everything will be returned to its right and natural order.

For Spring/Summer I had something of a 'circusy' theme, with bright galands and doilies and such, and I have decided after much soul searching that a 'woodland' theme would be lovely and quaint for Autumn/Winter. I love talking about collections, it makes me feel so professional.

My thorough researching (and the above images) has revealed that the kinds of animals that dwell in woodlands include badgers, hares, foxes, owls, deer and the like, although in the woodland of my imagination - which is what I'm really talking about here having never visited a true English or American woodland - there is also a great variety of toadstools and mushrooms, plenty of moss, some geraniums, acorns and birch trees.

As a starting point, I have carved lots of slices of wood:


Some will become buttons, some little badges, and Mr T is going to make tiny stools for displaying precious things. There will also be notebooks, cards, cushions...and many other fun things I've yet to think of.

I have also purchased a Gocco machine, which is most exciting! I shall be able to make infinate copies of my drawings, which is much, much easier and more professional than my current system of doing everything individually. Yay!

Sewing, nuturing, harvesting.

Hello puffins, peacocks and peahens,

Here is some photographic imagery of my garden. It isn't quite so lush as it was now that I have returned and mishandled it with my erratic nurturing style. Still, there have been harvests and successive sewings and I have embedded dirt so deep beneath my nails that it has become a permanent feature of my person.



I planted zucchinis the other week. Three kinds! It's very late in the season, but it's exhilarating seeing how fast they grow in summer.

My tomato plants are outgrowing their stakes, which is a bit of a worry, actually. They're most unruly.


So far the lemon drop heirloom variety has been most fruitful. Most days I just eat these little babies straight of the plant before they make it to the kitchen, but I collected a skirt-full for a tuna and quinoa salad today.




My eggplants have done rather magnificently. They also produce the most adorable purple flowers. I've eaten two so far, both roasted in a delicious miso sauce. I must share the recipe soon.

Dot-point-not-post

Ducks at Foxglove Spires

Hello blossoms,

Today it is too hot to create or comprehend full sentences. Please except the following incoherent dot points in lieu of an actual post:

• Thomas and I just returned from a road trip to Melbourne, Mallacoota and Tuross Heads. Highlights included the Innocent Bystander winery in Healsville (pizza to die for and an incredible sangiovese), lunch with my Philipino uncle's family (like being on Food Safari), Heidi, the Abbortsford convent, the amazing tapioca dumplings at Cookie, beer and cider at the Little Creatures dining room (which isn't as good as the original Fremantle brewery, but has a nice vibe nonetheless), dinner at Lucy's Homemade Noodles in Mallacoota, sampling excessive amounts of cheese in Central Tilba, and visiting the enchanting Foxglove Spires garden in Tilba Tilba and taking solitary beach walks.
  
• My housemate Sally is a far superior gardener to me. I came back and my humble veggie patch had become a magnificent green jungle. I suspect she has been singing to the plants or injecting them with steroids.
  
• I had resolved to eat only raw food all week but have decided against it due to the wise words of Dr Karl and the fact that I don't have a food dehydrator, which almost every slightly appetising, filling looking recipe I can find requires. Plus I have the appetite of a Thoroughbred and need carbohydrates, damn it.
  
• Right now I am eating Tom's homemade granola from a purple Bison mug. It is slightly burnt but still delicious. It also looks very pretty.
  
• I have started drinking sage tea. Apparently it is good for female hormonal...things. Pick 3 sage leaves, cover in boiling water, steep for 4 minutes, drink. Tastes like roast lamb.
  
• Looking for jobs really is devastatingly boring and soul crushing and I wish I could live in a cottage in the country, eat only home grown vegetables and eggs and read fine literature and knit all day.
• Seeing people you grew up with get engaged is scary but actually surprisingly fun, and engagement parties are just like 21sts but with generally classier alcohol (mmm...sangria).
  
• I visited the Mark Tuckey show room in Fitzroy and now desperately want to become a furniture designer and am considering doing a woodwork for women course at art school.
• I really miss cozy blankets, my doona, cardigans, socks, scarves and sleep. Bring on winter.
  

Christmas Snippits

xx

A very incomprehensive snapshot of three days of Christmas festivities...

I made my two precious housemates these fabric envelopes with stationary for all their adventures. I also made them each a teeny tiny (very fiddly) envelope for keeping treasures. I'd post instructions but I actually did a rather dodgy job of the hemming and would recommend you follow design sponge's advice and use fusible webbing instead.

Tom gave me this beautiful 1970s Danish ivory ring.

I spent Christmas eve making peppermint bark

and raspberry butter and granola for Christmas hampers. The raspberry butter was divine. It tasted like edible childhood (not to be confused with edible child).

On Christmas morning I ate my first home grown snowpea. Hopefully this will become a yearly tradition.

A few days ago we went on a beautiful walk in Tidbinbila with visiting family from Melbourne. We splashed in the crisp clean water and frolicked beneath emerald green ferns. Quite refreshing, especially after three days of dead pig sauced with congealed turkey fat.

Ode to Tomatoes

xx
The street
filled with tomatoes
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera,
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhausible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth,
recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

-- Pablo Neruda, Ode to Tomatoes



The other day I ate my first home grown tomato of this Summer. I excitedly watched it achieve deeper and deeper shades of red for several weeks, until it was clear that its juicy bounty would hold no longer. It had a rustic look, all stretched at the top; humbly declaring its homegrown status. It was beautiful. I ate half of it sliced up on a piece of ricotta slathered sourdough bread, topped with purple and green basil (from my kitchen bench plants) and scattered with Maldon sea salt. It was so surprisingly, almost obnoxiously delicious that I ate the remaining half exactly as it was. No salt, no nuthin'.



To be honest, I didn't really expect it to taste that good. For me it was encouraging enough just to actually grow the whole thing. Australian wisdom has it that a tomato ripened before Christmas is a major achievement, signaling good fortune in the year to come (or so I like to imagine). It also meant that I beat my mother and brother in the official tomato race of 2009-10, which made me feel plenty smug already. But when I ate this glorious fruit, all the sentiments of Neruda's gushy poem came to life. It was a truly celebratory moment, and I can't wait for the next one to ripen (which should be very soon!). There are 15 tomato plants of various varieties all thriving in my garden, so hopefully it will be a summer of tomatoey abundance! If you've never grown tomatoes before, you should give it a try. With sufficient sunlight (which an Australian summer should amply provide), they're incredibly easy to nurture, and the fruit they produce is infinitely more delicious and deeply flavoured than even the best store bought equivalents.


NB. If you've been keenly following my gardening pursuits (and who hasn't?), you'll want to know that this wasn't from the plant I grew from seed and posted about back in October. These are still rather small, but, much to my motherly pride, thriving:


The subject of this post came from a rather mature plant I found hidden at the back of a shelf in a garden shop for $2. I'm not sure what variety it is, but judging by its meaty goodness, I'd say possibly a beef or oxheart. Definitely a winner.

Christmas Treats

Bauble from Nature Bulbs via Cup of Jo

I've been thinking about goodies for Christmas hampers. Every year I make one for my parents, one for Tom's parents and one for any other visiting family/friends whom I can't afford to buy a worthy present for. Although, once I've purchased supplies and spent hours sterilizing, stirring, baking and spreading on Christmas eve I'm not sure that I don't wish I'd just bought them a damn $50 teapot...but still, I think that they appreciate the time and thought. They'd better appreciate the time and thought.

I've already bought some cute little baskets second-hand and cheapy, and have made rather a lengthy list of inclusions. I like to try to mix it up every year - last year it was lemon butter, chilli jam, chocolates and something else no doubt tasty. This year I'm thinking:

• Tomato Kasundi (from the Charmaine Solomon Complete Asian Cookbook - so so good)

• Peppermint Bark. This was honestly the best thing about Christmas last year.

• Home made granola. With chocolate. Wholesome, but still a treat.

• Raspberry curd. How beautiful do those two words sound together?

• Home made Chai. Buy some leaf tea and chuck in spices. Easy peasy.

• Orangettes. I tried making these earlier in the year and they didn't quite candify, but I'm willing to give it another go.

I also think it's a good idea to print out pretty recipe cards for each item so the receiver can make their own when they run out. Genius, no? I also like to make pretty little calligraphed lables and tie everything up with lace. Everything I make somehow includes lace. Seriously, everything. I love lace. I think I will request to be bound up in layers and layers of lace when I die, like a Victorian mummie.

To market to market

Hello darling, gorgeous, scrumptious readers. I just wanted to let ya'll know that I will be having a little stall this Saturday (December 5th) at the Gorman House Markets. I'll be selling lots of prettie hand made things, which would be perfect for your lovely selves, or perhaps someone dearly beloved. The markets run from 10-3, and you can buy yourself a very yummy lunch while you're there (I like the Ethiopian and the El Salvadorian puposas!). Also, readers of this here blog, or Number One Millionaire who are brave enough to declare themselves as such will receive a hearty discount.

Here are some of the things I'll be selling:


Lace bottle vases, as modeled by my front door step.



Cushions made from antique fabric and linen, as modeled by my couch.


Cushions made from linen and dyed vintage doilies, as modeled by my mid century Danish chair.



Round garlands, as modeled by my living room wall. I think these would be perfect for general decoration (maybe a child's room?), Christmas tree adornment or to add a festive, circus-y vibe to any occasion.

Hope to see you there! xx