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Category: <span>Growing</span>

Category: Growing

Permaculture, organic gardening and homesteading – a great lifestyle wit the right balance…

Permaculture, organic gardening and homesteading – a great lifestyle wit the right balance…

Saving Money on Growing Vegetables 2 Soil Ingredients

Getting better results while growing your own vegetables… This article will take a quick look at soils – one of the vital keys of getting good results from your plants. If you haven’t read the first part of this article I would highly recommend it (here) as without following the principles there, the things mentioned here will not be as beneficial.   To illustrate the points made in this article, we did a simple test: We filled a garden bed with two types of soil. ¾ was our own soil mix ¼ was a premium grade bagged organic potting mix …

Growing   | |

Saving Money on Growing Vegetables 1 Soil Make Up Basics

Growing your veggies? How to save money AND get better results! A short article about soils and getting good growing results from your plants. One of the things that stuck in my mind when doing a horticultural apprenticeship at Botanic Golf was about soil. The owner (the late Theo Puik) came from a line of champion Tulip farmers in Holland and was incredibly knowledgable. Looking back, I regret not learning more from him (I was more interested in drugs, alcohol, cars and girls so he let me go). The simple rule he had for plant growth highlighted that what was …

Growing   | |

Chilli Sauce Vinegar Testing

Testing vinegar types for chilli sauce… As a follow up to our basic chilli sauce how-to (here), we thought it would be great to do a taste test to see the different vinegars can make to a recipe. We used the same recipe and the same type of chilies with 8 different types of vinegar… White White Malt Brown Malt White Wine Balsamic Apple Cider Rice Wine Top Secret, best for sauces homegrown 🙂 It was ridiculously hard to resist adding cardoon and other yummies, but we managed to keep the recipe basic: 15g superhot chillies (a poor reaper in …

Consuming / Cooking  

Solar Cooking a Carrot and Walnut cake in a Timber Cake Box…

Timber Cake Box Test It’s been over a year since I have been wanting to test the amazing Timber Cake Boxes. Giving truly unique results, these boxes are the perfect fir for the Sun Oven® (we sell the Sun Oven as well as Timber Cake Boxes here). Today, we decided to put a quick carrot and walnut slice together and put in the Sun Oven. How to line the Timber Cake Box: First, measure the length of baking paper needed. I cut just over twice the length as the box we were using is square. (If using a rectangle box, …

Consuming / Cooking  

What happens when you accidently leave curry in the oven ALL DAY?

Today, we had some diced meat that needed using, so I thought I would document how quick and easy it is to cook for free in the Aussie Edition Sun Oven® (a product we sell and distribute here) Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan…as per normal 😝 First off, the ‘recipe’ which for this one was mainly just pre- purchased sauces to make it as quick and easy as possible. The below is not an endorsement for specific brands, (though we do use and recommend a lot of Melrose products) Ingredients: Approx 2kg of beef. 2 different old curry powders …

Consuming / Cooking  

Home Made Chilli Sauce

Home Made Chilli Sauce A few quick notes on making chilli sauce and rough recipe that may give you a start… We have now made a number of batches of different sauces. Some of them are incredible, though we haven’t yet got to the point of following the same recipes – just experimenting and enjoying the results! My first advice with chilli sauce is as the same for most things: just give it a go! You will find that as you experiment you will soon figure out what works and what doesn’t and what you like and don’t. 1) Base …

Growing   |

Mango Picking and Deviant Devil Ants

The Deviant Devil-Ant! On a recent trip to pick mangos in Kununarra, I encountered what I started to call ‘devil ants’, though their correct name is actually the “Weaver Ant” (genus Oecophylla). These little green ants, according to Wiki: “ inflict painful bites and often spray formic acid directly at the bite wound resulting in intense discomfort.” I don’t think this is quite accurate – the bites do sting but I would say they are only around a pain level of 2-3. As a frame of reference, the the bite from the big bull ants on our property would be …

for thought | Growing | Harvesting | Soul Food   | | |

Redeeming Kombucha vinegar and more!

Having lots of gut issues over the years, I had often thought about doing Kombucha. Finally, I gathered the needed equipment and got the needed Scoby & teas…but adding something else to an already full life wasnt off to a great start! Doing the first brew was easy, though my wifes birthday was approaching and we were working over time to try to get the house to a point where it was ready for the 100+ people who were meant to be coming. By the time of the her birthday, the Kombucha had been sitting for 6-8 weeks and had …

Consuming / Cooking  

When TRY TRY AGAIN doesn’t work

How we normally put all our effort in the wrong place and fail…Today we were thinking about the disciples – in particular Simon Peter and how his life is an example for us to follow, but only in some ways!  Simon Peter followed Jesus for years, saw the miracles and heard Him preach many, many sermons. Some teachings were abstract and others, very, very direct, like this: Matthew 10:32-34“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in …

Growing | Jesus Time   |

Guinea Chestnut / Saba

For ‘Choose Days’ lately (Tuesday’s Jesus Time), the children have been regularly choosing ‘looking at what God made’. We normally read a scripture about God being the creator – and we challenge the children to find a verse that we haven’t used before. Then we walk as a family around the property, to a particular place or even to the house / building site to explore Creation. It’s amazing what we find, it’s always a surprise despite the fact that we spend nearly all of our time on this block and this day was no exception…

Growing | Jesus Time   |

JW Something the Jehovahs Witnesses are missing

Some brief notes on a conversation and some scripture verses that can help with evangelism… Notes: Below are a number of verses that I recently printed out for an (unsaved) family member who has had a slight JW indoctrination – they can be helpful when evangelising. There is also some notes that may be helpful… Description:This family member has had contact with the JW’s and therefore has some serious flaws in his thoughts about God & salvation. I recently went through a number of things in the scriptures with him about Who Jesus is, ‘Jehovah’ and salvation. When he was …

Fishing | for thought | Harvesting   |