I may have finally harvested the last of the Tahitian lime tsunami and the inaugural Rangpur limes but the rest of the citrus is just getting underway. Parrots cheekily taste-testing the sweet-tart Navel oranges that hang on the tree herald their …
Rangpur lime gimlets, oh baby!
I wasn’t sure how I was going to use my first ever harvest of Rangpur limes. A friend had given me a stunted little tree in a pot and it had languished there for at least a year or two before …
War On Waste: winning hearts + minds
The ABC TV’s recent three-part series, War On Waste, has been phenomenally successful in penetrating the mainstream consciousness. It’s a part of conversations in the schoolyard, at my local shops (Wasteless Pantry) in community groups (Hills Food Share, Mundaring in …
Catching the fermenting bug
Recently, I’ve been enamoured with the idea of fermenting, namely for its incredible health benefits and also the practical solution it offers for garden gluts and waste minimisation (another current obsession of mine, but more on that later) . So …
The Preservation Society
“Father: It’s been nine months since my last confession.”Nah, I’m not religious but Holy Moly has it been a long time between drinks on this blog! Busy, busy, yeah you’ve heard it all before…work, kids, life. Doesn’t matter; here we …
Gin & tonic anyone?
Why does lime season not coincide with gin and tonic season? It’s just not right. This is but a small sample of the tsunami of limes coming off my Tahitian lime tree at the moment. We have juiced and filled bags …
Sunday Mango Magic
I can’t believe that I once hated the funky taste and slimy texture of mangoes. Now I think they’re divine! So when we went to the Kalamunda Markets last Sunday and saw a stall selling the most ENORMOUS mangoes I’d ever …
Medicinal lunchbox for happy chooks
Now that we have reticulation to approximately 90% of Edgefield, a world of opportunity for planting perennials has opened up, which was previously unsustainable. Slowly but surely I’m developing the perennial garden, focusing my attention particularly on the east orchard at the …
Rockmelon, but not as you know it
Yes this is rockmelon (or cantaloupe for my North American friends) not pumpkin. It’s an heirloom variety called ‘Delice de la Table’ and it’s fragrant, juicy, firm and absolutely delicious. Been checking these babies daily outside my laundry door till …
The scourge of being organised
I have a list. Actually I have many lists. I even have CATEGORIES for lists. Part of me thinks that’s a sad, sorry little confession and part of me is unrepentant, even proud of my anal organisational streak. My problem is that the lists never seem …
Sunshine & love in a jar
We simply couldn’t eat them fast enough, those soft, scarlet globes of goodness. Something had to be done because there was no way I was going to watch the mountain of gloriously ripe tomatoes slowly sink into a mushy, fetid …
Abundance in Gidgegannup
At the invitation of a dear old school friend, we recently headed to her glorious farm ‘Lilydale’ in Gidgegannup (15 minutes from Edgefield in Mundaring) for a divine afternoon of swimming, eating, drinking, lazing and chatting. Of course, no visit to …
Blissed out on tomatoes
This is what it’s all about. We arrived home from our two-week holiday in Denmark after a 5 ½ hour drive to a clean house, dinner in the fridge (thanks to our fabulous housesitters Bill and Sue), a happy dog, …
Reticulation monster bites
I didn’t get past Day 1 in my blog posts about Edgefield’s reticulation project because it morphed into a monster that devoured our time and money in a way we hadn’t anticipated. I would like to focus on the positive: …
Day 1: water installation begins
Day 1: Trenching, pipes + pumps “My God, the place is destroyed…in a good way.” It’s been a long time coming but we are finally making tangible progress on turning our water strategy at Edgefield into reality. And it’s a dirty, …
Sun shine on!
5kW solar power system installed at Edgefield Just a little bit excited about the 20 new solar panels and 5kW Fronius inverter fitted on our house today by Solargain. It’s been a long-held dream and a very big box ticked …
Edgefield’s water strategy is taking shape
Slowly but surely we’re making progress on our water strategy for Edgefield. Sounds easy, right? In reality, it’s been probably the most challenging and complex problem we’ve yet had to solve. There’s plenty of water in the Hills, plenty AROUND us, but no reliable and …
Sweet sweet peas
My flower arranging skills might need some practice but they don’t detract from these gorgeous sweet peas that are rambling wildly over the arbour in my vegie patch.
Spring baby season
The ducks and kangaroos are not the only ones having babies at Edgefield at the moment. There has been rather a lot of hatching going on in the chicken department and mostly NOT in the hen house. Perhaps I can blame my …
