A NEW YEAR BEGINS
January 2012 has started warmly without any worthwhile rain to cool the air, so the Family have been kept busy irrigating and weeding their vegetable crops. It was also the week when the ducks and geese had to be trained to walk to the dam to forage and swim. Shortly after Christmas three geese and four mature Muscovy female ducks were added to the waterfowl flock. Firstly I showed the boys how to escort the three geese to the dam and then returned for the ducks. The young ducklings were fat and lazy never having been outside the safety of their pen for exercise and needed frequent spelling, while they panted for breath. That evening the boys were required to enter the water behind the ducks and geese to show them the way out and then home. After two days of this all these waterfowl were accustomed to the routine and I could leave the boys to manage them morning and evening. The young ducklings quickly became stronger due to the daily exercise.
Geese and ducks
The father purchased four bull calves from dairy farmers for his children to rear. Such bucket reared calves are called Poddy calves in Australia. I believe the reason is that they frequently become pod bellied if their supplementary feed is not as nutritious as cow’s milk, or if they are underfed, much in the way we sometimes sadly see malnourished children in African famine situations. The father has temporarily created a shady compound for these calves by using an electric fence to restrain them.
Poddy calves
Another two poddy calves
With so many animals now requiring watering the father suggested moving a tank on the hillside, which I had originally used for gravity feeding irrigation water to our garden, and which had become superfluous when we began using the solar system, down closer to the animal pens.
Hill tank
After some discussion we hit on the idea of putting it under a down pipe on our machinery shed, where rainwater falling on the shed roof had previously been dispersed onto the grass. Next the father purchased twelve old railway sleepers, which he now intends to backfill with river sand, to serve as a tank stand. With this tank only being used for animal water it will also be possible to fill it using the solar pump to bring water from the dam if there is insufficient rainfall.
Tank stand
With crops starting to come in the mother has begun pickling. This week she made dill pickles with cucumbers picked from amongst the pink flamingos.
Cucumber vines
I made Basil Pesto using this recipe which was given to me by Barbara Buchanan.
Barbara’s Basil Pesto.
- 1 ½ cups basil leaves
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 5 tablespoons of Olive oil.
Blend together the basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese until finely chopped. Add the oil slowly until well combined. This pesto may be served in many ways, but we like to mix it with pasta and serve with a green salad. Excess pesto may be frozen for later use.
Basil and Dill plants
I pulled beetroot which I cooked and made up in a mould as Jellied Beetroot. See my recipe from 30th January, 2009 when I wrote a post on An Abundance of Beetroot.
GREEN GARDEN 11
Filed Under (Self-sufficiency) by Fay Helwig on 30-01-2009
Carrots and Beetroot
Another easy salad may be prepared by grating carrots into a bowl, adding the juice of an orange for a dressing and then sprinkling the contents of the bowl with dried currants. I had planted the outer rings of this raised garden with carrot and beetroot seed in October. In November I planted the centre space with more carrot seed. In December I planted more beetroot, carrots and radishes (to mark the rows of carrots) in the section of the Remembrance Field near the house garden fence. I pulled the first radishes this morning. Thus with spaced carrot crops we will be able to have sufficient carrots to eat during the summer and autumn months, and should be able to store more for winter use.
Tomatoes, beetroot, carrots and radishes
The pumpkin and melon crops in the centre of the Remembrance Field are thriving and we should be able to enjoy melons by Easter, with plenty of pumpkins to store for the winter months.
Pumpkin and melon crops
Apart from the sweet corn crop planted in November, which is now beginning to flower, the family are also tending a larger crop of sweet corn which they planted in November and December.
Raspberries and sweet corn
Sweet corn crop
Flowers are adding colour to my summer garden. These blue agapanthus create an attractive feature as they ring our front driveway.
Blue agapanthus
Wildflowers, wilderness and wine
If you wish to read more about how Eberhard and I established Das Helwig Haus as a Bed and Breakfast home and began the creation of this remarkable garden you can order the book Wildflowers, Wilderness and Wine on http://lulu.com/spotlight/striclyliterary or download a PDF for speedier reading.
