As the weather starts to cool off a little, our veggie garden is slowing down in production. We try to freeze as much as we can if we have excess so it can be enjoyed through the Winter months. It won't be long before our veggie seedling will be big enough to plant in the beds for the next season.
Here's how our week looked -
* Fed the compost bins almost every day with kitchen scraps. Darren turns the contents in the compost bins quite often to increase oxygen which helps break things down much quicker.
* Made 11 1/2 jars of raspberry jam using raspberries from our garden. This is my all time favourite jam and the fruit has been very slow to grow this Summer. I've started saving fruit in the freezer for the next batch of jam.
* Did a big baking day of mini whole orange cakes using oranges from the freezer. Some cakes were for a ladies afternoon tea, some for my Mum, Jessica and Megan. Darren and I ate a few fresh ones and the rest went into the freezer for future eating. This is a great way to reduce wastage.
* Made lots of zucchini fritters using zucchinis and potatoes from our garden. We had them for dinner a couple of nights and enough went into the freezer for another 3 meals.
* Refilled the shampoo / conditioner pump bottles and diluted the contents by 1/3.
* Made a couple of bottles of surface spray using cooled boiled water and dishwashing liquid.
* Made 3 1/2 large jars of pear and apple butter in the slow cooker. The pears were from our tree and the apples were gifted to us.
* Blanched and froze corn cobs from our garden.
* Diced 2 kilos of tomatoes from our garden and frozen them in a large snap lock bag to make relish in cooler weather.
* Baked 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Cleaned the inside of my kettle with citric acid. It's amazing how clean it comes up.
* Cleaned the dishwasher with bi carb and vinegar. I also cleaned all the filters. I try to do this at the start of each month.
* Gratefully received a pumpkin, some grapes and spinach from Jessica. Her and her flatmate get a veggie box from the Prahran Market every couple of weeks. On her last visit the stallholder gave them some extras which Jessica passed on to us.
* Picked raspberries, a few strawberries, pears, beans, tomatoes, corn, zucchinis and cucumbers from our garden.
* Saved the shower warm up water, washing machine water and kitchen water to reuse around our home and garden where suitable.
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| From the garden |
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| Pear and apple butter |
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| Mini whole orange cakes |
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| Zucchini fritters |
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| Our garden produce |
The colour of your apple pear butter is amazing. Good idea on freezing oranges. Jean from Manitoba Canada
ReplyDeleteHi Jean. When you freeze oranges they defrost soft and full of juice.
DeleteHi Wendy.
ReplyDeleteYour garden produce looks lovely and the cakes, fritters and fruit butter look and sound delicious.
Do the zucchini & potato fritters freeze well? Once when I froze a beef and potato curry, the texture of the potatoes had changed after being frozen and wasn't very nice.
We have saved time, money and energy this week and every week by using our freezers.
When I started following your blog a few years ago, I was interested in reading about how you use your freezer, especially for home grown produce.
We have many fruit trees in our garden and end up with a glut of fruit in February and March. For over 12 months we couldn't give any away due to fruit fly restrictions. The solution to avoid wasting this lovely produce was to buy a compact 150 litre freezer.
Thank you for your part in what has turned out to be a great decision.
I already make your whole orange cake and would like to make the apple & pear butter and also the fritters. Are those recipes on your blog?
Thanks for the continued inspiration Wendy. I hope Darren's work situation improves soon.
Best wishes, Maria.
Hi Maria. Freezers are an easy way to preserve excess produce. The zucchini fritter freeze well. I put a small square of cereal packet liner ( the plastic bit ) in between the fritters to make them easy to separate. Once defrosted I pop them in the air fryer for 3 - 4 minutes and they come out slightly crispy.
DeleteI don't have the apple and pear butter recipe on my blog yet. I made it up the other day. I will post it shortly.
My week has been very expensive due to an accident. The flooding in Brisbane has kept us at home as well. But on the flip side there have been far fewer trips out. This week soup has been made from left over ham bones. Corned beef has served us three meals and there is still some in the fridge. One 200 g eye fillet steak made three meals.
ReplyDeleteThose little orange cakes look delicious, Wendy. I've been meaning to get a mini loaf pan for ages so I can make these. This week was a too-busy one at our place but we managed these things to be frugal:
ReplyDelete* Cooked all meals including large dish of macaroni cheese with veg and bacon, big pot of spaghetti bolognese, homemade pizzas, chicken stir fry with rice. Extra serves frozen.
* Used two very ripe bananas to make batch of muffins.
* Gratefully received some cheese which I will add to salads.
* Bought 2x jars peanut butter, 6x boxes of favourite crispbread and 3x packets choc chips on special.
* Topped up fuel in both cars at lowest price we could find locally.
* Combined errands to save on fuel.
* Bought new harness for our dog at 20% off.
* Borrowed lots of books from local library.
* Washed towels on sunny day and dried them on line. We've not had lot of sunny days lately!
* Found a lovely old hand-embroidered cloth at op-shop for $3. It's now in centre of our dining table. Lots of blue threads which I love!
Have a lovely week,
Meg
We visited my parents for a week, last week. They paid for all our meals, dds cooked some of them.
ReplyDeleteI went shopping in a Dutch supermarket and an Asian supermarket. I spent about €170 in total, and our car was full! It is so much cheaper in the North of the Netherlands than in Brussels! We did splurge on 6 loaves of bread from a proper bakery, soooo tasty!
I'm sure you enjoyed spending time with your parents. Good idea to make the most of cheaper groceries Siebrie.
DeleteLucky I had meals in the freezer with frozen veg , a well stocked pantry with long life milk and other things. Be prepared. That was the motto I had growing up as a girl guide. And it paid off. We have had in Sydney the wettest summer and two weeks worth of storms so bad I didn't leave the house for the last four days. Large hail, floods, at record highs. Many homeless and it evacuation centres. I am lucky I only had a leak in my roof. I don't have a baby but awhile ago I bought one at K mart for $12. Yesterday when all the time after came out, it came in very handy. Several people have sadly died here in the floods swept away in cars. They say the things that can save your life are a waterproof floating torch, a hammer to smash the window , to escape, and a silver foil blanket to keep warm. We hope we never need them, but these items could be the difference between life and death. Be prepared for anything !!!
ReplyDeleteA well stocked pantry has many uses doesn't it ?
DeleteNo I don't have a book. I started writing out my recipes about 7 years ago to write a book but life got in the way.
ReplyDelete