Lentil Shepherds Pie

This recipe is great for using up the end of the week's veggie box as really it doesn't matter what veggies you put in.  It was super popular with both the adults and the kids.

Lentil Shepherds Pie Ingredients

Topping
1 kg potatoes
1/2-1cup milk, salt, butter
Cheese, grated

 Filling
1 onion, diced
Veggies (I used carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, swede, turnip, kale, and pumpkin), diced
A can of lentils or 500g brown lentils (soaked)
400g Passata or a can of tomatoes
1 tbs Tomato paste
Fresh or dried herbs such as oregano, thyme, sage
Salt and pepper

Method
Chop potatoes and boil for 10-15 mins until soft
Drain excess water, add milk, salt and butter and mash.

While potatoes are boiling, fry the onion til soft, add the veggies (and lentils if not using canned). Cook for 5-10 mins. Add passata/canned tomatoes, herbs and tomato paste. Once veggies are cooked, season well. Add the canned lentils.

Put into baking dish and top with mashed potato and grated cheese.  Bake for approx 30 mins in moderate oven until top is golden brown.

YUM!

Celebrating Inbolc and the coming of Spring

Last week we celebrated Inbolc which marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox.  It marks the coming of Spring.  I have felt a very real shift in the energy and weather at this time.  It has been a long cold winter but finally the days are lengthening, I am waking with the brightening sky, and the sun is breaking through the clouds to warm us during the day.

We celebrated Inbolc by making a circle of flowers.  We each added a flower to the circle and made a wish for what we wanted to grow and blossom this Spring. Anna read the story of Persephone being stolen into the underworld (which explains why we have winter every year). 

We all noticed all the new buds beginning on our fruit trees.  It is a beautiful hopeful time of year.  My springtime buds are loving family communication and fulfilling my creative inspirations.

-Cat

Cauliflower,parsnip and potato soup

This delicious thick and creamy soup is adapted from a thermomix recipe.  See those instructions at the end.  The parsnip adds a beautiful nutty flavour. 

Ingredients:

oil

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic (optional)

3 potatoes

1 small or 1/2 large cauliflower (I used the beautiful romanesco pictured)

1 small parsnip or 1/2 large

approx 750ml water or stock

salt

20g butter

2 tbs flour (corn flour if gluten free)

Method: 

Dice onion and garlic and fry in oil in a large saucepan.  Chop potatoes, cauliflower and parsnip into bite size pieces. Add to the saucepan with water/stock and salt.  Cook for approximately 20 mins until vegetables soft.  Add butter and cook for a few more minutes.  Blend and serve with a spring onion garnish.

Thermomix instructions: Chop onion and garlic (3 sec speed 7) Add oil and fry (3 mins 100 deg speed 1). Add vegetables, water/stock and salt.  Cook (15 mins 100 deg speed 1).  Add butter and flour, cook (5 mins 100 deg speed 1) Blend (1 min going from speed 1-8).

The Opening of the Poo Palace

The formal "ribbon" cutting.

There have been periods in my life when I have lived in a house that had a composting loo. It's always been an unnatural feeling to then go back to using a flush toilet where you do your business into water. "Why is this precious resource (water) being desecrated and valuable resources (poo) flushed down the toilet?", I have protested as I feebly pressed the flush button.
We Peace Farmers decided enough was enough and hatched a plan to get good old Muza (me) to build a repository worthy of its precious cargo.....In short, a composting dunny. But this was to be no simple hole in the ground. It needed to be able to store a sizeable volume of waste and then have it be easily removeable to where it could compost over time and ultimately fertilize the fruit trees, with minimum handling. We went with the wheelie bin design where you basically fill up a wheelie bin and then park it somewhere for 6 months to a year. Meanwhile you replace that bin with another and start the process over again

The esteemed guests of the launch

The throne itself needed to provide the option of being able to sit or squat and so includes ample room for feet around the rim. Other features include a big window looking out over the mountains to the north, a self closing door so that gail forced winds don't tear said door off its' hinges and an internal lock so that participants can enjoy their time undisturbed.
Upgrades to come include a blackboard to record those moments of pure brilliance that visit us when we are in such states of repose (I can't wait to read such inspired prose!) and a bucket for the sawdust that's going everywhere at the moment because it's just in a bag.

The proud creator of the "Poo Palace"

So how's it going? Does it smell?
It's going great. We've just about filled our first wheelie bin and there's no offensive odour. I did attach a hose fitting and a wire mesh to separate and drain off any excess fluid at the base of the bin  because I was told that the urine creates most of the bad odours but as we don't use the toilet to specifically urinate into (what....and deprive the lemon trees!) there isn't enough to cause a problem.
So in all it's a great success. It has a devoted crew of regular users who aren't afraid to brave the elements in order to reach the outdoor dunny. After all, it is a bit of a pilgrimage where we pay our respects to the Great Mother and give back a little something after receiving so much

Our weekend wwoofer - a win win situation

Since April this year we have had a wonderful wwoofer, Michael, coming up from Melbourne every Saturday to help us out on the farm.  We feed him a delicious lunch and he helps us with whatever projects are happening on the farm, such as planting, building, straw-baling, mixing compost and natural fertilisers, weeding, bed preparation, and propagation.

Michael found out about wwoofing from a friend from Chile and since he has always wanted to live in the country and perhaps own a farm one day he found PEACE Farm in the wwoofer guide and got in touch.

 "I thought, what a great idea.  I've always wanted to do something like this. I wish I had found out about it years ago." He was inspired by a friend who uses his spare time to follow his passion of standup comedy.

 Michael told me "You need to work to get money but your spare time is for following your passion and after going back to Wooloongong after years of living in the city it became my passion to re-connect with nature.  I returned to the city and felt uncomfortable, like I didn't want to be here anymore.  Then I thought if I learn how to live off the land then I don't have to depend on anyone else.  SO that was the primary motivation to start wwoofing on the weekend."

Having Michael come up every Saturday just for the day has really been a win-win situation. We get all the benefits of having an extra pair of hands (and those great muscles) and he learns about all aspects of running a permaculture farm.

Michael explained, "The highlights for me have been working with my hands in the earth, with shirt off and shoes off in the sun. Its the best feeling to get the city off me.  I go home feeling wonderful and I learn more each time I come.  And meeting like-minded people who are doing what I would like to do in the future. So that is the best highlight - knowing I am achieving what I set out to achieve."

Cape Gooseberries

I have never heard of Cape gooseberries before, let alone picked and eaten them, but they are currently my favourite thing to forage for and find in the PEACE Farm mandala gardens.  Perhaps its because the mandala gardens are looking pretty sparse these days, or perhaps its the way the golden fruit is hiding with a paperthin leafy shell, and when its really ripe this turns transparent revealing the gold fruit inside.

There is something lovely about removing it from this leafy shell and popping it into my mouth.  The taste is different, not too sweet, not too tart if ripe enough.  It tastes like what I think a Vitamin C tablet should taste like - vibrant and alive.

Today the little kids of the farm helped me harvest them. Many had fallen off the vine prematurely from the wind.  Hopefully they might ripen if I bring them inside.

 I just checked online and they are also known as Inca berries, Aztec berries, Golden berries, and ground berries.  They contain Vitamins A, C & B and are high in protein and iron. Yeah!   If I stop eating them I may even have enough to make a gooseberry jam, but the temptation to just pop them in is too great.

Celebrating Winter at PEACE Farm

So Winter has definitely arrived.  We have had some very wild, windy and rainy weather over the last few weeks so I was very happy for a bit of sunshine today.  I managed to get two loads of washing on the line, harvested some yummies from the garden, and gave the children some much needed outdoor play.

Thanks to everyone who braved the cold the weekend before last to come down to PEACE Farm for the Winter Solstice.  We were blessed with a respite from the rain and although it was cold, we actually had a starry sky.  The fire was blazing all night to keep us warm. When we first lit the fire as the sun went down we sang some solstice songs and the children circled the fire with their candle lanterns.  Then it was time for a warming soup, followed by chai and cakes.

None of us dared sit in the 'hot seat' but it was marvellous to watch the chair burn

We celebrated the longest night with a letting go ritual. We took it in turns to throw gum leaves into the fire.  I enjoyed this simple act of release and letting go, watching it burning away to ash.  We then joined with another to talk about and share what we wanted to grow with the coming of the light.

Em and Vicky serving the cakes which were delicious. 

Winter Solstice is one of the things I love about winter.  When I lived in the Northern Territory I missed this time of spiralling in towards the darkness. A time for inner reflection, sometimes a time of struggle, but ultimately a time of letting go and rebirth.   In winter time we, like the plants and trees, are mostly dormant, but its a perfect time to let go of our leaves and tend to our roots.  The solstice is like the new year.  Ideas can begin to be formed and germinated. And as the days start to get longer again and the sun returns bit by bit,  new buds can start to grow. By the time the Spring Equinox arrives, we can begin to see the blossoming of these ideas.  So Happy Solstice everyone, and I hope you are all tending your roots and growing wonderful new ideas to blossom in the Spring.

Ollie in the snow - first snow of the year at Mt Donna Buang

SO what else is there to celebrate about Winter...
The other things I love about winter are hot mulled wine, open fires, hot chocolate, and my possum-fur gloves and scarf.    But probably the best thing about winter around here is the snow.  We had a couple of days of snow last week so took the opportunity to take the kids up the mountain for a play.  There was just enough snow to go down the toboggan run.

 I think now its all melted.... until next time it snows.  Maybe see you up the mountain?

Marlowe and his snowman