full bloom at floriade

a hot sunny day, busloads of people and
the lovely flowers at floriade...

homemade strawberry jam

during times of high prices, i found 500g punnets of strawberries for $2...
so i quickly picked out 4 of the best punnets to make some strawberry jam...
this is certainly not a thrifty way of getting jam (cos one can purchase sugar laden tasteless supermarket branded ones)
but it is the thriftiest way of getting quality yummy jam (compared to the $5.50 homemade ones i saw being sold at one northshore farmers market by "old lady" or the ultra over-priced "dutchy (i am so organic charles) originals" sold at gourmet food shop SJ'son)
i started off with 2kg strawberries, 1kg sugar, juice of a lemon from our lovely neighbour. then added 15 min of macerating + 1hr+ cooking on the stove... (ooo and at the end i had to add some jamesetta to help as it was abit too acidic)

each whole strawberry got used to the max... the green bits were destined for the compost...

the lovely red bits headed toward the stove...

and halved...

and macerated in sugar...

and stewed / reduced to a syrupy consistency... should i not have added the lemon juice for tartness, i would not have to add the (cheating... alittle) jamesetta...

4 large jars... enough jam for the next half a dozen months... for under $10

gardening in spring - growing from seed

egg cartons are very useful things


toilet rolls too... especially in the garden, esp in spring...

i have been collecting these, and cutting them up...

after abit of folding...

they become biodegradable seed raising pots...

egg cartons are easier, only need abit of a cutting up...

and soil can be scooped in to house the seeds...
toilet rolls seed raising tubs are good as they fit into take away containers...

and can be covered and transformed into a mini green house to minimise moisture loss and maximise warmth in the sun...

hopefully the new seeds will come out like these v soon...

mcduck and snowflake stayed home and won't go with me last night, so i went to my first permaculture north talk yesterday by myself... and it was excellent! and i got a new member's folder and some egg cartons from the "recycle roundabout"... and able to listen to an inspirational talk... there ar emore inspirational activities down the track too...

also got this card from the mail yesterday, as dear dear friend rego me and snowflake (she got another letter with membership card too) on the eden garden membership (for the freebies - she said)...

and real bargain it'll be as there'll be a free coffee waiting for me to collect every month! and it is free to join! thank you dear dear friend for signing me up... "where's my memb card?", mcduck complained.

time for mooncakes again

unlike last year, i've learnt to start the mooncake making process early...
1 1/2 months ago, i started salting eggs in brine (not in salt and ziplock bag this time)...
and out of 18 eggs, i got 14 good yolks (that was 18 minus 3 bad ones that went off and one testing egg a month in)
the yolks were golden and rock solid

there was also streamlining of the filling materials into 3 simple types instead of 5 last year...

this year's red bean green tea snow skin mooncake

and the vanilla green bean snow skin mooncake

i stuffed up the traditional mooncake skin big time, so this became lotus paste skin mung bean mooncake

i still made some traditional skin lotus paste mooncakes each with homemade single salted yolk embedded...

and the result this year: approx 20 mungbean / red bean snowskin mooncakes + approx 20 traditional mooncakes with lotus paste and yolk + lots of stress (due to failed traditional skins / 1st batch snowskins)

but overall verdict: good 2nd batch snowskin result, great fillings - lotus paste, mungbean paste, redbean paste

time spent in making mooncakes: the equivalent of 2 full days

money spent on ingredients: approx $35-40

- eggs approx $10

- lotus seeds $6.50

- olive oil $7.00

- red bean / mung bean $6.00

- flour / sugar / others under $10

excellent value should labour cost not taken into account... i saw mooncake onsale for an av $7.50 each (the reputable ones like kee-wah), the really cheap ones approx $5 (unknown brand name, with questionable sources of ingredients)... so to yield 40 cakes with $40 = $1 each! bargain!