It's finally Spring time in Cape Town

The lovely warmer mornings, and days, in Cape Town compel one to get out into the garden and to start weeding, and tidying.  And planting...

So I did just that.

But, to keep RMan occupied because he is always fretting that he needs to get to the farm to do this or finish that, and we just can't just get up and go (this is the start of the business' busy time of year), I suggested that we re-do the tiles in our guest bathroom. They were pretty grotty Biggie Best tiles from the early 1980's.

The start of it all...

He liked the idea - so much so that he started removing them the next morning - a Sunday! (Hope our neighbours aren't too mad at the noise - we did wait until 10.30 a.m.) But with all things renovation-wise what starts out as a simple "we'll re-do the tiles" became a "we're re-doing the whole bathroom"! That meant removing all the wall tiles, and the floor tiles, the basin in it's pedastel cupboard (which was rotting underneath and at the back - chipboard!) and the bath - well, it was tiny, hardly ever used (only by my grandson when he comes to visit) and finally, baths are a waste of water! Who baths these days?

So, the renovation has been proceeding at every available spare moment - but I gained something from the stripping down of the bathroom which I have been able to recycle. Apart from the wall tiles, which are great for the base of all my pots which I plant up, the bath has become one of my veggie patches!  And a raised veggie patch at that :-)

The bricks are for me to sit on whilst I harvest the produce - making it easier on my back.  Also you can see the lettuces on the left growing in the two stainless steel bowls I mentioned in an earlier post.

And I went one step further - because the bath is situated in the one spot that gets sun all year round, and is very hot in summer (my lettuces tend to bolt at the first sign of upper 20's heat) I decided that I would fashion a shade over the bath. All it took was some old irrigation pipe secured to short rods in the ground and covered "tightly" with the shade netting - to prevent our pesky snails from having a nightly munch.

I have left the front of the shadecloth loose so that I can lift it up when I need to get inside - afterwards I secure it with an old dowl type rod / support.

In the bath I placed some some lettuce and chives seedlings which I purchased from a local nursery (for instant "growth"), and sowed carrots and celery in situ (with the aid of my Magic Seeder :-) ), as well as garlic and onions. My hubby is still trying to come to terms with a bath in our back garden, but as he is already eating the produce therefrom he can't really complain. I think (and hope) that it is not as disturbing to his eyes as it was when he first saw it?!

Once I started sowing and planting I couldn't stop.

We are located on a hillside and thus have retaining blocks in our garden. I had previously planted them up with flowering plants - but, hey, they get full sun in summer, so this year they are planted up with corn, dwarf beans, parsley and tomatoes. It took me ages to remove all the soil from each block and mix it with compost and organic pellets (mainly chicken manure from the smell of it) but it was necessary. It gave me time to think of exactly what I was going to plant. Nothing more thought provoking than a good dose of manual labour - all on my own - well, the hubby was (and still is) busy with the bathroom :-)

And to finish it off I cleaned out under some hibiscus trees and sowed some more carrot seeds and planted some turnip and rocket seedlings. I have to cordon off the area as it was a favourite summer afternoon snoozing area for our dog - perhaps that is why I had never thought of using it before?

More carrots to the left, beetroot and rocket

I have also sown broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and turnip seeds in the empty loo roll holders I have been saving all winter - you'd be amazed how many loo roll holders one can save once you start. Sowing seeds in the holders allows one to transplant them straight into the ground when they are large enough, and once they are there they help prevent attack of the roots by cutworm, etc.

This last week I harvested 2kgs of sweet potatoes, which I had grown in a 20lt bucket, two small cabbages, +/- 200gms of peas and too many lettuce leaves to count - not to mention fresh herbs - rosemary, sage, basil, parsely and chives.

I can't explain it but these were amongst the best sweet potatoes we have ever eaten

I love it!!  Salad has never tasted as good!

It took me a full week to complete all of this, and just as I settled back yesterday evening to enjoy the view who popped by but this friendly Robin - almost saying, "Thanks for digging up all these insects, and I like what you've done with the place".

Can you spot him - he's checking out what I've done from the top of the rake

Well, Roger Robin, I like it too - very much!

My bread recipe

In line with my "don't wait until we're on the farm to try out new idea's" decision, I made up a batch of my bread recipe at the beginning of the week, and it occurred to me, and I was asked by African Bliss, who contacted me, to put the recipe on my blog.

Unfortunately, though, at the moment I am having to cook it in my electric oven in Cape Town - but I also cooked a couple of chickens at the same time - I hate to use an electric oven for only one item.  I can't wait to see how this recipe works in the Dover stove.

It is dead easy - no kneading required - which with my old "tennis elbow" (even though I don't play / have never played tennis) injury it suits me just fine.  The recipe comes from the following site: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=2

What you need to do is the following:

Take a large container (with loose fitting lid) and add to it :-

3 cups / 750ml warm water (I find that using water at 107oF / 41oC works brilliantly for me)
3 level teaspoons / 15 gm (1 1/2 sachets) granulated yeast
3 teaspoons / 45gm brown sugar

Mix all the above together and allow to sit until frothy - about 20 - 30 minutes.

Mix together:

1 - 1 1/4 tbs / 20 gm salt (I use either Himalayan Rock salt or Maddon sea salt)
6 1/2 cups / 750gm 50/50 mix of white and brown bread flour (that way I get the men in my life to eat some brown bread without too much fuss - why are most men fixated on white bread??)

When the water/yeast/sugar is frothy slowly add the flour and salt to the mixture - approximately a level cup at a time, stirring to combine.  You can use an electric mixer or food processor with a dough attachment, but it not necessary - a wooden spoon / silicone spoon works great - so rather save the electricity.  All it takes is 5 minutes to mix the flour into the yeast water.  It results in a loose dough which will conform to the container.

Cover loosely (do not use a screw top jar - it could explode from the trapped gases) and set aside to rise for 2 hours at room temperature.  (Longer rising time will not hurt the dough - I have left it for 4 hours)  You can use any amount of the dough after this time, but if you refrigerate it, it is less stricky to work with than dough which is at room temperature.  Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (the authors of this recipe) recommend that the dough be refrigerated for at least 3 hours before shaping a loaf.

I don't have a pizza wheel, so I use a pliable vegetable cutting board which I liberally dust with cornflour.  This is so that the dough can easily be transferred to the baking stone in your oven.

When you are ready to bake bread, remove the dough container from the fridge and sprinkle some extra flour on the top surface.  Then cut off a large grapefruit sized piece with a serrated knife. Rub a little flour on your hands and holding the dough, stretch and fold over two of the corners to the bottom on all four sides - rotating the ball as you go.  You should end up with dough which has a bunched base of the four corners - this will flatten out during the resting and baking.

Now place your dough on the pizza wheel / cutting board and let it rest uncovered for 40 minutes.

20 - 30 minutes before baking, place your baking stone inside and turn your oven on to 400oF / 200oC.  I don't have a genuine baking stone, so I use one of the extra floor tiles which were left over from our floor - I reckon that a good scrub and then baking at 200oC eliminates 99.9% of the germs.  Also, place an ovenproof container on a lower shelf in the oven - this is to hold the water which is added when you place your dough in the oven.

Dust the top of the bread liberally with flour and slash the top with a serrated knife - a couple of slashes, or a deep cross - whatever.  This helps the dough expand during cooking.

When the oven is at the correct temperature open the door, and with a forward jerking movement slide the dough off the pizza wheel / cutting board and onto the baking stone.  Then quickly pour a cup of hot water into the ovenproof container below and close the door to trap the resulting steam in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes until it is nicely browned and firm to the touch.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

It produces the crispiest crust and the most moist centre I have ever eaten.  And it is also good the next day - or even the day after - if the loaf lasts that long!

Return the remaining dough in the container to the fridge and use within 2 weeks. You can apparently even freeze portion sizes in an airtight container and defrost in the refrigerator overnight.

Eco-friendly gifts

I have been trying to figure out why the gifts that Petro and Neels brought to me on my birthday meant so much.

They were very simple gifts - a few freshly cut flowers from their garden, a jar of home made preserves, a large bag of dry wood and a bottle of bubbly - and nothing fancy at that - just a palatable wine with bubbles.

Neels had met RMan in the local shop earlier that day as RMan was reaching for a bundle of firewood.  Upon enquiring what the wood was for, and being told it was for the promised fire in my new Dover Stove for my birthday, Neels said, "Rubbish - that wood is still wet - I have plenty of dry wood - I'll bring some round later".

And true to his word they arrived as the sun was going down - perfect timing.

The bubbly was shared amongst us all, and very appreciated.  The flowers joined my husband's roses in the empty coffee jar, in pride of place on my kitchen counter, and we all sat round the welcome heat of the new Dover stove, enjoying each other's company without any need to stand on ceremony.

I think I have figured it out ...

They brought gifts from the heart - without the necessity of having to rush out to the local shop and find  "suitable" gift.  They gave of themselves, of their handiwork and of their time - so simple and so very appreciated.  The most eco-friendly gift in the world :-)

I think we spend far too much time focussing on the "perfect gift", the right label, the amount we can / can't spend - we've forgotten how to give of ourselves.

Thank you, Petro and Neels - you gave me a great treasure that night - and one I will remember for a long time to come.

My stove, painting and the verandah

We left Cape Town at 10.45 am on Friday 6th August.  We were only going to leave on Saturday morning, but Negosiegat, in Barrydale, wasn't going to be open on Saturday, as it was the first day of the long weekend (Woman's Day was on Monday 9th).  And we had to get to Negosiegat in order to purchase the Dover stove.  RMan had promised me that the Dover would be in situ by my birthday on Tuesday, and working!

As we were driving we heard the weather report - rain was expected over the weekend, and they were predicting snow on Sunday!  Perfect :-)  If you're not living in, and confined to a caravan, anything is bearable.

After a leisurely drive we arrived in Barrydale at 2.15pm and made straight for Negosiegat.  After choosing our stove, and waiting whilst the storekeeper had it loaded onto the back of his bakkie (double cab) we led the way to our farm.  I was so excited - I had saved for this stove 3 times over the past two years - twice before I had had to use the money for other more essentials, but now, finally, I had it.  (I make salad dressing for a few restaurants locally, and had saved up the 'profit' from that.)

This first photo was taken with my phone camera just after it had been placed in it's position in the kitchen - the quality of the photo isn't so good, but I was too excited to care.

Things were looking positive - now all we had to do was install the chimney!  A piece of cake, I thought.  Easier said than done.  The height of the outlet had been placed as high as possible on the internal wall in order to utilize the heat from the chimney as well - only trouble was the hole was made using scaffolding and now all we had was a 3.2mtr aluminium ladder or a homemade 4.5mtr ladder - the latter being very dubious.  It was made out of builders planks which had been left on site - it definitely works, but the steps are +/- .75mtr apart - not easy to scale and work from.  And the chimney outlet was 4mtrs high.  So homemade ladder it had to be.  It is so heavy that it takes 4 grown men to move into place...

   

But the chimney got installed!  RMan discovered that the bend which had been plastered into the wall a couple of months ago wasn't at exactly the correct angle, but he persevered and managed to get it to fit the straight sections.

Just a bit of advice regarding new Dover Stoves - because of the black paint that its' coated with, when you first light it the paint visibly smokes and gives off a very unpleasant smell - if possible I would recommend lighting it outside before it is installed.  We managed to get rid of the fumes through opening all the windows - it took about an hour to an hour-an-a-half to sort out.  Do so wish we'd been forwarned though.

Hey! Hey! Hey! We have a working Dover stove - on my birthday and just in time!  It was freezing!  That morning we had woken to ice cold thick mist - I took a wander down our driveway and snapped this shot:

Yes, that is the caravan and house in the background.  When the mist lifted and the clouds cleared off the mountain we saw that they were full of snow - it literally covered the top 1/4 of them!  Brilliant!  I l-o-v-e snow - must be my British roots.  And now we had the wherewithall to keep warm!

Admittedly, the outside chimney was a little more difficult to adjust, but a plan was made so that we could use it during this visit.

I was absolutely no help - and felt helpless.  It was very dangerous as the wind was howling and I wasn't happy about RMan being up the wonky ladder at the best of times.  But he persevered and when the first puff of smoke came out of the chimney you would've thought that a new pope had just been elected!

It was a really nice feeling when our kettle started boiling(whistling) on the Dover stove for the first time.  I managed to get the oven temperature (together with the baking stone) up to 180oC - only need 20oC more and I can bake my no knead Artisan bread...

Friends of ours in Rietkuil, Neels and Petro, came round in the evening with a bottle of bubbly, some home grown arum lillies (to go with the beautiful yellow roses which RMan bought me) some dry wood (for the Dover stove) and a bottle of homemade preserves. What a lovely evening. Couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday.

Whilst our time had been taken up with installing the Dover stove and the chimney, we had also arranged for our builder and his team to be there - RMan Saturday and on Monday (at double time wages, being a public holiday) they proceeded to start building the wall.  3 days, 1200 bricks and 10 bags of cement later we have the skeleton - it still has to be filled, compacted and the slab thrown - but the vision of sitting on it on a hot summers' evening, with the protection of the house behind us, and out of the wind, is becoming a reality.

We also got the builder to finish building and plastering the walls of the kitchen porch - one more item to cross off the list.

And finally, we also managed to give the internal walls a coat of Harlequin low VOC plaster primer.  Low VOC is definitely the way forward - we couldn't smell a thing - and we slept in the room - and if we can't smell anything then there are minimal fumes leeching into the atmosphere!

It took a day a wall to paint - therefore to give the walls two coats of low VOC paint will take us roughly 10 days - allowing two days for the bathroom and small passage as well.

All in all a very constructive "long" weekend's work.  We extended the weekend by three days, only arriving back in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon - now why does that always make me feel guilty... we are allowed to take time off.

Our "footprint" comparison

Our friend, Roy, sent me a text yesterday to tell us that Google Earth has updated the map of our area, so naturally I had to go and have a look.

I'm thrilled, and horrified at the same moment.

Thrilled to see that we're finally on the map, and it's not just a piece of land anymore, but horrified at the chaos we're created.

Admittedly, it will all settle down and the "scar" won't be visible (in a year or so), but if anyone ever wanted to see what their "footprint" can do to the earth's surface, I think this is a perfect example.

For comparison I am showing the image from 2008 that is on my web page together with the latest image from September 2009.  Google Earth literally took the 2009 satellite image the day my husband and son competed the Resin Roof Tile installation.

The new "Voltruis Dam" (Ostrich dam) was entered on our plans as "existing", at the time of drawing them up - apparently it is now illegal to create a dam on your land without planning permission.

To give you an idea of where what is on our plot:

We still don't have any water in our dam - we reckon that we need to possibly dig it deeper.  However, we are going to wait until the rains are finished this season - normally in October / November there is a major downpour - let's see if it will finally remain in the dam...

It is also a pity that none of our trees are visible - guess they're still too small.  Will be interesting to see how they change the image in years to come.

And our grape vines - we need to change the angle at which they're lying - to drain the water away from them and towards the dam.  Grapes don't like permanently wet (clay) feet!

One lives and learns - with many thanks to those more knowledgeable souls who take the time to advise and guide.

And to give you an idea of the distance to our neighbours:

Our neighbour, Roy, is exactly 1.2kms from our gate to his gate along the sand road.  And Tom is approximately 160mtrs.

The "Ghost House", so named by the locals, is +/- 100 years old.  Because it has stood empty, and unloved, for too many years, it is falling to pieces.  The walls are made of cob / earth bricks, and the most recent roof is IBR sheeting, which is rusty and full of holes.  A lovely project - but I reckon one that could empty the purse pretty quickly!  Last year a young couple bought it, and renovated a smaller outbuilding, with a view to staying there whilst they worked on the main house.  However, they have just fallen pregnant with their first baby, and need the money, so they have placed it on the market again.

We are planning on going to the plot for a few days this coming weekend - the hubby wants to get the front porch area in, complete with designated braai (barbecue) area - he's tired of roughing it when he has a braai.  And it's my birthday next week, so I'm going to spoil myself and finally buy myself the Dover Stove from Negosiegat in Barrydale.

Our planet

I was blown away by this site which was sent to me by my daughter.  It puts the beauty, uniqueness and size of this planet into complete perspective.

For an updated shot of the map click on this link:

http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html, or for a more traditional view, http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaphemi.html

When one looks at these images, and we see how we are all connected on this planet, how can we not care about the effects our modern lifestyle is having on our world?  How can we fail to consider the long-lasting effect of our eco footprint? 

And how can we not care about each other?

Enjoy :-)

My first attempt at baking bread

On 31 May 2010 I received my precious solar oven.  It was the wrong model and it arrived damaged and I am (still) trying to get that sorted out - but that I'll leave for another post.

But I am too impatient to wait for summer to try baking bread in my solar oven.  And I don't have the Dover stove yet.  So, after much research on the Internet and reading a snippet on another blog I follow ( http://thefieldlab.blogspot.com/ )  I came across this site:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=2

Brilliant - I had found a bread recipe which didn't entail the strength, energy and time required to knead bread dough.  Time - not a problem - neither is energy - but strength.  I had tennis elbow a few years ago, and, due to the dreaded cortisone injections which were required to assist the healing of that elbow, I have been left with a right arm which is a mere shadow of it's former self, strength-wise.

And I had a "baking stone" - I had brought a spare unglazed clay floor tile back from the farm which I scrubbed really clean.

So, on Wednesday I proceeded to whip up a batch of dough.  I added the yeast to the warm water (I measured the temperature of the water with a normal (sterilised) medical thermometer :-) which is all I had available, to ensure it was the required 40oC) and let that stand for approximately 30 minutes whilst it "frothed" up.  After mixing in the flour and salt I let the dough stand on my kitchen counter for the next 3 - 4 hours before putting it in my fridge overnight.  Then yesterday afternoon, as I planned a rare oven-roasted chicken for supper (the oven would be put to multi-use - our electricity cost has just been increased by 25.8% so I am very conscious of saving power whenever and wherever possible) I placed the baking stone inside and turned on my oven to the required 230oC, and, removing a portion of the dough from the refrigerated batch, let it rest on the counter until the oven was hot enough.

I put the dough on the baking stone, and placed the cup of water underneath and closed the door - and waited with baited breath (and a torch so that I could monitor the progress through the glass as my oven light doesn't work).

Seriously, it turned out perfectly.  And was so easy!!!!

The verdict of my family - brilliant!  The entire loaf got wiped by my husband, son and a couple of slices for me, naturally.

Now I want to try it in our gas grill - and details on that can be found at:  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

There is absolutely no reason why anyone has to buy bread - it couldn't be easier to make your own loaf.   

A place of healing and a celebration

Sadly, last month RMan's dad passed away.  But, thankfully, RMan got to Johannesburg in time to see him.  However, due to the emotional stress RMan has experienced in the past weeks I thought it would be good to get him to the farm - to give him some lebensraum.  He has had to be so strong for other people and his emotional needs have come second.

Also, it was RMan's birthday this weekend and, with no phone call from his dad on the day, it would be even harder.  It is never easy to lose someone near to one.

We managed to leave on Thursday lunchtime with our RSon joining us on Saturday.  After the recent rains the countryside now is green, with all the farmers crops well on their way.  Lambs abound - even our neighbour, Tom, has two new additions to his flock.

As you can see the lambs in the above photo are so new born that their tails haven't been docked yet

It constantly amazes me how the lambs are born in mid-winter - how on earth do they keep warm?  There is still snow on the mountains and we experienced temperatures of 3oC in the early morning - and we're wrapped up in warm jackets and boots - the lambs don't even have their fleece yet!  Can cuddling up to their mother's be sufficient?  I gained a new respect for farm animals this weekend.

On Friday we managed to get the builders back for the day, to finish plastering around the last four window frames, and in the corners where the roof meets the walls - we discovered that that was the spot where the birds were gaining access to the house - there were two more dead birds in the house - and bird droppigns all over the floor - take it from me, it is NOT easy to clean up dried bird droppings - it sticks and sticks...even with the assistance of a pot scraper!  But I don't like the fact that birds are dying in our house.  They obviously don't have the wherewithall to find their way out once they are inside.  Pervention is better than cure - so to block off their access was the only solution.

The photo above is from June last year - he's not looking that good at the moment.

Max, (we've named him that) the cat that adopted us last year, actually came running when he saw us arrive.  He managed to wipe out all the cat food I had bought him - shame, he's pretty thin.  He was so hungry that he was even eating the bread crusts I threw outside for the birds, and a slice of avocado I acidentally dropped on the floor!  There wasn't even enough food to leave him a bowl full when we leave as I always do. (I'll have to get a bigger bag for him next time.)

I have been asking RMan for ages if we can get a supply of wood in - the locals cut the alien trees and sell the wood - part of the Working for Water campaign in this country( http://www.dwaf.gov.za/wfw/Control .  They sell 1000 pieces for R200.00 - we pay R29.00 for 10 - 12 pieces in town!

But, we had borrowed the work van to transport some stuff to the farm and we could only load 500 pieces - 1000 pieces would've been too heavy - and most of the 500 pieces are still too green to burn.  But, I'm not grumbling - at last we have some wood now.  The balance of the wood will have to be collected next time we're up there.  Negosiegat, the shop in Barrydale which sells Dover Stoves, is out of stock at the moment - new stock should arrive in 2 - 3 weeks.  But at least I now have wood for the dover stove when it's finally installed.  We used a bit of the dry wood for our braai (barbecue) on RMan's birthday - we had our neighbours, Neels and Petro, round for dinner.  A really lovely evening was had by all!  And our first social gathering on the farm.

Even our son enjoyed his break away from Cape Town - he took this beautiful photo of one of our aloes in flower.  And what a pleasure, and a priviledge, to share the farm experience with him - his only visit was last year when he was so incredibly helpful in erecting and installing our roof.  Now at least he has shared the benefit of all his hard work, and he has experienced the comfort of our little farm house.  He loved it :-)

When we left on Monday, we went via another farmer, in Bonnievale, who had recently had an article in the Farmers Weekly.  He has 14ha of his farm planted with pomegranates!  What a lovely helpful, pleasant person Willem Van Der Merwe is.  We must have spent a good hour-and-a-half with him and the advice he gave us was brilliant - I hate to thinking what bumbling idiots we must have appeared to Willem, but, there again, I guess everyone has to start somewhere!

All in all a brilliant long weekend - and just what the doctor ordered.

Rest in peace, Peter.