BEE B&B

Following on from my last post you may recall that our veggie garden is suffering from a distinct lack of pollinators.  I know the weather has been quite cold and frankly apart from the egg plants there are No flowers in our garden at all to attract them.  So off I went to research and found online a very basic design for a Bee Hotel which quickly morphed into a more elaborate and quirky design for my Bee B&B as I like to call it.

I went straight to Bunnings which as it turns out was a silly mistake as after I came home I discovered all of what I had bought wasn't going to do at all.  I searched around the workshop, the wood pile and the property and found all I needed to make a totally recycled bee environment.

The main part of the house is a drawer out of what once was Lawson’s baby change table which in a fit of madness Brent cut up for fire wood!!!! ARGH!  The table top was saved and has since become the timber frame for a piece of art we bought at the Maleny artists co-op  and takes pride of place on the deck.  The drawers were set aside until they were needed and now I had the perfect project for one of them.  The roof was made from offcuts of timber and the inner will be filled with logs, offcuts and some cut up bamboo stakes.   

Now it seems native bees and other pollinators like about a 6mm diameter hole to crawl inside of and set up home, so with some help from Benny to set up the drill press for me, I went about drilling many, many holes in one end of the wooden sections.  

Now that house and innards were ready to go it was time to attach it to the dead tree stump in the veggie garden.  I asked Benny to saw off a little more of the stump to create a level pad to attach it to.  He cleverly suggested mounting it in such a way that if it ever had to be moved I wouldn't have to remove the logs to do so, by attaching a plank to the tree, and then attaching the house to the plank from the underside.  Therefore the removal of four screws from the base will allow the house to be removed in tact.

I enlisted the help of Lawson to fill the Hotel with the logs and bamboo.  He commented that his time playing tetris had come in handy for just this sort of occasion!  The final piece is something really cute and quirky, with a Motel Vacancy sign out front to let all passing bees and other pollinators know that there is a room with their name on it with a beautiful garden view especially of the flowering eggplant.

Now excuse me while I run off and make the beds in anticipation of the first arrival of our winged guests.

KIDS, EAT YOUR VEGGIES!

Do you, like so many Mums have trouble getting your kiddie winks to eat their veggies?  I know, I know, it’s tough isn't it?  I remember when our son was little we would go out to a restaurant, trap him in his high chair and order him a side of steamed vegetables that he would seriously hoe into.  Then something happened, out of the blue, he developed his own little mind and all of a sudden started to order his dinner based on price in order of the most expensive dish if you please! Atlantic Salmon, Fillet Mignon, Barramundi etc, etc and we would shrug our shoulders and pay the bill, secretly happy that he was developing a sophisticated palate.  But when he started leaving his veggies on the plate that was the end of it.  “If you are going to order an adult meal then you must eat it, vegetables and all.” we would say.

Nowadays we don't have that sort of trouble, not since we discovered how yummy green smoothies can be and how easily we can incorporate at least two vege and two fruit into a drink we have at afternoon tea time.  

Also we have discovered the very best chocolate cake in the world which is loaded with beautiful beetroot puree.  I have made this cake for an adult friends birthday dinner and served it up to my husband’s Board of Directors.  The children across the street are putting in requests for me to make it again on the weekends, and our son has it in his lunchbox most days.  I recognise that it is just a chocolate cake after all, filled with butter and sugar and all sorts of other not so healthy ingredients (if not taken in moderation), but this is a seriously deliciously addictive cake with the benefit of containing vegetables!  

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE  from current issue of Earth Garden Magazine

Ingredients:

100gm dark chocolate

3 medium free range eggs

300gm brown sugar

180 gm butter

300gm cooked beetroot

1 tsp vanilla extract

30 gm cocoa powder

100 gm almond meal

100gm plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. To cook the beetroots wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water.  Bring to the boil and cook until soft when poked with a knife. Cool, rub off skins, and then blend to make a puree.

2. Preheat oven to 180 C.  Grease and line your cake tin, either one square 20 x 20cm or 2 x 22cm tins.

3. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler and leave to cool to room temperature.  I use the microwave and heat for thirty seconds, give it a stir and another fifteen seconds and stir again.

4. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk together the eggs and sugar.

5. Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture.  Beat until just combined.

6. Sift the cocoa, flour, baking powder.  Add this the almond meal and salt to the beet batter.  Fold until just combined, do not over mix.  

7. Pour into the cake tins and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake just springs back if you touch it.  Leave to cool then ice if desired.  We just dust with icing sugar and serve like a brownie, with a dollop of double cream!  YUMMMMMM!

No trouble getting kids to eat this one.  Give it a try and let us know what you think.

AUTUMN YEARS

I love this time of year Autumn.  Each day we seem to get either a sprinkling or a deluge of rain, enough to water the plants and make a soggy mushy mess of the chook pen floor.  All the discarded seed is sprouting providing my chickens with a nutrient boost of wheatgrass to their diets before I fling open the gate in the morning and let them roam free.  Much like me with my seed sprouter adding a boost of wheatgrass to my green smoothies each day.

Yesterday I set about doing some tidying up in the veggie garden and decided to upturn and empty an old galvanised rubbish bin that I had put a heap of mulch in and now had a crop of weeds growing up through it.  Upended it produced a rich compost mix teaming with the fattest healthiest load of earth worms which quickly wriggled for cover.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to treat the chickens and as I had heard the scratching sounds in the neighbours yard adjacent to the garden, I went through the front gate and called them back home.  Now the chickens sometimes manage to fly over the fence and get into the veggie garden and wreak havoc, so this was a treat for them to be invited in at all and Georgia wasn't sure that she wanted to oblige, maybe assuming I had some sort of alteria motives.  The others were so excited they trotted in and I flicked them one worm with my trowel and that was signal enough for them to hop right in to the compost and scratch up a feast.  Georgia just looked at them through the other side of the wire fence in disgust.

Georgia has been a bit off lately.  The onset of some colder weather has brought about the moult and there are little white feathers everywhere.   They are so soft and floaty that just opening and closing the back screen door sees them drift in on the breeze and float into all the corners of the room.  Just recently I bought a new doona for our bed filled with feathers and down and as I pick up piles of feathers I understand why that doona is so comforting to me.  Unfortunately as a result of this affliction where we were regularly getting two eggs a day, one from Eugene and one from Georgie, now we are getting only one.  Not nearly enough to cover our egg eating habit that we have formed from having an abundance.  The girls are getting to the ends of their lives and although I would love more eggs I am not inclined to make their last days stressful by introducing new girls into the flock.  And “no” I am not going to make them into chicken soup, they still give me a lot of joy as pets.  I still love having them help me in the garden, walk through my legs to get closer to whatever weed I am pulling, on the off chance that there is a worm or bug lurking in the roots and soil as it is pulled.  And seriously, watching them gobble down and fight over those worms yesterday was a comedy to say the least. I just wished I had filmed it and set it to the Benny Hill soundtrack!

So I will wait until one by one they either don't come home when they are called or I discover them in their final sleep when I go to let them out in the morning.  Then, when there is just Eugene left (as she is a couple of years younger than the rest) I will introduce five or six newbies and have quiche, omelette and custard galore once more. 

Chickens make great pets and garden assistants, they help with chemical free bug and weed control, drop wonderful fertilizers in your garden and lawn, sometimes your home☺  They are inquisitive, social and have individual personalities, they love their families and value their lives.  

Some chickens have cognitive abilities more advanced than cats, dogs and some primates.  

They do have a pecking order and each chicken is very aware of their place in their family/community.  Chickens have between 24 to 30 types of vocalization.  A mother hen teaches these calls to her chicks before they have hatched, the baby chicks chirp back to her and their siblings from inside their shells, using this form of communication will pass down knowledge through their family generations. 

The Nutritional value of eggs is quite interesting, and would take some time to really get into.  It is also a debatable topic between vegetarians and vegans.

When possible (if you cannot have chickens of your own) buy your eggs direct from an ethical farmer,  friend or neighbour.

Also something to consider - ideally chickens should be feed an organic mix that closely resembles that of their natural diet, not a commercial product that is full of chemicals, fillers, and ground up dead animal parts.

What the chicken eats you ultimately eat!

Benefits of eggs

• High quality protein
• Choline – in the yolk - important for brain function and health, the nervous system, cardiovascular health
• Eggs help to lower the risk of a heart attack or stroke by preventing blood clots
• Lutein - protection against age related macular degeneration and cataracts
• Good for your eyes in general
• Peptide – found in the whites of the egg – is a protein building block, which binds to the food bourne pathogen, E.coli, preventing infection.
• Vitamin A – good night vision
• Vitamin B2, B5, B12
• Vitamin D – helps in calcium absorption
• Vitamin E 
• Vitamin K
• Zinc, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Calcium, Iron

What marvelous little friends to have.

 Anyone who has spent time with Julia AKA Chicken Whisperer, can see the love in this little brood and their love of their Julia.  

If you have the love and time, consider rescuing battery farm hens.  I personally have seen rescued hens go from no feathers, scared of humans to fluffy loveable companions who laid beautiful eggs.

 For more info on rescued hens contact 

Sandy Dow at dogworx@live.com.au

Sandy also is a dog trainer extraordinaire, who rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes the dogs.  Love and Light Tanya ox

IT'S SO EASY BEING GREEN

So I have been trying hard to improve the way I live, the things I eat and indulging some of my passions to become a more “well rounded” person.  Having coffee with a friend of similar age just recently she told me of a challenge she was just about to embark on but one that she had done previously and found very beneficial to health, hair and skin, energy levels and overall well being.  The Simple Green Smoothie 30 day Challenge is a web based program put together by a couple of lovely friends Jen and Jadah at www.simplegreensmoothies.com and provides you with daily inspiration, recipes and weekly shopping lists to encourage you to add more fruits and vegetables also some nutrient boosts into your daily diet.  Sign me up I say!

www.simplegreensmoothies.com

Not having all of the ingredients in the fridge but wanting to get started straight away, my first smoothie was a bit hard to stomach!  But once I went shopping and had some variety I was loving the smoothie challenge and using it to replace my lunch which usually consisted of whatever was left over in the fridge from the weekend or a fast sushi roll while out doing the banking. I am still constantly amazed at how with the addition of a few fruits (particularly banana and pineapple) you literally cannot taste the 2 cups of spinach or kale once it is smooshed together.

My first attempt was done in my blender.  Its a heavy duty, ice crushing model but the result was just a bit chewy to say the least which didn't really add to the appeal.  Then I tried the food processor which even though it has a bigger motor didn't quite get all the bits from the sides and so ended up even more chunky.  

Then as I munched my way through Saturday lunchtime TV I came across an advertorial for the NutriBullet.  I have NEVER bought ANYTHING off TV shopping channels before but this one had me hooked.  The way it professed to extract the nutrients from even the seeds of the raspberries and the skins of the kiwi fruit with its ultra powerful motor and cyclonic action that dragged ever last skerick through its powerful extractor blades made me want one real bad.  As with all these TV offers there is a 30 day trial which costs you postage only and then sixty-four monthly payments as big as your mortgage and your first born son if you are completely satisfied with the product and want to keep it.  But I signed up anyway and I’ve got to say that I am happy with the NutriBullet, it does what it said it would and after about a months worth of daily smoothies and homemade salsa and pasta sauce has been processed it is still going like a champion.  Oh and did I mention there were free gifts too!  A Slicer Dicer 2000 and an economy peeler as well as all the books and recipes and daily diet planners etc that come along with the Bullet itself.

MY FAVOURITE SMOOTHIE

Ingredient:

2 cups of washed spinach leaves

5cm piece of banana (only because my tummy reacts badly, so you can have a whole banana if you like)

1 kiwi fruit

1 inch of ginger

1 peach no pit

Cocobella coconut water to the max fill line or at least 250ml

1 tablespoon chia seeds

Method:

Extract using NutriBullet but if you don't have one then process/blend the spinach and water first then add the rest of the ingredients and process again.  Drink quickly so you get an awesome green moustache!  Instagram the pic cause you can!

Try other ingredients at random, but beware that if you put anything red e.g. raspberries in with the green leafy you get something that looks like it came out of a babies nappy, which can be a turn off, trust me.  So its over to Tanya for the breakdown…

Tanya?

All of those ingredients are favourites of mine….Oh….who am I kidding, I love all fruits and veggies, yes even brussel sprouts, which by the way make excellent chips, instead of packet potato chips, quick and easy too.

Lets look at the nutrition and benefits as a whole from this delicious smoothie, whilst keeping in mind the ingredients on their own are very powerful and target specific issues, but combined are and excellent way to maintain health and vitality.

Nutrition

• Iron and chlorophyll
• Magnesium
• Potassium – helps the body to absorb calcium
• Calcium
• Copper
• Folate
• Vit  A - which helps with night blindness 
• Vit  B’s including B6, Vit C and E
• Melatonin
• Healthy Protein and Fibre
• Sulphur – helps relieve herpes irritations
• Polyphenols
• Beta-Carotene and Lutein – supports lungs and prostate
• Coconut water – 5 essential electrolytes, sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium and phosphorus

Benefits

• Protects the heart
• Blood pressure, anaemia, blood clots
• Blood builder – not to be confused with Bob!
• Bones
• Healthy Digestive Track
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Good for stress and depression
• Coughs
• Ulcers
• Constipation and haemorrhoids
• Strokes
• Post exercise snack
• Hangovers
• Excellent brain power

YummmO Julia, and I think we should see more colourful moustache photos from you!

Love and Light Tanya ox

So have a go, get your blender out and give it a try.  So many combos, so little time.  Share your faves in the comments below.  Cheers!