Friday night is becoming well entrenched as Cheese making night, and I find that this regular routine not only helps me wind down after a long week at work, but is essential to building up the cheese stocks. It is a very soothing therapy, and one that I look forward to by about Wednesday! This Friday I made another wheel of Parmesan, which is a lot less intensive than making other hard cheeses. The only thing that is difficult Parmesan is the long wait of 6 months before the initial sampling of it. It will fully mature in 12 months! So, here is a photo of the two wheels of Parmesan that I now have in the “Cheese Cave”.
Saturday morning, I collected Adam from his mates place and he helped me put another 3 fruit trees into the ground. We planted a Satsuma and a Rosa Plum, and a Stella Cherry. Isn’t it nice that someone gave each tree a name! So in total I now have 8 fruit trees in the front yard with only two more to plant out. I have a nectarine and a apricot and one large bed left. How many people do you know that have a fruit orchard in their front yard?
Cherry Stella
Plum Satsuma (blood)
In the afternoon we had meeting #6 of the Melton Sustainable Living Group at my house. The theme was supposed to be about renewable energy, but because I couldn’t secure a guest speaker for the day, we just had general business and watched an episode of “It’s not easy being green”. Very civilised with a herb and cheese scone made by Kim in one hand, and a glass of local red wine in the other. All meetings should be this relaxed!
During the course of the evening, after the wonderful Chickpea and Potato Curry that I whipped up, I suggested to Kim that we could watch “Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome”. It has been many years since I have seen this post-apocalyptic classic and it was time for a refresh. For those who have not seen it here is a brief synopsis;
The oil has run dry, and apparently there has been a nuclear war over the remaining resources. Many years after the collapsed of civilisation, and the remnants of mankind had fought it out, smatterings of a low energy lifestyle have begun to form. Anyway, Max (the hero of the tale played by Mel Gibson), stumbles upon BarterTown, which is a ram shackled gathering of survivors with apparent abundant energy, and is run by Aunty (Tina Turner). The story goes on from there.
My biggest beef with the movie is that the towns electricity and gas comes from methane produced by a pig manure digester-generator. Now with the town being in the middle of a desert, and not much plant life being present, my question is, where does the food or energy come from to feed the pigs. The simple law of energy is that it is not created, but mealy transformed from another source, and in this case food turned into manure, which is turned into methane and sludge. A big mistake in the plot if you ask me and one that many people make when thinking about alternate energy sources.
Sunday was Mold-ripened cheese course day, which I have described in the post “Stilton or I got the stinky blues”. It was a great course, and when I arrived home, I decided to do a bit of work around the ‘farm’. I weeded the veggie patch, fertilised it all with Powerfeed, and planted some Elephant leek seedlings that were now the right size. I cleaned out the chicken house (did the run last week) and put all the manure into the compost bin. I then harvested some spring onions, bok choy, capsicums (red & green), swiss chard, a couple of lemons, and a few herbs for dinner. I then proceeded to whip up a chicken and black bean stir fry with all the greens I picked. Then the entire family sat down at the dinner table and talked about our day. It was a great way to wind down.
I am looking forward to next weekend, because I am sure that I can find somewhere else in the garden to plant some more snow peas, garlic, and purple podded peas! Oh, and I still have the two fruit trees to put in. And of course Cheese making Friday. That should keep me busy.
I love It’s Not Easy Being Green, as well as all the River Cottage shows. They’re two very different takes on the whole sustainability thing.
Being an engineer, the constructions in It’s Not Easy Being Green really intrigue me. I’d love to have a few acres to be able to build some of that stuff!
But also being an avid gardener, animal-raiser and cook, the River Cottage stuff is right up my alley too. It also makes me yearn for more space to plant crops, raise animals, etc.
Oh, and I also have a (very young) orchard in my front yard :-).
The fruit orchard sounds like it is something to live for. What kind of climate are you in? Any hints/tips as to what trees would work in smaller spaces?
Oh, “cheese cave” – 🙂
@ Livinginalocalzone. I must have missed you question, sorry for the delay in answering. I use fruit trees that have dwarf root stock. That way, it keeps the tree under about 2 metres, but still with a bountiful harvest. You can order them at speciality nurseries.
Gav