Lessons learnt this week: Home made icecream tastes fantastic. Kim whipped it up in her new icecream maker that set me back about $150. I am such a sucker for home made things, but this was worth the investment. To the left is the cherry ripe icecream she made for me, from left over cherry ripes from Christmas and local ingredients. We still have treats left over from the festive season, so thought that it would be a shame to waste them. From what I have seen, making icecream is very easy. Local milk and cream, sugar, a drop of food colouring, so essence, and some chocolate bits. It was the best icecream I have ever tasted, and that is not just because my wife made it. It was only about 60% local, but much better and cheaper than the store bought stuff. I figure that we will only have to make about 20 litres to break even, then it is savings from there on in. We can make it for about $3 a litre, which is a lot cheaper than the gourmet varieties you can buy these days. Nice one honey x!
We still have a lot of fruit left over from last week, so before it goes off, I will be making some more jam during the week for the winter. It is very easy to make, especially when you use the breadmaker!
We also have quite a supply of meat products in the freezer and find that because we are eating much more vegetable based dishes, we are only slowly eating through the supply. Mind you, I can’t wait to get some Bio-Dynamic meat from Queen Vic markets in the city!
I visited the Melbourne Information centre at Federation square today to see if I could find some more local food producers. Well, I found lots of brouchers from within my food zone that have small food producers in them. I will be scouring through them for our next outing on the weekend. We will make it through this week without any purchases, but by Saturday we will be running out of fruit.
I have cheated a bit this week as we had a farewell lunch for one of our team members at work. There wasn’t much local on the menu, but as Barbara Kingsolver states in her book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” when locals saw them eating in a restaurant, they would behave as it they’d caught the cat eating the canary. She explained to them, “We’re converts in progress, not preachers. No stone tablets.” Well that was kind of how I felt, because all my work colleagues know that I am on this challenge, and typically Australian, they took the mickey out of me! By the way, I finished reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Our year of seasonal eating” yesterday. It was a great read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the humour in it. She is a very good writer, and I learnt so much from it. I will be taking it back to the library tomorrow, so if any locals in my area want to borrow it, I highly recommend this entertaining book.
The pesto was a delight to make and the taste really surprised me. It was so easy to make.
Making: Pesto, Caerphilly cheese, pita chips, icecream, yoghurt, frozen yoghurt, and bread.
Harvesting; Zucchini (of course), Tomatoes (finally), Basil, Cucumber, Dried Lazy housewife beans for soups, egg plants, mint for tea, spring onions, chilli, spanish onions and garlic (harvested in early January), average of 6 eggs a day. We had to sell two dozen eggs, because we just can’t eat them all! The lettuce has all gone to seed with the hot weather, so I have planted some more which should be ready by next weekend.
Menu:
Day 26 – Tuesday
Breakfast; Greek Yoghurt, with Vegemite toast. 100% local
Lunch; Sandwiches with Bread & Butter cucumbers. 100% local
Dinner; Leftover frozen ravioli toasted sandwiches. 80% local
Day 27 – Wednesday
Breakfast; A peach and a nectarine, with a ramekin of yoghurt. 100% local
Lunch; Farewell Lunch. Roast Duck and Porchini mushroom risotto. 0% local
Dinner; Jacket potato with salad. 90% local
Day 28 – Thursday
Breakfast; Rice bubbles with milk from within zone. 50% local.
Lunch; Leftover home made vegetable curry. 100% local
Dinner; Omelettes. 100% local.
Day 29 – Friday
Breakfast; Home made scone, with a nectarine. 100% local
Lunch; Vegetable soup. 100% local
Dinner; Roast Chicken drumsticks. Free range chook, with garlic potatoes and tinned peas and corn from stockpile. Desert; home made icecream. 80% local.
Day 30 – Saturday
Breakfast; Home made yoghurt and a slices peach mixed in, plus 2 cups of mint tea. 100% local
Lunch; Home made cheese scones with a slice of tomato. 100% local
Dinner; Vegetable satay with noodles. 10% local
Day 31 – Sunday
Brunch; Buffet breakfast of egg & bacon muffins, fruit and champagne. approx 30% local. (a guess as I thought it was rude to ask)
Dinner; Fettuchini with Pesto. Local pasta, home made pesto. 90% local
Day 32 – Monday
Breakfast; Yoghurt. 100% local
Lunch; Vegetable curry. 100% local
Dinner; Jacket potatoes with Spanish onion, tomato and cheese. All from local sources or home grown. 100% local.
The maths this week comes in at 81.5% from 20 meals. To supplement in between meals, we usually have a scone, or a piece of fruit. That way we are not feeling hungry or ravenous. Our meals are of ample size and I always feel full afterwards. Eating locally doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself!
My parents purchased a new ice cream maker so the one from my childhood was passed down to me. I am looking at a way to turn it into a hand crank machine when the motor goes entirely. In the warmer weather (6 more months or so around here) he makes loads of homemade icecream (but we don’t use food coloring, just leave it as is).
So far he’s made cherry chocolate chip; marino mocha (brownie bits, choc bits, and coffee); strawberry; blueberry; peppermint; peach cobbler…
Love homemade ice cream. I plan to put my freezer device into the home freezer soon to make some lemon sorbet.
Also love your blog, and the inspiration it provides to eat locally and live green. I just got backyard chickens yesterday here in urban southern California. I hope you’ll stop by my blog to see them.
We also bought an ice-cream machine last year, and we haven’t bought ice cream from the store since! It’s incredible how great even a simple vanilla ice cream tastes, with just 4 ingredients (sugar, milk, cream, vanilla). And no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives, etc too.
The machine can also be used to make slushies for the kids from fruit juice or cordial. I want to try frozen yoghurt sometime, too.
I love love love homemade icecream. My favourite recipes are this one: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-mint-chocolate-chip-ice-cream-028535 and a combo I made up myself – vanilla with honey and raspberries (putting in the honey and berries during the churning stage).
We love our icecream maker that we got as a wedding present! (well actually it’s gone through a couple of reincarnations now).
Highly recommend the recipe book “Ice Creams” published by Hamlyn: http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Creams-Hamlyn/dp/0600605914
Rum and raisin is the best. Got any rum still in the cupboard?? Sorry about the sugar – there is also a recipe using only honey, which is also good.
Rum & Raisin Icecream
*Soak a cup of raisins in rum in a small bowl for 4 hours.
*Put 6tbsp sugar in a small heavy saucepan with half a cup of water and sti occasionally over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 5 minutes.
*Place 3 egg yolks and 1tsp vanilla in a heatproof bowl and whip until frothy. Place over simmering water and gradually whip in the hot sugar syrup. Whisk steadily until creamy, then take off the heat and continue whipping until cool.
*Place the mixture in the icecream maker, add 2 cups cream and churn and freeze. Add raisins at the end.
Hmmm, better tell you it was 2tbsp of rum – too much alcohol and it won’t freeze properly. 🙂