Nonna's Passata

 As I am mellowing I am finding the time and patience to do things in a more relaxed fashion. One of the things is to process the tomato crop hence the heading Nonna's (grandma's) passata (tomato sauce). I am not quite a purist yet as I don't skin the tomatoes, but I do take the pips out.

We have had a wonderful tomato crop this year, mainly "Early Girls" which came early and are enjoying it so much they are still producing. I remember when we went to Sydney and stayed with Brett and his Italian wife Rosalia her old mother used to make the passata every morning and in the evening the two daughters would call in and pick up a bowl of passata.

Very fascinating from a mathematics point of view that the fruit display rotational symmetry of order 2,3 and 4.

Now just a top up of fresh herbs - we have basil, sage, rosemary and thyme and a good steady boil up and we are good to go.

I used this on top of meatballs made by Duncan for a dinner party this weekend. A golfing mate had presented Duncan with 6 aged wines including a Bakano 1965. We checked on the internet - thinking maybe they were valuable - but the wines were dismissed as not enjoyable AND not worth anything. While not up to the standard of today's New Zealand wines, one or two of them were not too bad. I did 6 tapa courses - starting with smoked cheese and cocktail onions on toothpicks - very 1965, then smoked lamb on ciabatta with mint and basil pesto that Duncan had made. Many counted the mushrooms stuffed with chorizo sausage and cream cheese and then breadcrumbed as the highlight of the night. The meatballs and pasta - a small plate serving followed. Next was a crostini with Tarasamalata (creamy fish roe) with a tomato nipple. These were the the tomacchio that Duncan had grown (very small tomatoes), and by this stage of the night the gentlemen at the table were a bit giggly about this. We finished the tapa with a small serve of steak cubes and raw energy salad (beetroot - raw with carrot - YUM). I passed round a fresh salad of Shrimp amd avocado on a bed of salad greens to finish, and dessert was a brownie (made with courgette - but I wasn't telling them that) with blackberries and cream.

A great night was had by all - something a little bit different!

Final Days

 Shall I tell you a secret? I thought that 3 weeks at Ohiwa was far too long, but by the time the last few days rolled around I still had a few of the usual "to do" list to check off. So off we set from our cosy campsite, nestled in the trees to walk around the spit.

 Millie found some shells covered with banacles obviously ripped away from their hiding places but a couple of strong surges that we had.

 Grandad had to take a ball - Looks like Millie has confiscated it!

The cliffs are starting to show signs of erosion. The beach changes every year. In the past these would have been gently sloping sand dunes.

 There has also been some alarming changes in birdlife here too. This variable oyster catcher has three chicks, but the usual flocks of godwits were nowhere to be seen

The  spinifex blew like tumble weed across the dunes into the sea which promptly - well at the next high tide - dropped it back on the sands again

Sand and Shell modern art.

Low tide so the small crabs were scuttling about.

And finally up the track to the road. Notice the salt laden base of the reeds as we had had a few very high tides.

And it was during the last few days that we found that children are natural surfers. Watched by a proud but envious dad, Alex takes it right in to shore!

And now Millie shows her stuff!

Only 10 more months till we are there again - for at least three weeks!

The Crystal Pen from Farmers

I have forgotten about this post which I didn't finish before, from our trip to Cairns, but was reminded of it with the purple crystal pen from Farmers. We drove into the Tablelands and went to a crystal museum. Its was a reconstruction so you put your hard hat on with your light beaming and walked through a series of

tunnels

Where a variety of exhibits were displayed. As a Geology 1 student I was thrilled to see these fossils that I had only read about on books - the ammonites, an extinct marine snail, and the trilobites an extinct marine - probablity a prerunner of insects. What was so amazing was the recall I had on this information whereas I forget so many peoples names!!

The main standout was the gems - geodes of amethysts - just like the giveaway pen in Farmers, however I think  theirs was synthetic!

As you can see some of the exhibits were huge, and very spectacular.

We also went to the Mango farm and tried some of their mango wine - it was suprisingly good! Then we went to a coffee plantation, unfortuntely it was just about to close, but Duncan can still recall the REALLY fresh coffee we had there. We looked for platypus in the wild but didn't spot any and did a short walk to see this Fig Tree Curtain which was huge. Lots of interesting places like Mareewa "where the sun shines 360 days a year"

Santa Toes are coming to town!

 Here are the fruits of my labours - wouldn't you know it - done on the day we got to 30 degrees. Still the taste is magnificent and it is very difficult to get tins of nectarines whereas it is easy to get apricots and peaches.

 And the best thing of all is that out of two buckets of fruit this is all the waste we had.

Had my yearly pedicure indulgence this morning and now I am all ready to join Santa in the merry red outfits! I have just made the mint and pecan stuffing for the lamb and I'm off to the butchers so that he can organise that with better knife and knotting skills than I have. Holidays must be soon as even Duncan has written a list of what clothes he wants to take up (so that they can be washed in time to take them up clean)

Stoned

I saw an ad in the paper for PYO nectarines, so this afternnon we went out to do just that! I said to Duncan "Just the one bucket" but of course we came back with two. As I was leaving I said to the lady "I hope the stones come out easily" . "Oh" she replied.
Yes, Oh, indeed - I cant even twist them in half.
Fortunately they are not large - mostly the size of large plums, so I will experiment with cutting off the "cheeks" and bottling the stone parts separately, but as well - or maybe just do them whole. Thoughts as I assembled my jars and bottles take me back to Grandma sitting at our kitchen table in Wylie Street peeling away - even though her mind was going she still managed to peel. Then often Mum would come down at bottling time to give me a hand. And I remember Phyl (101 today - Happy Birthday, Nana) and Alf sitting at the breakfast bar in Stout Street peeling pears.
Still I am all prepared to start early tomorrow morning. Our peacharine tree seems to have succumbed to the incredibly wet winter and I dont think we are going to be able to keep it alive. I was a wonderful crop last year, but we are struggling to keep the leaves on the tree this year

Thoughts on a wedding

Yesterday we went to a wedding. It was Julie Mettrick - the daughter of a golfing mate of Duncan's. The ceremony was in Holy Trinity church then out to the beautiful gardens at Bushmere Arms. There were quite a lot of young people in the congregation and I was a little taken aback by their lack of church ettiquette. Phones beeped, people took photos during the prayers, they didn't know when to stand - eg for the hymn, which very few even attempted to sing. Even bowing your head for a prayer - and only a few seemed to know the Lords Prayer. However the marriage was successfully concluded. The brides dress was white lace in a 60's style with afitted bodice, satin belt and flared skirt. She had also done her hair in a bouffant style with a little chignon at the back. It was a brilliant concept and so different from anything else I've seen lately.
A good night was had by all, and now Duncan and I have just had little naps - midnight is getting late for us old codgers!!

Our Big Back Yard

Yes! we have budburst in the one row of grapes that we now own, but the more impressive changes have occured further up the paddock. All the Back Block has been plowed up ready for sowing of the watermelons.

The loam looks rich and moist as it glistens in the sun.

The pile of posts - about 4,000 I reckon are slowly being farmed out for a pittance. Farmers are using them by putting them in upside down so that they dont have to spend hours taking the nails out. Because they are treated they cant be burned, and they decompose very slowly in land fills so they are expensive to dump.

But the vines can be burned. Here they are in two huge piles - I'm glad we didn't have to get rid of them all ourselves - 11,000 vines is a lot to have to pull out, and given that each one cost between $3 and $5 each it's sad to see them go.

The last part to be ploughed up will be the main block by the house - its all gone ahead quite painlessly for us (although we have had to remortgage - which should keep us here for another 8years!)