officially *%#@! knackered.

so go check this out if you're interested in how bloggers get their food looking so good,
and this for a bit of lovely food with an Spanish illustrators twist (thanks Robert)
and this for the worst possible new food craze to sweep the planet , for soo many reasons.
Have a good weekend.

(PS. So @#&$! knackered I forgot it was Haiku Friday! B2 reminded me...minyana)

OMG dill pickle!

Dunno about you, but for some reason I love a dill pickle. Trashy little numbers they are, the cheap, flirty end of the burger. Kind of like the bad end of town. B2 came home from four days at camp. She's a fermented, salty, weird-food loving kinda girl , besides the dead animal weird. I knew she'd love the idea of a huge earthernware crock full of pickle which I'd made while she was away. "Check these out". Wow, four days after being submerged in their spiced, vinegared brine they tasted awesome; crisp and crunchy with the dill and garlic already shining through and already they are that weird pickle colour. God knows what they'll be like in four weeks! Not a bad way to treat a cucumber. Welcome back Lily.

what does your week taste like?

Limes and Lycopene has an interesting post today which got me thinking. What does a week or two look like on the food front at Chez Pan? Thinking back over 7 days, what have we eaten...
Let me start with tonight and work my way back a week:

:: homegrown salad with tuna and local goat feta , herbs and a balsamic glaze .
:: biodynamic beef burgers on Brezel rolls with homemade tomato relish, homegrown salad and dijon (looking forward to my dill pickles being ready)
:: homemade tortilla with yoghurt-jalapeno guacamole, salad and organic grated cheese
:: locally made spinach ravioli with simple organic tomato sauce
:: herby stuffed mushrooms with salad.
:: homemade pizza with roasted pumpkin, garden greens, local olives and australian feta
:: local lamb chops / vege burger with homemade mint sauce and potato caper salad

So, according to Limes and Lycopene, Ive done the pasta, pizza and meat 'n' veg. How about you? I have to say Im pretty happy with that weeks meal offerings, more meat than I thought we'd had but B2 the vego has been away for 4 days on camp...which has been a complete bummer on the blogging pics front as I use her camera! I tried to tell her she couldnt take it...but then i felt really mean..like not a good mother to let her kid take her own stuff.
What has your week tasted like? Im gunning for some ideas!

Allottment blogging

I really love this concept, that a patchwork of the faces of kindred spirits can form a literary quilt of a garden plot; an allotment of ideas, of 'how does your garden grow' (with designated space for fanciful food ideas and a nod to fashion).
This is quite possibly my ideal story , a heavenly tale. It comes attached to a giveaway of unimaginable delight. Ms Flint, you're all style.

Write a post on your blog about an allotment garden
real or imagined
what would you plant in yours?
what will you wear whilst tending it?
when you pause for elevenses, what will you have?


Here goes.

I would start with a border, an edible border of course, something tall, private. Espaliered fruit trees, a peppercorn too, bay and definitely a quince or two and honeysuckle and jasmine winding to enclose the space, I love to garden alone with my thoughts. Hidden. A wooden gate is essential, with a huge old lock. Memories of The Secret Garden. Inside this fragrant and fruiting fence i would hedge the line with lavenders and rosemary, some roses too. Gravel paths would form curving frames for a riot of vegetables of heirloom sorts; pinks, purples, yellows, whites, reds, oranges and stripes and spots complement an array of greens. A heavenly rainbow of edible offerings. The dark, covered ground would hold blood red beets, purple and orange carrots and creamy white parsnips. Asparagus fronds would tempt, peas dangle from natures poles, beans sway, cukes climb, potatoes rest and an earthen pile in a corner is forked, its goodness taken to feed the soil and hold the drink, unwanted growth pulled. Hours pass. A seat piled with cushions under the peppercorn would beckon. A book too. Sit. Boots removed. Feet aired. Toes wiggled. Ahhh. My back creaks and i stand and stretch. Age. An old worn, riddled cotton tank and cut off jeans even feel too hot. Panama removed. Wet hair shaken. The beloved bloke had placed a tray. A gin, some lemon, ice cubes melt. Mint is picked. Pheasant pate, fresh butter and toasted sourdough. Fragrant tomato, green oil, giant basil and coarse black pepper float on buffalo mozarella. I sit, I eat, I look and listen. My book waits.

consuming passions

If i thought that one blog, one FaceBook and one Twitter account wasn't tricky enough to juggle amidst the chaos that is my life right now, I have taken it upon myself in the last fortnight to say 'Yes' to FoodConnect Adelaide's request that I take on 'marketing and communications' (a far more responsible and glamourous title than is required) (shit, well Im hoping it is as I never envisaged myself in the champahgne role) which has entailed blog creation and management and authorship responsibility, twitter activities and FaceBook administrator. I'm pretty excited at being invited to participate in the set up of Food Connect here in Adelaide ( a community supported agriculture venture) as its an organisation that I really believe in. Giving farmers a much better deal, cutting out the monolithic Stupormarkets and giving consumers back freshness and connection to produce they consume not to mention cheaper prices. Better get the FoodConnectAdelaide Blog looking spick and span quick smart. Sharing any interesting food politics, food security blogs, updates or links, particularly Aussie ones, you have stashed away in your elecronic files would be really appreciated too. In between The Thing, work and other stuff, researching up to date info on food politics and security is a huge task. Id love your help. Join us on Facebook (FoodConnect Adelaide). Wordpress learning curve about to explode. Blogging really can change you life, huh?

Elderflower fizz

This is the easiest 'fizz' Ive ever made. Its the fizz that Hugh serves up a River Cottage HQ. Watching his wine making efforts we have often shouted at the screen..'that's not wine' that's beer' but its so much less time consuming than a complex wine, so Im giving it a shot. A solo Gnome dropped some fragrant, voluptuous elderflowers at our house this week, intended initially for elderflower fritters, but the weather..ohhh the weather! a record heat wave in spring is not conducive to fritters, so by Friday the flowers were really stressing me out; brought all this way and still sitting in the fridge, wilting a little, looking a tad less glorious and no end to the heat in sight. Whadddaya do?...make wine.

4 litres of hot water and 700g of dissolved sugar later, the elderflowers (about 13 heads) were bathing in a demi-john (a clean bucket will do) alongside the rind and juice of four lemons and 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar (the recipe called for white wine vinegar but we had none) and a 2 litre top-up of cold water. Too easy. This will sit for a few days, covered with muslin, then the yeast checked, (if not fermenting by then, a tablespoon of regular bakers yeast will be added) and eitherway, left to sit again for a few more before being strained and bottled up in swing top bottles. Easy huh? If you've got some elderflowers to hand give it a try, just be prepared for the potential explosions! Ive read that storing the fizz under a heavy cloth works a treat.

Haiku Friday

Want a green reader?
Take The Lorax for a spin.
Encourage crunchy.

environmental dental

In Australia, over 30 million toothbrushes are used and disposed each year, amounting to approximately 1000 tonnes of landfill each year, so says the blurb. If this is correct, thats a lotta toothbrushes and thats just us! A young Aussie ex air force dentist has started producing a 100% biodegradable bamboo toothbrush, both bristle and handle which goes a step toward eliminating such waste. The environmental toothbrush tried to get made in Australia but a Chinese bamboo kitchen utensil company was the only company she could source that was willing and able to produce. 12 will cost you $33 dollars including postage and handling and international orders are welcomed. That price is pretty good i reckon considering top end brushes retail at around $6. I put my order in today. Its the first time the dental mag that I get each month with my dental organisation membership has come in useful!

Green homework proves tricky

One of the core topics at B1s progressive science based public high school for this year has been Sustainable Futures. pretty self explanatory really; they cover all things Green from a multitude of perspectives. She's enjoyed it, especially their mock Earth Summit, run by the kids for a whole day, complete with world leaders, environmental advisers, water jugs on tables, UN chief and delegates and messenger runners between delegate tables. It was the highlight of her school year. On the downside was her major project on sustainable homes. The assumption behind this project was that your home was not set up or managed sustainably. B1 struggled constatntly... 'umm, excuse me sir, we have solar hot water heating, we already harvest our rain water into large water tanks, we do grow our own fruit and vegetables, we have composting and recycling systems, we have PV solar to generate power, we do use wind generated electricity when we need to, our house is passive solar designed, we dont have aircon and heating systems'...you get the picture. B1 was a complete headache for her teacher! Funniest part was he gave up and said well take your Grandmas house and use it to model your projections...

Hopefully one day its her whole class proving a headache...

eco-dyeing workshop with India Flint

What a glorious day it was! A whole day to learn something new, be creative and FINISH a project. What more can you ask of a workshop?


Toss in a bunch of lovely women in a stunning location and a charismatic and thorougly knowledgeable teacher (not to mention her lovely silver teapot and a pair of scissors that transported me back to childhood with their unmistakable sturdy slicing sound when put to work on a piece of fabric) and you've got a day well worth it and then some. We started with a silk sampler which turned out lovely especially when viewed all together.

Throughout the day we collected windfall for dyeing, we scratched, we pulled, we cut, we rolled, we placed, we talked, we washed, we stuffed, we stitched, we tossed, we ate, we wrapped and we beat, we washed again. We boiled. We cut.


Silk gauze was interned with embellishments of raw sheep wool, silk thread, silk organza and and silk velvet.

Simply luxurious stuff, all topped off with woollen prefelt then rolled, washed, scrubbed and had the living daylights beaten out of it until felting occourred or your back gave way. This was then sliced to one continuous sliver and bound on a stick; windfall leaves and petals from the garden were included in the bind along with some rusted metals found by the Bloke on a camping trip to the Murray.
The wrapped fabric was bound tight with cord and immersed in a bath of boiling bark tea.

The excitement we all felt at unravelling our creations, well you'll have to take my word for it, my camera died at that point. This detail below is my favourite, its muted and soft and the impression print is a frond from a pine
The piece is soft and pretty and the colours and impressions are really lovely and offerred up by nature. Im looking forward to experimenting some more.

The Bloke in his usual style declared it a masterpiece resembling a fur ball but like me, appreciates the details. Such a simple and honest transformation. I love it.