Date & Walnut Loaf

I personally haven't made this recipe before (until today) but I have glorious memories of eating this loaf with old people. It always seemed to be the elderly who knew about this particular recipe and took the time to make it. I suppose it has to do with the cylindrical baking tins. If you haven't seen them before, they could look like some weird kind of storage tin with two lids. They aren't that common nowadays.

Ready to go in the oven, top and bottom lids on

So imagine my surprise when I was looking through the Op Shop recently, and found a couple of loaf tins. They were five dollars each but were in excellent condition. I took them home with me and here I sit today, with that satisfied feeling in my stomach, after eating the classic Date and Walnut Loaf...mmm...

I'll share the recipe so that others may start a new tradition - but don't worry, without the two loaf tins you can still use an oblong (4 cup capacity) loaf pan instead. Here are a few images of the classic nut loaf tin in action, first.

Top lid comes off to check with a skewer, to see if it's ready

This has almost risen to the top after baking, which is why you only ever fill the tins a half to two-thrids full before going into the oven. Another tip with filling, is make sure the base is on securely, place it on a baking tray (standing up) and don't ever lift it to meet the spoon as you're filling - or you'll loose the lot on the floor or bench. Carry the tray to the oven and slide it (with the tins) in together.

The base will always be more flat than the risen top

Here is the base after baking, when I removed the lid. Do you see the seam on the side as well? It has three clever notches which hold the tin together, then only releases once you remove the top and bottom lids. Like so...

Cake comes away easily from the greased tin

This smelled so good when I removed it from the tin - kind of like sticky date pudding, only more nuttier. The reason these tins are so good with heavy cake mixes however, is they steam as well as bake. You end up with a really moist cake. For this reason, make sure at least one of your lids has a small hole in the top, to help some of the pressure escape. All my lids had a small hole.

It's important to note when setting your oven, to also make sure you have enough height for the tins to stand up. I had mine on the lowest shelf level, and removed the second shelf entirely.

Oh yes...and best served with lashings of fresh, cold butter, on the warm sliced loaf.

~ Date & Walnut Loaf ~

1 1/3 cups chopped pitted dates
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
pinch salt
1 1/4 cups hot water
~
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup (100g) butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, beaten

1. Oven setting 180 degrees Celsius/350 F/gas mark 4/fan-forced 170 degrees Celsius.

2. Grease 2 x cylindrical loaf tins or 1 x 4 cup oblong loaf pan with melted butter, fat or oil.

3. Put the dates, soda and salt into a bowl and pour over the hot water. Set aside until cool.

4. Sift flour into a bowl, rub in the butter, then stir in the walnuts and sugar until well mixed.

5. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together roughly, then add the beaten egg until combined.

6. Separate evenly between the 2 loaf tins, or place into the single pan.

7. Bake 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean. Bake another 15 minutes if required.

Making do

September has been one of those months where everything seems harder to do. There's been no rain for weeks, so no successive sowing in the vegetable garden. Everything I've put in previously is struggling, if not outright dying, and we still have to make the water last for the household.

Challenging, but not impossible to make do with what we've got. Hopefully October will see some easier times.

Yesterday, we took out a medium sized eucalyptus tree which was near the veggie patch. It would've come out sooner, but it was offering a little shade to the chicken coop and seedlings in the afternoon. But we have a building project marked for the veggie patch soon, so it simply had to come out.

What to do with all those branches? We put some in a pile so they wouldn't be in the way, but we also put some on top of the chicken coop.

My choko vine died and I've yet to plant another (if I can find one) so it made sense to place the medium sized branches on top of the exposed roof line. I couldn't use small branches, as they would've blown away; nor could I use large branches either - in case it put too much weight on the structure. So I settled for medium sized branches, which seems to have done the trick.

I reckon the chooks have got to be pleased - much better than staring at concrete rebar and blistering sunlight. As the eucalyptus leaves are still fresh, they should be moist enough to cool the air slightly. Only until they start dying back and falling off that is.

Maybe just enough time to find another choko vine?

Recycled Garden beds

We've recycled some disposable containers from Dave's work (broccoli boxes & 10lt ice-cream tubs) to create some instant garden beds. I was tired of seeing nothing in the veggie patch growing, due to a lack of rain, so it was time for some instant results!

I haven't modified the containers in any way, as they're living underneath our verandah and all water will be strictly measured out. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't just plant straight into the styrofoam boxes? I feel a little funny about growing food in styrofoam, in case the food takes up any nasties from the boxes. I don't know if the plastic ice-cream tubs are any better, but at least it's food grade plastic.

I wanted the styrofoam boxes however, to help insulate the tubs from too much sun exposure, as they do receive some morning rays. I managed to fit 2 ice-cream tubs per broccoli box.

Recycled garden beds

Not bad for an afternoon's work, but I have to say I still paid money for such instant results. The containers were free, but the premium potting mix and seedlings weren't. In total I spent $42 at the nursery for a punnet of capsicums, roma tomatoes, spring onions, basil, a punnet of strawberries and 2 bags of premium potting mix.

I'm already layer propagating the strawberry however, and should have another plant within a few weeks. If I keep doing this as the strawberry throws out runners, I should make my dollar value go even further.

Layer propagating, strawberry runner

I must say, it's nice to have something to tend to which isn't being scorched by the sun, or using up ridiculous amounts of water every day. And I made sure I only selected plants I knew we would eat. I even selected the "roma" variety of tomato on purpose - as ordinary as it is - due to it's pest resilience and ability to perform well in extreme conditions. I'd rather have an ordinary tomato growing in my garden, than have none for the summer season at all.

To help them a little more, I'll also be buying some seaweed concentrate to add periodically.

These are just some of the compromises we're learning to make here. Even if we can only ever manage ordinary vegetables, it's still home grown and packed full of goodies. That's what we're aiming for by growing our own. Should the heavens suddenly open up and bless us with more rain, we can then start planning for bigger, more demanding crops.

Hitching post or a trellis?

We were relieved to finish building another trellis, as this one will help shade the front of Hilltop chicken coop. Although we couldn't help noticing it bared a strange resemblance to a hitching post for horses.

Being 6 metres long, we're going to grow 2 different varieties of passionfruit along it. They're only seedlings at this stage, but hopefully won't take long to cover the trellis. The two different varieties are, Panama Red and Black.

We'll give them the best chance to survive once they're in the ground. Passionfruit seedlings are hardier than their grafted counterparts, but it all depends on the conditions you're planting them in. Sometimes you need a different kind of root stock, to cope with local conditions. Grafted varieties do cost more, but in some places it's more cost effective than having to replace seedlings which die spontaneously and religiously.

We're going to give seedlings a try first, to see how they cope. We can get a fair amount of humidity in this area which is my one concern.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all the encouraging comments on my last post. It's always a little nerve wracking when embarking on a new change. But you've all been very generous and supportive, which is a wonderful bonus!

Thank you muchly, from the Bushland family. :)

The project changes in 2010

We've been living on our five acres of bushland since Easter 2007. So we're fast approaching the three year mark! I've got to say, the end of this year marks the turning point for us all. This isn't the part where I announce we're selling...no, this is the part where I announce we're making big changes (here) next year.

The front wall, before retaining

I was tempted to start a new blog in private (Bushland Project II) as I felt the new direction would be too extreme from where we started. Only when I had something to show for all the drastic changes, was I going to reveal the new blog. But there's no mystery - nothing to hide - it's just another change like so many we've been through. I guess I was afraid people may think us crazy for doing what we're contemplating.

I'll give you an example to mark our new direction...we're going to be selling all our chickens. Told you it would be extreme. But we may keep three; it all depends on reaching our objective which is reducing our responsibilities to meet the function intended.

We started keeping chickens for fresh eggs and I suppose the romantic notion of country life. Soon I became obsessed with breeds. Which isn't a bad pursuit in itself, but when measured against our finances and wider ambitions for this place, it was becoming unbalanced.

Hilltop chicken coop

Time to strike a new balance. Something which meets function, finances and our family. At this stage, the plan is to keep Hilltop our main chicken coop, with chickens bred to produce eggs. I'm leaning towards New Hampshires, as they're still a heritage breed with a good reputation for egg production. We may or may not keep a rooster. It would be desirable to keep one, but it has to meet our objectives.

By doing this, we'll effectively reduce our feed bill by half or more, and free time and resources to pursue the most important strategy here - food production.

Middle ridge chicken coop - marked for new propagation area

This is why our chicken coop dubbed, Middle Ridge, will be renovated to become a propagation area. We've got the shaded run already, where we can propagate cuttings, grow crops and the chicken coop itself will be turned into a potting area come greenhouse. We'll be ripping the roof off and making it high enough to walk through.

This is just a small taste of the changes we'll be making in 2010. It sounds ambitious and radical from the direction we've been traveling. But while country life is kind of romantic, we have to be able to manage it within our finances and main objectives. Food production has been shafted for a few years in favour of setting up chickens. Now it's time to wind that back to strike a better balance between the two.

We feel re-energised now we have a plan to follow. There are other changes on the way also, but all in good time...

New crop

It's out with the old and in with the new - climbing crops that is! We've removed the dried stalks of our snow peas (above) and stored the seeds for planting in late autumn. Next crop will be cucumbers. More specifically, crystal apple cucumbers. What I like about this particular variety is they're more resistant to powdery mildew, which we seem to get a lot of.

We grew these ourselves from heirloom seeds, and they were pretty easy to germinate in the small greenhouse. They've already had a few days outdoors to climatise, and they're just about the right size to go out.

All six plants are now in the ground, complete with homemade compost! You can still see some of the cardboard. These guys should be ready for cropping in about 65 days.

I'm still debating where to put the Star Jasmine though. I have a place next to the chicken coop which would be perfect, but I'm wondering if it's poisonous? The research I've conducted so far, doesn't seem to mention this particular variety (Trachelospermum jasminoidesas) which is part of the Apocynaceae family, as either toxic to animals or a noxious weeds. But a very similar looking lot, from the Oleaceae family, are known to be hazardous and with weed potential.

I think I need to do more research to be sure where to plant it. My instinct says it wouldn't be detrimental to the chooks, as we've had other suburban animals live with it before, but it pays to be sure.

What style of garden?

Are you primarily an ornamental gardener, or do you prefer yard space to be 95% edible garden? We have been both - but for the first time in our gardening history, our primary focus is on food production. I have to say though, as determined as we are, we're not very good at it - not yet anyway.

And still a funny thing happened recently when I saw a particular plant on sale at the shops. Being the sucker I am for a "reduced" sticker, I couldn't resist this particular special either. Only it wasn't for an edible plant - it was an ornamental one.

I looked it over carefully; made sure the soil wasn't dry and had only a few spent leaves. For the $2 price tag, I have to say it was in great condition. However, I almost talked myself out of it. The "edible garden" blinkers were well and truly on. That all changed with one sniff. The familiar fragrance, suddenly drew me back to all those suburban backyards we'd ever lived in previously.

Who can walk past the Star Jasmine in bloom, and NOT recognise that familiar sweet scent? It was everywhere in our suburban lives in the past.

Star Jasmine or Trachelospermum jasminoides
Picture taken from the Gardening Australia fact sheet

Then it occured to me what has been missing in our gardening attempts here. Ornamentals! Not simply because they are ornamentals, but rather having transcended horticultural realms abruptly, we've suddenly felt uninspired by our poor results as food production gardeners.

We knew how to grow ornamentals however - more aptly put, ornamentals were forgiving to neglect and conditions no veg garden would ever tolerate. They were often prolific in bloom and put on a lot of growth in their first year. How long does it take a fruit tree to be as majestic? Oh, fruit trees are so worth the effort, once they've grown for several years, but in the meantime...

I'm not suggesting ornamentals are better than any edible garden, but they do make the transition more enjoyable. Why wallow in brown-thumb-itis when the corn succumbs to drought, or you forget to progressive sow to fill that empty space created from the harvest? Ornamentals fill those empty spaces, and keep growing long after the vegies have past their prime.

As gardeners, we need little reminders why we're doing what we're doing. Especially if gardening is being attempted in weather extremes, or starting from scratch with poor soils.

You may wonder why I would include "style" of a garden, in my land management series? After all, isn't that what lifestyle programs are for? I consider the style of a garden, the catalyst for drawing you into the garden in the first place. It's fine to make the primary concern habit for wildlife, reducing soil erosion, even attempting self-sufficiency - but it doesn't all have to be hard work.

If by incorporating a style you like (putting your personal stamp on it, so to speak) you are drawn into the garden more - then you're going to stick to it, even when everything else seems to go wrong.

Of course, it wouldn't be responsible if I didn't also include some timely reminders about some ornamentals. If they aren't a native, then they need monitoring and sensible stratagies to keep them in check. Be aware if they have weed status in your area, and take precautions. If they have an invasive root system, plant them inside a root guard. Make sure seeds can't be swept away by water run-off - and of course, don't position a highly flammable plant near the house, especially if you live in a bushfire prone area.

There is always the option of container planting too - if you're worried they may still get away on you. We have a german ivy, for example, which has travelled with us since we've been together. So that's about 11 years now. It's always lived in pots. At the moment I'm attempting to train it over an archway - and yes, it's still in a pot!

Now, the next plan is to find a suitable position for our Star Jasmine...