We are so lucky to have some very lovely neighbours who keep chickens. The chickens lay many more eggs than the family of 4 can keep up with, and we have become the fortunate recipients of the excess eggs. They are so fresh, and the yolks are such a lovely golden colour we all enjoy them for breakfast on the weekend and cooking during the week. I really wanted to pay them back for their generosity, but our neighbours won’t take any money. I had started collecting egg cartons for them as a gesture of thanks, but I’m conscience that it could be taken as a request for more eggs! (the eggs are so welcome, but I’m not going to ask for them!!). I racked my brain for an idea of how I could repay the favour.
A couple of years ago I had discovered some fresh produce in the market gardens that are still allowed to remain in the North-Eastern suburbs of Perth. One of my favourite places is a strawberry farm. At the start of Spring the berries are huge and juicy, and while they are not that much cheaper than those you can get in supermarkets even in bulk (at about $25 for 3kg), they are so much fresher that there is no waste….. which I think is key to getting value for money when it comes to fresh food. I had frozen some strawberries that I purchased in spring, and decided to turn them into some strawberry jam. I could finally offer something back to our neighbours made by hand!
I found a recipe for Strawberry and Vanilla jam – perfect, because that sounded yum and I’d never seen this combination in the shops, so I could make something a little different. The recipe was easy…. 2.5kg of strawberries, 2kg of sugar and a split vanilla bean. I washed and hulled the berries, dried them, let them sit for 2 hours (stirring every half hour) in the sugar with scraped seeds of the vanilla bean plus the husk itself, then cooked the mixture quickly for 30 mins. In the meantime I had prepared jars by boiling them to sterilise. I checked the set of the jam by testing on saucers left in the freezer to cool (run the jam down the cold saucer and see if it stays runny or sets jelly-like), then when ready I removed the vanilla bean husk and bottled up. I turned the bottles upside down for 2 minutes to seal (it actually work! I could push down the pop-up bit on the lid and it stayed down). And voilà – my Strawberry with Vanilla jam was ready!
The next day, my girls gleefully took our jam over to the neighbours. It felt good to be the giver rather than the receiver! I hope our neighbours enjoy the jam. I hope we do too, there is so much jam that even the 6 jars I had washed and stored did not contain the batch, and I had to fill some extra containers!!
It is a satisfying feeling to create your own produce – whether that be preserving like this, or growing herbs and vegies and harvesting from our own garden. At the moment I have rosemary, dill, thyme, basil and parsley (curly and Italian) growing and they add a flavour explosion when added to dishes. I also have some lettuce growing in a shallow pot. I’d like to create a vegie garden, but will have to cordon off an area of the garden to do it so that the dogs don’t have access, and also I want to wait for the days to cool, because these over 35 degree days will just wilt young vegie plants. I have plans to create a raised garden bed as this will allow me to build up a nutrient rich soil and I can locate it in an area that will be watered off the bore-fed reticulation.
In the meantime, I have discovered a website called www.ripenear.me where I can source local, home grown produce. The website allows you to search for households in your area that have excess fruit, vegies and herbs. It’s a terrific idea, and one that ensures that the excess food grown doesn’t go to waste, especially when the owners have exhausted every conceivable recipe for broad beans/rhubarb/tomatoes! In the UK you can try www.poppito.com.
If you share your home-grown produce with your neighbours, have a barter system going, or have any recipes for preserves made from home grown produce, I would love you to post about them here, or send me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .
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