By George – I think she’s got it!

Both the boys have been fairly poor consumers all their lives – a dearth of television as toddlers, and then only the ad-free ABC for a long time, and a mother who would tell them that advertisers will lie* to get people to buy things has pretty much assured that they are not swayed by advertising, and have fairly low expectations of Christmas presents, and toys in general.

* I recall Tom was once very impressed by an advertisement for a toy car set which looked rather fabulous – flames and sparkles and what-not lit up the screen – he was rather disappointed when I told him about the small print on the ad that said ‘toy is actually very boring – flames and sparkles not included’. So the advertiser didn’t actually lie, but it is difficult for non-readers to read the disclaimer. We have had the same issue with some foods which are touted as healthy, and I have had to point out that claims like ‘gives kids lots of energy’ means ‘full of sugar’.

Anyhow, it became Tom’s mission in life for a while to scoff at, and pull apart, all ads on the telly. They are both dubious consumers and will scan the outside of Lego boxes in the shop to make sure they are getting what the picture on the box says it does, all the while complaining that the box is four times larger than it needs to be for the amount of Lego enclosed.

Moo, on the other hand, is an advertisers’ dream. She has ‘consume’ hard-wired into her. She has watched more commercial TV than the boys (the inevitable lot of the youngest child), and seems oblivious to my advice, and the more crafty ploys of advertisers and toy manufacturers. She has seen a Polly Pocket animal hospital on TV that she desperately wants for Chrissy (she is going to be disappointed) and I took her to the toy shop so we could look at it. It was the most over packaged piece of plastic crap I have ever seen – it was 36(?) pieces of toy, and most of them were vacuum cleaner fodder – miniature shoes etc – they would not last 2 hours around here. She was pointing out all the things the box included – a helicopter among others – and even when I pointed out they were cardboard cut-outs – just part of the packaging, she still wanted it. sigh.

However – we were grocery shopping yesterday and we saw some red and white striped plastic popcorn boxes (for the real at home cinema experience) and she asked what they were. And then she said ‘who would buy them when you can just put popcorn in a bowl’. By George, I think she’s got it!

 

ps: the fridge was fixed for $200 including the callout fee. Hooray!

the best laid plans, or…

…how trying to save a buck bit me on the arse.

For a long time (8 years) we have owned, and run, two large refrigerators. The ‘old’ one was perfectly fine, but didn’t fit in the hole in our kitchen, so we lashed out and bought an enormous Maytag double side stainless steel job. We were happy to spend an absolute fortune on it because Maytag is (supposed to be) a good brand and we were tired of paying for whitegoods (and everything else) that there cheap and didn’t last. HA! It was a great big stainless steel lemon. Every summer it panicked and either froze everything in the fridge (frozen lettuce for dinner, anyone?) OR it would sulk and everything would go off. We got the thermostat fixed a few times (at least the first time we got it fixed it was still under warranty) and the seals re-done and it was better, but still a bit cantankerous. Meanwhile the old white fridge sat in the garage quietly chugging away keeping a half a dozen stubbies of beer, a bottle of cheap chardonnay from three Christmases past, and a few packets of brown rice cold. We never had a moments trouble with it – not even when we fed it a whole Christmas ham, 8 bottles of sparkling shiraz and 15 half eaten salads on Christmas Day (the only time it was ever filled to capacity).

Eventually we decided that we didn’t need two fridges and we would get rid of one – trying to cut down on our electricity consumption. We decided (and we normally just give stuff away because selling it is too much trouble) that we would sell one. We decided to keep old faithful (which was only two years older than the new one) and sell the lemon Maytag – because we would get more cash for the it (people around here like enormous SS double door fridges), and even though it worked ok now, we kept waiting for it to break down (once bitten…). So we rearranged the kitchen, drank the beer, dumped the chardonnay and swapped fridges. We spent $150 on a new crisper and shelf, and another $150 on new seals and admired our new ‘old’ fridge. Then we cleaned up the old one, and sold it. Matt – champion negotiator that he is* – managed to sell it for $250 less then we agreed on (particularly galling as we kept getting more phone calls about it, and the fridge seal guy thought our original price was too cheap), but all in all we were happy that it was sold, we still made a profit after fixing the old fridge up (if you don’t take into account the original cost of the fridge, and the future kitchen remodelling J), and our electricity bill will be lower with only one fridge running.

Except I went to the freezer yesterday morning to get some cake for the boys school lunches and was met with a flood of water, defrosted lemon juice, melted ice cream and soggy peas. I swore and mopped and chucked soggy food at – I mean to – the chooks and whinged about SOMEONE (it couldn’t have been me, obviously) who had left the freezer door ajar. When I checked an hour later the inside of the freezer still wasn’t cold, and neither was the inside of the fridge. We had ‘freezer surprise’ for dinner and we now have all the food in eskies (coolers) on the dining table, have spent $40 on ice, and will be paying $75 today for a fridge repairman to come around and give us a quote on fixing it. Sigh.

A new fridge will cost us between $1500 and $2000, or more (gulp), so fixing this one may be the cheapest option – Mr Fixit will tell us today, I guess. (Goodbye profit, and then some…) I wouldn’t mind spending the money on a new fridge if we need to (and we have the cash saved up – but our emergency fund will be hammered) but I am tired of spending money on so-called quality products which are really just cheap pieces of shit with a fancy name and a big price tag.

I want a fridge that will last twenty or thirty years – is it too much to ask in these days of planned obsolescence?

* what is the emoticon for eye rolling?

What *we* eat

Last post I wrote about the book – the ethics of what we eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. Our food choices and grocery budget are primarily price driven – probably not that much different from most families with a few kids and a single income. One benefit of me not working (in a ‘real’ job for money) is that I have time to make food from scratch and thus, don’t have to pay for convenience food. How far one takes the notion of convenience food is up for debate – I usually have a packet for ‘fresh’ ravioli in the freezer and a jar of tomato pasta sauce for emergencies (read: I can’t be bothered to cook, but don’t want to fork over $50 for takeaway). Basically as we pare down on groceries and make savings I am using the savings to buy better quality food. So I buy wholemeal flour in bulk and bake all our bread so we can afford free-range chicken (and decent bread).

We have been steadily moving away from the Standard Australian Diet – meat and three veg, plus a range of ‘exotic’ Mediterranean and Asian style meals (but still meat heavy), plus more than our fair share of takeaway and convenience foods – to a more sensible diet. I doubt we will ever become vegetarians, let alone vegans. Becoming a vegan is just too hard, especially with children, and the need to take B12 supplements on a vegan diet implies to me that a diet with some animal products is what humans have evolved to require. We have been moving to a more plant based diet a la Mark Bittman’s
Food Matters. He calls it lessmeatarian which really isn’t very catchy, but just means eating more plants – whole grains, fruit and vegetables, and less meat, dairy and eggs and junk food. This is – better for health (less saturated fat, etc); better for the environment (less cow farts etc); better for the animals (buying less meat means you can afford free range or organic or whatever); and better for your budget (fruit and veg cost less than meat and, especially, junk food).

So currently our diet is:

Breakfast: porridge from steel cut oats with honey and toasted almonds plus a piece of fruit (me – although I would prefer toast and vegemite with lashings of butter) or normal porridge, weet-bix, or homemade raw museli with fruit (boys and Matt), toast with cream cheese and tomato or natural yoghurt with honey and frozen raspberries (Moo). Sometimes the men will eat a fried egg sandwich for brekkie – a favourite of Jimmy and Matt before cricket on Saturday morning – all the standing around and ball scratching can be hungry work.

morning tea: fruit and/or homemade cakes and biscuits (cookies). Me: slice of toast with homemade nut butter (i.e. I grind up a mix of raw nuts – currently almonds and macadamias and store it in the fridge) or fruit

lunch: school lunch – sandwich (or two) with at least one vegetable, piece of fruit, piece of cake (for morning tea as per above) Me : leftovers, or a salad with tinned sardines.

Afternoon tea (for the kids, I generally don’t bother): cinnamon toast, yoghurt with honey and berries, cheese and pickles with crackers, fruit, biscuits or cake with a glass of milk (sometimes with Milo).

Dinner: anything goes. We are, as a family, a big fan of the old meat and three veg (more like 5 veg) meals, but we are equally happy eating lentils and beans, tofu (Moo is the only kid who like tofu – we often share a block of silken tofu with rice, spring onions and soy sauce for lunch) and soups and casseroles. I am moving towards cooking more vegetarian meals, but also cutting our meat consumption in our meat meals. I have a lot of meat frozen so at the moment we are eating the same meat two nights in a row. I will defrost a 500gram (approx 1lb) pack of pork mince and cook some mini meatballs with half the meat on the first night, and make Mapo tofu (the boys will eat tofu like this) with the remaining meat the second night. That way each family member is eating approx 50 grams of meat per meal, which seems ok to me, portion wise.

Where we are heading:

We eat wholemeal (with added grains and seeds for extra heavinessJ) bread all the time, although occasionally I will make a ‘fancy’ bread with white flour, and I make 90% of the cakes and biscuits we eat (I will occasionally buy chocky bikkies as a treat – less now because I tended to eat the lion’s share) in which I always use wholemeal flour. The kids don’t notice the difference, even if pancakes and scones are a bit heavier. We usually eat wholemeal pasta and brown rice, but I will cook white rice and pasta in a time squeeze (or if we have normal people as guests). We don’t eat many other grains – occasionally we have cous cous (but it isn’t really a hit) or polenta –I am planning to experiment more with other whole grains.

Less meat, more free range options. I am aiming for three vegetarian – tending towards vegan – dinners per week, two with meat as flavouring, and two ‘normal’ meat meals. No red meat or chicken for lunch (except leftovers). We use eggs from our chooks, so I am happy they are well looked after (even though their little chick brothers suffered a cruel death), and I was already buying free-range chicken. At this stage I cannot afford to buy organic chicken at twice the price of free-range, but as out meat consumption dwindles I may be able to afford to make the change. Next time we buy red meat I have found a free-range organic local option through Food-connect, so I will be investigating their prices for lamb and beef. Pork worries me – it may be easier to give it up than find a better free range option that we can afford, although giving up bacon and chorizo will be hard – they are major flavourings in some of our ‘almost vegetarian’ meals. We don’t eat much seafood – prawns and other shellfish are priced out of our budget and so is most fresh fish (wild caught or farmed). I have been avoiding buying fish generally because of price and environmental issues (namely by-catch and overfishing), but we do eat sardines and tinned tuna for the omega three (maybe twice a week for lunch) – I don’t think I will be changing this.

I already buy fair-trade organic tea and ground coffee, although I drink mainly instant coffee which is not fair trade. I priced fair trade instant coffee and it is 3 times the cost of the instant coffee I buy now, so I can’t see my being able to afford that change at the moment. I have been buying organic chocolate (Aldi) but bought some Maya Gold (Green & Blacks) and Cocolo to try. I wasn’t that keen on either – the Cocolo wasn’t that great, the Maya gold was nice, but the orange and spice, while tasty, isn’t as good as straight 70% chocolate in my opinion. I will keep looking – I am not sure there are many more options available here at the moment.

I will continue to buy most of our fruit and veg through Food Connect which provides local, mainly organic, fruit and vegetables. We will continue to cut junk food and convenience foods from our diets – even though I buy free range chicken at home I have had no compunction about eating the ‘Tick Approved’ chicken burger from McDonalds. I am rethinking this now.

So all in all a fairly low key reaction to the ethics of eating – some of which is cost driven and some apathy – but we are heading in the right direction.

The ethics of what we eat

I was lucky enough to win a ‘pay-it-forward’ book from Eat at Dixiebelles – The ethics of what we eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I had avoided reading this for a while, for a few reasons. The first was that I thought I knew what they were going to say (i.e. ethically the only option is veganism) and secondly because once one knows about an issue, it is pretty difficult to ‘unknow’ it. I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up eating meat. However this book is much more than a treatise about animals and veg*ism (vegetarianism/veganism) it runs the gamut of ethical food choices, and even though I thought I ‘knew it all’ (always a mistake!) it gave me a lot to think about.

I was really pleased I took the plunge and read the book. It follows the shopping and eating habits of three American families – one who follows the Standard American Diet (not dissimilar to the Standard Australian Diet if we replace the frozen corn dogs with meat pies) of large quantities of meat, dairy and processed foods. The second family are environmentally aware, conscientious carnivores – within the constraints of time, convenience, availability – they eat meat, but look for free-range products, humanely produced eggs and so on. The third family are vegan, and thus eat no animal products at all.

The book is easy to read – riveting in fact (though perhaps this says more about my life than the book)– it is not bogged down with statistics and data; it intersperses stories of real people with discussions on ethics, farming and food production practices; and, most importantly, the authors do not preach or proselytise. The readers are allowed to draw their own conclusions based on the (admittedly pretty damning) evidence provided. It was difficult to read some sections, at least one of which was flagged as potentially distressing to readers, which were so horrific that I felt slightly ill. However that is rather the point, I guess – if reading about factory farmed chicken is distressing, seeing it would be unbearable, so eating factory farmed chicken and therefore supporting the industry is indefensible. The other section I found difficult to read was the ethics of obesity but only because of a guilty conscience (BTW – I have lost 10 kilos since I stopped my old blog and started walking instead of typing).

What surprised me about the book was the fact that even though many of the ethical issues surrounding food are those related to animal cruelty, there are many other issues I hadn’t thought of as ‘ethical’, or I hadn’t stopped to think through the ramifications of my choices – namely organic and eating local.

The ethics of local food surprised me – one of the issues raised – is it better to buy local if the local product is using more environmental resources than one trucked from further away – tomatoes grown under heating, compared to tomatoes grown naturally at a greater distance? This struck a chord with me, because I recently bought some rice which I had assumed was Australian grown (I’m sure it used to be) only to discover it was grown in Thailand. Initially I was annoyed, because I try to buy Australian where ever possible, but afterwards (trying to justify my mistakeJ) I thought that rice farming in Australia is fairly marginal – drought, problems with irrigation and so on – and perhaps it is better to buy rice from overseas where it can grow better – not to mention supporting farmers in poor countries who need the export market to survive. So I found the sections on fair trade, buying local, supporting farmers in poorer countries (like the Peruvian asparagus farmer we supported by accidently buying imported asparagus at the farmers’ market recently) very interesting.

Another thing that surprised (and pleased) me was the absence of stridency. I was anticipating a hard-sell and an unequivocal stance. The final chapters draw some conclusions about what is best practise, however the authors point out that one does not have to be fanatical about it (I imagine some ‘hard-core’ vegans may have been slightly disappointed by this). The authors mention that personal purity is not the issue, and ‘trivial infractions’ (e.g. traces of milk powder in a muesli bar) of the ethical guidelines are not such a big deal. They also acknowledge that some/most people are probably not going to become veg*ns, however everyone has the ability to make better, more ethical, food choices. The book is written in such a way that the premise of the book is made clearly, but without belittling any participants’ (families, farmers, food producers, not even fast food McCorporations ;)) current practices, and the reader is left feeling empowered to make choices, rather than feeling browbeaten.

I would strongly recommend this book, even for those who, like me, think they know it all.

Next post I will write about our family food choices. I will be paying forward a book at some point in the very near future – maybe this book (once I have loaned it out around here) or perhaps something else.

Life is what happens…

…when you are busy not blogging.

I have gone from being a prolific every other day blogger on the old deleted blog (I’m very surprised to say I don’t miss it all) to a very sporadic blogger over here. The more I have to blog about the less time I have to blog about it –that old saw.

So a brief run through:

Garden

I have completely rearranged the veggie garden into a sort of mandala arrangement (a circle with a keyhole shaped path). I always thought that mandala gardens were for longhaired patchouli smelling, moon planting hippies (not that there is anything wrong with that… J) but it turns out it is actually the most efficient use of space in that patch of garden. You learn something every day. This is where I started digging the paths while I was still harvesting cabbage, carrots and lettuce (its long gone and all rearranged now).

I have made some bamboo trellis for the cucumber, beans and tomatoes. I have made (well Matt helped with this bit) some star picket, reo and shade-cloth shade covers for the silver beet and beetroot, and planted out some okra, eggplant, corn, spring onions, carrots (under the hessian bags) and other things. I have been spending a good hour or two in the garden every day – not that it looks like it at the moment. I am really hoping I can keep the garden going over summer – a bit of rain wouldn’t go astray.

Sewing

I have made some fruit-fly proof bags (hopefully) for the plum, nectarine and peach trees. I couldn’t cover all the fruit, so I must go and remove all the uncovered fruit – not that I want to. This is a bit of a trial – I have no idea if this chiffon fabric is fruit-fly proof or not.

I have also been embroidering little sachets and baby singlets for the school fete – bog standard stuff – bullion roses and rabbits for the singlets, and simple flowers for the sachets.

cooking

I have been making orange jam (like marmalade but without the horrid bitter peel); green tomato chutney; drying tomatoes, pineapple and strawberries, making preserved lemons and sauerkraut (another trial) and lots of bread. I recently bought a bread-maker and have started making all our own bread. It is easy to put together a batch in the morning while I make coffee and then it is done ready for lunch. Today I am making cinnamon scrolls and cheesy pizza scrolls to take for a school holiday get together in the park. I made these last week when the boys had friends visiting and they went down a treat – and much cheaper than buying the equivalent at the baker.

An outing and a very loud comment

Last week we took the city cat into Southbank to play at the faux beach (which is surprisingly nice, but rather crowded with annoying children, ours included). On the ferry was a very pregnant woman with two small toddlers. Remembering what it was like (although I’m sure ours were spaced a bit further apart) I turned to Matt and said (quietly) ’someone’s been busy’. Moo heard me and said (loudly) ‘who’s been busy? Who? That lady? That lady with the baby in her tummy? Has she been busy?…’ Matt was laughing so much I had to be the one to shut her up.

a balanced lunch box and a muesli bar recipe

I seem to spend a considerable amount searching for balance in my life.

• balancing cost – is it cost effective for me to make/grow something?
• balancing time – is it time effective for me to make/grow something?
• balancing health – Is it healthier for me to make/grow something?
• balancing convenience – Is it more convenient for me to make/grow something?

As you can tell – with all this balancing I don’t need to bother with yoga…

On balance it is easier to go to the supermarket and buy most of what we need (want….whatever). No one ever told me the simple life would be this bloody complicated. So I do grow veggies, I do mend clothes and I do cook most meals from scratch (if opening a can of tuna counts as ‘from scratch’ – I don’t farm tuna in the backyard pond)…but sometimes I wonder if I am actually saving anything. Until I perv in other peoples shopping trolleys and marvel at what they will pay for and eat – a small pack of ready-to-cook potatoes with herb ‘butter’ for $5 – Good Grief!

School lunch box ‘treats’ are another area I marvel at. This whole idea of lunchbox ‘treats’ drives me bonkers; it’s LUNCH for goodness sake. Where did this idea arise that kids deserve TREATS every day? Goodness -when I was 10 I thought it was a treat if mum actually made me a lunch and I didn’t have to do it myself. A TREAT was bread that wasn’t three days old (I would have walked to school barefoot in the snow too, except I went to a Catholic school and you got in trouble for taking off your shoes, and well…it didn’t snow in Kiama anyway). If my mum had packed me a lunchbox with a pre-packaged muesli bar, a mini pack of sultanas, a plastic cheese-stick wrapped in plastic and a bag of potato chips for lunch, plus a lolly for a TREAT – I would have assumed she’d gone mad(der).

Tom (8) tells me he has the healthiest lunchbox in his class. This is a kid who refuses to take fruit to school (cue whinging voice: it gets squishy/soft/brown…blah, blah, blah) and takes a piece of cake or a biscuit every day for morning tea. He doesn’t complain about his lunch – he is rather more gobsmacked that other kids are actually allowed to eat such crap. They have a ‘brain break’ prior to morning tea (the school has decided morning tea should be 11 am and lunch 1.30 which means the little poppets can’t survive from 9am to 11am without a SNACK. Jeez.) when they have a ten minute nibble on something healthy – he is the only one who can eat anything he wants from his lunchbox because it is all homemade.

So, apart from the occasional lapse into supermarket purchases, I tend to make healthy-ish cakes, biscuits and slices. They also have to be quick, easy, cheap, and include nothing I have to go out especially to buy. This is my muesli bar I adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Breakfast Bars (I wouldn’t eat them for brekkie, but hey, whatever floats your boat)

• I can condensed milk
• 250 grams rolled oats
• 75 grams shredded coconut
• 100 grams dried fruit
• 125 grams nuts
• 125 grams seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame)

method:

1. Put condensed milk in large bowl and microwave until warm (or heat on stove in saucepan and have two things to wash up).
2. Add dry ingredients.
3. Mix well.
4. Press into greased (I line with glad-bake paper, but that’s the sort of environmental vandal that I am) slice tin
5. Bake at 130C for about an hour. Leave for 15 minutes, cut into slices. Keeps well.

This is a fairly forgiving recipe. I sort of guess the quantities now. I have cooked it for a shorter time on a higher temperature and vice versa; I have half burned it and undercooked it. I even turned the oven off by mistake halfway through and it seemed to work ok. That is: I think the kids still eat them. They must eat them – they sure as hell can’t get any kids at school to swap lunches with them.

While on a lunchbox rant – since when did kids’ lunches have to be gourmet bloody extravaganzas? What’s wrong with a vegemite or peanut butter sandwich and a piece of fruit (yeah yeah, I know – it goes squishy etc)? I have bowed to the pressure and occasionally make chicken or tuna with mayonnaise and lettuce – in a ‘WRAP’. Oh, and I include carrot and celery sticks in lieu of fruit – but that’s just me, and sometimes the chooks have limp celery and carrot sticks as an after school snack.

Plus, when did it become de rigueur to include a love note to one’s children? Apparently I am one of few (at least in the lower grades) who does not include an ‘I love you!!!!!. xxx J!!!!’ note (plus lolly) with lunch. Whose stupid idea was this? After Tom told me this I included one in their lunchboxes as a joke. Jimmy was horrified. Tom said he doesn’t want the note, but he wouldn’t mind the lollies.

Happy Birthday, Brisbane

I *heart* (mental eye roll, see below) rainbow lorikeets in the grevillea

Petty rivalry

Sunday was Father’s Day, and also Brisbane’s 150^th birthday, so we decided to catch the city cat into the city for the day. The birthday celebrations seemed a bit light on – but I think the problem was they were spread out too far – perhaps in an attempt to have both sides of the river involved. We missed, on purpose, the north-side v south-side debate held in the middle of the Goodwill Bridge – perhaps not being a local (I have only lived here for 20 years after all) I don’t understand the ‘rivalry’. Plus, if I hear ‘Brisbane comes of age’ again I’ll scream – jeez – this city has a chip on its shoulder as big as its traffic jams.

Kilts and bollywood dancers

We did see some good Scots Gaelic singers and dancers – who were, luckily, wearing undies under their kilts. I was sitting on the ground with Moo, and got a good view of rather too much excessively hairy thigh for my taste (that was, of course, the blokes). Later the Bollywood dancers were drumming up audience participation and had everyone in the crowd, bar the Hall family, Bollywooding (is this a verb?)along with them. I tried to encourage the children to have a go, but they seem to have inherited the ‘inability-to-make-a-show-of-themselves-in-public’ gene from both Matt and I. They all sat like rocks – not a toe-tap, wiggle or clap in evidence. Matt and I were no better.

We spent more time watching the audience make a show of itself than the actual Bollywood dancers themselves. Particularly amusing were the re-enactors who were dressed in period costume of 150 years ago – men and women both – doing Bollywood dance moves in tails, top hats and hoop skirted crinolines.

Things I didn’t write, but sort of wish I had

We added a few I *heart* Brisbane (oh how I despise ‘I *heart* X’, almost as much as ‘24/7′) stickers to the display wall. The idea was to write something you like about Brisbane – it was all pretty standard stuff – the sunny weather, green spaces, etc. Moo dictated I *heart* city cats, after I explained that I *heart* Dora the explorer was a no go. Tom wrote: ‘The wonderful telephone system’ (a surfeit of Monty Python – ‘why not visit Sweden…’ in his spare time, I’m afraid). I was going to write: I *heart* Brisbane City Council’s rampant housing development and tree felling, but Matt frowned at me, so I didn’t.

When does a boat become a ship and who cares anyway? I certainly don’t.

The Queensland Maritime Museum was having a free open day which we noticed as we walked across the Goodwill Bridge, so we took the opportunity to visit the Diamantina and the Forceful (the Forceful has never been open for inspection the other times we have visited). I sat in the shade and waited for the others to crawl all over the boats – sorry, ships – if I never visit the Diamantina again I’d die happy. It was the excursion of choice when the boys were smaller – I’m sure our entrance fees alone kept the place afloat (ha).

How to insult a 5 year old while eating choc caramel slice

We caught the city cat home again, footsore, hot, tired and a little sunburned. Matt spent the remainder of father’s day at work. Nice. We had made him a chocolate caramel macadamia slice for his Father’s Day present (we meaning: I did all the baking and cleaning up, and they licked spoons, taste tested the chocolate and took all the credit), and he had time to scoff a couple of bits with a cup of tea, plus mortally insult Moo*, before heading out.

*he said it was the best father’s day present he ever had. This was incorrect – the best present he ever got was the paper plate dream catcher Moo made at kindy and gave him on Tuesday (she couldn’t wait). Luckily I was around when she presented it to him – because he looked rather befuddled when he opened it, so I eventually put him out of his misery.

Matt: ‘oh it’s a beautiful….uh…paper….uh…and wool …..ummmm….’

Me: ‘DREAM CATCHER!’

Oh – a dream catcher, of course it is. Every morning Moo asks him what dreams he had the night before – and every morning he replies: ‘huh?’ and I have to remind him of the DREAM CATCHER again.

Spring

Winter ended here after days of a record-breaking heat wave – temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s (Celsius). The CSA veggie box included a few cauliflowers that were harvested early – just about to bolt in the unseasonable weather. These are the veg that would be wasted in the normal course of things – Woollies et al. are not interested in anything less than perfect – perfect looking anyway – they don’t seem to mind less than perfect when it comes to flavour, texture, food miles and so on. So I am pleased to see that the food is not going to waste, and it will still make a tasty cauliflower cheese.

Of course I picked the start of the winter heat wave to plant the 25 asparagus plants, start trays of seeds of summer veg (snake beans, zucchini, okra, eggplant, corn etc.)

and I watched in horror as the winter veg (tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, peas, silverbeet) all turned up their toes, even as I was watering them. Veggie gardening sure makes me appreciate farmers and the difficulties they face every day. I was watching the news the other night and the newswhore newsreader was reporting on the heatwave and local farming regions losing whole fields of almost ready to harvest produce: ‘it’s not all bad news’ she chirped ‘prices at the supermarket are low for x, y and z’ – all crops the farmers were employing extra staff to harvest early, underweight and in glut proportions before it was destroyed in the field. I reckon I’d spend half my life sobbing in the tractor shed if I were a farmer – I don’t think I’d have the balls for it (so to speak).

So anyway – the garden is doing quite well at the moment, all things considered. We got rain – it has not rained here for a couple of months. I even managed not to whinge about it as I hung all the washing to dry in the garage ;).

The asparagus has started to sprout -

The silver beet recovered -

The mulberry tree is fruiting -

All the stone fruit trees (tropical peach, plum and nectarine) have babies – calling to the fruit fly (little bastards) – ‘come here, my pretties’.

I must sew up some fruit bags soon, to see if I can stop the fruit fly this year…

I’m even going to have a go at summer tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce – considering we eat a salad most days – summer and winter. I have found a nice shady spot for the lettuce and a location far away from the fruit trees for the tomatoes. And, I’ve got my fingers crossed – which seems to be my main skill when it comes to gardening. That – plus reading about how other people seem to produce mountains of veg almost effortlessly.

Rainman, dishcloths, gratitude and dying

We had a call early in the week to say that my grandmother is very ill and has days, maybe weeks, to live. So we organised flights and flew to Sydney, and drove to Wollongong, the following day. I am not a fan of flying, especially with children – I know it is safer than driving, but the thought of hurtling though the air in a metal cylinder and spudding into the ground, or ocean, or building, knowing that you can do absolutely nothing to save the three children sitting next to you is just not particularly relaxing. Take off and landing are the most dangerous parts of the flight, as I reminded myself at all times during, well – take off and landing. I sat crocheting dishcloths and repeating in my head, like Rainman, ‘Qantas never crashed, Qantas never crashed’ – even though we were flying Virgin Blue. And there is, after all, the first crash.

We spent the evening booking flights and hire cars (carbon foot-print, what carbon footprint?), cancelling appointments, packing clothes (when everything we wanted to take was, of course, in the dirty laundry basket) organising various neighbours to dog-sit, chook-sit and take the strawberries I had bought to make jam for the school fete to the school for someone else to finish. It did make me think about the desirability and need for good neighbours and community structures that allow one to prop up on someone’s doorstep at 8pm with a box of half washed glass jars, a bag of sugar and three kilos of strawberries and say ‘help!’.

Anyway, we survived the trip (obviously) and arrived safely at the hospital to find my nanna looking as frail as I had feared. I knew what to expect, but I was not prepared for the little old lady, who had been all my life feisty, intelligent, argumentative…. We had, over the years, debated whether it is easier/better to get dementia and not know how one’s body falls apart around you, or if it is better to keep your wits about you during the inevitable decline. Her brain is still as sharp as ever, with only minor (very) short term memory loss, and she still has a sense of humour. She knew us all, and she was so pleased to see us that I was glad we made the trip when we did. She has stopped eating and has pneumonia, which they are not treating (at her request), and a very aggressive cancer. At 92 years old, treating the pneumonia (the old persons’ friend, she called it) just means dying of something more horrible a few weeks later.

Children (and husbands) have a fairly low hospital visit threshold, so after a kiss and quick visit, Matt took the children out – playing on the beach, going to the Science Centre at Wollongong University and I sat with my grandmother and aunt. The last morning we were there I visited her by myself, and the difference in my nanna was noticeable – in the course of two days she had gone from chatty and alert to very sleepy and vague. I spent the morning sitting with her, talking when she woke, crocheting yet another dishcloth, and thinking. What was I thinking?

I was thinking how cruel it is that we cannot manage the process of death for people better (what is the human equivalent of PETA?) Starving yourself in a hospital bed cannot be more humane and kind than some type of euthanasia. I was thinking of the contradiction inherent in wishing someone you love would die as soon as possible. I was thinking that it should not be so difficult to arrange communion and last rites for someone who has been a faithful Catholic for 92 years (no, next Tuesday is not soon enough, you twit – look at her). I was thinking how you say goodbye for the last time, especially in Australia, where the standard farewell is ’see ya later’, and everyone knows very bloody well you won’t. And I was thinking that the verse my grandmother learned at her father’s knee should be re-written as:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake…

I’d be really bloody grateful, thanks.

Strawberry Jam

Strawberries are in season, and the local greengrocers had 2.5 kilos of locally grown strawberries for $10. A bargain; so yesterday I made strawberry jam. One of the best things about living in Brisbane is that strawberry season is in winter, which means jam making is pleasant.

The recipe is from the back of the Fowlers-Vacola Jamsetta pack (pectin).

• 1.5 kg strawberries, washed and hulled (I also chopped them up because some were huge)
• ¼ cup water
• 50gram Jamsetta
• 1.5 kg sugar
• 4 Tbs lemon juice

Step one: sterilise jars by washing in hot soapy water, rinsing, boiling for 10 minutes in a stockpot, and drying in a low oven until ready to use.

Step two: place strawberries, water and lemon juice in large pan and cook gently, uncovered, until fruit is soft.

Step three: add warmed sugar (warm in the oven with the jars) and Jamsetta and bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar

Step four: boil 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Test, by placing a spoonful of jam on frozen saucer; if it wrinkles when you run your finger through it it’s set. (Take the jam off the heat while you do this, so it doesn’t turn to toffee).

Step five: remove jam from heat, stand for 10 min. stir and then bottle into warm, dry jars.

Step six: seal while still hot. I used the Fowlers-Vacola Kleerview covers, and then the lids.

Step seven: enjoy on toast (or Scottish oatcakes) for afternoon tea, while panicking about all the sugar rotting the kid’s teeth.

This made 7 largish jars of jam, with a kilo of fruit left over for eating fresh, so I estimate the jam cost about $12 to make – less than $2 per jar. Pretty good value.