What to do with lemons
Lemonade
Lemon Curd
Limoncello
Pickled Lemons
Lemon juice-frozen
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Sponge Pudding
We seem never to be without baskets full of lemons–so any receipes are welcome!!
Green Figs and Ugly Ducklings
Well–the 15th of October has passed and everybody knows in this valley that by this time of year one has to have picked the “voor vye” and made your Green Fig Preserve.
The “voor vye” are the first figs on the fig trees that are still unripe and very green. For reasons unknown to this ex-city slicker now is the only time to pick these figs. So up the fig tree I went and stripped it bare of it’s hard, green, very unpalletable figs–stuck them in a basket and was surprised to find I had 8kgs!!!
Now the fun started, each fig had to be scraped with a sharp knife and a small cross cut into he bottom of it (the blossom side). Needless to say the white sap that oozes out of the cut stem and the green scrapings from the figs chews into your fingers and at 11pm that night I was sitting in the kitchen with a plaster on each finger, a cramp in my thumb from scraping and wondering what on earth was I doing this for?!
The next step is to leave them overnight in a bath of water and bicarb to soften.
The next morning you boil them in water for about 15minutes or until you can gently push a matchstick into them (as per the local Afrikaans cookbook) then they are drained while you boil up a syrup of sugar and water, when boiling add the figs and boil until the temperature reaches 5′C above the boiling point of water.
Bottle.
Shew–a definate must for slow food lovers. Many a time through this process I gave myself that “look”-why? But now I am looking quite smugly at my 30 odd jars of cathederal green jewels, knowing that each fig has been touched, scraped, picked, cut and placed individually by me and they seem pretty special–not to mention that they taste absolutely delicious.
Served on a cheese board with camenbert or brie, smeared on toast with creme fresh or with marscopone for dessert—yum! Cramps and sore fingers forgotten.
Two weeks ago we were blessed to have our first geese hatching, after much pecking and hissing and hooting from the protective parents, we managed to see two little golden balls of fluff equipped with beaks and webs. Two days later there was another golden ball of fluff just a little bit smaller than the others but just as cute.
We noticed that the third one just didn’t seem to want to grow—definately not as steady on it’s webs and definately didn’t stretch it’s neck out like it’s siblings–two weeks on we were a bit concerned and thought it might not survive–then it dawned on us! It wasn’t a goose—in fact looks suspiciously like our Macou (Muscovey duck)–the same waggle, short neck and fat body—the duck most proberly laid an egg on the goose’s nest! The ugly duckling was redeemed from being the runt and placed on the podium as first Macou to be born in paradise!
Rustfontein-Fountain of Rest
This is the name of our farm–an old Afrikaans word for Fountain of Rest–Rustfontein.
It is located on the south coast of South Africa along a winding river. We moved here with our two young children six years ago from Cape Town. It is a piece of paradise in this hurly-burly world where rest is assured—that is, if you are a guest here and not a resident where fruit, vegatable and animal rule the stress of the day on what needs to be planted, picked, fed, watered or processed.
This blog will be about country living, eating from the land, farming with guests and creative expression.
What we do everyday. Enjoy!
Farm Life and Country Living
Herman and Margie live on a farm in South Africa–this is their blog on country living, eating honest food from the land, farming with guests and creative expression.
We moved here in June 2004 from Cape Town, it was our holiday house set on 3 hectares of ground along a wide meandering river on the south coast—a year later we bought the neighbour’s farm–now called Rustfontein.
Rustfontein is 630 hectares of fynbos, wildlife, views, open spaces and quiet.
On the farm we have (so far)
2 adults (us)
2 children (age 13 and almost 10 )
2 dogs (Bella the Beautiful-a Rhodesian Ridgeback- and Sunny the “very badly behaved,chicken thief, Jack Russel”)
2 budgies
3 cats (Pumpkin and Zazoo–both ex-Tomcats, orange in colour and great rat catchers and a little throw-away cat called Vaaitjie, blackish with a pure white undercoat, the sweetest thing.)
15 hens, 4 roosters
1 Macou duck (Muscovey)
40 odd sheep (“dorpers” bred for meat not wool)
50 odd cattle (Bonsmaras)
2 horses (Shadow and Llwyd- pronounced Louie)
When I look at this list all that seems short is a pig and maybe a goat? And some easy to pluck ducks apparently the Macou are hell to pluck—and I keep on coming across some delicious duck receipes.
We have finalised the renovations on the old farmhouse on Rustfontein, as well as the shepherd hut which is on the “backlands” –what we locals call the part of the farm that runs into the hills away from the river–the fynbos and wide open spaces part. We rent out the main house for holiday makers and the hut as an adventure sleep-out for those who like get up close with nature.
We like to feed ourselves as much as possible from what we can grow and produce ourselves (all organically of course) so we have a little farm kitchen were we cut, chop, cook, bottle and label all under the name Rustfontein-Guest Farm. This produce is also for sale to our guests. Honey, greenfig preserve, marmalade, jam.
Life is busy here in paradise–but it is a lifestyle we choose , to be honest and true to the land and our surroundings and to bring our children up in touch with nature, well grounded and to know we are supported by Mother Nature. To have the skills to venture out into the world with a true knowledge of how things really work.
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