Drip irrigation for the Urban Homestead

To say that dragging around a very long hosepipe attached to a semi working borehole every second day for the last 7 years, has become tiresome, is a serious understatement.

It gets snagged.

It gets twisted.

It waters paths, not beds.

It gets hooked.

It gets punctures (in the wrong places).

It is messy.

I eventually had enough but knowing the price of installing drip irrigation I had to keep going.

Then it ran dry.

Superman took notice as the municipal water bill started to climb....and climb...and climb...and climb...and climb...

I sent him a little video made by the GrowVeg team which got him thinking.

Then being the number cruncher of the family he crunched his numbers and found that once the cost of the drip irrigation was paid for we would save and save and save.

So overnight he made up his mind and off he went to buy what we needed then gave up two days of his very busy work week to install it along with the help of a friend.

So now every second or third day I simply walk outside, turn on a tap and it drips away.

Our next step will be to link the borehole to a Jo-Jo tank and then use that to pump the water into and from there connect it to the drip irrigation. We also hope to include in our backyard renovation, which is currently happening,  rain water tanks for the same purpose.

Then it will be free....free...free to water the garden and this will make my number cruncher happy.

So for those of you who understand the numbers this is what I am told...

A normal rose sprinkler uses 27 litres per minute on one spot. It runs for about 6 hours to water the whole garden.

Drip irrigation uses 25 litres per minute over the whole garden and runs for about 4 hours. The holes in the pipe are at 15cm intervals and with the calculations it should give a diameter of 30cm which will overlap with the next 30cm circle.

So while the per minute usage is similar the coverage is vastly different.

How do you water your garden?

DIY Cucumber frame

This post should be called the engineering design challenged mom's guide to building a cucumber frame! But will go with DIY cucumber frame for sake of simplicity.

There are climbing cucumbers and bush cucumbers - I have grown both. I do however prefer climbing ones for two simple reasons being that the bush cucumbers tend to be smaller and the fruit has a tendency to hang on the ground.

Cucumbers are on of those foods that we eat a lot of, but cannot store well. It's always a toss up with how many plants to plant and whether we will actually be able to use them all before they are spoiled by pests, hot weather or neglect.

I normally plant an early crop in a tub and choose the round lemon cucumbers and then around about now plant some into the vegetable garden. Last year I attempted to make a horrid farm for them to climb over and planted spinach under the frame hoping the cucumber growth would shade up the delicate spinach leaves, but this caused failure of two crops.

This year I thought I would try a more traditional way and have made a spiffing new frame from recycled wood and a bit of garden mesh. So here's how and engineering design challenged mom made a cucumber trellis.

You will need:

-3 1.5m long wooden poles of about 7-10cm diameter with one sharp end

-A length of plastic garden mesh

-Staple gun

-Scissors

-A well appreciated and handy Sam!

The dimensions of the poles are based on my bed which is 3.10m in length. If your bed is smaller you may only need two poles, but the middle one gives good rigidity.

Unroll the mesh and staple it firmly to one pole aligning the top of the mesh with the flat end of the pole. Halfway down the length of mesh staple your next pole and then again at the end of the mesh length.

Dig a hole for each pole in your bed and use a hammer to bang the sharp edge of the pole into the soil compacting it around the pole when filing up the hole again. I ran my climbing frame down the center of the bed. On the sunny side I will plant tomatoes in front of the cucumber and on the shady side I will plant lettuce. This allows me to grow three vegetables in one bed making use of vertical space.

I also left about a 20cm gap between the soil level and the mesh as a cucumber vine can support itself for this little bit and having the higher mesh allows it to grow higher and create more flowers.

I then planted up the bed and hopefully in a few weeks will have a positive report to give you all.

Are you growing cucumbers this year?

Rich fragrant vegetable stock

As our wormery is in no need of peelings and our compost heaps are breaking their boundaries, I decided to hold back a couple of days vegetable peelings and make a rich stock. I'll admit to being quite generous in the celery department by not using the leaves in other meals so that they could be added to the stock, but for the rest it was just the parts not used like garlic and onion outers, tops of marrows and squash, ends of tomatoes and carrot peels. After 2 days we had a packed bowl full.

I gently browned a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil....

Then tipped the peels etc into the pot.....

And covered it with spring water....

About 1 hour later I added a huge bunch of herbs - thyme, parsley and majoram. I also added about 10 whole peppercorns.

Allowed to simmer for 3 hours, then left overnight to cool.


This morning I strained it and put it into jars for use this week and some into plastic containers to freeze for later use.

I wish I could explain the fragrance of this stock. We have been making meat stocks for a couple of years now and they have their own warming smell. But this vegetable stock had such a full bodied smell....can't wait to use it.

Homemade Harissa Paste

This is just for African Aussie...homemade harissa paste.

We are still cooking through Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals with the kids and have not found a single meal to be anything other than fabulous. A few weeks back we needed harissa paste to mix into the yoghurt as part of a pita bread filling. This is how we made it...it was full of flavour and the spicyness was well balanced with the yoghurt.

10 red chillies (we had just picked the last chillies from our plants and had 10 red ones!)
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 salt
A good glug of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground coriander and caraway seeds. (I didn't have ground so used the motar and pestle to do it)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin

Remove stems and seeds of chillies and add to a bowl with all the rest of the ingredients.

Using a hand blender mix it to a fine paste.

We used had immediately and the other is stored in the fridge with a little oil on top for the next time.

Frugal winter season tips

Knit your own scarf/gloves/socks.

Winter is a warm cosy inside time around the fire, with mugs of tea, and it’s the only time of the year I knit. The demands of the garden are less and that makes more time available for other things.

Here are some wonderful free patterns to get started on.

Make your own firelighters

We all love a fire in winter. As we save our newspaper for seedling pots or use it in composting we don’t have a lot for firestarters. A few years back we were introduced to making our own firelighters. Save your used teabags and let them dry out completely on a rack. When dry put in an old glass bottle with a lid. Pour over a little paraffin. These work like wonders.

Collect pinecones/wood

We have massive pine plantations nearby and one of our winter habits is to collect dry pine cones for the fire. We used to keep our eyes peeled for trees being cut down on the pavements and collect the wood too. We have so much wood from our own tree clearing that collecting wood won’t be necessary for a few years.

Make soups and bread

Soups and bread…that sums up winter! Soups, made with lots of veggies and good stock, are a wonderful quick frugal way to feed your family. Here are some recipes to start.

Cook ahead

Double up those meals that keep well, like soups, for a day when you are short of time. Instead of finding yourself at a check out line at 5.30pm you can make some fresh rolls and reheat a meal.

Collect leaves for leaf mould

At the beginning of winter there are still lots of leaves around. Collect them in bags and put them in a suitable place to make leafmould for your summer garden.

Plan your spring garden

Don’t be caught unawares in a few month’s time when the weather is suddenly warmer and you haven’t planned your garden, bought your seeds and are ready to plant.

Use the library

Buying new once read books is becoming a thing of the past.  With ebooks and Kindle you have all sorts of books at your fingertips. However, I am a page-turner-kinda-gal and the library is my answer.

Sundry clothes

Clothes can still dry without electricity in winter. Use clothes racks near your fire or move it around the house with the sun during the day. It may take longer to dry but you will save yourself loads by not using the tumble dryer.

Learn one new skill

Make use of the extra indoor time to learn a new skill. Have you always wanted to make soap? Give it a try. What about crochet? Sour dough bread? Whatever takes your fancy, give it a try!

Elastic Chicken...

Every blogger who has a frugal heart has to sometime over their life time do an elastic chicken post. So here is mine...with a difference. This is how I make 2 chickens feed my family for 2 meals, make chicken 3 litres of stock and feed my doggies 1 meal.

I generally only by whole chickens these days as they are about R15 cheaper than chicken pieces and if you know how to cut up a chicken you can get so much more value for your money. So once I have taken the 4 wings, breasts of 1 chicken, 4 drums, 4 thighs I put one set of breasts into the fridge for the next days soup.

The caracasses are made into chicken stock. The stock I use in soups and risottos. The left over stock bones and skin are given to the dogs.

The pieces can then be made into any chicken dish - a casserole, a curry or something similar. This week I made a traditional malay curry. I served it on lentils as versus rice as we are still eating a low carb diet.

Cape Malay Curry

Fry in some olive oil: 1 chopped onion, 5 chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon ginger and garlic, 2 chopped green peppers.

When those are soft add a tablespoon Garam Masala, 1/2 teapsoon chilli powder, 1 tablespoon each of cumin, corainder and fennel seeds. Add 1 full piece of stick cinnamon and 2 Star Anise. Allow to sizzle.

Add your chicken pieces and brown. Then add 2 cups of water. Allow to cook until almost done. Right at the end I add a can of coconut milk to make it like a Korma.

Chicken and Mushroom Soup
The next day I used the remaining 2 breasts, 1 pkt of happy hog bacon and a punnet of mushrooms and the delicious homemade stock for this chicken and mushroom soup.

Fry 1 chopped onion, a tablespoon of garlic, a sliced pkt of bacon until cooked. Add the 2 sliced chicken breasts and mushrooms and brown.

Then add two tablespoons of flour and stir to cover the ingredients in the pot.

Add 1 litre of stock and a pinch of fresh Thyme and allow to simmer until slightly thickened. Taste for salt and pepper then serve.

Simple Steps in Green Living and Frugality #5 - do not waste!

Simple Steps in Green Living and Frugality #5 - do not waste!

We all know the old saying "waste not, want not" but I am still and have been more so in the past of having wasteful ways. I thought that I would just highlight some ways that I have begun to correct my habits in the BIG three areas of FOOD, WATER and ELECTRICITY.

Food:
Years ago I used to watch a friend of mine save the tiniest scraps of foodstuffs. She saved a tablespoon of mashed potatoes, a handful of roasted veg, a slic of tomato...and I quietly raised my eyebrow and thought "all that bother for such a little." But in the years to follow I would pick up on her good habit and find ways to include left overs and scraps in meals.

Besides for saving leftovers, planning your menus and purchasing just what you need is another way to prevent wastage.

Watch the fruit bowl and vegetable drawers in your home so that fresh foods don't go over ripe and use up fruit in puddings, icecreams, cakes and vegetables in bakes, cakes and dog food before they waste.

And of course, by learning to make your own basic food stuffs you will appreciate the cost in time and effort and not want to waste!

Water:
Where we live we have hot windy summers. Well, I suppose we have wind most days too! Our garden also needs lots of water, so I make sure that watering in summer is done by 10am. The wind normally picks up after lunch and then sprinklers are really wasteful. Watering before 10am also lowers the evaporation rate substantially.

Shower with a bucket and use that to flush the toilet or use it on non edible plants in the garden.

Catch the drips from the taps and use it for the dog water bowl. (Note to self: get a plumber to replace the washer!)

Rinsing vegetables in a bowl of water instead of under a running tap, then using that water for the garden is a great water saver.

Electricity:
Power down the house at night....

Get children on board about turning off lights when leaving a room.

Don't "fridge gaze!" Have you ever seen a hungry youngster standing staring into an open fridge? I have one of these....he eats non stop all day and we have to teach him not to stand and wish food out of the open fridge.

Lots of other power saving tips here.

I am sure you have many if not all of these already happening in your home. If you have a NO WASTE tip, please feel free to leave a comment in the block!

Why my dogs love "stock day" and 2 recipes

One of my sweet children asked me: "Surely you are not going to put that picture on your blog?" when this child saw the following picture in the taking....


Well, I did! (blush blush) However this is the reason my dogs love stock day! They know that when I have poured off the liquid and the bones and skin are left, they get the bits and pieces. Our big white dog starts to lick his chops when the delicious stock smells waft through the house...he walks in and nudges me every now and again as if to say: "Done yet mum?"...

My precious baby lamb a.k.a. Lucky lies under my feet the whole time jumping up the moment I move...but then dinner time comes (or breakfast depending on what time I start) and they are satisfied.


I never re-use the beef meat that is left over, it tastes like cardboard after 12 hrs in the stock pot, but the chicken I cook for shorter and can be used in pies or bakes. On Sunday I made a delicious chicken and broccoli bake from the stock chicken. This year I planted sprouting broccoli and purple broccoli and we can cut from the plants at least once a week and I had a nice bowl full to use.

I steamed the broccoli, spiced up the chicken with salt and pepper and made a white sauce with a good dollop of mustard. This was all combined, topped with grated cheese and baked. Served over brown rice it was delicious.

My lemon tree is full of lemons...my first tree died in the transplant from pot to ground, but this one, in a pot, is doing fabulously.

I found a delicious recipe on a young girls blog who is friends with my daughter....

And because hers looks so much better than mine did, you can pop over to Beautiful Girlhood to take a look at the picture and get the recipe....it was very yummy.

Super Simple Apple Crumble

Whenever I have fruit that is not as crisp as it once was, I like to make it into something. Bananas go into banana muffins or bread or even into pancakes...apples, pears and guavas always seem to go into some form of pudding.

This super simple crumble is our favourite served with custard.

Mix together 2 cups flour and 100g soft butter. Cut in until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in 3/4 cup sugar.

Press half the mixture into the base and sides of a deep pie dish. Peel and slice as many apples as you want to fill the dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Pour the other half crumble mixture over the apples. Bake at 180 deg C until the edges brown.

It's quick and easy and very tasty.

When good things in life are free!

It takes me by surprise when I find something pure and good for my family - and its FREE!

A while ago I decided to only use distilled water to drink. The distiller is great but it uses electricity and it's therefore not "cheap" water so I have not been using it for cooking or the kettle.

A few weeks ago a friend and I decided we were going to rectify this situation and we bought ourselves the correct type of plastic 25l bottles so that we could store water for use in cooking. It cost R155 with 25l of Oasis Water.

This 25l was quickly used up in my kitchen...but I had a plan. Another friend of mine has been going to the "Newlands Spring" for years to collect her own pure spring water - for FREE!

Today I took my son with me (to do the heavy lifting - I am so grateful for this boy) and we filled our bottle. Expecting to be the only weird "greenie" there ,I was surprised and delighted to find an assortment of wonderful people there QUEUING for the water :-)

The one man was an old Islamic man who used to play there as a child before Group Areas Act and still comes weekly for his water, there is also a religious significance for him. Another man, in his 70's has been using this water for ages too - and he distills his own beer and whiskey from it. And yet another gent arrived in his Mercedes SLK with his bottles for his water.


This spring is used by SA Breweries for their beer and they say: "it has the perfect PH 5.6 like rainwater, correct mineral content and is free of contaminents." The water has been tested and is pure for my cooking needs.

The little retaining wall was built around it in 1841...cool hey?!? Anyway, it was a delight to find this good thing for free. Here's a map for you if you would like to get some yourself - Capetoneans that is :-)It wouldn't be free if one of my faithful internationals came - du-uh!

Making stock

On the weekend I decided to make some stock. I am reading Nourishing Traditions and enjoy her take on food and nutrition. I normally use stock powder unless I have some bones left from roast chicken, but I have never been a big stock maker.

I made a chicken stock using our own celery. We have about 6 plants of celery which I use for pasta sauces, juicing, salads etc but there is lots of celery so I was glad to use a lot of it.

Chicken stock has chicken bones left from a roast, 4 carrots, 2 onions, 4 stalks celery, thyme, whole peppercorns. Cover with water. Leave to simmer for 4 - 8 hours.

Remove chicken and strain the rest through a colander into a bowl. The liquid then should be refridgerated for the fat to solidify on the top. The fat is scraped off and the stock bottled in the fridge for use that week, or frozen for later.

I deboned the chicken, spiced it up and made pie. The bones and veg went to the dogs.

For the beef stock, I roasted 1kg fatty beef bone until browned. I put them and some shin into my slow cooker. 1/2 cup of vinegar and the same veg as above. I left this on low overnight until the bones were soft.
I again strained through a colander and allowed the fat to solidfy and then poured
the beef stock into jars for use this week. The dogs were delighted with the left overs.

Finally "lost it"?

My children have voted and they say that I have "finally lost it!" although my oldest thought that I had when I served chilled cucumber soup last year...

But you see, tonight on the way home from my daughter's art lesson I saw some guys cutting the lawn outside a petrol station. I have been wanting some grass for my compost heap...and well...I pulled over the car and asked them for a few bags.

I thought I was a clever girl when I drove home with my 4 bags of gorgeous grass, but my daughter was cringing in the front seat.

And when I got home, the others announced that I have officially and finally "lost it"! Not sure what "it" is...but they are convinced!

What do you say, have I : yes :-( or no :-) ?

Water water everywhere...

The other day I was standing watering my now vast vegetable garden and I thought: "What if we had water restrictions? How would I keep this all going?"

To be honest I had a little shiver up my spine :-(

Keeping veggies growing well in a drought time is no joke.

Where my mom lives, they have had a long standing drought and she has successfully run her home and garden on very little water. I asked her to send me a list of things she has done to reduce water usage, but also how she kept her garden thriving in this tough time.

1- Train your domestic worker if necessary as to what changes you are going to make.

2- Keep a plastic basin in the sink and wash basins to collect the water from hand washing, vegetable rinsing which can then be used to flush toilets or water pots and garden. Make sure they are the right size to fit in the basins and sink without restricting water flow. Obviously can also be kept in basin throughout the day for regular hand washing.

3- When bathing, shaving, showering, turn off water while soaping, brushing teeth or shampooing etc.

4- Keep buckets in bathroom to collect water from basin, bath and shower for garden and toilet.

5- If doing the "yellow/brown thing". Keep the lid down to dissuade flies.

6- Hygiene is most important at this time.

7- Cut down on electrical usage.

8- The water used for cooking veggies is also good on the garden.

9- I do not agree that showering uses less than a bath. Depends on how you do it. My bath is 2 buckets max and washes everything necessary, using a hand shower every 3 days for hair washing.

10- Mark the bath at 10cm and dont fill any higher. As the children get older they may prefer to have individual baths and this way you will still use less.



11- Catching rainwater from the gutters is the greatest help for me. Aunty R has now got a large tank and Uncle D has connected a pump to the outlet tap so she can use a hose and doesnt have to carry buckets. The tank is obviously on a plynth to enable all this.

12- Use a steamer (3 tiered) for vegs as this uses less water and electricity.

13- Use a plastic cupful of water per person for cleaning teeth instead of running water.

14- Get 2 sink strainers that rest over the plughole to catch all debris. This helps the water purification plant use less water in the cleaning process. We must all think beyond our own immediate area of use.

15- Fill a 1litre plastic milk bottle with sand, clean exterior and seal. Place in toilet cistern to reduce amount of water used to flush.

17- Report any leaks seen when walking or driving around. the council really appreciates this.If nothing is done nag, nag, nag.

18- If you have taps with the lever type handle wrap an elastic band around the handle and tap which then forms an automatic shutoff while soaping etc.


Other water saving ideas are here.

A pond update

After work on Saturday and today our pond is looking good.

All the offcuts from the fences we used to make a border. It took a while, but we got a little production line going and measured and cut the pieces to 40cm, next one marked two wholes 10cm apart, the next one drilled the holes, then we thread them onto two lengths of wire. This used up all the uneven offcuts and made a bendable border for these curvy edges.

I took all the pot bound plants that were in the back paved area and planted them around the pond. Not quite water plants but my budget is spent and we must make do. I also planted some marigold and sunflower seeds around the pond.

My mom will bring me some of her tadpoles next week...then I want to get 2 plants to put in the pond.

These are the last two beds that we completed on Saturday while the boys laid the gravel. I have planted a grapevine to grow along the fence in the first along with salads. The tripod has cucmbers planted at the 4 corners.

The right hand bed in the picture has celery, beans, leeks and beets and butternut to grow up the tripod. Right at the fence I have 2 loofahs planted.

And now, the beds are all full...so we wait.....