Food........

Today the discussion at Rhonda's is about Food....

Now here's a subject every-one knows about and have there

own views on....and i for one love food, eating, growing, cooking you name I love it..

Here at The Old Dairy I try to grow a lot of our

fruit and vegs.....Last year we had to remove all of our old

fruit trees as they were in continual shade..I replaced them in

a different spot that will always have sun.....

I am growing mandarins, oranges, mango,grapefruit, lemon, lime these trees

have only been in the ground 12months and will take time to produce fruit.. I also

have macadamia nut trees, passion fruit,pineapples....

I try to grow my own veges, but have found this year not a great success with

my brassicas, they have been eaten by grubs..not to mention the odd cow!!!!

Tomatoes, capsicum, beans, peas and eggplant have all done well this year,

as well as the lettuce......I always have herbs growing and they continue to

self seed each year....I also have a good group of lemon grass.....I just remembered

I dug it all out when I was pruning and forgot to plant some!!!!!!!

No more lemon grass tea for me then! (O.k just ran outside an found

a piece with roots on it and have stuck it in water.....)

When I do buy fruit and veges I mostly get them from the local markets.

I also have family that works farms so I get a lot of free produce from

them...It is not organic though.....

The one thing we have done that I had planned to do

was to butcher our own beef.....I know what this cow has eaten and where

it has been so I know what I am feeding my family.....
Yes we had to get a large deep freezer to store but with the price of meat

we will soon make that up....I have noticed that I am saving $50-$70 each

week now that I don't buy meat....I still buy fish and chicken though.

I do stockpile food so as far as having an emergency I no

that I could go for weeks without having to shop....

I am blessed that I have a larger than average sized pantry but I also have a large family.

We also have our chickens for eggs, which we eat daily and feed all our food scraps

to, again I know what is going into my chickens.

Goals......

I want to grow a lot more food in my garden.
I would love for my garden to be more of an edible garden.

I know that I need to go back to companion planting, especially for the brassicas

as I know that this works.

I also need to start collecting my own seeds and growing more from

seeds and not buy so many seedlings...

Bake more.....these last few weeks I have been buying more

and more biscuits and cakes from the shops.....

To buy organic chicken and better quality fish.....

These are the more important areas for me....I am sure you have different needs.

As far as the no spending is going, I forgot about pocket money!

The children have been busy doing lots of jobs

to earn pocket money and today Robbie has been invited

to the circus with a friend who has a spare ticket. He wants his

hard earned cash to take with him...So today I am handing over the$20

that I owe him.....How are you doing with the challenge? It's not as

cut and dried as I thought it would be. I love learning experiences though and I

know that this will certainly be that.....

Enjoy your week-end....

I am of to plant that Lemon grass in a pot.

Here's hoping it will grow...

Blessings to all...

Mandy