tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-319815112024-03-13T13:26:39.485+13:00Our Wee FarmLaura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.comBlogger1019125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-45209067825809539282021-01-14T18:39:00.005+13:002021-01-14T18:42:14.529+13:00<p><b><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: large;"> well.... hello!</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone is still even remotely interested in what we've been getting up to....</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://coddiwomple-van.blogspot.com/?view=magazine">CODDIWOMPLE VAN!!!!!</a></p><p>Hopefully see you over there! </p>Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-30170772771822305512018-03-05T10:10:00.001+13:002018-03-05T10:10:52.441+13:00Happy Birthday... to me!!Today is my birthday. <div>
Yesterday I had a dinner at the local yacht club which is conveniently 1 minute from our house!</div>
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I'm not a party person, my close friends will tell you that. In fact my favourite way to spend time with friends is to have a couple over for dinner and chill. Large groups of people is not my thing. However, this was a big birthday and I really wanted to celebrate it. So we had a very chilled, laid back, casual dinner. I loved it, I was so glad I did it, and I really love my friends. ( but most of all Lloyd <3 )</div>
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No surprise I made my own cake!</div>
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Good old vanilla sponge with buttercream and strawberry jam filling. Then go to town on the decorating. Bung on more buttercream, chuck in a few macarons, lots of little vanilla meringues, some fresh strawberries a few roses and other bits and bobs and you have a pretty lovely cake... yes, I am now 50. How did that happen?</div>
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Here's a few pics of the party. I know it's a bit corny, but I feel incredibly lucky to have the friends I do. We moved to NZ not knowing a soul and now I consider these friends, family. How cool is that!</div>
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This was my favourite one! I reckon I could still get away with it.<br />
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Forecast today was severe weather warning with thunder storms and masses of rain - woke up to this.</div>
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Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-25777689287869349692018-02-28T18:19:00.000+13:002018-02-28T18:19:21.178+13:00Should I stay or should I go?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few days ago I needed to find a recipe that I hadn't used in ages, so I thought the quickest way to do it would be to check here.<br />
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I did.<br />
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Then I realised that over the years I've written this I regularly check back to see what we did when, look at how best a certain veggie grew, find an old recipe. All sorts of things! I'd been happy enough to keep it like an old diary, an archive of a life gone, gathering dust on a shelf! But today I realised I missed it. I missed writing. I missed being able to look back and check what we were doing last month. I think Facebook has taken over as a snapshot in time, but I'd like to start writing this again and see where it takes us. I'm guessing dogs, Lloyd, baking, food, water stuff, sewing and life!<br />
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So here I am.<br />
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A quick catch up!<br />
An awful lot has happened in the last 2 years.<br />
We are completely settled over on the coast and loving every second of it. The farm is a distant, but happy memory. We don't miss the incredibly hard work it was, we miss the animals, but not the enormous responsibility that came with them. I miss my chickens and often think about getting more, but one of the reasons for selling the farm was to simplify life and so far I've resisted temptation.<br />
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I think the dogs probably miss the space more than we do, but they're getting on a bit now. Bob is 15 1/2, Lulah is 10 and going grey. Sadly and completely unexpectedly we lost Wee Brodie just before Christmas. He had cancer. Thankfully for him he was in no pain until the last 2 weeks, which meant that we were unaware that there was even anything wrong. Two of the most anal dog parents, who rush our animals to the vet for a splinter, and there was just nothing to show what was going on inside of our wee man. It's been almost three months now, and we haven't got over it, we still cry, we're still heart broken.<br />
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Last year was a toughie - I also lost my Dad in January. I don't think there is anything that prepares you for the actuality of losing a parent. I have friends who's dad or mum has died and I've been terribly sympathetic, but I had absolutely no idea what it was like until it happened to me. I had the best dad and for this I feel lucky, but I miss him. We're still going through a lot of firsts - first Christmas, first dad's birthday...</div>
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So it would be fair to say that even though lots of lovely things happened last year - I'm sure they did - It was a year I was happy to say goodbye to.</div>
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Coastal living suits us extremely well.</div>
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It's warmer over here than it was at the farm and also drier and sunnier. We wake up every morning and look out at the view and even now, still pinch ourselves that this amazing, beautiful place is where we live.</div>
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So, some stuff we've been up to...</div>
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Lloyd acted in a play and had one of the main parts, we went to Bali and had to come home early because a volcano was about to erupt ( which was after the holiday had been delayed by a day because our plane was struck by lightning and we had to go back to Auckland!), I had a close encounter with dolphins, lots of sewing has been completed in my wee sewing room, we went to Brisbane, I played roller derby, we celebrated birthdays, Banana cat is still going strong, we did a lot of boating, I went to Scotland, Lloyd went to the Uk, mum came over twice, once for 2 months, Lloyd and Bob were almost on TV, fires were lit, movies were watched, cakes were baked, time has been spent with friends, concerts have been attended, plays have been seen, time's been spent with family.... so, a quick catch up and 2 years in photos!</div>
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<br />Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-89019249167636797522016-01-22T19:01:00.000+13:002016-01-22T19:01:35.765+13:00ChurrosSo, a couple of days ago we were having a lazy day. It was drizzling rain so we were making the most of an enforced day of being inside. All of a sudden I said, I fancy churros!<br />
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After a wee Pinterest search I came to the conclusion that they were actually super easy to make.<br />
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I decided on this one...<br />
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 cup water</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2 Tbsp. vegetable oil</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">½ tsp. salt</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 cup flour</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(½ cup sugar)</span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(1 Tbsp. cinnamon)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">see! easy peasy. The sugar and the cinnamon in brackets are for covering the finished churros in. This recipe called for no sugar at all in the actual batter. All the other ones I found did have some sugar in them, so I bunged in about a t-spoon.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Recipe </span></span></h3>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 21px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 1</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pour 1 cup of water into a pan, preferably one with a thicker bottom. Set the heat to medium.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 2</span></span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 21px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Add your oil.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 3</span></span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 21px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the water comes to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and add the flour and salt. Stir. It gets a wee bit gooey, but just keep stirring. It will form quite a solid, glossy ball.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Step 4</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Set the pot aside so that the dough can cool before you handle it.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 21px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Heat your frying oil on medium (180C/350ºF), in either a large pot or a frying pan with raised sides.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 21px;">
I have loads of piping bags and piping tips - I used the largest star tip I had. I tried to pipe the dough out, but it was pretty solid! So i ended up just pushing it through the nozzle by hand. This worked fine, and I'd be loathe to change the texture of the dough at all because the end result was so brilliant.</div>
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You'll need to cook them till golden brown - they will colour more still once they're out of the pan, so go for lighter rather than darker. Roll them around in the cinnamon sugar and voila. These were totally delicious!<br />
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Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-45764533986387715362016-01-19T09:36:00.000+13:002016-01-19T09:36:44.846+13:00Hello!well, work is finished on the house!<br />
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We started the outside work at the beginning of May. So, just the end of autumn. It ( as usual!) turned into a much, much bigger job, partly because so much <strike>lovely soil</strike> clay had to be removed to make the area under the house flat for the new room, the council takes FOREVER, and also some wee bits and pieces were changed. In the end pretty much the whole back garden had to be relandscaped, a retaining wall built and the whole area of grass reseeded! For me this was actually more stressful than the actual building work. The building all went really smoothly, passing each council inspection with flying colours. Our builders were great. Lovely guys and not a problem to have around the place at all.<br />
So, plan - widen the deck substantially, build stairs down to the new room and build a new room and bathroom under the house.<br />
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The digger arrived and the digging started. More and more dirt piled up...<br />
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Pretty early on it was clear that we'd have to come up with a plan for what we were going to do with all this muck!</div>
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While the digging was going on, framework for various bits and pieces started to go up. Some for the stairs, some for the deck extension... the concrete pad was prepared.</div>
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Posts for the deck extension were concreted in.</div>
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Then the concrete was poured and after a few days it was hard - we had a floor! Lloyd celebrated by jumping for joy...</div>
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I, on the other hand, had a skate!</div>
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It felt like we were flying along. It was all going to plan and nice and quickly at that.</div>
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The deck was going up</div>
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The ships railing worked perfectly</div>
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I thought my painting balustrade days were over - I was wrong.</div>
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My raised beds went in, which was great, but time was marching on, we were heading to the UK for a few weeks and had hoped it would all be finished by then. But that was not to be. Things had slowed down a smidge. But, bit by bit we were still getting things done. The rain wasn't helping much! Where oh where had the garden gone!!</div>
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We went on holiday, it was Lloyd's dads 80th birthday, so we planned a trip around that and disappeared for almost 4 weeks. Our poor house sitters had no garden whatsoever, but they didn't seem phased at all. When we left this was where we were at. Room walls up, I'd got the first coat of paint on. Deck pretty much finished. Garden trashed.</div>
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So, we went to the Uk, caught up with friends, family. had a lovely time, went to Kuala Lumpur and then came home. Some work had been done while we were gone which was great. It was all getting there.</div>
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Now the floor needed to be prepared for sealing. I spent hours scrubbing it. Not that much fun actually!</div>
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worth it, though! This back wall is a cinema screen.</div>
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The work was on the final stretch now.</div>
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After a few weeks the grass started sprouting - we threw bag after bag of seed around!</div>
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The veggies are growing...</div>
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And this is what it's all about, Christmas Eve, friends round, Love Actually on the screen and good food. It was SO worth it.</div>
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And...6am Christmas day. View from the new deck.</div>
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bliss.</div>
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Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-82379512211704032362015-05-31T07:54:00.000+12:002015-05-31T07:54:33.125+12:00A new Venture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Pm1Hw0_ERqSW2V_laPIPcMuuuNj5dzJRMf9MC6uB562H6APKYyRR_AcAZdul8vMY7N1BdRCZAydx8enlq-INtI2rcIdoAmhw9l61CCgXN4q1sZBWswd0NqocEX-HIWnta_zO/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-05-31+at+7.50.29+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Pm1Hw0_ERqSW2V_laPIPcMuuuNj5dzJRMf9MC6uB562H6APKYyRR_AcAZdul8vMY7N1BdRCZAydx8enlq-INtI2rcIdoAmhw9l61CCgXN4q1sZBWswd0NqocEX-HIWnta_zO/s640/Screen+Shot+2015-05-31+at+7.50.29+am.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now that I have no farm, no gigantic garden, no greenhouse, no mowing, no weeding and all the million outdoor things I used to have to do, I need a job! I've started up a wee cake business.<br />
My preferred thing to do would obviously be cupcakes! But I also love cake decorating.<br />
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I've set up a wee facebook page - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yummypixiecakes" target="_blank">Pixie Cakes</a>. Lovely Lloyd came up with the name, and I love it.<br />
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So, if you're a local New Zealander, or even if you're not, check out the page, like it if you want, and look at pretty pictures of cakes!<br />
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Even Banana helps. No He doesn't really!!</div>
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<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-39464574125448297952015-04-13T08:55:00.000+12:002015-04-13T22:13:47.305+12:00A birthday cakeIt was Ali's birthday this week. Her mum asked me if I'd make a cake for her party and of course I said I'd love to!<br />
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Ali and I both spend a lot of time looking after the monarch butterflies and caterpillars and have planted swan plants especially for them to have food, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a cake based on this. I've made Lloyd's birthday cake before, and of course lots of cupcakes, but I've never taken on quite such an extravaganza before!<br />
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I started about a week before the party making the flowers. Lots of fondant flowers!<br />
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I love making fondant decorations.<br />
These are done with fondant cutters, then you use tools to shape out the petals and stuff. Great fun!<br />
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I had also taken a photograph of some flowers and sent this down to Auckland to get put onto an edible transfer. My idea had been to then cut out the flowers individually and stick them all over the cake. I didn't realise that there would be a slight raised edge round each flower if I did it this way, so I changed plans and just used one of the sheets and stuck it on top of the top tier of the cake. </div>
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Anyway! back to the actual cakes. </div>
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I made a large, bottom cake - Sicilian Orange cake - the same recipe as <a href="http://ourweefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/gigantic-birthday-cakes.html" target="_blank">I used for Lloyd's cake</a>. Which worked a treat. It had marmalade and orange buttercream as the filling.</div>
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For the smaller top cake I made a rich chocolate cake, using the recipe that<a href="http://ourweefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/easter-cupcakes.html" target="_blank"> I make chocolate cupcakes from </a>. I put strawberry buttercream in the middle of it. </div>
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Then it was time for the fondant covering. To make the fondant stick to the cake, you need to cover it ( the cake!) in a syrup, easiest way is to take some jam and melt it, then paint it over the cake. Let it cool, then cover in fondant. </div>
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Here it is with the flowers and the topper on. Oh and some butterflies! </div>
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I decided it wasn't quite enough yet, so I made some monarch caterpillars. These were a right bugger to paint, and I had to make their antennae out of bits of cocktail sticks painted black with food colouring! Shame really, as I wanted all of it to be edible!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDLyHokrNC_vZvGowd2PXDuao8BKHhZBfBrytowHDwDTtMHC04MTtjlYh9MgDq43RDSk2Uez90E-qbK73Ph9lkyCkVUQciAxTVv5bIrbHo2Q5RIznnSo4DJAb7gwejeXTQ5QH/s1600/IMG_7477.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDLyHokrNC_vZvGowd2PXDuao8BKHhZBfBrytowHDwDTtMHC04MTtjlYh9MgDq43RDSk2Uez90E-qbK73Ph9lkyCkVUQciAxTVv5bIrbHo2Q5RIznnSo4DJAb7gwejeXTQ5QH/s1600/IMG_7477.jpg" /></a></div>
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The finished cake looked like this.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkTkvmcKf_xoLUH5FzArADTahIQChGIPrOGuCtt5_cj0QKs1xev_wzUBEXx4OAMZJF9YJkfplgUStei49vK6dCihU3SchvmQaFPOk3J_oqOZF7__56WJN6iIU_8YJU5stmPNP/s1600/IMG_7484.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkTkvmcKf_xoLUH5FzArADTahIQChGIPrOGuCtt5_cj0QKs1xev_wzUBEXx4OAMZJF9YJkfplgUStei49vK6dCihU3SchvmQaFPOk3J_oqOZF7__56WJN6iIU_8YJU5stmPNP/s1600/IMG_7484.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOP9zOMX3NjoiTBpd9vzH0vFJRnA9VynZJYdbcHDwBlMtYjwAm1y0KSWO91M__QpCdJk7cm0lHpqj2yDanaCe8pG2isZYY-pFl7yob_Ak-ZSD3HGlOrnbnZQHA9cxsr8_n9yf/s1600/IMG_7485.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOP9zOMX3NjoiTBpd9vzH0vFJRnA9VynZJYdbcHDwBlMtYjwAm1y0KSWO91M__QpCdJk7cm0lHpqj2yDanaCe8pG2isZYY-pFl7yob_Ak-ZSD3HGlOrnbnZQHA9cxsr8_n9yf/s1600/IMG_7485.jpg" /></a></div>
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I was really pleased with it. Ali loved it, and that's the important part!<br />
<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-42541321249517448722015-04-08T08:40:00.001+12:002015-04-08T08:40:43.173+12:00Cushions!When we put our furniture into the new house the old sofa didn't go at all. This surprised us as it's white and large, but it looks like someone has just dumped an unmade bed in the livingroom. We were pretty sad about this, as we love that sofa!<br />
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Anyway, we ordered a new one. Went down to Auckland a few weeks ago to look at some, as we'd seen them online and the price seemed too good to be true, we were sure they would be totally rubbish! But no, they are lovely, and you can choose different fabrics and different legs etc. So we got one and it should be arriving in the next couple of weeks.<br />
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It's a very grown up sofa compared to the old one but it needs a couple of cushions, so I decided to go to Whangarei yesterday and get some not grown up fabric to make some. ( The old sofa will go downstairs into the new room once it gets built, so it won't be leaving us!)<br />
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I didn't want to make my usual easy peasy envelope cushions. I really wanted to go to town - piping, invisible zips... you name it! Only problem, I've never done piping or invisible zips before. I did a search and found a few tutorials - which I didn't really understand - but went for it anyway.<br />
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I can't give instructions, as the zips were a total trial and error! The piping was great though. Very simple.<br />
Just make a bias binding and hide the cord inside it!<br />
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Here they are!<br />
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A wee bit smooshy round the corners, but not too bad. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Rr6lK0_gCImofFBCQSjhyphenhyphenLYZe3X16gVEj75PSaFHc6gCgAVbcYeRHDmTFMriILKnXw9E4EBnwjC9rCmsh1oFAzfC-2dJlYwTsnNxGefyLie_SSv5MlKCSgqX3IIg_d6CL_O3/s1600/IMG_7405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Rr6lK0_gCImofFBCQSjhyphenhyphenLYZe3X16gVEj75PSaFHc6gCgAVbcYeRHDmTFMriILKnXw9E4EBnwjC9rCmsh1oFAzfC-2dJlYwTsnNxGefyLie_SSv5MlKCSgqX3IIg_d6CL_O3/s1600/IMG_7405.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Nice round the edges, though.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-gofVOW0rWABhKyEZLhimtSYCpNCpJ4Htb5dKVS9mxQrKIFYMkzi6JZrdEOdHGVhP2XzG67QpX1nV-He0ynLONQ_rHV1xySWk5GEarNRlJu0YKgPEWwfvMaYR92J8HVF9c4t/s1600/IMG_7406.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-gofVOW0rWABhKyEZLhimtSYCpNCpJ4Htb5dKVS9mxQrKIFYMkzi6JZrdEOdHGVhP2XzG67QpX1nV-He0ynLONQ_rHV1xySWk5GEarNRlJu0YKgPEWwfvMaYR92J8HVF9c4t/s1600/IMG_7406.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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And the invisible zip! Quite invisible. (This was the second one! First one not so good!) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4NAS65EgV36LoThbc9tyD-9SzPLBALfzcT62TqJjt2RjORgFjckMldZKX5jP3tHh-Tkyp4cWXC6z8aKvknoC4IQQ0TVGw65FBxuesJUn6vUOayDSD2Jap_opEDnOWb4c2cA7y/s1600/IMG_7408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4NAS65EgV36LoThbc9tyD-9SzPLBALfzcT62TqJjt2RjORgFjckMldZKX5jP3tHh-Tkyp4cWXC6z8aKvknoC4IQQ0TVGw65FBxuesJUn6vUOayDSD2Jap_opEDnOWb4c2cA7y/s1600/IMG_7408.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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They're pretty big, bigger than I planned, perhaps, so I really hope they go.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-isY3BJMuXOMwoLR-TStOXhJZvd79BC_guYTXdhhDfeKbjbVUdWMu6sdFvhapTLFs-n3YRmhMQMlmrmnVM_4x2-ANS9eYxcDqsybDf7xeIcBWBgfH7M-ishMZ7lfq3BqAiJl/s1600/IMG_7409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-isY3BJMuXOMwoLR-TStOXhJZvd79BC_guYTXdhhDfeKbjbVUdWMu6sdFvhapTLFs-n3YRmhMQMlmrmnVM_4x2-ANS9eYxcDqsybDf7xeIcBWBgfH7M-ishMZ7lfq3BqAiJl/s1600/IMG_7409.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeRRzm5CoKWK5UD2qM0xvMpQN_KYAltFHu78PAZn3boAXoOf6VHF7LODYe6GKQpa7njskswu9tYQ1r3kaeEofUm3jyCuFIkh6c-8vteq0VIA8TRjtCkxFJEKr_bRattyl9k0JT/s1600/IMG_7412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeRRzm5CoKWK5UD2qM0xvMpQN_KYAltFHu78PAZn3boAXoOf6VHF7LODYe6GKQpa7njskswu9tYQ1r3kaeEofUm3jyCuFIkh6c-8vteq0VIA8TRjtCkxFJEKr_bRattyl9k0JT/s1600/IMG_7412.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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For now I've just put them on our bed! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ToehaX2zuySrZX-L_vzLnAdVWLJ304od8qV8y10fv3IGa6OfbQfnF2r7xyJV-mfzqH9cYzZuNVlYXaSNSReC3rMQ6_JH-sb-rRqNDtalxd2Kbk-Pt2-G8xxNM1mQoYUjGOsU/s1600/IMG_7415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ToehaX2zuySrZX-L_vzLnAdVWLJ304od8qV8y10fv3IGa6OfbQfnF2r7xyJV-mfzqH9cYzZuNVlYXaSNSReC3rMQ6_JH-sb-rRqNDtalxd2Kbk-Pt2-G8xxNM1mQoYUjGOsU/s1600/IMG_7415.jpg" height="320" width="640" /></a></div>
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Have to say, I am missing the wee Pip. I really need somewhere to sew that's not the dining room table. The power socket nearest isn't really that near, so it's a total hazard! Almost garrotted Brodie and my machine was in danger of taking a flyer! </div>
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It'll be lovely when the council give us the go ahead to start the building work. </div>
Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-78827567670797200172015-04-02T16:00:00.001+13:002015-04-03T17:53:49.271+13:00Easter Cupcakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xq_jxSOXvVHjIx10H1xpiOwRGGORDZlL1A9j8rvWXi0GCLvpxLCq7vuvdfIQP-IMy6Pjqa5yX5hvustA1fwjYjy5Z0tBBVR7PhnJM8hwsRGv61X-5ibLrwSF3WaB1xMX-jbO/s1600/IMG_7372.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xq_jxSOXvVHjIx10H1xpiOwRGGORDZlL1A9j8rvWXi0GCLvpxLCq7vuvdfIQP-IMy6Pjqa5yX5hvustA1fwjYjy5Z0tBBVR7PhnJM8hwsRGv61X-5ibLrwSF3WaB1xMX-jbO/s1600/IMG_7372.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Tomorrow is Good Friday and Lloyd has the day off. Hopefully we are going out boating with R&V, but if this falls through we'll probably go to Matauri Bay for a bit of surfing. I tried boogie boarding last weekend and adored it. Lloyd bought me a board and I'm desperate to try it out. Regardless of what we end up doing, I wanted to make some easter cupcakes to share. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I went for rich chocolate with vanilla buttercream icing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I used this recipe - which you can halve if you don't want to make as many. I tend to make a full batch and freeze half. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">INGREDIENTS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2 cups sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 3/4 cups all purpose flour</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 teaspoon salt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2 eggs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 cup whole milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1/2 cup vegetable oil</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1 cup boiling water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Directions-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Line tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 180C</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Into the Kitchen Aid (or mixer!) bung together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Stir in boiling water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fill papers 2/3 full with batter. ( use one of those old fashioned ice cream scoops)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxRtY2fR1fsiDuVd331Xgn1F05Yx8tcCQFvK6n79EYQ-2P4fAuvV-ddMnscs0EuRIB9TqdgWc_WMa8rLhGtLUAlfLOLhk8y1uUZ_dqEhCKiHAsHCVsCFQnMmlncudA-hwK4ja/s1600/IMG_0162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxRtY2fR1fsiDuVd331Xgn1F05Yx8tcCQFvK6n79EYQ-2P4fAuvV-ddMnscs0EuRIB9TqdgWc_WMa8rLhGtLUAlfLOLhk8y1uUZ_dqEhCKiHAsHCVsCFQnMmlncudA-hwK4ja/s1600/IMG_0162.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bake cupcakes for about 18-22 minutes. ( mine took 16)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.</span></div>
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I used my tried and tested vanilla buttercream recipe </div>
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<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></li>
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">220g salted butter, softened</span></li>
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4 cups icing sugar</span></li>
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2 teaspoons vanilla extract</span></li>
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2 to 5 teaspoons of cream or milk - for this recipe I didn't use any milk, it took that much green food colouring!</span></li>
<li class="ingredient" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Again, you can scale this down. Or just make a huge batch - I bake so often I just make lots and freeze any leftover.</span></li>
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I used the wilton tip with all the holes in it to make the grass. The wee eggs are bought ones. I thought about making some tiny white fondant flowers as well, but thought that might be overkill so left them as they were.<br />
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Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-87518230103208610112015-03-27T11:45:00.000+13:002015-03-27T11:45:56.479+13:00Things are much calmer nowWe have really settled in beautifully. Lulah has assumed her position on top of her dad.<br />
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Banana has assumed his position on the most expensive piece of furniture we own, obviously!<br />
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And I have finally had some time in the kitchen. Friends of ours have just moved up from Auckland and something that makes this even more lovely is that they have a sweet chestnut tree in the garden. ( The one Lloyd and I planted at the farm didn't have time to give us even a single chestnut - so I hope the new owners like them!) I plundered their garden and within about 5 minutes had filled a carrier bag. I shared it with Simon and Ali and pretty much ate all my share at one sitting!</div>
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Sweet Chestnuts remind me of my childhood. Dad used to get them, boil them then roast them on a shovel over our coal fire. When they were done we tipped them onto newspaper on the floor, opened them ( burning our fingers!), sprinkled them with salt and scarfed them down. </div>
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I couldn't quite replicate this, I just did them on the stove top in a pan! But they tasted almost as good. </div>
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I've also attempted macarons again. I had lost the knack completely. They still tasted lovely, but either cracked a bit, had no feet, were hollow, or all three! I reckoned new house, new oven, give it a go again. First lot were fine; No cracks, but no feet. However they were blooming tasty. I made apple shells and filled them with blue cheese buttercream - do not knock this until you've tried it! And yeah, they had glitter on them.<br />
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Second batch I tried something completely new. I've always made them with the french recipe. This time I tried them by making an Italian meringue. Supposedly this is a more stable way of doing it. Meh! About half of them had feet and half of them were cracked. However there is one big difference - they are a much more fluffy texture inside - not hollow at all. Less sweet and very delicious. I'm definitely trying this way again, oven temp lower and let them dry out for a lot longer before putting in the oven. I'll keep you posted!<br />
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These were chocolate shells and strawberry buttercream filling. They were also lovely.<br />
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I've also been gardening! bahahahaa! It's a somewhat smaller scale here. I took white hydrangea cuttings and gardenia cuttings before we left the farm. I have plans to rip out some ugly ground cover stuff and put gardenias and some hibiscus down the side of the front garden. </div>
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Finally, woke up to this today. Whats not to love?</div>
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Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-80943961580958030912015-03-20T18:00:00.002+13:002015-03-20T22:33:27.846+13:00A new header, for a new startLong time readers please bear with me while I work out what I'm going to do!<br />
I don't want to start a whole new blog as I love this one, it's got history in the many, many pages I've written over the years. Ten years to be precise! So, I'm keeping the web address as it is. It just won't be about Our Wee Farm any more as the Wee Farm is no longer ours.<br />
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We settled today. Oddly it was quite bittersweet. I thought that once the money was in the bank I'd feel happy, relief that it had all gone smoothly, which of course, I do! But it just feels ...odd! Good, but odd. I had a major meltdown on Wednesday night when I drove down the lovely driveway for the last time. I reversed back, shone the headlights right onto Darroch Cottage and just howled.<br />
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But, on to new things.<br />
There will still be baking.<br />
There will still be a wee bit of gardening.<br />
There will still be veggies (once I get my raised bed made)<br />
There will be a lot of outside building work once that starts.<br />
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I hope you stick around to enjoy it with us.<br />
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As one of my friends just said "What a blast that was." Wasn't it just.<br />
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<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-20544270110086004622015-03-09T13:28:00.002+13:002015-03-09T13:28:22.116+13:00Goodbye Our Wee Farm, hello SpindriftOfficially we don't leave the farm until next Friday, but over the last few weeks we have moved everything out. It was absolutely exhausting. We have done about 15 tip trips, donated a van load of stuff to charity, sold furniture and given some away. Moving from a farm with the equivalent of three houses to one smallish house is no mean feat. And we did it all ourselves. No moving company, no moving truck, just us and our wee trailer!<br />
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We have just moved into the new house and are simply loving it. Waking up to the view every morning, being close to all our friends - its amazing. We still have to go back to the farm every couple of days to weed, mow and make sure everything is safe, but because the move has been so drawn out I haven't felt the sadness I thought I would. Perhaps we're simply too exhausted to feel much right now!<br />
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We worked very hard on the new house for a few weeks. We painted, ripped carpets out, laid a new floor, redid the kitchen and lots of other bits and bobs. It was all very good fun.<br />
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So prepare yourselves for lots of photos!!<br />
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Here's our new view - gorgeous.<br />
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This was the first day of work. The carpets were all lifted, then the underlay, then about a million staples were removed from the floor.</div>
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The kitchen floor had cork tiles which had been glued down with the strongest substance known to man. It took hours of hard work to get them completely off.</div>
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Once that was done it was cleaned and swept in readiness for the new bamboo flooring being laid.</div>
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While that was going on inside, a fence was being put around part of the garden outside. We've moved to an area where there are a lot of kiwis and we need to keep them safe from the dogs. So, fence it is! </div>
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<br />Here it is all finished. Nice wee gate leading down through the native bush to the reserve at the water. </div>
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Kitchen being hauled out. The design was good, so we kept it, but got it all resprayed. We also extended the island part, put in a new sink etc and new worktops.</div>
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By this stage it was all looking rather chaotic! But very surprisingly none of it was stressful at all.</div>
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We'd taken off all the skirting boards so that we could lay the new floor properly. I had to paint 120m worth of new skirting. It took a long time! We also repainted the whole inside of the house and new flooring in the bathroom.<br />
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The bamboo flooring had been held up, but finally arrived a couple of days late. This guy was a total star. This stuff weighed 1.5 tonnes!<br />
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We laid the whole floor over 2 days. We had a bit of hassle with the edging trim. When it arrived in NZ MAF found some weevils in the packaging, so the whole shipment had to be destroyed. Which was somewhat of a nightmare for us! But the company were able to send us up enough wee bits so that we could insert them where we needed so at least we had the right measurements to work from. Lloyd and Ali look like they're praying to the floor gods for inspiration!<br />
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The bamboo flooring looking like it's almost finished.</div>
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The kitchen arrived back all beautifully painted. A new glass splash back was put in. New cooker and dishwasher. And this amazing new light!</div>
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No idea why Lulah is tired - it's not like she helped or anything!<br />
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We look at this most evenings.</div>
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So now we are in, and the inside is finished. We are waiting for the plans for the outside work to be approved by council. Once that's done that work will start. It's a biggie, but we're not doing this ourselves!!<br />
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We LOVE it more that we thought we could in such a short time. I think we've never been so bone tired in our lives. ( this might have something to do with the fact that we're sleeping on a mattress on the floor!)<br />
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<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-30051058612623994802015-01-19T12:42:00.000+13:002015-01-19T12:42:56.257+13:00Lloyd's mum and dad are here.We have been enjoying the most amazing weather since they arrived, which somehow always makes things even more lovely.<br />
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Been doing a lot of exploring, wandering around and eating!<br />
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Lloyd, Alan and Penny up at Mangonui. A big favourite.</div>
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At Marsden Estate and Winery</div>
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The view down Kerikeri inlet, Lloyd and Penny were off to do a 10km hike up to Rainbow Falls. Alan and I did not :)<br />
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A stunning trip out to the Hokianga - one of my favourite places in the world. The Copthorne did us proud, as usual.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bCv_pcFZE5-9uVAA78-NcIfpehyphenhyphenUUbdD8zIh-DYEgFrPDf62q5MqUB5POHkmUNLaj-4tkmTEMA9ljziw2EgOTczSQ52-1JohXLtJ2TRarAvcoeddrQH06SgxRRwY-m8jp4nE/s1600/IMG_9798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bCv_pcFZE5-9uVAA78-NcIfpehyphenhyphenUUbdD8zIh-DYEgFrPDf62q5MqUB5POHkmUNLaj-4tkmTEMA9ljziw2EgOTczSQ52-1JohXLtJ2TRarAvcoeddrQH06SgxRRwY-m8jp4nE/s1600/IMG_9798.jpg" height="490" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_GEOtRqodPhuxdgc7JpXUW_PMwAF2xrSsyVDIJW4oQ6h9xAEAs5GRXFmKMYglTGvjHTVTyivtwTRo6pwDJj0GrOUtNFEV-XlgCcGccJGIv4XDhTiOnlGEDCkbN7r4AtkcUuS/s1600/IMG_9802.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_GEOtRqodPhuxdgc7JpXUW_PMwAF2xrSsyVDIJW4oQ6h9xAEAs5GRXFmKMYglTGvjHTVTyivtwTRo6pwDJj0GrOUtNFEV-XlgCcGccJGIv4XDhTiOnlGEDCkbN7r4AtkcUuS/s1600/IMG_9802.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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There's been a bit of Whisky tasting...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAa-rn-i3B8pe9Z2nZdLFuz3V-V8WQBFLoBmc73CYugnbyp7x0DAWgwZDFnb1kClrR3peV7lKBcwt0Sz4jXvhuu1kTctse0x_ojPIOOuqrkNzsvMKO9M11bHl59ziqZNUcooz7/s1600/IMG_9813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAa-rn-i3B8pe9Z2nZdLFuz3V-V8WQBFLoBmc73CYugnbyp7x0DAWgwZDFnb1kClrR3peV7lKBcwt0Sz4jXvhuu1kTctse0x_ojPIOOuqrkNzsvMKO9M11bHl59ziqZNUcooz7/s1600/IMG_9813.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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And even I have had a drink!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHYz2ov_Sr_zNG4M3I_Mm47dijMTKWyOvBcZYZtpnIV0-HbtGVaLD7O3PMyn_i1gw2UYaSdb7-c-Aypr8SWwkm2h2wRqpc0FCRVaLlvb7Jx2hWBoBHaPIMkOMROyaRkYowoMK/s1600/IMG_9812.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHYz2ov_Sr_zNG4M3I_Mm47dijMTKWyOvBcZYZtpnIV0-HbtGVaLD7O3PMyn_i1gw2UYaSdb7-c-Aypr8SWwkm2h2wRqpc0FCRVaLlvb7Jx2hWBoBHaPIMkOMROyaRkYowoMK/s1600/IMG_9812.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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Tomorrow we take possession of our new house! There is a lot to do over the next few weeks, lift all the carpets, paint the whole house, lay a new floor and re-do the whole kitchen. It's going to be a very, very busy time!</div>
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<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-63666567616628353972015-01-13T08:35:00.002+13:002015-01-13T08:35:25.982+13:00Well hello!Big news Our Wee Farm has sold. So much for the "It'll probably take a year". It sold last month - in 6 weeks to be precise! We were, or perhaps I should say, I, was very surprised, and initially not at all ready!<br />
But I've had time to get used to the idea now and am getting very excited. The good thing is that we have bits and bobs to do to the new place so Lloyd and I have been making lists and organising painters, kitchen people, flooring and all sorts, and really can't wait now that it's all happening.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBOIag1eJsxSuKf7-kg1SlbiyEZWb1KVWPMctlGlC2Oox8gA3ZKIN8kYrS580M5irn4iXg_hH6wPy-A1fC2x38-Tj_QqMtszXJAcVqiwdUPrsQfoIjQUVJohkxcT8Rl8BGGhb/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-01-13+at+8.26.20+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBOIag1eJsxSuKf7-kg1SlbiyEZWb1KVWPMctlGlC2Oox8gA3ZKIN8kYrS580M5irn4iXg_hH6wPy-A1fC2x38-Tj_QqMtszXJAcVqiwdUPrsQfoIjQUVJohkxcT8Rl8BGGhb/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-01-13+at+8.26.20+am.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">It will be the end of an era for us, but I reckon my back will be thankful for the lack of mowing to be done at the new house.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">The people who have bought it are lovely. If we could have chosen the perfect people we would have chosen them. Also they didn't want to move in until towards the end of March which is perfect. We've got to spend a last Christmas and summer here. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">The timing is also perfect for us to get some of the big inside work done on the new house before we properly move in, which should make things a lot easier. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">That's all for now! But I will definitely keep this place going, and make an attempt to get back into the swing of it all. </span></div>
<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-84442098264090168342014-10-19T09:02:00.001+13:002015-04-03T17:54:19.325+13:00Gigantic birthday cakes...I think this is the longest break I've ever taken from writing. There's no excuse and no reason, it's just sort of happened!<br />
We are super busy right now. Our Wee Farm is up for sale. It went on the market 2 weeks ago. So far we've only had one viewing. It's just a waiting game - a waiting game where I feel that everything has to be immaculate all the time!<br />
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We had a long holiday in Rarotonga in September. It was absolutely wonderful, despite being incredibly sick for a few days near the beginning.<br />
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Here's a few holiday pics...<br />
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We spent hours in the water.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixX6MwjDyJ_rANo2LjUFZCKkBETYLRSNTbESdmnT51s3WTDIR1X3ijfaKU2J2aDy8gVQj83yg42wbqb7Q1lRUKRthAAd2Gxte0v27nv6Ln9l45USihNXPDX2YHlJXD48cYoUvP/s1600/IMG_0083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixX6MwjDyJ_rANo2LjUFZCKkBETYLRSNTbESdmnT51s3WTDIR1X3ijfaKU2J2aDy8gVQj83yg42wbqb7Q1lRUKRthAAd2Gxte0v27nv6Ln9l45USihNXPDX2YHlJXD48cYoUvP/s1600/IMG_0083.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hours on the beach...<br />
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and on the last day got a tattoo...<br />
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Last week it was Lloyd's birthday. We were invited over to NandS for a wee party with a few other friends. I made a birthday cake. Lloyd's only stipulation was could it please be an orange cake. So I ended up making the biggest orange cake in existence.<br />
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Here it is! It's always a bit nerve racking when you make a big cake like this, because you don't really get to taste it before!<br />
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I made TWO Sicilian Orange cakes ( so double these ingredients)</div>
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<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Ingredients</span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">250 g lightly salted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing</span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">250 g caster sugar</span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">4 medium eggs</span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest</span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">250 g self raising flour (i used plain flour and add 1 tsp of baking powder) </span><br />
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">85 ml freshly squeezed orange juice</span><br />
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<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Method</span></div>
<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 22-cm clip-sided round cake with non-stick baking paper.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Using the kitchen aid, cream the butter and sugar together for 4-5 minutes until very pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating very well between each one, if necessary adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Beat in the orange zest. Add the flour all at once and mix in well, then slowly mix in the orange juice.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of lightly buttered foil.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #716c59; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;">Leave the cake, in its tin, to cool on a wire rack, then carefully remove the sides and base of the tin and peel off the paper. Put it onto a serving plate.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">I used a lot more orange zest - than the recipe cos we wanted it really orangy. I mixed up a batch of buttercream ( adding in a little orange oil) then I put some marmalade and a bit of buttercream in the middle of the 2 cakes to form the sandwich. Then I covered the whole ( huge) cake in a thin layer of buttercream to seal it and keep it from getting crumbs in the main buttercream topping. I let this chill for a wee while then set to work covering the cake in buttercream roses. I only got half of one layer done when I ran out of buttercream. I ended up having to make 3 batches. There was almost a kilo of buttercream on the cake!!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">After that I decorated it with hand made fondant flowers. Not totally manly, but very spring like!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">I have to say, it was the most lovely, moist cake ever, so this is a recipe I will definitely use again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">A birthday snap - and see how huge the cake is!</span></span></div>
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We were also lucky enough to be invited to the World of Wearable Art down in Wellington, buy Lloyd's work. It was mind blowingly good and we loved every second of it. </div>
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This is a fraction of what we've been up to!</div>
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Oh and if anyone wants a nosey, here's the link to the advert for the wee farm...</div>
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<a href="http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential/lifestyle-property/auction-787609224.htm" target="_blank">Trade me - Our Wee Farm</a></div>
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Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-11905931756379006182014-08-05T13:40:00.000+12:002014-08-05T13:40:32.648+12:00BriocheLloyd and I like brioche. Well, actually, it would be fair to say, I love it. I've never once seen it to buy up here so that means we never have it. In Glasgow we used to have it with home made chicken liver pate.<br />
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A couple of days ago we were watching <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dean Brettschneider's baking programme and he made some Pain aux raisin. I reckoned I should turn my hand to giving brioche a go. So I used Paul Hollywood's recipe cos he is the bread god as far as I'm concerned. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's not difficult - just follow the steps.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Ingredients</u></b></span></span><br />
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- 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting</div>
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- 7g salt</div>
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- 50g caster sugar</div>
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- 10g instant yeast</div>
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- 140ml warm full-fat milk</div>
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- 5 medium eggs</div>
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- 250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Method</u></b></span></span><br />
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1. Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for a further 6 – 8 minutes, until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough. Add the softened butter and continue to mix for a further 4 – 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough will be very soft.</div>
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2. Tip the dough into a plastic bowl, ( I only had a china one) cover and chill overnight or for at least 7 hours, until it is firmed up and you are able to shape it.</div>
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3. Grease a 25cm round deep cake tin.</div>
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4. Take your brioche dough from the fridge. Tip it onto a lightly floured surface and fold it on itself a few times to knock out the air. Divide it into 9 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth ball by placing it into a cage formed by your hand and the table and moving your hand around in a circular motion, rotating the ball rapidly. Put the 8 balls of dough around the outside of the tin and the final one in the middle.</div>
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5. Cover with the clean plastic bag and leave to prove for 2 – 3 hours, or until the dough has risen to just above the rim of the tin.</div>
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6. Heat your oven to 190°C.</div>
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7. When your brioche is proved, bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Bear in mind that the sugar and butter in the dough will make it take on colour before it is actually fully baked. Remove the brioche from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. *I found that the top of mine was going to go too brown for my taste, but the loaf wasn't properly cooked, so I put some tinfoil over the top to stop it from browning too much*</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">My biggest problem was where to prove the loaf. It's the middle of winter here, we don't have central heating and today the house is freezing After about 2 hours nothing much had happened. Then I had a brainwave - prove the bread in the greenhouse! Man, that worked a treat. </span></div>
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While it was baking the house smelled amazing. </div>
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voila!<br /></div>
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So tonight we are having home made chicken liver pate, on brioche for perhaps the first time since we moved to New Zealand.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-42457992549033803532014-07-30T14:30:00.000+12:002014-07-30T14:30:05.779+12:00I have got some MAJOR news.Lloyd and I have bought a new house!<br />
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It's still in this area, but it's over by the sea. It's got a very small actual garden, but has some lovely native bush with a bush walk right down to the water, with amazing views over the Bay.<br />
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We have plans for it - well, it wouldn't be us if we didn't!</div>
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It's a totally different style to Darroch Cottage. It's more modern and open plan with a lot of glass. It's not huge, though, so we will extend it a bit. New flooring, kitchen changes, bathroom cosmetics! bigger deck, fence the garden so that the dogs are safe and secure ( not that they are ever out without us anyway!). I'll probably put in a greenhouse - still want to grow our veggies! </div>
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However, Our Wee Farm isn't even on the market yet, we're just not <i>quite</i> ready, so the actual move to the coast is quite a bit away. </div>
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It's hard to explain why we want to move. I suppose it's a whole lot of different things. We want to travel more, or at least not have the ties, so that it's easier to get away when we want to. At the moment it's a huge feat of organisation to even go away for a long weekend! I know that in the not too distant future I'll tire of the vast amount of work keeping a farm and a huge garden under control and looking like I want it to look, in the sub tropics, where there is no rest season! I want to leave loving this place. </div>
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We've arrived here almost 10 years ago knowing nothing about having a garden, let alone running a small farm and we managed to create a beautiful place, but soon it'll be time for a change. We want to be near the water. </div>
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We want to be closer to our friends. We spend a lot of time with each other so it will be lovely to be within walking distance rather than over an hour round trip in the car. Lloyd only has a couple of years left on his contract, and even though he'll most likely stay, he has ideas of what he'd like to do and this may involve a bit of travelling around the country. I'm all for this, but it's impossible if we live on a farm!</div>
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I know when the time comes for the move, and the day I drive down the drive for the last time my heart will break a little. And I know that I will never want to even drive past this lovely place and it not be ours.</div>
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I will miss our wonderful neighbours.</div>
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But for now, and perhaps the next year (or more!) this is still our wee piece of paradise and we will love it as we have done for the last ten years. </div>
<br />Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-38761017592343271682014-07-21T12:21:00.003+12:002015-04-03T17:54:36.727+13:00Scrummy Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've made these a few times now and they really are delicious if you like chocolate. I'm not a huge fan, but Lloyd likes it.<br />
I have to say, though, I think these are pretty nice.<br />
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This recipe makes 24. I half it and make 12. Also recipe states 3/4 fill cases. I only half fill them as they really expand.<br />
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<u><b>Ingredients</b></u><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">65 g unsweetened cocoa powder</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">190 g flour</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;"> 300 g sugar</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">1 1/2 tsp baking soda</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">3/4 tsp baking powder</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">3/4 tsp salt</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">2 eggs</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">180 ml warm water</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;"> 180 ml buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk, get the amount you need in ordinary milk and add lemon juice. Leave for about 10 minutes)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">3 Tbls sunflower oil (I used olive oil)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">1 tsp vanilla</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br /><b><u>Instructions</u></b><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Preheat oven to 175C. Line 2 cupcake tins with liners and set aside. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to ensure batter is well mixed.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Makes about 2 dozen. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Simple Chocolate Ganache</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">170 g Good quality chocolate, shaved or chopped into small pieces</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">160 ml cream</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">1 tsp corn syrup ( I used golden syrup)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Heat the cream and corn syrup on the stove until simmering, then pour over the chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes and stir gently to combine. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Assembly</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;">Spoon warm ganache over cooled cupcakes and top with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios and royal icing roses, if desired. And yes, I made the roses!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c504c; line-height: 18.91499900817871px;"><br /></span></span>Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-58529124724093668882014-07-13T11:35:00.000+12:002014-07-13T11:35:13.984+12:00major storms, flooding and general mayhem!We have just come out the other side of 4 days of complete chaos as regards the weather. Northland does get wet and we have a lot of flooding, but usually the severest of weather is over in a day, so it's not a long term thing. But this time we had around 4 days of the worst weather we have ever had in the 10 years we've lived here. In the two main days of rain almost half a metre fell - yep - over our wee area we had 450mm of rain. This is off the scale! The was paired with hurricane force gusts of wind. Lloyd seriously thought all the windows in our wee cottage were going to blow in at one point.<br />
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This is what we've just been through. If you can see the outline of NZ's north island we are in the reddest bit with the lines almost touching!<br />
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Now that it's over and we have wandered around it's amazing how little damage we've suffered. There are a few trees down and absolutely everything is waterlogged. The driveway down to The Acorn is trashed, there's mud everywhere, and we had no power for all of 6 hours, but it's tiny in comparison to what others are going through. Some were without power for 3 days, lots have been evacuated from their homes because of flooding. Roads have literally disappeared because of landslips. State Highway 1, pretty much our only way south had large areas of it underwater. It will be ages until it's repaired.<br />
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The weather is an amazing thing.<br />
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During the storm - this was how we roll during a power cut! If the electricity does go off we have no water either as it's all done by a pump.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lloyd cooking dinner with a headtorch on! Over our wood range.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Our ponytail palm lost his head!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Trees down all over the place!</span></div>
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I took these yesterday, once the rain had stopped, on our drive from home into Kerikeri. It was early morning and the mist was just burning off, it turned into a beautiful day. ( there is a difference between iphone pics and good camera pics!!)<br />
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All the reflections are in flood water. There are farms underneath.<br />
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We had to drive through this to get into town, but we had the trusty old jeep.<br />
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We saw the farmer inspecting this, and he waved and smiled - still smiling!<br />
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Now, I didn't take the following photos and it's proving impossible for me to find who did to credit them, but here are some photos of what it looks like. It should also be pointed out that these roads aren't back roads - this is State Highway 1! Our main road to basically anywhere!<br />
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The emergency services, electricity linesmen/women, ordinary folk...pretty much everyone has been amazing. Let the clean up begin!Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-51239155120061587092014-07-08T10:31:00.002+12:002014-07-08T10:32:06.446+12:00Garden Share Collective - JulyI can take an ok photograph, but I most certainly cannot do a video!<br />
I wanted to do a quick film of the garden cos there's really nothing happening just now, but it was raining, and I don't really know how to work the video part of my camera.<br />
The result is this.<br />
Possibly the worst video in the world.<br />
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Hope it gives you a laugh, if nothing else!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9v-H6VMZ0nc" width="459"></iframe><br />
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please look at the much better Garden Shares for this month! <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">All the links!</a>Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-12925287051981754232014-06-26T14:36:00.000+12:002015-04-03T17:54:58.933+13:00Lemon Curd then Lemon RouladeLloyd and I were down in Auckland this weekend. Him to do some paragliding with Simon and then meeting me so that we could all go and see Jane Goodall speak. What in inspiration she is.<br />
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Lloyd had gone down a few days earlier than me, I aminal sat, then took the bus down on Monday. He'd had a wee bit of time to kill before my bus arrived, so he got his car cleaned and also bought me a surprise. I have been lusting after these for about a year...<br />
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Yes, a huge glass mixing bowl and a beater that will scrape down the sides of the bowl. He is the best husband.<br />
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I thought I'd use them for the first time today. I'm going to make a Lemon Roulade. Last time I made one of these I was in a rush and bought some lemon curd for the filling. What a mistake that was. I bought a very good, expensive brand, but it just tasted so fake and wrong. Today I won't make that mistake, so I started off by making lemon curd. Then I realised that I've never posted the recipe I use. So I'm going to rectify that now.<br />
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<b>Lemon Curd</b><br />
<b>Ingredients</b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: 1.22em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em 14px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">4</span> large <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">egg yolks</span></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1/2 cup</span> <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">granulated sugar</span></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1/4 cup</span> finely grated, loosely packed <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">lemon zest</span> (from about 5 to 6 medium lemons)</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1/3 cup</span> freshly squeezed <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">lemon juice</span> (from about 3 to 4 lemons)</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1/8 teaspoon</span> fine <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">salt</span></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope="" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span itemprop="amount" style="box-sizing: border-box;">85g</span> unsalted <span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">butter</span>, cut into 6 pieces, at room temperature</span></span></li>
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<span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Instructions</b></span><br />
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Fill a medium saucepan with 1 to 2 inches of water and bring it to a simmer over high heat; reduce the heat to low and keep the water at a bare simmer.</div>
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Place all of the ingredients except the butter in a large heatproof bowl and whisk to combine. Set the bowl over, but not touching, the simmering water and whisk constantly until the yolks thicken and the mixture forms ribbons when the whisk is lifted from the bowl, about 20 minutes. This happens a lot faster for some people so just let it cook for the time that works for you</div>
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Remove the bowl from the simmering water; whisk in the butter one piece at a time, waiting until each piece is completely melted and incorporated before adding another. </div>
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Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Strain the curd, pressing on the solids and scraping the extra curd clinging to the underside of the strainer into the bowl; discard the solids left in the strainer.</div>
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Then put into a sterilised jar and bung in the fridge. </div>
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The result is a very lemony, very smooth lemon curd.</div>
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Next!</div>
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<b>Lemon Roulade</b></div>
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<b>Ingredients</b></div>
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1 teaspoon cornflour</div>
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1 " vanilla extract</div>
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1 " white wine vinegar</div>
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4 egg whites</div>
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150g caster sugar</div>
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75g ground almonds</div>
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40g flaked almonds</div>
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<b>For the filling</b></div>
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300g of lemon curd ( that you've just made, of course!) </div>
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175ml cream</div>
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<b>Instructions</b></div>
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Preheat the oven to 150c fan, 170c non fan. Line a 24cmx34cm (or thereabouts) baking tray with baking paper.</div>
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Whisk egg whites until they form stiff peaks</div>
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Gradually add the sugar and whisk well between each addition</div>
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Then gently fold in the cornflour and add the white wine vinegar and vanilla extract. Fold in the ground almonds then gently spread the meringue onto the lined tray and sprinkle with flaked almonds.</div>
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Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. It should be pale golden and slightly springy to touch. Remove from oven and let cool.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Slightly more silky now that the sugar has been added</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Adding the ground almonds</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Folding them in, gently</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Smoothed out meringue topped with almonds</span></div>
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Whip the cream.</div>
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Then remove the meringue from the baking tray. To do this place a clean tea towel on the work surface then tip the meringue out - almond side down, and peel away the baking paper.</div>
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Spread the lemon curd, then cream onto the meringue, then roll it towards you to form a roll.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The baked meringue</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Home made lemon curd spread all over it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Next - the cream!</span></div>
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All rolled up - this is simple if you remember to use a tea towel and roll it up towards you. </div>
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YUM</div>
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Laura @ Our Wee Farmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14240391312194055909noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-71791171392716087582014-05-27T11:49:00.000+12:002014-05-27T11:49:31.011+12:00The Garden Share Collective ~ JuneIt's almost June already? How on earth did that happen?<br />
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So, there's not a whole lot going on in my garden just now.<br />
Here's what there is...<br />
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The broad beans are growing incredibly fast. They've only been in for 6 weeks. Can't wait to get some beans - yummy.<br />
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My sweetpeas are coming along nicely. I'm hoping for some beautiful flowers this spring.<br />
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The lavender is flowering and is attracting lovely bees to the veggie garden. I just planted it in there this summer. I really like having flowers in the veggie garden.<br />
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And the bumper avocado crop. I am SO excited about this. Even more exciting is that there is a new market starting up in the town near us. We're hoping that we can sell a mixture of things - like Lloyds Chilli Sauce (he booked a day in a commercial kitchen last week and made about 12 litres), his book, and perhaps some avocados.<br />
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The globe artichokes are on to their 4th crop! each time we hack them down to ground level they zoom right up again and produce more! Amazing.<br />
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I don't think I've posted about our lemongrass before? well, it got a bit dried out and meh last year, so I hacked it right back to ground level ( i seem to have been doing a lot of ground level hacking!) and cleared out the dead and dry bits. Gave it a bit of a feed with alpaca poop and voilá, lovely lemongrass again. We use it a lot in the kitchen. Often just using it as a skewer for chicken - the flavour is amazing.<br />
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Greenhouse tomatoes still producing well. One of the sub arctic plenty plants from last year is still producing. I gave it a good prune and lots of feeding. I've never had a tomato go on for so long.<br />
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Citrus season is in full swing. Which means lots of baking of lovely lemony things!<br />
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Olives - another thing I've never mentioned before! We had a wee cottage put on the farm a good few years ago, now. We use it for friends and family when they come to stay, but it's also rented out as a holiday let. We planted the garden from scratch at the time. Not having a lot of money, we pretty much bought trees that were on special! Some turned out beautifully and some not so well. Not that they were horrible or anything but one was a silk oak, that grew to over 30m in about 4 years. It sadly, had to come down as it was simply in the wrong place. Having volcanic soil here, everything just grows so fast. We did, however, plant a olive tree. It is laden. The branches are bending with the weight of the fruit, but unfortunately we have no idea what kind of olives they are. We're guessing they're for pressing as they are small. Can anyone help with the identification??<br />
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and finally...lovely autumn Acers.<br />
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So, that's it from me this month. </div>
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Please go and have a look at all the other amazing gardens in the Garden Share Collective. <span style="background-color: white; color: #525252; line-height: 20.020000457763672px;">This is the brain child of Lizzie from </span><a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/grow/garden-share/" target="_blank">Strayed from the Table</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #525252; line-height: 20.020000457763672px;">. </span></div>
<br />Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-67834233077197376562014-05-15T09:06:00.000+12:002014-05-15T09:06:00.425+12:00Finally....!Those of you that have been reading this for a while will know about my obsession and failed attempts to grow a luffah. Yeah, I know!<br />
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Anyway, this year, I have finally managed to grow not one, but four! Four!<br />
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Only one of them was ready to be peeled. It was the first one to grow on the vine, so a couple of weeks ago I picked it and took it inside to dry. The other three are now drying out as well. I picked them off the vine this morning, I was worried it was getting a bit wet and dewy and that they may rot. I've hung them in the <strike>cats' room</strike> larder to dry.<br />
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BUT! here's the one I peeled, got the seeds out and cleaned. It may not be the biggest luffah in the world, but it's <i>my</i> luffah. Can you tell I'm thrilled?<br />
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And another plus point is that I now have lots of seeds to plant!</div>
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These ones are off to dry out.</div>
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Here's what you do ~<br />
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wait until the luffa has dried out. I saw lots of pictures of ones where the skin had gone totally brown and crispy. I did my first one when it was still a yellowy green colour. I picked a tiny bit off to see what it looked like, then decided to go for it! the skin came off very easily. The luffah wasn't dry, so I left it overnight in the wee cupboard beside our range. It was nice and cosy. In the morning I shook out as many seeds as I could. It took a while. Then I washed it, in only slightly, warm water. After that I soaked it for about an hour in a very, very mild bleach solution. Then left it on the outside table to dry again. And voilá!<br />
Hopefully the other three turn out as well.<br />
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Suggestions for what to do with it!<br />
<br />Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-33059293408140490902014-05-10T10:19:00.000+12:002014-05-11T10:46:40.935+12:00loads of stuff!Been doing a lot of <i>stuff </i>recently. As I've said before, we're still having gorgeous weather, so we've been making the most of that by going out on the boat and doing a huge amount of diving. Sharing a boat with Si and Ali really is the best thing!<br />
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We've been doing really long dives, about an hour each time because the visibility is just so good right now. We've also got another trip to the Poor Knights arranged for next weekend. Very excited about that.<br />
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Just leaving the marina - yep, another crappy day in the Bay of Islands!</div>
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Ali getting kitted up for the dive. Lloyd being boat man.</div>
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And we're in! it's like a fish tank!</div>
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Surrounded by fish!</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">After diving, find a nice sheltered spot for lunch - home grown egg mayo buns with a bit of rocket.</span><br />
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Last weekend we hired a log splitter and spent the whole of Sunday splitting wood. Si and Ali came over and between the four of us we split enough wood to fill 5 trailers and then filled up their ute. We've all got enough wood for perhaps 2 winters now, and it was such good fun. We had lots of tea stops and a lovely long lunch.<br />
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Excuse the terrible photos!<br />
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In the tractor shed - this gives no idea of the huge amount of wood we've got hanging around!<br />
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One trailer load down - 4 more to go!<br />
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You really can't tell how big or full the woodshed is from the photo, but take my word for it - it's stuffed! And it smells amazing.<br />
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After all our hard work we had a take away curry. There's a curry/pizza place opened in Kaikohe - well it's been there a while now - called Smokin' Hot, and it is AMAZING. The curries are authentic and the best we've had in NZ, and how lucky it's opened in Kaikohe!</div>
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What else...I'm still going to pottery. Was there yesterday and cleaned up some wee bits and bobs I made last week to get them ready for firing. </div>
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There's another egg dish - this time I measured out the spaces between the holes so all the eggs should fit in nicely. A few wee hearts and another bowl. I also glazed one of the ready made bowls Sandrine has there. It's the old fashioned Mason and Cash pudding bowl shape, so I'm really excited about that. </div>
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Autumn is well and truly here. Lots of the trees are bare already. I do love this time of year, especially when the weather is still so lovely. </div>
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Here's Lloyd and 2 of the dogs, doing their favourite thing. ( Bob was with me taking photos! )<br />
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Kopi doing her favourite thing - which is nothing. </div>
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We celebrated Simon's birthday. We went over to theirs and had a lovely dinner. I made a lemon meringue roulade as a cake. it was ok! This was supposed to have he cake in it too!</div>
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and finally... I am getting old! After years of feeling rather smug, as all my friends succumbed to reading glasses, my time has finally come. I was trying to go for the nerdy, brainy look! Failed miserably!! But man, it's nice to be able to read!</div>
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Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981511.post-76009154839918254442014-04-27T13:01:00.000+12:002014-05-05T21:38:19.322+12:00The Garden Share Collective ~ MayWe're well into Autumn now, but it doesn't feel like it. We're still having lots of lovely weather with a little rain mixed in. Perfect.<br />
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And something rather odd is happening in the veggie garden! My asparagus, which has a season from around October to December has, all of a sudden, started popping up now! We're getting new spears by the day. it's ace, we're feasting on fresh asparagus dipped into poached eggs. Yum. It'll be interesting to see if the crop is as good again in September, or if this strange happening will affect it. But for now, we're just making the most of it.<br />
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There are also dwarf butterbeans coming up. I didn't plant them! They self seeded from the summer crop. They were actually a huge disappointment to me - I thought that they were, what we know as, butter beans in the Uk, just a dwarf version! But no - they're what I think if as string beans. Meh. But Lloyd likes them.<br />
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Our bananas are ready - Lloyd took this hand off a few days ago, so that it could ripen on the outside table. I'll maybe make a banana cake this afternoon. As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of bananas, but I can just about handle them in a cake.<br />
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I did!! Here's a Hummingbird Cake. It was absolutely gigantic - and lovely!<br />
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I planted some sweetpeas, broad beans and parsnips.<br />
The sweet peas and the beans have popped up and are doing great.<br />
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Sadly, Kopi, our wee ginger cat, loves the veggie garden. It's her domain. However when it's cleared </div>
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(like it is now) she seems to think it's her Loo! And her favourite place to dig is where I planted the parsnips. They appear to 'be no more'. I think she may have flung them out! That's why there is a bamboo cane lengthways in the beans photo. They were going the same way, so I put canes down to stop her digging. Wish I'd thought of it sooner. </div>
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Here she is coming to say 'hi' after some veggie garden trashing.</div>
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I'm still babyminding all the monarch caterpillars. I have so many this year that they have almost completely denuded all my swan plants. I've been decanting some over to my friend! But I've had huge success, lots and lots of butterflies have hatched.<br />
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Here's three stages ~ the caterpillar forms a J when it's ready to go into a chrysalis. Then the chrysalis forms, and over the course of days it turns from black to transparent and the butterfly hatches. In the final photo you can see the red of the wings showing through. When they hatch they pump up their wings and sit for a good while before they fly off. During this time if you put your hand down the butterfly will happily crawl onto it and stay there for ages, testing its wings. It's amazing.<br />
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In the Greenhouse, the tomatoes are still producing and so are the chillies. Lloyd picked a huge amount of chillies this morning.<br />
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These will be turned into chilli sauce ( with the other 8-10 kg that are in the freezer!) He's going to book time in a commercial kitchen in Kerikeri to do this as we've heard on the grapevine that a new market is starting in KK. So he can perhaps sell it there.<br />
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Elsewhere around the garden we have all sorts going on. The strawberry guavas are ready. We have these to attract native birds and my chickens love them, but I know that some people make jam. </div>
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The roses are still blooming.<br />
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And self seeded ~ rogue ~ tomatoes that popped up around the place are actually producing fruit! This plant is beside the spa near the palms! The birds were eating my tomatoes this year, which was a bit of a pain, but we're benefitting now because they must have pooed seeds out all over the place!<br />
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And hedge update - as you can see, it's coming along nicely. It's a bit of a faff as I need to prune it little and very often while it's getting to the size we want it - but it's looking ok.<br />
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And last but not least....autumn colours. </div>
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<br />Laura@OurWeeFarmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11021147150607987627noreply@blogger.com14