Starting on a light note then getting serious!

Do you suffer from KPA? Does it tie you in knots? Do you wander up and down the aisles of the supermarket with a feeling of dread?

Kitchen Performance anxiety is apparently a real disorder! I have been very lucky to never have suffered from this problem (it's a different story with public speaking though!) and love the challenge of scanning my pantry and throwing things together to feed little groups of 12- 15 LOL!

I have started learning about the slow food movement (which is something I have always done naturally) and in one book "The slow mediterranean kitchen", Paula Wolfert talks about KPA and how the slow food movement takes the pressure out of cooking because

"most of the kitchen work may be accomplished at a leisurely pace in advance, obviating the necessity for stressful, last minute performance" (Wolfert, P. 'the slow mediterranean kitchen, xvii, 2003)

So if you find your stress levels rising at 5pm, go check out the slow food movement!

Right, now the serious stuff!

Two of my favourite bloggers have sort of thrown down challenges;

NatureWitch has challenged us to reduce our energy consumption by getting out our bills and looking at ways we can reduce further each quarter.

Molly from doing it naturally has inspired me to write myself a list of 'What I need/what I want to make Wit's End more self sufficient. This comes from her post about Peak Water.

So, what do I honestly need to do to Wit's End to make it as self sufficient as possible;

Solar energy
transform the pool (my water tank) into an swimming pond
Build a wood fired oven in the garden.
Build a solar oven.
Build a veranda around the front of the house
Install heat remover things in the roof space
Get a composting toilet
When my current washing machine dies, get a twin tub again. I love them and they save so much water. Of course ideally I would wash by hand and get an old fashioned mangle LOL!
Get chooks!
Get a preserving system, dehydrator/fowler's vacola.

Now for my plant audit. This is the list of fruit trees I have and when they produce month by month.

Jan: Avocados, bananas, Blueberries, figs, guavas, icecream beans, lychee, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, roseapple, lemons, Black sapote
Feb: Avocados, bananas, monstera, figs, guavas, icecream beans, lychee, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, roseapple, lemons, Black sapote
March: Cape gooseberry, Guava, fig, icecream beans, lychees, mango, passionfruit
April: The start of the apples, and citrus
May: As above plus pears
June: As above
July: as above
August: As above
Sept: Strawberries,
Oct: The start of the Jan list again.

So all this tells me that I need to look at getting some winter producing fruits in. Rhubarb comes to mind as well as kiwifruit and plums. Off to ponder :)