Monday 9 June 2008

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 :)

7 comments:

karen said...

KPA - that sounds like me! I really stress about feeding anyone other than the husband & kids (and even then it's a struggle for me). Meal planning helps - if I know what needs to be done a lot of the stress is taken out of the equation - and I love my slow cooker.

Jodes said...

I have a complete Fowlers Vacola preserving system sitting in my shed you can have if you like.

It was given to me by my MIL because the woman she is a housekeeper for was going to throw it on the bulk rubbish collection. I won't get around to using it so you are welcome to it if you like??

The Crone at Wits End said...

Oh yes please Jodes!

Mwah!

naturewitch said...

OMG! I am so impressed by Jodes giving you the Fowler's kit. I will have to write a post about how to use it (after my exams next week, sweet!). Yippee for Jodes - I am thrilled you are finally getting one.

The winter fruit thing is more like a late winter / early spring thing here. It is just hard to get plants that bear during those times. You might be able to try some tropical stuff, though, like pawpaws, pineapples and bananas - not sure if they will perform the same in WA and in QLD, but you can always give them a go.

xx

Anonymous said...

WTG Lara, that list is looking great. I've ordered the black sapote, what is the white one like?

Blessings:)

The Crone at Wits End said...

Arghhhh, I meant to type Black but typed white instead! Will go and fix my mistake!

So what else do you recommend I plant Molly? NatureWitch phoned me earlier and I know that we talked about what to plant but I am sick atm and can't remember a blasted thing!

Anonymous said...

OK, I will tell you what we have, might be something that sparks your interest in there:

Peach, plum, apricot, 2 types of apples, two types of figs, grapes, 2 passionfruit, guava, 3 goji berries, 4 gooseberries, nectarine, grapefruit, lemon, orange, 2 ice cream bean trees, I have ordered midyim berry, black sapote, atherton raspberry, cedar bay cherry, yellow guava, panema berry and a jaboticaba ordered.

Thats it for me, on a 1/4 of an acre I will be out of room for anything other than miniatures & vegetables then lol

Blessings:)