twenty days

We left the city twenty days ago now and we've already had some adventures that, while we love some of the opportunities we have in the city, they don't compare to those experiences we have in the country. 

For starters the kids have asked about "movie night" (a Friday tradition) twice but we haven't turned on the tv. There have been a few moments when we could have but the kids just seem to work through the restlessness. 

J took the big kids to the cinema in Merimbula the other day where they watched the Aussie flick, Paper Planes. He'd been planning to take them and B, 6, particularly enjoyed it as he's been constructing a lot of planes lately. For days the ground has been littered with different makes and models of paper airplanes. 

On the way home J and the big kids came across this little guy precariously placed by the side of the road. He was rescued. I assumed that he's a tortoise but according to B, who did some research, it is a Eastern long-necked turtle. He made a new home down by the dam. 

Despite never having shown an interest previously J has taken up slack lining - a great core-strengthening & meditative activity that is transportable as long as you have two trees. It's fun for all the family!

The night air is filled with the chorus of frogs on the farm & this little critter was discovered this morning.

Bega River

It was a warm day yesterday but we had to get in to Bega to get a few jobs done so we planned to break up our trip with a dip in the Bega River just up from its junction with the Brogo River. We took some lunch down to the picnic tables under the trees before jumping in the water. After all the rain the river was flowing enough that we could float down in the rapids. 

The kids & J had fun jumping off the bank (& tree) in to the rapids then floating downstream. We imagined people have been visiting this part of the river for as long as there've been people living in that area. What a great way to cool off!

Baby A slept through the whole thing but the rest of us had a ball. 

gifts from Daisy

We received a gift from a longtime family friend, local cook & gardener. There is nothing tastier than food fresh from the garden! 

The food package included tomatoes, basil, mint, zucchini, cucumber, garlic, peppers, nectarines & even two thumbs of turmeric!!!! 

There's no shortage of meals we can conjure up with this goodness. The first was a warm pasta salad for lunch with the zucchini, garlic, tomato & basil. I also added olives and cooked onion and drizzled it with EVOO, freshly cracked pepper & the juice of half a lemon. 

Friends called in for dinner last night and brought a delicious veggie lasagne. I whipped up this frittata with Daisy's zuchinni, basil & garlic and added Spanish onion, carrot and feta. 

This boccocini starter aka caprese, has been my go-to dish this summer. I simply slice the tomato and place it on a platter. I tear up the boccocini balls & scatter them around the tomato. I add about half a bunch of  finely chopped basil and sprinkle the whole dish with Himalayan salt, EVOO & pepper. It's great with crostini or just as is!

'm planning to make curry paste with the turmeric- in the Thermomix. In the meantime we'll be eating these super sweet nectarines! Thanks Daisy!!

we'll be making jam... blackberry jam

As the Michelle Shocked song goes "if you want the best jam you've got to make your own." 

That's precisely what we did today. While Baby A slept the big kids & J went out to harvest more blackberries. 

I used the Thermomix to make this batch of jam and despite the lemon being omitted (it was full of grubs) there must have been enough pectin to thicken it. Again I read a few recipes and came up with this one with a slightly less sugar to berry ratio. 

This recipe makes about a litre of jam. 

ingredients 

700g blackberries 

500g raw sugar 

 

method 

Rinse the berries under cool water and drain. Add 500g of the berries to the Thermomix bowl. Add the sugar. Set the timer for 45 mins/speed 2/100°c. After 45 minutes add the remaining blackberries and increase the temperature to Varoma. Cook on 15 mins/speed 2/Varoma. 

To test the jam place a teaspoon full on a saucer. Wait until it's cooled slightly & run your finger through the mixture. Place saucer in the fridge. If, after a few minutes, the jam doesn't run then it is set.

Store jam in hot clean sealable jars or just scoff it! This is good on toast or with ice-cream!

Want some crackling with your pork?

We bought our Weber BBQ just before we left Sydney & we've have only used it a handful of times so we wanted to use it on the farm and see what we could do with it. A very crackly pork appears regularly on the Weber Facebook page I follow. 

I've only ever made one other roast pork with crackling & probably eaten pork a dozen times at most so it's not something I feel comfortable cooking & I was a little worried about the outcome yesterday. 

Before I started I made sure I read lots of recipes so I didn't miss any vital steps. 

This recipe is based on a few. 

ingredients 

1.5kg rolled pork (deboned) 

oil (I used EVOO)

salt (I used pink himilayan salt) 

Any vegetables you might like (we had carrots, potatoes, Brussel sprouts & broccoli)

Apple sauce (I used store bought because I wanted to focus on the pork but it's dead easy to make. I'm sure there are plenty of recipes flying around on the web). 

 

method 

Leave the pork out of the fridge for up to two hours so it reaches room temperature. 

Turn your BBQ on the highest setting & leave to preheat for 20 minutes. You don't need to lift the lid during this time. 

While your BBQ is heating up prepare the meat. Firstly pat the meat dry with paper towel. You will need to score the fat ensuring you don't cut in to the meat. I remember seeing Jamie Oliver using a retractable art knife and measuring the fat from the side of the cut of meat & retracting the art knife just a few millimetres so the knife would only cut in to the fat. 

To score the fat cut along the shortest side of the cut in lines measuring about a centimetre apart. 

Now baste the meat with oil. I used EVOO but plenty of sites recommend vegetable oil. Using your hands rub the skin with salt enduring you push it in to the cracks. I used a handful & it was a lot. You don't need to layer it on (like I did) but it does need to coat the skin. 

Place the meat on a Weber trivet & then on a convection tray. These are designed to let the air flow around the meat, acting like an oven.  

Leave the meat to rest for 30 minutes. 

Now that the BBQ has heated up place the meat (on trivet & convection tray) on the BBQ. Leave the temperature on the highest setting & cook the meat for 25 minutes. This will crackle your crackling. After 25 minutes lift the lid and you'll see that the pork has crackled. 

           This was our final product.

Reduce the heat to medium (half way) and leave the meat in the BBQ for a further 1 hour & 5 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this cook. This will give you time to prepare the veggies. If you're organised (I wasn't) you could cook these for the 1hour & 5 minutes around the meat on the BBQ. 

After 1 hour & 5 minutes turn the BBQ off but, without lifting the lid, let the pork rest (as the oven cools). 

After 20 minutes carve the pork and divy up the veggies & crackling. Don't forget the apple sauce! 

This is best eaten by an open fire looking down the paddocks out to sea (if you're lucky). 

at the farm

Readers of my blog will recognise the farm. After visiting friends in Tathra today I returned to the farm. J had harvested some almonds from the old orchard planted by his parents about thirty years ago. By some almonds I mean two. In total. But J was determined to find more & the kids scoped out the orchard to identity the almond tree before they collected J to see if they could find more to add to the measly harvest. 

While I wouldn't suggest the tree had given a good return for investment when they came back with four more almonds, I would say that there's nothing more special than harvesting fresh food from plants that you know have been lovingly planted and care for. The almonds were like nothing I've ever tried - crunchy and succulent at the same time. I'll never look at a store bought almond the same again! 

While I was out J also set up our new annexe. We didn't have the time to set it up before we left Sydney but it's very pleasing to see it has met our expectations. We ordered the annexe through Winston at Express Annexes at Calga on the Central Coast. We were specifically after a versatile annexe that made from Australian products & with sturdy poles. This will add an extra room to the caravan and will be particularly useful when we're staying in places for more than a few days at a time. The windows mean we'll have light coming in because we won't have to close canvas covers when it's raining. 

We've been making the most of our outdoor shower. Does anyone else have one on their van? We've used it to wash sand off after the beach but we've loved having our evening showers outside. The photo isn't great but you get the picture! I can't see out the farm shower window because I'm too short but this means I can still take in the view. 

blackberry crumble on the farm

Each time I make crumble I think of my first few weeks of Uni & living out of home. A friend from uni called in & I was pleased to offer him some apple crumble I'd made with an oaty topping - very improvised. I'd never looked at a recipe for crumble & it was pretty ordinary really. I applogised to my friend but it wasn't until after he'd eaten it that my mature-aged uni friend kindly told me he trained as a chef before doing teaching. 

I didn't make another crumble until I found this - my favourite crumble recipe - for peaches or nectarines. (http://missmayblossom.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/just-desserts.html?m=1) 

J & the kids were out in the paddocks for the morning. They had the biggest grins on their faces when they returned with a shopping bag full of blackberries. 

They'd put on their long sleeved tops & trousers to protect them from the thorny bushes with gifts of black gold. Yum! 

I was kicking myself that I didn't have my scrap book with my crumble recipe in it when I realised is probably posted it on my foodie blog (missmayblossom.blogspot.com) and there it was! 

You may wonder how I managed to bake a crumble in a caravan but the truth is I used an oven that's in the shed on the farm although I do have an oven in my caravan. (Virtual tour to come). 

I turned those tasty morsels in to a jammy apple & blackberry crumble. 

ingredients

filling

shopping bag full of blackberries

5 large Granny Smith apples 

1.5 cups raw sugar

1 cup of water

crumble topping

1/3 cup brown sugar 

1 tspn baking powder

1 tspn each ground ginger & mixed spice 

3 tblspn flaked almonds (I didn't have any this time but I do recommend them)

60g unsalted butter, chilled and chopped into 1cm cubes 

100g plain flour

Preheat oven to 200°c. In a saucepan over a medium heat place 1.5 cups raw sugar and a cup of water before adding five green apples (cut into 2cm cubes with the skins on. Cook the apples until soft. 

In the meantime make the crumble topping by mixing sugar, baking powder, ginger & mixed spice. Stir in the flaked almonds. Crumble butter in to mixture to form pea-sized pieces then toss the flour mixture with the sugar mixture. 

{Note: I wouldn't want to make this topping in the Thermomix as it can easily be overworked & needs to be kept coolish but I do love that I can easily weight the ingredients on top of the bowl.}

Once the apple is soft add the shopping bag full of blackberries. Stir for three minutes over the heat before transferring to a pie dish. I liked to keep the form of the blackberries. 

Strew topping over fruit. Bake at 200°c for 25-30 mins until the topping is golden brown & the fruit is bubbling through at the edges. Serve with cream or ice cream. 

Tanja

Tanja is situated alongside and within Mimosa Rocks National Parks on the Far South Coast of NSW. The first thing you noticed about the vegetation is the tall spotted gum forest. 

Joel has many memories on Tanja Hall. His dad used to run the local movie night in the hall and he attended other functions there. Back in 1997 I was seeing a gig at the hall (after being bridesmaid for a friend's wedding). Joel happened to be staying just up the road and was also at the gig. We recognised each other and got chatting. We both have vivid memories of this night and it was why we decided to have our wedding reception in the hall when we were married in 2007. The tiny hall was packed with our friends and family and rocked as everyone danced in a traditional bush dance. 

We decided we'd have a fortnight on the farm after we left Sydney just to get out things in order and recover from the stress of packing up our house & finishing work. We needed to replace the leaf springs on the truck, set up the annexe and work out what we can without (& reduce our load) too. 

And this is where we woke up this morning. How's the serenity? Can you see the roos grazing in the paddocks? 

From the mountains to the sea: Cooma to Tanja via Brown Mountain

Yesterday we left our friends on the farm just outside of Cooma. 

We'd planned to take it very slowly and Joel's uncle had advised us that we'd best head down Brown Mountain in first gear which we did, rarely having to brake. It was completely fine. Can you tell we're still a little green around the gills when it comes to towing? 

Coming down The Brown is the same for J and I. We feel like we're 'coming home.' I use to travel to Canberra regularly as a child to visit friends & my grandparents. J lived there during high school while still visiting the farm where he grew up on the coast. Pipers Lookout (part way down the mountain) is special as you can see right out across the green Bega Valley. We haven't lived here for quite some time but there's something magical about the valley. We can see why our parents fell in love with it in the 70's and 80's. It is also thanks to them and likeminded lobbyists that the natural environment remains its drawcard. 

The kids have been travelling well. We've timed our trips with Arlo's sleeps. He usually sleeps two hours at a time and that works well for us. It wasn't until we reached the base of the mountain that Phoebe decided she simply MUST brush her mermaid's hair and considering the brush was in the caravan that made for a lo 40 minutes to Bega where we bought grocery supplies and got back in the car headed for the coast and the farm. 

If you've read my posts on my other blog you'll be familiar with the family farm which is situated between Tathra & Bermagui on the far south coast of NSW. It's such a beautiful part of the world & it feels like home. The farm hasn't had stock on it for years but Joel and his brothers have managed to maintain it from afar and it's a great holiday spot. The kids love exploring the farm - in the rainforest gully, in the undergrowth, swimming in the dam, slashing the paddocks, spotting snakes and kangaroos and rabbits, picking fruit from the old orchard, collecting edible mushrooms and nettle and adventuring up the paddock to the pit toilet. 

There's nothing better than shucking some (award winning) Tathra oysters & a drop of wine. When it's not raining we can crank up the fire and look out across the valley down to the sea. Not bad!

Canberra to Cooma

If you've been following us you'll know we spent the first night of our trip in Moss Vale. Our next night was spent at Alivio CP in O'Connor in Canberra. It was a cool night and the kids were in the spa for a good hour. Of course they insisted on jumping in! 

On Monday morning we met up with my oldest friends at the Pod Playground at the National Arboretum. I've known these girls and their mums since I was born! It's an excellent place for kids (& big kids too)! If you plan to visit I'd say the one criticism of the playground is a distinct lack of shade. Make sure you have sunscreen and hats! 

I was living in Canberra for Uni during the Canberra fires and I remember the skies filled with smoke. It was eery & scary. The Arboretum was borne out of this tragedy and you can see the long term vision of the place. It's brilliant! 

After the kids had a good run around we headed to our friends' farm just out of Cooma. We love visiting these guys because it's one of the only places where our kids can run free - in the paddocks - collecting plums from the trees & playing with the dogs. The kids love hanging out together & while they play and run we can chat in the kitchen! 

Thanks to Alice for the pics of the caravan & truck within Dorothea MacKellar's poem. 

first stop: moss vale

Here I am sitting in my beautiful new home, our caravan, writing this, my first blog post of our trip!

J is sitting on the end of the bed gently playing his Dad's old guitar and singing old tunes. The kids are asleep (and have been since 7pm) while the rhythmic rain hits our awning roof. We're in Moss Vale for the night which is a short trip from Sydney but we wanted it that way as we anticipated a big morning.

       

We'd aimed to leave at 9am from the northern beaches but of course it didn't go completely to plan with a last minute repair of the 12-pin socket on the truck which powers the indicators. Peter from across the road arrived just at the right moment and between him and J they fixed the socket.

Thankfully we had many helping hands in the last fortnight. Friends and our neighbours had the kids over for plays and dinners, my mum came up to help and J's aunts entertained the kids before sending us off down the road this morning. Thank you dear friends. We really appreciate your support.

J and I were both overwhelmed this morning. Our life at Number 14 has come to a (somewhat welcome) end but we'll miss the friends we made in the area and we'll always have fond memories of the children's lives in that home. On the other hand we were happy to farewell the city for the year. Sydney is a vibrant place but the hollow pressure and haste can get too much at times.

       

Bowral was a good lunch spot yesterday and we managed to get to the Bradman Museum where we've been meaning to visit for some time now. The majority of photographs on display were taken by my award-winning sports photographer uncle, Philip Brown. It's worth a look for any cricket tragics. 

                                  

B made our salad last night which we had with a premade lasagne from our local deli. I suspect there'll be quite a few meals like this on our travel days. B beamed as we thanked him for his contribution to the meal. 

Tomorrow were off to the nation's capital for a night. It is forecast to rain for the next couple of days but that's a relief from the humidity we've had in Sydney.

the big lap: moving house

It's D Day. 

Today the packers arrived and all our belongings are being thrown (or gently placed, rather) into boxes. I spent the morning at the house while our big kids played at a friend's place. On last count my humble little kitchen was packed in to 12 or so big boxes. I couldn't believe it! 

Today I woke up strangely calm. I'm not sure there's a lot more we could have done to prepare for the move and it gave us a great excuse to throw away more stuff! 

Well, you may not have been the prettiest home. You weren't mould or dust free and you'll need a big renovation before another family can move in but then again, house, you were our home. Our children may not remember living there but their early years were spent digging in the dirt, jumping on the trampoline, cuddling the guinea pigs and chasing the chooks in the backyard. You were a place we felt comfortable and a place where we could be us. From this house we were a few minutes to half a dozen of Sydneys finest beaches, bushwalks &  cafes. 

If you had the time you could look beyond the peeling paint & find the character of our home with its decorative ceilings & Roman-arched bathroom. I'm so pleased we had five of the best years in that place. 

We're going to miss our neighbours and the other firm friends we've made. We've made lifelong friendships and some of these people plan to meet us on the road which is exciting!