The Whole Five Acres

Field to Feast, a work in progress

This week was our fifth time at the local markets, and apart from being rained out early in the day it was still a success. It takes a lot of effort for us to get organised each week, so the rain was not entirely welcome. I suppose though, we have to expect that at an open air market we'll lose some days to the weather.

The day started out very slow probably again due to the weather, and people wishing to stay home and dry. It then took off at a rapid pace until the heavens finally broke. Looking at our figures though, we didn't do too bad. We also had to cart home quite a bit of produce we had bought from other farmers which was a bit of a nuisance. Hard to deal with 36 bunches of bok choy when there are only two of you at home.

The big excitement for us though were our new table skirts. The stall is almost where we want it to be visually. We've applied all our combined business skills to define our new biz, and to ensure we don't swerve from our core mission - farm fresh local produce. The  response from our customers has been amazing. Each week more and more people come back and compliment us on our produce, the presentation and the price. We've only had one complaint and that was when we sold some chillis we confused with some others and they weren't hot enough for the customer. He didn't take us up on a free packet of some other chillis though, and yet still bought more produce. I'm not sure what to think of that - did he only want to complain?

Above is one side of our stall - below is the other side. We're in a prime position opposite an established fruit stall that has been on the site for 15 years no less!

Each week we learn a little more about merchandising too and how that affects sales. It's a great opportunity for us to use skills we've learned from others, and also be in the face of our customers for vital feedback. We have a few other plans in the works, it's all just a matter of time before we test the out.

Duck, duck, quail?

The live bird numbers grow by the day, which is great considering we lost so many in the first couple of nights. We now have 19 chickens, 23 quail, and 18 gorgeous pekin ducks. The ducks are the happiest out of the lot of them I reckon. We tossed them into the dam as we brought them home and they haven't left since.

Today we also converted an old shed into the quail coop as we lost a few yesterday when they decided to fly over the enclosure walls. Thankfully the clever little things managed to come back for a feed this morning, so we are now only down one quail.

The baby chickens are also in with the quail until they grow old enough to move into the big chicken house.

Bring on the eggs I say!

These little piggies went to market...

We finally did it. We finally made it to a local market, to push away our fears and see what we could sell in one day. Both our moods were flying high this morning, but neither of us could predict how the day would go. Well, go it did. We had a great day, and returned home with barely anything worth talking about.

The day started early. Tooooooo early to be honest. My body doesn't like to get up anytime before the sun, so 4.30 this morning was about two hours before my body wanted to move. I'm a late night owl. Happy though is another story. His body clock is non existent. I blame it on the fact that there are no working clocks in the pacific, and the only time the islanders move at any speed beyond slow is when the church bells ring. He was up and at'em while I was trying to hide the fact I couldn't work out what I was doing out of bed.

All good though, and only leaving home an hour too late, we realise we had forgotten two very important things. Loose change, and fat note change. Hmmm...at 5am it's not likely we'll find a bank anywhere to help us out. Do you know how hard it is to be sexy at this time of the morning, and also be able to convince a muslim indian that he really should be nice and perhaps swap my $100 bill for some small notes?

By the time we finally get our UNCOVERED TRAILER to the markets we discover a line of cars at least 100 long. We're the last in the first line, and then watch as over 200 more cars start snaking lines around the car lot. It's dark, the sun is barely making a dint i the sky, and we're sitting in a crazy wet paddock with possibly 1000 other people freezing our buns off. For the next two hours, nothing happened. Apart from cars queing, NOTHING HAPPENED. We sat and wondered what on earth we had got ourselves into, and how long before someone was going to get the show on the road.

At 7am! they finally opened the gates to the casual stallholders (us). We inched forward, went through the gates, paid for our stand and then was directed to our spot. With only an hour-ish to get organised, we unpacked and sorted, and moved and titivated all of our lovely produce until we thought the gates would open. Then we stood - and stood - and stood a bit longer - then stood some more. An hour passed before we really had any real customers.

From then on the day ran hot. With happy at one end and me at the other we both worked our sections with barely a moment to talk. We picked, we priced, we cajoled, we joked, we passed out cards, we worked the crowd and by golly we sold farm fresh locally grown produce! Not only did we sell the farm fresh we had a few taste testers by way of pickles and lemon butter, which we hawked like there was no tomorrow. I knew if I could get a punter to taste my Uncle Al's Gourmet Pickles, then they would have no good reason to not buy a bottle. And it worked! it all worked.

By the end of our very long day, we had sold all but about 6 boxes of produce and only have a few jars left for next week. We offloade 40kilos of chillis to boot. When we did our tally up, we made more from the market than we would have selling to the fruit shops direct. When we sell to the fruit shops direct, we make more than if we sell to the centralised market. It was a good thing.

Are we going back? You betcha! Both happy and I are born salespeople. His charm and charisma, along with his good looks gets the sales, and my ballsy show stopping conversation brings in the others that may just walk past. We make a great team.

As of today, Field to Feast is now a going concern. Woohooooooo

She's a coo!

Took this pic with my camera phone this morning as I walked the dogs around the corner. The coos all turned to check us out as we came along. My...they are BIG! Funny thing about this pic is it looks like I was up much earlier than I actually was. Not that I'm a lazy bones at all. Bed is just so warm and cozy these days it's pretty hard to drag the bag of bones up and out.

The spraying is beginning in earnest these days, so it won't be long and the back will be brimming forth with new life. We're also off to try out the local markets on Sunday as a way to add to our weekly sales. fingers crossed it all goes swimmingly.

And so it's done

We sign the lease on Monday, and from then it's a long move before we have the ten acres under our belt. Whistfully I look forward to being in the 'country' even though it's not really country being only 5 minutes from the outer fringe of Sydney. But still...it will be my country. We're a bit excited. In fact we're a lot excited.

As is always with anything to do with the farm, we put something on the wishlist and it then pops up. Dear Happy has been wanting a drip irrigation system for ages, but the expense and time to put it in has been eluding us. This property comes complete with this all set up, so long as we agree on a price to buy the whole dang lot. Knowing his canniness, I'm sure it will be a good price and just perfect for our needs.

In a year, I predict our world will be very different. The life road to the farm has been paved with gold in many ways. It appears that the universe wants us out there amongst the greenery and once we get all things sorted life will take on a new glow. Within a couple of weeks we should be well and truly stocked with animals of all varieties. Imagine walking 20 paces from your back door to throw a line in the pond to catch the nights dinner. Or heading left out the backdoor to grab the eggs for brekkie. I've already worked out that a bull when fully grown provides approx 1000kg of meat (including bones). Perhaps a larger freezer needs to go on the wishlist.

Maybe, just maybe, this farming life will start to turn over a profit (initial investment has been quite huge!) and then maybe, just maybe, i can lie back on a floral couch, watch the sun go down and tippy-tap-type into my laptop without a care in the world.

Ohhhhhhhh...can those days start soon?

From five acres to ten in a blink of an eye!

Today we inspected a little rundown old 70's brickhouse about three minutes drive from the market garden to see if it would be suitable to live in. Strangely, everything that led up to the inspection, and everything after makes my tummy feel that this is going to be our next house.

I'd love to say it is a rambling gorgeous country mansion...but lying is not something I like to do on a regular basis, unless I really really need to. The whole house is swaddled in kitch decorating touches from the early 70's. The front verandah is enclosed with 'spanish villa-esque' arches. Once inside the front door the decorator fun doesn't stop. The hall and lounge have DARK DARK DARK shiplap timber wall decoratiion. The kitchen has a lime green benchtop overshadowed by the punched metal rangehood. The subtle touches though are even more fabulous. The bath taps have faceted fake crystal knobs. The main bedroom's mirror robes are a bronze colour. If there is a non fancy cupboard, you're sure to find it has louvre doors. Colin and Justin would have a field day.

But...and here's the big but...the chicken coop is pure reproduction federation. Fully fenced and ready for our next 20 chooks due to arrive on Friday. The dam is NOT covered with green algy, and is almost twice the size of the dam we already have. The rest of the five acres are an empty page ready to be filled in.

As crazy as it may seem, I'm in love with the place. It has that feel. That certain something that lets you know you'll feel at home no matter what decorating disasters surround you. For the most part, I reckon we may have a chance to jazz the place a little without the owners being precious. For the life of me though, I can't think at this stage what we can do to make the bronze mirrored robes look any less of an eyesore!

Bits are crossed now. If we do get the house, the pigs, cows and goats will follow soon after. Some people may think we're strange. We just think it's a heck of a lot of fun. The animals bring a smile to our face, and there's really something about dung scented air that makes you know you are alive!

Mondays are the hardest day of the week now

For the third weekend in a row, I've packed up stumps on Friday afternoon, and not managed to spend more than a few minutes in our city house at all until late on a Sunday afternoon. The rest of the time is on the farm, or doing things for the farm. It's fun, but boy is it tiring. Mondays are now the hardest day of our week. We're so tired from filling our weekend, that once Monday rolls around we really need a day of rest.

This weekend though, we had major success with sourcing bibs and bobs for the old tin shed. Ebay is my friend. If only ebay also came with its own group of installers. We now own a LPG instantaneous water heater (yet to be installed), a massive enamel bath (yet to be installed), a tonne of good firewood (yet to be moved) and 4 chickens with 20 more on the way (chicken coop yet to be built!).

The bath was the best buy. We have a little spot in the shed where it can be positioned, and there are little wooden shelves all ready, waiting for the candles on the nights we indulge. It's quite a simple matter getting the bath into position. It's a bigger matter getting the water and the heater working so we don't end up sitting in the cold. A plumber will turn up I'm sure, and hopefully SOON! The current house we rent has a placebo bath. The sort of bath you have when you don't need to have a bath. Even though it sports many spa jet holes, it's size means it's only good to give the dogs a decent wash, and perhaps our feet. It lulled us into thinking we would have many a pleasurable soak, and now is the brunt of many jokes. When you are wet, cold dirty and dusty from farmlife, a bath becomes that one true pleasure you know will make the world right once again. Stay tuned for photos once we get it up and running.

The van too was moved during the week, so now I don't have to stress about whether I can stand up in the pond if for some reason we toppled in. The photo above is a rough shot of what you see when standing at the van's door. Rows upon rows of veg, a turkey shed in the distance, and a pile of turkey manure in the foreground. The outdoor kitchen is set up around this area, which means if I'm working, I don't need to go too far to eat. This next photo is of the top of Happy's makeshift tongan oven. Lord does it produce a great meal!

He lights a fire in amongst the rocks inside and lets it cook away until the rocks are fiery hot. Then packages and roasts are dumped on top. The lid goes back on, a few layers of insulating blankets are positioned over the top, followed by some bricks to keep it all tight. After that it's just an hour or so until we eat. I've never tasted such a delicious smokiness ever, even when cooking over charcoal. Yesterday we entertained my aunt and uncle, and my dear aunt, who finds it hard to eat these days, wolfed in and even managed seconds. The power of the hangi!

Apart from the usual Tongan fare, we devised a little bean dish that turned up trumps in the umu.

A good cupful of shredded coconut was rubbed together with a tablespoon of curry powder, a couple of chopped chillis and tossed in the bottom of some foil Beans were then topped and tailed, a capsicum sliced and a slick of coconut milk added for moisture. Wrap up well and steam. It truly was delicious.

To finish off, here is a shocking shot of the other three quarters of our little lunchtime party. There's always so much to do, that the camera comes a poor second these days. BE thankful for any pics at all.

So many things to say, and no time to get them out

My diary here is sadly lacking in entries. A bit (lot) like my diaries when I was young. A few days of feverish writing, and then nothing. Like years of my life disappeared with no high points or low points to distinguish one moment from the next. With the farm we have lots of highs and lows, yet little time in between to talk about them.

Last week was my birthday. Pic to come soon of the remnants of the cake. Many people made it out to our farm where happy had busied himself preparing a hungi. From the moment I told him my plans for the farm birthday party, to the moment when I had arrived and was able to try and get some of them happening, happy had been a busy man putting most if not all into action. The tin shed had been transformed into a candle lit coffee house, and the back had been transformed into my outdoor kitchen. Not that I needed to do any cooking at all. God bless his little sox. He took over for the day and wowed everyone with his culinary skills.

We had a whole roast pig. And then the umu was filled with unctious delicious lu, and a swag of strange fruits and veg to round out the day. His ota ika has to be the best, and with a whole kingfish to play with he did not disappoint.

The early arrivals went for a farm tour, and some went picking. Others organized chairs and enjoyed the rural atmosphere and sinking sun. Fine friends, a few bubbles, classic reds and good food. What more could I ask for? it was a relaxing and gorgeous rustic feast to end a very hectic month of work.

We're now back into full swing picking and packing. I say we, but that doesn't include me. I'm still sporting the rash on my arms from my last picking day and can't wait for the scabs to disappear altogether.

We've had ups and downs with the produce too of late and some major disappointments. After much discussion we gave the central markets another go as a way to sell off bulk. One 20 hour day, followed by a massive trailer load taken to the agent at the market and we thought we would be set for another pay cheque without too much hassle.

Two hours after drop off, happy was back at the markets repacking the trailer and taking the produce home. Used boxes and a few marks on our fruit and we were rejected. Forget the fact the fruit and veg tastes amazing, a small mark here and there and whoops that's it, you're out. Add in the used polystyrene boxes and we double blundered.

There's something I can't quite grasp about the fruit and veg markets at Flemington. They must handle millions of boxes of produce every day. And if each providore demands new boxes then where do the old ones go? I know we reuse boxes for stackin purposes, but surely there must be masses of them going to landfill every day.

Isn't this a crime? Wasteful and blatant disregard for our environment and resources?

Doesn't this sort of clash with the whole concept of 'fresh from the farm' or is that 'fresh from the farm packed in a box made out of something we can't renew so it will bugger up the earth anyway?'

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...words fail me...I want to buy the front page of every newspaper just to wake the community up and tell them they may as well do what they want environmentally because THE BIG BOYS DON'T GIVE A SHIT!

Our dirty weekend!

This Easter weekend was our first opportunity to actually stay at the farm and have a little break away from city living. The van had been duly cleaned and all filth removed, and all it took was a bit of planning to get ourselves set up for a few days on the farm. With a brand new porta-potty, and some comfort foods we set off to the farm after our last job on Thursday night.

I'd love to be able to say we stayed there continuously, but that wasn't how it worked. There was no running hot water, no real toilet, and no way to have anything but a cold wash. The next couple of days were spent working through these issues and finding solutions. On top of the residential issues, we also had a bust coolroom that needed fixing. Is there a reason why all things mechanical break down on long weekends? A trip down the road to our local chinese gardeners and we were armed with the name of a mechanic who would travel out on Easter Sunday to fix our coolroom. When asked if they charged more for a public holiday, they laughed and said 'No, we're Chinese. Same rate everyday!' Bit like Happy and I. Doesn't matter if it's nighttime or weekends, we charge the same.

My new wireless modem also had a workout, and even though it is slower working than here, it is still manageable. This is brilliant news, as it means that on the days when I have a big job, but want to get out to the farm I can pick up sticks and sit in the van watching the farmers at work. It may not sound luxurious, it's certainly peaceful though.

Food was simple, and utterly fresh. There's nothing like thinking up a recipe and heading out to the fields to grab the ingredients. We road tested one of our habanero chilllis last night. Spicy and flavourful, and just hot enough. One of my next plans is to organise a better kitchen out there so we can pack and process jars of produce straight from the field. With the kids coming out to help us always, we should be able to fix up many jars, and I'll also be able to give them a bit of a cooking education to boot.

There was much picking and packing, and many trips back and forth from van, to shed, to coolroom, to van, to shed, to car, to coolroom, to van, to shed and on and on. We need to make more sense of the area to cut down on the walking!

We did have a giggle though when we tried to move the double bed into the back section of the caravan. Of course the room dimensions meant the bed would fit, HOWEVER, some bright spark(me) didn't take into consideration moving the bed INTO this area. We pushed, we shoved, we struggled, we lifted and we carried on, to no avail. At the moment when we thought we would never get the bed in, we realised the mattress would slide in (just) through the back window. Out the back, in the dark and precariously close to the dam, we managed to push the base through the back window and into our cosy little bedroom. If only the solution was as simple as that. We then couldn't get the base to turn, or rest on the supporting frame, which meant we had to do some emergency renovation works. This involved my holding one end of the base up high, happy resting the other end on his head, and kicking out the fixed bedroom cabinet with his feet. Once the cabinet was gone we then realised that the top bunks, which fold down, have a safety lip which again stopped the base from sitting flat. I don't know what our neighbours must have thought - but if they looked over they would have seen both happy and I jumping on the mattress base until we broke through the lip. The van is rather unstable to begin with, and as it rocked and swayed and we thought we might end up in the dam, it finally gave way and the base was finally laid to rest.

Getting the mattress in was a breeze after this effort! There are still a few modifications we'll need to make to the back room to make it perfect, just give us time to come up with our next hairbrained scheme!

For all the effort put into getting things right, we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. While Happy sprayed the weeds and sorted out some spiky plants, I picked our first batch of Italian Beans, and a few tomatoes. We dined happily in our little van, then watched a couple of DVD's on the laptop, and then we slept well in our cosy little nook. We had a lot of laughs, enjoyed some relaxing times and totally recharged our batteries. If only we could live out there permanently!

It would be good too if I could remember to take photos when I'm there! Next time...

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So while I'm back in my office sorting through the work that should have been done over the weekend, the boys are out there packing up the coolroom ready for a big week at the markets. We should have a trailer load going at 3am Weds morning, and then several drop offs during the week. Fingers crossed we have a big week.

A crab, a monkfish and a wok walked into a kitchen.

Well, it sorta started like that. I was at the fishmarkets on friday thinking that my dear one needed a fix of good fresh fish. He loves his fish, and crabs, and oysters and particulaly sashimi.

I was only supposed to come home with raw salmon and perhaps some garfish for him to eat. But then I discovered the live mud crab bucket. 'Yes, please, the largest one, thanks'.

Then while perusing the garfisha and placing my order, a giant monkfish tail smiled at me, and soon it was bundled up and ready to go. Sydney fish markets are not the cheapest place to get fish, but they often surprise me with what they have on offer.

Home with my little catch, and then a few hours to dream about recipes. As the crab was live, it was the first to be had.

We'd made Singapore Mud Crab in the past, and I just knew it could be better. Oh dear Lord...it was better than better, it was fantastic. Here's what we did.

BLEND
5 hot hot chillis
5 cloves garlic
Handful of green coriander leaves
1 big tsp of fresh chilli
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin

Mix puree with
3/4 cup of chilli tomato puree

Prepare live crab and cut into pieces

Heat peanut oil in wok.

Stir fry chilli puree for a few mins to release the flavours

Add coconut cream to taste (about 1/2 cup)

Stir in crab until all pieces are covered with sauce.

Lid and steam until crab is cooked – 5-10 mins

Add a drop more coconut cream if desired.

Add juice of one lime. Stir and serve

Serve with pineapple fried rice

It was stunningly good. The coconut cream diluted the chilli flavour just enough for this to be finger lickin' good.

Another night or two later, and the monkfish is still waiting for it's moment in the sun. Rick Stein has talked so long and so hard about how fabulous this fish is, that I could barely wait to get it onto our plate. The chosen recipe ended up tossed aside, when I discovered I didn't have all the ingredients, so again with our little coconut crab sauce number we wok-tossed up another plateful of happiness. This time we added more coconut cream plus a final garnish of fresh basil and Hoo Boy, didn't this turn out fantastic.

The fish is succulent, juicy, white and almost bereft of bones. It's fleshy creaminess enhanced the sauce enormously until we almost had a Thai Green Curry without the store bought paste.

Monkfish is our new go-to fish when we want a stew type of meal as it held together beautifully when cooked, and yet stayed juicy through and through.

Again, the pineapple fried rice was served along side, as I'm in total craving moment and just love that sweet bite of pineapple against a chilli infected sauce.

Pineapple fried rice

Slice a small onion finely

Dice quarter of pineapple finely

Chop a handful of coriander

Heat oil in wok

Add onion and cook until starting to colour.

Toss over a good teaspoon of white pepper and stir to release flavour.

Stir in pineapple and cook for a minute or two

Add a couple of cups of boiled plain rice

Mix and stir until rice is heated through

Beat two eggs and toss over rice.

Continue stir frying until cooked. ( A really hot wok would give you those lovely crispy bits, but eh...it doesn't matter, this is still good.)

Stir through coriander and serve.