It’s the Monday before Easter and I’m madly making a list of things to do before the long weekend. We have house guests for Easter and menu planning is top of mind. I’m not sure how you celebrate Easter, but in our home it always centers around the kids. So of course there will be an Easter egg hunt. Hopefully the bunnies have left some eggs! There are jobs to be around the farm too. Preparing a few veg beds by harvesting the very last few zucchinis, cucumbers and basil is on my ‘must do’ list! But foremost, is a little Easter baking. Do you bake for Easter? I’ve made our own hot cross buns for quite a few years. But in recent times I’ve baked a traditional Italian ricotta cake. Oh my, it is
I finally said ‘enough is enough’ and ripped out the tomatoes on the weekend. There were still plenty of lovely green ones on the vines. One of the best tips I’ve used when it’s the end of the tomato season and still have plenty of unripe fruit, is to hang the vines in a cool dark place. If you have a cellar, brilliant. We don’t, so I hang them in the old shed beside the last of the garlic that is waiting for me to clean it and plant soon. There are also the rows of fruit sitting on windowsills, catching the autumn sun. Most of these will ripen with a little patience. My neighbour Lorraine puts green tomatoes in paper bags and that works well too. I’m not a fan of green tomato pickle, so I t
We love to give every guest who stays in our groovy African inspired cabin a taste of the Otways. To us it’s important to share the bounty of our region with visitors from near and far. You won’t find any small cereal packets or sliced white bread in this basket! Frans bakes a fresh loaf of bread for each morning. The eggs are fresh from the girls in the chook house and the bacon is locally cured at MidWest Meats in Colac. The conserves are of course our own label, and depending on the season, there will be fresh berries, apples or nectarines from the orchard tucked into the hamper. There’s local goats cheese from Meredith Dairy, olive oil from Otway Olives and always a home baked cake for m