Making Sense of Things

Posts tagged with organic

• 24 January 2011 - How to make cottage cheese at home

  In addition to butter, yoghurt and brie, we’ve loved making cottage cheese at home too. It’s so easy we almost don’t want to tell people.  We normally use 2L of Cleopatra’s raw cow’s milk, removing the cream and putting it aside to make our butter.  To remove the cream simply leave your milk standing upright in the fridge so the cream can naturally separate from the milk – you will see a definite line.  Once separated, just make a small hole at the bottom of the bottle, take the lid off the top of the bottle and let the milk drain from the hole in to a separate jar.  When it has drained to the cream line, pour the cream into another container.

  We simply pour the skimmed milk in to our large glass jar and allow it to curdle at room temperature for a maximum of 5 … Read the rest

• 13 January 2011 - How to make yoghurt at home

  Yoghurt is our weekly must make product.  We usually use 2L of Cleopatra’s raw cow’s milk (including the cream on top), heat it to 85° C then let it cool to 43° C. Since raw milk is illegal to sell for consumption in Australia, Cleopatra’s raw milk is sold as Bath Milk, for cosmetic purposes only… but if you aren’t “brave” enough to use raw milk or can’t get a hold of it, just buy some organic pasteurised unhomogenised milk (see the UPDATE at the end of this post for more information).

  

  We then add 2 grains of the yoghurt culture… we got ours from cheeselinks.com and chose the type below but you can find other types elsewhere too… (you can also use a few tablespoons of a good quality store bought yoghurt instead, see the UPDATE at the end of this post).

  

  … and incubate it overnight at around … Read the rest

• 12 January 2011 - Harvesting during a flood

  As we described in our first ‘harvest’ post, we want to share more photos from our garden with you.

  At the moment our city is flooding severely. People are evacuating, packing up their things, thousands of homes have been filled with water and some have even lost their lives. On our side, we are lucky as we are on high ground. Many people have been “panic buying” supplies in preparation for isolation and lack of transport. Our CSA (community supported agriculture – see this post for information about CSAs), Food Connect, are having difficulty delivering fruit and vegetable boxes as their drivers can’t get through flooded roads. We have bought some fresh provisions we could carry from a nearby store (we don’t have a car) but we already have loads of grains, pasta, lentils and the like in our home to feel secure. Not to mention small gifts from … Read the rest

• 11 January 2011 - Is organic food elitist?

  Dear readers, although the current post can be read in and for itself, please note that it is a continuation of our two previous posts “Why we’ve decided to stop buying food from supermarkets…” and “Who is the ‘authority’ that said that Coca-Cola was safer to drink than raw milk?”

  So, let’s consider whether organic food is elitist.

  First let’s ask the question, is cheap food really cheap?

  Yes, we understand that an industrialised jam sold for $3.50 is cheaper than an organic jam sold for $5.70, but behind the price tag, one needs to also consider the ‘hidden’ costs of industrial food.

  Let’s, for instance, consider the environmental costs. According to Angela Crocombe’s book, Ethical Eating, industrialised agriculture contributes substantially to global greenhouse emissions because of its heavy reliance on chemical fertilisers, depleting the soil of carbon and nitrogen and releasing nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. … Read the rest

• 10 January 2011 - Harvesting our garden despite the rain

  As we described in our last ‘harvest’ post, we often forget to take photos of our harvests from our organic garden to show you. Lately it has been raining a lot so we haven’t been able to get into the garden to work on it and plant new vegetables. Additionally, the lack of sun and constant pools of water have had a significant impact on our plants.

  Despite this we were lucky enough to harvest some sweet potatoes (with a few holes in them!) and aubergines (still a bit small) and we are very grateful they have survived. Tonight will be roast sweet potato and aubergine salad with fresh homemade yoghurt dressing… mmmm… keep an eye out for our coming post on how to make yoghurt at home!

  

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  … Read the rest

• 9 January 2011 - Who is the ‘authority’ that said that Coca-Cola was safer to drink than raw milk?

  In  a previous post, we shared why we’ve decided to move away from industrialised processed food and stopped buying food from supermarkets. For instance, we recalled that as far as our hormones and metabolism are concerned, there’s no difference between a bowl of unsweetened corn flakes purchased in a supermarket and a bowl of table sugar…

  So what does it have to do with the present post, i.e. ‘who is the ‘authority’ that said that Coca-Cola was safer to drink than raw milk?’ The question stems from the fact that the cola drink, which is an unhealthy drink if one looks at its proportion of sugar (or worse, sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup depending on country of origin), phosphoric acid or glycerine, is considered as safe to drink by health authorities worldwide. In contrast, a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, as well as 28 states in the US, … Read the rest

• 7 January 2011 - Why we’ve decided to stop buying food from supermarkets…

  It took me some time to realise just how unhealthy the food I’ve consumed for most of my life actually is – yeah, you know the food bought in supermarkets, not even fast-food and junk-food. I’ve been a bit naive this whole time but I think I’m now getting a better understanding of it all.

  I want to share with you just a few of the things I’ve discovered, but please research for yourself what you are eating too.

  Recently a network of French associations released a study, and its results are pretty scary – yet concern anyone living in an industrialised society. The aim of the study was to understand what amounts of chemicals residues are present in a 10 years old child daily meals. They bought non-organic food and drinks in supermarkets, prepared three meals and one snack and asked different independent laboratories to analyse the content of … Read the rest

• 5 January 2011 - How to make butter at home

  We love our cultured butter!  And actually it’s really easy to make!

  We simply ferment some fresh raw cream (off the top of our raw milk) by leaving the cream on the kitchen bench until little bubbles start to form – around 24-48 hours. The lactobaccilis bulgaricus bacteria that’s naturally found in the cow will induce the ferment.  You can’t really see the bubbles in this picture because they are pin head size!

  

  Once the cream is fermented, we put it in the fridge as it’s easier to work with when cool.  Once cool we simply whiz it with a cake mixer (a food processor would be easier but we don’t have one) until the cream turns to butter and separates from the buttermilk.

  

  Then we strain the butter from the buttermilk…

  

  Then we wash it 3 times in bowls of cool water until the water runs clear, to remove … Read the rest

• 25 December 2010 - Homemade Christmas

  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

  Check out the goodies we made as gifts for Christmas! Click on a photograph to read the tag better

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  … Read the rest

• 24 December 2010 - Harvesting our Garden

  We often forget to take photos to share what we harvest from our organic garden with you, but below are a few from our recent harvests.

  We’ve been making delicious fresh pesto from all our herbs – rosemary, sage, chives, parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, mint… Baba ghanoush and moussaka from our aubergine… tomato sauce from home grown tomatoes, capsicum, aubergine and spinach… croutons from our fresh homemade bread, brushed in olive oil and fresh herbs from the garden… our green beans, courgettes and Asian greens go in anything from salads to stir fries to lentil soups… our lettuces, spinach and shallots make beautiful crispy salads… and many, many more dishes…

  We shouldn’t forget all those lemons, mandarins, grapefruit, oranges and acerola cherries we’ve been able to benefit from thanks to the landlord’s love of productive trees.  (see our post on ‘Urban Permaculture in Practice‘ where there is a base plan … Read the rest