Herb Garden & Rustic Brick Path...... Part 1

I can't believe how that past week has flown! I am sorry that it has been a week since i last posted! I guess i have been a little pre-occupied with things such as preparing for an over sea's trip to India in the next 10 days, lots of jars of relish being made and i am also organising a baby shower for a friend this weekend!

I have been meaning to show you the progression of our herb garden and rustic brick path that we have been creating for the last 6 months at the back of our house. It has taken so long because we have been scavenging around for more old rustic bricks to finish off the path. SO finally we found enough to do so and have finally finished it!

These photo's were after Bevan has done some pruning and clearing so it looked a lot worse than this. These photo's were taken about July 2010 after we moved in.

In late August 2010, Bevan and I got to work clearing the rest of the shrubs and starting with a blank canvas. We had  (Read Post HERE)

There was a LOT of hard yakka involved in getting it to this stage and I have to admit I was not involved a great deal in getting rid of the hard roots and shrubs, my poor husband did that! We installed a long piece of white flexible drainage pipe around the garden which enables us to place our grey water from the washing machine in it to water the plants.

Our idea for this garden was to create a rustic brick path using reclaimed bricks  up the center of it. We also wanted to incorporate a circular brick design at the entrance of the path which we can place a small cafe style setting on it!

Read about our path inspiration HERE

In early September 2010 we were able to start building proper garden beds and plant herbs and salad items such as lettuce and spring onions. It all looked a little bare and uninviting but we persevered with our idea.

Bevan created this cute little wooden bench out of a tree that he cut down (It's all about recycling!) It created a nice interest point to the garden!

We laid a bed of crusher dust down over the black soil to cushion the bricks, reduce movement and have a more stable foundation to lay them upon.

In November 2010 we started collecting old re-claimed bricks ( Read about our Scavenging Adventure HERE)

And got to work removing the old limestone mortar....  on about 400 bricks!

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Part 2 on our Herb Garden & Rustic 

Path Story will continue in my next post....

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Meanwhile i want to wish every a Happy AUSTRALIA DAY for tommorrow. I hope you all have something relaxing planned whether it be a picnic in the park, a swim at the beach or a bbq in the backyard. Enjoy this time with family and friends and be proud to be an AUSSIE tommorrow!

Preserving Your Own Beetroot!

It has been exciting to watch my veggie garden grow and thrive but it has also been a bit heartbreaking to see it shrivel and die from rain overload and an infestation of slugs decimating EVERYTHING! Now that the rain has let up for awhile i have sighed with relief as the heat has scared away all the slugs! (And snail pellets :-) ).

I have been blessed enough to have some beetroot still growing and tomatoes now thriving in this heat. I was able to make up some of the "Darr" Family Favourite - Tomato Relish with the excess tomatoes that we have had. I also jumped at the chance of canning our beetroot while the weather was good to pick them! So over the weekend i picked all the beetroot in our garden and started prepping it to be canned.

Beetroot growing in our garden.

Anyone can preserve there own beetroot  it is really simple to do. All your require are some good sized glassed bottles (Pasta Sauce bottles are the best), a large pot to cook your beetroot in, a few staple ingredients you should have in the cupboard and a  free afternoon. Easy Peasy. There is nothing more delicious than your own beetroot on a salad sandwich!

Keep old jam jars and pasta sauce bottles for preserving!

Preserving Beetroot

Step 1. The first step is probably the most important step in the whole process of preserving your beets - Sterilising your bottles. It is important that the bottles are free from all bacteria and any lingering smells that may taint your beets. What i do is place all the bottle in my dishwasher and run them through a normal cycle. This will sterilise them and remove any smells that may remain in the bottles!

I wash the bottle lids in the sink in soapy hot water and sit them aside to drain as they tend to rust if left in the dishwasher.

Step 2. Wash your beetroot if you have removed them from the garden, removing any dirt, roots and cutting the leaves off. You may need to cut large beetroot in half to keep the sizes similar when cooking.  *Update 05/02/13 - After presreving beetroot for more than a year now I have found it is best to add the larger beets first and cook them a little longer than the other sizes. Do not cut them in half as this will cause the beetroot to leech its colour and become pale. Place in a large saucepan fill with water until it covers your beets. Cook until you can place a knife through the beetroot.

*Alternatively if you have a pressure cooker place all the beets into your cooker and set to medium pressure. Cook for 20 minutes - continue to step 2*

Step 3. Drain the cooked beets and set aside for 5 -10 min until cool enough to handle. Now the messy bit begins. Peel the skin from beetroot - it should be quite easy to remove with your fingers but if it is difficult us the back of a butter knife to scrape the skin off with. Rinse quickly under water and either slice or dice. (See pictures below) and place into a clean bowl. Continue until all beetroot is peeled and sliced! Keep and approximate note of how many cups worth of cooked beets you have as you will need this information later.

You can slice your beetroot which is great for sandwiches or....

dice your beetroot which is great for tossing through salads. Or do a half a batch of each!

Step 4.   To make the pickling liquid you will need a medium sized sauce pan and the following ingredients:

1/3 Cup White Vinegar

1/4 Cup Castor Sugar

1/4 Cup Water

1/4 Teaspoon  Table Salt

This is for 1 Cup of Sliced/Diced Beets.

(You will need to multiply this to the amount of cooked beets you have)

Place all the above ingredients for the pickling liquid into a saucepan (Not the cooked beets) and bring to the boil. 

Step 5. While the liquid is coming to the boil fill up your sterlised jars with your sliced/dice beetroot leaving about a 2 cm gap from the top. Pour the slightly cooled (no more than 2 minutes cooling) pickling liquid on top of the beets, tightly screw the lid on and turn upside down onto the lid. Repeat until complete.

*By turning the bottles upside helps the jars to seal. Turn over once cooled and the "button" on top should be pressed in. If it doesn't seal after cooling place in the microwave for 1 minute until hot and place on lid again and cool.

Notes:

- Leave at least one week before using to let the beets develop some flavour and pickle.

- Label and date your preserved beets.
- Keep opened jars of beetroot in the fridge, unopened jars can be stored in a dark cupboard.

These little bottles of preserved beetroot make great gifts in hampers for christmas and easter!

Preserving Beetroot

by The Whimsical WIfe

Prep Time: 1-2 hours

Cook Time: 1 hour

Keywords: pressure cooker poach fall spring summer

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Ingredients (Makes 1-2 bottles)

• 1/3 Cup White Vinegar
• 1/4 Cup Castor Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 1/4 Teaspoon Table Salt
• 1 Cup of Sliced/Diced Beets.
• (You will need to multiply this to the amount of cooked beets you have)

Instructions

The first step is probably the most important step in the whole process of preserving your beets - Sterilising your bottles. It is important that the bottles are free from all bacteria and any lingering smells that may taint your beets. What i do is place all the bottle in my dishwasher and run them through a normal cycle. This will sterilise them and remove any smells that may remain in the bottles! I wash the bottle lids in the sink in soapy hot water and sit them aside to drain as they tend to rust if left in the dishwasher.

Wash your beetroot if you have removed them from the garden, removing any dirt, roots and cutting the leaves off. I have found it is best to add the larger beets first and cook them a little longer than the other sizes. Do not cut them in half as this will cause the beetroot to leech its colour and become pale. Place in a large saucepan, fill with water until it covers your beets. Cook until you can place a knife through the beetroot.*Alternatively if you have a pressure cooker place all the beets into your cooker and set to medium pressure. Cook for 20 minutes - continue to the next step*

Drain the cooked beets and set aside for 5 -10 min until cool enough to handle. Now the messy bit begins. Peel the skin from beetroot - it should be quite easy to remove with your fingers but if it is difficult us the back of a butter knife to scrape the skin off with. Rinse quickly under water and either slice or dice. (See pictures below) and place into a clean bowl. Continue until all beetroot is peeled and sliced! Keep and approximate note of how many cups worth of cooked beets you have as you will need this information later.

Place all the above ingredients for the pickling liquid into a saucepan (Not the cooked beets) and bring to the boil.

While the liquid is coming to the boil fill up your sterlised jars with your sliced/dice beetroot leaving about a 2 cm gap from the top. Pour the slightly cooled (no more than 2 minutes cooling) pickling liquid on top of the beets, tightly screw the lid on and turn upside down onto the lid. Repeat until complete. *By turning the bottles upside helps the jars to seal. Turn over once cooled and the "button" on top should be pressed in. If it doesn't seal after cooling place in the microwave for 1 minute until hot and place on lid again and cool.

Leave at least one week before using to let the beets develop some flavour and pickle.

Label and date your preserved beets.

Keep opened jars of beetroot in the fridge, unopened jars can be stored in a dark cupboard.

These little bottles of preserved beetroot make great gifts in hampers for christmas and easter!

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If you have lots of beetroot why not make my heirloom beetroot gallette or beetroot, walnut and goats cheese salad or a roast vegetable quinoa salad which includes these lovely beets!

Project No 2: Sash Window Picture Frame

Well i really am a bit stunned at the moment and trying to get my thoughts together from the devastation that Toowoomba (where i live) has had due to the flash floods which hit it yesterday. Lives lost, buildings and business's damaged and just plain choas left in the wake of the "inland tsnami" as the news is calling it! Crazy. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones, who have loved ones missing or have been affected by the flood in anyway!

On the good news front... Diaries Of A Whimsical Wife was spotlighted by a great blog called Domestically Speaking. It is chocca block full of great ideas, projects and inspirations. Be sure to check it out! Thank you Maryann for choosing to spotlight my kitchen renovations. I appreciated it immensley. 

Check out the posting here.

Project 2 : Using these bargain sash windows.

And these photo frames ($2.00 the lot)

 

Onto my next project I did using one of the sash windows that i got for a bargain price of three for $2.00 and a bunch of photo frames which I scored at a garage sale! The sash window that I used had clear glass and no framing through the middle which i thought would make a perfect picture frame. After a bit of clean up work on the frame removing gunk, old built up paint and rust I covered the glass in newspaper and taped the edges ready for a paint. I started with a quick undercoat and then straight onto the top coast which was an enamel white. I used spray cans for this as it is less fuss and mess! I did the same thing for the smaller frames using wire to hang them up as i sprayed them which reduced runs in the paint work.

All ready for the final coat.

If you are using enamel based paint it is important to leave whatever you have painted dry for a few days as the paint drys quite slowly. Note i found this out after painting these frames and getting impatient and moving them which resulted in bumps and scrapes. 

My plan for these frames is to use them to house some gorgeous pencil drawn prints we bought back from Paris when we visited there back in 2008 (Yes it has taken me that long to decide what to do with them) Read about our Paris visit here.

My talented husband cut out some matte board frames for the prints using a matte board cutter and some grey matte board that i picked up from a local art shop.

Finished product before hanging

Finished Product Before hanging

I had finished this project about 3 months ago but we got busy with other things around the house and never found time to hang them. So these past holidays i jumped at our free time and got my dear husband to hang them for me.

Finished Sash window Project No: 2

 

Finally finished and hung!

Completed Projects - Number 1

Hello my bloggy readers.... how was your christmas break? Hopefully not as unexciting as mine? Our family had planned to go to Hervery Bay, camping for a week and after looking at the forecast a few days out we decided to opt out. It was a hard decision to make as we all lost about $140 each but i think we made a wise decision considering we would of been washed out and flooded in!

Anyway the spare time gave me an opportunity to finish of a few of those projects that i have had sitting around that i haven't had time to finish.

My first project was to make a French Country Blackboard out of an old sash window.

 (My Inspiration Here)

Original Sash Window

I removed the glass ... ever so easily - one big smash - and removed all the built up gunk around the frame. I gave it a good sand and removed any hardware that was attached to be replaced later.

All prepped ready for paint!

After a few licks of matte white paint and a bit of a rough sand to give it that "rustic look and replacing the the hardware that i removed i was nearly done. I (well bevan did actually) cut out a piece of MDF to fit the hole and I painted it with black board paint. After a few nails to hold the black board in the frame we were done.

I still want to paint a few words or something at the top of the black board so it doesn't look so blank but it's 99% complete! I looked at purchasing a French Country Blackboard similar to this from a shop for about $80 - $90! This probably cost me no more than $15-$20! BARGAIN!

I have another project to show but that will be for my next post......

Hope the start to your new year is all that you have hoped for!

P.S. LOVE LOVE LOVE To hear some comments or suggestions!

A New Beginning....

Happy New Years!!

It's hard not to reflect back to the year that was as you look toward a new year and a new beginning. I think it's good to do this so you know where you  have come from so you can move forward to go where you should be!

I look back at all the things that I have accomplished and  thank God for the blessing he has given me......

I smile and laugh at the fun times and great memories made......

I shed a tear for the hard and heartbreaking moments......

These moment's have shaped and made me who I am today... This first day in 2011 will be a new beginning for those moments I want to forget , a year for me to continue to add those fun and happy times to my memory bank and to continue to thank our God above that he has walked beside me in each and everyone of those days whether it has been a good one or a bad one!

Reflection is good but to wallow in the past is destructive....

Look back and ponder for a time.....

But get up and MOVE forward to live a LIFE worth LIVING.......

Happy 2011 Everyone!