Zucchini, Chocolate + Olive Oil Cake

We’ve been knee-deep in zucchinis for a while now. The glut began before the tomatoes ripened, and it continues to surprise us with over-sized veggies most days. It’s a nice problem to have. Only about half of us actually like eating zucchini on it’s own, so to stay on top of the glut, we’ve been experimenting with zucchini kasundi recipes - we’ve not found a total favourite yet, but have a couple that will clear your sinuses if you’re brave! And we’ve returned to old favourites like pickled zucchinis, spiced zucchini soup (fabulous with fresh bread on autumn evenings, and a great glut-buster), and our favourite, zucchini chocolate cake. 

This is our go-to zucchini chocolate cake recipe. It’s a quick mix recipe that makes a large amount of cake to share for a group, or to supply hungry kids with snacks for up to a week (it may depend on how hungry!). The cake keeps moist in an air-tight container on the bench for a few days, or can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, or frozen if longer storage is needed.

The olive oil adds depth of flavour that prevents the cake from being overly sweet. If you prefer a milder flavour, another vegetable or seed oil like sunflower oil might be a good replacement. The cake is dairy free and can be made gluten free with the alternative mentioned below. We haven’t tried an egg replacement so it’s not vegan, but let us know if you find a method that works for you! You can also add your favourite nuts or seeds to the cake, and ice it if you like.

Like all our recipes, we recommend you experiment and have fun finding what works best for you! 

2 cups (250g) plain flour

1.5 cups organic raw sugar (coconut sugar or rapadura also work, but can change the texture slightly).
3/4 cup cocoa powder (or raw cacao) 
3 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon bicarb
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup olive oil

2 cups grated zucchini, firmly packed

1. Preheat oven to 180°C

2. Grease and flour a lamington tin.
3. Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarb, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a large bowl, then stir.
4. Add the eggs and oil to the bowl, and mix well.
5. Add the zucchini and mix together evenly.
6. Pour into the prepared lamington tin.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for one hour. 

8. Cool the cake and slice it into squares. 

Gluten free version: Use a gluten-free flour mix and add one extra egg. 

Marvellous Mulberries :: Our favourite cordial recipe

Our very favourite garden tree is our mulberry. It's the biggest in the food forest, planted 9 or so years ago, over Tiny Owlet's placenta. It grows generous amounts of fruit, provides cooling shade, juice for ink-making, leaves for tea and silk worm fodder, and a stunning autumn display as it's leaves turn yellow where the sun lands on them. Actually, all the plants in our perennial food forest are wonderful. They’re super low maintenance, and feed us huge amounts of food each year. We’re so glad we planted them when we did. If you’re strapped for time, but have some space in your garden for perennial food plants, throw some in and feed your family (friends and neighbours), for years to come. It’s well worth the investment. But back to the mulberry.
Last year, we made the mistake of not throwing a net over our mulberry tree. The tree had grown so much in the year prior, it outgrew the nets we had, and we naively thought there would be enough fruit for us and the blackbirds to share. We didn’t pick a single ripe mulberry.

So, this year we were prepared. And the extra rain we’ve had meant mulberries as far as the eye can see. The laden tree’s heavy branches are sweeping the ground, and every leaf has berries waiting underneath to be picked. Unfortunately the combination of wind, rain and heavy fruit mean the tree is almost lying horizontal at this point. It won't be the same beautiful upright tree, and the food forest is somewhat changed, but that's the adventure of gardening and tending to an ever-changing ecosystem. We’ve still been sneaking out to the garden to scoff and slurp on juicy mulberries all month - bright magenta juice staining our fingers and toes... And, of course, we've been putting some aside for winter.

Bottled mulberries for the cupboards for winter guzzling. Fresh berries and mulberry cordial to enjoy right now. We'll make some cordial into jelly and some fruit into jam. We've been playing with mulberry cordial recipes for a few years now, and here's our ultra-simple favourite. We make a habit of simplifying things, because we find we're more likely to find time for an easy recipe we can remember by heart. Mulberry Cordial

1kg mulberries 1L water 750g sugar 2 lemons 1. Place the mulberries in a large saucepan, with the water and sugar. 2. Add the zest and juice of the lemons 3. Place the pot over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. 4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, continuing to stir when you remember. 5. Line a large bowl or jug with a fine mesh bag, cheesecloth or strainer while you wait for the pot to simmer. 6. Remove from the heat and pour into the mesh bag/strainer/cloth lined bowl.

7. Allow the liquid to drain from the fruit pulp. We like to use a mesh bag and suspend it from a kitchen cupboard handle over the bowl. Set the fruit pulp aside. 8. Use a funnel to pour the cordial into clean bottles. Sterilise the bottles first if you're going to store the cordial for a while. 9. Seal with lids and move to the fridge when cool if you're planning to enjoy the cordial over the next couple of weeks. Pasteurise the full bottles in a large pot of boiling water if you plan to store them for up to 12 months.

Enjoy your cordial mixed 1:4 parts water. Mulberry fizz is lovely if you have a Sodastream, and mulberry mixes well with alcoholic drinks, too. Use the fruit pulp (and lemon zest) in your favourite crumble, pie or muffin recipe. It's delicious added to an apple base filling. Alternatively, freeze it for smoothies or nice-cream, or for baking another day. 

Happiest Mulberry season! 

~ Lauren. xx

Ode to a worm farm :: How to make a pet poo worm farm

If there’s something we didn’t expect pet ownership would make us grateful for, it’s poo. Growing up, there was always lots of it - dog poo, cat poo, picked up before school, tied up in two plastic shopping bins, and flung into the bin for rubbish day. It was taken away so we didn’t need to think about it, or smell it anymore. When we both moved out of home and adopted pets, we continued the same daily tradition of double-bagged poo-flinging, into the stinky bin, and away. 

But then we started living waste-free, and we stopped shopping at supermarkets, so there were no smelly bins, no plastic bags, and no more away. So along came our worm farm, and the piles of poo (just poo), and the re-used brown paper bags we use to pick the poo up on dog walks, land in there. Our worm friends turn all those stinky piles into incredible compost - black gold for our fruit trees. There’s absolutely no smell. And very minimal need for us to do anything other than dig out the amazing compost, tickling the worms out of it as we go, once a year or so. 

This is what’s normal for our kids now. A life where everything is a valuable resource, and we take responsibility for what happens to it, right here, where we are. A life where we’re all part of an interconnected system, even our pets (both dogs and worms). And that’s a lesson that will last our kids their whole lives. 

How to set up a pet poo worm farm*

It is possible to use the waste pets create as a resource in your garden. You can convert their poo to compost in a dedicated worm farm and use the compost to feed ornamental plants and fruit trees (we’d keep it away from veggies and edible herbs so as to avoid any immediate toxins). A worm farm can fit in a garden, a courtyard or on a small balcony, and when working well will produce no smell. Just luscious compost for your garden.  

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• A container to keep your worms in. Some ideas include an old bath, Styrofoam boxes, an old bin or barrel, old car tyres, a purpose-built box or a kit from your local nursery.

• A piece of mesh to cover any holes and keep the worms in. Fly screen or shade cloth are ideal.

• Some bedding material. Some ideas include mushroom compost, garden soil, coconut fibre or garden compost, or lightly dampened shredded paper (this is ideal if you’re planning on composting pet poo).

• Worm food. For composting pet poo, don’t feed them other food along with the poo as they’ll just eat the food and ignore the poo (who wouldn’t!). If you want a regular worm farm for your veggie scraps instead of poo, make sure to stay away from citrus and onions. Worms love soft food scraps, hair clippings, crushed egg shells, vacuum cleaner dust, coffee grounds, tea bags, sawdust, soaked cardboard and shredded paper.

• Worms! You’ll need about 1000 worms specifically bred for farming. Look for tiger worms or red or blue wrigglers. Common garden worms are great for soil improvement, but not so effective in a worm farm.

STEP 1

If you’re creating a layered box system to collect worm tea, you’ll need something watertight for your bottom layer. In a bath, you might choose to place a bucket under the drain hole. If you’re using a Styrofoam box, place a watertight one on the bottom. Grab the box or container where your worms will be housed and make sure there are holes in the bottom for drainage. Place it on your watertight, tea-collecting bottom layer, if you have one.

STEP 2

Place mesh over the holes. If you’re using a bath, cover the plughole.

STEP 3

Place your worm bedding material in the box or container.

STEP 4

Add your worms to the middle of the box. If you’re using a bath, place them at one end.

STEP 5

Add some poo for the worms to eat. Use your worm farm when you’re cleaning up your kitty-litter tray or dog poo, in conjunction with carbon matter like shredded paper or recycled paper kitty litter. We collect dog poo in re-used paper bags when we take the dogs for a walk, and this feeds the worms well. Try and keep a good balance between the carbon and nitrogen based matter in your worm farm, as you'd do when making compost. If you’re using a bath, just feed the worms up the end where the worms were placed.

STEP 6

Make sure not to overfeed your worms. Start with a small amount of food and watch to see how quickly they can break it down. Keep an eye on them as you add more.

 

STEP 7

Don’t feed pet poo to your worms if you’ve recently wormed your pets – worming medication may kill your worm farm! Technically the medication should be benign when it leaves your dog, but if you want to be sure, leave it for a few days before adding it to your worm farm. 

STEP 8

Place a doubled-up sheet of dampened newspaper on top of your worm farm to retain moisture and keep your worms comfy. Then pop a cover on your worm farm – a layer of hessian, or the lid your kit came with will work.

STEP 9

In a few weeks you’ll be able to collect worm tea to feed your garden! Stick to ornamentals and fruit trees if your worms are eating pet poo.

STEP 10

As your worm farm fills up, you’ll be able to place another box or layer on top and fill it with bedding and food for your worms to migrate to. If you’re using a bath, start feeding the worms at the other end of the bath and they’ll move along to their new feeding place.

STEP 11

Harvest the beautifully broken-down compost from the previous nesting/feeding box and use it on the garden. If you have cats, you might like to bury it under some soil and mulch to keep native wildlife safe, while making valuable nutrients available to your plants and out of landfill or waterways. Happy farming!

*This is an excerpt from our book 'A Family Guide to Waste-Free Living', published in 2019 by Plum. You'll still find it at most good bookshops and libraries, or signed copies in our shop. 

Our Garden Re-design :: Spiral vs Line

A few weeks ago, I looked out the kitchen window and said to Huz "I think we need to remove the spiral. We need straight beds if we're going to increase our yield". He shrugged and wasn't particularly fussed either way, a little sceptical about how much food we could actually get from our garden anyway. He'd never had much interest in growing veggies, despite his enthusiasm for everything else permaculture. Then a week later he spent the day diving into skills for growing food with Good Life Permaculture. He learnt everything from composting to market gardening, realised he already knew a bunch of stuff with his ecological background and years of gardening, and it all just clicked.  He decided it was all about two things: tools and straight lines.

Initially we chose a spiral shape for our vegetable garden in an attempt to slow the flow of nutrients, water and ourselves through the garden. We actively sought something whimsical that would take us out there and slow our own energy flow a bit, inviting us to linger. Knowing spirals to be pretty whimsical and therapeutic, it seemed perfect. An experiment in energy and growth and playfulness within a permaculture system.

The spiral worked really well for a while. We'd converted a large expanse of lawn to something productive. We'd managed to find a system of rotating guilds that flowed though the spiral with the seasons. It was pretty hippy-dippy ace. But it wasn't as productive as it could have been and the difficulty of integrating animals, particularly chooks, into the veggie garden bothered me. Plus a curved line can be harder to cultivate and a crop-rotation system in spiral format seriously messes with your head! Plus we'd managed to find that slowing of energy we craved, that space to daydream, around the edges of the veggie garden, in the food forest.

So right now, along with everything else in our lives it seems, we're going for a complete overhaul. Hundreds of convict bricks have been pulled up again and paths are being re-defined. We've begun the back (and arm!) breaking process of double-digging the soil as we create long, straight beds, slightly reminiscent of a French market garden.

It's the first time we've really dug a garden bed, always opting for raised beds in the past. But we're hoping to give ourselves just a little extra topsoil in our mega-heavy-clay-soil garden. We're observing and chatting about the history of certain patches of soil, what grew where and how and why the soil is the way it is. It's surprising the difference chooks can make to a small patch of heavy clay soil in just one month and how, even months later, you can tell that they've been there by the way the solid crumbles in your hands. We're thrilled that every little bit of effort we've put in so far has paid off. There are some seriously lush areas of topsoil there! We're so glad that our years as custodians of this particular patch of soil haven't been wasted, as slow as the progress seems to have been. It's also surprising how when you've lived somewhere for many years, you can still find remnants of those who've lived there before - old pipes, rusty pliers, broken teacups hidden beneath the soil. We're taking note and learning more as we go.

We're spending long days in the garden, working around the clock to make sure we get it going as soon as humanly possible. Each of us getting involved and taking a role into the construction of something we hope will help feed us and help the budget stretch a little further. We're buying way too many tomato plants at the RTBG fundraiser tomato sale. Huz is nerding out, planning crop rotations and putting his love of spreadsheets to good use. We're making sure we harvest the little bits we can from what's left from the winter garden, and feeling super excited to watch our spring garden evolve through future seasons.


How does your garden grow this spring? 
Have you ever created a garden you loved and dug it up to begin again?

Don't forget our next Seedlings Permaculture for Families e-course begins on October 1st - that's two days from now! A perfect time to dig deep and find your permie mojo. 

It's really important to us that Seedlings is accessible to as many people as possible. So before we begin, we're offering two full scholarships for this  round. If you, or someone you know, would like to join in but isn't in a position to afford it right now, please email us at hello@spiralgarden.com.au. We'd love to hear from you! 

Happy gardening! 

~ Lauren. xx

The Garden Share Collective :: April

We're in a bit of a transition period in the garden right now. Starting to get on top of the most pressing jobs that were neglected in the very busy Spring-Summer we had, and planning and tucking the garden in for Winter. We're finally getting around to reassessing our permaculture plans (we have one each - ha!) and creating an ultimate plan which we've been implementing slowly anyhow, nutting it out as we go. I thought it might be a good idea to join in with The Garden Share Collective this month... just to check in with where things are at.

Planting

It's brassica time in our veggie spiral. The broccoli, kale and cabbage are growing well and I'm about to plant another successional so we'll have plenty for the winter. We've dotted the brassica bed with radish and beetroot and the odd nasturtium. We're planting garlic in the food forest and one corner of the spiral once the sunflowers have finished. The sunflowers! For years we've battled with soil that wouldn't support them, but here they are at last - a definite sign that we're doing things right. We're building up beds, redefining our spiral and spending time observing. So much has changed in our garden and it continues to evolve. I could go on for days, but we might save some more observations for another day.

 

Harvesting

It's starting to slow now, but this is such a lush and abundant time all the same. We're harvesting loads of apples and rhubarb, still the odd raspberry, strawberry and mulberry and all the myrtus berries were gobbled earlier in the week. Pumpkins and spaghetti squash and corn which grew, despite their late start and neglect. We're picking loads of herbs and a few eggs, despite half our flock moulting right now. Tragically, the possums gobbled every last walnut. Next year we'll be more prepared! 

Planning

We have paths to mulch, re-mulch and maintain, a comfrey plant to divide and plant out, more garlic to plant and green manure to get started. We're planning some special herb and food towers for our chook orchard to make our happy girls even happier, and thinking it's time for a hot compost heap. We're picking the best spot for our bees who will be arriving in the Spring! We're creating a space in a warm, sunny spot indoors for some winter growing. I'm plotting and planning which herbs and bush foods to add to our collection, thinking about hazelnuts and olives, and some more berries… We pretty much just need more plants right now. And pallets. We have big plans for wooden pallets. 

How does your garden grow? What are you planting, harvesting and planting? 

~ Owletmama. xx

"The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably." 

Then and now...

When we first saw our nest, we fell in love with three things; the location, the well-lit, quaint 50's interior and the flat backyard. Here in Hobart, so many of the blocks are steep, so a flat backyard is a rare find. We overlooked the lack of a climbing tree and the vast quantity of lawn and we moved right in…

Since then, our garden has seen much transformation. We've always had the odd raised bed veggie patch which has raised a neighbour's eyebrow or two. We've put chickens to work and planted a few trees (and placentas and beloved pets) up the back. We've added a trampoline. And we've generally lamented the whole day it took to mow the huge expanse.

We've deduced that the previous owners - as would have been the case for many families of their era - would have been happy to work five days a week, spend Saturdays mowing the lawn and Sundays at the local church and pottering... For us, life is just too full and our lifestyle couldn't be much more removed from that rhythm. We'd so much rather grow food to nourish our bodies than buy all of it in and spend all the energy made tending a flat expanse of lawn. So we trained ourselves up in permaculture and, in the last 12 months, we did this.

This is one corner of the garden. There's a food forest, a chook/orchard system and a spiral-shaped vegetable garden there. The soil is improving with each season and rather than water running down to a puddle in one corner, we keep most of it on-site to nurture the trees we've planted. There are lots of fruit trees. About 6 months of apples and then nectarine, pear, plum, quince, cherries and apricot. There are all sorts of berries and currants, rhubarb to feed the neighbourhood and more artichokes than we know what to do with. There's a pond with frogs in it! There are herbs for every meal and for medicine. And there's that calming, grounding space to wander through and tend at the end of the day.

It is FAR from perfect. Full of weeds we've come to find useful and twitch we'd rather live without. There are things planted too close together or not on time. There are mistakes. And there are wins. But most of all, there is life and slowing down. There is shade and abundance. And there's a garden to tend that nourishes and teaches us everyday.

Don't forget to sign up and join us for our Spiral Garden Seedlings Permaculture e-course, starting mid-January. We'll be sharing some knowledge and loads of activities we've had fun sharing with our owlets while we explain the ethics and principles of permaculture to them. There's even a minecraft component too! Hope you can join us! xx

You say frittata, I say fruittata...

Our hands down favourite, most simple grain-free breakfast… Or lunch… Or dinner when there's no time and nothing but eggs and bits and pieces… Frittata is our go to. Here's our version.

First I'll pop out to the garden and see what's fresh… Lately it's broccoli and silver beet and herbs. Sometimes there are left over roast veggies too. And if I'm lucky, the chooks will have laid enough eggs for the whole recipe.

Back inside after a quick nip out the back door, I'll quickly blanch the veg and have a look if there are any pine nuts or things like that to roast and throw in. Sometimes I'll caramelise some onions or sauté some leeks… Sometimes I won't. Sometimes I'll just grate a zucchini.

Then I whisk up four eggs in a bowl and oil, butter or coat the base of a frypan in ghee while it warms up a bit…

Next I add the cooked veggies and nuts and bits to the pan and scatter herbs and maybe a bit of parmesan on top. Cook the bottom on the stove for a bit and then cook the top under the griller until puffy and golden and just like you want to eat it. And serve!



If we're feeling a bit sweet tooth-y or fruity, we'll swap the veggies for some fresh or semi-thawed frozen berries, cooked pear or rhubarb, and maybe a splash of maple syrup, and make a fruittata! Served with cream, of course. Perfect for Sunday morning breakfasts or last minute desserts. Little Owlet will ask for the fruittata every time.



Best of all, the owlets love making it themselves and sharing it. It's our go-to-any-time-of-day meal. It's our main table-to-plate-in-fifteen-minutes meal too, which means we feel extra brilliant and smug while we eat it. And it's one of the only recipes we have that everyone almost always agrees on. That's a major win in my book.

Do you have a favourite go-to recipe?
Are you a frittata or fruittata person?
What are you eating from the garden right now? 

Happy Tuesday. xx

When life gives you neighbours…

Every time our minds wander to getting away from it all and moving to some isolated patch of bush, we think about all the good things we have where we are.  Wonderful neighbours is certainly on our list. Even though we are that family in our street… The house with artwork and fingerprints splashed all over the front windows… With Owlets roaring (sometimes nude), around the garden during the daytime. And a weedy, unkempt garden it often is, by most standards. We're that family who are always home and loud and choose to do things a little bit differently. Some of our neighbours choose not to engage and keep heads down as they run from the car to the sanctuary of home.  But the neighbours who do say hello and make time make our street a beautiful and supportive extended family, of sorts. A community.

Over the back fence is a piano teacher who has helped Owlets learn when they've shown interest. Happy for us to fling a ladder over the back fence, she gladly catches them on the other side for a half-hour lesson. And wonderfully, she's not been offended when they decide to give it up, or begin again. Recently her house guests asked to feed our chooks weeds from the garden as they work, having seen us do the same on our side. And so we discovered another beautiful connection for our permaculture design.

Next door on one side, we have a neighbour who has a beautiful, wild garden and she's happy for our Owlets to explore it. There's an amazing dolls house inside, the Owlets tell me. And more than once, we've been given a cup of sugar, a pile of newspapers or a handful of lavender, when we've needed it.

On the other side are neighbours who the Owlets have adopted as surrogate grandparents. Tiny likes to ring the doorbell and say "hi", if she hasn't seen them in a while. They knew our house better than we did when we first moved in and they're always a wealth of information about our street. They assure me that on the night Tiny was born, they heard nothing - although how that can be, I have no idea!

Next door, they are around most days, like us, and pottering in the garden, like us. Their garden is neat, well tended and abundant, with more than enough food for their meals and plenty to share. Often I've seen our neighbour popping in to houses in our street with apples or lemons for who ever is home. Sometimes it's us. Once it was a posie of violets to say she thought I was a great Mum. She had four kids of her own, you see... And there are plenty of times the Owlets have been handed a bowl of raspberries over the fence to gobble up gleefully on the way inside to tell me about it, red stained chin and all…

"Neighbourhood" by Phoebe Wahl. Available in our shop!

We have rather low fences in our neighbourhood, so we've had to become comfortable with company outdoors. Often a head will appear at the fence and we'll get to talking about how the broccoli's growing or why the lemon tree might not be thriving in that spot. Over the years, the next-door neighbours have witnessed our experiments with soil improvement and no-dig gardening and they've shown keen interest. Tut-tutting the weeds at this particularly lush time of year - I suspect they're being polite as we endeavour to get on with the business of growing food, despite the weeds. They're interested to witness the latest transformation as our permaculture design takes shape. And I think we're winning some clout as we seem to have luck with cauliflower.

We've been the glad recipients of a tiny rhubarb plant from next door, which is now huge and adorning our food forest. One of the enormous tomatoes passed over the fence was saved for the seed we have growing in seed trays in the lounge room… And we're more than glad to help out with the lemon glut when we collect the mail while they're away on holidays.

These neighbours embody the permaculture ethics of people care and fair share so well. I suspect that they see success the way I do; that true success is not just being able to feed your own family, but those around you too. And spreading a little joy along the way… I've been giving a little thought to how we can work to make this friendship a little more reciprocal. To be better neighbours and have enough to share (more than the odd cup of milk or stick of butter - although these are helpful too!). Enough useful stuff anyhow, and choosing a few things that are not in our neighbour's garden has been in the back of our minds while putting together our permaculture plan. To begin with, I think it might be a few eggs. They don't have chooks. And when some of the fruit trees grow up a bit, maybe some quinces or pears or cherries. I may just save some seed from the cauliflower and maybe our neighbour will finally have luck with that too, as we have. Hopefully there'll be enough to share with other neighbours too. Even the ones who don't have time for a chat.

This is how community building starts. Its how Owlets find mentors and friends of all ages. Its how we find support and our garden grows stronger. And it's how, when you think there's nothing much in the cupboard, you suddenly have the fixings for Lemon & Rhubarb cake…

Lemon & Rhubarb Cake

5 rhubarb stalks cut into 2cm pieces
1/3 cup rapadura/coconut sugar/raw sugar/maple syrup/alternative
125g soft butter
1 cup of rapadura/organic raw sugar/ honey/rice malt syrup. Add less if you like it less sweet.
zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup SR flour
100ml yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180ºC
Grease and line a 20-22cm springform cake pan

Toss the rhubarb with rapadura and set aside
Cream the butter & larger quantity of sugar/sugar alternative.
Add lemon zest and then the eggs, one at a time.
Stir through the lemon juice.
Fold the flours in gently, a little at a time, alternating with the yoghurt.
Fold in the rhubarb.

Spoon into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes, until browned on top.
Test the cake with a skewer. If the skewer comes out with some cake batter on it, cook for another 5 minutes and repeat.
Cool for 15 minutes before removing the tin.
Dust with icing sugar if you like - we don't think it needs it!

Adapted from Allan Campion and Michele Cranston's Rhubarb Lemon Cake in Every Day Cooking. 
Published by Hardie Grant Books in 2006.

30 Ways to Enjoy Winter :: Beating the Winter Blues

Once upon a time I was a winter person. Always preferring to rug up rather than strip off, I liked winter's crisp air and stark light. Then I moved to Tasmania. Winter is very beautiful here, but it always takes some bolstering to be ready for the cold and the shortened daylight hours. Along with some vitamin D, we need to have a bunch of things up our sleeves to make it fun and keep us happy. Here are 30 ideas for keeping us (and hopefully you) active, warm and happy this winter.




Wake up with yoga or some other movement that stretches your body and calms your mind.

Eat something nurturing, fresh and rainbow-coloured.

Try some different teas or warm drinks. Find one you like. Make a ritual of it.

Go for a walk in nature.
Spend time in a landscape that's bigger than you.

Find inspiration in beautiful things that are much smaller than you.

Find a pub with a fire and cosy up over food and drinks, while recounting a long outdoor adventure.

Make something by hand for someone you love.

Send a letter in the post.

Go to a concert or a film. Come to Hobart for Dark MOFO.

Visit a farmers' market. Make it part of your week.

Spend some time in a book shop or oppy and find a book you like. Devour it. 

Do something that challenges you - like my brave and wonderful Dad, on the first day of Winter.

Learn something new or how to refine something you do. I've been doing this.

Take a course -  Maybe an e-course or something local… This looks good.

Plan a little getaway - visit a shack, go somewhere beachy, have a sleepover at a friend's place.

Light a campfire in the backyard.

Cook something in the coals.

Spend time gardening - plan, explore seed or tree catalogues, plant green manure, make compost.

Look for edible winter greens in your neighbourhood. Get to know your weeds. 

Spend time with people who make you feel happy.

Wear something colourful everyday.
Wear what makes you feel good (even if it's texta all over your face, like Tiny).

Buy or knit some warm woollen socks.

Layer up. “There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” ~ Ranulph Feinnes

Sort through your things. Think about what you need. Make space. 

Decorate a little corner of your home. 

Buy or make some art, then find a spot for it in your home.
Celebrate the dark. Turn the lights out and light candles and enjoy the quiet.

Take a long bath with oils, colours, candles… and someone you love, who makes you giggle. 

What are your winter survival tips?
Happy wintering! xx

Unschool Monday :: Rambling...

Well… after a valiant attempt on both our behalves to, at Big Owlet's request, very loosely follow the Australian grade five Steiner curriculum, Big Owlet proclaimed herself "a little bit bored" with that and has set aside her research books for now and moved on… Time at the table, working together has made way for short bursts of inspiration and chats over mealtimes while we all ramble a bit and find our way through the day.  Finding rhythm within that, to satiate Big Owlet's sometimes-love of structure, and knowing when to let go of the structure in favour of fun and chaos, is what keeps this nest bubbling along happily.



So Big Owlet is currently rising early, often to work on her drawing in a quiet nest, before her siblings awake. She also steals moments at times during the day to keep drawing... always drawing and practicing. She still asks me to work on an art exercise with her from time-to-time, but for the most part she's working at her drawing on her own, taking on suggestions as they arise.



We found some anime and manga drawing books on sale at a bookshop in town and Big Owlet set to work not long after. She's been enjoying graphic novels and we've been analysing the social constructs and sexual stereotypes within some of the anime and comic genre while exploring feminist anime characters. We've also, of course,  been watching lots of Miyazaki films. Then sometimes Big Owlet will just break out and draw something from observation. She's beginning to get over her perfectionism and can see that her work is improving.

Then there's role playing. Huz visited his Mum and picked up all his old Dungeons & Dragons and Middle Earth role-playing books and miniatures geekery - an absolute treasure trove for Big Owlet and where she's at right now. It's also providing hours of fun for Huz who's constructing games for Big Owlet which surprisingly take in lots of geographic, historical and mathematical concepts, while testing her literary thinking and knowledge. Add to that her Minecraft Homeschool Vikings unit, her days with friends at co-op, gymnastics and kung-fu and weekend adventures and she has pretty busy days!



Little Owlet is still absorbed in her cook book. Always adding to it and re-visiting recipes. Taking ideas from books we read and films we watch. Once a week she stays up late on her own to watch a tv show with me and Huz. Her show of choice, without fail, is Iron Chef. She always wants the challenger to win. Dismayed with the lack of baking while I'm undertaking the Whole30 challenge, she's taken to cooking every day for her sisters and still always grabs the spoon from my hand when I'm cooking.

Lately Little Owlet has taken to gardening alongside me and I'm secretly hoping some of that practical interest will cross over and she'll enjoy learning holistically about where the food she's cooking with comes from. Both interests have certainly helped quell her fear of the outdoors and experimenting with new foods. Progress! Yes! She's also working super hard at reading, mastering her first small chapter book and spelling out random words she's learnt, off the top of her head. I'm loving watching her literacy learning path and how it is so different to her sister's.



As for Tiny, well, her days are filled with play and exploration of the sensory kind. Just as life should be when you are three. She's coming down with the squeezels quite regularly these days, so it's a good thing that Dr Cheeseballs is here to help.



So our days are pretty loose and flowing gently right now. A little out breath, perhaps before Winter. They seem to match these golden, last warm days of Autumn and I'm thinking of squirrelling away some nurturing, inspiring resources and activities for wintry days.



I'm also making the most of the garden and it's always lovely to find an owlet or three spending time alongside me, playing, digging, helping or daydreaming. Foraging for berries and eggs, playing with pets or bouncing on the trampoline… Golden, rambling unschooling days indeed.

How are your days rolling along? 
Is your year different to how it started out?
Getting much time in the garden? 

Have a wonderful week. xx

**Photos in this post are by me @owletmama and Huz @berondi

Farewell Summer...

It feels like we finally got our mojo back this summer. Our love for this tiny island and all the wonderful things in it. We've been all over the place and spending long days, weeks, with friends old and new.

First in Melbourne with the ease of family. Then home again and off to camp… Before coming back home and welcoming a beautiful family of new friends who merged with ours so brilliantly that it felt odd when they were no longer here. Extended time living with others, especially witnessing the dynamics of other families,  brings a wonderful new perspective to how we live our own daily lives. Even for kind of introverted sorts like me and Huz. What a gift! I highly recommend it, sharing your space with other families... Villages are wonderful things!



This last beautiful month has been like one giant, relaxed party. One huge out-breath as we cram in all the things before the shortened days and hibernation of Winter kick in. The light is changing. We can feel it coming and yet we are still holding out for summer to stay a while… We'd have been off adventuring right now if we'd run with our hearts again this weekend… Gosh we love summer...

Stay tuned for an update on where we've been. It's been wonderful! And we'll be off for Autumnal adventures again soon!



Right now, it's time for a freshen up. We're locating all the cosy things, still making the most of the daylight, gardening and harvesting, tidying up, dusting the neglected corners of our home, breathing in and boiling the kettle.

This blog has had a much needed, long anticipated freshen up too with a lovely new banner. Thanks so much to the remarkably generous and always wonderful Phoebe Wahl. I do love it so…. I think just about every room in our nest has something of Phoebe's on it and now both my blog and our Spiral Garden store do too. I don't think its possible to have too much whimsy and wonderful in your life, is it?

Have you had a wonderful summer? I hope so! 
Hope there's whimsy and wonderful in your world this weekend too… xx

Everything and nothing...

I've been absent for the longest time in such a long time... Life has been always busy, always messy and very, very full. Full of one very busy toddler, a business and regular day-to-day life which seems to  be full of everything and nothing all at once.

 Like a Monday morning where you can't remember all the wonderful, busy, simple things you got up to on the weekend... There's nothing. I've lost the momentum and with it the words... I have so much to share about our recent days. I have the pictures too! But right now, I've got to focus on sleep. Somehow I reckon once that picks up, everything will just flow. Meanwhile, this is what everyday life is looking like at our nest these days... Lots of dreaming and planning, gardening and relaxing. Everything and yet nothing...

More soon. I promise. I have the pictures!!

How are you going? 

Getting enough sleep? 

What do your days look like? xo

Frozen...

So I've been a bit absent lately... We've been hunkering into the depths of winter here. It's been a hard slog. It always is for some reason. One of the benefits of keeping a blog is taking a peek back through the years and noticing the patterns.

Every year we promise ourselves a holiday in Winter. It seems to be the key to sanity for most who live on this island. Beautiful as it is, the days are short but yet seem soooo long...
But here we are, another Winter...

And it feels so beautiful and quiet and snuggly and hard.

I'm so tired. It seems that a decade of sleepless nights have caught up.
I miss my family on the big island up north and the ease and promise of imagined sunny days with cousins growing up together...

Some days being responsible for three small people all day... Who love you and take you for granted in equal measures (and you wouldn't have it any other way)... It's exhausting and lovely and hard. Like Winter.

I've been bursting with creative ambitions for so long now and there's just not enough energy or time to get everything out there into the universe that needs to be made, expressed, created, grown.
Or even just one thing. Before I fall asleep...
There isn't time. It's frustrating. It's hard work. And sometimes lonely. And everything's a little out of focus.




I'm trying my best to nurture myself with beautiful food, days with friends, exercise and snippets of time to work and create and spend time on our garden. That garden. The one that looks like a trench and weeds right now, but a lush, abundant forest in our minds... It's what brings it all back into focus. And the small and slow steps we are taking to its creation, on the days where there's sunshine, are what we are marking our days by. Pushing us forward to longer days, warmth and abundance.

How are you coping this Winter?
Are you looking forward to Spring?

Happy Saturday... xo

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