We're Still Here

Hello friends,

As summer draws to an end and the hectic pressure of summer is easing, there's time now to take a look back on the past few months since I last wrote here.
It's always a very busy season here on our place and I'm not going to bore you with all the details, so here's a pictorial snapshot of our summer.

The original apricot tree, already past its prime when we moved here fifteen years ago, and kept alive with lots of TLC,  this was it's final harvest. The apricots were not suitable for jam making or preserves, so the wildlife carers in the family made good use of the fruit for the rescued animals in their care.

Swamp wallaby Ivy visiting with her foster mum carer Indi and puppy Molly.

Between October and January we hosted three Beekeeping workshops and connected with thirty three new beginner apiarists. 

We also maintained our own hives.....

rescued so many swarms around our area that we lost count...

harvested over a tonne of honey..... 

visited and mentored various new beekeeper students......

made and sold more bee boxes, bees and beekeeping equipment than any previous year...

Christmas came, and with it came Honey Biscuits... because this is the Barossa and no Christmas is complete without them.

 Brian and Michael butchered a steer that I raised from a wee calf we brought in last year.  At a year old he didn't look very big but when hanging up, the carcass was huge and, although cut into four quarters, only just fitted into our refrigerated cool room.  After two weeks hanging, our butcher friend came over for the morning and did a fantastic job of cutting into all the correct cuts.

 Packing up an entire beef carcass took three days, and once again we were grateful for the cool room, where more than 200 kilograms of beef was stored safely until I could get it all into our freezers.

We have enough steaks of all types for a year. We made lots of mince and some preservative free sausages too.

Linking snags (sausages) like a pro..!

The driest and hottest summer in living memory, with bushfires covering more of Australia than is bearable to think about now.

We folks on the land and country dwellers' anxiety levels reached a new high, day after day, and nights too.

Is it any wonder that we breathe a sigh of relief as we herald the coming of Autumn?

There are pumpkins! I hate to think of our summer water bill when it comes, but we have been picking enough tomatoes to restock our supplies of sauces and chutney.

Zucchini, cucumbers, and the usual summer vegetables have been landing on the kitchen table daily. Jams, relishes and preserves are a daily task right now, but oh, how grateful we will be for these jars of supplies throughout the rest of the year.

A hand made gift for a special baby girl.

During the hottest of hot days with temps soaring above 45C degrees there were plenty of things to keep me occupied inside the house. 

After the yearly purge of cupboards cleaned out, "stuff" donated to the local op-shops, I did a bit of sewing and made this bunting for a friend's baby girl. 

Don't look too closely at the stitching - sewing is not my thing - but I did enjoy making this with love.

The cows are on dry feed (hay) as South Australian summers are dry. (Our wet season is typically winter and spring)

It's always interesting to note the colour difference in the butter that we produce here. The yellow butter was made in Spring time when the cows were eating green grass. 

(I freeze and vacuum seal the butter as I make it, for use throughout the year.)   

Butter that I make during summer is colorless due to the lack of carotene that is present in green grass. The flavour is still very good, but is missing the Vitamin A (carotene).

There's plenty of thick fresh cream to enjoy after a hard working day.

Raw milk cheeses.

Brian's "retirement" has seen him busier than ever. We're slowly getting the hang of this new type of living with occasional days out - the only way we actually stop is to go out, shutting the gate and never ending work list behind us.  

Every couple of weeks we try to go out somewhere new, have lunch, and see new things. We're not able to actually take a holiday at this time of year, but we can take a day off.  

A 'mental health' day does wonders for our spirits and when we spotted some (very expensive) quaint bird nesting boxes at a trendy garden shop in the Adelaide Hills, The Handyman came home and whipped these up.

This is certainly something new that I'd never seen in The Handyman in all our years together. Time for creative pursuits!

 I asked him to make some carrying boxes too...

.....and sold them all at the market last weekend.!

Meanwhile, all is well here as Autumn pokes her head around the corner. The weather has been cool enough for the wood oven these past couple of days and the sourdough mother has come out of retirement in the back of the fridge. 

From all of us here at Jembella Farm, we wish you good health, calm and productive days, and peaceful nights.

Cheers,

Sally XX