Ringing in the New Year - 2016

For the first time in more than twelve years I spent Christmas with my family in Victoria. This meant leaving Brian behind to look after the farm. It would have been wonderful if he could have joined me for a short break but the reality of leaving our property at this time of year makes it impossible. It is so dry, the vegetable gardens need daily care, the animals all need extra care in the heat and this has always been the busiest time for us.
So Brian spent precious time with his two sons. The eldest, having purchased his first home this year, hosted Brian to Christmas dinner at his home which was pretty special (and slightly unusual) by all accounts.
I love a road trip and enjoy the long drive while listening to ABC Radio and audio books from our local library. A thermos and packed lunch is always the order of the day so I can stop along the way in peaceful locations. It took ten hours to reach Winchelsea (between Colac and Geelong) where my sister Annie and husband Darren live on a few acres.
Annie has the most beautiful garden (pictured above) and I always come away inspired. Their conditions are a little different from ours in that they generally get some rain every week. Annie also has lots of water storage and some large dams to indulge her love of gardening.

I arrived a couple of days before Christmas and helped Annie with the preparations while she spent hours in her kitchen prepping for the Christmas lunch for fifteen the following day.

 We had a hot lunch of ham (glazed), pork and turkey, all of which was bred and raised on their farm. Annie is a fantastic cook and all of the trimmings were there as well. This pic, although it is a little fuzzy, of Annie presiding over the plating-up before we all sat together at the long table in the dining room. The air conditioners were greatly appreciated.
Just one hour's drive away, the towns of Wye River, Separation Creek and Lorne were evacuated while a bush fire wreaked its havoc. We were on alert too as the wind whipped around outside.  The next morning we learned that 116 homes had been destroyed, but no lives were lost thanks to the education, communications and clever planning of the Victorian people living in fire prone and dense bush land areas.

I didn't want to be away from home for long so I drove to Queenscliff on Boxing Day and rode the ferry as a foot passenger across to Sorrento. A forty five minute journey.  Lizzie lives on the Mornington Peninsula so she met me on the foreshore as I alighted from the ferry. The little girls have grown so much since I last saw them in April.

We exchanged Christmas gifts and walked the short distance up to the shopping strip where we had lunch. More playing on the beach and then it was time for me to say goodbye and take the return trip on the ferry.

Brian had picked all of the apricots from our three trees and stored them in the fridge, so my first job after the long drive home from Victoria was preserving and drying.

Now all of the fruit is ripening and so are the tomatoes so some bags have gone into the Farm-gate shop.
I want to make lots of tomato sauce and chutney but the apples are not ripe yet, so I have washed and packed them into bags and put into the freezer. As soon as I can start picking apples this house will be a hive of sauce and chutney making activity.
Lots of tomato puree will be bottled to keep us going for another year of cooking from scratch.
How to preserve tomatoes without expensive gadgets  from a previous blog is still my preferred method.

 This summer has been the hottest (and most trying) for as long as I can remember. We put up a piece of shade cloth to shade the puddle for the pigs, but it is still a two hourly routine to hose them down on these days of temperatures soaring into the mid forties.
Sometimes I think it's a pigs life, so pampered are they.

Happy New year to you all and I hope 2016 is full of peace and positivity in your life.

Oh and I wish for some cooler weather too..please!