A day out...

...in McLaren Vale. One of our favourite spots - the picnic place at Kay Brothers.We didn't have any picnic there this time - too cold and windy. But we had booked into D'Arry's at D'Arenberg for a treat. Woohoo...and what a treat that was. Thank you, Nina! :)

The food, service, atmosphere, setting and most of all the company was superb!

This morning...

...the whole place glittered in the sun, including this spiderweb.

Spinach & Chestnut Pasta

A real winter warmer!
Crisp up some bacon (cut into strips), then add sliced garlic, onion, chilli to the pan. Then add roasted (or boiled), peeled chestnuts (in chunks). Then add washed spinach, cut into strips. Sauté for a few minutes. Season. Add freshly-made and cooked pasta. I tend to sprinkle some fresh lemon juice over the pasta just before serving. Enjoy!

RIP Lambie

RIP Lambie the Sheep
1997 - 2010

Lambie the sheep passed away today. She has been very slow this week and the only thing keeping her going was spending most of her day in the front yard grazing on lush green grass, nibbling on lupins and porridge with vitamin powder hidden in it. Today she did not want to come into the garden, she did want lots of pats though. The above photo was taken earlier this week while she was enjoying the garden. Just before she passed away the other 3 sheep gathered near by to look at her, Lambie looked back at them and they went on their way, I think she was actually saying goodbye to them.

Lambie came to us in 2000 with her new lamb Psycho. 5 months later she had another boy lamb named Johnny, we then let her retire from breeding. She still had a tail which is why her previous owners named her lambie. We have actually called her the old girl for the past few years.

4 and half years ago we had the vet to see her because she was not eating and seemed to be giving up on life as she had lost all her teeth. Turned out she had a spot of pneumonia and was up in no time after her treatment. From then on we made sure she got plenty of lupins and access to the lush grass in the front yard a couple of times a week. The vet actually was not hopeful that she would recover, we even dug her a grave which is now the bio-char pit. But she always was a greedy guts and that has kept her alive for so long.

We will miss the old girl, she is survived by her two boys Psycho and Johnny. We will farewell her tomorrow with a big bonfire.

Horseradish...

...is amazing stuff.Easy to grow and easy to process.
Read today's blog post on Adelaide Kitchen Gardeners.

Glorious Beetroot!

Our Food Connect box offers a range of fresh, local & seasonal fruit and vegetables every week. Beetroot is just one of them. We've made amazing beetroot & chocolate muffins twice. They are absolutely delicious. Add the zest of an (organic) orange and you'll have something special indeed. This time we had Layered Beetroot & Potato Bake. Superb! We'll definitely have this one again. Even non-beetroot eaters enjoy it. :)Layered Beetroot & Potato Bake
Adapted from a Donna Hay recipe.
You need:
400g potatoes, thinly sliced (I don't bother to peel them, as they are organic)
125g beetroot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup cream
1 tbsp horseradish cream
2 eggs

* Preheat oven to 180C.
* Mix eggs, cream, horseradish cream, salt & pepper in a bowl.
* Layer 1/2 the potatoes in a greased oven form. Then 1/3 of the cheese.
* Follow with beetroot and another 1/3 of cheese.
* Pour over 1/2 the egg mix.
* Then add a layer with rest of potatoes, rest of cheese, rest of egg mix.
(I added freshly chopped parsley to my egg mix)

* Cover with foil/lid. Bake in oven for 1 hour.
* After the hour, uncover, bake for another 30 mins.
* Take out of oven, let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Serves 4 as a side dish. Or 2 as a main dish, with some salad.

Dew on the kale

Plus some slugs, but we won't go into that!

It's a glorious, sunny (and very cold) morning here!
Dew everywhere. The sunshine is reflected in millions of dew drops.

Absolutely glorious. Life is good!

Very green garden

Everything is green in the garden. Looks fantastic! Weeds and grass everywhere.

Here we have part of a garden bed. There are 3 rows of coriander seedlings in the front. They are doing really well. The border is lined with self-sown wild rocket and some grass. In the middle you have a nice patch of wild rocket, with some grass. Behind that you can see a few rows of purple-topped turnips, with some grass. And then a good patch of spring onions. No grass. To the right of these you can see a purple-sprouting broccoli, plus some self-sown lamb's lettuce/mache. They make a great ground cover - plus they are very delicious in salads.