Grandiflora

Ripening coffee berries

An acknowledgment to Wendell Berry for the title and where reading that book has led me….back to where I grew up and to an appreciation of what it has given and continues to give me and the rest of our family. The humble suburban quarter acre, in the temperate climate of Sydney, in the hands of people who didn’t need to read Mr Berry to know what he was talking about. Kudos to my parents!

The perennials were planted by my mother, the tomato is a volunteer, the orange tree was planted by a previous owner and the annuals were planted earlier in the season by me. There was a severe frost a few weeks ago, so the more tropical items got “totally hammered” ( To use the language of my sister, Ms B - gardener in residence) but they are hanging in there.

The blue sky is pure Sydney winter….so please enjoy the highlights of my mother’s back yard.

Pawpaw (papaya?) with frost damage

The only tomato that survived the frost. Just!

Oranges.

Broad beans with arugula and bunching onions.

My first ever successfully grown broccoli head.

There are more, where these came from.

Orange cordial on the right (oranges from my mother’s tree) and lime cordial on the left (They were half price at the co-op so I bought a couple of kilos. Grown in Australia but I’m not sure where) Fortunately, the same week I found 45 Vacola preserving jars (stainless steel lids, new rubber rings and all) at the local op shop. Preserve away.

….or how a feminist came to darn her husband’s socks (now called by Charles “wabi sabi socks” - how nice is he!) a couple of her own cardigans, mended her summer gardening garb (old super soft, floppy jeans), made a doona/duvet cover, baked, cooked and made cordial.

She also prepared for weekend school lectures - law, law and more law. How much does she love constitutional law….alot!  And so, thank you to  the pioneering sisters for all the hard work, that has given me - choice!

Keeping track of our energy use has proved to be very useful, especially when dealing with heating service men and plumbers. When they give the tone or the look, that’s supposed to make you deferential to their skills and stop you asking questions……I went for the fact driven approach, “Now you tell me, is it normal for a house of 80sq metres with gas for cooking and heating only, to use 512mjs in one day?” …….No I didn’t think so. The gas problem has been fixed with a couple of outstanding boiler problems still to be resolved….argh!

So how are we progressing:

Water - Success - we have reduced our use by 30% since last month to an average of 100 litres per person per day. That’s about 72% less than average. We did have a couple of days where we used 85 litres in total…..there was no laundry done on those days, so I’m working out ways to cut laundry water use. The washing machine has three rinse cycles even on the shortest setting!!!! I’ve been using the last two rinse cycle to wash the next load in. My mother used to do this but she did at least 3 loads of washing a day when we were growing up.

Petrol- Drove the car for 14 days after filling up the tank. This has never occurred before. Less trips to Sydney by car, means we have cut our petrol use by 45% which now brings us to 77% less than the state average. Strangely, it’s liberating not to drive those distances. I don’t know how we commuted for 8 or 9 years. Actually, I’ve realized how much I loathe driving.

Electricity - When the gas heating boiler was running for long periods of time that churned through electricity - the exhaust fan ran the entire time too! So for the first two weeks of July we saw an increase in power use. Last week, we returned to usage levels that reflect our level of conservation so about 9kWh a day and we even managed a 6kWh day. Woohoo…..we can do it.

Gas - Levels are more acceptable but the month’s use is still higher than average use.

Garbage - We buy very little with packaging but we are doing some under the house/workshop clearing out so are generating some items for landfill. I haven’t put the bin out for collection for all of July and it’s only about a third full. Recycling I haven’t been calculating with any accuracy but has included 6 bottles of wine - not enjoyed but corked.

Consumer - Buying new woolen thermals - put us way over the allocation. In fact, this category is really hard because although we don’t buy much, the few things we have bought have been necessary and expensive. They are durable and will last but still consumption is consumption.

Additionally, we have known for a while that we should insulate our floor and have finally decided to do it. We have a pole house that has a large area underneath it. It’s great for storage but the lower external walls aren’t lined or insulated so we do lose heat through the floor. I’ve found the product that will work (not batts ; they are a haven for rodents) and we will do the work ourselves. However - consumption is consumption.

Food - Trying for more local but it’s hard. When we drove out to Orange, we stocked up on some items like potatoes (ours are sadly finished) and are enjoying those.

And if your still interested in the cordial…….

I did make cordial(syrup) once before but it exploded in my mother’s fridge. It had fermented. So I got some instructions this time from some preserving books - Margaret Fulton, Marguerite Patton and the Time Life series.…

KEY STEP (that I missed last time) : Sterilize the bottles and then after you pour the finished liquid in, put them back into the water bath for 20mins at 88C or 30 minutes at 77C - this prevents the ferment.

For the cordial I synthesized a recipe(from the above sources) of 1 part juice to 1 part filtered water to 3/4 of a part of sugar and 1 tsp of citric acid.

For me, that was 2 litres of juice:2 litres of water:1 and a half cups of raw sugar + 2 tsp of the acid.

Combine, dissolve the sugar and bring to the boil. Pour into hot sterilized bottles/jars, put lids on and put into the water bath. Make sure the water covers the bottles. Follow the key step.

I’ll be making more marmalade this week but will make more cordial later. There are still heaps of oranges on the tree and one can’t live on marmalade alone.

Lilli Pilli (Acmena smithii). Two different plants - the top one is about 2m tall, the bottom one is about a 50cms tall.

The berries of the Lilli Pilli ripen to be purple/reddish and you can make them into jam but I have never tried to do this. There isn’t enough of them and the birds do like them. The purple berries you can also be boiled to make ink. Lilli Pilli ink for my fountain pen, I wonder how many I’d need.

This is the first time I have ever seen a plant flower, however I was under the impression that they flowered in spring. I love the elongated bell like flowers with their dangling stamens. The flowers are more lime coloured than the picture conveys

I apologise for the flash in the second photo but without a tripod and with cloud cover, there just wasn’t enough light. I’m not as steady as I used to be for a shutter speed of 1/10.

Between Orange and Mudgee.

Took a road trip to Orange (about 160kms west of here). Went to the Farmers Market and realized that about three or four farmers from Orange come to the monthly Blackheath Growers Market. In Orange, however, there was more time to chat, the Blackheath Market is weirdly frenzied. It was freezing in Orange and the market band was playing “Scarborough Fair”at 9.30am - let me tell you that the produce only just stopped me from pulling the plug on that number! I love the country west of the mountains. The sky starts to get big and wide and I just want to run.

So the road trip will have eaten into our petrol allowance but three people in a small car, driving at 90km per hour -it was not without cost ( carbon not dollars) but it was efficiency plus. It may seem totally dorky but that speed is one of optimum efficiency. Combined with the highest octane petrol you can get, it improves your fuel efficiency by 30% (maybe more). Good for the environment and the wallet.

I drove down to Sydney last week, not exceeding 90kph and it was actually much less stressful. I was in the slow lane on the freeway - first time ever without a person in a hurry on my tail - and I arrived about 10 mins later than usual. In fact, most drivers in the slow lane were driving at 90kph, so it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t easy to stay in the slow lane. I did want to drive with all the ‘normal’ drivers but I kept glancing at my fuel gauge, which was hardly moving so I stayed in the slow lane.

Slowly finding more local food sources which is good. What I do find disturbing is how wide the area is, that feeds most major cities. As urban development expands, it encroaches on fringe farm land and market gardens that feed the city. I’m guessing Sydney’s food shed is in excess of 300 kms, if not more and that distance is increasing. I can’t find a dairy farmer anywhere near me and I live 120 kms west of the city centre.

Gas problems persist. Electrical use and water use return to acceptable levels (ie no long showers) and may again fall. I live in hope.

And lastly, the television has been banished. Charles had railed against the television for so long that I finally relented. It was wrapped up and stored under the house. Triumph for his decade long campaign - it is no longer stealing my life.

Blackheath does get a few killer frosts each year.  However, we  don’t get frost on our block because of the trees and the side of the hill we are on. This means I’ve never had to worry about planting things out after the last frost…. I don’t even know when it is!  All this may yet change……

…..let me present green manure  with frost. -2 degrees this morning and it’s only July. Charles rugged up and took the photo….all I could think of was, FROST!

The front garden is a mess due a workstream. (Thank you D - youngest sister’s bloke -for that fab bit of corporate speak) The water tanks are being installed  and it’s quite a process.  That’s what Charles is doing with his holidays, completing those workstreams.  I’m not sure that I’m using the term in the correct way, nonetheless I’ve been using it with gusto.

Whilst in the garden, I noticed these rather good pieces of garden interest. My efforts  pale against such natural genius.

That’s how I feel but that’s what Charles said. We are having gas supply problems which is causing our heating system ’s boiler to fire up (on) and then off. On and off. This would explain the higher gas use. I also suspect that this could have affected the boiler itself. Argh! The interesting thing is that at about 6pm every day, I can hear the switching start - this is the peak use time! We are in the process of trying to work it out but it’s extremely frustrating. I’m trying not to dwell too much on the fact, that this may indeed, be a taste of the future. Too much demand not enough supply!

Habits - I did a couple of loads of washing with hot water (like I used to), luxuriated in the shower a little longer than normal and used the dishwasher once and you know, these seemingly innocuous things contributed to a 25% rise in our power use. Plus a similar increase in our water use.

No CFL, LED, energy efficient star rating or money spent on technological solutions can do it all. The most cost effective and efficient solution is changing your own habits - that’s it. That is all there is.

The big breakthrough was that I was at home for most of the week working on my law assignments (Does the Commonwealth government have the authority to regulate blah, blah blah….? No but they seem to be able to detain someone without charge for an ever increasing amount of time.) and Charles has school holidays, so we used only 5litres of petrol this week.

Also, I’ve decided to go to the weekend schools ( 2 per semester) that are offered for non-metropolitan students. This means I won’t be traveling down to Sydney twice a week during semester time. I’m fortunate that a fellow student who transcribes the weekly lectures, has offered to forward them to me, so I won’t be missing much. Less petrol use and the time spent driving can be spent studying or obsessing about kilowatts. A breakthrough.

From our mother’s garden. Conveyed by my sister. Lettuces including red mignonette and something that is called winter lettuce (zimska salata - to be precise) by our mama. Oranges, lemons, golden passionfruit, parsley, arugula……getting this basket of beautiful produce, really cheered me up.

The macadamia nuts were given to my sister by a friend. She is such a good girl to share. My sister has ordered a macadamia tree to plant at her place, so in 4-5 years, there should be a harvest. Oh and she’s putting in a hedge of tea camellias - attractive and useful.  Knowing that I’ll have a sister within walking distance, cheers me up too!

……to this Eastern whipbird.

As I lay in bed this morning, that is what I heard. Whipbirds are very secretive and only visible to the patient bird watcher. I am neither, so I stayed in bed and listened.

I love that sound. I used to try and sneak it into film soundtracks if I was doing fx , even when it was not always appropriate.

And these bellbirds can be heard, if you walk down into the valley. Just extraordinary.

Here we are. Small changes. Some frustration. Trying to quantify it all, has been interesting. Energy as currency - that’s my new credo. I like the spin it puts on things.
We are finally getting our gas heating use down - turn off the radiators in the rooms you’re not in, turn it down/off overnight and see your gas usage fall. It also helped that we had a couple of warmer days that provided an actual temperature range 0 - 8 deg C, rather than temperatures that correspond to children’s clothing sizes 0-2. At least we don’t need air conditioning or fans in the summer - I’m looking forward to that.

Petrol - Overall use 75 litres for the month. This represents a 43% reduction on our average use and is about 63% less than average use.

Electrcity 347.2KwH for the month. 42% less than our average use and 48% less than our state average. Switched off the dishwasher. Changed the only halogens we regularly use to LEDs. Shorter showers and cold wash on the washing machine.

We also sold our clothes dryer. We hardly used it (for emergencies ??????) and since the laundry was painted in January, we hadn’t even plugged it in. I felt strange about selling something that is such a power hog but it’s better than it ending up in landfill or the other people buying new.

Gas - We managed a reduction of 25% this week on what we used in Week 3 but this is totally killing me. If we continue to use gas, at these levels for the next few months of winter, we have little hope of reducing in this area.

(Please note, we have since discovered that there is either something wrong, with the gas pressure coming into our heating system ( Gas company agrees that there are problems feeding gas to our area but they are on top of it!!!!!???) or  something wrong with the system/boiler itself .  Either of these things can cause the system to use lots more gas, as it is continually switching itself on and off.  This is why our use is so high.  Hopefully, it’ll be sorted out next week.  The quantifying has been useful.  I have megajoules for the last 6 weeks. NM 5th July 2007)

Water - Average daily use is 105 litres per person. This is a 40% reduction of our average and 70% less than the state average.

Garbage - This is an estimate about 13-15 kgs garbage. Only started weighing the recycling last week. 55% reduction of our average and about 95% reduction of the average. In this category, I’m aiming for zero waste.

I joined Freecycle and listed an old computer. It was snapped up in minutes. Yay!

Consumer - Studies, tap + LEDS….some discounts apply but don’t think we will meet the reduction target. It is however, 50% less than our average., so that’s something.

Food - Finding local sources for dairy is almost impossible but I’m still looking. As winter goes on, will have to rely on food staples shipped from other states. I’m making more stuff from raw ingredients - vinegar, ricotta, mustard and wheat crackers to name a few.

Week 5 awaits.