sharing – THE HUNDRED MILE HOME

Pruning season in the valley

August 11, 2017 by admin

Tea and vines

It’s August and it’s cold and windy here in the Barossa. Our little house on the hill is being buffeted by wild winds and we are glad to be inside with hot cups of warming soup for lunch.

And while it is wonderful to be inside, I am preparing to head out with the small ones for a little foraging, because it is this time of year that we can collect the pruned grape vines. And there is something wonderfully envigorating about being buffeted around, children squealing, cheeks rosy and cold, all gathering good things for future use.

There are two things I have in mind for these vines, but the first and easiest is to make wreaths. Nothing comes quite as close to a hand made Christmas wreath, decorated with locally foraged succulents and dried flowers, and in the hot Southern summer nothing survives quite as well either.

My other use for our gatherings is a little more complex. The ash that results from burning vines, when washed of impurities and dried, can be used as a component in ceramic glazes. It is a lengthy process but in my mind more than worth the knowledge of where your materials come from. Kate and I currently still use some glaze ingredients where this is not the case, and look forward to the day I can say with certainty we do.

X Ilona

A hundred mile easter … part 2

April 14, 2017 by admin

Hot cross buns for Easter

Hot cross buns. I think they are just about my favourite thing at Easter. Fresh and hot, straight out of the oven, they are Just. The. Best. Given as gifts over the Easter weekend they come up absolute trumps as well. Wrap them in a little brown paper and twine and I can gurantee they will be appreciated more than something store bought.
Another lovely thing is that most of the ingredients are available from within less than 100 miles of where we live here in the Barossa.
Lauckes organic flour, The Dairyman’s cottage butter, local Jersey Fresh milk, our hens eggs, currants, sultanas and dried oranges. The only exceptions really are a few dashes of spice and sugar. Although as I write this I cant help but think that it would be worth giving them a go with honey as a substitute. Maybe next year…
But for now here is the recipe for this todays batch. Based around a classic Margaret Fulton recipe I have played with the spices and fruit to suit our families taste.

Hot cross buns for Easter 2

Hot Cross Buns

4 cups Plain flour

2 oz butter in small knobs

1 tsp of each ginger, allspice and cinnamon

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 cup of dried currants and sultanas soaked in 2 teaspoons of vanilla overnight

A handful of finely sliced home dried oranges if you have them

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 cup of lukewarm milk

1 egg slightly beaten

egg white and brush

Glaze – 2 tbsp sugar dissolved in 4 tbsp water over heat

Baked on cross mix – 4 tbsp flour + 2 tbsp water mixed + in piping bag

Sift and then mix together flour, spices and salt in an upright mixer. Add butter and mix until even crumb consistency forms. Then add sugar and dried fruit. In a jug combine warm milk, yeast and egg. With mixer on low pour this mix into the flour/ fruit mix slowly until a soft dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured board. Put into a clean, greased bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave in a warm draught free place until the mix has doubled in size.

Once doubled (around 1.5hrs) pat the mix down into a rough square shape around 2cm in height. Cut into 16 similar sized pieces and roll into balls. Arrange balls next to each other in a high sided and greased baking tray. Cover and allow to rise for another 20 – 30 minutes. Pipe on crosses and then brush with egg white. Bake in a hot oven 200 deg C for approx 20 minutes, or until buns are evenly browned on top.

When buns are finished cooking, remove them from the oven and brush them with the sugar glaze mixture.

Wait just long enough that they wont burn your fingers and then tear them apart and serve with fresh better and hot tea. Delicious!

Happy Easter lovelies X Ilona

Autumn harvest

April 2, 2017 by admin

Drying prunes and pears

I adore autumn. Generally the first few weeks of the season are still very much summery in feel, but as the cool nights take over from warm, and afternoons bring the gully breeze that blows right through the house in a cleansing energising way, it feels the season is truly upon us.

While I find the change in season invigorating, it is the fruits of autumn that really excite me. Whether it be the early ripening currants which are delicious fresh but also brilliant sun dried on the cellar roof, apples and pears from my dear friends Marieka’s secret abandoned orchard, or the medieval quince as winter comes knocking, I love them all.

And the abundance! For some reason there seems no other season when our gardens and kitchens groan with quite so much produce. You simply cannot go visiting anywhere without having a brown paper bag of fruit tucked into your arms as you are leaving. And it is this that makes me celebrate autumn the most I think. The sense of connection found in sharing home grown and foraged produce, put simply, is a tonic for the heart and soul.

Home drying my own fruit is one of the most simple and lovely ways to put away some of autumns abundance.

Grapes, currants and fennel

It was quite a revelation to me the day I discovered that all I needed to do was pop my sultana grapes or fresh picked prunes onto cake cooling racks in the sun and over the course of a week or so they would be dry enough to store for the coming year. No fancy dryers, no SO2 , just good old sunshine and away we go. Of course by mid autumn things are cooling down such that a blast in the dryer inside at night doesn’t go astray, but early in the piece this is a brilliant way to process your excess grapes, particularly if you are the type to bake your own hot cross buns for Easter.

I’d love to know if you home dry your own produce too.

X Ilona

A hundred mile easter … part 1

March 26, 2017 by admin

Probably the two greatest challenges for me when I want to support locally grown and made are chocolate and coffee. I live in South Australia. You can’t, as far as I am aware, grow either here. Which brings up the big ugly question, should I, in good conscience, continue to consume them. Leaving the question of caffeine addiction aside, I think ultimately they will go. Which leads me to my next question – what in the world will I replace them with? And with Easter just around the corner, what sort of hundred mile alternatives, child and adult friendly, would I be happy giving and receiving for Easter?

The simple truth is it took very little time for me to come up with multiple gorgeous Easter gift alternatives and I plan on sharing them here over the next few weeks.

The gift of seeds

Just about the very first thing that I thought of was the idea of gifting parcels of beautifully wrapped, local to your area and preferably organic, seeds.

Seed saving is an incredibly rewarding process, the seeds are invariably most beautiful, and is there really anything more wonderful and symbolic of new life and potential than a seed. They simply are miracles waiting to be activated, something anyone with a little know how, a bit of dirt, water and sunshine can do.

You can save your own flower seeds, herbs or veges and wrap them in gorgeous bespoke wrapping, or buy local from someone in your area who can give you the hints and tips to help your plants on their way.

And when I think about it, I really think there is no reason you couldn’t package small parcels of seeds in egg shaped cardboard parcels and hide them in the garden for the children to find. It would certainly make for a better activity after the Easter egg hunt than consuming vast quantities of chocolate!

And if you live in South Australia and are after something a bit special, the gorgeous Rosie from The Rose and Raddish should be able to put together something tailored just for you and your loved ones. My Easter gift to myself was a selection of seeds from her, of annual flowers that I plan on planting Easter weekend with the little ones I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to it

X Ilona

Pickling and preserving my way through autumn

May 22, 2016 by admin

I had an epiphany this week.

If I want to preserve some wild olives I don’t have to do 100kg of the things. I can just do a couple of jars. And once I’ve done them, if there are still roadside olives around, and I feel so inclined, I can do a few more. And still a few more two weeks later if I am driving by a tree and have a spare 15 minutes for picking.

This has been sooo liberating. I seriously haven’t made olives in brine for about ten years because the idea of spending a day picking them and preserving them has done my head in . And there are plenty of great local olive producers here anyway so the need has not been great. But no longer.

Some lovely ladies on Instagram gave me their olive pickling recipes and the following one hails from @sarasrking It was brought out to Australia by her family and is her zio Nino’s from Liguria. She says it works particularly well with the feral olives we seem to have in abundance around here.

Zio Nino’s wild olives

Soak olives in fresh water changing daily

Do this for 7 – 10 days

Make a hot brine, using enough salt to float a potato in (add and dissolve salt as you go until it floats)

Steep some bay leaves, parsley, oregano, marjoram leaves in the brine and remove

Combine the brine and olives and then fill and seal your jars

Taste test them around Christmas, if they are still bitter leave them for another few weeks and try again. If they are too salty soak them in water for a bit before serving.

And to quote Sara, ‘Buon lavoro!’

Please note I have not personally tasted the end result of this method but I figure after generations of people using it, it has got to be pretty good right?

Enjoy! X Ilona

Come say hi!