I can feel it in the air and and hear the lambs on the nearby hills, spring is slowly awakening and it feels so good. My second favourite season, after autumn.
So what is happening here in our small urban farm....
Sourdough.
I have always wanted to do this but I have been hesitant as I often need to eat gluten free bread with the occasional enjoyment of home-made bread.
I have made my sourdough starter with spelt flour and then I make the dough with spelt flour too and I seem to be able to eat it without any problems. I found the recipe in one of my River Cottage cook books from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall.
I forgot to take photos of the bread itself. I have made two loaves so far. One was half wholemeal spelt and white spelt flour and the second loaf was white spelt flour. I preferred the second as it was lighter and softer. I still need some more practise I think at getting it right but it is bread and it is edible.
I have started weeding the greenhouse in preparation of spring planting. It was great to get outside and do some gardening after the winter months.
Our hens have never stopped laying eggs all through the winter which has been such a huge blessing. This last week the eggs have been stripped bare from our supermarket shelves as our country went back into level 2 and lockdown for our biggest city. So grateful for my hens.
I have been able to pick some late winter spinach from our vegetable gardens and there are some carrots that need digging up. I did plant winter greens before winter which did grow but not as much as I had hoped but they seem to be coming away a little now so at least it gives us some late winter vegetables.
Our garden has some colour in it which is uplifting at this time of the year, yellow daffodils and freesias, pink camellias and pink & white cyclamens.
My youngest son is helping me to grow micro greens in our kitchen. He lightly sprays them three times a day and after two days they are already sprouting which is really fun.
We had several lemons that I picked from our small tree and made a delicious lemon tart yesterday which my husband and I enjoyed with whipped cream. Yum!
My husband has also been busy trying to remove a large tree stump of a cherry blossom tree that he and my Dad cut down awhile ago. It has been a big job but well worth it as the space has let in a lot more sunlight to our house now. He cut the logs up and we gave them to my husband's younger brother for firewood.
It is hard sometimes to find the time to be outside in the gardens when I am busy homeschooling and running the home while my husband is at work but I am trying to make more of an effort. We are very blessed to have such a good size backyard and so we want to be able to use it well to provide for our family. Plus it is always so refreshing to be outside in nature. I love hearing the birds and lately we have heard a lot of Tui again which are so entertaining when they fly around.
I hope you have a lovely blessed week,
Fiona
"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."
Proverbs 31:27
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