Our Southern Summer Garden and Kitchen

 Hello... it has been some time since I have been here. Thank you to all of you for still visiting my blog and reading my posts. I hope you are still enjoying what I share here.

I am not a professional blogger with perfectly styled photos. I don't have endless hours every day to dedicate here but I want to share what we do to inspire others, that you can do it too. 

It doesn't matter where we live, whether we live on a farm or homestead or a city apartment or a suburban backyard. We can all create in some way, a simple lifestyle. An unhurried, old fashioned, back to basics life. We can be self-sufficient in some way, that removes us from the corporations and big supermarkets and allows us to be creative, providing for ourselves and our families.

I find a lot of pleasure in being creative with what we do, making and growing our produce. I think we are living in a time where it is very important to be able to take care of ourselves and our families and to be able to provide our food in some way.

So lets look at what that can be, in a variety of different ways that give me a sense of satisfaction. I have been taking a lot of photos lately, so I am going to show you with them.

Welcome to my Southern Summer Garden and Kitchen.

A lovely fresh salad from all our homegrown vegetables, lettuce,
cucumber, cherry tomatoes and herbs. Healthy.

Pickled Zucchini. I used our own homegrown zucchini as well as some
that had come in our organic vegetable box delivery. We don't always have the organic
box every week during the summer, just when we're in between vegetables growing or
there isn't enough in volume or variety on a particular week. We have it delivered
every week during the winter months though.

Stewed rhubarb and raspberries. The rhubarb was from our garden
but the raspberries were brought frozen. They add sweetness without 
adding sugar. To this bunch of rhubarb I added a 500gram bag of frozen raspberries.
It makes it a lot more tasty and healthy without the sugar. I then divide up into containers, keep one
in the fridge for the week to have and the rest I put into the freezer. It is yummy on our morning porridge
or muesli and is delicious with custard for a warm dessert.

Homemade pizza, made my own dough in my bread maker,
tomatoes and basil from our garden.

Kimchi. This is the first time I have made this. Using all vegetables 
from our garden, wong bok cabbage, carrots and spring onions. I will do a separate post
on this soon.

Pickled Cucumbers. All of a sudden we had 8 large cucumbers so 
I used 2 of them to pickle. I really enjoy these in the winter on the side
with a frittata or corn fritters.

Dehydrated strawberries. They are really yummy and sweet
on muesli or porridge and make a nice change in the
winter months.

Winter soup base. The celery and carrot are from our garden and I 
added diced onion. This is a great way to preserve a few vegetables 
and having it all prepped will help with some winter soups or stews on 
busy or sick days.

Just for fun, knitting a small cowl scarf for the winter. I am not a great knitter 
but I do love to knit. I find it very relaxing on tired evenings when I want to be 
creative but need something easy. I have a cross-stitch project that I should be working
on that I really want to finish but this is easy for now.

So as you can see there are many ways we can be self-sufficient and enjoy these pursuits that help us to learn or retain old skills of looking after ourselves and our families. 

It has taken me many years to learn these things, every year I do something different. This summer we have grown some different vegetables and they worked out which was exciting. Wong Bok was a new vegetable and we had success with 6 or 7 of them and so I was able to use them in the Kimchi which is also a new adventure for me. I hope I like it!!

I hope you have found some inspiration here to learn a new skill, grow a different vegetable or maybe you are new to gardening. Making some pickles or jams is easy. There are plenty of detailed recipes online or visit your local library if possible to pick up some books and explore.

I hope you will visit again real soon as I will be doing another post on the Kimchi adventure!

Please comment below what you do at home to be self-sufficient, I would love to hear from you.

Have a great week!

Many blessings,

Fiona

"I have loved you with an everlasting love." Jeremiah 31:3