This week our car became Tasmanian and with our new number plates we advertise the Tasmanian government’s “Explore the possibilities” motto. We got busy applying this to storing food. We want to get maximum value out of the food we grow and buy. And to avoid eating only potatoes and greens in winter! In that spirit we explored our fifth way of eating radish (pickling), whether vegan rocket pesto would help store large quantities of rocket (answer: yes but not for long because it tastes fantastic!), turning leftover milk into paneer (later fried in a salad) and whey (for pancakes), and saving vegetable scraps to make a vegetable stock. The paneer was so unbelievably simple that I am only sad for all the missed opportunities when I was too nervous to try. (The recipe was from foodinjars.com and only uses milk, lemon juice and salt.)

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This week also saw the arrival of our first farm animals: worms. By mail! Our design is by Alex, meaning that it is “fully customised” but does not match any designs in our books or on the internet. This is for some good reasons – we want the worms to process our compost (rather than food scraps directly) so that it is even more nutrient rich for the garden. And we didn’t want a lot of “worm tea”. The standard stackable design has some drawbacks that elude me but it was also clear that my questioning was not helping to improve the design, nor anyone’s mood!

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Aside from the plants continuing to grow, progress this week included finding a tree mulch to put between our paths instead of woodchips. While our first woodchip supplier said the woodchips were a by-product, I am much more confident that these shredded trees from arborists are by-products. They will do the same job: looking tidy(ish), helping with drainage/mud prevention during winter and fostering mycorrhizal fungi, which in turn will help make happier and healthier vegetable plants. The delivery also meant that the bed expansion can continue. Alex went on a bed-making mission, bringing the total number of beds outside the tunnel to 16. There are still a fair few more to go but it’s looking more serious now.

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