Category Archives: Sustainable Back Yard

PASTA CAVOLFIORE (Broccoli Pasta)

Ingredients 

1 medium cauliflower broken in to florets

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

6 anchovies

6 tablespoons of olive oil for the sauce 

6 tablespoons of olive oil for roasting 

190g of any short cut dry pasta

1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

salt and pepper to taste   

preheat the oven to 200C

Put the raw cauliflower in a bowl, add the olive oil and turn the couliflower over until the florets are well covered. Put the florets in a roasting pan that  will take all the cauliflower in one level. Roast the florets until they are golden. The tips can be a little blackened because that enhances the nutty flavour 

When the cauliflower has roasted, put the pasta on the stove to boil

Use a pot that can contain the florets and pasta together, put the 6 tablespoons of olive oil in the pot and add the garlic and all the anchovies. Turn the heat to low and brown the garlic, the anchovy will melt in to the oil

When the pasta has cooked, save 1/4 cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Pour the pasta directly into the anchovy and garlic sauce and mix well. Add a bit of the pasta water to the mix if needed. Serve immediately, put the cheese on the table so everyone can add cheese to taste  

FEEDING YOUR BEES OVER WINTER

Feeding your bees some sugar water is almost a standard in Dunedin if you want your hives to survive and be strong and producing honey over the next season

Commercially bee feeders are available in single, double or triple units. I am using the triple units as it requires less intervention and stress on the bees having to open the hives less frequently for refuelling.

When I first bought these sugar feeders I did a test run on the outside of the hive, as these feeders normally are located inside the brooder box. I did however notice that quite a number of bees drowned in the sugar feeder in spite of the fact that there is a “ladder” on the inside of the cone for the bees to get out. Back Yard Farmer created an internal additional ladder with some off cut wire netting and a piece of twig. Mission accomplished when almost no bees drowned any more.

HAPPY BEES !!!!

UPSIDE DOWN BANANA BOXES

INSIDE TE HATCHERY

For many years I used plastic brooders to grow my small quails in and it worked very well. The problem came having to clean these all the time and since I replace about 10 of these in my hatchery every week, it became a very laborious and unpleasant task. A water blaster was the only way to clean them properly which created a lot of effluent as well. Alternatives were investigated and I settled on Banana Boxes. The advantage is that there is no cleaning as I just replace the used box with a new and clean one. The downside was that I had 10 manure and bedding “soiled” banana boxes every week. I solved this by flattening the boxes and turn them upside down in my garden with the manure and bedding underneath and the box on top. This makes a wonderful source of nutrients fertilising the soil and also an excellent weed mat.


The results are excellent from a plant growth point of view and I have also not seen that many earthworms in all my live. I normally leave the boxes, well watered, for a couple of months before drilling a 40 mm hole about 200 mm deep through the box into the ground, fill it with good quality soil and plant the new plants or seeds it the hole. One needs to pack the boxes down in the beginning (I use old bricks) until the plants are stronger, otherwise the boxes move too much and the hole is not over the seed any more, or the small plants get damaged. After about 1 month the boxes have disintegrated and the bricks can be removed. The plants are now strong enough, weed free and well fertilised.

Ready to plant an Artichoke Forrest

One of the many Tomato beds ready for planting
Brassicas are very happy
Garlic is going very well
Boxes are well disintegrated after 6 weeks

FEED YOUR QUAILS PROPER AND CORRECTLY !!

I have recently decided to publish one of the many feeding comparisons / trials I do from time to time, which I think will assist the many people asking common questions about what to feed quails, and more specifically Coturnix coturnix Quails

TRIAL

I divided 66 day old Quails, all hatched from the same parent groups and hatching batch, into 6 groups of 11 each. Subjected them to 3 different treatments of two groups per treatment

TREATMENT 1 – Fed this group the standard Back Yard Farmer regime of 28 % Protein Quail Starter Mash from day 1 – day 21 of age, then switch to 26 % Protein Quail Growers Mash

TREATMENT 2 – Fed this group NXX Meatbird Crumble as per manufacturers recommendation

TREATMENT 3 – Fed this group WX Game Bird Crumble as per manufacturers recommendation

I am now quoting some of the results obtained up to 42 days of age. The intention was to follow this through to full egg production at 12 weeks of age, but for the benefit of the birds, I decided to terminate the trial at 42 days of age.

TREATMENT 1TREATMENT 2TREATMENT 3
Body mass at 16 days – g1057273
Body Mass at 24 days – g168122111
Body Mass at 31 days – g198142130
Body Mass at 42 days – g260212201
Mortality at 42 days – %0.00%13.60%22.70%

With the above results taken into consideration, I decided to terminate the trial for the benefit of the birds in some of the groups.

I have collected many more data from these trials and subjected the results to proper statistical analyses, but I think it superfluous to report

DAILY BREAD

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The recipe that my family likes most is a combination of organic Wholemeal Wheat Flour and ordinary White Sifted Wheat Flour. Even though I mill both these products, I only sell the Organic Wholemeal Wheat Flour as the white sifted is too slow and laborious to make for selling and there are many good nutritious and healthy recipes for 100 % Wholemeal Wheat Flour 

350 g Wholemeal Wheat Flour

350 g White Sifted Wheat Flour

Mix well

or

What I use for every day bread

100 g Coarse Semolina

300 g Wholmeal Wheat Flour

300 g White Sifted Flour

Mix well

Take 450 g Luke Warm water and dissolve 25 g SUREBAKE Yeast and 20 g honey or molasses or sugar in it – mix well with a fork. Let it proof in a warm place for about 10 minutes

Mix about 25% of the flour mix into the water and yeast mixture and mix well with a fork. Let it proof in a warm place until double in size – about 90 minute depending on temperature

Now mix all the flour into the water and yeast mixture and start kneading – either by hand or machine, whichever you prefer. While kneading add 10 g salt and 50 ml olive oil. Knead VERY WELL until very elastic – add more flour or water to get the consistency just right (silky soft and shiny), even though in most cases it should not be required. If mixing by machine, knead for about 7 – 8 minutes. If kneading by hand it will take longer depending on your ability

Oil two standard size bread pans and put the kneaded dough into the pans, score the dough with a sharp knife and sprinkle with flour or brush with water or brush with egg

Let it proof until 3 times the size – about 2 -3 hours depending on the temperature

Bake in oven at 225 C for 20 minutes, turn the pans and bake at 190 C for 20 minutes, turn the pans and bake at 190 C (bottom element only this time) for another 10 minutes (adjust the times that suit your specific oven)

ENJOY !!!!