The cheese cave is looking good
we now have a variety of cheese we like,
it is now just a matter to keep producing as we go
to keep up with the aging process.
the Blue Cheese is kept in a seperat fridge to avoid cross contamanintion.

between making garden beds
Wrapping the first batch of Camembert, they will be ready in 4 - 6 weeks
and made a Caraway seed Edam this afternoon

an other new garden bed emerged yesterday
mainly for bigger plants, Corn Cabbages etc.

The new garden beds being filled with cane balls and covered with polythene and news paper.

The soil in the beds ready for planting, 11 days of planting by

the Moon calender!!!

Building an other 2 garden beds, this one is .9 of a meter high
and after that I will build a shallower one .4 of a meter at the end of the existing 2, mainly for cabbage cauli etc. as well as potato and Corn, any thing that needs a little more space, that bed will be done tomorrow.
in between I have made several more varities of cheeses, and below a Danish Havarti,
I have a Danish Blue in the colder fridge maturing, first go I am very pleased, it looks like a Danish Blue and smells like one, I tasted a few crumbs when poking it with the chewier and the taste was there!!!

Danish Havarti Cheese.

I started making a Brie cheese 2 days ago it has shaped up pretty good,
it will stay in a sealed container on a mat for a few days till the rind forms, then it will be wrapped in Camembert wrap for aging about 30 days when it is ready to eat.

I finally made the start of Cheese Making, a couple of weeks ago I got
Ricki Carroll's book on cheese making and all the equipment and cultures etc. to start

the process going, so far I am very pleased with the results, I have made the varieties of cheeses that we prefer and will make an other batch once a month till we get a build up in the Cheese Cave.

Above the milk being brought up to tempurature, I am in a position of a very adequate F. thermometer a friend gave me years ago, he was a Thermodynamic Engineer.

the cheese press in action

the first 3 cheese drying:- plain Gouda, Caraway seed Gouda and Swiss style,

I have since then made Farmhouse Cheddar and Edam.

the 2 Gouda have been waxed ready for aging in the cave

Picked a nice crop of Beetroot for pickling


The Blue king Beans and the string less green is starting to crop

The winter crops in the Veggie garden is cropping well

Yesterday I planted some more Carrots, yellow beans. brolotti beans

and transplanted some more Celeriac seedlings as well as some more Leek seedlings

so far I have 2 raised beds, being so successful I will build an other shortly, and a 4th one before summer.

a nice bunch of Kale, it made a delicious meal a couple of days ago

Had a good crop of Cumquat's it made 8 jars of Marmalade

Just picked a huge pineapple 1.6 kg.

also a large Paw-Paw. Pink Singapore crossed with Aust. self pollinating,

it is very sweet and tasty, I cross pollinated this one about 5 years ago, and still takes seeds each year for replanting, it seem to keep its flavour, but is becoming more rounded each year

Gemini measuring up to a massive cask

sightseeing north coast NSW

still vine tasting

Above a Organic/Bio-Dynamic growing vineyard

and vine tasting at Rothberry

Vine tasting at Rothberry

at the Rothberry winery

Lunch time on the way south

I ma unable to upload the Picture's to day, will try again to morrow

Just come back from a wonderful 10 days trip to the Hunter Valley vineyards.
Gemeni and I drove down to Newcastle with friends, Linda from the farm and GB,
took 4 days sightseeing in the way,
we then had the rest of the week sightseeing in Newcastle and had lunch with Neville our son on Thursday.
Saturday we joined the rest of the Lyrebird Vine club, most flew to Williamstown Airport Saturday morning.
we had a wonderful weekend visiting 12 wineries and did lots of tasting.
left the Hunter Valley Tuesday morning arrived hone Wednesday afternoon

The veggie garden has started to yield the first of the winter crop:

we have picking bean, and a new lot will soon be ready, also pulling carrots, lots of lettuces, Celery etc., I gave the garden its bi-annually feed of trace elements, my Lemon tree is producing new leaves that with yellow and green veins, I will be giving it an extra dressing of Iron-sulphate,

the rest of the citrus trees is looking fine

Gemini admiring her Art at the new Gallery that I am in the process of setting up for her in a spare consulting room at the Clinic,

the hothouse has now got the ends on, the truss tomatoes are cropping well and the fruit is perfect without any blemishes, the cucumber is now flowering, hoping for fruit before long

a good crop of eggplant, the bush is 2 1/2 years old and crops profusely, I have just cut back the bush it was getting on for 4 feet and spreading, cut it back to about 18 inches high, and it will regrow in no time.

Heidi and the grand children visiting from North Queensland, having morning tea with home baked scones

Gemini sorting green from ripe small tomatoes from a bush that came up in the Rose bed, from where it to go
tomatoes


The green tomatoes being washed before pickeling



Pickeling in progress

the final product, they need to be left to mature for about 3 weeks for full flavour