Funky frontyard Farmers Challenge: Day 5

FUNKY FRONTYARD FARMERS CHALLENGE: DAY 5

flowers for the tea

tea for the day - nasturtium, blue borage flower and mint

Breakfast Confessions...

After a lateish evening last night we rolled out of bed this morning still on a high from last night's dinner party and still feeling pretty full. With three days to go the garden is looking quite depleted and we are not out of the woods yet. So far we have surprised ourselves at how creative you can be with only a few raw ingredients... but this morning, a mishap was made.

 

carrots for the carrot and honey muffins

For breakfast this morning we baked some light and fluffy honey and carrot muffins...well they may have been light and fluffy and incredibly irresistible but they were swallowed with a heavy weight of guilt...we unwittingly broke the FFFC rules. 

As you may remember other than produce from our block we permitted ourselves to use flour, milk, honey, oil and coffee throughout the week. This morning without even thinking I added ... 1/2 cup of brown sugar to the muffin mix. Perhaps it was fatigue or a general lack of protein preventing my normally acute mental state from functioning to its fullest but the sugar had dissolved and was mixing happily with our other precious ingredients before I realised what I had done. So I confess, brown sugar was used in the FFFC. I'm feeling bad, guilty and indulged, but those muffins were truly delicious.

guilty little carrot cupcakes

While we're on the topic of confessions there are a few other teeny weeny indulgences that we should confess, we have used salt and pepper and a little teaspoon of vinegar. So dear readers if you can forgive us these slight temptations we would be very grateful... annnnnnd we will let you in on one more HUGE one...ice cream? take-a-way Thai? chocolate? you're all thinking. Well how about yabbies! Today Joe and N went for a bush walk to our local creek and caught two giant yabbies. Which brings us to this evenings dinner menu.

Fresh Yabbies served with a lemongrass and chilli sauce, jacket potatoes and a garden salad.

The boys bustled in with their catch, and after a fair amount of ooohhing and ahhing we fridged the two yabbies in preparation for dinner. Whilst the yabbies were cooling off Joe made the most amazing sauce using coriander seeds, garlic, chillies, lemongrass, silverbeet stalks, tomatoes and honey. He reduced it until it was a lovely saucey consistency. Once the potatoes were cooked through we popped the yabbies into boiling water for a few minutes until they had turned a dark orange colour. Minutes later dinner was served!

If you've never eaten yabbies before the taste is probably closest to prawn or lobster but is sweet rather than salty. It is a hands on affair and a hammer doesn't go astray either (no need for a sock this time).

Over dinner tonight Joe and I discussed the week and what we have learnt so far. What surprised us both is how we have been compelled to be creative with less. Cooking has been a delight this week because of the preparation we have put into each meal. Every mouthful comes with a certain appreciation in understanding where our food has come from and the level of effort that has gone into getting it on to our plates. This experience has totally redefined 'a satisfying meal'. Although it has been difficult at times we would highly recommend anyone to attempt preparing a meal purely from their garden. It is a fascinating, humbling and satisfying experience.

 This week has also shed some light on us understanding better our parent's attitude toward food. Our parents don't seem to blink at the prospect of buying copious loaves of bread from the supermarket, as opposed to our desire to return to our roots and knead grain and seeded dough then bake our own. They grew up during a time when making bread by hand and preparing every meal for hours each day, was the norm. And now that we've seen how time consuming it is to do this every day, we can appreciate why many in their generation would jump at the chance to buy 3 loaves for $6.45 during the weekly Coles run.

what did you have for dinner?

and yes, it was delicious too... again... I know...