Aquaponics Trellising

I have pulled out everything that was growing at the end of Autumn and have started to prepare all the new infrastructure to hopefully have it ready by the start of spring. I did start some seeds but it has been so cold that the only seedlings that have even taken have been the climbing beans and one of the varieties of tomato. I am not worried about this as there is so much that has to be completed by spring.

I will be starting on the moving all of the aquaponics equipment into one location over the next week and have just finished putting up all the trellising which will hold the tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins when the warm weather returns. Rick gave me a large amount of heavy wire netting to put on the frames and I just need to work out how I can transfer the larger sheets home to finish the project off.

The steel was all rescued on its way to the dump so it has really only cost the price of the paint and some fencing clamps to get it all together.

Motorising the Grain Mill

Judie has experimented a lot with bread making over the past year and now that Michael is helping to get the wood fired oven project done I wanted to get onto the grain grinder motorisation project that has been sitting on my to-do list for the past year.

The cast iron wheel on our Country Living Grain Mill has a V grove that can allow the mill to be belt driven. The company that makes the mills does produce a motor that can drive it but it is well out of our price range so we have decided to build our own system using a small drill press.

I got the idea when a hardware catalogue arrived in the mail advertising drill presses for $100. I paid less then $100 for my drill over 15 years ago and seemed like the perfect fit for the job.

The grain mill needs to be turned at around one revolution per second so that it doesn’t get hot which the manufactures say can destroy some of the nutrients in the grains. The gearing block in the drill reduces the drills motor speed part of the way with an engine belt that I got from Supercheap Auto dropping it the rest of the way as it wraps around the mills large cast iron wheel.

I started by stripping the drill press of everything that was not needed for the project. There was nothing complicated in this and all the parts came away easily. I removed the base plate and a pin at the top that held the drill column in place and then pushed the column through the mounting block and attached it with some 40mm fencing clamps to a frame made out of scrap steel pipes.

Be very careful with the drills wiring, it is high voltage and you need to make sure that the insulation covers don’t come off the connections. There were also two earthing wires screwed into the cast iron mounting block which I made sure I reconnected when fitting everything back together again.

You shouldn’t turn the mill wheel without grain in it as this will rub the plates together and damage them so I fully unwound the springs for testing. This meant that the wheel on the mill spun freely without resistance.

When all connected up the mill turned at two revolutions per second with no load. I believe that once the mill is tightened up again and has grain added that this will slow down to less then a rev a second.

I need to get a few more clamps to finish this so I will add more photos when it’s finished.

Pauls June L2L meeting

Over twenty people showed up last weekend at Pauls place to check out his Aquaponics system and several other projects that he has got on the go. Paul is the first of our group to give Sleepy Cod a go and they are doing very well as are the Jade Perch that he is keeping in a second tank.

Paul has incorporated swirl filters and some very clever microprocessor control systems into both his aquaponics system and his home made solar hot water system that is saving him hundreds of dollars a year and cost only a fraction of what a commercial system would.

Thanks Paul for getting us all inspired and inviting us into your home and giving us all a few more project ideas to think about!

Starting trials in Biochar

I have been interested in having a go at making Biochar to use as a soil amendment and also to include in the aquaculture system as a final filtration stage after all of the large solids have been removed by the swirl filters and filter mesh.

I picked up 3 steel drums for $5 from the recycle centre at the Livingstone Shire dump. They use to hold motor oil but seem really clean now. I have started packing them with wood as it becomes available and when they are full I plan to turn them upside down in the middle of the burning pile and build a bonfire around them to try and pyrolysis the wood.

Greg

Comfort food comfortably cooked

Perfect pumpkin soup

I hated pumpkins my entire life until I tasted my Aunty Lorraine’s pumpkin soup. She gave me some hints and the ones I took with me are…

1. Never use any pumpkin other than Jap or Kent as they are the nicest.
2. Never put any other veggies in other than Pumpkin, onion and garlic. Some people use potato in their “pumpkin soup” but the potato can make it go off. So stick to plain pumpkin.
3. Make it creamy with cream, stir it in as you are serving it.

Along the way I’ve had more advice…

1. Roast the veggies before you put them in the pot, it brings out the flavour
2. Choose a dusty looking pumpkin, they are the sweetest
3. In savoury cooking, you can most times substitute Greek yoghurt for cream.

So I chopped a whole pumpkin, squished a few cloves of garlic and quartered an onion and popped it in the oven will the garlic was brown.

Put the veggies into the Thermomix, along with some veggie stock and water, set it for 15 mins, varoma temp and a slow speed. when it was done, I wizzed it for a few seconds and had perfect pumpkin soup.

I don’t have any pictures, but I made the Pea and Ham soup with this recipe (without the potato) and it worked well too. Recipe here

Maltese soup

I did not have time to be worrying about things on the stove, and my husband was not a huge fan of Brodu (I think that is the spelling, but am finding it difficult to verify) so I also did not want to make too much (more than I could eat in a few days).

I decided to try it in a slow cooker.

I have looked on the internet and have not found a recipe that shows how to make it the way the family I was a nanny for taught me to make it. Initially, the one I tried was made with Beef, but I much prefer the chicken recipe.

1 kg chicken legs

1 bowl of diced carrot

1 bowl diced celery

Tomato paste (1 small Leggos tub)

Veggie stock powder.

Pasta and rice

Here is what you need to know, cook the meat, then the potato, then the carrot and last add the celery. The recipes have them all dumped in at the start and the result is not very appetising.

Put the chicken in the pot, (with tomato paste and veggie stock) let it cook on high for about 1/2 hour (If you are using Osso bocco it needs an hour). Put the potatoes in, top up the water and give it about 1/2 hour, do this for carrots and repeat in half an hour with celery. If you are using brown rice add about 1/2 cup in 15 minutes and a cup of pasta 15 minutes after that… for white rice with pasta wait half an hour and for either turn off with lid on.

To serve

Wait about an hour before serving; remove bones and inedible bits from chicken, heat on low (Or pop into bowls and microwave).

Add salt and pepper with a squeeze of lemon juice and enjoy.

It was longer in the slow cooker, and the quality of the flavour was not the same as cooked on a stove top. But still a nice dinner… and breakfast the next day… brunch the day after. Troubleshooting… I put too much water in and it had to be removed, this may be why the tomato flavour was not very strong. I forgot to add the carrots till quite late and I forgot that brown rice needs about 2 hours to swell. Fortunately the none of the veggies fell apart in that time. I also forgot the most important thing- the squirt of lemon juice… I could not even use bottled juice as “someone” put the opened bottle in the cupboard… 

I will try it in the thermomix next to see if it works better there. I found that I can comfortably fit 4 chicken legs in the steam basket… and the rest I will work out as I go.

None of my fury children let me eat this in peace so it must be good.

More Uses for Greek Yoghurt

“All the veggies that grow well in CQ are yucky” said Honey this week. So I have dusted off some old recipes for sweet potato and pumpkin this week. The soup was not a hit (all the more for me!) but the potato bake was. Honey had not tried my awesome one with cream and chorizo instead of ham or bacon… so I was free to experiment a bit. 

Potato bake… everyone seems to have a different recipe. I love the one my friend Ebony makes as she adds chicken stock or soup powder… I think… I never have that on hand so I add Veggie stock powder and it works a treat. My old housemate Andrea also made delicious potato bake and she added sweet potato and pumpkin. My butcher recommended chorizos and wham you have my PB.

So I made some PB for Honey last night, we were out of chorizo so I used ham, we also didn’t have cream so I mixed Greek yoghurt with milk to get the right consistency and after the pumpkin soup fiasco, I decided one thing at a time.

What can I say… it worked. sorry no pictures, we were hungry. We are trying potato salad 1/2 regular 1/2 sweet today. Any tips or hints are greatly appreciated from my veggie smuggler friends.