Garden, home economy, and a Stitchalong!

After weeks of endless rain it has been wonderful to enjoy sunshine amidst the clouds these past two days. My favourite thing has been to once again hang our washing on the line! We have no choice but to use the dryer during the monsoon events, but when its dry outside I always hang our clothes on the old Hills Hoist that came with the house. 

When the Poinciana tree split for the first time on February 1st, it landed on that old Hills Hoist, and bent half of it, but they are strong clotheslines (and they do not make them like this anymore) and with a lot of grunt and muscle my beloved husband got it almost back in shape. Praise God!

As I was fairly sure there'd be no rain today, I got to work with garden chores that were delayed during the monsoon. 

Picking the huge limes from our overloaded tree was first. After weeks of rain the limes were as big as oranges and so heavy from all the juice within. I will make lime butter, slice and freeze some for adding to cold drinks, and freeze quite a few whole. I find every year that our surplus freezes very well whole, and all I need do to defrost one is to sit it in a bowl of tepid water for 30 minutes, then its ready to use just as if it came fresh off the tree. We still have a lot more that aren't ripe to pick yet...

On our finger lime tree, which is covered in tiny thorns, many of the finger limes were ready for harvesting. These are native to Australia, and begin growing in our winter months, but are not ready to pick until mid-February through March. If you have never tried them they are delicious! You cut the end off and squeeze out the tiny pearls that burst in your mouth...

I meant to pick a lot of sage before the monsoon hit, and wasn't sure if it would cope with the flooding rains over such a long period, but surprisingly it flourished! Today I picked quite a lot for hanging in the house to dry and the fragrance is delcious...

My trusty string dispenser comes in so handy! I shared this as a free pattern back in 2022. If you missed it go HERE...

I also picked a lot of rosemary to dry, and also to make rosemary salt for seasoning...

...and a handful of spring (green) onions. 

Though much of the garden struggled, or died, during the monsoon, some things coped better than expected, like lime balm and moroccan mint, both of which hate our tropical summers and yet had a resurgence of new growth! This is exciting because I use them in my herbal teas...

This year I am being far more aware of building our home economy, making use of anything I can grow (as there is so much we cannot in this climate), and making many other things we use a lot from store bought ingredients to save a good deal of money. 

We eat a lot of almond butter - on toast, as filling for medjool date snacks, or in gluten free biscuits. One very small jar of good almond butter is $9.50 at the supermarekt, but I spent $8 on a large bag of almonds and made more than two jars worth myself. I have a high speed Magimix food processor and it took about seven minutes to turn almonds into almond butter. 

(that little bowl to the right in the photo below is not almond butter, but mango chutney)

You just need to heat the almonds in the oven on a low heat for 10 minutes or so, as it released some of the oils in the nuts. Then pop them in the bowl of your food processor and away you go...you think it's not working, but persevere, because suddenly it all becomes creamy and so delicious.

I have made peanut butter before, just using the food processor and bit of salt, but we prefer almond butter. 

It is the end of mango season here now, so I was able to get a few more mangoes and try my hand at mango chutney. This is something we buy, and my husband loves it, but now I'll make it myself as he really enjoyed this recipe...

As this is stone fruit season in Australia I'm stewing peaches to freeze for winter porridge and desserts, as well as enjoying some right now with yoghurt as an afternoon snack...

I will buy more next week, a lot more, as well as plums for jam and for stewing. I don't know about you, but in winter I absolutely love stewed fruits like peaches and plums with my porridge, or with custard for desserts. 

Now to something not so good. My husband's study is at the back of the house, and we use it as a second pantry along one wall. But our climate is very hot and humid, and that room tends to take the brunt of the heat in the afternoons. Without realising it, some of our tinned pantry supplies have been 'cooking' in there and when I went to give it all a good clean and tidy last week, I found many tins like this...

...and this. 

So we had a lot to throw away, and needed to consider what to do with those tins that were still fine. The next day I moved all the remaining tins into the main pantry where it's much cooler (due to the air con in the kitchen), and placed some of our dry goods in the second pantry instead.

I then processed a number of tins of tomatoes for storing in the freezer - perfect for spaghetti sauces, soup etc, and now I don't have to worry about them.

I think the tinned fruits fermented in the heat, as did tinned sauerkraut and a few other things. And there's a lesson in this...it's great to store a good supply of food in these strange times (especially as we have floods and cyclones in our area), but we must work with our climate in future and consider what to store, and how to store, because we do not ever want to waste food $$ like this again.  

Just as I was writing this, everything went dark and I saw that the rain was returning. I quickly grabbed washing off the line, and thanked God that I got so much done outside today.

The ground is still so saturated that almost immediately the yard began to fill again and I could hear the pumps working...

Well, I guess this means I can do a bit more sewing tonight, and over the weekend. 

SO - the hexie stitchalong - Today I will be sharing the first six of the twelve little stitcheries for you to download. I was going to take more photos before publishing this post, as I've now completed ten of the hexie flowers, but it's just too dark inside. 

The centres are tiny little things, but so lovely to stitch...

After long consideration, I have now decided that I'll use all twelve hexie flowers in a new cover for my sewing machine. I gave my old cover to our granddaughters for the small Janome I bought them second-hand before Christmas, as it was too small for my machine anyhow, but mostly because the stitchery on that cover is one that Blossom drew up and stitched for me. She even had her pattern published in one of our Australian craft magazines (now no longer in publication) about 14 years ago. Now it has been passed on to her daughters, and maybe to theirs one day if Jesus hasn't returned. :-)

I'll share the other six stitcheries next Friday 21st February, my birthday. A little gift for you. :-)

Use the link below to download Part One of the Stitchalong -

DOWNLOAD Part One Sunday Brunch Hexie Stitchalong

God bless you all, and may your weekend overflow with opportunities to do things around home, visit with loved ones, and focus on gratitude to the Lord for all He has blessed you with. I cannot thank Him enough for all He does for me, and for my family...it truly leaves me speechless sometimes. 

Till next week, 

Hugs

You will find me on Instagram HERE @jennyofelefantz

And my NEW IG account just for homemaking HERE @elefantzhome

Subscribe to my free Friday newsletter HERE and never miss a blog post, pattern or tutorial

Stitch my free 2025 block of the month 'The Sewing Room' HERE