It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that Rose passed away at 2am January 10th 2017. She had been fighting advanced breast cancer that had spread to her bones and lungs. The last few weeks were spent in great pain. Her palliative care team put her into a semi-coma some days ago to block out the pain She died peacefully with me at her side.
Rose greatly enjoyed interacting with her blog friends and the “family” at Down to Earth Forum.
Please remember her fondly and continue to be inspired by her words.
I am not sure exactly how blogs work but I will try to keep it open for a few months then shut the blog down.
We grow sufficient leafy vegetables, tomatoes, herbs to supplement our purchases from markets and greengrocers. Space restrictions limit the amount of fruit we grow to some lemons, the occasional strawberry although we do have some new plants in.
Subsequently I tend not to be aware of when some crops are at their most bountiful so it may only be when a friend kindly hands me a bucket of fruit or I pass a box of discounted tomatoes in a shop that I become aware it’s a good time to preserve. Having a job outside the home also limits my time so I’ve decided to be more proactive about preserving.
This year I am reading the delightful Sally Wise‘s A Year on the Farm. I like that the book is linear in its exposition — month by month and, within that, week by week we learn what is ready to eat on the Tasmanian farm accompanied by many great do-able recipes from Sally.
Of course where Ms Wise lives in Tasmania is considerably south of where I live but there are also great harvest ideas at The Seasonal Food Guide and at My Green Australia
I decided that the best thing to do was bring all of these together so I’m now in the process of combining all of these into a Seasonal Preserving Calendar that will be tailor-made for our needs and food preferences. By combining Sally’s recipes and harvests with Rhonda’s recipes, with what is happening locally and considering what we like best to eat and give as gifts I hope to end up with a custom-made Calendar. I’ll share it with you when it’s done.
It would be interesting to know if you have a solid system for managing your preserving?
I’ve just finished reading a startling new Australian book called Wardrobe Crisis written by Clare Press who’s worked in the Australian and British fashion industry for a couple of decades. She’s editor at Marie Claire (Australia) magazine, she’s worked on major fashion publications, in design and been published widely internationally.
Rhonda mentions the freezer in the June chapter of The Simple Home as an ideal place to preserve abundance, maybe even stockpile and manage your food resources throughout the year.
I think that in the past, many of us thought of the freezer only in terms of sides of meat or loaves of bread that may or may not have proved to be a saving. The important thing with the freezer is to have it serve you well, to ensure that it makes your cooking from scratch easier, that it offer you a means to manage fresh produce well.
The Europeans seem to set the pace in so many aspects of being green, I suspect that living in an area of high population density where you have many neighbours — literally and on your national borders — makes you more conscious of the outward effects of your personal decisions.
Though I’m not a girly girl I do use skincare products as well as some makeup, I like to know what I’m using, what’s in it and where it came from. My serendipitous stumble onto Nath’s blog last year has been a total win.
Greening the Rose 
