In my kitchen and Sheila the Babe comes today

It is dawn of  June the 1st here. Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial has a little tradition of greeting the new month with a look at some of the new bits and pieces in her kitchen.  And she very kindly invites us to do the same. As we are still waiting for Daisy to do anything exciting, here are a few of the things in my kitchen yesterday.

In my kitchen is my kitchen window and the view out of my kitchen window across to the Dairy Mistress paddock is obscured by RAIN!! . Why YES. It is raining. 

Don’t feel sorry for that little forlorn looking cow out there, she likes it cool and wet.

In my kitchen yesterday was  another  crockpot research project – caramilising some onions……the idea was adapted straight from the pages of The Slow Roasted Italian. The onions had a ways to go yet  but turned out melty and perfect about 6 hours later.

This is a lemon squeezer that Our John found in a mates junk shed. Most of us have junk drawers, ‘In Case Of’ drawers my Mother used to call them. My best friend Deb and I call them ‘The Drawers of Goodness’. Anyway most of us have junk drawers but this guy has a junk shed. 

Our John hauled this out of a cobwebby corner, brought it home and presented it to me like a bouquet of flowers. It has cleaned up well and is the best lemon squeezer I have ever had. The juice goes into that base and on the other side is a little spout and it just pours straight out.

A very good friend with a very long memory sent me some golden syrup for all my special New Zealand recipes. I think I may have shown you this before but just in case ..  the jar is fast emptying!

Now I know this is probably a wee bit odd but below are my plastic containers. My kitchen is full of them. These are considered garbage at the local store, (they buy potato salad and jello and stuff like that in them) so they throw them away to me. They are a half gallon size and they are the best containers that I have found for free.  I use them for collecting eggs, measuring out feed, collecting scraps from kitchens, warming bottles, everything. They come with lids and I encourage you to ask at your local store and see if  you can have some. I use the clean ones for freezing tomatoes and stock and soups.  They are sturdy so Our John puts holes in them and uses them for plant pots. The uses are endless. 

Perfect recycling!  But there is not much else new in my kitchen so let’s go back out to the barn. Thank you Celia.

I had to show you this. The cats and dogs and I were all in the barn most of yesterday due to the lovely but cold rain.  Mary’s Cat and a pig devised a game in one of the dark corners of the pig sty. The cat is out of focus as it was a very energetic game.

Can you see the snout? He was poking it through the gate and the cat was batting it. They did this again and again, the pig running in circles in between each bout of play.

Daisy was invited to join us  inside, due to her delicate condition. Not looking!

Good morning. The really exciting news is that today I am going over to the swine herds farm, with my little dog crate in the back of the cooking oil car, to collect Sheila The Babe.  Sheila the Babe is a 5 week old Hereford Pig.  She is about 25 pounds and will be weaned from her mother today so we will bottle feed her diluted cows milk for a wee while. We will be training her and keeping her. She has Pet Status! She will breed a generation of pigs each year, if all goes well. Herefords are known for being a gentle breed of pig.  I am hoping to take her over to the retirement home for ‘show and tell’ when she is tamer.

Across the fields, there is a shy hard working teenage girl who lives with her big family, they rent a country house but do not have space for her to raise an animal and she wants to study agriculture. So she will be helping me with Sheila and hopefully using her for her assigned FFA projects at school. She may even show the pig. We will see. Both her parents work, so she needs something to do for the summer.  Let the fun begin I say!!

Remember that pressure is OK as long as you pay attention to the pauses. The Farmy is in a Pause until this afternoon.  Then excitement again.

Daisy is certainly in a Pregnant Pause.

Good morning.  Have a lovely day.

celi