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
The Kitchen's Garden 
104 responses to “In my kitchen and Sheila the Babe comes today”
What a beautiful view from your kitchen window! Love the lemon squeezer and that John is such a romantic. 😉
Have a lovely day! ~ April
Morning April we are still wet and cool so it will be a wonderful grass growing day!! c
Raining here too…we seem to be turning into Seattle! I’m off to go hiking with the dogs. They could care less if it’s raining. The more mud to play in the better. Ha!
Don’t forget your brolly!
LOL! I had to look that up…no umbrella for me (or brolly) just wore a hat. Turned into quite the adventure as I left their British leads at the top and had to turn around and hike back up to get them. But I am thankful that we didn’t run into another moose like we did on Tuesday. 🙂
true!! c
I am loving all of this!
Morning Julie.. hope you get time to watch the peacocks today.. c
Thanks for showing us around your kitchen, Celi! Love the lemon squeezer, and the onions look delicious. I don’t know how we Aussies and Kiwis would ever cope without golden syrup – we certainly wouldn’t be able to make traditional Anzac bikkies! The Lyle one is a new brand to me though – I bought it recently more out of fascination over the illustration at the front (the bees feeding on the rotting lion corpse). You know, I was just thinking today about all the little, seemingly trivial things that make life so much easier in my kitchen. I inherited three plastic colanders from my former neighbour – they had been used for making ricotta in a previous life (the ricotta was sold in the colanders), and we now use them every single day for harvesting bits and pieces from the garden. They’re indispensible! I’m sure your plastic containers have the same sort of status in your house!
Can’t wait to meet Sheila! And how nice that you’ll have some young company soon! 🙂
Isn’t it funny how some of our most precious stuff is recycled or pre loved!! Thank you celia for the ‘In My Kitchen’ page, I am quite pleased with myself for remembering this month!! c
I used to bring home tons of those buckets when I worked at the supermarket. We almost never threw them away…they were re-used in other departments, sent home with customers, or smuggled out by employees…
Can’t wait to meet Sheila! How cool that the Neighbor Girl wants to be involved…
I have asked and asked for the two gallon buckets from the supermarkets but they all say it is against the rules now to give them away, lucky for me i have the local little grocery store who are a little looser about stuff like that but sadly they do not purchase things by the two gallon only the half gallon you see here! So I am still looking for my milk buckets .. I have another lead though and I had better get onto that! c
Your John is quite the romantic. What an absolutely wonderful man to bring you that juicer.
And how kind of you to take the neighbor teen under your wing with that FFA project. I was the first girl to join FFA in my high school back in the 1970s. My niece, who graduated from the same high school last year, recently completed her tenure as the Minnesota State FFA president. Girl power.
Good for you leading the way. There are many more girl farmers now thankfully, I sometimes think the men like the big tractors to grow corn and beans that are inedible but more women grow the food.. c
……All lovely! And the rain is headed our way for the weekend.
Ah so that is where it is going, we have a few dribs and drabs about today but the bulk of it has moved out!! Morning GMom.. c
Congrats on getting Babe. The photo of the lemon squeezer is beautiful.
I love this lemon squeezer, I sometimes wonder who designs such perfect things. Someone made a sketch of this one day and then pushed it through and had it made. It has such a feminine shape i think.. c
Ah, maybe that’s why I think it’s so lovely. I adore feminine shapes, as a rule.
good man.. c
I want your lemon squeezer! Hehe. I love the cat and pig’s game, so much fun on a wet day! That’s so good that you’re able to help out a local land-based studies student, they need as much help as they can get. And they’re a precious resource. 🙂
She is very young and trying out things like a fifteen year old should so I hope she takes to the farm life, it will be fun to have her around.. c
Poor little snout! My cat does the same thing to the dog. I love your posts.
they are funny aren’t they..morning heidi.. c
Great re-cycling post! Looking forward to the arrival of Sheila and the other you-know-who who doesn’t yet (if?) have an name)
Yes I know, it is a rough game! morning viv.. c
Congratulations on a new addition to the farmy family! My new addition may extend to adopting a new cat this week 🙂 haha. Onions in the slow cooker are intriguing… let us know how they turn out!
The onions took a long long time however they needed very little attention and they are melt in your mouth perfect, I added rosemary too which lifted the flavour. c
Sounds fantastic!
That is exactly the lemon squeezer we have. I think we got it from my paternal grandparents. It is indestructible and will last forever. Ours has a thick, molded-metal screen inside that catches seeds and big bits of pulp. Love the shot of Mary’s cat and the pig.
Yes thats the same, isn’t it fantastic. It squeezes those lemons FLAT! I am very impressed. It is one of those things that i hope will last me the rest of my life..so useful and so beautiful.. morning sharyn c
Morning, Celi. I’m sure it will last — ours is on its third generation of people.
Great cat and pig game – two species who are always ready to play! Can’t wait to see Sheila!
Christine
Oh so true, i never thought of that, yes wee Sheila will be a relief pig as we can fall in love with her! morning christine.. c
Much excitement with the imminent arrival of Sheila…and how lovely that your local teenager will be having a hand in her “upbringing” and using her to further her own education. Win, win methinks! Love the lemon squeezer and a very romantic gift – Your John and Big Man clearly went to the same school of “how to woo your woman”!
I could do with the help! and yes wooing women with lemon squeezers! c
Envious of the little pig, but like someone watching a film rather than hands on. The lemon squeezer and Golden Syrup remind me of my kitchen.
One day i am going to come to your house and leave the cutest, sweetest, cuddlist, littlest piggie on your door step, then run like the clappers down the road! Laughing!! Wee wee wee all the way home! c