Timber and Turmeric

The Green Marquee market at Currumbin is on Saturday June 9th and I have begun creating more timber art for the occasion. Here are two Large Hearts waiting to be sealed with varnish. We will be selling our orange turmeric there as well. I love this market, it is full of up-cycled items and healthy food. Check out The Green Marquee here.

I will also be taking along my Bath Trays....

....as well as my wall Hangings, here are a few.

I have found a new love in my life - Turmeric Latte. The photo below may not show the incredible colour in the Latte itself because it is so overcast here today. But let me tell you, this drink packs an incredible, delightful, scrumptious, tasty, more-ish punch. It is originally known as 'Golden Milk' which is a traditional Ayurvedic drink. Ayurveda is a 3,000 year old medicine tradition originating in India. Turmeric itself is known to be a fantastic anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant as well as helping with dozens of other health issues.

The recipe is from "Don't Mess with Mama - Natural Living Made Simple". This really is an easy recipe and I can heartily recommend it. I used Rice Milk with mine along with our own turmeric. We are also lucky enough to have a neighbour who produces honey with their own bees, adding delicious sweetness. Zero carbon foot print as I buy it from their road-side stall!

This is how turmeric looks when it has been dug out of the ground, whiskers and all. If you would like to purchase turmeric from us we can post it to you, or I can hand deliver if you live locally. You can re-plant it if you like, it is so easy to grow, does well in a pot and is an attractive plant.  Otherwise the rhizomes last at least 6 months in the fridge for optimum freshness. Otherwise over Winter it is happy to sit in a well aired cupboard. If you want to replant it we can leave the roots on - not that it is necessary, it will sprout new ones anyway. Otherwise we trim the whiskers, pull them apart into individual rhizomes and post them off. Last year we cut some of ours into slices, put them on oven trays and dried them at a low temperature. Then we popped them into the blender to make a powder which we are still using 12 months on  - handy for Latte! I have kept them in glass jars in the cupboard. If you do this make sure the jar is perfectly dry before pouring in the turmeric powder otherwise it can encourage mould.

Each morning I take the dogs up the back paddock for a walk. Here you can see ripples on the surface of the water where a duck has just dived down out of sight.

As you can see from this picture Molly the Kelpie can't help but attempt to round up the long suffering Doug. Maggie is half Kelpie and half Bull Arab. Maggie couldn't care less about rounding anything up, you can see her heading back to the house!

Fun and games as Molly and Maggie search for special smells...usually fox.

Meanwhile, back at the house Brigitte makes herself comfortable in a basket full of sticks....why sit on a cosy warm bed?

Have a wonderful weekend, let me know if you make the Latte and tell me what you think of it. I will be pottering in our Autumn garden, varnishing timber and making Turmeric Latte.

Time for Turmeric

Turmeric harvest has begun. The photograph below shows the harvest from just one plant. We estimate that we have approximately 400 kilos ready to be pulled up. As people order, we do the harvesting. This way it is as fresh as it can be. I have seen that there is now a turmeric latte that can be bought in coffee shops or made at home. This weekend I am going to check out a couple of recipes and give it a try. Have you ever had one? I am curious to know how it tastes. Recently I had my first dandelion cappuccino. The first cup was a bit like "hmm...not sure if I like this" to "yum, this is actually quite delicious!".

This is the bounty from just one single plant. One piece of turmeric has produced this which was planted about 10 months ago.

When the turmeric is ready you will see the plant leaves starting to die off. Once we have our first decent frost of course all the leaves will die anyway. This leaves the turmeric sitting in the soil below quite happily waiting for us to pull it out.

You can see the leaves in the die off stage here.

Meanwhile you can see the garlic pushing up through the mulch. It doesn't take long for it to start growing once it is in the ground. This will be harvested again anytime from December onwards.

Strong and healthy garlic plant beginning to grow.

Here we have another day bed ready for sale. These have been made from up-cycled pallet timber. Each piece of timber goes through a thicknesser to make it all nice and smooth. We leave it to the customer to either paint, stain or varnish it, the choice is theirs. Of course I have one of my own and I can attest to it's  ability to lull anyone off to sleep...for hours at a time...!

Fits a single size mattress.

I am off to research recipes and have a snooze on my daybed! Have a great weekend everyone! 

Mothers Day

Mothers Day is nearly here. Indoor Delights in Kyogle is stocking my bath trays and wall hangings if you would like to gift your mother with something beautiful, hand made and eco friendly.

Three Hearts Bath Tray

Detail of Three Hearts Bath Tray

Wall Hanging 

Bath Trays and Wall Hangings displayed in Indoor Delights

Indoor Delights is located in Kyogle next to Ruby's Café, just look for a profusion of green plants along the street.

'The Presence of Trees'

I have always felt the living presence

of trees

the forest that calls to me as deeply

as I breathe,

as though the woods were marrow of my bone

as though

I myself were tree, a breathing, reaching

arc of the larger canopy

beside a brook bubbling to foam

like the one

deep in these woods,

that calls

that whisper home

by Michael S. Glaser

These photographs were taken by myself in the Adelaide Hills South Australia

Mandala for Prosperity

Presenting the Prosperity Mandala.

Prosperity Mandala approximately 50cm x 50 cm

Mandala means 'circle' in the ancient language of Sanskrit. It is thought that to meditate upon the image of a mandala helps us to become centered within ourselves and connects us to 'all that is'.

I personally find these illustrations soothing and beautiful, creating a sense of calm and flow. The process of painting them onto timber for me is in itself a meditation.

I craft my wood with up-cycled pine that was a pallet destined for land-fill.  I owe my deep enjoyment of making my homeware pieces to the pine trees that have been used to create these pallets. To acknowledge my gratitude to these pine trees I have a poem here that is written about them.

"The trees indeed have hearts.

With a certain affection the sun seems to send

its farewell ray far and level over the copses to them,

and they silently receive it with gratitude,

like a group of settlers with their children.

The pines impress me as human.

A slight vaporous cloud floats high over them,

while in the west the sun goes down apace behind glowing pines,

and golden clouds like mountains skirt the horizon.

                                                                 - Henry David Thoreau

By the end of May we will start harvesting the turmeric.

This year's turmeric is growing very happily.

These are from last year's crop.

Digging turmeric out of the ground.

This is last year's work station. It was the chilly time of year and sitting here I had the sun warming my back.

It is lovely to recognize the time of year by which crop we are working on. There is a sense of continuity and rhythm that soothes and helps to create a sense of place and time. 

Before much longer the trees at the back of the house will drop their Autumn leaves exposing bird nests.

Autumn leaf carpet - my favourite kind!!!