Maybe try paper plates? Or those ultra cheap plastic ones from colesworth?

Thank you very kindly.

Wow! Is this marvellous confection purchasable perchance?

In the last half an hour the temp in my backyard has dropped from 38 deg to just over 30. Thank you clouds.

This reminds me of those gorgeous photos of a single drop falling into a glass of milk and the rebound energy makes a perfect coronet around the edge of the impact zone.

Yay! Cool times coming.

This would work very well. Most butchers will have packs of 1 or 2 pigs trotters - scrub well, heave ONE into the pot with the pease and when cooked you’ll have a lovely gelatinous stock.
They don’t have much taste - you can make sweet fruit jellies with pigs trotters and very nice they are too - but the collagen/gelatine they release is incredible. Freeze the other trotter for the next time.

I reckon you’d need to make the base stock with a ham bone - they’re cheap at butchers shops. With the pease, onion, carrot and bay leaf as per usual but cook it for longer. A slow cooker would be perfect for the job. Then add the chopped sliced ham to the soup at the end. No need to add salt then, the sliced ham will have enough. Just using the sliced ham only you’ll lose out on the glorious gelatinous mouthfeel of a proper pea & ham soup, and it won’t set to a jelly like a ham bone/ham hock soup would.

Yup. Nice little stawm blowing in. Won’t last long though I reckon.

quiz

35/50

Grass fire in Viewbank, which is getting a bit too close to home rn.

This?

Thank you chef! My favourite flavours too - life is good.

A selection of chilled fruits in season please chef. And could you please magically stock my freezer with ice cream?

Saturday. Laundry done and out on line - nearly ready to take in again. Shopping still to do. Will indulge in a banh mi from my local bakery on the way home. On second thoughts, shopping can be tomorrow. Banh mi is a must though. They’ve recently added a roasted mushroom one to their line up. It’s yummmmmm.

On another note, this hot weather has magically removed 5 kilos of weight from my person.

We’ll have to have a special Catfish moving day party I reckon.

Good to see you back again!

Congrats! When do you move in?

The fork seems to be OK - I had a few casualties when I used a spade but they seem to wriggle away from a fork or hoe.

Garden fork is perfect! Also, drying worms doesn’t actually happen - they go into aestivation, having laid eggs. As soon as things moisten up, the eggs hatch and the adults re-activate. Yes, they are less active in winter, but they don’t actually stop - just burrow deeper which is what you want for circulation of nutrients.
Wet vegie scraps are an extra - you might need to give the compost an occasional bucket of water but seriously, the worms actually generate quite a bit of moisture themselves. I’ve never had a dryness problem that couldn’t be fixed with a bucket of water whatever the season. Worms are the gift that keeps on giving. They eat the dry stuff too - and turn it into wonderful worm castings. Just takes a bit longer.
Most compost problems are too much moisture and too little aeration. Worms fix both.
As you’ve probably figured, I’m a fan of worms. I like the way they do the heavy lifting while I kick back with a glass of wine.