"Balmoral Park" farm garden

Silkie eggs Duck eggs Turkey eggs Hen eggs With five silkie hens, seven regular hens of mixed breed, four ducks of indeterminate sex and ten turkey hens we generally have an abundance of eggs. Despite the fact that several of the turkeys and hens are not laying, as they are broody the, there seem to be more than ever. Certainly more than two people can eat. Peter generally takes them to work and either sells them or gives them away. The turkey ones have not been that popular though. Today he said someone asked him for more turkey eggs as they had made an omelet with them and it was the best they have ever made. I find they rise up really well in omelets and Frittatas. I plan a big cooking evening sometime this week to turn the eggs into little herb quiches to put in the freezer for over the holidays when we will have a house full.

Peter's mother Margaret sent me this diary of her husband Ken's trip to Tasmania in 1948-1949, fascinating to read, I thought I would put an extract here each day. KEN HEATH - TASMANIAN TOUR - DECEMBER 1948 - JANUARY 1949 Ken was 21 years old and 2 friends Barry Newman and Ross Swadling 27.12.48 - 10.15 left ANA offices Margaret St. city. 11.15 left Mascot in Skymaster Tatana, weather hot and hazy. Ascended to 8,ooo ft. Served cold salad over Albury at mid-day. I was very hungry it tasted excellent. Followed up with fruit salad and ice cream. 12.30 passed Hume Weir and Albury. 12.50 weather worsened and hit rain squall 1.35 touched down Melbourne weather very hot. 2.15 left Melbourne by DC3 – very smooth flight over Bass straight. 4.10 Launceston and bus into town. Accomm at YMCA in Recreation room. Sent excess luggage on to Queenstown by Sullivans Tours. Had tea and walked down to Tamar River. 28...

We have had three lots of baby turkeys, they are called poults, hatch in the last two months. The first hen had twelve eggs and they all hatched. Unfortunately only four survived. Two white ones and two Grey. I put this down to careless mothering. The next lot hatched eleven and still has eleven. The most recent lot have hatched ten and still has all of them. These are the most recent turkeys they are about six days old and doing very well considering the heat. I have had to revise my opinion of the turkey mothers. The second hen not only looks after all of her own chicks but has taken over the original four as well. We thought that they were big enough to manage on their own at about six weeks and put their mum back with the flock. They and the turkey hen had other ideas so she now has fifteen to look after. They look very funny as they are all different sizes. They are ranging far and wide on our place and sometimes venturing into next doors paddock as well. We have to go and hunt...

The view from the shed. It has been extremely hot here for the past two weeks. Every day over 35 and many over 40. We have had no meaningful rain since early in July and that was only 46 ml for the month. Our big dam is almost empty. We still have quite a bit of water in the tanks and Peter is able to bring home water from in town in a little plastic tank on the back of his truck. We are busy watering. Our plans of having a flourishing spring garden with the new trees and roses well established have come to nothing and our efforts are going to keep as many plants as possible alive. As you can see the Vegetable garden is looking pretty sad. I wont plant anything more until it rains. I have been growing seedlings for summer planting but will just have to be patient. They would just fry if I planted them now. What is going well is the herbs and lettuces that I have planted in containers and boxes. Basil at the back door. The Grapevines don't seem to mind the heat so long as we water t...

We purchased four ducks at the Canowindra poultry auction a few months ago. We had some bantam ducks before and their job was to keep the garden free of snails and slugs.They were good at this and very cute as well. Unfortunately when we moved here they discovered they could fly a long way and took off. Peter found them dead on the road quite a long way from home. We thought we would get some more for this garden but hadn't been able to find any of the bantam ones. At the auction their were a lot of Muscovy ducks and we bought four. They have settled in quite well but we have had to banish them from the garden as they were intent on eating all the cabbages and broccoli instead of the snails. The snails are not a problem at the moment as the blue tongue lizard eats them! Neither of us know how to tell a duck from a drake so we waited for them to exhibit some points of difference in their behavior or appearance. About a month ago the white duck started laying and then went broody, ...

We have an abundance of a few things at the moment: eggs, turkey, chicken and duck Silver beet Broad beans Lemons I was trying to think about what to make for dinner. I hadn't prepared anything and wanted to use up things that we had. All these ingredients are good together but what can I do to make something a bit delicious. I don't really know why I don't regularly make mayonnaise! When I was growing up mayonnaise was a mixture of condensed milk, mustard and vinegar! I did not like this and would have preferred just vinegar, so have never really got the joy of real mayonnaise. Although I do remember making it once many years ago. My sister was coming to our house and it was her birthday. We had just returned from our holidays and had absolutely no money. What we did have was an abundance of eggs and some silver beet in the garden. I made pancakes with a silver beet filling and mayonnaise of pepper and lemon and a sponge and custard cake . Quite a good experience really b...

My main gardening activity is growing vegetables, I love doing this and they feed our bodies as well as a sense of being part of nature. However part of our venture into country life is about growing a beautiful garden and for me that includes roses. As well as being beautiful, roses are the most drought tolerant and hardy plants. Their delicate beauty belies their resilience. My garden vision it to have a thousand roses. We are up to over one hundred now I think. The first things I planted here were a couple of roses, when I was feeling homesick for my old garden. They grew well and so I decided that the garden in front of our veranda would be a yellow and pink rose garden. So it is and only two years after planting and with no significant rain it is amazing. We had roses for eleven months last year. This year we decided to plant a white rose garden in front of this and also another garden to welcome our first grandchild. When Katie was pregnant they called their baby Joey, Katie is ...