Missing Guinea Fowl Eggs

I found two guinea fowl eggs while trimming the lavender this  week-end. The nest has been abandoned and we’ve had a cold spell so I explained to the boys that these were babies that would never roam the garden.

This morning I noticed the eggs were missing. Thomas confessed that he has rescued them, put them somewhere warm, and is waiting for them to hatch. He won’t say where they are as he wants to be the first thing the baby fowls see, the de facto dad resulting from instant imprinting.

I’m going to have to hunt them down before I yank a towel from the linen cupboard or retrieve a jacket next winter, sending rotten guinea eggs hurtling through the air.

Fried Nasturtium Flowers

I’ve been browsing Marlena de Blasi’s A thousand days in Tuscany and there can’t be much to beat that rural Italian cuisine. She fries Zucchini blossoms, but I have replaced them with the peppery Nasturtium flowers that grow like weeds in my herb garden and on the compost heap. Delicious.

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 cup beer

1/4 cup cold water

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 ice cubes

extra virgin olive oil, for frying

In a large bowl, beat together with a fork or balloon whisk the flour, beer, water and sea salt to form a thin, smooth batter. Let the batter rest for an hour or so, covered and at room temperature. Stir in the ice cubes and let the batter rest for an additional half-hour. Stir the batter again. It should now be smooth and have the texture of double cream.

Over a medium heat, heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan to a depth of 1cm (de Blasi says 7.5 cm (!) but my extra-virgin budget doesn’t stretch to that, so I went for shallow frying). The more slowly the oil heats, the more evenly it will heat, helping you to avoid unevenly fried foods. Test the oil by dropping in a cube of bread. If it sizzles and turns golden in a few seconds, the oil is ready.

In small batches, drag the flowers through the batter, shaking off the excess. Place them into the hot oil for half a minute or so, allowing them to take on a good, dark crust. Turn them with tongs, to finish frying, them remove them to absorbent paper towels. Sprinkle with sea salt and eat them pan to hand to mouth.

Thieves, Insurers and Builders

In Sedgefield no one can hear you scream. . . Just turning out to be one of those weeks, thieves stole all our external copper piping, plain ripped it off the walls leaving the water gushing all night. The only way to stop the deluge is to switch the water off at the mains so we have had no running water since Friday, lugging buckets of rain water to flush the toilets gets old pretty quickly.

The insurers are dragging their feet, sending me cryptic sms’s like this one this morning – ’Claim placed on advisor delay until 30 October’ – ranting and raging on the phone makes me feel better but seems to have no impact. I get the feeling they hope that if they delay long enough I’ll just go away.

I’ve spent 3 weeks trying to get a price for the B & B/Loft renovations and am still waiting for some resolution. I’ve now had nearly every builder in the area have a look, so hopefully I’ll get somewhere soon. Despite the recession no one seems all that keen on a small job and I’m just hoping someone will get tired of me haranguing them for never materialising quotes.

Beach Front Monstrosities

I’m not a total Luddite or averse to property development in coastal areas – Lord knows we survived for five years by flipping three houses – but there’s a part of Sedgefield that just depresses me.

The Old Village, where we live, is the original cluster of houses around the lagoon you can see in my masthead pic. A lot of the early shacks and cottages have been renovated and some of the houses are massive. It’s still (mostly) aesthetically pleasing and real effort has been made by owners to keep trees and indigenous plant life.

About a decade ago the council decided to develop a stretch of beach front on the outskirts of the village. Named Myoli Beach, it took a while to get going, but boy, when it took off it exploded. Mansion after concrete mansion erupted, and each was bigger and more ostentatious than the last. Check out the pics below:

This is called Eagles-Rest-On-Sea - detail of name and, er, eagle below.

 

No, you're not in Tuscany. Yes, this is a small village on the African beachfront.

The house on the right is 2000 square metres, has a home theatre and heated pool - and just in case the power goes off and your pool cools there is also a 6 cyliner Diesel generator. It's for sale for ZAR14 million (about US$2m).

To put it all in context, Myoli borders on the Goukamma Nature Reserve, pictured below. When you see this wild beach, just what exactly makes you think of building a vast concrete monolith?

Sad Seahorse Story

Knysna Seahorse

The Sedgefield and Knysna lagoons are home to the rarest seahorse on earth, Hippocampus capensis. The only known estuarine seahorse, capensis has the most limited distribution and is listed as the most threatened seahorse species in the world.

The story below, from the Independent OnLine, is quite heartbreaking – poor faithful little pregnant man.

A single father of two is having to come to terms with the fact that there will be no more romance in his life after he and his partner were separated earlier.

The gent in question, a Knysna seahorse, was removed from the Garden Route town’s lagoon earlier this year by a concerned member of the public who found him floating, exhausted and barely able to swim.

The seahorse was taken to a National Parks (SANParks) aquarium, where he recovered well and where, less than a month later, he gave birth to a brood of babies.

Male seahorses have incubation pouches and give birth.

Two of the seahorse’s brood flourished and are nearly fully grown – but, says Francois Joubert of Garden Route Aquariums, it’s likely the small steed will not have any more young.

That’s because seahorses mate for life, and the seahorse’s female partner was left behind in the lagoon.

“In this light, we ask that people not make too hasty a judgement if they come across creatures who appear to be struggling in the wild,” Joubert said.

“Our actions, although well intentioned, may have drastic negative implications in the long run. If any animal clearly is in trouble the appropriate authorities should be consulted before intervening.”

The Knysna seahorse, or Hippocampus capensis, is one of 30 species of seahorses found worldwide, Joubert said.

This seahorse is endemic to the Knysna region and can only be found from Keurbooms River in Plettenberg Bay throughout the Knysna lagoon and up to Swartvlei in Sedgefield.

Selling Basil

The library had an exhibition of photos from old Sedgefield last week. There was our house, one of four or five cottages dotted on a roadless hill, in a picture taken in the late 40s. I could only tell it was our house by the position, the white shack in the photo bears no resemblance to the big hodge-podge of a house it is today.

Every owner has added on a room here, a second level there, a loft in the roof – every time the family grew they built an extra room, and I’m sure there was no planning permission – we have an outside bathroom, an outside bedroom and a strange brick and glass  structure next to the front door we euphemistically call the Sun Room.

Until now the place been a dumping ground for bikes and boards but it’s become my basil growing room. With abundant warmth and light the basil has gone berserk, every seed has germinated and flourished – even if we ate pasta and pesto every night for months we would never work through it.

My mom was bragging about it to the woman who owns the local health shop, telling her how its grown in organic compost and watered only with rain water. Upshot is that the health shop will buy as much basil as I can sell, so I’m now in the herb business.

It’s not going to make my fortune and having just finished watching all the seasons of Weeds I’m wondering if my grow room couldn’t be put to more effective use and help pay my crippling mortgage. . .

Transplanting basil from the grow room into the herb garden.

Keeping our house; Making money

Our house is no longer for sale (we’ll never be able to afford to replace it) and we are going to do whatever crazy money making schemes it takes to meet the monthly payments. So long as they don’t include Gavin spending the rest of his earning life living alone in the Middle East.

Watching the ocean and drinking great Cape champagne (I know we are not supposed to call it that but the EU can sue me) is a great combo for birthing ideas – hopefully some good ones.

Gavin is going to use his last few months over there to take trips to Iran and Pakistan, only a two hour flight from Abu Dhabi, source beautiful things and arrange shipping to Cape Town. We are going to transport everything in the gorgeous trunks pictured below.

They come from rural Pakistan and migrant labourers store their lives in them while living 10 to a room in oil rich countries. The inside lid even has a built in photo frame, reminding you of your distant loved ones every time retrieve something. They come in three colours – pink like ours, blue and green – and we will sell them once they are emptied.

We will also sell whatever we can pack inside, wholesale or retail, we’re not sure yet – Middle East merchants based in Sedgefield.

Plan number two is to turn our upstairs loft into a B & B – it’s spacious, light and has a big deck with stunning views of both the sea and the lagoon. It needs very minor conversion to turn it into a bijou dwelling for two.

Lagoon view from right hand side of the loft.

Strawberry & Champagne Ice Cream

Two days and Gavin leaves again for Abu Dhabi – the month has flown – and we have a new plan. I’ll fill you in on the details later. A lot of champagne has been drunk, a lot of shell fish has been eaten, and my jeans have shrunken slightly in the wash.

With the last glass of the last bottle I made an ice cream I’ve been wanting to try – just never seemed to have a spare glass of champagne until now. It was as delicious as I had imagined. Sweet, slightly boozey, creamy and fruity. A class act dessert, and dead easy to make.

Ingredients

500g ripe strawberries (riper the better); a few teaspoons of sugar; one small glass of champagne; 1litre of good vanilla ice-cream

Method

Cut the tops off the strawberries and cut in half. Layer the berries in a meduim pot, sprinkling a teaspoon of sugar on each layer. Pour a small glass of champagne over the fruit and place a tight fitting lid on the pot. Place in a warm spot and leave for 8 hours.

After 8 hours the berries should be soft and very fragrant. Mash the fruit with a potato masher until pulpy, but not too pulpy – should be chunky with small bits of fruit still intact.

Soften the vanilla ice cream, just soft enough to stir, not runny. Add the fruit pulp to the ice cream, mix in well, and freeze for about 4 hours. Looks great served in glass bowls, it’s a very delicate pale pink colour, tastes superb.

Make Your Own Stock

My compost obsession has been joined by a complimentary addiction – making my own stock. To give credit where it’s due, Gavin started the stock making process, and it’s become the current thing.  Our eyes gleam at the sight of an oldish veggie, and we become slightly breathless as we plow our way through the Sunday roast and the chicken carcass begins to emerge. Sad, I know, but fun.

It’s incredibly easy to make, has a myriad of uses, is economical, eco-friendly and healthy. We fling everything into the stock pot – bones, old veggies, vegetable peelings, herbs, lemon rind (not too much, it can dominate the flavour), leftover rice etc. Be as creative as you like with what you add, what’s the worst that can happen?

I start off by frying a couple of chopped onions, garlic and leeks in a big pot. I then add whatever bones, bits of meat, leftover, veggies and peelings we have collected over the week – I have a large plastic container that I fill every evening and then pop in the freezer.  Add three to four litres of water. Add salt, pepper, any herbs and spices that take your fancy, the rind of a quarter of a lemon, and bring the lot to the boil.

Boil rapidly for a few minutes then turn down the heat and simmer for a few hours until everything has broken down and dissolved. Run the liquid through a strainer and divide into bottles. Freeze them and use as required.

Stock is great for stews, soups, sauces, cooking roasts – and really superb when used as the liquid in which to cook pasta or rice. The flavour is absorbed by the starches and with a few stir-fried strips of meat and vegetables makes a divine, healthy, cheap meal.

Best bit? Whatever is left over in the strainer can go straight onto the compost heap!

Dude looks like a Lady

Our compost heap tortoise Bob is more of a Babs.  This tiny reptile crawled out from under a banana skin a few days ago, still soft-shelled it must have just cracked its way out of the egg.

Son of Bob