New Vacuum Sealer & Autumn Weeding

Well it rained this past week and what a relief to all the hot weather, it gave us a couple of days respite from the heat. In between times we have managed to clear and fill 3 1/2 beds, so there is no more soil in the trailer. The flower beds on the edge need weeding, but they will get a layer of  hard mulch rather than soil. Still 3 more small vegetable beds to go though.

 Planted seeds of beans, carrots and beetroot, and seedlings of kale, lettuce,rocket and bok choy but the heat after rain, was a bit much although I covered them, some have died. Will try direct seeds instead.

A tangle of green beans and cucumbers.

Miss P came over Saturday, and we partially weeded the back rose garden, while the shade was there, with a reminder on how to prune them, and the hydrangea bed and path at the back steps, filling the wheely bin for Monday.

 

 Before she went home picked beans and more carrots to take back. There is just so much we can handle. Also 2 large cucumbers John bought home from the gardens. As the family have chickens and I get quite a few of the eggs, if nothing else it can all go to them.

 

Yellow Butter  and Green beans from two different Trellis's

I think there is probably one more go of the carrot bed. They are small and lots of fine roots growing from the carrot itself is  proof  I showed Miss P,  that they had stopped growing, most likely due to the heat as some plants won't grow if the weather is a certain temperature, and been in too long. Still ok to cook for meals. 

Semi cleaned carrots

John cooked up half of the chillis, also from the Community Garden, and made a hot  Sweet Chilli Sauce. It is a bit hot for me though, unless it was a tiny bit, but the purchased sweet chilli is more my style.

 After sadly  reading the last post on Down to Earth with Rhonda Hetzel, as she is retiring from writing, I found on her cooking for one series that she had purchased a hand held food vacuum that uses bags. 

2 weeks ago I vacuumed 2 jars of grapes, to keep fresh from the kilo bag of them in our grocery order. They go off so quickly and this was opened yesterday as fresh as we bought them. The trouble is I have to drag out my big machine to do this, so once opened I don't bother to vacuum it again. 

I also have vacuum bags that can be put in the freezer such as the carrots and beans I did recently, or meat in a sauce like John's kangaroo meat he loves, and vacuuming bulk flour, sugar, tea etc to keep it long term.  

I decided to buy a not very expensive one on Amazon, and below is the  tiny hand held vacuum, about as big as my hand, with 2 cucumbers sealed in the bag system. It goes over the blue dot after closing the bag with a double  zip lock. 

The good part about this system is that I can keep it on the bench or shelf, ready to re seal the bag quickly, as when I take out one of the cucumbers for example.

 

 I have had pumpkin, cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce go off before we can finish them. Testing these cucumbers out, but I keep them in the fridge still. This system won't take any liquids and  bags aren't to go in the freezer. The unit is easily charged same as a phone.

As long as the product doesn't go past the blue dot, I see no problem with this so far and look forward to testing my home made bread next time, rather than freezing it. As from using my big vacuum machine I know it will keep biscuits, cake, muffins, fresh long term also. Nowadays I always freeze half the cake or slice, so when I cook next will test that out also. 

The Frangipani is so full of flowers this year.

Thank you to the two subscribers who joined recently, it was a such a lovely surprise.

Till next time.