Solar Power

Its been almost a year now since we installed a 1.75kw solar power system and evacuated tubes solar hot water.  We don't have a north facing roof so we placed the evacuated tubes hot water on the nw corner of the roof and the solar panels for electricity on the east facing roof.  The front of our house faces east. We also have a lot of very tall gum trees in the neighbourhood which tend to block the sun early morning and late afternoon.  The only time we have had to turn the electric booster on for the hot water were those few times that we have had cloud and/or rain for about 3 days. 

Where we are at Wangi, our electricity company is Energy Australia.  We signed up to a new contract earlier this year where we feed 100% of what we generated back into the grid and receive 66c per kw paid to us each quarter through the buy back scheme.  We then receive our electricity bill as normal where we are charged different rates for Peak, Shoulder and Off-Peak.

We do use more electricity than we generate.  Even though we have replaced lights, fridges, freezer, dishwasher and washing machine with more energy efficient alternatives and try and schedule the use in the off-peak period .  However, because of the attractive buy back scheme the cost of our electricity is covered most quarters.

Our biggest problem is living in a pole home (wood) with polished wood floors with no insulation.  Come winter and the house is freezing when the westerlies blow up the hill.  We are in the process of building in under the house which should alleviate most of this problem.

We are very happy that we invested the money in solar electricity and don't think we could have received a similar return if the money was invested in shares or sitting in a term deposit.

Recipes for Vegetable Lasagne

I have just posted the 3 recipes that make up my vegetable lasagne recipe.  Very healthy recipe and tastes great too.  Enjoy!!!

Yoghurt Topping

2 cups of non fat yoghurt

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of dried parmesan cheese— low fat

1 teaspoon of garlic powder (optional)

1 teaspoon of onion powder (optional)

1 teaspoon of  parsley

Mix all the ingredients together and place on the top of pasta, vegetables or casserole before baking. Top with your choice of cheese.

This dish needs to be cooked (baked) before eating.

Yoghurt Topping may be stored in the fridge 1 day before required

Tomato & Herb Sauce

2 cans of organic tomato pieces (approx 410g cans)

1/10 teaspoon of  Stevia Powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 teaspoon of dried parsley

1 teaspoon of dried basil

1 teaspoon of miso bouillon

1 bay leaf

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes.

This sauce can be used as a sauce for pasta, vegetables or meat.

Make extra and freeze.

Vegetable Lasagne

1/2 a butternut pumpkin

1 teaspoon of Coconut Oil or Olive Oil

Tomato & Herb Sauce

1 cup of cooked spinach

2 onions sliced and sautéed in water

10 gluten free lasagne sheets

Yoghurt Topping 

1 cup of grated Mozzarella cheese - low fat

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Peel, clean and slice the pumpkin into 1.5cm slices. Brush both sides with Natrim Coconut Oil and bake in a moderate oven until cooked.

Grease a baking dish approximately 28cm x 18cm.

Place in ingredients in layers in the following order:-

Cooked pumpkin

1/2 Tomato & Herb Sauce

Layer of lasagne sheets (5 sheets)

Spinach

Onions

Remaining Tomato & Herb Sauce

Layer of lasagne sheets (remaining 5 sheets)

Yoghurt Topping

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Bake in a moderate oven until cooked.

Serves 8-10

Serve with a fresh garden salad

Will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days after baking

Cut into serve size pieces and freeze.

May be assembled 1 day ahead and stored in the fridge until ready to bake.

For variety, replace pumpkin, spinach or onion with vegetables of your choice.

Handcrafted Soaps and Cupboard Keepers

It’s time to start thinking about Xmas presents.  I like to give handmade presents or natural healthy items to my friends and family.  I thought this year I would try making handcrafted soap as gifts.  Not having the experience or the time for making soap from scratch I started with melt and pour soap.  This is really fun but there is a knack to getting it just right.  So I think  the melt and pour will be a new hobby - next year.  Any tips would be appreciated.
Meanwhile I have sourced some lovely Handcrafted Soaps and I came across something interesting – Cupboard Keepers.
I was very taken with the Citrus Cupboard Keeper ………………

Citrus Cupboard Keeper

Imbue your cupboard spaces with these fresh lemon scented essential oil clothing protector blocks.
Harness the protective power of essential oils in your clothing, linen and cupboard space with these natural alternatives to moth balls and naphthalene flakes.
With naturally insect repellent lemon scented oils, including lemongrass and may change essential oils and filled with calendula petals and a sprinkling of vibrant blue cornflower petals, these natural alternatives to naphthalene flakes and moth balls will last for many months in your cupboards, drawers and storage spaces.
Go to Citrus Cupboard Keepers for more details

Zone 1

Just planted some lovely tomatoes bushes in Zone 1 of our garden.  Part of our Zone 1 is in the front of the house as this is the easiest to access and faces north-east (Southern Hemisphere).  I have always been interested in Permaculture.  Permaculture uses Zones for efficient energy planning.  These zones can apply to farms or suburban gardens. The only modifiers are local factors such as access, slope, climate, and soil.  In our Zone 1, I have herbs and vegies that we use all the time such as tomatoes, parsley, chives, oregano, capsicum, lettuce, basil, calendula, rosemary, lavender, lime verbena, garlic, a lemon, a mandarin, a flame grapefruit plus a couple of pomegranates.  The part of Zone 1 that is in the front yard also contains climbing roses and geraniums for their beautiful flowers. 


I started by reading Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison. My copy is so worn out it has started to fall apart.  However I found that this book was more orientated towards farms.  I only have a small suburban block and I wanted more help with the problems facing organic backyard gardening.

I moved onto The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow.  I found this more suitable for a suburban block and had great ideas on how to plan a permaculture garden in a suburban garden. I specially liked the Guild Planting idea for crop rotation in small places.

Garden Journal

30 September, 2010.  In 2009, Greg and I moved to Wangi Wangi on beautiful Lake Macquarie.
We purchased a pole home with views of  Myuna Bay, Lake Macquarie.  To us, there is just one small down side and that is the backyard.  What once must have been a beautiful Australian native garden was now overgrown with lantana. The slope is quite steep.
With a vague plan to plant a vegie patch, herbs and some fruit trees, we started clearing the lantana.  Greg would spend hours chopping away at the lantana.
This area has a number of pole homes and quite a lot of landscaping using copper logs. Research suggests arsenic is only taken up in carrots, radishes and beetroot.  Never the less we decided to make the vegie patch in raised garden beds.  We purchased 4 colour bond garden beds 1.3m wide x 3.3 m long and .8m high.  This wasn't going to be easy as work needed to be done on the slope before we could place the garden beds in situ.  Plus all soil would need to be brought in and carried down to the backyard in buckets.
We started by removing two trees, one that was growing up against the house and banged against the roof in the wind.  The other tree was about to split down the middle and would have probably fallen onto our neighbour's roof.  We decided to leave all the rest of the large trees.  This gave us an additional reason to put in raised garden beds as it is really hard to grow vegies under gum trees.  We will just need to be vigilant with the falling gum leaves.

Wangi Front Yard Sept.09 Looking towards the road

4 October 2010 The front yard faces east.  The photo was taken September 2009 before any work was done. Here I planted some herbs, flower and climbing roses.  I also added two pomegranate trees (deciduous), one on the verge to the south and one north of the drive way.
Also added a chair, and small pathway between our drive way and the neighbour's driveway.  In front of this is a small vegie patch for all those things you may need in a hurry.  You might say it is my Zone 1 (Permaculture).