And what are these experiments, I hear you ask (or would hear, were anybody reading)? Well, in no particular order, they are: making yoghurt cheese, knitting and growing my own vegetables.
The yoghurt cheese experiment was a direct result of my recent trip to Tasmania. In Tassie there is a company called Wicked Cheese, who make the tastiest cheese, including several different kinds of yoghurt cheese (also called labneh, according to the internet). On my return to Canberra, I couldn't find any at the local stupid market, so I decided to try making my own. Turns out, what you do is get some yoghut and drain all the whey out of it. Then you can call it yoghurt cheese.
A previous yoghurt cheese making attempt resulted in something akin to cream cheese. Which is good, but could be better. So this time I'm making cumin flavoured yoghurt cheese and apple and cinnamon flavoured yoghurt cheese. We'll see how it works out.
The knitting experiment was more of an indirect result of the trip to Tassie. With Phill staying on the Apple Isle for an extra two weeks, I had a bit of time at home alone to do stuff. So I decided to take up knitting. I have done some knitting before (ie knitted some stitches, not actually knitted an entire anything) so I decided I was beyond the ubiquitous beginner's project of making a scarf. Instead, I would follow in my Granma's footsteps and make a hat. Or so I thought. Turned out no. I needed something a bit simpler. So I scoured the internet for a suitable project. The end result was these:
Yup. Fingerless mittens. Easier even than scarves ;-) I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go with this experiment now though.And the final experiment:
From what the internet tells me, spinach will grow in pots, and probably survive the nasty frosts we keep getting around here. It's also something we eat a lot of, and the internets say it will grow in pots. The larger pot contains 8 spinach seedlings. The smaller pot contains 8 broccoli seedlings. The internet tells me that broccoli hates the cold and shouldn't be planted in Canberra until October or November. Obviously I have completely disregarded this advice. I think i just got a little bit overexcited when I found the broccoli seedlings at Bunnings. The plastic covers are an attempt to protect the poor little things from the frost. They're made of recycled bags which once contained Ugg boots, and string.In addition to the seedlings, I also got a packet of onion seeds and a packet of spinach seeds. The spinach seeds are back up in case the seedlings die. If the seedlings don't die, then I'll plant the seeds so we can eat them after we've eaten the plants that grow from the seedlings. I'm planning on planting the onion seeds in toilet roll holders and germinating them either in the bike room (which gets a lot of sun during the day) or on top of the hot water system, which will be warm (at least until Actew-AGL decides to cut off the gas again - they are not my favourite). In the spirit of scientific enquiry, I really should put half in the bike room and half on the heater, and compare the results. Yes, I think that's what I'll do.
Speaking of the bike room, this is what it looks like at the moment.
Yep, that's six - count 'em, six - bikes, 5 of which are suitable for off road use. Bask in the glow of their bikeliness.
