RAIN AND A DAY OFF....

Today the weather is cool and wet, just how I love it! To have a day off in addition suits me perfectly. The rain is filling the pond for us and helping all those poor heat stressed plants rejuvenate after a long summer.

The water chestnuts seem to have vanished somewhere in the pond, maybe they are ready and have died back, anyone know anything about them? Something I will have to investigate further....

Today I have onions and cabbage in the dehydrator, I tend to use a lot of them over the year so stocking up every chance I get is important. The bananas I dried have already depleted by about a third.....yes, I am the guilty party on that, they make wonderful snacks at my work desk when I am too busy to take a lunch break lol.

On one side of the pond you can see I have planted out a chocolate mint to travel across the rocks and provide a haven for the wee critters we often see near the edge. It has taken off, obviously loving the damp conditions, spreading itself here is not a problem, and I lovvvvvvvvvve painting the leaves with chocolate, letting it set overnight, peel the chocolate off, you have a pretty choc leaf that has a delicious fresh mint taste, great for decorating desserts etc. In addition to all that goodness for desserts and teas the bees love it.

Now I just happened to be visiting one of my favourite sites when I came across this recipe for Fresh Organic Choc Mint Icecream:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole organic milk
3 1/2 cups fresh organic chocolate mint
5 large organic egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup organic heavy cream

Method:
In a medium saucepan, combine milk and fresh chocolate mint. Bring mixture to a gentle boil, cover and remove pan from heat. Steep mixture for 30 minutes. Strain mixture, reserve milk and discard solids.
Combine egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, for about 3-5 minutes. Return milk to a simmer.
Prep an ice water bath. Place ice cubes in a bowl and fill half with water.
Temper the egg yolks by slowly adding half of the warm milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture while stirring constantly until blended. Add new mixture to sauce pan with remaining milk. Stir consistently over low heat until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Remove saucepan from heat and immediately stir in cream. Place an empty bowl over the ice water bath. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into empty bowl and chill for at least 3 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.
Freeze custard in ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Store in an airtight container in freezer until ready to eat.

**I dont have an ice cream maker, so I will be putting into freezer and stiring through every 30 mins until set.

***Nev, just for you, see, I do enjoy chocolate at times :P

The yellow Cherry Guavas are fruiting. I can't wait to try these, they are supposed to be sweeter than all other guavas........personally I think they would have to be heavenly to beat the strawberry ones I also have!

Guavas are an amazing fruit. They have an incredibly high content of vitamin C.  In fact, one guava fruit contains four times more vitamin C than an average-sized orange; and ten times more vitamin A than a lemon!
They also are an excellent source of fibre, almost 70 times more fibre than can be found in an orange! Other key nutrients are vitamins B2 and E, calcium, copper, folate, iron, manganese, phosphorus and potassium. Get planting people, you cannot go wrong with these hardy and delicious little shrubs!

Here's to a delightful day, take care of you and yours:)