I am reading a very interesting book at the moment. A friend popped it into my hands last Friday. I am reading another book, but while I was waiting for my friend, I started reading and since then I cannot put the book down. It is called "Spanner in works" by Pat Fahrenfort and published by Umuzi.
It is the life story of a young girl of mixed race who had to leave school at an early age to supplement the household income during the apartheid years. She managed to get a job at a printer company here in Cape Town. Eventually she worked herself up through shear determination and self study from a floor worker to the corridors of power in South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africa
"South Africa's negotiated transition to democracy is heralded as a miracle the world over. Fahrenfort's story captures the daily struggles by ordinary working class people who had to negotiate their way through an unforgiving system" - Cyril Ramaphosa. Deputy leader of the ANC.
This makes great reading!
I always wanted an earthworm farm, but to spend about a R1000/$80 to $90, was ridiculously expensive. I decided to improvise my own. At the end of the day it cost me less than R100/$9. If you use a smaller container, it can even be cheaper. The advantage of this is that if you are living in an apartment, you can even keep it in your kitchen as it is odourless. Your main problem is to get hold of only a few earthworms. I started off with only a few and now I have a few hundred, if not thousand. I will explain step by step how to build your own container.
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| I bought two air vents from my local hardware store and placed it on either side of the plastic container |
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| The placing of the vents is near the top. I have made a hole by cutting out an area slightly smaller than the vent itself and screwed the vent on. |
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| My container, but you can even use an old paint drum. It all depends on your needs! |
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| Odourless and the healthy contents. |
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| I have also placed two vents at the bottom. This is very important as you want to catch the liquid in a container. This liquid is the actual ingredient you need to fertilise your plants in your house. This is odourless as well! |
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| I use any kitchen scraps as long as it is fresh. DO NOT use cooked food, onion or range peels as this is too acid. You can however, use teabags, egg shells, peels of anything as long as it is fresh and not cooked. If your fruit or vegetables goes off, you can use this as well. Use wet egg holders (the card board type) and newspapers. Wet it before tearing up and placing it in the container. Don't throw your pet's hair away after you have brushed it. Use this as well. |
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| Healthy earthworms Happy earth worm farming. It gives one so much fun! My winning recipe for the week will be Old Fashioned Chicken Pie from the Cape |
30 ml cooking oil (two dessert spoons)
350 g chopped mushrooms
2.5 kg raw chicken portions
2.5 ml (1/4 t) mace
2 bay leaves
2 cassia sticks
6 cloves
12 black pepper corns
5 ml salt (1 t)
little bit of powder nutmeg
250 ml ( 1 cup) chicken stock (you can use the blocks you buy)
250 ml white wine
Sweat the onions in the cooking oil. Add mushrooms and stir fry. Take out. Fry chicken in same pot until brown . add onions and mushroom. Add all spices, the stock as well as the wine. Cook until meat is tender and remove bones. Cut meat smaller if it did not cook finely.
15 ml sago
Luke warm water to cover
1 egg yolk
Juice of one lemon
30 ml (2 dessert spoons) brandy
Soak sago in water until it swells. Add to chicken. Cook slowly until sag appears glassy. Take pot from stove. Mix egg yolk, brandy and lemon juice add to chicken and place chicken in basted dish.
Optional:
4 thin pieces ham, diced
2 hard boiled eggs
Puff pastry
Another egg yolk
15 ml (1 dessert spoon) milk.
Place ham over chicken, followed by sliced hard boiled eggs
Place puff pastry over dish. You can make your own, but the bought one is as good. Press sides firmly down. Cut extra pieces off. Make holes in pastry for steam to escape.
Mix egg yolk and milk and paint it over pastry. Bake for 10 min at 200 c and then for a further 30 minutes at 180 c until golden brown.
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| Home made chicken pie |
Enjoy! recipe from "die groot Boerkosboek" by Dine van Zyl; ISBN 978-0-620-50278-8
Remember, for other wonderful recipe books, to visit http://www.bestforreading.com
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