Chook update

A first!  Florence and Shirley's first experience free ranging.

They picked it up very quickly.

Jam of 10 food metres

Rosella is bush tucker, also known as native hibiscus.  They're very occasionally available in markets, but mostly you have to grow your own.

Ours went in a bit late this year, but we still managed a small harvest.

However, most of the fruit is seed. Once you remove the inedible bit, this made up a whole 155g.

Which translated to

Not quite a jar of jam.  But it'll be spectacular!

We've left some fruit on the shrubs to self seed.  We hope to see lots more rosellas next year.

Our own coffee

The Creative Reinventor, it has to be said (and he wouldn't deny it) is a coffee nerd. 

He's worked in the coffee industry for years, owns two espresso machines, takes huge offence at over-roasted blends and don't even mention instant in his presence.

One thing he'd never done was roast his own beans.

But with a bread maker and a heat gun

he discovered he can roast quite a respectable batch.

Sadly we're in the wrong climate zone to grow our own coffee.  Pity, that'd be really cool.

Signature cake

The reinventors are usually not into exclusivity, but in this case, we may make an exception.

If you poach some oranges (preferably those grown by D and P) in sugar syrup, line a cake tin in foil and arrange the slices on the bottom.

Then make up a butter cake with lots of vanilla extract and a handful of coconut for texture.
Once it's baked, pour the poaching syrup over the top.  Flip it over.

And you have Marmalade Cottage Marmalade Cake.