Further to my recent decision to start blogging here again, I’ve changed my mind.  It was a little on the ambitious side to think that I could maintain as many blogs as I am currently trying to, so I’m going to say goodbye, this will be the last post on this blog.  I will be continuing to blog at EcoStreet and The Zen Housewife.  Please join me there.

I’m fed-up with this blogsome blog, considering moving it or abandoning it again.  It’s all so very rigid, I wish I could import it to Blogger or something.

We’ve been enjoying local polytunnel-grown strawberries while we are waiting for ours to ripen.  It’s a good idea to make the most of what’s in season, so apart from eating lots of them just as they are, or with yoghurt or ice-cream, I’ve also devised this Strawberry Cheesecake recipe.

Tracy’s Baked Strawberry Cheesecake 

You’ll need to make this the day before you want to eat it.

Ingredients:

50g organic butter

200g chocolate chip biscuits (crushed in a food processor or by hand)

2 cartons Devon Gold curd cheese

1 carton Cornish clotted cream

75g unrefined golden caster sugar

25g cornflour

3 free-range organic eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract with vanilla seeds

200g fresh strawberries, sliced

Preheat the oven to 170′C (gas mark 3).  Grease and line with baking parchment a loose-bottomed 18cm diameter cake tin. To make the base, melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the crushed biscuits until they are well combined.  Press the biscuit crumb mixture into the base of the cake tin.  Leave to chill in the fridge while you get the cheesecake mixture ready.

Put the curd cheese and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well (I used a fork and really beat this together).  Beat in the icing sugar and cornflour, and then add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat it well until its smooth.  Stir in the sliced strawberries and then pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.

Cook in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (don’t let it get too brown).  When it’s done, turn the oven off and leave the cake in it to cool for about 2 hours.  When cool, transfer to the fridge to chill completely.  When it’s chilled, you can carefully remove the cake from the tin and voila.  Decorate with more sliced strawberries and dust with icing sugar.

As the strawberries lose their colour in cooking, it might be an idea to try this with raspberries or other berries for more colour. 

A good friend of mine lost her daughter to leukaemia 7 years ago.  Her son James is now raising money for Woking Hospice to help with their work in supporting bereaved children, support which he benefitted from when his sister died.  You can support James by making a donation at justgiving (see widget in the right sidebar).

I heard on the news this morning that the government is considering encouraging us to become vegetarians for the sake of the planet.  According to some research by the University of Chicago recently discussed at EcoStreet, it’s more effective to give up eating meat, than to replace your gas-guzzler with a Toyota Prius.  This added to my recent personal misgivings about eating meat means that I’m going to be devising a plan to reduce meat consumption in our home.  I respect the right of choice for the rest of the members of the household, so it won’t be a case of no meat at all, but I will only be providing a meal including meat once a week.  There remains the issue of ensuring that everyone gets their vitamins etc.  But I’m sure we’ll muddle through.  Marmite contains B12 doesn’t it?

I’m back to updating The Little Green House.  I’m not promising daily updates, but I’ll see how I go.  I have missed it.  The latest news is that we have given up our allotment.  We’ve instead decided to move our vegetable growing to our own garden, to allow for easier care of the plants, and some other projects that have come up and are taking up more of my time.  We have scaled back our vegetable growing accordingly, but are still growing garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squashes and potatoes at home, as well as plenty of fruit.  We have two apple trees, a pear, a green gage, a kiwi, a cherry tree, raspberries, blackberries, grapes and strawberries.  I’ve also made sure that I source more of my bought vegetables from very local sources as a way to assuage my guilt.  My hunt has delivered some unexpected treasures and led to my meeting some amazing people.

This will be my last post at this blog for a while.  We will still be living our little green lives at the Little Green House until at least August next year (2008), but I’m taking some time out from this blog to concentrate on other endeavours.  I will continue to write regularly for the EcoStreet blog, as well as carrying on with the administration of the directory and forum on EcoStreet.  

I am also writing a new blog with a spiritual twist: The Zen Housewife.

I’m going to leave The Little Green House just the way it is for now, and perhaps will come back from time to time to report on developments as we prepare to move around August 2008.

To everyone who has visited and commented, thanks for taking the time and I hope that our paths will cross again.

Hard to believe it’s March.  The winter was very short this year.  I finally got down to the allotment on Thursday to take stock, and pruned the fruit trees in the garden today.  We still have leeks and beetroot going at the allotment, but that’s about the sum of it.  The sprouting broccoli has been decimated by slugs it seems.  So slim pickings for the spring.  The garlic in our garden is doing well, I look forward to harvesting that in a few month’s time.

Our plan for this year is to grow fewer types of vegetables in bigger numbers, and I’m taking more into the garden to protect from pests/diseases that are rife at the allotment site.  I will be publishing the growing plan on the blog soon.

Friends of the Earth would like to hear from you.  They’ve recently launched a new online bookshop and would like feedback from the green community.

All you need to do is answer 10 short questions for your chance to win over £150 worth of environmental books.  Click here to complete the short survey.

Thanks to Anna at Friends of the Earth for the tip. 

Piper and I went to our first Woodcraft Folk meeting on Monday evening.  Ayrton has been a member for over 2 years now, and has progressed from an Elfin to a Pioneer.  He has encouraged Piper to become a Woodchip, and for me to get involved too.  We are very glad we did.  We’ve already been invited to our first camp.

If you don’t know about the Woodcraft Folk, it is an alternative to Scouts and Guides, with less of a military and more of a "peace and kinship" vibe.  It in non-religious and not affiliated to any political party, but does play an active part in anti-war activism.  Being a sucker for beautiful words, the envoi (creed) moved me to tears (well, moist eyes) at my first meeting.  All the kids and grown-ups stand in a circle before leaving and say:

This shall be for a bond between us
That we are of one blood you and I
That we have cried peace to all and claimed kinship with every living thing.
That we hate war sloth and greed and love fellowship
And that we shall go singing to the fashioning of a new world.

It’s been a few weeks, but we’re back home after a trip to Cape Town for my sister’s wedding. It’s good to be back with Tango the cat and our little house, although it was very hard to leave family and one of the most beautiful cities in the world for the little bit of suburbia that we call home.

We offset the carbon emissions from our flights with Climate Sure, a very good idea I’m sure you’ll agree. Get a quote next time you need travel insurance, they’re very competitive and do good things with the money that you pay them.

Being back has me fired up with enthusiasm for getting organised at home, at the allotment and for the future.  Apart from business as usual, I am going to be taking a Full Permaculture Design Course in the near future on the path to a new career.  Sadly the course that I’d hoped to be doing is not running this year, so I’ll be hunting for another.  Keep you posted!

I bought my very first pair of 99% recycled shoes last week.  They are Worn Again trainers, made of prison blankets, ex-military parachutes, car seat scrap leather, ex-military long johns, ex-military towels and recycled rubber.  Very comfortable, for me and the environment.

I’m not finding much inspiration to go outdoors at the moment.  The wind and the rain are a combination guaranteed to have me on the warm and dry side of the glass, unless I absolutely have to go out.  And so, the allotment has been neglected in favour of indoor activities.

One of the indoor activities that I’ve taken up is writing for a new blog at Lifescape magazine.  It’s called EcoStreet at Lifescape, and it’s a weekly round-up of what’s been happening at EcoStreet.  It’s a great opportunity for me to write for a whole new audience.  I’m very excited about it.

We are getting ourselves ready for our trip to Cape Town for my sister Natalie’s wedding in February.  We are going for three weeks.  It’s another flight, and something of a wrestle between my conscience and needs must.  So we are going to offset our flights with Treeflights, must add that to the list of things to do before we go.  I just can’t wait to make the move permanently…

It was a big moment when my two-and-three-quarter year old daugter, Piper, tripped happily into her first ballet class today with her friend, Imogen.  They thoroughly enjoyed it and filed out after her class with great big smiles on their faces.

I’m so proud of Piper’s independence and desire to dance.  Tomorrow we will be investing in a pair of ballet shoes and a leotard.

All the best for the New Year to our friends and visitors.  2007 has promise written all over it.  We have a few green resolutions for New Year, namely finally fitting the Water Two valve and putting down the long awaited leaky-pipe irrigation hoses in our back garden, attached to our water butts.   We also have plans to further insulate our loft, up to 30cms.

But, on to more jovial matters, and our New Year’s Eve gathering.  We had such a terrific night.  Good friends, good food and lots of fun.

The children painted and played before dinner.

And for dinner we had bobotie, begrafnis-rys, roast butternut, green bean curry and chutney, followed by fruit salad.  Thanks to Neill for making the bobotie and to Lindy for the fruit salad.

So here’s to 2007, may it be a good one!