Scarecrow magic

It might be magic, it might only be folklore, it might just be total nonsense. I am talking about the mystic power of a scarecrow to protect crops from bird attacks. Since I have never made a scarecrow, I took the opportunity to make 2 lovely creatures.

Step 1: Ask Edwin to help - using left over bits of pallets

Step 2: Put clothes on your naked scarecrow, providing him with some attitude.

 

 

Step 3: Do not stop now- make him a girlfriend, make him a boyfriend, make him little kids.

 

Step 4: Plant them in your garden and gaze upon their beauty

Step 5: If you have no Edwin or no pallets or no time - let me know if you want one (R100-R300 depending on your scare-crow's chosen image, clothes, weave, race, size, etc)

Keeping to the theme of celebrations and the role food plays all over the world in joining people together during celebratory meals - my focus in my garden during December is the veggie garden.

 I have always wanted a vegetable garden. Full of weird and wonderful vegetables that I will never eat, but want to grow and admire anyway. Most of the vegetable gardens I see on TV and in cookbooks are from England, North America, other far-away places with weather conditions as foreign to me as the Kohlrabi, Turnip, Swede  and other ugly root vegetables. The gardens are lush, overgrown, green, straining under all the perfect vegetables they bear. These gardens have people with big baskets, gumboots and smug smiles on their faces wandering between raised beds on perfect gravel pathways, picking vegetables that all fall within the insect-virgin classification.

OK - so our garden is not like that. Our veggie garden is made from sand - lots and lots of sand. With here and there a brave vegetable facing the full glare of the southern hemisphere sunshine. There are also weeds, lots and lots of weeds. Anyway, I think they are weeds. I KNOW they are not WEED-weeds, so are no good for smoking. They have no purpose in life other than to make my vegetable garden NOT look like a TV/cookbook garden. They might be Kale camouflaging themselves as weed, they might be young lettuce plants pretending to be weeds? At this stage, everything that is above ground in the garden looks like weeds.

I still feel obliged to protect the few vegetables hiding in this weed wilderness, so got together some talent on the plot, raided the cupboards and made a man-scarecrow. I liked him so much we made him a girl-scarecrow as well. They were named JZ and Bayonce, and now stand proudly between the weeds and the future vegetables to scare away whatever bird is stupid enough to want to eat the 3 little tomatoes we managed to grow.(It would be such fun to wake up one morning and find some little scarecrow children running between the rows of chilies, tomatoes, lettuce. Playing hide-and-seek between the mealies and broadbeans.) Anyway, little chance of that happening, we put them far apart from each other, and solidly planted them in the ground as immovable objects of beauty.

We are on the third day of our chicken-eating adventure, and this is how it played out.

Roast chicken is one of our favourites, so I took 2 of the frozen birds I got from the cheap chicken place. I bought a box of 10 for R341 (X-Large chickens) - so tonight's dinner only cost us R42 for 4 people. (If you had maths in school, you would have worked out that this price is only for 1 chicken and I took 2 chickens and you would be correct. The other chicken is for tomorrow and Friday's dinners - I just wanted to cook them at the same time)

It was R34 for the chicken, R1 for spices, salt, pepper, and R7 for a bit of root veggies (NOT from my garden - not yet anyway)

Step 1) Take your chicken of choice, cut off all loose skin and fatty bits - dry chicken nicely and lovingly (A patting action works better than a rubbing action - which might cause you to skin the poor bird and leave it naked and without its skin if you are too rough).

Step 2)  Put it in roasting pan, some olive oil, chicken spice and other lekker stuff such as salt, pepper, oregano.

Step 3)  Cut some potatoes in pieces and throw around the chicken. You do not have to be loving to the potatoes - they did not die for you!

Step 4)  Put into another roasting pan all the skin bits, fatty blobs, and general shreds of unidentifiable pieces of chicken you cut off in step 1. Then add root veggies such as carrots, onions, leeks and garlic.

Step 5)  Roast them in one oven, scoop some of the fat over them halfway through - and prepare to swoon! (and gain a kilogram or two)

IMPORTANT TIP: Save all bits of veggies you cut off in a separate dish for Friday's meal (tips of carrots, onion skins, leek bottoms, etc.)

ANOTHER IMPORTANT TIP: Put all the left over cooked meat and roast carcasses in the fridge for Friday's meal.

So after tonight I made from 2 chickens and a few veg the following:
- the bestest chicken roast
- the cheapest chicken breast (cut from the second chicken for tomorrow's dinner it is only R23/kg vs prices ranging from R50 to R65 - P&P to R98 - Woolies )
- the tastiest chicken carcasses ready for Friday's dinner
- oh, and some of the inner workings of both chickens which I do not know what to do with yet.

I feel so frugal that I even friggin freaking out myself!

I also put another challenge to David today. He was handed 2 tupperwares full of left-over rice and told to make something nice. Except for being a word-genius, he has now also been promoted to rice-genius. Two different rice puddings delighted us after dinner,  it was Indian rice pudding vs a traditional English rice pudding. We have a rat in the house - a big hungry rat. As you can see it got into the puddings to have a little taste before dinner. Which one was the best? The verdict is still out on that one - they were both njam-njam.

 

Traditional rice pudding with evidence of mouse activity

Indian Rice pudding with evidence of mouse activity (no, the creature in the picture is NOT the guilty party, neither is she a mouse - she is my Peruvian hairless and would have gladly assisted the mouse if she had any choice in the matter)

For all you tortured souls out there - here is one of David's writings - enjoy (maybe not the correct word?).

You cast me in your play,
And before I knew it
It was opening night.

The audience filed in.
The curtains rose.
The spotlight shone.
Show-time.

I said all my lines
Just like you wanted.
I played my part well.
The critics loved me.

Blood and tears during intermission.
Standing ovations and melodrama.
Bruises under our costumes and make-up.
Everyone knows it’s an act.

I take a bow.

The curtain falls.

D. S. Lindhout

Almost forgot to tell you - I got something for free today (after asking of-course). I forced David to ask for an empty can when we went to refill our 2L dishwashing liquid for less than R5.00. Then I saw some old Tyres, and I have a plan for them - so asked and yes - got a whole bakkie load for free. On a roll, I then forced David again to call another tyre shop next to the road and YES - tomorrow I can go and collect more tyres for free. I will show you my recycled/up cycled tyres when they are done!

Lovies
Lizette