3 Lovely Things #4

Gifty things, blue flowers, preserving pressure!

Welcome to Apple & Radish Chronicles: Where Handmade Meets Homegrown. 🌷🌈Creating comfort, joy and meaning with simple, sustainable handmade and homegrown projects - sent to your inbox weekly - with fun tutorials, recipes and classes! Think of this as your ultimate cottage core homesteading guide - but with a little more spice. 💐 🌼

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On Wednesdays you’ll receive a newsletter that contains a lesson/how-to/guide or mini workshop (and occasionally a podcast or video) for a simple, sustainable, handmade project for your home, kitchen or garden. Woo! Upgrade to paid to access all the classes and workshops including every previous downloadable pdf lesson. You can check them out here with a new one sent to your inbox each week!

Then on Saturdays (or Sunday depending how my week is going) I’ll be sharing a short and sweet letter called 3 Lovely Things. As the name suggests it will contain 3 lovely things that made me smile during the week in the hope they bring you a glimmer of happiness too! 🥰🌷💜 This bit is free for everyone but I’d still be delighted to welcome you as a paid subscriber!

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Hello There!

Welcome to this week’s 3 Lovely Things where I share small things that brightened my week in some way. I hope they uplift you too! (You may be relieved to know none of them are cow related this week and Hugo remains safe and sound!)

3 Lovely Things #4

#1. Handmade Gifts From The Kitchen

I made some wonderful gifty things in the kitchen this week including a fragrant spice mix, Christmas Sangria cocktail kit and more! The recipes are here if you’re interested.

Expressing care, generosity and love with a gift doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Making something yourself doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Homemade gifts are often more sustainable especially if you look to using upcycled or biodegradeable materials. Aren’t we all tired of the shopping?? Let’s make homemade and handmade gifts the norm!

#2. Our Hydrangeas

Did you know blue is a very rare colour in nature? Our Hydrangea is really showing off this year with gigantic blue blooms the size of my head! They are a magnificent and abundant cut flower with long stems and they’re pretty easy to grow. Ours likes partial shade (sun burns the flowers and gives them brown spots) and a hard pruning once they’ve finished flowering. I’m sure gardening experts would have more specific tips but that is all we do and it’s thriving!

#3 I Bought a Pressure Canner

Some people buy shoes or clothes on Black Friday deals. I buy preserving equipment.

I’d been eyeing this pressure canner for months (very different to a pressure cooker). It was on special so I finally clicked Buy Now. Along with half a dozen whopper preserving jars and a case of pint size jars.

I already have a water bath canner which preserves tomatoes and fruits. A pressure canner preserves food at higher temperatures and is the one to use for non-acidic foods like vegetables, meats and meals-in-a-jar type foods.

I’m excited to stock our pantry with homemade shelf-stable meals to keep us going during power outages and emergencies - especially as we’re in the middle of our storm season here in Queensland. Last year we lost power for 13 days! Hoping that is not repeated but it’s good to be prepared for what you’ve been through, plus a little more.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into preserving with this method. Probably after Christmas. I shall report back!

If you’re an experienced pressure canner please tell me your best tips!! 🙏

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xxx Katrina