Nirvana Biodynamics

Growing nuts is one thing, being able to make the most of the bounty and having a good supply for the kitchen needs good equipment.There are many types of nutcrackers some work and others may be total duds and a waste of effort. While staying with a friend in France, we visited her parents and her mother gave me this great nutcracker. She said it was Swiss made so of excellent quality. (She was Swiss) She was right and its so efficient to use. It does not matter how large or small the walnut or hazelnuts it does a great job. I have seen similar nut crackers in Australia – they are often promoted as champagne openers. I think there are easier ways of opening champagne. Macadamias present a challenge. There shells are extremely hard. I used a hammer where as Quentin preferred to use vice grips.Both method were very slow and inefficient so the harvest of macas just sat in storage and where cracked only in small quantities usually only to make pesto. Recently we brought a Queensland made m...

With the weather cooling down it was time to fire up the wood stove. My all time favorite kitchen ‘tool’. It cooks the best roasts, bread, puddings, and long slow stews and just about everything else .Cooking with wood imparts a special qualit y into the food & the stove chugging away creates a real presence in the house. It can transport you to another time that moved more slowly and in time with the seasonal rhythms. Our stove is Australian made, (actually Albury NSW.) the Themalux Supreme ticks away always ready to cook something at the same time heating the hot water (very necessary when there is no sun to work the solar panels). The system also has a tap direct from the hot water jacket that provides instant hot water for washing dishes, hands, cold feet or getting the pasta water to the boil quickly which saves the water coming from the hot water service which takes a while to come through hot. Another plus is that all the wood to run it is grown on our property. We planted...