Abundance

One of the problems with growing your own fruit and vegetables is the feast or famine scenario. We harvested a beautiful bunch of bananas and in absolutely no time we had a whole lot of ripe bananas and a day later we had over ripe ones.

Thankfully banana bread is a universal favourite. I have been searching and searching for a good recipe and I think I have found the best. I amalgamated a couple of recipes and tweaked the mixing and this is what I came up with.

The Best Banana Bread Recipe....EVER!!!!!
For me, in any case.
I forgot to mention that this is for 2 loaves. If you want only one, halve the recipe.

8 small overripe bananas (450 g)

500 g white sugar

4 eggs

250 ml vegetable oil

160 ml milk

450 g flour

10 ml baking powder

10 ml bicarbonate of soda

5 ml salt

1.       Mash bananas and add sugar. Mix till most of the sugar is dissolved.

2.       Add eggs and mix well.

3.       Add milk and oil and mix well.

4.       Sieve dry ingredients together and add spoonfuls to the banana mixture, mixing well in between each addition.

5.       Bake in two loaf pans at 170C for one hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

All the guests we have had up till now has been people we have known before. If anybody had told me that it would take so long for me to be comfortable hosting perfect strangers I would have laughed at them. I now have two rooms that I am at ease with. It is the little things that take time to get sorted out.

Anyway, here is the Kudu Suite.

The artwork on the wall is a beautiful piece of beadwork that I had framed.

The kitchenette has everything you could need. Should our guests choose the self catering option, all they need to bring is their food.
The only thing I am still looking for is a bistro table and two chairs.

Harvests

We are so extremely fortunate to have a climate in which just about anything grows.
Since we moved in six months ago we have harvested an impressive list of fruit and veg.

• More spinach than I knew what to do with. I cooked and froze some, my staff took bunches home and friends and family benefited from the bounty.
• Lettuce! By the bushel! A friend who also owns a B&B got the leftovers.
• Mangoes by the bucket. We have three trees all bearing prolifically.
• Litchis. Now these I share with no-one.
• A big basket full of parsley that I added some basil to and made the most awesome pesto. I froze some for later.

My adorable grand daughter with the basket of parsley.

• One bunch of bananas busy ripening.
• And finally...GUAVAS!!!!

I have already bottles a couple of jars and made a couple of litres of juice that I froze and still they just keep on coming. I am going to have to buy some more bottles to preserve some more and I am going to bake some guava sweets.

The branches are still bent double under the weight. Unlike a lot of fruit, the bearing season is quite long.

Still to come....

• A couple of figs off the fig tree that is only a couple of months old.
• Some oranges that are busy ripening.
• Avocados that will be ready soon.
• The lemon tree is flowering.
• And the in the veggie patch the aubergines are nearly ready to be picked.

• Also planted is Zucchini, sugar dumpling squash, cucumber, more parsley, spinach, onions, leeks, spring onions and the runner beans are just starting to run.

BTW......how to make your own guava juice.

1. Wash ripe firm guavas and cut off the top and stem scar.
2. Slice and put in a pot with just enough water to cover.
3. Simmer approx 15 to 20 minutes until quite mushy.
4. Puree and strain out the seed.
5. For every 1 litre of pulp add 250 ml sugar.
6. warm gently and stir until sugar is dissolved.
7. Freeze till needed.
8. Dilute according to taste. 

Lovely fruit juice with no preservatives of chemicals.

Talking about chemicals, our garden is very organic. We have worms for liquid fertiliser and compost bins for ordinary compost.

Enjoy!