Simple Living Toowoomba

Last year I had the pleasure of hearing Rhonda Hetzel speak at our local library. Rhonda, who writes the popular Down to Earth  blog and has a published book of the same name, spoke about simple living and getting back to basics.

 

 

After she spoke we were asked if there was any interest in forming a group to get together regularly and from that the Simple Living Toowoomba group was formed by Margy who is very enthusiastic and full of good ideas. An initial meeting was held to gauge the level of interest and to throw around ideas and, before we knew it,  Margy had morning teas, swaps and workshops up and running in no time.

 

We have had workshops on how to make rag/toothbrush rugs, soap, homemade laundry liquid, pickles, fig jam as well as  compost and no-dig gardens. There is a craft night and a morning tea and swap each month. Recently cooking classes have been started as well. At our last workshop we learned how to make a sour dough starter as well as cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese.

 

 

 

 

Sour dough starters

 

 

We saw milk, citric acid and rennet turn from this ...

 

 

to this....

to this and ready to eat!

 

 

A loaf of sour dough bread had been baked beforehand so we were able to try the fresh mozzarella cheese on the bread and it was great. I plan to get my sour dough starter going in the next few days and will be buying some cheese making supplies from Green Living Australia so that I can experiment with making different types of cheese. More information about this workshop and the sour dough bread recipe can be found on Simple Living Toowoomba .

 

 

This Saturday, 8th June, we will be having our monthly morning tea and swap and there will be a Finnish Sima (lemon drink) and pulla (cinnamon rolls) demonstration so it should be an interesting morning. It is a good opportunity to share ideas with like-minded people and everyone is welcome to join the group if you live in Toowoomba and surrounding areas.

..........................