Date, cocoa and seed bars

Date, cocoa and seed bars

These bars are delicious and a favourite of my husbands, they are so easy to make and a good little energy snack with no refined cane sugar. Perfect for when you want something sweet. You can put whatever nuts and seeds in you like, same with the spices too. I just love chocolate and orange together with a little cardamon, Yum!

Date, cocoa and seed bars

270g dates

4 T or 40g coconut oil

4 T dutch good quality cocoa ( you could probably use cacao powder too)

1-2 T maple syrup or honey 

1/2 tsp ground cardamon or cinnamon

zest one orange - optional

3-4 T ground linseed

1/4 tsp flaky salt

100g sunflower seeds

50g pumpkin seeds

30g linseed

50g coconut flakes

Almonds and hazelnuts are also nice - just substitute some of the seeds out - use no more than 250g total

Roast the sunflower, pumpkin and coconut until  lightly browned and well roast any nuts you are using. Cool. Chop the nuts roughly if using.

Place top 8 ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until the dates are a paste.

Transfer into a bowl. Add toasted seeds and linseeds

Mix well until all ingredients are combined

Press into a lined tin, it holds it shape well so press to whatever thickness you like. You could roll into balls too and into cocoa if you wish.

Makes about 20 bars

Would freeze well if they last that long!

Buttermilk and Date scones

I had some buttermilk left in my fridge from making the Salted Caramel Almond Cake so here is a perfect way to use it up. This recipe makes 12 large scones.

12 scones may be a lot when there is only two of you...The best thing about scones is that rather than cooking a whole batch you can freeze the uncooked scones to bake at a later date. I just clear the ice trays from the top rack, lay out some baking paper and place the remaining scones on the paper in the freezer. Leave them overnight and then when they are frozen you can wrap them in cling film or place them in ziplock bags.

When you happen to feel like a freshly baked scone you can just leave them at room temperature for 5 minutes, pop them in the oven and cook them for an extra five minutes and boom! Freshly baked scones straight from your freezer!  It has seriously changed my life.

Buttermilk and Date Scones
300g dates, chopped in half
680g flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
100g white sugar or coconut sugar
1 1/2 tsp flaky salt
255g unsalted very cold butter
375ml buttermilk plus extra for topping

Topping
2 T extra buttermilk
raw sugar or coconut sugar for sprinkling

First, chop your dates in half and cover with boiling water and leave for 10 or so minutes to soften.

While the dates are softening, sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the salt and stir to combine. Cut the butter into small dice or grate the butter into the bowl. I usually use the tips of my fingers to rub in the butter but you could use a pasty cutter or two knives or even do it gently in the food processor or a stand mixer. You want to end up with a coarse mixture with visible pea sized lumps of butter.

Strain the dates well and add the dates and buttermilk to your dry mixture.
If you were using a stand mixer here I would gently 3/4 incorporate the wet mix and then tip it on the bench and continue by hand. If you used a food processor I would now tip it in to a large bowl and do the next part by hand. What ever you do you want to gently mix the wet ingredients in and not over work them, if the mix seems a little dry add a  touch more buttermilk.

Quickly and gently shape your dough into a 30cm by 12cm rectangle, Brush the top with the extra buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Cut the dough into triangles and transfer the amount you want to cook onto a prepared baking sheet.

Bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes until the tops are lightly brown.
Serve still warm with good amounts of butter

Makes 12

Lemony rice pudding with poached tamarillos

This is the rice pudding to convert all rice pudding haters. It is rich and lemony and the strips of peel melt down and you get a lemon hit when you bite one. This recipe is an adapted Jane Grigson recipe and you can serve it with anything you like. I have done it with slow roasted quince and poached rhubarb before. Its nice with fruit with a bit of tartness to cut through the rich rice. My mum requested this for Mother's day dessert and she loved it.


Lemony rice pudding
50g short grain rice
300mls milk
300mls cream
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon

Peel the lemon thinly, taking off strips with a vegetable peeler. Put rice, lemon peel, sugar, butter, milk and cream into an ovenproof dish. Cover with tin foil and cook in a very slow oven, 125°C, for 2-3 hours until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and it looks deliciously creamy. Stir it every 3/4 hour.

When the pudding is done, give it a good stir and add the juice from the lemon and some more cream or milk if it is too solid. I cooked the pudding for 2 1/2 hours and then let it rest in a warm place for about half and hour, it only need a little of milk to loosen it up.

Poached tamarillos
8 tamarillos
2 cup water
1 cup sugar
Zest of  one oranges and lemon
1 cinnamon quill
1 star anise 

Meanwhile you can get on to your tamarillos. You can do these ahead and then gently reheat them when your pudding is ready.
Put a small pot of water on to boil. Score the bottoms of the tamarillos with a cross and when the water has boiled blanch them in boiling water for about 10-15 seconds. You can leave them in a little longer if they aren't the ripest. After about 10 seconds, scoop them out and plunge them into iced water. When cool, starting at the scored end carefully peel them and set aside.

Place the water, sugar, zest, cinnamon and star anise in a saucepan and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Add in the peeled tamarillos and bring to a simmer and gently cook them for 10-15 minutes.


To serve...
100g almonds - roasted and roughly chopped
Extra cream or yoghurt if you like

When your rice pudding is nearly ready, bring your tamarillos back up to temperature.
Spoon the rice puddings into bowls and top with the tamarillos and with a little extra syrup, sprinkle over the chopped almonds and serve.

Salted caramel almond cake

Salted caramel almond cake

I originally saw this recipe online here and saved it as I thought it looked so delicious. I have only slightly adapted it, changing the cooking method and adding salt. I would definitely make again and might change the cake a bit to make it chocolate or add some orange zest into it as I think that would be nice.

For the cake: 
75 ml buttermilk
75g unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
150g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

For the topping: 
150g flaked almonds 
125g butter 
125g light brown sugar 
50ml milk 
1/2 tsp sea salt 
1/2 tsp vanilla 
Extra good quality flaky salt to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 160 degrees

Grease a 9" or 22cm round tin (preferably with a removable bottom) and line the bottom and sides with baking paper. 

Roast the sliced almonds  in a oven tray for 5-10 minutes until they're a light golden brown, then set aside.

Melt the butter for the cake in a saucepan and leave to cool.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together on medium-high for 5 minutes or until the mixture is a yellowy-cream colour and very thick. While it whisks, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. 
When the eggs are thick remove the bowl from the stand and sieve 1/2 the  flour mixture into the egg mix, folding it in gently and alternating with the buttermilk. When the flour is nearly mixed in, gently fold in the cooled melted butter  Be gentle but thorough, scraping down to the bottom and making sure to get out the little pockets of flour. You don't want to remove all the air you created at the start.

Carefully pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 22-30 minutes until golden and set - a skewer or small knife should be able to be removed cleanly.
Meanwhile start making the topping. Place the butter, sugar, milk, salt into the saucepan and stir as the butter melts. Keep on a low heat until your cake is nearly done. When your cake is out quickly turn up the heat to high and let the mix bubble and thicken slightly. Pour in the toasted almonds and cook for a further 2 minutes

Turn the oven up to 200 degrees and onto grill. Move the over rack up a notch so that the top of the cake will be closer to the grill. Make sure there isn't any baking paper sticking out to high as it will burn.

Pour the almond caramel mixture on to the cake and working quickly spread the  nutty caramel out evenly and place it under the grill. Don't walk away! Watch the topping carefully, you want a bubbly and golden caramel topping. I think I had mine under the grill for 2-3 minutes.

Carefully remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool. At this point you can sprinkle on extra flaky salt which I would definitely recommend! After 30 minutes loosen the sides of the tin with a knife if necessary and remove the ring. You cake wait a bit longer to do this if you aren't worried about it coming out

When the cake had cooled to room temperature transfer it on to a serving plate. My bet is that it won't last long!

The first time I made this cake I made the recipe by three and it filled a 12' round tin nicely and only took 30 minutes to cook. It had a great ratio of caramelly almond deliciousness to cake.

Best Baked Potato Ever

I had a craving for baked potatoes last night for tea but also wanted something healthy. Not something layered with sour cream, bacon and cheese. So after searching our cupboards this is what I came up with. It was delicious, and had a fab texture. Best of all we were left full but feeling fresh and healthy.
I have added fish and chicken stock to this recipe but you could easily replace or remove these to make a vegetarian version, and, remove the cheese to create a vegan dish.

Ingredients

Large potatoes

frozen corn

sprouted legumes

splash of chicken stock

anchovies, cut up

cracked black pepper

baby spinach

chia seeds

roast walnuts

avocado

goats cheese/feta/quark

I haven't added amounts to the ingredients - it really just depends on how many people you are going to feed and how hungry you are feeling.

Bake the potatoes whole in a hot oven.

When the potatoes are pretty much cooked heat up a frying pan on the stove. The filling takes less than 5mins to cook.

Place the frozen corn in the pan, let it thaw and allow the pan to become hot again.

Add the legumes, a splash of chicken stock, anchovies and black pepper.

Stir until slightly heated through.

Add the baby spinach. Stir until wilted.

Add the rest of the ingredients, other than the cheese, and stir to combine.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and slice open.

Place the filling on top of the potatoes.

Top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Grampians Grape Escape

We were lucky enough last week to go away for the weekend and attend the 23rd Grampians Grape Escape. And what a brilliant weekend!!!
The Grampians is a small, western, regional area of Victoria, Australia. It has spectacular scenery, unbelievable amounts of wildlife and some fantastic outdoor activities. Besides the festival we often make camping trips to the area - its just such a nice, peaceful area to go and relax. This time we stayed in a little cottage and the photo below shows what we woke up in to in the morning. Pretty much where ever you go in the Grampians you get a similar view.

The view from our kitchen window

The Grampians - the festival is held at the base of the Mountain

This yearly food and wine festival is an event that aims to showcase all of the local food and wine in the area.
The quality of the food and wine is incredible and so unbelievably cheap. Tickets were $45. That got you into the festival (both days), a free wine glass, and as many wine and food tastings as you want! Furthermore, all the produce was so cheap to buy. Straight from the owners too!
For two days we gorged ourselves on wine, beer, cider, cheese, desserts, honey, sweets, chocolate, etc, etc. I have never eaten so much!
We discovered some amazing local produce that I will definitely hunt out again. I discovered new products to use in cooking. And had such a fun time.
We came home with  blue cheese, buffalo cheese, brie, quark, tea, cider, beer, wine, bee pollen, chocolate, pork scratchings, and, many new places to shop.
Along side all of this they have cooking demonstrations, music, wine tasting sessions, guest speakers and much more.
They do this festival every year and I cannot recommend it enough. One thing I would say if you are going to go - is book accommodation early. I think every speck of accommodation was used over the weekend!

Egg Success!!!

It has finally happened. After months of patiently checking the coop, talking nicely to the chickens, pleading with the chickens and then finally threatening the chickens - we FINALLY have our first egg!!!!!
Hopefully the first of many!!!! I am SO excited!!

Sweet Chilli Sauce with a Bite.

What to do with sooooo many chillies?????? Make sweet chilli sauce! And you would not believe how simple it is.

Ingredients

Approx 350grams of chillies.

2 garlic cloves

2 1/4 cups of white vinegar

2 1/4 cups of white sugar

Halve about 70grams of chillies and place in a food processor. Halve and deseed the rest of the chillies and place in the food processor. If you want a bit more bite add more chillies with seeds, if you want less bite deseed more of the chillies.

Add garlic and 3/4 cup of the white vinegar to the food processor with the chillies.

Process until you have little flecks of chillies but not a liquid or paste.

Place the chilli mixture, the rest of the vinegar and the sugar into a saucepan on a low heat.

Heat and continuously stir the mixture for 5minutes until the sugar dissolves.

Increase heat and bring the mixture to a boil.

Once boiling turn down the heat and simmer for approximately 30-40minutes until you get a slightly syrupy consistency.

Pour liquid into sterilised bottles or jars.

I find the best way to sterilise glass bottles of jars is to wash them in warm water. Then place the jars in an oven preheated to 100 degrees celsius until they are dry. The rule is that if you want to put warm mixture into a jar the jar must be warm. If you want to put cold mixture into the jar you must let the jar cool to room temperature. Otherwise you will have to deal with exploding glass which is never fun! 

All that is left is to do is enjoy the sauce with some dim sims!

Easy Peasy Crusty Bread!

Home made bread is just the best!!! The smell and the taste of warm bread cannot be beaten. We try and make our own bread as often as possible. Every now and then our lives get too busy and we get too lazy and we have to buy a loaf. Every time we buy a loaf we are disappointed and quickly remember how much better home made bread is. Also, it always slightly grosses me out how much longer shop bread lasts compared to homemade bread. It really must be full of some pretty nasty preservatives.
This recipe is so easy. I make it using a dough hook with my mixer but apparently you can you use a food processor as well.

Ingredients

18g of fresh yeast (a must!)

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 tablespoon of white sugar

1 tablespoon of olive oil

700g of flour - we usually use wholemeal but any flour will do

extra olive oil

sea salt flakes

Break the yeast up into crumbly little bits and place in a bowl with 500mls of lukewarm water.

Whisk the mixture until the yeast has dissolved.

Add the salt, sugar and olive oil and mix.

Leave for about 30minutes or until the watery mixture starts to bubble.

Add the flour and place in the mixer or food processor.

Mix dough for 12minutes.

Turn of the machine and let the dough rest for 5minutes.

Mix dough again for 5minutes.

Remove dough, place in a bowl, cover with gladwrap and leave to rise for approximately 30minutes.

Turn the oven on at 230 degrees. 

On a floured surface briefly kneed and shape the dough into a round or loaf or whatever shape you like. 

Place a little bit of olive oil in your hands and rub it all over the dough so that all of the dough is covered and therefore sealed.

Place dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place in a warm spot and allow to rise again for 20-30minutes (or until the oven is warm enough).

Drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and place it in the oven.

Bake for 30minutes.

Allow to cool.

Enjoy!

More Chickens To Complete Our Little Brood

We have added 3 more chickens to our brood. They are Silkie cross Frizzle bantams and they are gorgeous. I'm totally in love.
Bantams are very cute, look a little bit odd with lots of fluffy bits, and, are very good natured chickens. Our ones were hand reared from birth so they are extra friendly.
Bantams aren't huge layers but will still pop out about 100 eggs a year once they get going. Often their eggs are a blue/green colour too - just to add to their cuteness.
After a little bit of scrapping between the bigger hens - Florence, Ivy, Vader, Cath and Belle all seem to be the best of friends.
Above they are enjoying their favourite afternoon snack of watermelon.
However, none of them have started laying yet!!!

Fish and Chips with a Twist

We have unbelievable amounts of eggplants in our garden at the moment and are running out of ideas of what to do with them! One night both me and my partner were craving fish and chips but we are on a bit of health kick. Previously we had tried eggplant chips at a local restaurant - they tasted fantastic. This gave us the idea of fish and chips with a healthy twist.
I will separate this recipe out into the fish and the chips. PS the chips alone with some home made chilli aioli are the best snack ever!

Steamed Fish in a Paper Parcel

Now there is some fancy french word for cooking things in a paper parcel - I can't remember what it is and I think 'paper parcel' sounds cuter.

x1 piece salmon per person
any flavours you want
salt & pepper
a knob of butter or a drizzle of olive oil
baking paper and cooking twine

Rip off a piece of baking paper that will be big enough to envelope the fish and flavourings. Place the fish in the middle of the paper. Drizzle the olive oil or place a knob of butter on top of the fish. Place the flavourings, salt and pepper on top. It should look something like this...

Bring the two long ends of the baking paper together and then fold down towards the fish. Twist the other two ends around and tie with the twine. Each piece of fish should look like a bon bon.

You now have two options you can either place the little parcels in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10-15mins depending on how big your fish is, or, you can place them in a steamer over boiling water for about 8-10mins - again depending on how big your fish is.

The little paper parcel will steam your fish and the liquid from the fish and olive oil/butter will make a delicious sauce!

Eggplant Chips

Eggplants cut into strips

egg, beaten

flour

panko bread crumbs

pepper

mixed herbs

parmesan, grated

Preheat the oven to 200degrees.

Mix together the panko bread crumbs, pepper, mixed herbs and parmesan. It doesn't matter about quantities just put as much as you feel like. I don't think you will need salt as the panko breadcrumbs are quite salty. It is important to use panko breadcrumbs rather than normal breadcrumbs as the panko breadcrumbs give a far better texture. You will find panko breadcrumbs in the Asian section of the supermarket.

You will need to make a little working station now. Line up your flour, eggs, breadcrumb mix and lastly a baking paper lined tray. Dip your eggplant in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumb mix. Lay them out on the try. This gets VERY messy.

Once complete pop them in the oven for 20-30mins until golden and crispy. Yum!

Summer Tomato, Basil and Feta Salad

After a slow start our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. You can not beat home grown tomatoes - they just taste and smell incredible. A tip I have been told  is to not put tomatoes in the fridge as they loose their flavour. I'm not too sure how scientifically based this is but through trial and error this seems to be true.

The best salad I have come across to accentuate the tomato flavour is also one of the easiest and tastiest salads I make. This is the salad that we take 10mins to make, take to everyBBQ and get the most comments about. You can adjust the amounts of ingredients according to the amount of tomatoes you have.

Summer Tomato, Basil and Feta Salad

approximately 1kg of tomatoes - we used a mixture of our own and some fancy heirloom cherry tomatoes from the grocery store

zest of 1 lemon

handful of basil leaves

enough olive oil to coat the tomatoes

salt and pepper

approximately 200g of feta

Chop the tomatoes as chunky or as fine as you would like. Place in your salad bowl. Add the lemon zest. Coat the tomatoes and lemon zest with the olive oil. Mix in salt, pepper and basil. Top with crumbled feta.

Its also the perfect salad for a summer picnic!

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

Today we went strawberry picking at the local orchard just up the road. Its one of those things that is so close and easy that you often forget to do it! With such a perfectly sunny day we had no excuse not to go today.
The orchard is beautiful and you can pick all sorts of fruit there - but today strawberries were our target.

The Local Orchard

The strawberries have been a bit hammered lately by the crazy, hot weather we are having at the moment in Melbourne. But despite that they are still juicy, sweet and full of flavour. Not to mention they are cheap as chips!

Strawberries!!

So what to do with so many strawberries - something that highlights their delicious flavour. 

Below is a very easy summer berry tart. You can substitute the berries for any berries.

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

x2 sheets of pre-rolled puff pastry

1 egg white

1T caster sugar

1 punnet of raspberries

an equal amount of strawberries (or a bit more if you want to load the tart up!)

1T icing sugar

1cup sour cream

1/4 cup cream

1/3 cup brown sugar

mint for garnish

Preheat oven to 200C. Lay x1 sheet of of baking paper on a square of non-stick paper. Cut the other sheet of pastry into 2cm strips. Layer up the strips on all 4 sides of the original sheet of pastry to make edges.

Brush the whole pastry case with egg white. Prick the pastry case base all over with a fork. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30minutes.

Take pastry out of the fridge and sprinkle with the castor sugar.

Place pastry in the oven for approximately 20minutes.

Remove and leave to cool.

Place sour cream, cream and brown sugar into a bowl and mix until smooth.

Place the raspberries and icing sugar into another bowl. Using a fork squash the raspberries until you get a consistency you like. Make sure you mix in all the icing sugar as you go. Slice the strawberries and add to the raspberries.

Place the cream mixture into the pastry case, top with the berry mixture and then place mint on top.

Enjoy!

Smoked Chicken Rice Paper Rolls with Dipping Sauces

This recipe is very similar to the one Jen posted earlier but I thought I would put it up anyway to show you just how easy rice paper rolls are and how you can pretty much put any flavours you want in them. We had some herbs and smoked chicken in the fridge that needed eating, we had carrot and lettuce in the garden, and, some more herbs in the herb barrel which is how I came up with these flavours.

I have also given you two dipping sauces that are super easy to make - these are based on recipes from Annabel Langbein.

 

Smoked Chicken Rice Paper Rolls

100g fine vermicelli noodles

a handful of lettuce leaves, shredded (we used cos lettuce but it really doesn't matter)

1 carrot, grated

1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar

2 large handfuls of mint, roughly chopped (some of our vietnamese mint also snuck into the recipe when I accidentally picked it - it's not quite ready for picking yet, but it added a yummy flavour to the mix)

1 small handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped ( you could put more in but I limit the amount as my other half doesn't like coriander so I have to sneak it in where I can)

1 smoked chicken breast, shredded

1 packet of rice paper rounds

Soak the vermicelli for approximately 10minutes in boiling water until tender, then drain.

Mix together the vegetables, herbs and sugar.

When well mixed, add the vermicelli and smoked chicken.

Now you are ready to roll. The best way to roll is to be organised and set up everything before you start.

I place a damp cloth down on the bench which you can use to place the soaked rice papers on to fill and roll. The damp cloth stops the rice paper sticking to the bench. I also have a fry pan filled with warm water next to me. I find the fry pan works well to dip the rice paper in as the rice paper rounds fit in just nicely.

Place a rice paper round in the warm water, fully dunking it under the water for a few seconds. 

Place the rice paper round on the damp cloth.

Wait for about 30 seconds - you will notice the rice paper round soften over this time, making it easier to roll.

Place some filling in the centre about a 1/3 of the way up the round.

Roll the rice paper up tightly tucking the edges in.

Enjoy!

Peanut Dipping Sauce

3 teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter

2 tablespoons of boiling water

1/4-1/2 cup of sweet chilli sauce

2 teaspoon of fish sauce

2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice

Mix the peanut butter and boiling water together to melt the peanut butter down.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together with the peanut butter mix.

If you want a thicker sauce just add more peanut butter.

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

2 garlic cloves, crushed

a pinch of dried chilli flakes

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!

Meet Florence and Ivy

We have two little friends to add to our suburban farm - Yay! So meet Ivy and Florence. These two are ISA Browns that we picked up at the local farmers and craft market.
ISA Browns are a crossbred chicken that are probably the best layers within the chicken family. They lay approximately 300 eggs per year. They have a bit of a reputation of being a bit high strung and sometimes a bit of a bully. But these two are just the opposite and seem to be best of friends. Both are a bit shy at the moment but are getting tamer every day.
Ivy is a bit of a houdini escaped on the first two days - so both have had a wing clipped now and it seems to have solved the problem.

Ivy

Ivy is the more photogenic of the two. Florence keeps hiding behind Ivy when the camera comes out so below is the best we could get!

Florence

Hopefully our first eggs will follow soon! But they are such fun and interesting pets despite also giving us nice, fresh eggs.

We Are Getting Chickens!

When we shifted into our house it came with the most amazing cubby house. It has sensor lights, electricity, power sockets, everything! We had no use for it but felt it was too good to pull down.
Since then we have made the decision to keep some backyard chickens, so our cubby has now been converted into a chicken coop mansion. I haven't fully pimped out the exterior of our chicken mansion yet so you just get a sneak peak at the moment.

The Chicken Mansion

Both myself and my partner grew up having chickens in the backyard. I clearly remember being horrified when I tasted a store bought egg for the first time - it tasted awful! You can not compare home eggs to store bought eggs. Home eggs are far better in not only taste but also size and yolk colour.

Although we both grew up with chickens and everyone says 'its so easy to keep chickens', this is still a first for myself and my partner. We are super excited but also a bit nervous.

To keep chickens you need a secure coop that keeps animals like foxes out, and, keeps the chickens dry and warm. You also need an outdoor area where you can let the chickens out to scratch and forage during day light hours. You should aim for about 2 square meters of space for each chicken.  You can drop down to 1 square meter per chicken if you are really stuck for space. 

Place your coop in a space where the chickens can get lots of sun but also some shade. Ensure that you have looked up your local council website also. Each council has there own rules and regulations about where you can place a chicken coop and how many chickens you can keep. Generally you cannot keep roosters in residential/urban areas.

Nesting boxes

For 3-4 chickens you need about 4 nesting boxes. We have used shallow plastic containers that we picked up cheaply from Ikea. We then built a wooden frame to slot and secure them into. You then fill the nesting boxes with straw. The straw needs to be changed about once per week. By having these lift out boxes we can just lift out the box and tip the whole lot into the compost - the chicken poo will be fantastic for the compost. Being plastic you can also wash them out easily.

The Perch

Chickens won't sleep in the nesting boxes so you will need a perch. Chickens like sleeping on perches as it makes them feel safe and also keeps them warmer. You should have a flat surface rather than a rounded surface for your perch. The reason for this is that it causes their feet to flatten out, which then causes them to sit on top of their feet and this actually helps keep them warmer. The perch should also be made of wood as the chickens have trouble gripping other materials.

There are varying recommendations as to how high you should have your perch above the ground. I have come to the conclusion that as long as it is higher than your nest boxes and at least 30cm above the ground you should be ok.

Ensure that the perch is not above the nest boxes as your nest boxes will end up full of poo.

We have covered the bottom of the chicken coop with lino and then a layer of straw. The straw provides warmth for the chickens, and, the lino makes it very easy for us to clean the chicken coop.

The completed interior of the mansion.

So now all we need is chickens!!!!