MAY (3)

This week I have been busily dehydrating Pecan nut kernels and chillies. In other words, I am drying them as a way of preserving them.

Bird’s eye chillies

More than a year ago when the Decker family were assisting us, Zachary planted the seed of some Bird’s eye chillies, which I had never previously grown. These chillies are a variety of the species Capsicum frutescens and have spread widely across South-East Asia, where they’ve become a staple ingredient in many dishes. Tabasco chillies are close relatives of the Bird’s eye and are well-known in North America for the famous sauce of the same name. Zachary nursed his seedling plants through the winter of 2012 and planted them out in one of my raised garden beds in the spring months. There they thrived!

Bird's eye chili bushes

What am I going to do with so many chillies? I only use 3-5 such chillies in my home made tomato sauce.

• TOMATO SAUCE

• 6kg ripe tomatoes
• 4 apples
• 4 onions, peeled
• 500g sugar
• 250g salt
• 3-5 chillies
• 1 teaspoon ground mace
• 12 cloves
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 cups vinegar
• If you have a juicer, it is quicker to reduce the tomatoes apples and onions to a pulp. Otherwise, slice ripe tomatoes into a large pot and add the apples and onions cut up roughly.  Add other ingredients, simmer 2 hours and then rub through sieve. Bottle while hot.

Read the rest of this entry »

MAY (2)

The winter frosts have begun, about three weeks later than the average for this district. Now the wonderful display of autumn colours is coming to an end as the trees drop their leaves. At the same time the green tips of the spring flowering jonquils and snowbells are poking up through the ground.

As I get older and my trees grow taller I have recognised the need to employ men to prune and reshape my bigger trees. This year I have employed Peter Gill an arborist to use chainsaws and loppers to reduce the height of several large trees, including the two Pecan nut trees I planted about 1994. Anyone living here on the Granite Belt can contact Peter by telephone or email him on pete2gill@gmail.com

Peter Gill contact details

Two large Pecan nut trees

Peter began by reducing the length of the branches of the ornamental, flowering-peach tree at the front of these two big trees, which had been obliged to grow lanky in their shade.

Peter begins

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MAY (1)

The wonderfully pleasant weather has continued here at Glen Aplin now for more than three months, beginning with a remarkably cool end to Summer in the month of February followed by a glorious Autumn. Normally we would have experienced out first cutting frost about the third week of April but this hasn’t yet occurred. Possibly the reason is that we have not yet changed to a winter weather pattern and haven’t measured any rain during the last three weeks. Throughout the winter season the old timers will always be heard muttering when rain falls, “It’s gonna get cold after this clears.”

The cooler than usual end to summer, plus cool nights and warm days during autumn have resulted in a splendid display of autumn colours this year.

Our garden colours

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APRIL (3)

As summer ends it is time to tidy up the garden and mulch it down for the winter months. Although I maintain a few herbs during the winter I choose not to grow any vegetables at that time, but to rest my soil. It would be possible to grow plants like turnips, cabbage, broccoli and onions, but I will be away from here holidaying in Hong Kong and the Shaanxi Province of China during the month of June. So, I will fallow my soil and then in September-October begin planting summer vegetables.

Flowers are a different matter. I heard this morning from a friend in Ontario, Canada that her daffodils were poking through the snow. Here I have jonquils poking their green shoots through the straw mulch. My daffodils will follow in July. Much of my extensive garden is under-planted with bulbs and perennials, but each year I also plant out annuals to flower in the spring. Thus I have already put out seedlings of foxgloves, cornflowers and Iceland poppies.

During this busy period before I go away in June I have been fortunate to acquire the help of two young men from Taiwan via the HelpX website. I registered on site as a Premium Host for only $15.00 which allowed me to leave photographs, references, plus a statement about the work and conditions I was offering. Then a number of young International travellers applied to me via email giving their resume. I could check their details on the HelpX site and see their photographs. Then, when I had confirmed my arrangements I could drop my host listing off the site so I would not be bothered by ongoing requests.

Help Exchange work for accommodation and food in Australia New …

Thus these two young men from Taiwan arrived here this week and began work on Friday. They have chosen to be called Hans and Laurence.

Hans and Laurence

I was impressed when I noted that they had come prepared with strong, leather boots. Read the rest of this entry »

MARCH (2)

Since the WET season began for Queensland with cyclone Oswald in the far north and then repeated flooding down the coastal regions of Queensland and New South Wales we have had six weeks of cool and misty weather.

In Stanthorpe yesterday I was asked, “Aren’t you sick of this wet weather?”

“No,” I replied, “My garden is flourishing, the river is flowing, my dams are full, but best of all the weather is pleasantly cool. It is like English weather.”

There has been no serious flooding in this mountainous region, but we have felt the effect of the floods due to the amount of heavy traffic that was obliged to travel between Sydney and Brisbane via the New England Highway because the Pacific Highway was closed. All day and night the trucks, semi-trailers and B-Doubles roar through Glen Aplin. This would only be a temporary nuisance except for the fact these heavy traffic vehicles and the wet conditions combine to destroy the surface of our roads. I drove over to Warwick twice this week and have never seen our highway in worse condition – rough and potholed. I shouldn’t whinge. At least our roads are still traffic-able.

Australian cloud map

I went to the Bureau of Meteorology web site this morning to copy the above cloud map for Australia. Our location is within that dip close to the Queensland/New South Wales border. The big white blob in the Coral Sea is Cyclone Sandra. It is hoped that she will stay away from the Australian coast. But, the winds south of Sandra are blowing cool, moist clouds over the Great Dividing Range.

I then took two photographs to show how this is effecting our location. Read the rest of this entry »

THE CHICKEN TRACTOR

It would be hard to believe that spring is here if it were not for the wattle blooming on the hillsides and along our length of the Severn River, as we are till enduring minus 3C frosts each morning. It was a miserable winter with bleak cloudy days in June and July that ended with dry days and freezing nights in August. We measured our last rain 45 days ago and the river level has dropped about a metre below the bank. Late this evening I photographed the boys casting lures in the hope of catching fish.

Severn River fishing

Last summer Steve asked if his family could grow a crop of sweet corn on our land and then employed a neighbour to bring in his machinery to break up some new ground for a vegetable patch. From July 2010 to July 2012 we have enjoyed the best two years that I have known since we moved to this region in 1992. They were what are commonly called La Nina years (wet seasons) but it now appears we are entering again a familiar El Nino year when there is less chance of regular rainfall.

Sweet Corn crop

The sweet corn was picked, much was sold as fresh organic corn, some was eaten and the balance cooked, cut from the cob and frozen for future meals. In April the neighbour returned with his machinery and mulched the corn stalks. Since then the field has remained fallow.

Corn stubble

It is our intention this year to utilize this ground as our main vegetable garden, planting a section each month. Steve asked me if I knew about chicken tractors? Then he offered to build a chicken tractor. I knew them to be a chicken coop that is moved about with the purpose of allowing the free range chickens to cultivate the soil. Steve constructed a chicken coop using all recycled material.

Pine Pallet

Sheeting

Firstly the boys were put to work dismantling the pallets with sheeting which could later be used for walls. For several days we heard them at work hammering as Steve used this as a manual arts lesson, instructing his sons on the correct use of saws and hammers.

Slatted floor

The boys positioned the slats between the floor boards of the chosen pallet.

Chicken house closed

Chicken house gets a roof

Front door

As you can see from the above photos this luxurious chicken coop has a wire netting window, slatted floors to allow manure to drop through to the ground below, a nesting box with a lid we can lift to gather the eggs, a small side door above the grain feeder tray, a roost and a large front door that can be latched open to allow the hens access to free range scratching.

Free range chicken

The chicken coop was shifted onto the proposed summer vegetable garden, a section fenced, 10 hens bought and installed in their secure premises. No fox will be able to penetrate their home when they are roosting at night.

Secure hens

As they were already laying hens when purchased, we and the family have been able to enjoy fresh eggs from happy hens.

Healthy Hens

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

I grew up on farms where we always had hens and ducks. Again as I reared my children we were never without poultry pens. Then when Eberhard and I moved to live at Glen Aplin on the Granite Belt we decided to breed geese to serve to our Bed and Breakfast guests as German style Christmas dinners. There are quite a few anecdotes about our poultry in my book Wildflowers, Wilderness and Wine like the time we had been showing our flock to guests. I said, “We had better let the geese go.”

“No,” Eberhard replied. “They might want to sit on the veranda and have another cup of coffee.”

My hard of hearing husband had thought I said guests, not geese.

FIRE AS A TOOL

I grew up on a cattle property in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains north of Dalby in Queensland, where it was my father’s custom to burn off the old dry grass every spring prior to expected rain. Thus as children my sisters and I learned to light fires and, if necessary, to fight fires to keep them under control. We saw fire as a useful tool, but today many people fear fires due to the devastating bush-fires of recent years.

Ever since moving to the Granite Belt in 1992 we have made it a practice to burn off our grass land towards the end of winter to prevent a possible spring bushfire. At this time of year the air is cold and the ground damp so fires are more easily controlled than later when warm weather arrives. An account of the worst bushfire I have seen in our district is given in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. That year the fire occurred in October when a strong Westerly wind brought down a wooden power pole on private land and grass was ignited. With a strong wind behind it the fire roared through the dry grass, crowned into the leaves of the eucalyptus trees, jumped the highway and sped through the ravines and across the hills to the east of us, destroying homes and taking the life of one woman. That night the same fire came upriver towards us barely kept under control by the volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, commonly known as ‘Bushies’. It was these men who decided the next day that because we had kept the land near our home clear that they should burn back from there to meet the fire. They were using fire as a tool to fight fire.

Also recounted in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine is the history of our friendship with Nick and Mary Jane Hese who first came to Das Helwig Haus B&B as guests in 1994. They became firm friends who offered us their assistance and knowing that Nick’s occupation was as a professional firefighter I enlisted his help the following August to burn our firebreaks. That day he arrived on his motor bike with his leather jacket sprinkled with snow. As not enough snow fell to wet the ground we were able to burn the land the next afternoon.

You will also find in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine an account of how Nick and Mary Jane later purchased their own land here on the Granite Belt where they often spend weekends. Once more Nick came this weekend to assist me with our burn-back.

Nick has lit the first fire

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A WINTER WEEK

Vivian and Giles have now left me to continue their Australian travels in the sunny north of Queensland, but before leaving here Giles experienced our coldest morning since 2007 when we measured -8°C here at Glen Aplin on Tuesday 12th July. The Granite Belt of southern Queensland is the coldest district in the State which ensures that we truly experience all four seasons of the year. It is also the busiest tourism season of the year when weekend visitors from Brisbane arrive – not to feel the cold, but to experience the ambience of wood fires and hot Christmas in July dinners.

Wood smoke

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AN ABUNDANCE OF SAP 3

A number of times friends have said to me, “I don’t know how you do it all!”

My response had frequently been, “With difficulty.”

In April I realized that I had to take some time off for respite and flew to Hong Kong where I spent the next four weeks enjoying this view.

Refreshed, I returned, with added zest and am now preparing to spend three days at FARMFEST near Toowoomba. See www.farmfest.com.au

Sunrise over Kowloon Harbour

Initially I booked a stall site at Farmfest to promote my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine because a couple of years ago I had observed Jame McClean promoting his book When Bloods Enough at Farmfest.   Jame writes blood, guts and sex thrillers and he promotes himself as a Queensland outback author under the slogan ‘The Bush Fights Back’. Although the Granite Belt is hardly in the outback, we are in the bush and I believe my style of writing will also appeal to a country readership.

Jame McLean - The bush fights back

I then decided to take my SAP products along to test the market for them within this rural community. While I have had great sales selling packets of SAP crystals at market stands for use by home gardeners, there is the possibility of a much larger market for these water solubable crystals in agricultural use.

Boxed crystals

They are now widely used in agriculture in China. Farmers are incorporating the dry crystals into their soil before planting crops, like these tobacco crops I photographed in China. The couple of workers in the distance were watering individual plants, giving each one a cup of water. The gel absorbed this water and helped the plants get off to a thriving start. Then, the seasonal rains came and soaked the field. Any dry crystals absorbed the water ensuring continued moisture for the tobacco plants.

Tobacco crops in China

One of the questions I have frequently been asked at the local markets is, “What happens when the ground is waterlogged by too much rain?” I answer, “The gel absorbs water and expands, floating in the soil and preventing compaction of the soil, thus allowing the roots of plants  to breathe.”

This year I decided that I would create my own example of using the SAP in an agricultural situation, by incorporating it into the soil of The Remembrance Field. Prior to leaving for Hong Kong in April I had sprayed the immerging weeds on this field, but due to our wonderful, regular autumn rain and cool nights, the Flanders poppies germinated by the thousands. Too early! I saw this greening of the field as an opportunity. With the arrival of a Wwoofer – Willing Workers on Organic Farms -  I decided that he would plough in this crop of early poppies as a green manure crop. His name is Brad Ariss and he comes from Parry Sound in Canada. Firstly, Brad broadcast dolomite and water soluable gel across the swath of green poppy plants.

Brad broadcasting dolomite and SAP

Brad cultivating The Remembrance Field

Next he used our little Honda tiller to turn over the soil. When he had turned over the soil from east to west, he worked the field from south to north, thus incorporating the broadcast dolomite and SAP. Next time it rains the SAP will absorb moisture and retain moisture in our friable decomposed granite soil. Dolomite is not a fertilizer – it is a soil conditioner, which will ensure the rapid breakdown of the green manure crop.

When I advised my son, who had supplied me with a tonne of SAP from China of my intention to display and sell this product at Farmfest, he spoke to the salesman at the Chinese company from which he had sourced the product. He sent me this email today.

Hi Mum,

The factory is pretty excited you are going to Farmfest!

He attached this  correspondence

Subject: Re: Water Absorbing Crystal Polymer
Hi,

Thanks a lot for your email and info, message well noted, we wish you a fruitful show at Farmfest, and we await for your further instruction.   Let’s keep in touch. We will work closely and support you fully.We look forward to a successful partnership.

Should you have any further questions, pls. feel free to contact me.
Have a nice day
Kind Regards
Colin Yung
Manager

Now what did I say at the beginning of this post?  Yes, I had had to leave home for a month of respite.  No, at 71 years of age I don’t want to become an entrepreneurial saleswoman. So what is the solution. While selling SAP at Farmfest I am going to ask for distributors who will share my dream. With assistance from my son based in China I will continue to purchase SAP in its various forms by the tonne and then offer this in smaller quatities to distributors. I’ve had flyers printed to hand out at Farmfest saying:-

WATER BEADS OR WATER CRYSTALS
These beads and crystals are created from water-absorbing polyacrylamide.
They have a proven lifespan of 2 years in direct sunlight or 4-5 years when mixed with soil.
They have the capacity to absorb up to 400 times their weight in water.
Polyacrylamide is 100% non-toxic and biodegradable.
HOUSE AND GARDEN
Mix crystals into garden soil, water the soil and then plant out seedlings.
Mix crystals into potting mix before filling pots.
Use to start and grow indoor Wheatgrass or Herb Gardens.
These crystals can reduce watering frequency by up to 75%.
They promote faster seed germination by keeping the root zone moist.
DECORATIVE
Water beads work great with candles and fresh flower arrangements.
Freeze water beads for chilling wines or champagne.
Water beads can be used without soil in pots holding water-loving plants like Bamboo, Arrowhead, Chinese Evergreen, Dracaena, Peace Lily, Red Prayer Plant, Philodendron, Dieffenbachia, Spider Plant and Ivy cuttings.
FARM
Crystals may be lightly spread on cultivated soil. When mixed into the soil they hold nitrates, phosphates, potassium, iron, zinc, boron and other elements next to the roots of plants, thus reducing the leaching of these elements into ground water. Research has shown that the beads attract the bacteria and microorganisms essential to plant growth.
Crystals in dry weather extend the time that moisture is stored in the soil.
Crystals in wet weather absorb additional water and float within the soil, thus preventing compaction.
RETAIL DISTRIBUTORS WANTED
e.mail: helwig@halenet.com.au Mobile: 0439 390 863

So if you are amongst the thousands who will visit Farmfest this year- Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th June – do drop in to chat with me in the Lifestyle Shopping Arcade.

I will close this post by including a gallery of photographs of how I have used the water soluable crystals and decorative beads in my home.

Selected glass containers.

Flowers stand upright in SAP gel

With no smelly water to change, flowers last longer.

Homemade candles sitting in red beads, green beads and clear crystals.

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

I will be there at Farmfest next week to autograph copies of Wildflowers, wilderness and wine for my readers. For a quick preview of what this book reveals see http://www.australia-book.com.au

AN ABUNDANCE OF RAIN

Yes, from July 2010 until about three weeks ago we had an abundance of rain. Until the January floods the weather was almost perfect for gardening.  For six months I didn’t need to irrigate my garden, because every week we would get enough rain – nice steady soaking rain, not storms with damaging winds and heavy rain. I’ll probably never enjoy such a period again, but it was great while it lasted.

After the floods the sun has shone brightly, which was wonderful for the farmers of the Granite Belt. They had plenty of stored water for irrigation, but what their crops needed was hot, sunny days to ripen and sweeten their fruit. Even when Tropical Cyclone Yasi roared in across north Queensland the sun continued to pour its heat down upon our district. The grass had grown madly after all the rain and now it has gone to seed and is rapidly browning off.

Glen Aplin valley view

This photo shows a view  from our farm to the ridge on the other side of the Glen Aplin valley, but only two weeks previously the grass country beside the river had been under flood water. Read the rest of this entry »