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AN ABUNDANCE OF ZUCCHINIS 1

Every year when I was a child my father cleared a piece of scrub land on our farm at the foot of the Bunya Mountains and burnt off the felled scrub, before planting pumpkins, watermelons and other vegetables in the ashes. Years later he asked me if I knew why these crops flourished? By then I had become the gardening guru in the family. Dad said, that if he merely added ash to a vegetable garden he couldn’t get the same healthy result. I explained that not only was he using fertile soil for the first time, but the heat of the fire had killed all the nasty pathogens in the soil which might have inhibited the growth of his vegetables. This is a method of growing vegetable gardens in tropical countries like Papua New Guinea.

When I was a child we never ate baby vegetables like button squash and zucchini. The Acorn Squash and Marrow, as we called zucchini, were rather despised and tasteless vegetables, best hollowed out and stuffed with a savoury meat mixture. It was only after Eberhard and I moved to live on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland in 1992 that I came to have an appreciation of Mediterranean vegetables like zucchini, eggplant and capsicums. The Granite Belt has a cool mountain climate and many of the farmers here are descendants of earlier Italian immigrants. Each year this district supplies a huge volume of vegetables and fruit to the Brisbane and Sydney markets.

Disaster struck the Granite Belt community on Christmas Day with a huge hail storm that destroyed or damaged many of the vegetable crops as the farmers were about to commence the seasonal picking.

Hail storm over the Granite Belt on Christmas Day 2008

The farmers had two choices. They could slash their damaged plants to the ground, plough the soil and replant, or they could pay workers to strip from the plants and throw away all the damaged vegetables, in the expectation that the bushes and vines would recover and begin bearing produce again. Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANCE OF CHERRIES

For me, cherries have always been associated with Christmas mornings. As a child I left a pillowslip at the end of my bed on Christmas Eve as I recited, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Waking in excitement at the first light of dawn I would peer into the depths of the pillowslip to find the small brown paper packet containing apricots, plums and cherries. Stone fruit were scarce and expensive, but always a Christmas treat.

I knew nothing of Morello cherries, the sour kirsche of Europe, until I married Eberhard. Almost thirty years ago he established one of the first coffee shop restaurants in Toowoomba, which became rightly famous due to his skill as a baker of Continental cakes. In those days it was nothing for him to bake and assemble two large Black Forest Torte every day. In those days he was able to buy 5kg tins of sour kirsche imported from Yugoslavia.

When we moved to the cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt in 1992 and established Das Helwig Haus B&B, one of the first trees I planted was a Morello Cherry tree to enable us to harvest and preserve our own cherries. Like many other Australian fruit eating birds, the Eastern Rosella parrots have flourished since fruit orchards were established on the Granite Belt and now every year farmers set up scare guns to startle the parrots away from their orchards and vineyards, or they shoot hundreds. These birds are not an endangered species and the alternative is costly - to net the crops.

Grape vines covered in bird netting

I did not want my cat,  Patches, hunting the parrots and bringing them to me like trophies. Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANCE OF BERRIES

As November came to an end and December arrived in this cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt, I have dealt with an abundance of mulberries, strawberries and currants, converting these to fruit compotes in Vacola bottling jars, jams and jellies. There is such a huge abundance of Boysenberries each year from my three vines in the garden at Das Helwig Haus that I can’t keep up with the processing and I have learned to save for another day the fruits that I can’t use today by temporarily freezing them.

Frozen Boysenberries

One begins by picking the berries from the vines, which are thorny, and then removing any green husk that comes away with the fruit. When they are harvested and cleaned you must make the decision of what to do next. Freezing is easy, just fill boxes like shown above and place in the freezer. Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANT SUMMER BEGINS.

Is it possible that our Queensland climate could be reverting to the type of summer weather this state hasn’t experienced for two decades? It is shaping up that way with excellent rain on the Granite Belt and a devastating storm hitting Brisbane a few days after my last Red November garden tour. Now my garden is growing like a jungle and the neigbour’s cattle are happily grazing our grass land. The Severn River is flowing and our dams are full.

I set out to take a walk with my camera on Saturday afternoon and met our flock of geese marching home to be penned for the night safe from foxes and other predators. They are always rewarded with a handful of cracked corn to encourage their return, although as a grazing bird their diet consists mainly of grasses and herbage.

Geese coming home.

I was heading down to photograph one of the dams when I began to see the occasional speckle of a white field mushrooms amongst the grass, so promptly returned for a basket and knife. Read the rest of this entry »

PAULA - MY CHEF FOR THREE WEEKS.

It was Eberhard who met the bus from Sydney at Glen Aplin and brought Paula Snow to our home. Paula had contacted me from Boston in the USA and asked if she could come to me as a wwoofer. She had joined the WWOOF organization and discovered that Das Helwig Haus B&B was a host farm prepared to teach organic gardening and cookery skills to young international travelers who were Willing Workers on Organic Farms.

Over coffee, i discovered that she had studied cooking for three years at a culinary school, then worked under a senior chef at an Italian restaurant for two years and then under another senior chef in a  seafood restaurant for a further two years. Both restaurants were situated in the city of Washington.

“What prompted your trip to Australia? I asked.

“My Grandmother died and left me a small legacy on condition that I do something adventurous with the money. After three weeks with you, I’m heading to Cairns to go white water rafting, bungee jumping and scuba diving.”

“And why have you chosen to wwoof with us?”

“I read that you practised self-sufficiency and I want to learn ‘garden to table’ from you.”

Eberhard turned to me and asked, “What are we eating for lunch today?”

I laughed. “I’ve got a cook and a chef in the kitchen and you’re asking me what we will eat? Can’t the two of you work it out?”

Read the rest of this entry »

TWO CITRUS RECIPES

It is 48 years since I married my first husband and moved on to a dairy farm to live. I milked cows morning and evening, boiled water in a copper to wash clothes and cooked on a wood burning stove. The only way to gauge the oven temperature was by putting ones hand in the oven and hazarding a guess. Wood was split to different thicknesses, making it possible to regulate the heat by the quantity or variety of wood being burnt. For slow cooking of dark fruit cakes for Christmas only a small amount of wood was allowed to burn and several thicknesses of stiff brown paper was layered around the mixture in the tin, while other sheets of the same paper were placed over the tin. It was generally considered desirable to have the cake cook 3-4 hours, with testing after 3 hours with a straw from a broom to determine if the mixture was still sticky.

Those were days when men joked that they had bought the Missus a new axe for Mother’s day so she could split her own wood. Read the rest of this entry »

PHILADELPHIA PUMPKIN PIE

NANA’S BISCUIT PASTRY

Australians don’t celebrate Thanks Giving Day, an autumn festival in the USA, but during my farm childhood I frequently ate Gramma Pie, made with trombone shaped gramma pumpkins. Sometimes we just ate gramma with custard for dessert. It was boiled in water until soft, sugar and lemon juice were added and it was mashed before serving. Anyone who has eaten boiled gramma will remember the unique flavour of this form of pumpkin.

My granddaughter, Ashlea McIver, is working in China assisting with the care of handicapped, orphan children in a home where most of the care-givers are from the USA. Ashlea has appealed to me for a Pumpkin Pie recipe that she can make to surprise them for Thanks Giving Day. She says pumpkins are plentiful and inexpensive in the Chinese markets. These Chinese pumpkins may not be the same type as pumpkin as used in the USA, but neither do I use the traditional American pumpkin for this pie.

Fay's homegrown pumpkin

I don’t remember where or from whom I acquired the Philadelphia Pumpkin Pie recipe, but I have always made it using a biscuit pastry the recipe for which was given to me by Ashlea’s Great-grandmother, Eldorene McIver. Nanna, as she was known, seldom made just one pie or tart, so this recipe creates a generous quantity of pastry.

NANA’S SWEET BISCUIT PASTRY

3 cups flour, ½ teaspoon bi-carbonate soda, 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar, 9 tablespoons sugar, 7 tablespoons of butter, 3 eggs

Method: Nana used to make this pastry by sifting the dry ingredients, rubbing in the butter, then adding the beaten eggs.

I find it easier to cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater, add the eggs and then the four sifted with the bi-carbonate soda and Cream of Tartar.

The important thing is not to overwork pastry. As soon as it will bind together form it into a soft ball. Sprinkle sifted flour lightly over your baking sheet, centre the pastry ball, sprinkle with a little more flour and roll out.

If the pastry sticks to your rolling pin, add more flour.

Roll out the pastry

Lift the pastry

If you possess a pastry sheet like this it is very easy to use it to begin rolling the pastry around the rolling pin so it is then possible to lift the pastry up and over your pie plate. Cut away excess pastry with a sharp knife and use a fork to press a decorative edging. This recipe provides sufficient pastry to fill two pie plates and leave some scraps. These can be rolled out again and cut into plain biscuits for the children.

Pastry in the pie plate

Biscuit shapes

SELF-SUFFICIENCY WASTE NOTHING

HOW TO USE GINGER NUT BISCUITS

Although most of the recipes I will provide under the self-sufficiency category will be related to preserving, storing and utilizing produce from my garden, there will be other recipes like the ones I’m including today.

My daughters share my love of food and on a visit for my birthday back in April they decided to show me a quick and easy way to prepare Lemon Cheese Tartlets. For these they needed three ingredients.

• 1 packet of Ginger Nut Biscuits
• 1 jar of lemon butter
• 1 container of cream cheese.

Lemon Cheese tartlet ingredients

For the filling, blend the tub of cream cheese with the jar of lemon butter. Place biscuits in the base of lined patty pans. If they are too large heat 2-3 biscuits at a time in the microwave for about 10 seconds. The heated biscuits are pliable and can be moulded as a tart shell into small pans. Work quickly with the biscuits before they cool and then repeat the process with the next couple of biscuits.

Preparing Lemon Cheese Tartlets

Top the biscuit with the filling, and place the pan in the freezer. Remove from the freezer and garnish with raspberries or other fruits, and dust with icing sugar to serve. To serve our tartlets we decorated them with preserved mulberries and fresh mint leave before dusting with icing sugar.

Lemon Cheese Tartlets as dessert

My daughters say these are great to keep in the freezer for a standby dessert. As a result of their visit a small quantity of the Ginger Nut biscuits were left behind in my pantry. Seeing them there this week and remembering the saying, “Waste not, want not,” I recalled a recipe my mother had given me many years ago, that required Ginger Nut biscuits.

MEATBALLS in GINGER RAISIN SAUCE

• 500g beef mince
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup soft breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 onion finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Pepper
• 6 Ginger Nut biscuits
• 3 cups water
• 2 beef stock cubes
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Combine meat with the next 6 ingredients, using the hand for mixing.
• Shape into 24 small balls.
• Place ginger nuts and water in a pot and bring to boil.
• Stir in beef cubes, sugar, raisins and lemon juice.
• Add meat balls.
• Cook uncovered over low heat for 10 minutes.
• Turn meat balls, spooning sauce over them.
• Cook 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Meatballs in Ginger Raisin Sauce

Because this is a sweet sauce I chose to serve the meatballs with plain boiled rice. If you have left over products in your pantry and want my advice on how to Waste Not, Want Not, please write to me. For many years I have been recognised as ‘A Woman Who Knows Things’.

Although it is the last month of winter, it is not unusual for August to be the coldest month of the year on the Granite Belt. This year, 2008, is not proving to be the exception to the rule with morning temperatures dropping as low as -8°Celsius.
Due to the altitude the Granite Belt it is the coldest district in Queensland. Visitors come here hoping for starry night skies and frosty mornings when the ice will crunch under their feet. They are seldom disappointed.

This is great weather to dine in at Das Helwig Haus on a roast goose dinner. I breed a flock of geese each year and graze them free range on our farm so that when winter comes I can serve a true German style Christmas in July dinner. This is what I like to call “Self Sufficiency at Das Helwig Haus“.
It is sometimes hard for city people to comprehend how food arrives on the shelves of stores or on their restaurant plates, but the reality is that meat animals and birds are bred for the table.
So it is that I breed our own geese and now in August I have already have four mother geese each setting on about a dozen eggs. Ganders make very protective parents once the young are born, but mother geese don’t achieve a high score from a clutch of eggs. I always consider that a fifty percent survival rate is excellent.
Most people think that geese are as savage as watchdogs but I assure them that my geese are shy and will always walk away from people unless they are protecting their young babies.
I always ask our guests not to feed the geese anything like pieces of bread or they could get in the habit of following after people expecting a free hand out. That is why geese in public parks gain a bad reputation for chasing people and pecking them.

Our geese enjoy a great life as free range geese during the daylight hours. They roam all over our farm, grazing on the green grass and swimming on our dams.

Geese are a natural grazing bird, but appreciate a handful of cracked corn in the evenings. This is the lure I use to encourage them to return to their pens, where I feed them prior to closing the doors for the night. Due to the predators like foxes we have to ensure our geese are securely penned each night.