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.
An abundance of water.
When a young child my parents taught me how to identify the edible field mushrooms and distinguish them from the various forms of poisonous toadstools. They were the only mushrooms we had as children. There are two large commercial mushroom farms on the Granite Belt, with one only a kilometre away at Glen Aplin. Earlier in the week I had bought mushrooms, but couldn’t resist this chance of harvesting the highly flavoured wild ones.
Field mushrooms growing wild
Rain in November or March will often trigger the growth of wild mushrooms, which require a number of cloudy days with an even temperature of between 15 and 18 degrees to thrive. Once the sun shines they rapidly blacken and spoil. Unlike the factory mushrooms, which can be kept for days, wild mushrooms should be cooked immediately. I also peel my wild mushrooms. To store them, I saute the mushrooms in butter and place in freezer boxes for later use in soups, stews or gravy.
This time there were only enough mushrooms to add flavour to a stir fry dish of bacon and onions. I photographed these wild mushrooms beside the factory grown mushrooms and the other ingredients, to show you the difference. The bought mushrooms have thick white flesh with little taste, whereas the white tops of the wild mushrooms are thin and the flesh is much juicier, quickly making a black sauce. When I was a child we would place large mushrooms, white side down on the top of our wood burning kitchen stove, sprinkle them with salt and when they were blackened and oozing juice, pop them into our mouths.
Bacon, onion and mushrooms.
Meanwhile the Flanders poppies in the Remembrance Field have almost finished flowering and are now running to seed. We usually slash them at the end of November but the field is too wet this year to bring in the tractor.
The potatoes I had planted in rows on the edge of the poppies needed to be hilled up. I worked there with three Korean wwoofers to undertake this task.
Potatoes at the edge of the Remembrance Field.
Each day brings the joy of anticipation as I walk out to see what my organic garden will yield. We are already using freshly dug potatoes, lettuce, butter beans, radish and spring onions from the vegetable garden. I have picked the red and yellow currants and made jelly. Each day I gather about half a kilo of strawberries and pluck a kilo of boysenberries for jam.
The spring season has finished and today, our summer begins.
