AN ABUNDANCE OF MUSHROOMS

March has brought a pleasant start to the autumn months. Small falls of rain dampened the ground followed by days of cool, misty weather providing the ideal temperature for field mushrooms to grow naturally on our farm land.

My earliest memories of gathering field mushrooms began when as a young child I accompanied my grandmother across the grass flats beside the Myall Creek flowing down from the Bunya Moutains. It was Gran who taught me how to gather the mushrooms and tell the difference between them and other forms of fungi. Then with our 2 gallon stainless steel milking bucket filled with mushrooms we would proudly carry them home. A few of the large flat mushrooms would be sprinkled with salt and placed on the hot iron top of the wood fired kitchen stove  where they would sizzle and turn black before we popped this treat into our mouths. That night the family enjoyed a thick mushroom soup for dinner.

Those were the days when factory farmed mushrooms were not available in our shops and tinned mushrooms were tasteless small champignons.

Walking out one morning this week I spotted wild field mushrooms growing in the grass beside our home Das Helwig Haus B&B.

Wild mushrooms

In this post I will tell you how to gather such mushrooms, explain the differences between them an other poisonous varieties of fungi and then how to prepare wild field mushrooms for meals. Read the rest of this entry »

CLIMATIC DIFFERENCE

My garden is different to most Queensland gardens due to the altitude of the Granite Belt. Most Queensland gardens are located in tropical or subtropical climates, but the Granite Belt of Queensland is the only region of this State with a temperate climate. The majority of the gardens in Queensland only know two seasons, the ‘WET’ and the ‘DRY’ whereas here on the Granite Belt we have four distinct seasons as in the Northern Hemisphere.

Usually our winters are dry so we seldom get snow and for the same reason we frequently experience more winter frosts than Victoria. Brisbane and Melbourne are the capital cities of Queensland and Victoria. Coastal Brisbane has a subtropical climate but the altitude of Das Helwig Haus (about 850metres above sea level) and our position on the western side of the Great Dividing Range create our much cooler climate.

State capital cities

Read the rest of this entry »

PICKING FRUIT WITH THE BRUDERHOF

After camping overnight in their swags on the bank of our Severn River the ten youngsters and their two teachers were awakened by a chorus of kookaburras – sometimes called the laughing jackass. The adventurous boys gathered fresh water mussels and boiled them in a billy over the coals of a fire, determined to try real bush tucker.

“What did they taste like?” I asked.

“River water,” was the consensus.

Meanwhile, Tabatha and the girls were busy preparing a stack of breakfast pancakes in our kitchen. Nancy on accordion and Joe on guitar led a round of singing to keep us entertained and everyone occupied.

Joe plays guitar

After breakfast as Nancy stripped her bed and cleaned house for me, while Tabatha packed Bruderhof belongings into the back of their bus, two girls reminded me that I had promised they could pick our elderberries. In past years I’ve made elderberry jelly but these girls said they wanted to dip the whole spray of berries into batter and fry as a sweet pancake. I’ve also heard that the white flowers can be used this way, or placed in custard to give a vanilla flavour.

Ripe elderberries

Bruderhof girls pick elderberries

These berries then had to be found a space in the bus, beside the grapes that other youngsters were busily picking from our Isabella grape vines covering the terrace over the guest parking.

Tabatha loads the bus

Picking the grapes

The previous night I had phoned David Dunn whose family has grown stone fruit near the top of the ridge of hills on the western side of the Glen Aplin valley since the 1920s. He had agreed to welcome this Bruderhof group as a school excursion to the family orchard. The Bruderhof said their goodbyes to Eberhard and I accompanied them on the bus to their destination.

What a welcome they received! Brendon Dunn loaded the youngsters, all sitting down and under the supervision of Mike, into the tray of the farm utility. Tabatha rode up front with Brendon until they reached the plum orchard.

Farm utility

Ripe plums

Nancy, Joe and I travelled in comfort in a 4WD car with David and John Dunn. Nancy was delighted as the smell and taste of the ripe plums brought back to her memories of picking fruit in the orchards of Ontario, Canada where she had grown up in a Mennonite community.

Nancy tries a plum

The children were overjoyed at the thrill of picking an abundance of fresh fruit straight from the trees.

Girls gather plums

From the plum orchard we crossed a track and entered a peach orchard.

Peach orchard

Nancy kept remarking how different these Australian orchards were in comparison to the ones she had known in her youth. As David Dunn explained, his family had cleared pockets of fertile land amongst the granite boulders to establish their fruit trees. The eucalyptus forest growing in the rocky terrain around these pockets provided protection from winds, but not hail.  Much of this fruit was blemished due to hail damage and would be sold as second grade fruit.

Mike watches John Dunn pick peaches

Brendon phoned a neighbour over the hill, who said he was about to throw out fruit he had graded as unsuitable for sale. He drove off with Mike. They returned with Golden Queen peaches (the best type for bottling) and nectarines. After the Bruderhof group returned to Danthonia these could be made into jams or preserves.

Peaches and nectarines

A blue sky day

Back we drove to the packing shed where Brendon brought out boxes of second grade plums from the cold-room, which he gifted to the Bruderhof.

This is the district, the Granite Belt of southern Queensland where Eberhard and I have lived for more than seventeen years. It is the district I describe in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine.

Book cover

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine send an email to helwig@halenet.com.au The price is $33.00 posted to destinations within AustraIia.

Internationally it is available on

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

BRUDERHOF VISIT 2010

In my last post I explained our connection with the Danthonia Bruderhof who in the past decade have established a community near Inverell in New South Wales. We have enjoyed many reciprocal visits. Two weeks ago we received a request from Mike, one of their school teachers, to bring a group of ten students aged twelve years for a visit with Eberhard.

Due to Australian immigration laws many of the Danthonia Bruderhof comprise young people who have desirable workskills needed in Australia. They have immigrated as teachers and nurses. Many are young married couples, with the other partner often having other useful skills. This preponderance of youth could lead to an unbalanced community without the wisdom of elders, if it were not for the older parents and grandparents who temporarily live with the community using Tourist visas to gain entry into Australia.

Even so, every year living memories of the early days of the Bruderhof in Germany are being lost with the death of members from the first community. Yet here is Australia the Danthonia Bruderhof have a living connection via my husband. Mike asked that a group of ten children, two teachers and a senior couple be allowed to visit for an overnight stay. He wanted these American born children to hear from Eberhard what life had been like for their Grandparents, or great-Grandparents in Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s. In return they offered to assist us with farm and garden work.

Eberhard and Mike

When this excited group of youngsters arrived they served us a a delicious German style kuchen they had brought with them for morning tea. Then after a discussion with Eberhard about the early days in Germany the four adults, Mike and Tabatha (teachers) with Joe and Nancy (elders), asked me what work I would like done in the garden. I told them the primary job was to harvest our abundance of produce – climbing beans, little yellow cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Then the next job would be to wash down our extensive verandas and the gazebo area and prepare lunch. They had brought home made salami (they have their own butcher shop at Danthonia) cheese and bread. I supplied lots salads, fresh and pickled. The pickled vegetables included beetroot, zucchini and icicle pickles, made from green skinned cucumbers. Nancy was delighted with the icicle pickles, saying she was familiar with these from her youth in Canada within a Mennonite Community.

• ICICLE PICKLES – A TRADITIONAL CANADIAN RECIPE
• 2 gallons of cucumbers cut int 2 inch pieces
• Dissolve in hot water 1 pint of salt and a pea sized amount of bluestone – copper sulphate
• Cover pickles with boiling water and let stand for a week, stirring at least every other day
• Put a heavy plate on top of the pickles so they remain submerged in the brine
• Drain. Cover with boiling water. Let stand 24 hours. Drain
• Dissolve Alum (size of a walnut) in boiling water and cover the pickles
• Stand 24 hours. Drain
• Bring the following syrup to a boil and pour over the pickles
• 8 pints – 16 cups white sugar
• 2-1/2 quarts or 12 cups vinegar
• A handful of pickling spices in a muslin bag
• Let stand for 24 hours. Drain off syrup and bring it to the boil. Pour the syrup back over the pickles
• Repeat 3 more times – 3 days.
• Bottle

After lunch Mike took eight of the youngsters down to the dam, dressed for swimming, which they dragged with our net twice without finding any fish. It seems we need to restock the dam with Golden Perch fingerlings. They then went swimming in the river.

Nancy and two girls remained to assist me in the kitchen by preparing the little yellow tomatoes for Tomato and Lemon Marmalade.

Cherry sized yellow tomatoes

When the marmalade preparations were completed Nancy and the girls went swimming in the river while I stirred the pot.

I observed that keeping such an exuberant group of youngsters energetically occupied while under the supervision of an adult is a key to maintaining harmony within a group. They know they are loved and cared for.

Mike next took the youngsters down to our Glen Aplin primary state school, only 500 metres away, to kick and chase a soccer ball around the playing field.

Tabatha had brought big pots in which to cook spaghetti and reheat tomato sauce and precooked meat balls. It was great to sit back and watch the adults supervising some of the youngsters in our kitchen as they cut up onions and prepared onion ring fried in batter. Then we all moved into the dining room to eat.

Tabatha and Joe

While everyone enjoyed the onions rings, Joe and Tabatha served up the spaghetti and meatballs. There was still plenty of salad left over from lunch.

Main course

When harvesting the vegetables during the morning, the boys had informed me that our Sugar Baby watermelons were ripe. I agreed with them and after they were picked the melons the boys carried them off to our cold room for chilling. Our evening dinner finished with water melon slices.

Tabatha serves water melon slices

The dishes were cleared and the children changed into their youth costume before conducting a small service to show their respect for Eberhard. German songs and hymns were sung, interspersed with Bible verses read by each youngster. Nancy accompanied the children providing music on an accordion.

A sing-a-long

Bruderhof youngsters

Fay relaxes

All too soon the evening ended. Joe and and Nancy accepted the comfort of our guest room, while Mike and Tabatha took the youngsters down to camp overnight beside our Severn River frontage. They built a campfire and then rolled out their swags to spend a night under the stars.

You can read more about the way of life that Eberhard and I have enjoyed at Das Helwig Haus B&B in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine.

Book cover

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine send an email to helwig@halenet.com.au The price is $33.00 posted to destinations within AustraIia.

Internationally it is available on

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

BACKYARD VEGETABLE GARDEN

When we moved to the Granite Belt to establish Das Helwig Haus B&B we succeeded in creating a hospitality business which became famous throughout Australia and I personally succeeded in constructing the garden of my dreams.

I believe that many people would say that they spend the first 30 years of their adult lives establishing careers, homes and rearing a family. They then spend the next 20 years consolidating businesses or change direction to follow their dreams. As we did some give up other careers, sell the family home and move to a tourism district like the Granite Belt to establish guest accommodation, wineries and restaurants. The urge to change often starts when they pay a visit to a tourism district or read a book like Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. They dream of sitting on a terrace overlooking vineyards while sipping a glass of wine.

Lunch at Felsberg Winery

But, the time comes when age forces them to again change direction. Sadly, most will find that during this productive and rewarding stage of their lives, their children have taken other directions and may even be living in distant states or foreign countries.  The children are far away and not interested in leaving careers to take up the parent’s lifestyle business.  Recognizing that their bodies have aged and infirmities are starting to trouble them they consider the prospect of selling their dream businesses and retiring.  While establishing their dream businesses they had expected that one day when they sold the business the price would provide them with the equivalent of a superannuation income.

One of the reasons that this seldom happens is that younger people have their own dreams and they don’t wish to buy an established dream unless it is a profitable business, which can afford to pay labour. When dreaming they do not see the reality of how hard they must work to establish their vision, but when viewing an existing business they confront the issues of management. Which, by the time we had established our dream became the issue confronting us.

As I approach my 70th birthday this year, this is the reality which Eberhard and I must face. We listed our property for sale and held an auction in October, but no one was interested in buying our property. So, we have made the decision to down size. Read the rest of this entry »

GREEN CREDENTIALS

I begin this post about Peter Spencer by saying that my green credentials are obvious. When Eberhard and I bought our property in 1992 there was no garden surrounding the small timber house that was to grow to become Das Helwig Haus B&B. I set out to build the garden of my dreams and have achieved a remarkable result. We recently opened our garden for the Australian Open Garden Scheme. I’ve planted trees and shrubs in this organic garden to attract the birds, bees, butterflies and other living creatures.

White Buddleia - butterfly bush

Yesterday friends visited just as I assembled a new electric shredder. Although I compost leaf matter from the garden, I realized that most of my shrubs are now so large that when they are pruned back I needed a shredder to mulch their woody branches. Read the rest of this entry »

CHRISTMAS DAY 2009

Here on Christmas morning at Das Helwig Haus B&B we have the Christmas decorations in place and the aroma of fresh pine needles and a baking ham pervades the house. The Christmas cake, cookies and things to nibble wait beside fresh bowls of peaches, apricots, plums and cherries – the summer harvest fruits of this cool mountain climate, the Granite Belt of southern Queensland. I picked our fresh fruit from the trees of our garden

December cherries

It is a pleasantly cool day with an overcast sky and there is a weather front coming through which should bring soaking rain to the drought stricken western regions of New South Wales and Queensland. This would be a remarkable Christmas present. Read the rest of this entry »

ANOTHER OPINION

When I read this feature article on On Line Opinion I was grateful to Max Rheese for writing so succinctly on the problems we country landholders have encountered in recent years. I will illustrate his words with my photographs. Below is a photo of Das Helwig Haus B&B surrounded by ‘Remnant Forest‘. We are not allowed to clear any trees within this area.  The photo was taken from high on the hill on the other side of the valley, which does tend to condense the thickness of the forest surrounding our home and it fails to show that we had already cleared a firebreak around our buildings before the ban was introduced.

Rooftops of Das Helwig Haus B&B

It must be realized that because we are unable to clear any regrowth within this forest that it will grow more thickly until a bush fire destroys everything in its path. Read the rest of this entry »

MORE ABOUT TREES

Some of my readers are wondering what it was that Peter Spencer wanted to do on his property. I’ll quote the words of Kahn Spencer posted on Agmates.
The people on this forum and those all over the world that are supporting Peter in his stand deserve to know what his motives are. At this point money is obviously a major concern, the bottom line is Saarahnlee and many other properties are no longer a viable business due to this legislature. So yes money is part of it but it is not the sole reason or the main reason for his stand.
The irony is that not only does Peter not have plans to do any major clearing on the property, he has spent a great deal of time and money researching and designing a forestry sustainability plan for the property. He had a goal several years ago, I remember because he would talk about it all the time when we were children, that goal was to selectively harvest and replant a variety of, mostly native, trees. By doing this the farm would be able to sustain a very controlled form of forestry without ever causing a significant reduction in the total vegetation. It was in essence a vegetation management plan. This devastating legislature will not even allow him to do that.

For details about the legislation and how Peter Spencer has not been able to get a hearing in the courts of Australia, go to http://loveforlife.com.au

Those of you who have read my November posts related to Peter Andrew’s book Back from the Brink will know that water not only flows over land, but travels downhill beneath the soil to our gullies and rivers, unless it is all taken up by the thirsty Eucalyptus saplings now stealing two percent of Queensland grassland each year. They are nothing more than woody weeds but are protected under the State vegetation laws

Romeo Lane Corner 2006

Read the rest of this entry »

SMOKE FILLS OUR VALLEY

We are experiencing a period of hot, dry weather. This is what the farmers need to ripen their tomato crops before Christmas. Have you ever noticed how expensive tomatoes are at Christmas time? The crops in the northern districts like Bundaberg and Bowen are finished and the backpackers are moving south looking for work. Here in the cool mountain highlands of the border between Queensland and New South Wales our tomato plants can not be planted until the frosts are finished. This year the farmers on the Granite Belt had heavy rain in May to fill their farm dams and the weirs across the creeks and Severn River. They have water to irrigate their crops and now have been blessed with a heatwave to encourage the quick growth and early ripening of their vegetables.

But last night the weather forecast for today included a severe fire warning. And yes, I awoke this morning to the sight of our valley filled with smoke.

Bushfire smoke

With visibility reduced by this pall of smoke I do not yet know where the fire is situated and if it is headed in our direction. What I do know is that thanks to our foresight in clearing trees in close proximity to our house and undertaking a controlled burn of our country at the end of winter, we will not need to evacuate our home. Read the rest of this entry »