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 »

SALAD DAYS

In this cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt of southern Queensland frosts sometimes continue to torment gardeners into the second month of Spring, which they have done this year. Thus, I’ve had to wait patiently before planting the seed of many of my summer vegetable crops like sweet-corn, melons and cucumbers.

When we open our garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B on 7/8th November this year for the Australian Open Garden Scheme we will have something special to show our garden visitors. I began planning these raised garden beds in February as a way of recycling three round sheets of a rusty corrugated iron, rain water tank. Now look at the result!

Loose leaf lettuce

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EUCALYPTUS TREES.

With this post I’m going to share an extract from my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. The wilderness regions of the Granite Belt are comprised of large rock outcrops and an abundance of eucalyptus forest, but it was not always like this.

Granite rocks

When the explorers rode their horses through this country they had to avoid the rocks, but they did not encounter the dense eucalyptus forests that now cover the hills. One of my Grandfathers, Hugh Mulcahy, was born in Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt in 1876 and he was able to tell his children of remembering this country as open forest. What did he mean by open forest? Forest in which the trees grew sufficiently far apart to allow riders to pass between them, where grass grew and cattle grazed.

Aged eucalyptus trees

These two aged trees on our farm at the rear of Das Helwig Haus B&B show the spacing of open forest country.  But look, they are surrounded by sapling eucalyptus trees. What changed the country? Read the rest of this entry »

THE DARLING DOWNS

When I was a child I was taught that the Darling Downs possessed one of the best areas of agricultural soil of the world - the black color indicating the wealth of humus. But what is the Darling Downs? It is a region of country west of the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia in south-eastern Queensland. Toowoomba, at the crest of the Great Dividing Range, is the city gateway to the west. This city has become notable not only for it annual floral ‘Carnival of Flowers’, but as a city of boarding schools plus a University to serve students from the south western portion of the State.  It is also a haven where the elderly retire because of large hospitals, other medical facilities and a cool mountain climate. Warwick is a smaller city at the southern end of the Darling Downs. Dalby is at the northern extremity and by the time you have reached Roma in the west you have left the Darling Downs and entered the grazing country of the Maranoa.

In my youth I lived north of  Dalby near the Bunya Mountains and attended boarding school in Warwick - another city of private schools which provide high school education for children from more isolated regions. When I married Stewart McIver I lived on farms at Bell prior to moving into Dalby. When that marriage ended I moved to Toowoomba where I met and married Eberhard Helwig and we later moved to Stanthorpe in the border highlands south of Warwick.

Map of the Darling Downs

Last weekend we left home on the Friday morning and drove via Warwick and Toowoomba to reach Dalby 3 hours later where I spent the afternoon signing books at the Dalby BOOK CITY store. The next day we caught up with family and friends at Bell where my 94 year old father was the guest of honour at a Campdraft. Sunday we spent another 3 hours driving home on the western route through Millmerran to Inglewood before turning east to our home just south of Stanthorpe. I sketched this map so you could follow our travels. Read the rest of this entry »

BOOK SIGNING

As a published author I must now undertake book signings at the shops stocking Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. As many of you know I had a life prior to moving to the Granite Belt with Eberhard almost seventeen years ago and the opportunity presented for me to visit the districts of Dalby and Bell again this past weekend.

BOOK CITY Dalby

I was amazed when a man I had known 50 years ago at a time that we were both members of a Rural Youth organization approached me, with an expression of delight, to renew the acquaintance. We chatted about old times for an hour or so before he bought the book.

An important reason why I had chosen to appear at BOOK CITY on Friday was that I wished to attend the Bell camp draft where my 94 year old father, John Mulcahy, was to be honoured. Read the rest of this entry »

BOOK LAUNCH 2

1. I wrote a manuscript
2. I found a mentor
3. He became my literary agent
4. He could not convince an Australian publishing firm to produce my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine
5. He edited my book and place it online with http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary
6. It began to sell ‘Print on Demand’
7. 94% of readers gave it a positive review. Lulu gave it 5***** and placed it on the Amazon.com site
8. I arranged to have the book printed for distribution within Australia.
9. I launched the book
10. I must market the book

Border Post article

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BOOK LAUNCH

My book, Wildflowers, wilderness and wine has been selling Internationally since February. Now the first consignment of printed books is ready for an Australian book launch.  Wildflowers, wilderness and wine will be presented by our local member of State Parliament, Lawrence Springborg, at the Stanthorpe Art Gallery on Tuesday night 28th July. Eberhard and I are putting on a typical Granite Belt party. We have hired the art gallery as our venue, arranged for the serving of wines from Harrington Glen Wines and for Claudia from Thunderbolt Farm to provide her quality hor d’eouvres.

Front cover

What are my hopes, what are my dreams, what will this book do for my community? Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANCE OF TOMATOES 2

I wrote an earlier post about what I did with an abundance of red tomatoes, one of the summer crops grown by the farmers of the Granite Belt, who generously give me boxes of ripe fruit. I also commented that I usually only grow cherry tomatoes in my organic garden. About fifteen years ago I purchased a packet of golden ripple cherry tomato seed from the Diggers Seed Club and since then I’ve never needed to purchase more seed, nor do I save the seed. Every autumn at Das Helwig Haus B&B, about a month before the frosts arrive, a flock of Satin Bower birds return from the rain forests to overwinter in our garden. They are a fruit eating bird and quickly turn their attention to the fruits of my garden, clearing any remaining figs, picking at the half ripe persimmons and enjoying the cherry tomatoes. The fertile seed of the tomatoes pass through the bird and is deposited throughout the garden. Thus it is that these tomatoes have now become one of my most prevalent weeds. They are easily recognized and transplanted or pulled if found in inappropriate positions. This particular tomato has a tendency to climb or ramble, and would be useful grown in hanging baskets on patios. The photo below shows how one tomato bush has rambled over the tops of roses and up the trellis of the gazebo railing.

Cherry tomato bush in the rose garden.

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EBERHARD’S BLACK FOREST CAKE

Eberhard's Black Forest Cake

One of Eberhard’s Black Forest cakes famously appeared on TV eleven years ago when SBS TV sent a production crew to Das Helwig Haus B&B on the Granite Belt to film him preparing and serving a German Christmas Feast. The feature film has repeatedly been shown on the SBS TV Food Lovers Guide to Australia. Eberhard will be 83 years of age in July and my daughters and daughter-in-law decided that it was time for him to pass on his secrets to them. Thus I was able to capture in film the process. One of the girls wrote down the recipe. Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANCE OF ZUCCHINIS 2

I promised one of my readers a recipe for Zucchini Pickles. As I wrote in An Abundance of Zucchinis 1, zucchinis didn’t feature highly in the diet of Australians until after the migration of many Mediterranean people to Australia in the past fifty years. I planted my first packet of zucchini seed in the 1980’s and was amazed at the abundance of zucchinis this packet produced. A friend, Margaret Arnott from Canada, sent me her recipe for Pickled Zucchinis.

When we moved to live on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland to establish Das Helwig Haus B&B we found ourselves blessed with Italian born neighbours who grew fields of Mediterranean vegetables every year. On her welcoming visit to our home, Nerrina brought us a box of zucchinis. She said, “Just climb through the fence and help yourself any time you want more.” Thus, I have not bothered to grow zucchinis in recent years.

Basket of freshly picked zucchini

Every year I make up jars of Margaret’s zucchini pickle recipe, often serving it like a bread & butter cucumber pickle. Read the rest of this entry »