August 2006
Intro...every day luxuries
Wombat News...the lurking wombat
Books...the Goat is out!
Awards...Koala and Yarra Short listings, Books Alive choice, and GABBA Award
The August Garden...
. a guide to buying mail order plants
. what to plant in
. home made mustard...how to grow it and make it
Mid Winter Feasts
Intro
Many years ago I decided that I'd never feel broke if I had bunches of flowers to give away, as well as fill every vase in the house. (At the moment our vases are filled with branches of camellias, old fashioned pink ones that don't drop off for weeks.) Flowers don't cost anything if they're grown from seed gathered last season, or cuttings from a neighbour down the road.
Good tea was a necessary luxury too. The difference between really expensive tea and cheap stuff isn't much- but it means a great deal in terms of taste. Proper tea, that is, served with all due ceremony, the pot heated, cups on saucers, and a slice of something good.
Enough asparagus to gorge on. Fresh artichokes. (Which I usually don't get around to eating, just gloat over a pile of them on the bench) Free range eggs to beaten with good bread and butter. As many avocadoes as I wanted...all free (or almost), grown from seeds (except the chooks, which do the reproducing by themselves)...
The greatest luxury of all though, back then, was time. Not great swathes of spare time (my idea of heaven is being able to work long hours at something I love, whether it was building my own house or writing a book)
What I mean is non scheduled time. To be able to stop work on a hot afternoon, grab a book and a thermos of cold lemon cordial, and swim in the creek then lie on the rocks and read and watch the swallows catch flies above the water. To be able to stop and have a cuppa and a gossip when any one calls in. To work at 4 am, if I want to and the full moon shining through the bedroom windows has woken me up.
I don't think my idea of luxury has changed much over the years. The creek may be mostly dry in the drought. But that's just meant that the daily luxury now is to walk for at least an hour every morning, before the sun reaches into the valley, and the mist still lies in hollows and the wedgetail eagles are hunting for the first thermals of the day, to launch them selves from the cliffs into the air.
It was a good walk this morning. (Every walk is different, even if you follow the same route). Well, mostly, anyhow. More daffodils out, more baby wallabies peering out of pouches. The only problem today were the seven cars that passed me on the mountain road (there are rarely any)... and every one of them stopped to ask me if I needed a hand.
Which was nice, in a way. Cities may be so crowded that people pass those in trouble without wanting to get involved. But stick those same people out in the bush (and these cars weren't locals, who just raise a polite finger to say hello as they drive by, but dust free city cars) and they'll stop to see if they're needed. It's just a matter of numbers. Too many rats in a cage and they go mad. Too many people in a city and they no longer even smile when they pass each other.
Come to think of it, seven cars on the mountain road means the highway must have been blocked again, by an accident or landslide...seven cars means a party or a funeral (neither likely at 7.30 am).
Wombat News
Mothball is lurking
She's a good lurker. Most nights she lurks by the front steps, which I have to climb up to get to the house. If I fail to notice a large round wombat lurking in the shadows I get a set of sharp teeth in my ankle...or at least tearing my jeans.
It's not because she's hungry. There's plenty of grass at the moment. She just doesn't like any other animal invading her territory- including me.
So most nights I walk around the long way, through the orchard. Except she's awake to that now. Last night she was waiting by the back door, where she could see me no matter which way I came.
So tonight I'll have to head on down past the woodpile, to the FRONT door. And remember to bring my gumboots indoors. She savaged them last night- not badly. But one more night of frustration will be too much for her. Think I'd better take the garden chairs indoors as well...
The only other wombat news is Bomber wombat.
Bomber was named by the kids at Bolinda Primary School, after the Essendon football team. Which made sense...Bomber is a fine and handsome figure of a wombat.
The only problem is that she's female. And has just had a baby. It emerged from Bomber's hole last week, bounced at me, then ran back in again.
I suppose I should have known. The largest, stroppiest wombats are usually females. I'll have to write and ask the Bolinda kids if they want to rename her.
And the mind does sort of boggle at what would be the perfect name for the baby of a wombat named Bomber....
Books
The Goat is Out!
Or should I say 'The Goat Who Sailed the World' has just been published. I've got so used to just calling her...and the book... The Goat.
The Goat That Sailed the World is the true story of the very stroppy animal who sailed with James cook on the Endeavour, on the voyage that first mapped Australia's east coast and led to the British colony there 20 years later. She gave Cook milk for the whole three years the ship had been away! This was pretty incredible for a goat - they usually don't give milk for nearly as long. Her milk was badly needed, because food on ships in those days was pretty awful.
Actually the tiny ship also carried seventy-one crew, twelve marines, eleven scientists and their servants, seventeen sheep, a small mob of cattle for meat, four ducks and five chickens for eggs, a boar, a sow and her piglets for meat too, and three cats to catch the rats that swarmed on every ship.
Ships in those days were like floating arks, small farms of animals to provide meat, milk and eggs to add to the usually stale rations. Which was why ships needed to call in to harbour often- not just for fresh water, but to find good grass that cod be cut and dried for hay to feed their livestock.
The Goat was famous even before she stepped onto the Endeavour. . She had already sailed around the world with Captain Wallis, providing milk for the captain and his officers. Now she was going to face an even bigger adventure - three years finding new lands, facing wild storms and shipwrecks, and plagues that would kill a third of the crew.
But she survived it all. And by the end of the voyage she was the most famous goat in history!
The British government gave her a pension. The British Royal Society made her a member - the only animal ever to join that respected club of scientists! They gave her a silver collar too. And Captain James Cook was so fond of her that he took her home with him.
The story of the Goat is really the story of that historic voyage, too, and their adventures, mapping the transit of Venus, hunting for the Great South land, exploring the New Zealand coastline and eastern Australia, facing ship wreck, attack, and disease...
It's also the story of Isaac Manley, the boy who looked after the goat, and his rise from master's servant to midshipman, the beginning of a career that would make him an admiral, and the last surviving member of cook's crew.
Awards
Hitler's Daughter and Too Many Pears have been short listed for the kid's choice Yabba and Koala awards...and enormous thank yous to everyone who has voted for them! It means an incredible amount!
Pete the Sheep has also been listed as one of the 50 Books Alive books too. Books Alive is an initiative of the Federal government and the Australia Council. Every time you buy one of the 50 books you get a free book too.
And many many thanks to the kids of Gladysdale Primary School for voting Too many Pears the winner in their Best Picture Book Award!!! I hope you have many decades of wonderful reading ahead of you!
The Garden in August
This is a confession. I have been buying plants. Too many plants.
Well, they won't be too many if we get some rain this spring. But I've been carried away with a bit of rain this month- enough for the creek to flow again and even a few puddles around. And I have gone just very slightly insane..
They are all nice drought resistant plants, of course. Give them just a couple of months of moisture to establish and the odd blob of mulch and they'll tolerate just about anything. It's getting those two months of moisture that may be the problem...
The long range forecast says it could go either way...not likely to be lots of rain, but maybe, just maybe, not too far below normal. Which would be enough to keep the plants alive...... (to be honest I really envy those of water restrictions, who are allowed to bucket water to their gardens once or twice a week. Luxury! Or who have enough water even to recycle...).
Anyhow, it's damp now. And blooming. Daffs popping out all over the place, good solid yellow cupped ones that survive our hot as a jam tart straight from the oven summers. (they're as sticky as a jam tart too).
Oranges, avocadoes, mandarins, tangelos, custard apples sapotes, calamondins, cumquats, grapefruit, macadamias, chestnuts, lemons, limes...not nearly as much fruit on the trees as usual, in fact less than I've ever seen. But enough to enjoy, and some to give away, if not quite the box loads of other years.
Gardens by Mail
One of the nicest things a gardener can hear (apart from 'Let me weed that for you, darling!') is another gardener exclaim in a mix of envy and rapture: 'Where did you get THAT!?"
And the answer is usually 'Mail order'.
Don't get me wrong: garden centres are lovely places. But if you want something DIFFERENT from the run of the mill shrubs; if you're bored with orange carrots and want to munch on purple ones, or striped beans or climbing yellow tomatoes; if you have a passion for roses or violets or scented pelargoniums and want to browse through descriptions of hundreds of them in drooling detail, then you need to go mail order.
I am a mail order devotee. Another catalogue in the mail means I can curl up on the sofa while Bryan watches a submarine movie and dream of twenty metre clematis and apples that ripen in December before the fruit fly can get their fangs into them, and make lists of the twenty roses most essential to my happiness next season. (With luck I'll forget to post the order form because we really have enough roses...)
Most mail order firms are specialists, which means you can get exactly what you want. Many sell in bulk so even though you are also paying postage costs, you can often get plants cheaper than you would in the garden centre. But mostly mail order catalogues are just great to drool over and dream of the garden you might have if only you had fifty hectares under cultivation and a million dollars, but never mind, at least this rose will be a stunner that none of your friends have seen before.
If it wasn't for mail order catalogues I wouldn't have my 125 varieties of apple tree that fruit from late November (Irish Peach) to early August (Sturmer Pippin).
I wouldn't have my forest of shaggy tree dahlias or rare quince trees or grow my own saffron and tea or have dozens of varieties of mint or thyme or lavender dotted about the garden. I wouldn't have found the old-fashioned yellow trumpet daffodils and straw jonquils that survive the 40 C summers here, or the fragrant camellias or have enjoyed the metre high true geranium that was one of the stunners of spring till the wallabies ate it.
I wouldn't have... well, okay, enough boasting. Our garden is a product of thirty odd years browsing through mail order catalogues and saying I'll have this and this and this, well, okay, maybe I can only afford THAT, but next year...
A word of warning
Okay, quite a lot of words.
1. Most mail order plants come through the mail or by courier, and this means they are usually smaller than similar plants in the Garden Centre and have either been stripped of their soil and packed in damp paper or similar or are in very small pots.
Some mail order places pack their plants better than others - in fact some are bally awful and plants arrive as wilted bits of mildew. I haven't had that happen with any of the places below, but you have been warned!
2. You'll need to send a cheque or credit card details. I've dealt with all the places below and found them reputable but that doesn't mean that all mail order companies are, and when you have to pay in advance you are risking losing your dough for stuff that may not arrive or may not be what you expected.
If it doesn't arrive, contact the company. If it isn't want you want, let them know, and ask either for your money back or for the correct plants to be sent to you, at their expense. (The few times I've had mail order problems the places concerned have offered to do this without my asking, as soon as I mentioned there'd been a problem.)
Be tactful (says she who tends to jump in gum boots and all yelling 'Consumer fraud!). The people who run most, if not all, garden mail order companies are real garden enthusiasts. They can get very, very hurt if you insult their product. Only start yelling if you begin to suspect a con job.
3. New products from overseas often haven't been grown for long in Australia, and have usually been trialed only in one place.
In the past year I've bought a dozen 'bright blue' salvias that turned out to be dull blue grey and reasonably hideous; two 'purple leafed' elderberries that look suspiciously green; two 'red' kiwi fruit, but the fruit so far have had a distinct lack of redness; a gorgeous pair of 'dwarf' dahlias that grew to waist high (but were still gorgeous anyway) and several climbing roses that just sit there as though they're saying 'Climb? Us? No thanks, we're scared of heights.'
Most of these are offered in good faith: but when you buy new varieties you have to expect that they sometimes don't live up to their promise.
In other words: buyer beware, because it's a lot harder to take something back if you've bought it from 1,000 kilometres away!
Some of the Best
This isn't a list of the best mail order places in Australia, because I haven't ordered from everywhere yet. (Just give me a few more years and $$$). But these are all places I buy from regularly, and I can promise they have catalogues to drool over.
If any place is NOT in this list it probably just means either I haven't come across it.
NB CONTACT DETAILS AND PRICES MAY WELL HAVE CHANGED SINCE I WROTE THIS! BUT ONCE YOU HAVE THE NAMES YOU CAN GOOGLE THEM OR LOOK UP THE PHONE BOOK, AND CALL OR EMAIL TO SEE IF CATALOIGUE OR MEMBERSHIP PRICES HAVE GONE UP. (THEY PROBABLY HAVE).
Bulbs
Lake Nurseries, PO Box 336, Monbulk, Vic, 3793. Call 03 97566157 for a free catalogue. Web site: www.lakenurser@austarmetro.com.au
Tesselaar Bulbs and Flowers
357 Monbulk Road, Silvan, Vic, 3795 Tel 03 97379811; www.tesselaar.net.au, or email enquiries@tesselaar.net.au to order one of their three seasonal catalogues. I've bought luscious liliums, a black iris, winter flowering red hot pokers and fragrant clematis from Tesselaars.
Broersen Bulbs, 365 - 367 Monbulk Road, Silvan, Vic, 3795 Phone 03 97379202 or email sales@broersen.com.au for a free catalogue
Herbs
Honeysuckle Cottage. Send $4.00 for a catalogue with an most enormous range of herbs (from tea bushes or anise sage to a vast collection of scented geraniums and violets) Lot 35, Bowen Mountain Road, Bowen Mountain NSW, 2753. Their excellent rose catalogue is $3.00. Phone 02 45721345, Email: kamcleod@zeta.org.au; web site www.honeysucklecottagenursery.com
Marshall's Nursery, 1321 Candelo - Wolumla Road, Candelo, NSW 2550 Call 02 64 932 932 or email marshall@asitis.net.au to enquire about their catalogue. You can also order everything from valerian to liquorice from their web site: www.herbsalive.com.au
Antique Tools
The Old Mole
PO Box 984, Armidale, NSW, 2350. Email OldMoleTools@bigpond.com or telephone: 02 67750208for their free catalogue of stunning antique and old and reproduction tools that LAST. Also sell great steel garden tripods for plants to climb up, and turned hardwood garden stakes- really lovely things.
Roses
Ross Roses, PO Box 23, Willunga, SA, 5172 This is Ross Roses' Centenary year, and they have a special Souvenir Rose Handbook and Catalogue available for $5, with 500 roses in all too tempting colour, plus all the excellent information Ross Roses is noted for. Tel 08 85562555, or contact orders@rossroses.com.au Web site: www.rossroses.com.au
Gourds
The Gourdfather
PO Box 298, East Maitland, NSW, 2323 Tel 02 4933 6624., email gourdfather@kooee.com.au, web site www.thegourdfather.com
Fresh and dried gourds in a stunning collection of shapes, sizes and colours, books on growing gourds and what to do with them (a gourd banjo? kids' toys? grow your own storage containers?) and an extraordinary range of gourd seeds. Send four x 45c stamps for a catalogue.
Seeds
Digger's Club, 105 La Trobe Parade, Dromana, Vic, 3936 ph 03 59871877
A wide range of hard to get and heritage seeds (like multicoloured carrots, striped beetroot and black or yellow striped tomatoes) and ornamentals like tree dahlias. The first catalogue is free; after that you need to become a member, and once you pay your $29.50 membership fees there are five catalogues a year. Non-members can buy plants at a higher price.
New Gippsland Seeds and Bulbs
PO Box 1, Silvan, Vic, 3795 Tel 03 9737 9560 or go to their web site for their catalogue. Good quality veg, herb and flower seeds and a great range of reliable and hard to get varieties. Web site: www.possumpages.com.au/newgipps/index.htm
Eden Seeds
Great tropical and sub-tropical range, but I buy a lot of my cold climate seeds from there too. MS 905, Lower Beechmont, Queensland, 4211. Phone 07 55331107 Free call, orders only, 1800 188 199. Free catalogue, web site - www.edenseeds.com.au
Green Patch Non Hybrid Organic Seeds. To order a catalogue send $2.50 or stamps for the same amount to PO Box 1285, Taree, NSW, 2430 or call 02 6551 4240 to find out when their next open day is.
Organic Remedies and Tropical Seeds and Plants
Green Harvest, 52 Crystal Waters, MS 16, via Maleny, QLD, 4552 Phone 1800 681 041 for orders only, or 07 54944676 for general questions and to order their really superb free catalogue, The Australian Organic Gardening Resource Guide. This is the most comprehensive catalogue of its kind I know. I order from them regularly - everything from water chestnuts to nets to keep out fruit fly to really good quality garden tools or a boracic acid puffer to get rid of silverfish. Web site: www.greenharvest.com.au
Lambley Nursery, 'Burnside', Lesters Rd, Ascot, Vic, 3364 Telephone - 03 5343 4303. Email - lambley@netconnect.com.au; web site - www.lambley.com.au Fabulous quality stock with many really tough plants including the best range of Kniphofias, agapanthus, wonderful grasses and phormiums. Good descriptive catalogue issued twice a year.
Fruit trees
Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery: a superb range of really good quality sub-tropical and tropical fruit, but I've grown a lot of their trees down here in the frosty chill. A great range of avocadoes, plus many unusual fruit like chocolate' sapote, tropical cherries, coffee bushes and ice-cream bean tree. Daley's Nursery Lane, Geneva, via Kyogle. Ask for their free catalogue from PO Box 154, Kyogle, NSW 2474, or phone 02 66321 441. Email - donna@daleysfruit.com.au, web site - www. daleysfruit.com.au
Bob Magnus: a great source of rare and heritage apples, pears, plums and quinces, mostly grafted onto dwarf stock so you can fit more in a small garden. How about a fruit tree hedge of a dozen different apples (Irish Peach, Macintosh, Sturmer Pippin, or giant Twenty Ounce cooking apples) along your front fence? Most of these are varieties you'll never see in the garden centre. Send 3x45 cent stamps to c/o PO, Woodbridge, Tasmania 7162 phone 03 62 674 430
What to plant:
Frost free climates
Good tucker plants: Fruit trees and vines, seeds of amaranth, artichoke, asparagus, basil, burdock, carrots, celery, chilli, corn , celeriac, choko, collards, eggplant, gourds, kale, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, okra, onion, parsnip, parsley, peas, pumpkin, radish, rockmelon, salsify, shallots, silver beet, tomato, watermelon, zucchini
Plants for beauty: Plant shrubs and ferns now before the weather heats up. Seeds or seedlings of alyssum, Californian poppy, calendula, cleome, coleus, gerbera, helichrysum, honesty, impatiens, kangaroo paw, marigold, pansy, petunias, phlox, salvia, sunflower, Swan River daisy, torenia, zinnia.
Temperate
Good tucker plants: any fruit tree, vine or shrub, bare rooted or evergreen, seeds or seedlings of baby carrots, beetroot, lettuce, parsnip, peas, radish, swede, turnips, celery, celeriac, leek, lettuce, onions, mizuna, mitsuba, seed potatoes, rocket, silverbeet, spinach. Pots of tomatoes or chilli plants can be grown on a warm sunny patio.
Plants for beauty: seeds or seedlings of alyssum, calendula, heartsease, lunaria, bellis perennis, Californian poppy, English daisy, evening primrose, Iceland poppy, love lies bleeding, primulas, pansies, polyanthus, Iceland poppies, viola.
Cold:
Good tucker plants: bare rooted fruit trees, grape vines, seed potatoes, rhubarb crowns, artichoke suckers, asparagus plants. Seedlings of onions, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard greens, peas, salad greens like mizuna, mitsuba, spinach, also and seed potatoes. Plant seeds of early tomatoes, zucchini, melons and pumpkins in pots on a sunny windowsill to give them a head start.
Plants for beauty: seedlings of alyssum, bellis perennis, calendula, Californian poppy, Iceland poppies, lunaria, primula, pansy, stock, sweet peas. Place hanging baskets of flowers in a warm spot away from the frost.
Making Home Made Mustard
A reader wrote in to ask about making home made mustard. Here's the answer...how to grow it, and use it too!
Mustard (Brassica nigra, B. juncea, B. hirta)
Annual
Black mustard (Brassica nigra) grows to 1.5 metres, with bright yellow flowers, pungent leaves, and black seeds. Brown mustard (B juncea) is a slightly smaller plant with brown seeds, as is white or yellow mustard, B hirta or Sinapsis alba, which has slightly furry leaves, slightly furry pods, and paler seeds.
Needs: Mustard will grow in almost any soil as long as there is full sunlight, but the better the soil the better the crop, especially if you want tender leaves. Mustard readily self sows.
Propagation: Sow mustard seed at any warm time of the year, or sprout the seeds indoors.
Harvest: Mustard 'greens', (the young edible leaves) can be picked at any time of the year, but are often too hot or bitter in hot weather and are best picked in spring or during mild winters. Younger leaves have less 'bite' than old ones and are much more tender. The plant will go to seed in the spring of its second year. Pick the seeds when the pods turn brown and begin to 'die off' or tie an old stocking round the seed head if you are afraid of losing too many seeds.
Medicinal Use: Mustard was possibly first used as a medicinal plant (The Greek physician and scientist Pythagoras (6BC) recommended it for the bite of scorpions. Do not try this. ), and the Roman Pliny the Elder recommended that lazy wives be fed mustard to make them industrious. (Probably not much point trying this, either). Mustard's early medical reputation was possibly simply because of its strong taste and a belief that it might impart this strength to others.
Ground mustard seeds are traditionally added to bath water to wake up a drowsy person or to warm them if they have chill or after a heavy fall from a horse or just a long day in the saddle to ease sore muscles. A poultice of damp powdered or cracked mustard placed on the chest - a mustard plaster - is a traditional but not very effective remedy for a respiratory infection.
Other Uses: Mustard is one of the most commonly used condiments, whether spread liberally over hot dogs or used with discretion in salad dressings. Mustard was originally made into mustard balls - the ground seeds mixed with vinegar, honey and cinnamon and rolled into balls. Mustard powder wasn't sold till the eighteenth century.
Mustard's true taste only comes after it is crushed and mixed with water, wine or vinegar and the two active ingredients of mustard sinigrin and myrosin come into contact. Mustard needs about half an hour to develop its full flavor whether in a sauce or relish. After a day or two the fragrance begins to fade, unless in a sealed container and with an acid added, and even then freshly made mustard is much more fragrant than commercial mustard. Home made mustard can be made without the vinegar needed to stop the mustard going stale, though most people now assume that mustard must have an acid, vinegary taste.
English mustard is usually made from white mustard seeds and its yellow colour comes from turmeric. European mustards are more often made from black or brown mustard seeds. Whole mustard seeds are added to pickles and sauerkraut and other relishes, but though they give flavour they don't give the same fragrance that they would if they were crushed. 'Hot' mustards have had chilli added or hot paprika.
Mustard seeds can be sprouted. They taste peppery but good. Children can sprinkle mustard seeds on damp cotton wool and watch them shoot, then chop these miniature greens for salads.
Mustard is also an excellent green manure crop. It may repel a number of harmful nematode species and possibly other soil inhabiting pests (it was traditionally grown in old hen runs to lessen the worm burden in the soil). Mustard will tolerate soil with a lot of bird manure, and will thrive where other plants might be burnt off. It can thus be grown in newly manured ground to 'soak up' surplus nitrogen which can be returned to the soil in a gentler form when the mustard is slashed.
Mustard for green manure should be slashed when the mustard is about knee high, otherwise it takes a long time to rot down. Mustard that has gone to seed takes even longer to break down.
According to German tradition, if a bride sews mustard into her wedding dress she'll rule the household. Mustard is a traditional European fodder for fattening sheep. Eating mustard is said to revive the spirits and improve memory.
Home Made Mustard
This is a general guide to making your own mustard. Experiment with your own herbs, and with different vinegars and sweeteners. The seeds can either be crushed in a bender, cracked in a mortar or with the back of a spoon. Each variation will give quite different results.
90 gm mustard seeds, ground or cracked
60 ml vinegar (white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, tarragon vinegar, cider vinegar, or even a good red wine, sherry, brandy, whisky or a mixture of vinegar and lime or lemon juice)
3 tablespoons fresh herbs, finely chopped (tarragon, basil, rosemary, oregano, lemon thyme) or
1 teaspoon ground ginger or chopped garlic or paprika or turmeric or other curry spices
2 tablespoons honey or brown or white sugar
60 gm plain white flour
Blend all ingredients together, either in the blender or with a mortar and pestle. You can either make a smooth blend or leave it slightly chunky or add more mustard seeds after blending to make a grainy mustard. Spoon into clean jars, seal and leave in a cool place like the fridge or larder for two to three weeks to mature. Reseal and keep in the fridge after opening. Home made mustard should keep for several months.
Simple Mustard
pop a 35 gm packet of mustard seed in a container with 9 tb of virgin olive oil, 3 tb of really good wine vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh herbs like tarragon, a dash of Tabasco if you like a fiery mustard, a teaspoon of salt and 3 teaspoons of honey, because without sweetener mustard is really bitter
Once you've made a basic mustard you can experiment...try different herbs, or use cider instead of vinegar, or make a really fiery one with Tabasco sauce or fresh chillies, or a sweet fruity one, or add a few black olives for a fantastic black olive mustard.
End of Winter Feasts
What you really need for winter feasts are feasty dishes - great big gluttonous ones, the sort Henry the Eighth would have nodded at and serving wenches carried in above the dogs but it shouldn't be too formal and fussy either. Feasts aren't formal, with sauces from three sorts of cheese and delicate drapings of purées round the meat...
Stuffed Whole Pumpkin
Take one big pumpkin - a giant Queensland Blue is ideal. Cut off the top - henceforth referred to as the lid. Hollow out the seeds.
Stuffing
NB There may be too much stuffing for one pumpkin in which case stuff more and keep the leftovers for later in the week...
Splodge 3 tablespoons olive oil in a pan; add 1 finely chopped large onion and six chopped cloves of garlic and stir till transparent. Add 1 cup Basmati rice; stir over low heat till transparent. Add 4 cups chicken stock, or water if you're vegetarian, 3 dessertspoons pine nuts, 3 dessertspoons currants. Simmer with the lid off till all the moisture has evaporated. Don't stir. As long as the temperature is VERY low below the pan it won't burn on the bottom.
Stuff the cooked mixture into the pumpkin. Put the lid back on. Bake in a moderate oven for at least two hours, or till the pumpkin feels softish when you prod it with your finger (don't burn yourself - be fast) or has turned coloured - JUST turned colour I mean, not blackened or even bronzed).
Take it CAREFULLY out of the oven (with oven mitts - or you can cook the whole thing on a baking tray). By now the lid will have resealed itself, so cut it off again at the table. Serve everyone with a hunk of pumpkin flesh and the adhering stuffing.
Spiced Quinces
These are good with any rich meat - roasted chicken, pork or duck, or even a dryish stuffed pumpkin...
Ingredients:
4 quinces, peeled and cored
1 slice fresh ginger
6 juniper berries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (no white)
2 tablespoons sugar
a little water
Place all ingredients in an oven-proof dish and bake at 20 C for about an hour, or until the quinces are tender. Strain off the liquid and boil rapidly till it thickens. Pour over the quinces to give them a bright shiny glaze. Serve hot.
Onions with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Marjoram
Ingredients
8 medium sized white onions, peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon marjoram, chopped
2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
black pepper
Combine all ingredients except the marjoram in an oven proof dish. Bake at 200 C for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice as the dish cooks. Stir in the marjoram and cook for another 15 minutes. Season with black pepper (don't add this earlier or it will turn the dish slightly bitter) and serve hot.
Hot Mascarpone Creams with Raspberry Sauce
Cream Ingredients
250 gm mascarpone (Italian cream cheese - at a pinch you can use the Aussie stuff)
150 ml sour cream (or light sour cream)
3 dessertspoons caster sugar
2 eggs
Beat the whole lot till smooth. Bake in one large or several small pots (don't fill each pot any more than two thirds of the way up so you have room for the sauce on top) in a moderate oven till set (about twenty minutes). Don't let it brown though a gentle gold colour is okay.
Sauce
Melt a carton of frozen raspberries - one of the few fruits that really freezes well and after all mediaeval mid-winter feasts were traditionally based on preserved food. Heat gently in a saucepan; add a teacup full of Cointreau (this can be omitted if you don't have any). Mash a little with a fork, then reduce till it's thick and pour it over the cooked creams to the top of the pot.
Serve at once.
A Pikelet Feast
This is something for one of those blustery days when it's not really cold but the chill eats into your bones anyway and it seems like it has been grey for months. And even the silverfish have decided to hibernate.
Pikelet making is especially fun for kids. It's messy, you get fast results and they taste good.
Pikelets should be made (and eaten) en masse. Don't be stingy with pikelets. They should be piled-heaped-mounded on a plate and kept warm and soft under a tea towel.
You also need oozings of butter (or cream or light cream instead - see below) and extremely good jam. If you don't have any homemade (your home or someone else's) use honey instead of synthetic stuff - all colour and plasticity.
Grandma's Pikelets
Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
one and a half cups milk
(Grandma also added sugar, but I don't, as the jam is sweet enough.)
Mix the egg into the flour gently, then add the milk slowly so you don't get too many lumps.
Heat a frying pan; grease with butter. Make sure the pan is HOT before you add the butter; pikelets need a hottish pan.
Pour in spoonfuls. Turn over and brown on the other side when bubbles appear on the top. The bottom should be brown. If it's black, turn the heat down; if it's still pale turn the heat up.
If your pikelets are a sort of stodgy brown you've added too much butter to the pan (a Teflon pan doesn't need buttering of course).
If they're hard the temperature was too low.
If they're too fat, add more milk. A pikelet should be thinner than your finger... but not paper thin like a crepe.
Cream of course goes well with pikelets (so does thick light sour cream) and even a generous glob of full fat whipped cream has less fat and fewer calories than a moderate spreading of butter.