Introduction | Wombat News | Awards | Books News | August in the Garden | Growing Potatoes | Vlad’s Mum’s Potato cakes

Just down the hill from my study is the Library Rock.
It’s not a human type library, of course- it’s a big flat rock covered in wombat droppings. Every night at least six wombats trudge up to the rock and…well, you can imagine the rest.
Wombats tell each other stories with their droppings. I don’t know what the stories say, of course, as I can’t read wombat. But most of the time I’m very very glad that humans read their books instead of smelling them.
(The rest of the time? Well, let’s just say that just sometimes- say the first three days of trying to get a book working- I feel there has to be some easier way of getting the themes in my head onto paper. Then suddenly at the end of day three the book starts coming together, and I remember why I would never want to do anything else...or in any other way.
Ps Here’s a pic of the Library Rock. It used to be a small triangular rock peering out of the grass, but Bryan dug it up because it kept catching the wheelbarrow... and the more he dug, the bigger it grew. By the time he got it out he was so in love with its shape he left it there
Pps To any reader wondering if I’m babbling ... I probably am! I’m writing this with the flu (along with about 20% of the district this week). Apologies...my brain will be clearer next month, and there’ll be a longer much saner newsletter!
Awards
Even with one tenth of a brain I’m still ecstatic ... Josephine Wants to Dance won the younger Readers 2007 ABIA Award (Australian book Industry Awards). Mostly due, I suspect, to the smile on the face of a certain kangaroo…it’s impossible not to smile back at her, and think what magic Bruce has created with her.
And Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People’s production of Hitler’s Daughter- the play won a Helpman award! I am totally trilled for them ... it was a stunning production.  I felt breathless each time I saw it- and they so deserved to win. But they are small (if brilliant) company against all the big ones. Am so incredibly happy for them.
At the moment I’ve still got books shortlisted for a few more awards. Most are voted for by kids, and a most enormous ‘thank you’ to anyone who has voted for them!!

THE GOAT WHO SAILED THE WORLD :Short listed in the Fiction for Older Readers category, YABBA awards 2007

JOSEPHINE WANTS TO DANCE illus by Bruce Whatley: Short listed in the Picture Books category, YABBA awards 2007
 
HITLER’S DAUGHTER : Short listed in the Fiction for Older Readers category, YABBA awards 2007

DIARY OF A WOMBAT: short listed for the Bilby Awards, 2007

THEY CAME ON VIKING SHIPS: short listed for the WAYBRA, 2007
MACBETH AND SON
Short listed in the Younger Readers category, CBC awards 2007

The Hans Christian Anderson Award.
This is an international award for a contribution to children’s literature. It’s only awarded once every two years. It is the most wonderful honour to have been nominated for Australia, and I am very, just incredibly honoured and grateful…

Book News
The Dog Who Loved a Queen is out! It looks beautiful too- the most gorgeous cover.
The Dog Who Loved a Queen is the story of religious hatred and terrorism from the point of view of a small Scottish terrier, more than five hundred years ago. Folly travels from his island home to be the pet of one of history’s most famous and tragic queens, Mary Queen of Scots.
 To the world outside her prison Mary was either murderer who killed her husband and plotted to steal the English throne, or an innocent queen kept prisoner by her jealous cousin Queen Elizabeth the First. But to her dog Folly she was simply his mistress, the centre of his world.
As Mary schemes to regain both her Scottish throne and the crown of England, Folly’s world is one of chasing rats behind the tapestries and choosing tidbits from the banquet table. But as Mary’s plots become more desperate, even Folly’s loyalty will be tested.
I have always been fascinated by Mary Queen of Scots and the mysteries surrounding her. The books I read when I was a teenager portrayed her either as a heartless schemer, or else as an innocent betrayed by evil men.
As I grew older I began to read the accounts of Mary’s life and death from the people who were actually there, like her physician Master Bourgoine. A new picture of Mary emerged- a spirited girl, an intelligent woman and a tolerant queen in a time when small differences in religious faith in other countries led to persecution and even torture and death.
And there was the dog, too- the small faithful dog who hid in his mistress's skirts to accompany her to the gallows. Where did he come from? What happened to him after that? What was it like, for a small dog to be companion to a queen?
The answers. mostly- were in Mary’s own letters, and the accounts of her death. I hope you find his story as fascinating as I did.

The most recent books:
Pharaoh- adventure and romance from 5,000 years ago, about the boy who united Egypt into one nation
My Pa the Polar Bear – the 8th in the wacky Family Series illustrated by Stephen Michael King
The Goat Who sailed the World - the true story of the goat who sailed with Cook up the east coast of Australia and around New Zealand.
Coming soon: The Shaggy Gully Times ... a cross between a picture book and the punniest newspaper you’ve ever read!
When Mr. Nasty's Zoo arrives the Shaggy Gully residents are determined to rescue the zoo animals. But can a wombat, a sheep and a dancing kangaroo really pilot Pa Emu’s plane?
How will disguised newcomers Ellie the Elephant, Gertie Gorilla and Rory Lyon fit into a small bush town?
What about the strange blonde intruder at the three bears’ gum tree? And will editor Mothball Wombat ever learn to spill?
Read all about it in October!

Schedule for the Next Few Months
There have been a few more additions to this, but basically am feeling too wobbly to add them in! But there are no more in the next month, and I’ll fill in the gaps next time.
August, 2007:Book Week talks in Sydney (just a few) Contact Lateral Learning for details (bookings@laterallearning.com.au).
13-16 September Albany Writer’s Festival, W.A.
17- 18 September: talks and workshop at the Fremantle Children’s literature Centre, W.A., including a workshop on how to use the picture books like Diary of a wombat and Josephine wants to dance and the historical novels like MacBeth and Son and Pharaoh in the classroom.
Sunday 4 November Open Garden Workshops at our place…rain, hail or drought these will go ahead, even if someone has to wheelchair me around the garden with a broken leg!

Ps I’m sorry- really sorry- that I can’t do more than one trip away from home each month these days. I would love to read stories at your preschool, or open your fete, or give a garden workshop. But I get about ten requests like that a week- and often much more. Sometimes I can’t even cope answers and apologies for events I can’t do. So please do understand if I can’t come to your event…or if it takes me a few months to get to your letter (assuming the wombat doesn’t chew it up first).
I also get about 200 emails a day, and two fruit boxes full of mail a week...and much as I’d love to, I can’t give long answers to every one, especially when the answers are in my books (gardening questions) or on the web site (school projects). It’s a real nightmare when the project questions from kids start coming in- I hate disappointing people, but it’s physically impossible to give answers to them all.
The answers to all the school project questions I’ve been asked this year really are on my main web site http://wwwjackiefrench.com

August in the Garden
What to do in August
. Take cuttings of geraniums/pelargoniums, daisies, fuchsias and salvias
. Inspect your rose stems. If there are any blackish lesions, prune the stems off: the stem is infected with black spot and mayspread the disease in summer. If there are any suspicious white pest like bulges, spray with Pestoil.
. Catch snails by leaving flower pots on their sides around the garden. The snails will shelter there during the day - and you can squash them and add them to the compost (snails are great free fertiliser).
. Level off any bumps and lumps in the lawn- fill holes with compost or good soil, and sow lawn seed now. An even lawn means that your mower will be able to give a nice even trim. Bare patches can also be 'oversown' now for a thick lush lawn throughout summer.
. Watch your azaleas for the first sign of pests (brown blotches or scurrying beasties); keep the soil moist but don't water the flowers - this may lead to petal blight.
. Mulch bare soil as soon as it warms up - if you mulch too early you'll slow down growth; if you mulch too late the weeds will colonise the soil before you get around to it.
. Prune fuchsias and roses in cold areas and prune winter blooming natives everywhere after they've finished flowering. 'Tip prune' perennial petunias to make them bushier; snip off dead flowers from spring bulbs like daffodils and jonquils as well as pansies, poppies, primulas and sweet peas to keep more blooms coming.
Feed: Trees and shrubs for healthy fruit, leaves and flowers this summer.

Veg
Cold: potatoes, onions, peas, spinach, turnips, broad beans.
Temperate and sub-tropical: IF (and only if) the soil feels warm to sit on, plant: beans, beetroot, carrots, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, corn, lettuce, silver beet, spring onions, parsnips, tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum, chilli and melons. If it's still a bit chilly, stick to potatoes and onions.
Tropical:beans, capsicum, sweet potato in well drained areas,zucchini and melons wherethey'll mature before summer humidity zaps them.
Flowers: Whatever is in the nursery! If I listed all the possibles I'd go on for pages - the ever favourites are petunias, impatiens, zinnias, marigolds, alyssum and calendulas, but try a few new ones this year too.Do look at 'flowering times' on the packet or punnet though, to see if they only bloom for a month or two, like sunflowers, or all through summer like petunias.

Growing Potatoes
         If you are longing to plant your vegies now, but the soil still feels cold when you sit on it, satisfy your gardening longings by planting out some spuds.
         Potatoes can be planted when the soil is still cold, as long as the soil isn’t frozen solid- if it is the potatoes will rot. And a homegrown potato is as deliciously different from a commercial one as a home grown tomato is from a supermarket special.
When to Sow
Tropical areas: Late Feb -Sept. (In hot areas avoid growing spuds in the wet season)
Subtropical: Late Jan -Sept.
Temperate: July, August, Sept; Then late Jan - Feb.
Cool:August - Dec; though you may get away with a January crop.
Shoots emerge: Anywhere from 6 days to two months, depending on the time of year and variety of the potato.
Days to maturity: 16 - 20 weeks , depending on variety and time of year; but you can bandicoot spuds from about 4 - 6 weeks on.
How to grow:
         You get potatoes by planting another potato - a seed potato - or a piece of potato with an 'eye' and letting it grow into a potato bush. The potatoes grow underneath - lovely fat tubers on the roots.
         Dig the garden bed deeply. Now spread either hen manure or blood and bone - spuds need a fair amount of phosphorus but not too much nitrogen or you'll get all leaf and no spud. Plant the potatoes about a hand span deep. As they start to grow 'hill' them so that the stem is covered by soil. You'll get a larger crop this way, as more roots will form from the stem - and the more root, the more potatoes.  It also helps stop potato moth from burrowing down.
         You can also mulch potatoes with leaves or lucerne hay or well dried lawn clippings etc instead of soil. This gives better results.        

Which variety to grow
         Perhaps a thousand varieties of potato have been grown at some time or other - black potatoes, blue potatoes, knobby or egg shaped, far removed from the neatwhite fleshed smooth brown or pink skinned ones we're familiar with.  Over four hundred potato varieties are still grown by specialist growers. Unfortunately only a few of these are grown commercially, and those are the ones that travel best, store best, are highly coloured like Pontiacs or are nice and long for commercial chip making.
         Even fifty years ago there were dozens of commercial varieties in Australia, some like Brown's River, a purple skinned variety grown mostly in Tasmania, or the Vicar of Laleham, in Victoria, or Duchess of Bucleuch, Early Puritan, General Kitchener, Royal Kidney and other names now disappeared. Each district grew potatoes that were suited to it, each cook chose them according to the season and the purpose for which they were to be used. Potatoes have become standardized - and not for the better.
        
Common Shop Varieties
         Coliban
Very white fleshed; a good chipper; not so good for salads unless baked.
         Desirée
These are pink skinned, with a pale yellow flesh. They are originally from Holland. They don't mash well, but boil or steam wonderfully, though a lot of the colour fades from the skin. They make excellent salads, either as new potatoes or as old ones.
         King Edward.
A large white potato, best for baking. King Edwards disintegrate when boiled, so don't.If you must use them for a salad, bake them instead - though they are a bit too grainy for best results.
Brownell
A red skinned Tasmanian variety.
         Pontiac
The main pink skinned potato grown.Beware though - some are artificially coloured to get better prices. Pontiacs boil and steam well, and are excellent for salads.
         Sebago
One of the main types grown. I find commercial ones make an awful salad - too soft and grainy. Home grown ones are firmer and good. They are best used reasonably fresh.
Potato Seed
         'Seed potatoes' are small, disease free potatoes. True 'potato seed', picked after the potato flowers have set, may not be viable and if it does grow, will take two years to produce good sized spuds. Potato seed is fun to play around with though - you may find that cross pollination gives you a new variety.
         It is illegal to plant potatoes that have sprouted in your cupboard - you should use registered disease-free seed to prevent disease spreading - usually via aphids that can travel long distances. In reality this law is frequently broken and is impossible to police. Don't grow non-certified ones in a potato growing area - you may spread disease - aphids can carry potato virus for many kilometers. Never use potatoes that may have come from diseased plants; don't use them either if the shoots are long and thin - this is a symptom of a virus infection.
         If you want to grow a new potato variety, you can try growing the true seed. Pick the fruit when it is ripe, about 6 - 8 weeks from 'setting' , squeeze the seed out of the fruit into a bowl and cover with water, leave fora week to ferment, then wash the seeds clean. Keep them in an old envelope till next spring.
         Even if you have only one sort of potato growing, you may find considerable variation in the potatoes produced. Save the best and keep growing them - or grow several varieties and see what crosses you produce.
         Have fun.

Harvesting potatoes
         Harvest potatoes when all the potato vegetation has died down. Put them in hessian bags or wooden boxes covered in newspaper straight away. Potatoes turn green very fast when first dug and exposed to sunlight. Green potatoes are poisonous.

Potato bandicooting
         We have a wild patch of potatoes - it keeps growing, as we never entirely harvest the crop. I just wriggle my hand down and pull out what we need. Any weeds in that part of the garden, old corn stalks, prunings etc are tossed onto the potatoes - the only mulch and feeding they get.
         They've been feeding us for ten years.
         Note: This doesn't work where lots of people are growing potatoes and aphids may spread disease from one crop to another. In this case you need to buy in fresh seed potatoes every year and plant in a different part of the garden.
Potatoes for storage
         Potatoes for storage should be harvested when the tops wither. The skins are tougher and will stay firm longer. Always bag your potatoes as soon as you bring them above ground - they are most prone to 'greening' when just dug.
Potato storage
         Store potatoes in a dark, airy place where they won't sweat. A vegetable rack is best. Damp potatoes rot. Never store potatoes in plastic bags.
         Don't store them near apples or citrus either - most fruit releases ethylene which promotes ripening - and your potatoes will start to sprout prematurely and turn soft.
         Clean your potato storage area after every crop - that way any spores from past rotting won't affect the next lot.

What can go wrong
Green potatoes
         These should be thrown out. Potatoes turn green when exposed to light. They are more likely to turn green in the first few hours after digging - never leave your potatoes on top of the soil, even for half an hour - bag them straight away. All potatoes contain solanine, but green potatoes contain possibly poisonous amounts. The green patch will contain most, but any potato that has a green patch probably has high levels through the rest of it too. If a potato tastes bitter, don't eat it. Store potatoes in a dark place.
         Symptoms of solanine poisoning resemble gastro-enteritis. Small quantities probably won't make you ill but it's best to be safe. Save green potatoes for seed and don't eat bitter ones. It is not actually the green bits that make you ill - after all that is just chlorophyll - but the greening alerts you to the fact that the whole tuber has gone into growth mode which is when it is dangerous. So don't just cut out the green bits thinking that you are making the rest of the potato wholesome - you've just eaten the canary in the coal mine and it hasn't changed the situation.
Black potatoes
         All potatoes turn black or grey when they are cut. This is ugly but harmless. If your potatoes turn black during cooking it's just a reaction with iron in the water - again, harmless. Add a dash of lemon juice or vinegar to the water if this happens.
Rotten potatoes
         These stink. You can cut out the bad bit and eat the rest of the potato, though - the firm part of the potato won't have been affected.Make sure soil is well drained with no undecomposed organic matter in it.Don't plant potatoes where there have been rotten potatoes for five years.
Potato moth
          Hill the potatoes or make sure they are mulched to the top of the plant so the moth can't get into the tubers or their stalk.
Hard potatoes
         These have been infected with a virus - use certified seed potatoes. Make sure you get rid of all infected potatoes.
Aphids
         Mulch heavily and aphids will avoid the plants. As a last resort spray with glue spray - one cup of flour, one cup of boiling water - then add as much cold water as you need to be able to spray it.
Ladybirds
          Mulch up to the top leaves will mostly keep them away; spray with pyrethrum as a last resort.
Potato blight (This is the blight that precipitated mass Irish starvation- English absentee landlords helped too.)Dark brownish spots appear on the leaves which increase in size with a green white mould. Leaves die, lesions appear on the stems.
         Potato blight fungus spores are washed from the leaves to the tubers which then rot. Potato blight can be carried by wind, water or infected plants.
         Spray with Bordeaux in the early stages to prevent spores washing to the ground. Spray again if symptoms continue after two weeks. If symptoms appear near harvest slash off the tops and burn them or compost. Then spray the stalks with Bordeaux. It is worth doing this and getting a slightly smaller crop than risk losing the lot.
Potato moth (The moth burrows in potatoes; these may rot.)
          Make sure no tubers are exposed so the female moth can lay eggs in the potatoes - hill and mulch regularly. A companion crop of broad beans planted just before the potatoes, then slashed as mulch for the potatoes mature is an excellent control.
Target spot
          This is more widespread than potato blight, slower acting and later. Small spots appear on the leaves which eventually die off. This happens so slowly that the grower may think the plants are dying off naturally.  Yield will be much reduced.
         Spray with Bordeaux when symptoms appear and every two weeks from then on.
Soggy potatoes
          These are lacking in potash.  Add wood ash to the soil - not too much or the soil may become to alkaline, or potash rich fertiliser. Mulch with comfrey or good compost.
Vlad’s Mum’s Potato Cakes
I learned these from a lovely man who used to spend his nights helping Jewish refugees swim across a wide cold river in World War 2, in what was Yugoslavia when I knew him, but isn’t now. I never did learn which river it was...I suppose swimming was more inconspicuous than using a boat.
When he got home his mum would have hot potato cakes waiting for him...and many years later, after he in turn had become a refugee himself and come to Australia, he showed me how to do it. They are the best I’ve ever had, and quite irresistible.
         For every cup of grated potato add 1 dessertspoon chopped parsley, 2 chopped cloves garlic, 1 dessertspoon chopped onion, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon plain flour.  Mix well.  Drop spoonfuls on a hot pan with plenty of olive oil or butter, or a mixture of both.  Cook till brown on one side then turn.
         If the cake sticks the pan wasn't hot enough, or clean enough.  If the potatoes are very liquid you may need to add a little more flour.