Wombat News | Other News | Absolutely Totally Non Wombat News | New Books | Schedule for This year | February gardening- Wonderful, Glorious Groves!!!!!
(or how to have a fabulous Aussie style garden with no water, work or worry) |
A Few Recipes…the coolest summer deserts
The Wombat Wars have begun again. (As opposed to the Wars of the Roses, which don’t happen, because all the roses around here belong to Rosie Wallaby. All the other wallabies are either Rosie’s sons or daughters, and all have very nicely decided that ‘Mum Gets First Go at the Roses.’)
Wombats, however, don’t do etiquette. Not when there’s a good patch of grass around.
The Wombat Wars are over the only bit of green grass in the district, except where bores or pumps are draining the last bit of the water table to keep their owners lawns lush, weird little private oases in a world of brown and hungry animals.
Anyhow, the Wombat Wars grass is between the water tank and the house. I suspect gets a bit of seepage from our roof pipe to the tank, which is why it’s always green. It’s also kikuyu so it grows fast, and is sheltered so it doesn’t brown off. I go to sleep most nights listening to Mothball Wombat munch away at it, and she’s munching away there when I wake up.
I don’t think she stays there all night. Well, I know she doesn’t, as there are Mothball size droppings on the steps, doorstep, my gumboot and any other place that Mothball things will demonstrate to any encroaching wombat that This Place Is Hers.
Given the grass shortage, it’s no wonder that there are great snarls, growls and flat out shrieks of rage and attack every half hour or so, as other wombats edge closer to the greenery. Mothball isn’t the largest wombat about. But she’s certainly the most stroppy. I don’t think any other wombat has had a blade of that grass for the last six years. Or wallaby. Even echidnas (who’s diet of ants, termites and the odd other multi legged creature shouldn’t threatened her at all) stay well away from Mothball.
There’s almost no grass around now- bare dirt or that almost-crackly stuff, like cornflakes that have been at the back of the cupboard too long. But the wombats and wallabies in the ‘garden’- the hectares around the house- still look happily plump. The wombats are eating the fallen avocadoes, which are high in protein, leave their coats beautifully glossy, and also seem to give them some resistance to mange.
And the swamp wallabies find grass boring, anyhow. They much prefer roses, celery, spring onions and grapes leaves. I watched Housemouse* Wallaby nibble the banana leaves yesterday, then decide he liked them and start munching. I almost persuaded myself I love Housemouse more than my banana tree. Well, I do, but part of me would like Housemouse AND the banana tree to survive...
I suspect the banana WILL survive though, no matter how much Housemouse chomps it. Wallabies may drastically prune a garden, but they only destroy young fruit trees, and that’s by pulling down their branches, not nibbling.
* Houseouse got his name when he was still living in Rosie’s pouch, and was the same size and colour as a mouse.
Other News.
No rain. Have become a Weather Site junkie, zapping over to look at the radar every hour or so, just in case a thunder storm is sneaking around the mountains. But none has headed this way.
The hill of trees in front of my study turned brown yesterday. They’ll come back, I think. When it rains. If it rains, in the next month anyway. According to the very unreliable pricking of my thumbs, it’ll rain towards the end of March, with good falls in April. But I have absolutely no scientific basis for that at all. Well, apart from a rather loud wombat courtship ritual, which may mean that the wombats suspect that good grass is around the corner. None of the wombats had a young one this year- have never known the valley to be so baby- less. But maybe next summer there’ll be small furry footballs chomping at the tussocks.
Sorry. Have somehow started talking about wombats in this section, too.
Absolutely Totally non Wombat News
Er, nothing much. Lovely trip to Jindabyne to talk at 10th birthday of the Information Centre, which has a great theatre and even greater people.
And yes, to anyone who saw a car heading the wrong way down the Jindabyne highway for 100 metres: that was me. Well, there were no cars coming the other way and as a dyslexic I never can work out which side of the road to drive on without other cars to give me a clue. And it really wasn’t a danger to traffic. Honest. Not given the lack of cars on highway previously referred to. (Luckily there weren’t any cars at all from Cooma to home, over Snowball and the Badga. Just lots of wallabies and a few roos. Roos I can deal with. Much less complicated than traffic.)
New Books
Pharaoh has just gone to the printer!
It’s always a moment of extraordinary relief when that happens. Also terror. Also regret ... keep thinking of absolutely essential changes but thank goodness it’s too late now. And suspect those changes would just have been labouring the point, too.
But I do hope the book works. It’s set long before the pyramids were built, and based on the true story of Narmer (or Menes or Aha) who united ancient Egypt into one country. The book’s full title is ‘Pharaoh: The Boy Who Conquered the Nile.
The people called him ‘The golden One,’ destined to be prince on Thinis, the biggest town along the River and for Narmer, the centre of the world.
But a devastating accident forces him to give up his right to the throne and sends him on a journey across the middle east with the mysterious Trader, the crippled Nitho and a tamed wildcat called Bast. And as he travels he discovers that Thinis is really a very small place indeed.
But can he ever forget his homeland? How far do you have to travel to be a king?
Based on the historical characters of Narmer and his wife Nithotep, Pharaoh is an adventure, a romance, and a window into the dawn of agriculture, writing, history and civilisation. Narmer and his Queen Nithotep are perhaps the world’s first historical characters, their lives only hinted at in the few remnants we have left- the Narmer palette, a few mentions of Narmer’s name, and Nithotep’s tomb. It is also a study of life in ancient Egypt as well as in Iraq and the middle east, so much in the news at the moment.
It’s been strange, at times, reading the news of modern Iraq at breakfast, then writing about the same land of 5,000 years ago- the start of agriculture, the first wheeled carts, and the trading empire of the city of Ur, once the biggest, most advanced city in the world.
Other books
Josephine Wants to Dance is in stock again! It sold out before Christmas, but there should be copies around again now. And Pete the Sheep should be back in the shops in another week or two, too- it sold out in early December too. (No one guessed so many copies would be sold so fast.)
January’s new book , My Pa the Polar Bear, the eighth in the Wacky Family series, is out now too. Every family is wacky in it’s own way. But maybe not quite as wacky as Fuzz’s family.
Fuzz and his family run a zoo. His dad is the zoo’s tiger, his sister’s a giraffe, his brothers happily spend their time dressed up as monkeys and his mother loves being a rhinoceros (she never has to diet, and that horn can be useful when the kids misbehave).
Fuzz’s grandad, Pa, loves being a polar bear. But what will happen when Pa and Fuzz meet REAL polar bears? And who is Legsie, the mysterious long legged elf? And what about the Man in Red, and the melting icecaps?
My Pa the Polar Bear is the eighth and last in the Wacky Family Series. (Other titles include My Dog the Dinosaur, My Mum the Pirate, My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken and My Dad the Dragon.) Hopefully they get kids laughing, having fun...and reading, reading, reading, even past new words like volcano and door knocker, till the reach the end.
Email Contact Address
I’ve just been hooked up to a new email address, jackiefrench72@gmail.com
I’ve never given out my email address before – we have such poor phone lines out this way (curse Telstra forever) that our system just collapses if we get too many emails, or emails with lots of data, like big attachments, or, even worse, photos attached.
But this one is separate from my home and work system, so I’ll see how it goes. But please, please don’t send attachments or photos! And please, please don’t send me lots of questions where the answers are in my gardening books, or ask for material for school projects that’s already on jackiefrench.com. I’m not sure I can answer more queries than I do already! In fact I’m pretty sure I can’t.
And if you just want to say ‘hi’ or it isn’t urgent, please write the message in the guest book at jackiefrench.com, and I’ll answer when I check the messages once a month.
The address above is just if there’s something that’s urgent or that I really need to hear. If there are too many emails for our phone lines to cope (or me) with I’ll have to stop using it.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
February, 21 Perth Literary Festival at Newman in the Pilbara.
Feb 22, Perth Literary Festival
24 February: Dad’s 80th birthday party!!!!
Sunday, March 11 Canberra, Australian Women’s Weekly Road Tour, talks at 3.30 and 4.30 on How to Speak Wombat and other Adventures, and How to Grow Just About Everything Without Water- or weeding, feeding or pruning
March 14, Goulburn NSW Australian Women’s Weekly Road Tour- talks at 11.00 and 12.30, one on How to Speak Wombat and other Adventures with Books, and How to Grow Roses Without Water- or weeding, feeding or pruning.
March 20 Keynote Address, National Community Gardens and Cityfarms Conference, Melbourne
March 24, 25 Norman Lindsay Festival, Springwood, Blue Mountains NSW
April 1 Braidwood NSW Two Fires Festival: panel talk, but don’t know on what yet!
April 2007: Open Garden Workshops at our place. The Fruitful Garden…how to grow 270 sorts of fruit in drought, heat and frost as well as providing a haven for wildlife. Limited places, bookings necessary. Contact the Open Garden Scheme for details. (Please don’t contact us. We can't take the bookings – they have to go through the Open Garden Scheme).
Tuesday 15 May, 2007, Allwrite Festival, Adelaide.
May 28 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Parramatta
May 29 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Wollongong
May 30 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Sydney
May 31 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Newcastle
2-4 July SLANZA Conference (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa)
5 July Adelaide: International Library Association Dinner
August, 2007: Book Week talks in Sydney and Melbourne (just a few) Contact Lateral Learning for details (bookings@laterallearning.com.au).
13-16 September Albany Writer’s Festival, W.A.
17 September: talks and workshop at the Fremantle Children’s literature Centre, W.A.
February gardening- Wonderful, Glorious Groves!!!!!
or how to have a fabulous garden without watering, weeding, spraying (and I do mean without watering- no hoses, no buckets of recycled water.)
More than 200 years after white settlers first arrived here, we are still trying to grow gardens like European parks- lots of grass, straight garden beds of annuals, scattered shrubs and trees that fall down at the first big wind, because they’ve been grown in the lawn and their roots are poor shallow things.
The result? Gardens that must be pruned and tended, with pesticides to combat insect plagues, herbicides for the weeds, lawn mowers, whippersnippers, leaf blowers and other expensive paraphernalia…plus large amounts of water or the gardens die in the first drought.
Australian gardens don’t lack water. They just have too much evaporation. Cut down on the evaporation, and your garden can survive- and even flourish- with far less water than you ever thought possible.
Our garden survives the cold, heat and drought because it’s planted in groves. And that is how we can grow such a lot without doing much- if any- work in our orchard, too. Groves look after themselves. And they give us- and the wombats, wallabies and so many other inhabitants of our garden- an extraordinary amount.
I believe that a garden- or a farm- should feed and shelter wildlife, too. We share the world, we don’t own it. And the best way to do that is to grow LOTS- with as little work on my part as possible.
More Grove Magic- what your groves will give you
Weather Control
Groves cool the air when it’s hot, and help keep it warm when it’s cold. And they help keep it humid in dry times, too.
It’s worth heading to Canberra just to go through the rain forest gully in the botanic gardens. There’s a temperature and humidity measure just outside. It will tell you how hot/cold/ dry in is outside the gully- and what it’s like inside. And it is always amazing- even for someone who expects it- to see how the gully and the plants regulate their own temperature and humidity.
And that is what happens in a grove.
Without a grove there is no way we could grow avocadoes in the frost or snow flakes here, or custard apples, or even oranges in dry times. (Sometimes I think the neighbours assume there is something magic about this end of the valley. But it’s not. It’s just the groves.)
Drought protection
More shade means less evaporation. But it’s more than that. In droughts often the only rain is ‘mizzle’ a cross between mist and drizzle. Not enough to wet the soil. But it WILL be enough to wet the leaves...and groves have many levels of leaves. Each one gathers drips then drops them as they condense…and you’ll find your groves have ‘trapped’ moisture from the air. Not a lot- but enough to keep your grove alive when the plants outside are dying.
Wind protection
The winds howl about. But in the grove the leaves hardly move. And even the outside trees are protected from gusty turmoil by their companions either side.
Pest control
Pests recognise their food by it’s shape- silhouette- or its smell. But trees in groves, with lots of vines growing up them, disguise both shape and scent. Result: very few pests.
Weed control
Weeds need space and light to get a toe hold. And they won’t find either in a grove.
Easy Mulchability
Groves grow a lot in a small space- and a small space means less space needs to be mulched. Plus groves hide ugly mulch from view. We bung just about anything that has once live under our trees. (We call it ‘consigning it to the ecology”. Dead foxes, old doormats, fallen trees, Aunties that have karked it…only joking there, though- honestly- if it were legally possible that is how I’d like to be buried when I die. Under the corn stalks under the avocado trees, growing more fruit for my grandchildren.
Longer Fruiting Times
Most fruit trees fruit all at once- greater for the orchardist who wants to take their fruit to market. But the last thing a home grower wants is 6 cases of apricots all in one week.
Fruit in groves matures over a much longer time. Our ‘groved’ oranges fruit over 3-4 months, instead of two weeks. Our ‘groved’ peachcotts fruit over three weeks instead of one week. Groved apples can mature over six weeks instead of three weeks.
Possum control
Possums do NOT like climbing thickets with lots of vines.
Bird Control
Well, not control. Sharing. It’s a tithe system for wildlife. They get one tenth- the top fruit. I get the rest. Anyone can afford to give birds one tenth. And birds find it very difficult to find fruit deep in a grove.
Self Sufficiency
A grove means LOTS. Lots grown in a small space. Lots of varieties. Lots of fruit. Lots more for the wombats, wallabies, lyrebirds, and the birds who feast on the upper layers. Lots more in tough dry, hot or frosty times.
And lots for you.
How To Start a Grove
Step 1
Start your grove with a single, very hardy tree that you know will survive severe frost, hellish winds, summers over 45C and drought...a bunya, loquat, macadamia, or plum, pears or apples NOT on dwarfing rootstock- you need the big vigorous ones for this. If the seasons are good you can get away with trees like lillypillies, calamondins or oranges or any other trees that grows well for you.
Mulch it. Use Wettasoil. Cosset it all you can. If necessary put it in a tree guard to keep it alive.
Ps You can of course start several groves at once. In this case plant the trees about two or three metres apart.
Step 2
Wait till it's established, at least three years old, more in tough climates. Plant another four hardy trees right at it's dropline- where the drips fall off the outer leaves. (IF you have lots of water, you can plant these at the same time as the first tree.)
Make it all a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. This will mean that the ever green trees will get more light when the deciduous ones lose their leaves in winter.
When they are established continue, infinitum.
Step 3
Now… plant trees that aren’t so hardy… citrus, that will die in dry times, or avocadoes that might die in frost, in between the other trees. Many- if not most- subtropical and tropical trees grow naturally under the skirts of their parents i.e. the young trees actually LIKE semi shade. And yes, some of the trees in the middle will grow more slowly than trees planted outside the groves, as they get less light. But they WILL grow. And trees are very good at finding their own sunlight- they just keep growing up till they find it.
Trees which actually prefer semi shade include macadamias, tamarilloes, avocadoes, custard apples, lillypillies, ice-cream bean trees, sapotes, Davidson’s plum, quandongs.
Step 4.
Plant climbers, like passionfruit, hops, grapes, kiwi fruit, including wild kiwi fruit that don’t need male and female, chilacayote, chokos, rambling roses up the outer trees.
Step 5
Plant shade tolerating veg and other plants on the lowest level. Native ginger, ginger lilies, ginseng, wild strawberries, Jerusalem artichokes on the outside where they get just a bit more light. But don’t plant too much, as you need to leave a lot of space for mulch.
Groves are magic. Truly. You end up with a great glorious canopy of different fruits. You get the lower fruit, the birds get the top ones you can't get to (They'll find it hard to reach the lower fruit in all that mass of branches)
Groves are the best way I know to really intensify the productivity of your land, so there is enough for you, your friends, your chooks, and MORE wildlife than the place supported before.
Some Grove Hints
1. Avoid dwarf trees. Another phrase for 'dwarf varieties' is 'not very vigorous'. I've found that dwarf apple trees keel over in gales here whereas the full sized ones are tougher than old boots.
Trouble is, many trees you may buy as full sized tree are really on semi-dwarfing root stock, as few gardeners or farmers want 20 metre high lemons, limes, oranges, apples etc. The trees you grow from seed will be full sized – and their roots will be too.
2. Don't plant in the lawn! Lawns get watered often… well, 'lawn' type lawns do (or did) and that means that the trees' root systems tend to be small and shallow, as they don't have to hunt down deep for moisture. Lawns are also often on shallow top soil, too, brought in and spread over the hard packed concrete stuff left after the house was built. Again– the result is trees that easily fall even in a stiff breeze.
3. Encourage roots to go deep down then spread. An old-fashioned way of doing this is to dig a deep hole – as deep as you can manage. Then plant your tree in a bucket or ten-gallon drum (excuse the lack of metric here) with the base cut out. The plant will need to grow DOWN before its roots can grow OUT… and the soft soil replaced in the hole will mean it's easy for the roots to penetrate. (IF you don't do this your poor plant may sulk and stay root bound).
4. Water deeply. This means a once a week or fortnight deep slow watering, so that in between the roots need to forage down deep for moisture. Or when you plant the tree, plant a two metre piece of polypipe with it about one and a half metres deep at the edge of the tree’s hole.
When you want to water the tree, pour water down the pipe... the moisture will head down deep to the root level. You'll waste less water (no run off, no evaporation); the water will be going where it’s needed, not wasted on the surface, and you'll also be encouraging the roots to forage downwards.
5. Don't stake trees. Instead take some old nylon stockings – or anything else with a bit of 'give' like polypipe or old hose, strips of t-shirts or other stretchy fabric – and tie four or five bits to the tree then stake them down about a metre out from the tree. This allows the tree to rock a bit, but still stops it being blown over till the root system has grown enough to anchor it well.
6. We prune the lower branches away from our trees- it keeps them out of wallaby reach and it makes it easier to weed, mulch, plant or mow under them. But it makes them top heavy and liable to falling over in high winds. If you’re in a windy area, don’t.
7. Wet trees are heavy trees... if by any wonderful chance a windy wet season arrives, with lots of lush leaf and branch growth, it can be worth thinning trees out by pruning away thin or unwanted branches. This allows the wind to blow through them, rather than blow them over.
8. Trees protect each other. Winds may be blocked by stone or brick walls, but often 'dump' on the other side of them, causing turbulence and tree loss. But wind is slowed down as it blows through groves of trees and shrubs.
9. In very windy areas plant a line of tall, very deep-rooted trees like walnuts or pecans to help protect the others. (Assuming you have deep soil so they CAN be deep rooted). But these are very large trees, and not suitable for a small garden except where you DON’T have wind and can prune off the lower branches to let in more light to other plantings.
A Few Recipes
The Coolest Summer Deserts I know
1. Grown Up Iceblocks
(pretty fantastic for kids too...and really excellent as a dessert at a barbeque!!!!!!)
1 cup pineapple, chopped
1 cup rockmelon, chopped
1 banana. chopped
half cup cream
half cup sugar
half cup water OR Champagne or good white wine
juice half a lemon
1 tsp mint, chopped, optional OR 1tsp ginger root, peeled and chopped, optional
half cup grapes, optional
half cup pawpaw, chopped, optional
half cup strawberries, chopped, optional
half cup lychees, chopped, optional
You will also need: iceblock moulds or plastic or disposable cups
iceblock sticks or teaspoons
Boil sugar and water or wine with the mint or ginger (or no ginger and mint as you prefer) for 5 minutes. Cool.
Add the fruit. You must have pineapple and banana and preferably rockmelon too, but other fruit can be added from the list.
Take long iceblock moulds, or plastic cups or even disposable cups. Pour about tb of cream into each, then carefully add the fruit mixture, so that the cream stays mostly at the bottom, and doesn't mix through it too much. Poke an iceblock stick or teaspoon into each one; freeze, and eat.
2.Raspberry and Blueberry Jelly (looks stunning)
Serves 4-6 unless you're greedy
1 packet frozen raspberries
1 packet frozen blueberries
extra strawberries, peaches or other fruit
1 cup white wine
1 cup castor sugar
juice of two lemons
half cup water
2 sachets gelatine
Use a no stick cake tin or line a cake tin with plastic wrap. Place sliced strawberries or peaches in the bottom; empty in the blueberries and raspberries.
Heat all other ingredients except the gelatine till nearly boiling; take off the heat; add gelatine.(Mix a little with some of the liquid first so you don't get lumps). Pour liquid into the cake tin. Leave till set...it will take several hours.
Turn it out onto a plate. If it won't come out easily dip the base of the tin in hot water in the sink for about 30 seconds- make sure no liquid gets into the tin though! this will loosen the jelly enough for it to slide out.
Serve slices with cream, or ice-cream.
Note: if that amount of gelatine doesn't form a well set jelly, the whole thing can be slightly warmed and more gelatine (mixed with a little of the warmed liquid first) can be added. For some reason sometimes more is needed- possibly this depends on the ripeness and juiciness of the berries.
3. The Five Minute Wonder- Fried Bananas
Ingredients
4 bananas, thinly sliced
4 tsp butter or margarine
4 tb golden syrup
4 tb rum
Optional: 4 rings of fresh pineapple, cored and chopped
Melt the butter in a frying pan on a very low heat; add the fruit and fry on both sides for three minutes; add the golden syrup and the rum and keep cooking till thick- another 2 minutes or so.
Serve with thick cream, ice-cream or yoghurt.
4. Grapefruit and Lychees in Champagne (A cheat's dessert!!!!)
1 can grapefruit segments
1 can lychees
1 cup green grapes(can be peeled and seeded if you feel energetic; I don't bother)
1 bottle champagne
1 tsp chopped mint OR two dashes bitters
Drain the fruit; place in glasses with the mint; cover with cling wrap and chill. Add champagne just before serving.
Note: if using fresh fruit, mix with a syrup of half cup water boiled with half cup sugar and the juice of half a lemon for two hours or overnight before draining and adding the champagne
5. Chilled Oranges
4 oranges, peeled and sliced and membrane removed
4 tb orange zest
4 tb cointreau
4 tb castor sugar
1 tb water
Place sugar, zest and castor sugar in a pan; bubble till it JUST turns golden. Take off the heat. Add to oranges and cointreau. Chill with cling wrap over it. Serve cold. You can serve with cream or ice-cream- and very good it is too- but it is also a wonderfully light but sweet dessert after a rich meal.
6. Chocolate Peppermint Pots
2 cups cream
3 eggs
8 squares Lindt or other very good chocolate
4 drops peppermint essence
4 tb castor sugar
Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave and stir into the cream with the peppermint essence. Mix in the eggs. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes or till just set. Serve in very small portions with a peppermint leaf on top to pretend it's herbal and healthy. (Ha!)
7. Lemon Sorbet (my favourite dessert)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup lemon juice
4 egg whites
Boil sugar and water for 5 minutes. Cool. Add lemon juice and whipped egg whites. Freeze. Stir two or three times while it's freezing as the liquid and egg white will separate. Serve in chilled glasses and eat fast.
8. Lemon and Mint Granita
2 cups water
1 cup castor sugar
2 tsp mint, finely chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
boil sugar and water for 5 minutes. cool. Add mint, juice and zest; freeze till slushy, or freeze till firm and let it melt a bit while you eat the main course. Serve in chilled dishes and eat with a teaspoon.
9. Grilled grapefruit
Thirty seconds preparation; five minutes cooking
Halve a grapefruit for each person. Top with lots of brown sugar. Grill till the sugar is quite melted. (If you are really pampering your guest you can separate each segment of the grapefruit with a sharpish spoon before grilling, but it's not necessary. You can also add a few drops of rum or whisky to each grapefruit... or, even better, gin.
10. Fruit Crush
You need a blender to make this. It is extraordinarily fresh and good and fruity.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp tartaric acid
3 cups ripe fragrant strawberries (quarter them if they're large) OR
3 cups ripe fragrant pineapple, chopped (def not canned) OR
3 cups squishy ripe mulberries OR
3 cups very ripe raspberries (pick out all beetles)
Freeze the fruit FAST i.e. don't bung it in a crowded freezer, or all bunched up together. Place fruit in a plastic freezer bag and freeze in a single layer. Use with two days or the fruit will lose a lot of its fragrance. If possible, use as soon as it's frozen.
Boil other ingredients for five minutes. Refrigerate till very cold- semi frozen is even better.
Throw fruit in blender. Add 1 cup of syrup; turn on blender and process. Add more syrup only if the mixture is to thick for the blender to process.
Serve at once. It will be semi frozen, and slightly liquid; eat what you can with a spoon and slurp up the rest.
p.s a few mint leaves go well with the pineapple; a little orange zest added to the syrup when it's cooking is good with strawberries.
11. Rich Rhubarb and Caramel Baked Custard
(one of Bryan's favourites)
2 cups cream
4 eggs
8 tb brown sugar
2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 cup orange juice
ground nutmeg or powdered ginger
Simmer rhubarb in orange juice and 4 tb sugar till soft. Add water only if sticking.
Place in an ovenproof dish.
Beat the cream, eggs and remaining sugar with a fork or eggbeater for three minutes. Pour over the rhubarb. Dust on a little ground nutmeg or powdered ginger. Bake at 200C for half an hour or till firm. Serve hot, or eat the cold leftovers for a sinful breakfast.
12. Plums in Port
1 can plums, drained, or 16 fresh plums, halved
OR pears, quinces, a mix of granny smith apples and dried apricots. In fact even old doormats would probably taste pretty good in this stuff
1 cup port
1 cup water
6 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
half cup sugar
juice 1 lemon
Place all ingredients in a stainless steel saucepan. Simmer fruit gently till soft- anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour. Serve either hot or cold. Keeps for several days covered in the fridge.
13. Melon in Ginger Syrup
Cut water and other melons into bite size chunks. Drizzle with a VERY little green ginger wine (a good excuse to buy some for winter tippling) or combine 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar and one teaspoon peeled grated ginger. Simmer for twenty minutes, and drizzle that over the fruit.
14. Home Made Vanilla Ice cream
3 cups cream
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
1 tb castor sugar
Place cream, egg yolks and castor sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean long ways, and scrape out the pulp into the pan. Now turn the heat on to the lowest possible setting, and stir for about ten minutes. Don't stop stirring. When the mix thickens enough to coat the spoon take it off the heat. Let the mix cool then put it in an ice cream machine and follow the usual directions. If you don't have an ice ream machine put the creamy mix into a plastic container in the freezer. Remove the container every ten or twenty minutes and beat the cream with a whisk or egg beater till it's light and frozen. I know this is fiddly, but it's worth it.
True vanilla ice-cream is perfect with apple or apricot pie, or simply by itself.
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