Sitting on a brown snake is possibly one of the stupidest things I’ve done.
’Watch out for brown snakes,’ I tell everyone who comes here in summer. ‘Look where you put your hands and feet.’
And then I went and sat on one.
It was a cold day, which is no excuse. The air may feel cool here in summer, the ground is usually warm enough to tempt snakes out.
But that day it was cold enough to wear ugg boots, and when I went out to pick tomatoes for lunch I just sort of forgot there might be snakes about. And when I saw the weed sticking up next to the young Jonathon apple tree (I love Jonathon apples) I reached down to pull it out…
… and found my hand was about 10 cms from the head of a startled brown snake.
I screamed, jumped, the ugg boots slipped on the damp grass. I fell, but somehow had the sense to roll and keep on rolling downhill as soon as I landed.
Ten seconds later I realised that by some miracle I hadn’t been bitten, and the brown snake was realising that by some miracle it hadn’t been squished by the stupidest human it had ever come across. And then I went inside and had a cup of tea and decided we didn’t need tomatoes for lunch.
I haven’t seen the brown snake since.
Wombat news
The grass is long, and the wombats fat. When human have spare time they write books or play (or listen to) symphonies. When wombats are in a land of plenty they just sleep a lot. There isn’t even any hole renovating going on. They just toddle out as soon as the night is cool, munch for an hour or two, then go back to bed.
Wombats can have several kinds of bed. Sometimes it’s just a nice smooth stretch of hole with all the rocks shoved out of the way. Sometimes it’s a dry bed of sand. Other wombats collect bracken or tussocks. We had one wombat who carefully picked branches of lavender and carried them back to her hole. It’s probably the most sweetly fragrant wombat bed in history. In fact it’s possibly the only sweetly fragrant wombat bed in history. She also demolished three lavender bushes making it.
As for Mothball, even she can’t be bothered bashing the front door most nights. She did bite my leg the other night – we had friends who came out to meet her, and she didn’t like being disturbed. Luckily I was wearing wide-legged jeans so she got a mouthful of cloth, not flesh. But she made her point – Wombat: do not disturb.
Floods, Fires, Cyclones, Earthquakes and Books
There are times when no matter how much we’d like to lend a hand and shoulder, the only useful thing to do is contribute money to appeals. But, please, if you know any child (or school) who has lost books of mine that they value this year, or for some other reason badly needs one, please do let me know. I don’t have copies of all my books (some are out of print) but I’ll send what I can.
Mine News
Those who read this newsletter regularly will know that we are just downstream from a proposed gold and lead mine and processing plant, using xanthates and other chemicals. Many people around are trying to sell and move away. We’re staying, but the threat to the land that I love, the animals and plants if there is an accidental spill into the creek, is at times too hard even to think about.
One thing which might help are signatures on a petition, asking for more stringent controls to be placed on any mine, including moving the tailings dam from the headwaters of Majors Creek, and the Araluen, Deua and Moruya Rivers.
If you have time, could you download the two petitions at this link, print them out and sign them – or ask others for signatures too then post them to me at P.O. Box 63, Braidwood NSW by the end of March?
http://www.jackiefrench.com/petition1_darguesreef.html
The loss of the bush I love would break my heart, but the loss of the rare and endangered species of this world affects us all. If you can help with petitions I would be more grateful than I can express.
Latest Awards
The Tomorrow Book (illustrated by Sue de Gennaro) has been shortlisted for a design award at this years Australian Publishers’ Association Book Design Awards. The Tomorrow Book was designed by the brilliant Natalie Winter, who has helped create so many other stunning books with HarperCollins.
There are three other books on the shortlist, and one of them was also illustrated by Sue – The Vegetable Ark. The Awards will be announced on May 19.
The Night They Stormed Eureka won the 2010 NSW Premier’s History Award for Young People.
Baby Wombat’s Week, co-created with Bruce Whatley, is on the ‘long list’ for The Kate Greenway Awards in the UK… wombat paws crossed that it makes it to the ‘short list’.
The exhibition, The Tinytoreum, that Bruce Whatley and I created based on the characters from The Shaggy Gully Times has won the IMAGinE Museum Award.
Baby Wombat’s Week also won this year’s ABIA (Australian Book Industry Award) for younger readers, too.
New Books
A Waltz for Matilda.
This is, perhaps, the best book I have written. It wasn’t quite the book I thought I was going to write, either. Other voices kept intruding, more whispers from the past. Finally the book was twice as long as I had expected, more saga than story.
With the help of Aboriginal elder Auntie Love, the ladies of the Women’s Temperance and Suffrage League and many others, Matilda confronts the unrelenting harshness of life on the land and the long-standing hostility of local squatter, Mr. Drinkwater. She also discovers that enduring friendship can be the strongest kind of love.
Set against a backdrop of bushfire, flood, war and jubilation, this is the story of one girl’s journey towards independence. It is also the story of others who had no vote and very little but their dreams. Drawing on the well-known poem by A.B. Paterson and from events rooted in actual history, this saga tells the story of how Australia became a nation. It is also a love story – about a girl, and about the land.
Queen Victoria’s Underpants
Queen Victoria’s Underpants should be back in the bookshops – the first printing sold out faster than anyone thought it would.
The revised Chook Book is in the shops too now – twice as big as the original edition and much changed and updated. It’s all you ever wanted to know (and probably a bit more) about how to keep chooks in your backyard or at school.
The last in the Animal Stars series is The Horse That Bit a Bushranger – the true-as-I-can-make-it account of a few of my ancestors and the bushranger Ben Hall. The story of a young convict who rode a giant brumby stallion no one else could tame; who won a race, a farm and a wife… and of what happened next.
Oracle is out, too. It’s the most exciting of all of my books so far; set in ancient Greece at the court of Mycenae, where Nikko and his sister Thetis are acclaimed as the greatest acrobats in Greece, so valued by the High King that they are even sent on embassies to other kingdoms. But Thetis has both a curse and a gift – if she speaks at all, she must tell the truth. And when the walls of Mycenae fall in an earthquake Nikko and the wild horse dancer, Euridice, must follow Thetis as she finds her true place – as the first of the oracles of Delphi.
Other new-ish books
A Year in the Valley
This is a reissue of Seasons of Content, with a new introduction, as well as a new ‘What Happened Next’ section about our lives in the Valley since I wrote the book – more than twenty years ago now. I wrote it mostly for my own pleasure then and only hauled it into publishing shape on an impulse many years later and sent it to HarperCollins. It is about the Valley – the wombats, our lives and the dances of the lyrebirds. It is also very much about food: the growing of it, the cooking, the sharing with friends, human and otherwise.
The Tomorrow Book
Illustrated by Sue de Gennaro… a look at the paradise we could create, maybe just tomorrow.
This is a special book. It’s closer to my heart than anything I’ve written before and Sue’s work is inspired: funny, whimsical and extraordinarily beautiful. It’s what happens when the King and Queen retire and go off in their campervan, leaving the kids in charge and they find the solution to each of the world’s major problems in their library and create… tomorrow.
Every one of the solutions really does exist – and the possible tomorrows are very, very good indeed.
P.S. Sue created the extraordinary artwork in collage, using materials she found in her kitchen, from tea bags to labels. It is too magic to even have words to describe it.
Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs
The sequel to Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior continues the crazy adventures of Boo, werewolf and hero-in-the-making!
The Night They Stormed Eureka
A fresh look at the history we thought we knew, and winner of this year’s NSW Premier’s History Award for Younger Readers
Are the history books wrong? Could the rebels have succeeded? Could we too have declared independence from Britain, like the USA?
This is the story of Sam, a modern teenager, thrust into the world of the Ballarat goldfields, with the Puddlehams, who run the best cook shop on the diggings and dream of a hotel with velvet seats, ten thousand miners who dream of gold and rebellion, and Professor Shamus O’Blivion, who tries not to dream at all. But there is a happy ending for Sam, who discovers that when you stand together, you really can change the world – and your own life, too.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
I’m sorry I can’t accept every invitation – there are often two or three invitations to talk somewhere each day and, much as I’d love to, there is no way I can do them all, or even most of them. Basically, I can only do one trip away from home a month, and that includes trips to Canberra, so I mostly only speak to groups of more than 200 and when it will take no more than six hours travel each way (except Western Australia). I’ve also stopped doing early morning and after-dinner talks.
But as I have friends and family in Brisbane and Perth I always love an excuse to travel there... or anywhere that might involve a stopover in Perth, too.
New South Wales bookings are done by Lateral Learning (bookings@laterallearning.com.au); Queensland bookings by Helen Bain at Speaker’s Inc,; Victoria by Booked Out, (simon@bookedout.com.au); SA bookings by Carol Caroll (c.carroll@internode.on.net); WA bookings by the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre; and for other bookings contact me at jackiefrench72@gmail.com.
March 19-21, 2011: Keynote address at Wombat Conference, Albury. (And if any schools or libraries nearby want talks while I’m there, this is the time to book.)
April 1, 2011: Newington Literary Festival, Sydney.
April 7: A talk at Narooma High, NSW, a lunch and other talks to be confirmed, organised by a group called Youth Education Support Services (YESS.org.au if anyone is curious) for whom I am a patron.
May 9-13, 2011: I’ll be in Adelaide and country SA, available to talk some days.
May 18 and 19, 2011: Talks at Queensland schools. Contact Helen Bain, helen@speakers-ink.com.au
July 18 and 19, 2011: Talks at Brisbane schools. Contact Helen Bain,
helen@speakers-ink.com.au
June 28: Talks at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
July 20 and 21, 2011: Cairns Writer’s Festival.
August 23, 24, 25 talks in Melbourne. Contact simon@bookedout.com.au for bookings or details
September 8: Annual Dymphna Clarke Lecture at the National Library, Canberra, ‘Once a Jolly Swagperson’.
September: 26 talks in northern Tasmania.
October 24-31, 2011: Fremantle, Perth and Albany, WA. Contact the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre for details and bookings.
November12 and 13: Open Garden workshops at our place. Contact The Open Garden Scheme at act@opengarden.org.au for bookings.
November 30: Eureka Day Dinner and Talk at the Irish Club, Canberra.
The March Garden
This is the gentle time, the frantic fruit harvests of January and February over, even the tomatoes a zucchini slowing down. The silvereyes are pecking at the aphids on the autumn roses – autumn roses always seem to have richer colour and scent than those of spring and summer. The shadows are turning deeper before winter.
Grandma’s Garden Secrets
According to my Grandma (who had the most wonderful wild garden of flowers and shrubbery I’ve ever seen) there was one sure secret that kept her garden blooming:
'It's simple, Pet,' she said. 'Plants need sun and food and water... and they don't like weeds.'
It works. All you need is a very simple feed and mulch regime (like once a year), a regular, if small, amount of water and you'll have a garden (almost) as good as Grandma's.
But be realistic. Don’t plant more than you want to look after. If you don’t want weekends of weeding, feeding and watering, go for easy-care, long-flowering shrubs (think daisies, bougainvillea, hibiscus, many natives…), hardy trees and bulbs like dahlias, gladioli, iris – ones that will bloom and bloom with infinite neglect.
But basically, the secret of great gardening is knowing when to feed, when to water and how to dig a really good hole so your plants have the best possible start in your garden.
How to Feed a Plant
Like babies, plants should be fed little and often. Most of my plants are simply fed with a lucerne hay or other mulch, which feeds my plants throughout the year as it breaks down into soil and plant food. As well as feeding my plants, the mulch keeps weeds down too. Once a year – or relastically every three years or so – I scatter on a light dressing of blood and bone or hen manure – from our own chooks or pelletised.
Some gardeners like slow-release 'tablets' or soluble fertilisers, that fit onto the hose so plants can be fed while they're watered, or granules. Browse around the garden centre and find a system that suits you THEN STICK TO IT.
But for simplicity, you can't beat an annual mulch with lucerne hay and a scatter of hen manure on top in late spring or early summer.
A few plants are much hungrier (think rhubarb or passionfruit vines – both hard to over-feed) or specific in their needs (gardenias, camellias or ferns for example) but you soon get to know which one’s they are and cater for them. And some, usually those that are particularly generous with their fruit and flowers, will require an occasional side dressing of potash.
P.S. You can tell if your plants are hungry if the OLD leaves are paler than the NEW leaves – the new leaves will draw nitrogen from the old leaves, leaving them paler. Small leaves or flowers that fall too soon are also signs of hungry plants. So are pale green leaves – but if all the leaves turn yellow it's more likely to be a root rot, disease, cold... or simply autumn.
NEVER feed a plant unless it's putting out new leaves – unless you're feeding with mulch or compost.
How to Water
ANY water is better than no water – even if it’s just half a bucket of bath water once a fortnight. (It’s amazing how little most plants need to stay alive – as opposed to grow.)
Water in the evening if you can. One of the most relaxing things I know is standing in the dusk smelling hot wet soil – and the plants can do their nightly growing with plenty of moisture. Avoid watering disease-prone plants like roses at night though – wet leaves are an excellent way of breeding black spot and other problems. Try watering the base of the plant instead – or just sticking the hose under the mulch.
Water in the early morning too – the leaves will dry out in the early sunlight. Don't water on a hot, sunny or windy day or most will evaporate. (So will you.)
How to Plant a Shrub or Tree
Plants need to be planted well to grow well. A lot of ‘garden magic’ is simply knowing the proper way to dig a big hole!
Step 1. Dig the hole. Now fit the shrub – still in its pot – into the hole. If the hole isn't twice as wide and deep as the pot, keep digging.
Lay the pot on its side, tap the sides of the pot with a trowel and gently pull off the pot – don't just hoik the shrub out or the stem may come away from the roots. If the roots have come through and tangled beyond the drainage holes trim them off before removing the pot – tearing and pulling does more damage than neatly cutting off the long roots.
Hold the shrub over the hole and try to tease the roots out reasonably straight. If the shrub has been in the pot too long it will be 'pot bound' and the roots will curl inwards and they may never straighten enough to hold the shrub firmly in the ground or feed it properly unless you straighten them a little. Cut off any broken roots too.
Keep holding the shrub out in the middle of the hole with one hand. With the other gently pack soil (not grass or rocks) down into the bottom of the hole so the plant is resting on a firm foundation. Now pack soil around the sides. Firm it down as hard as you can – if the plant rocks in the wind young roots may break. When the hole is full tread it down, then water well, so all holes around the roots fill with dirt.
If you are gardening in heavy clay just use the weight of your hands to firm the plant in its new hole. Clay can become so dense and solid if trodden on when wet that no plant can cope. Also, if gardening on clay mound up your new plants so that they do not sit in a clay bucket and drown. Mulch well annually and over the years the worms will fetch up soil and mix it with the broken down mulch until twenty years later you have loam rich in organic materials.
Stake the shrub so it doesn't rock in wind and rain till it is established. DON’T tie it up with a bit of string – use old stockings. They have a bit of 'give' and don't cut into the plant.
DON’T stake too close to the plant – you'll give it too much support and it'll probably blow down as soon as you take the stake away. A stake about a metre away from the new plant that is tied to it with an old stocking will still let the plant rock a bit and as it rocks it'll establish stronger roots to keep it upright all its life.
Many gardeners trim shrubs back by at least a third so the disturbed roots have less leaf to support. This is a good idea in droughts or if you know you won’t have time to water. But if you can coddle you plants with lots of water and the weather is nice and mild, i.e. no wilting leaves or wilting gardeners, then don’t bother trimming.
If possible don't plant shrubs on a stinking hot day; and only plant dormant leafless shrubs in the middle of cold winters. But with a bit of care – and a lot of water – you can plant at any time of year. Don’t feed till the plant starts to put out new growth.
How to Attract Birds to your Garden
Great-grandma set a special plate for the birds at lunch or dinner whenever the family ate outside. But Grandpa just said 'grevilleas and water'. If you have year-round flowers and ALWAYS some fresh water for them to drink (out of the reach of cats), you'll always have birds.
Possums
Possums REALLY like young gum leaves. Buy a Sydney blue gum, then chop it back nearly to the base in late summer – it'll sprout lots of new stems. Keep them lopped (they make great cut 'flowers') so your possums always have new leaves.
As for the rose shoots etc – spray one part Indonesian fish sauce to ten parts water or smear chilli sauce (the HOTTT!!!! variety) at the base of new shoots. The possums will soon learn to leave them alone. (Test a little first to make sure it doesn't kill the rose shoots.)
Cats in the sandpit
Buy bird netting at the Garden Centre; stretch it over when it isn't being used.
Plant Checklist
Does your plant have wet feet? (The roots will probably rot.)
Is your plant in a hot exposed place? (Small leaves, drooping yellow leaves or brown blotches may mean it's getting sunstroke.)
Is it choked by weeds or grass? (It may yellow and die of mildew and starvation.)
Is it getting enough light? (If the poor thing strains towards the sunlight, move it or prune around it.)
Does the soil around it feel like concrete? (Mulch and water.)
Remember: Pots dry out and heat up faster than gardens, and need more frequent feeding and watering.
What to Plant
Hot climates.
Plants to eat: Avocados, bananas, custard apples, lychees, sapodilla, star-fruit, paw paws, mangoes, passionfruit, citrus, strawberry plants, capsicum, carrots, chilli, cauliflowers, eggplant, okra, potatoes, silver beet, sweet corn and zucchini.
Plants for beauty: Hibiscus bushes, calendula, poppy, primula, snapdragon, sunflower and salvias; fill bare spots with ferns.
Temperate and cold climates.
Plants to eat: Citrus, strawberry runners, beetroot, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots (mini or 'French round' carrots mature fastest), cauliflower, garlic, leeks, parsnips, spinach, celery and fast-maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty: Bulbs, including liliums, ixia, sparaxis, babiana, Paperwhite daffodils or Erlicheer jonquils, freesias, ranunculus, agapanthus, iris or, in cooler climates, all sorts of daffodils and jonquils, tulips, anemones and hyacinths; flowers like alyssum, dianthus, pansies, primulas, salvias, poppies, sweet peas and stock.
A Few Recipes
Whn I was a kid everyone gave stuff away. Every suburban garden I knew had vegies growing, or at least fruit trees, and stuff was passed over the fence as a matter of course. But people had time then too – not just because only one person in the household had a full-time job, but because a job in those days required fewer hours and less traveling to get there... and there was no TV to suck up our lives either. People shared skills and labour as well.
It's no coincidence that communities that still give stuff away as a matter of course are also those where the ethic of volunteering still exists – for bushfire brigades, or to raise money for this or that community project… and I suspect it's the same people who volunteer who give away jam or peaches.
Some Good Stuff to Give Away
Some of the best stuff to give away is stuff you've made yourself and have either grown or foraged for the ingredients… stuff that isn't just the equivalent of the dollars you paid for it.
Of course stuff like this is also saying, 'Hey, admire my creativity, my jam making, my industriousness'. But it's none the worse for that.
The best stuff to give away should also be stuff that you actually enjoy making, for the sheer pleasure of it, or as a way to relax (as I knit or peel apples while I watch a DVD) or have a surplus of. Like when you make 26 jars of jam and you know your family will only eat three of them.
That way you won't be hurt when the recipient, though ecstatic that you feel like giving them a gift, discreetly slides your jar of marmalade that didn't quite set and anyway it got a bit burnt on the bottom when you were distracted by Aunt Agatha who rang up to say her cat was dead.
Jam making.
Choose slightly green fruit when making jam. Never use mouldy fruit – it may well go off. Beware of fruit in very wet years too – reduce the amount of water or add more sugar if you think the fruit may be unusually squashy.
Use big saucepans. Jam swells as you make it to four times its original size. Test jams and jellies in old water. If it sets into a blob, and the skin of the blob wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it's ready.
If your jam has large berries or bits of peel in it, leave it for about twenty minutes before bottling. This will help stop the fruit rising to the surface.
Stand jars on wood or newspaper so they don't break.
Wipe dribbles of jam off before they set. Otherwise you may scrub for hours – or the ants may clean them before you do.
Seal jams with cellophane dipped in vinegar, placed wet side downwards over the jar and kept in place with a rubber band. This will contract as it dries and form an airtight seal.
Store jams in a cool dark cupboard – light destroys the colour and quality of jam and may start it fermenting.
A Basic Plum Jam Recipe
Ingredients
white sugar
the same weight of plums, then a little more
water
jars, with lids
Pick the plums while they are still just green – a few days after the birds have started to be interested in them. (Birds like their fruit sourer than we do.) Slightly green plums have more pectin, as I explained above, so you get a better set but also their slight tartness offsets the sugar.)
Bung plums in a pan – not aluminium, as the acid will leach away some of the metal oxide, and you'll eat that with your jam.
Don't bother about peeling, stoning, or picking off the stalks – though do remove beetles (the taste lingers) and any odd bit of leaf. Make sure the pan is large – at least twice the height of the pile of plums – or you'll have jam all over the kitchen (and possibly you - and hot jam BURNS).
Don't quite cover the plums with water. Simmer till soft and puréed – the water should be a thick soup of plum.
Lower the heat.
Pour in the sugar. At this stage the stones and stems will float to the surface. Scoop them out – though if you leave the odd one in it doesn't matter, the stones add a little almond-like flavour and the stems mostly disappear (although Bryan says they don't quite).
Stir very well till sugar is dissolved; simmer for... well, somewhere between half an hour and five hours, depending on the size of the pan, the wateriness of the plums and your idea of simmer. Stir often so it doesn't catch on the bottom, and beware of splatters burning your bare arms.
You'll know the jam is ready when it starts to glug like magma, a lovely volcanic sound – and when you stir it, it spits great fireballs up at you. (Don't worry - it's worth it.)
When you drip a little in a bowl it will set to jam in about a minute.
Turn off the heat. Ladle HOT into heated jars and place the lids on when still hot. Wipe off excess jam with a clean Wettex – the jars will gently steam as the Wettex passes over them and the lids will turn concave as the jars cool down, with a good airproof seal. (And hopefully the heat of the jam will kill bacteria, moulds et al – but do attempt the most rigorous cleanliness you can.)
The jam should keep in a cool cupboard for about a decade, but will gradually lose its savour. Eat most of it in the next six months if you can, but keep a few jars in case of plagues or pestilence and starvation. A good store cupboard is a relief to the mind.
Persimmon and Ginger jam
persimmons
grated fresh ginger
lemons
sugar
For every 500 grams of persimmon pulp add 350 grams sugar. Let it stand overnight; add the grated rind of a lemon for every 500 grams of pulp, and the juice with a dessertspoon of grated ginger. Boil till a little sets in cold water – about 45 minutes to an hour.
Pickled Crab Apples
2 kilos crab apples
7 cups white or cider vinegar
7 cups brown sugar or clear honey
1 tablespoon cloves
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Leave the stalks on the crab apples. Prick each one with a fork a few times.
Boil the other ingredients for ten minutes; add a few crab apples at a time and boil till tender. Take them out, place them in a bottle and add more to the syrup till all are cooked. Boil the remaining syrup for five minutes and pour over the fruit. Seal at once.
These should be left for at least three months. Eat them instead of olives or add to whipped cream for a crab apple fool.
Red food colouring improves the appearance of pickled crab apples; add a few drops if you're fond of red food colouring.
Spiced Watermelon Rind Pickle
one sliced watermelon rind
4 kilos of sugar
one litre of vinegar
2 tablespoons whole cloves
4 tablespoons cinnamon
3 sliced limes or lemons
1 teaspoon allspice
Chop the watermelon rind into thin slices, just cover with water and simmer very gently until it is tender.
Take the other ingredients and boil for ten minutes. Add the rind, without the water it was boiled in. Boil again for twenty minutes as gently as you can, bottle and seal. Keep in a cool cupboard for six months, though it can be eaten after one month.
Mandarine Chutney
6 cups chopped mandarins – still with their skin on but the seeds removed
half a cup orange marmalade
half a cup white vinegar
half a teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ginger – fresh if possible
2 chopped peeled firm apples, like Granny Smith
3 cloves
half a cup raisins
Simmer all ingredients for three quarters of an hour. Bottle and seal.
This is a very sweet chutney. It is good with fatty meat or deep fried vegetables. A chilli can also be added.
Flower-Pot Walnut Apple Damper
Okay, this is something to show off. It doesn't taste all that much better than damper or muffins made without a flower-pot – but it is a BIT better – and the appearance can be quite dramatic.
Terracotta flower-pots make excellent cooking pots and are much cheaper than the equivalent cookware. They are thick, sturdy and tolerate high oven temperatures. Just make sure they haven't been used previously for potting up the daffodils.
You can use small or large pots for this. I like one tiny pot per person. Shape doesn't really matter – you can make a wide flat one in a bulb container but cooking times will vary with the shape, so rely on your sense of smell as well as your watch (see below).
Ingredients:
3 cups self raising flour
6 dessertspoons butter or margarine
half a cup finely chopped walnuts
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
milk
Rub the butter into the flour. Add the other ingredients with as much milk as you need to make it a firm, not sloppy dough. It shouldn't QUITE stick to your fingers. Mix as little as possible to keep it light.
Grease flour pot/s well. Dust with flour. Heat oven to high. Place dough two thirds of the way up each pot. Cook for 10 minutes for small pots, 30 for one large pot – but a good test is not to open the oven till you can smell the cooked damper half way across the house; then wait two minutes. The tops should be browned and if you slide a skewer or a small knife in, it won't come out doughy (but do this test as a last resort, because if it really is still half raw it might sink with the shock).
Serve hot and steaming. This damper is excellent fresh, but no good at all after half an hour (except thinly sliced and toasted, with lots of butter).
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