October 2006
Introduction
New Email contact
Wombat News
New books
Schedule for the Next few Months
October in the Garden
. Growing garden luxuries
. What to plant in October
. Growing Native citrus
. A Munch of Luxury in your Backyard
. For kids: An Upside Down Carrot or Radish
Two Recipes
The Ultimate Biscuit
Flower Pot Walnut Apple Damper
Woken up by a dog barking yesterday morning. Looked, but no dog. (We're a wildlife refuge, and with baby wombats and baby wallabies around at the moment I was a bit worried).
More barking at breakfast. No dog.
Then just as I was walking home at dusk I heard the dog again. Or rather two dogs, kelpie by the sound of them. Woof woof, arf arf woof! But this time they were barking 10 metres up a pittosporum tree.
The lyrebirds are busy. Busy being kelpies, currawongs, wonga pigeons, kookaburras... last year one decided to be a telephone. (Thank goodness that's been dropped from the repertoire.) They're also busy scratching up the vegetable garden, digging up whatever I planted the afternoon before, displaying their tails on every log around and generally showing off. Actually the males are mostly showing off to other males, rather than the females. (which I suspect happens in most species, including ours). My tail feathers are longer than your tail feathers. My dog impression is better than your rooster....
Spring is a busy time around here. The bowerbirds are busy quarrelling over who gets the blue- green stick in one of my pot plants. Bowerbirds adore blue- they gather every blue thing they can find to decorate their bowers. My bower has more blue pegs, bits of blue Lego and tops of cream bottles than yours has ....
The red browed finches are busy building the world's largest communal nest in my Mutabilis rose bush, which means I can't prune it till next year now. The wombats are busy renovating old holes now the soil is soft and moist, or deciding where to dig new holes among the celery and asparagus. (Mostly they decide not to after about 30 cm of scratching).
Bryan is busy giving the grass the first and hopefully the last mow it'll need this year- once he's slashed over the spring weeds the wombats wallabies and roos keep the grass pretty short, and if it's dry of course it doesn't grow at all. Comes back though, thank goodness when it rains.
And I'm busy planting veg, most of which will wither if it is the dry summer predicted, and that we've had for the last six years. But just at the moment the roses are dripping out of the trees (I grow climbing roses up the fruit trees- too high for wallabies to eat them, too tangled for possums to have a munch, and the roses disguise the fruit from the birds). The scent of blossom is so thick you could float on it, the first asparagus shoots are tender, the cherry trees are laden and so are the peaches, apples and avocadoes, the world is green and pink and red and cream and magic.
New 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 when the material is 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 with I'll have to stop using it.
Wombat News
Mothball is fat, fit and busy too. Spring grass is a serious business and she is intently appreciating it. No baby this spring- or not that we've seen anyway.
Book News
By the time you read this Josephine will have leapt out into the world. Josephine is the roo in Josephine Wants to Dance, and what Bruce has done with her is total, complete magic. There are cameos for Mothball wombat too, and the sheep and shearers from Pete the Sheep. And if you are very very lucky the first people to buy the book from shops that take 'counter packs' will get the most wonderful dancing kangaroo as well- well, a soft toy one.
Josephine is based on a real kangaroo, just as Pete and Diary of a Wombat were based on real animals too. Pete was a black sheep called Dunmore, who herded all our other sheep into the shearing shed in return for a milk arrowroot biscuit and a scratch behind his horns. (He'd go all dribbly and weak at the knees when you scratched him).
Josephine is based on a roo called Fuchsia and a wallaby called Rosie. Fuchsia was the kangaroo that danced through our lives when my son was small. They'd dance to ' Newspaper Mama!', and then we'd go for a walk. Well, Edward and I would walk, and Fuchsia would dance around us....
Rosie shares our garden with Mothball wombat. Mothball eats the carrots, and Rosie eats the roses. As I wrote Josephine wants to Dance I'd watch Rosie delicately pick a rose with her teeth, then pass it down to her baby. And if you'd visited our farm this morning you'd have seen a small brown wallaby happily bounding through the apple trees with a rose in her mouth.
Diary of a Wombat showed kids that sometimes being stubborn and stroppy can get you your carrots...and that two people (or two species) can have a very different vision of the world!
Josephine is about a kangaroo who loves to dance, but it also teaches kids to dream...and to keep working for their dream as well.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
25 October:
Children's Week Awards, Canberra (as ACT Children's Ambassador)
Saturday, 4 November:
Talk at the Open Garden Seminar at Major's Creek, NSW
Details from the Open Garden Scheme.
Thursday to Saturday, 9-11 November:
Ourimbah Children's Literature Festival at the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle. Which will be fantastic, if anyone can get to it - but as one of the patrons I'm biased. Come to think of it, no I'm not - it really is an excellent programme. There are sessions for kids on Friday. On Saturday I'm speaking on 'You Are What You eat' and Writing and Inspiration'.
Sunday, 12 November:
Launch of 'Josephine Wants to Dance' and performance at the Bungendore School Fair, plus a talk at the Wildcare Stall there.
25 November
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).
January Saturday 27 2007
Talks at the Jindabyne Visitors centre as part of their tenth anniversary celebrations.
Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 May 2007
Allwrite Festival, Adelaide.
A Munch of Luxury in your Backyard
There are those (like me) who think that ANY home grown veg is a luxury, caterpillars and all. But even gourmets who turn up their noses at a nice salad of gone-to-seed lettuce and bird pecked tomatoes start dribbling when they visit our place in spring.
Six varieties of asparagus - fat stalks, purple stalks, white stalks, tiny tips - baby artichokes in green and purple, snow peas so crisp that they snap (not bend), eleven sorts of avocado ripened half as long again as the ones in the shops so they are the richest nuttiest things you ever ate, tiny red or yellow alpine strawberries that will spoil any commercial strawberry for you forever.
Spring is a time for garden luxuries, the sort you'd need to take out a third mortgage to afford if you had to buy them, and even then they wouldn't taste as good. And they are so incredibly easy to grow.
Asparagus
Good looking index: 8 - If you didn't know asparagus was delicious you'd plant it just for the red berries and ferny leaves. Asparagus dies down in winter except in hot climates.
Where to grow: Anywhere in Australia and NZ, but in hot climates they'll become exhausted after 3 - 5 years and you'll have to replace them. In cold climates they will live for decades and keep on producing crops of delicious spears for as long as you feed and water them. Asparagus needs full sun or light shade, good soil and regular watering for good crops.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yes. You can grow it in a big tub; when it dies down in winter add about 15 cm mulch or good potting mix, then plant alyssum or pansies over it. The asparagus spears will poke through the flowers in spring.
How long till you eat them? A well fed seedling of any of the new hybrid varieties will give you a few spears the next year; old varieties like Mary Washington grow more slowly and have to be harvested more conservatively.
How to grow: Do NOT buy asparagus crowns - they're so damaged they never do as well as seedlings. Plant seeds NOW, feed them every fortnight for the first year with liquid fertiliser so they race ahead and keep the soil moist. Then when they die down each winter give them a good mulch of compost or lucerne hay or well-rotted manure.
When to pick: In spring when the new shoots poke through the soil. Don't pick skinny stems though - if the shoots are skinny the plant needs to grow more before being picked. Leave skinny stems to get leafy and feed the roots for next year's crop.
Artichokes
Good looking index: 9 - Lovely elegant plants with spear shaped grey green leaves - a real winner in dry times as they don't need much watering or in winter when everything else is drab. If you don't pick the chokes they turn into giant, blue, thistle-like flowers.
Where to grow: Full sun, good well-drained soil, anywhere in Australia except in areas with extreme frost.
Will it grow on my balcony? Definitely. Artichokes are great balcony plants; grow them with yuccas and succulents, or lavender and rosemary for a Mediterranean look.
How long till you eat them? About a year after planting, though some seedlings will crop after 5 - 6 months. Plants die down after fruiting and new suckers appear at their roots, so eventually you get a giant clump or need to thin them out.
How to grow: Plant the seeds NOW; transplant when they are the size of your hand, mulch well in dry times and give them a handful of Dynamic Lifter or similar every couple of months.
When to pick: Long stalks will appear in spring with the artichoke on top. I like my artichokes tiny and sweet; others like them fist size, as you see them in the shops. But if they get too big the hearts become fibrous, so pick them before the leaves spread out too much - you'll see what I mean as yours start to crop. One plant will give you 2 - 8 artichokes - the better fed they are, the more they'll feed you.
Wild Alpine Strawberries
Good looking index: 6 - Not gorgeous in their own right, but a nice bit of greenery to grow around other plants' legs.
Where to grow: Anywhere in Australia/NZ, in full sun or semi-shade - the hotter the climate the more shade they'll tolerate.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yes. I grow my alpine strawberries in hanging baskets around fuchsias or geraniums or aloe vera. That's so the wallabies don't eat them - they love strawberry plants. It also means I can reach out and nibble a few every time I go out the door.
How long till you eat them? One year, though you may get a few the first autumn.
How to grow: Plant seeds now or find a nursery that sells the plants. (Alpine strawberries don't put out runners and do grow from seed, unlike most strawberries.) Feed them after they've fruited with mulch and complete fertiliser - unless the mulch is compost, in which case it's all they'll need.
When to pick: In spring. Some alpine strawberries' berries stay white; others turn red or yellow. Pick them as they turn softish, but remember, they won't grow large, they are meant to be tiny and desperately fragrant.
Giant Japanese strawberries: These taste great, even though they are giants. Grow them as above, but you'll need to buy the plants, as you can't grow them from seed. They'll put out runners and multiply each year.
Avocados
Good looking index: 5 - You'd never choose them for their good looks alone, but they are nice enough trees with glossy green leaves and insignificant yellow flowers. Can look a bit droopy when blooming. Avocados make good highish hedges, and can be trimmed.
Where to grow: Won't tolerate heavy frosts - but see below. Avocados need full sun to light shade and very well-drained, well mulched fertile soil.
Will it grow on my balcony? Yep, as long as it's in a half barrel sized pot. You can also grow avocadoes by a sunny window indoors, though you won't get fruit indoors unless its in giant pot so it can get to fruiting size, and you take the tree outside during the day when it's flowering so the bees can pollinate the flowers. Obviously this will involve a trolley or three strong men on hand twice daily – the trolley is probably easier. If you really want to get involved in your avocado tree's sex life, you can learn to pollinate the flowers with a paint brush.
How long till you eat them: Three years for grafted trees in warm climates or 5 - 6 years in cooler climates. Seedlings may take a year or two longer to fruit, though sometimes they are more vigorous and fruit earlier than grafted varieties.
How to grow: Plant a tree NOW before the weather gets too hot, mulch it well and mulch once or twice a year for the rest of its life.
When to pick: When the fruit looks big enough. Avocados don't soften on the tree, only after they've been picked. Even quite small fruit will ripen eventually, though it will taste a bit watery and the skin may shrivel. Have a look at the stem - it will turn yellowish when the fruit is ripe. Some varieties, like Hass, also turn colour. I leave the fruit on the tree for as long as possible, even when the next year's crop is ripening too - the bigger and older an avocado is before it's picked, the better the taste.
Snow Peas
Good looking index: 3 - when grown on strings with ugly wooden stakes; 7 - when grown with sweet peas hanging down from a hanging basket or up a trellis.
Where to grow: Full sun, fertile, moist soil.
Will they grow on my balcony? Yes. Plant them around the edge of a large hanging basket - they'll either dangle down or climb up the chain
How long till you eat them? 8 -10 weeks.
How to grow: Plant in autumn to winter in hot to temperate climates, or in spring in cool climates. Peas germinate best between 7 - 24 C, but prefer about 13 C. Avoid growing peas if the temperature will go above 24 C for more than two hours a day - in other words, they need cool but not cold weather.
When to pick: Every day as soon as the pods look big enough. If you leave them too long the pods fill up with peas and toughen.
Tahitian and Kaffir limes
Good looking index: 7 - glossy green leaves, Tahitian limes have yellow fruit all winter.
Where to grow: Cool to tropical climates, but not where there are heavy frosts ( both limes will tolerate frosts down to minus 4- and if anyone is planning to write in and say kaffir limes are tropical only, don't - I have a five year old tree in my frosty garden). Limes require full sun, but will tolerate semi-shade in hotter climates, and moist, fertile soil.
Will they grow on my balcony? Yes, in a large pot. (Grow alpine strawberries around them)
How long till you eat them? Grafted trees may bear the first year, and Kaffir lime leaves can be picked as soon as the tree is knee high.
How to grow: Plant NOW before the weather gets too hot; mulch well, but not right up to the trunk or it may get collar rot. Mulch every spring after that and feed with citrus food or a manure based fertiliser.
When to pick: Pick kaffir lime leaves as you need them - the fresher they are the more pungent their taste. Pick Tahitian limes when they are soft and yellow NOT when they are the hard green things sold in shops. (They're sold green so people won't think they are lemons, but they don't have much flavour or juice when they are green - if you want a decent lime you'll probably have to grow your own!)
What to do in October
. PLANT trees and shrubs before it gets too hot.
. BE CAUTIOUS buying pots of flowers and flowering shrubs now. Many annual 'bloomers' will be on their last legs, and will die or go to seed in a few weeks, and shrubs which look stunning now may be once a year wonders and look dull and boring for the rest of the year. Spring is a great time to be inspired - but don't buy on impulse. Work out what you want before you go shopping.
. MOW at least once a week. No, I am not trying to break your back - regular mowing now will thicken the grass for summer, stimulate the roots so the grass will survive summer heat (Grass evolved to be eaten!) and also get rid of lawn weed seed heads before they can ripen and spread.
. FEED your lawn, shrubs, flowers, veg, your dog and your budgie. Things GROW in spring, and a good dose of tucker now will mean they are stronger and hardier when they face summer's heat.
. MULCH, because my nose says this is going to be a hot, dry spring - and don't forget to mulch pots and hanging baskets too.
. REPOT pots and hanging baskets, as old soil can turn into concrete and concrete doesn't hold water very well. Repotting your plants every year or two will keep them growing well. (If water runs off when you hose them, or runs down the sides, it's definitely high time you repotted.)
. STUDY your fence and sheds and garage. Any boring bare bits? This is a great time to cover them with climbers. Some climbers need a lattice to hold on to, others are self-clinging. But do check the habits of your climber first! Carolina jasmine is very toxic and not a good idea with kids around; wisteria is stunning but can invade your roof, English ivy is a pest... Consider climbing hydrangea in cold areas or Chinese star jasmine or roses, roses, roses or the golden trumpet vine in hot areas. And you can eat kiwi fruit, grapes, and hop vines are drought hardy and easy care. But there are hundreds of others to choose from.
BUY: A new gardening hat, with wide brim all the way around to really shade your face.
CHECK: Last year's gardening gloves for spiders... or just buy new ones!
What to plant
Veg
Cold: potatoes, spring onions, peas, snow peas, spinach, silver beet, turnips, lettuce, beetroot, rhubarb, potatoes, Chinese cabbage, bok choi, celery, artichoke, asparagus, burdock, cabbage, collards, celeriac, kale, parsnip, mustard, radish, salsify, swede.
Temperate and sub-tropical: artichoke, asparagus beans, basil, beetroot, carrots, celery, Chinese cabbage, celeriac, cucumber, eggplant, gourds, corn, lettuce, silver beet, spring onions, rhubarb, parsnips, tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum, chilli, radish, pumpkin, rosellas, salsify, sweet potato, parsnip, mustard, melons.
Tropical: artichoke, asparagus, basil, beans, climbing snake bean, corn, chia, capsicum, rosellas, sweet potato in well drained areas, radish, zucchini, pumpkin, gourds and melons where they'll mature before summer humidity zaps them.
Flowers: Just about everything! I prefer flowers that will bloom all summer through, like 'Bonfire' salvias (Drought hardy) petunias (Also very drought hardy) , pansies (need water) , impatiens(Die back in the dry but reshoot when it rains) , alyssum (ditto) with a few giant sunflowers just to show off and some not so giant ones for picking.
Questions: Snails are eating the new leaves on my passionfruit vine and lemon tree. I can't get snail pellets to stick on the leaves. What can I do?
Answer: Snails don't have wings, so stop them climbing up with a band of Trappit Barrier glue or tree banding traps from the garden centre. This sticky stuff stops other pests like ants carrying aphids up your trees and vines too.
For kids: An Upside Down Carrot or Radish
Step 1. Choose a healthy carrot or radish – not a wrinkly one.
Step 2. Cut the top off to about 7 cms.
Step 3. Hollow it out carefully from the bottom, leaving about 2 cms at the top.
Step 4. Use a knife to make a small hole in each side and poke a toothpick through.
Step 5. Tie string to each side of the toothpick and hang your carrot or radish up by the window.
Step 6. Fill the hollow with water and watch the leaves grow again - upwards and over the carrot.
Step 7. Your carrot or radish should last for weeks, but keep checking it and take it down before it goes rotten and stains the carpet!
The Perfect Citrus Tree...native citrus that is
The perfect citrus tree survives baking heat, freezing cold, laughs at droughts, and possums and wallabies won't eat the leaves. The fruit will also taste succulently delicious...
Well, four out of five ain't bad. Native citrus are some of the world's most hardy plants, which makes sense, as the trees have evolved to face just about every weird bit of weather our country can throw at them. But no one except a starving and thirsty bush walker could call native citrus succulent and delicious.
Not that native citrus fruits are inedible. Native citrus make great cordial, marinades and salad dressings. But if you're used to nice fat lemons you can press on a juicer for great gushings of lovely juice, or oranges to bite into for instant refreshment, you'll find native citrus a bit of a shock. But their hardiness- and their deliciousness once you know how to handle them- make them worth persevering with.
Round Limes
Possibly the most easily bought native citrus is the Round Lime (Microcitrus australis). It's a tall, slender tree (up to 9 metres) with narrow leaves and round fruit that turn yellow when they are ripe, like lemons.
As a fringe rainforest tree it will grow happily in full sun or dappled shade, in just about any climate- it tolerates light frosts as well as baking hot summers. Our Round Lime tree has survived three minus 7 frosts, but it's protected by a plastic guard and grown by a large sunny rock- I wouldn't try a Round Lime in an exposed frosty position.
Give your Round Lime plenty of water, mulch and feeding in early spring and mid summer, but once established they are quite drought tolerant.
To use: Round Limes are small, round (naturally) and juicy, but like all native citrus, very very sour! But they make great cordial and marinades (See below)
Finger Limes
Finger limes (Microcitrus australasica) come from the subtropical or warm rainforests of Queensland and Northern New South Wales, but despite this our Finger lime grows quite well in our frosty climate in the shelter of other trees- like most rainforest shrubs Finger Limes prefer dappled shade.
Finger lime branches are very thorny, with longish leaves a bit like a lemon's that will fall in cold or very dry conditions then regrow, and fragrant white flowers. The fruit is oval, and slightly curved, about 6 cm long, green when they are young then ripening to yellowish green, or purple, or blackish green when ripe.
Finger limes are slow growers to about 6 metres, and bear after about 4-5 years. Like most plants they grow faster with plenty of moisture and feeding, though ours has survived two years of heat and drought!
How to use
Finger limes taste like very slightly bitter, slightly oily lemons. (I prefer the cleaner taste of Round Limes) You can squeeze out the juice, or use the fruit to make the cordial or vinaigrette dressing below. They make very good, if slightly unusual, marmalade.
Desert Limes
Like many desert plants, Desert Limes tolerate baking heat, endless drought and searing cold. They grow up to 6 metres, with thorny branches and narrow little leaves. Some trees are incredibly thorny, and sucker to form big impenetrable thickets, but if you cut off suckers and keep the lower branches trimmed you'll get a well shaped tree. The leaves will fall in very dry times, but will grow back again, so don't panic.
Desert limes do best in full sun, but will also tolerate dappled shade. They fruit incredibly quickly after flowering (the trees naturally flower after rain). It only takes eight weeks from flower to ripe fruit!
How to use: You can eat Desert Limes whole, like knobbly cumquats, if you're brave enough- their yellow green skin is thin and they are very juicy. But they are also very, very, sour- they really need sugar to make them taste good.
Make a sweet syrup of 1 cup sugar to one cup water, boil for 5 minutes then add thinly sliced finger limes, and simmer for ten minutes then cool in the syrup. Store in the fridge for up to a fortnight. These sweet treats are stunning on ice-cream, as cake decorations, or on lemon tarts.
Where to get plants
I had to hunt for years to find native citrus- they can be in very high demand- but there are more native citrus trees around nowadays. Ask your local nursery to get some in for you, or try a nursery that specialises in native plants, or order a Round Lime mail order from Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery, PO Box 154 Kyogle NSW 2474, ph 02 66321441,
Desert Lime or Finger Lime Cordial
(This can also be made with cumquats, ordinary i.e. non native lemons or limes!)
3 cups fruit
3 cups white sugar
2 tsp citric acid
2 tsp tartaric acid
1 cup water
Slice fruit thinly; leave peel on. Place in a large bowl with the sugar and leave for 12 hours, stirring now and then.
The sugar will gradually extract the juice and fragrant oils from the fruit, and at the end of the time the sugar will have dissolved into a thick, almost oily liquid. Strain off this liquid, pushing down on the fruit with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible.
Throw away the fruit pulp, pour the liquid into a saucepan, and add the water and citric and tartaric acid. Boil for five minutes. Bottle and store in a cool place for up to 2 months, but discard if it ferments, grows mould or looks or smells odd.
Use as you would ordinary cordial, a good splash in the bottom of a glass with ice and cold water.
This cordial is tart, slightly bitter and very, very refreshing.
Native Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing
(lime juice can be substituted)
10 tb olive oil
1 tsp salt
4 tb native citrus juice
Mix well. Great with green salads, sprinkled on fish before or after cooking, or with steamed green beans.
A Couple of Recipes
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.
Ingredients:
3 cups self raising flour
6 dessertspoons butter or olive or macadamia oil
half a cup finely chopped walnuts
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
milk
Rub the butter/oil 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 glorious fresh, but no good at all after half an hour (except thinly sliced and toasted, with lots of butter).
The Ultimate Biscuit
This biscuit has been years in the perfecting. It is delicious. Not just delicious - TRULY delicious. It is crisp and incredibly flavourful and lasts for a month in a sealed jar, but probably won't. Just very slightly crunchy around the outside and still softish inside. It has taken me years to get the ultimate biscuit and I am very proud of it. An addictive biscuit even.
I think I'd feel naked without a tin of biscuits (i.e. real biscuits) in the house. How can you have visitors without offering them a bickie? Somehow at the back of my mind I truly believe that if I ever descend to offering pre-packaged bickies it'll mean my life has become pre-packaged too... a standard mix to someone else's recipe.
So I go on baking...
And anyway, life is (or should be) made up of small luxuries. Not all of us can afford a yacht trip through the Whitsundays but why deny yourself the joy of home cooked biscuits? Or for that matter, GOOD tea instead of the cheapest around - even on the most stringent budget, the cost of a good cuppa tea is only infinitesimally greater than the cheap stuff and pour it into the best cup you've got, not an 'everyday' mug and sip it slowly, with a bickie....
Ingredients
125 gm butter
1 cup caster sugar (I use brown with peanuts, caster with almonds)
1 egg
1 and a half cups self raising flour
the grated zest of a large lemon
one capful of Cointreau or 1 tsp vanilla essence (in which case leave out the zest)
three quarters of a cup flaked almonds OR 1 cup dry roasted peanuts or crushed macadamia nuts
1 cup dark choc chips
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and lemon zest. Now stir in the flour, gently and add the Cointreau/vanilla, then finally the almonds/peanuts//macadamias.
Do not beat this in a mixer - you'll over beat the poor stuff. Hand mixing is essential.
Heat oven to 350. Place small spoonfuls on a Teflon coated or greased and floured tray. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes till JUST light brown and the scent is almost unbearable
Remove from the oven. Eat one bit. Then place another lot on the tray. Handle the cooked ones carefully as they don't really firm up til they're cool.
Leave on the bench till cold then pack what are left into sealed containers.