The Golden Penda Spitfires

The Golden Penda

The street where I live is named after this beautiful tree - the Golden Penda which was recently in all of it's flowering glory after a particularly wet summer - it does best in the sub-tropics.

For all of you who have an aversion to 'proper' names for plants I might tempt you by telling you that it often holds the key to a beautiful description of the plant.  Take the Golden Penda Xanthostemon chrysanthus - which is Greek for golden flower with yellow stamens (xanthos - yellow, stemon - stamens, chrysos - golden, anthos - flower)*.  Having a love of plants takes you to all sorts of unexpected and interesting places - which leads me to these strange creatures that I found on a branch of the Golden Penda.

WHAT ARE THEY? The larval stage of a Perga species - otherwise known as sawflies - Aussie children know them as 'spitfires' because when aroused (as in the above photo) they raise up their rear ends and spit a yellowish liquid.  As they are generally found on eucalypts this can sting if it gets you in the eye.  This also tells me that the Golden Penda must come from the same general family as eucalypts  (Myrtaceae) for these creatures to have set up home on it's branches.

The eggs of this sawfly are deposited in slits in the leaves.  After hatching, the larvae remain in the same group, during the day, spread out over the tree to feed at night, re-assemble for the next day, and so on.  They leave the tree when fully fed and pupate in the soil emerging as adults - which is kind of wasp like.  The larvae really only do lasting damage to young trees and you would manage this by just pruning off the affected branch, mowing it up, and putting it in the compost! 

Yellow stamens, golden flower - the Golden Penda

WHERE AND HOW TO GROW IT  The Golden Penda is an Australian tree originating in the forests of south-east Queensland and is ideally suited to the sub-tropics (I never saw one in Sydney - too cold, not wet enough?).

It makes an ideal specimen or street tree which gets to about 5-7m.  It is has a compact, rounded canopy that really loves a good prune every now and again - other wise the branches can get a bit straggly.

It's quite drought hardy, but welcomes a good mulch - most of my neighbours just use grass clippings.

The nectar eaters moved in when it was flowering - the racket from the parrot orchestra was, at times, deafening - and then the bats moved in at dusk. (We actually had car loads of people driving by as word got round about this magnificent flowering spectacle - I can't wait for next year!)

* A fascinating reference book never far from my side: The Language of Botany, Debenham, C. published by the Society for Growing Australian Plants

Recipe: Lemon, almond and ricotta cake

We should be able to have a sweet treat and think that somehow it is doing us good too!!  This is one of those cakes.  It doesn't all have to be BAD!.  I just got thinking after the last post about calcium rich food - well, let's make some thing delicious for dessert that is also nutritious.  This cake has the added bonus of having no flour - for all the gluten intolerant folk - and as my husband said, as we were having a piece with afternoon tea - this is a real winner - it's absolutely delicious!

Just also happens to be lemon season with the trees dripping with ripening citrus.  I met a lady (Amy) in the playground the other day, when I was taking one of my grandchildren for a swing, who told me that they had fruit trees planted all around their suburb (Ewingsdale/Myocum) as street trees that anyone could pick.  Her children were able to pick mandarins at will, and she felt sure that this is the reason why they were so healthy last winter?! Amy also told me that, where her sister lived in Melbourne, you could access a web map of public land that plotted all the fruit and nut trees - and also had a useful guide for when they where fruiting. What a good idea?!

We were playing in the park of a housing development on the ridge at the end of our road (well it used to be a ridge until they bulldozed it flat) and I was asked by the owners to make a 'sustainable landscaping plan'.  I never heard back from them after I suggested that the streets should be planted out with 'useful' trees that the residents could harvest on their way to school and while out walking.  Food forests don't work out of sight - which is where they wanted to put it.  I think I'm just about sick of empty rhetoric.  All of the our street trees should beautiful and useful - either to us or native fauna.  Nature strips should be full of food plants.  If you think I'm nuts look at the Cuban model after the USSR pulled the plug on aid money that they had been dependent on for decades - they turned a dire situation around in a few years and reaped the rewards of self-sufficiency, improved health and a viable economy - by growing food on public land, rejecting the commercialization of our food and growing organically.
There, I'm done for now - let's have the recipe.

Lemon, Almond and Ricotta Cake

300g butter
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
4 eggs
2 cups almond meal *
3/4 cup fine polenta
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest of 5 lemons and juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup ricotta (you need the cake kind and not the creamed)
Icing sugar for dusting
*NOTE: I use bulk, whole almonds, with the skin on, and grind them myself - it's cheaper and adds extra fibre to the cake.

Preheat oven to 160oC
Line 26cm springform pan with non-stick baking paper.
In food processor beat together butter and sugar until creamy, add eggs one at a time.
Add remaining ingredients except icing sugar and ricotta.
Fold in ricotta so that it stays in lumps (that's the white bits in the photo above)
Pour into tin and bake for approximately one hour - test with a skewer that it comes out clean.
Cool completely in tin and serve with cream or yoghurt.

NOTE:  What is high is calcium in this cake?  Almond meal, eggs, butter and ricotta.

Recipe: Minestrone Soup

This is one of those recipes where every family seems to develop their own variation insisting that "it's the best" - and I'm no different - this is the best!!  I have been cooking it for years, tweeking the recipe to suit my taste and honing the ingredients until it is just about perfect, every time - there's also a triple bonus - it's cheap to make, goes a long way and IS VERY HEALTHY.

It's funny, but in Italy - where minestrone soup comes from, it is one of the few recipes I have come across that is not strictly regional and can be varied from region to region, village to village and family to family (think bolognese sauce (Bologna), or napolitana (Naples)).

Now that autumn is here I can finally think about more hearty, warming meals - and this includes soups, and minestrone is right at the top of the list as far as family favourites go - children, and adults alike love it.  My secret is to cut the ingredients into small, and evenly diced pieces, and leave out cabbage - it won't keep as it makes it smelly (that sulphury, cabbage smell!), and cook it in lots of olive oil.

Recipe 

1 large brown onion chopped finely
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely crushed
2 cups finely diced carrot
2 cups finely diced celery
1 1/2 cups finely diced waxy potato
1 400gm can copped tomato
1 700ml jar tomato passata
Handful of finely shredded kale (doesn't smell) or fresh, chopped green beans (optional)
2 bay leaves
Sprig of fresh thyme
Salt and Pepper
1 400gm can organic kidney beans (or cannellini beans), strained
1 cup small dried pasta
750 ml filtered water.
Handful of fresh, chopped parsley
Freshly grate parmesan cheese

Method

Saute onion in olive oil in large heavy based saucepan.
Add diced carrot, garlic, celery and potato. Give it a stir for a couple of minutes
Add all other ingredients except pasta and canned beans,
Cook for 20 mins.
Adjust seasoning and amount of water.
Add pasta and beans and cook for further 10 minutes
Add parsley when cooked.
Serve topped with freshly grated parmesan

NOTE: I help out a a 'Stepping On' class -  management strategies and exercises for older folk who have had a fall or are becoming frail and afraid of falling.  Last week we were having a chat about Vitamin D and calcium - things that we need to help make our bones stronger, and I was thinking that this is a very nutritious dish that is high in calcium (and you could probably tick off just about every other essential vitamin and mineral as well).

As we age we need more calcium than in our middle years - about 1,200mg per day for the over 75's (50 year olds need about 1,000).  So one good serve of this soup will provide you with about half your daily calcium needs.

So where's the calcium in minestrone soup?  We'll take the three highest.

Parmesan Cheese: 100gm has 137mg calcium (the highest for any cheese)

Parsley:  100gm has 138mg calcium (a handful of fresh herbs on your food is often higher in vitamin and mineral content than the whole of the rest of the meal!!)

Kale: 100gm has 135mg calcium (any other fresh greens are good too)

Source http://www.healthaliciousness.com

For another calcium rich dish go to the zucchini bake recipe.

Goes beautifully with home baked olive bread

NOTE: You can freeze any soup that is left over.

Citrus: Pests and Diseases (scale,leaf miner, aphids, sooty mould)

Leaf miner damage on citrus - tell-tale silvery trails on new growth.

Scale (of all colours, shapes and sizes) leaf miner, aphids - and mealy bug, for that matter - are all known as SAPSUCKERS - because that is what they so - suck sap!  They are often noted as pests of citrus and there are simple remedies for controlling them that don't involve nasty chemicals - but more of that later - first things first.

As I stated before, on the previous post about citrus and caterpillars - your CITRUS WILL STAY HEALTHY IF THEY ARE KEPT HEALTHY!  They are heavy feeders and require regular, adequate amounts of water.  Go to that previous post for the full story on feeding citrus.

The next part of this story is about the ingeniousness of nature that makes you smile and mutter "clever critters"!

Before you notice scale damage on your citrus you will probably first notice ANTS, crawling up and down the stem, and maybe a BLACK SOOTY MOULD on the leaves and fruit.

Black aphids - typically on new growth of citrus

The ANTS come first.  What they want is the sweet excretions from the sapsuckers - known as HONEYDEW.  So, they pick up and take baby sapsuckers from tree to tree so they can have some tucker.  If you think about it - scale can't fly, so how do they get from one plant to another - well the ants do it for them.  The sap suckers then multiply and cause the damage - withering and curling of new leaves, distortion of fruit and die-back in new stems.

Scale and sooty mould on citrus

After the ants, sapsuckers and honeydew comes SOOTY MOULD.  This is a fungal spore that lives in the air and also lives off honeydew.  So these three - ants, sap suckers and sooty mould live in a symbiotic relationship - each reliant on the other.  Clever isn't it.

The sapsucker story!

Before you reach for the spray bottle think about the creatures out there that want to feed on these unwanted ones and try to encourage them first.  I'm talking about birds, lizards, ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies, some wasps and these large, amazing insects - the mantids.  After all, as my friend Mary would say - it's just a big restaurant out there!  We have to try and get away from the 'creepy crawly' and 'enemy' attitudes to most creatures in the garden and realize that most of them are, in fact our friends.  (Look at this previous post on design tips and how to encourage beneficial creatures in your garden)

In the meantime, here is a simple and effective remedy for controlling sap sucking insects, like scale, and for getting rid of sooty mould - the oil in the mix smothers them as they actually breathe through their exoskeleton (outer covering).  Don't be tempted to buy 'white oil' in an aerosol can - aerosol cans are non-recyclable and the oil base of the mix is often petroleum - total overkill.  Use sparingly as you may, unwittingly, be killing the beneficial insects too.

For a 1 litre spray bottle:

3 tbs cheap cooking oil (you don't need extra virgin for this!!)

4 drops washing-up detergent (acts as surfactant to mix oil with water)

1 litre warm water

Shake up and use when cool.  Do not use in heat of day in direct sunlight - leaves will cook!!  Needs a good shake every time you use it.  

NOTE: What to do if you notice sooty mould in large trees and ants going up and down.  In this case it's probably not practical to spray the tree.  Controlling the ants is the key by placing a band of double-sided sticky tape around the tree and covering it in something tacky.  You can buy commercial insect barriers for this (Green Harvest - 'Tanglefoot' Insect Barrier).  In the old days they would use Vaseline or old engine oil.  Some farmers made the mistake of applying this directly to the tree only to find that they had effectively 'ringbarked' them!

Wild Foods: Purslane

Travel takes you to some amazing places engaging all the senses; eyes, smell, touch, sound and taste.  As I reflect now on so many of the many memorable journeys I have been on, since I was a young child, they have been profoundly influenced by the food of the people and places where I first discovered them - I don't know why, but they seem to be etched on my brain (I wish I could say the same for all the classes I have sat through where nothing has gone in!)

I can vividly remember the experience of walking into my first delicatessen (this was on a campsite on the Costa Brava in Spain and I was about 10) and being overcome by the exciting and nurturing smell of FOOD - garlic, salmi, cheese, bread, olive oil, sausage and golden, ripe honeydew melons.  Somehow, I didn't remember the shops in Britain smelling of food or being as tempting as this one and besides, most of the things for sale in this shop were totally new to me.  And then bit, by bit, you want to find out what all these foods are, where they come from and what they taste like - well most of them - I baulk at tripe done any way!

The Greek Island of Symi with wild foods carpeting the hillside 

So this is the PURSLANE journey that started five years ago on the Anatolian coast of Turkey.  My husband and I had hopped about on the Greek Islands close to the Turkish coast - Patmos, Kos, Rhodes and Symi, with the Turkish coast visible and tempting from all of them.  We had  picked out, as our first stop in Turkey, a small boutique hotel in a little bay close to Fethiye where we planned to stay for 3 days.  It looked marvelous on the net, but the reality was nothing like the photos - in fact, it was run down and positively creepy and I don't do creepy.  Michael and I looked at each other and then made a hasty retreat through reception, with a bemused, but somehow resigned looking owner and dragged our bags back out onto the road again to catch the mini-bus back to the port (public transport is marvelous in Turkey - thank goodness!).  What we were going to do we had no idea, and it was getting late - fortunately this story has a happy ending.

Our yacht!

As we walked along the very picturesque harbour front of Fethiye we noticed a sign outside a little booth advertising a five day trip down the coast on a traditional Turkish wooden yacht - they had a double berth vacancy and it was leaving in the morning and yes, we could sleep on it that night and no, it wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg.

The first crop of purslane grown in my garden - I now have it forever!

So that's how I first met 'Jimmy', the Turkish cook on the boat, and purslane - he, and two other deckhands were preparing a huge bunch of succulent looking green stuff as we were introduced and stowed our bags into the very comfortable forward cabin.  I had no idea what it was, and they only knew the Turkish word for it, which I didn't understand (in fact, they came up with about three names depending on what their family called it - a very familiar story with wild foods)

Purslane Portulaca oleraceae - this is a wonder food and being used as a substitute for the benefits of oily fish.  What does Purslane contain?
Omega-3 fatty acids: Purslane contains high amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid generally found in vegetables, as well as small amounts of EPA and DHA, omega-3 fatty acids more commonly found in fish. This essential fatty acid plays a key role in maintaining heart health; it can lower cholesterol, regulate blood pressure and decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke. Omega-3 fatty acids also enrich brain health and can be useful in preventing and treating depression.

Antioxidants: Purslane is high in vitamins A, C and E, which are known for their antioxidant powers. This edible weed also contains two betalain alkaloid pigments, beta-cyanins and beta-xanthins, which act as antioxidants.

Vitamins and minerals: Purslane is low in calories and fat, but this weed does contain high amounts of dietary minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium and manganese.

Substitue purslane for other leafy green vegetables in your cooking. Use it to garnish sandwiches, add it to soups and stews, and incorporate it into your salads. If you’re pregnant, avoid purslane as it can make the uterine muscles contract. Purslane has a slightly pepper flavor and can be tart at times.

Jimmy, barbecuing chicken on the back of the boat to go with the purslane salad.

So how did Jimmy serve it?  Just the leaves, stripped from the stems, with some salt. yoghurt and garlic as an accompaniment to this barbecued chicken.

Do you keep a journal when you travel - I find it invaluable for recalling detail when my memory lets me down?  Once back on shore I was determined to find out what this 'green stuff' was that we had just about every day on our wonderful yacht trip - oh, and the rest of the food which was mostly new to me and delicious!!  Then I struck lucky.  Some time later, on our trip through Turkey, we were having dinner somewhere and the people at the next table were South Africans of Turkish descent - I described the plant to him and this is what he wrote in my diary SEMIZ OTU and from that I was able to translate it to PURSLANE = eureka!

This is a plant that grows wild in many countries and, once established, will just keep growing in your garden.  In fact, as everybody says - it grows like a weed and abundantly in my garden from late winter to mid-summer.  I now recognize it as a common plant for sale in Greece, but I have never seen it in a shop in Australia.  It's a ground hugging succulent and the seeds are available in Australia from Green Harvest and Eden Seeds.

NOTE:  My husband was working down in Sydney and saw a woman harvesting a plant from the park in seaside Bronte. She told him that she had come from Hungary many years ago and that she collected this plant for her husband - it helped with his arthritis and joint pain.  She didn't know what the name was in English but gave him some seeds to plant which sprouted readily in our garden and -  guess what popped up - purslane Portulaca oleraceae?

Once upon a time, many societies relied on the 'weeds' and wild foods growing around them to provide them with the bulk of their food nutrients.  In Greece they still do - they call them 'horta' - wild greens served as a staple with most meals. (Think about the word 'horticulture' - here is the root meaning (pardon the pun!).  For an interesting insight into the value and use of wild green go to the marvellous blog of Maria Verivaki and her piece about wild foods.

I love public libraries and our has a big trolley outside with discarded books for $1 - that's where I hit the lottery with this book about wild foods.  With food security a hot topic these are skills we all may have to 're-learn' - how do we feed ourselves with what we have growing around us without having to visit a shop?  At the moment I'm busy collecting rose petals so I can make some rose petal jam - hopefully just like the divine conserve I last tasted at another stop in Turkey - fortunately, in that instance, I did know what I was eating!

Purslane and Walnut Salad - from the Greek Island of Kythera

A slightly different take on Jimmy's salad, but one you will encounter all over Greece and the Middle East.

250g purslane leaves

100ml extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

juice of 1 lemon

200g walnuts, crushed in mortar and pestle

1 cup thick Greek yoghurt

salt and pepper

1.  Pick over purslane and remove thick stems, wash leaves well and dry.

2.  Blend oil, garlic, lemon juice until you have a good cloudy sauce.  Blend in yoghurt, slowly

3.  Fold in crushed walnuts.

4.  Toss purslane leaves and sauce together.

Citrus: Pest and Diseases (caterpillars)

This is part one of a series about care of citrus - how to recognize and deal problems without the use of harmful chemicals.

I have a lot of empathy with doctors - I see them being waylaid at parties by a guest who wants an on the spot diagnosis of their current ailment while, on the opposite side of the room I've been rumbled by a guest (another avid gardener) whose eyes light up at the thought that they may finally get an answer to their thorny citrus problem (ouch!).

In all my years of gardening and teaching, questions about citrus far outnumber those about any other topic.  Yet, the fundamentals of caring for citrus are pretty basic - KEEP the PLANTS HEALTHY - SICK PLANTS are MORE PEST and DISEASE PRONE.  The health of the plant affects all stages of growth and development - roots, leaves, flowers and fruit - if the tree is sick, or nutritionally deficient, it won't be able to do it's glorious thing - provide you with year round oranges, limes, lemons, cumquats, grapefruit, mandarins - where would we be without them?

I use a lemon just about everyday and realized, very early on, that even on my small, suburban block that I needed two lemon trees - in fact, I have three if you count the Lemonade.  In the sub-tropics the best varieties of lemon are Eureka and Villafranca (almost thornless).  The Meyer does well too, but I am not fond of it's less than lemony flavour - it's almost perfumed skin and juice are a result of it being a cross between a lemon and a mandarin.

Citrus are heavy feeders -  it stands to reason really for they do a lot in a season - put on large flushes of new leaves, a heady covering of gorgeously fragrant flowers and, if you have cared for them, a bumper crop of delicious, juicy fruit - they are very busy little trees.  The nurturing of citrus pays great dividends and I couldn't put it better than Jackie French, one of my favourite gardening authors, in her book Organic Gardening in Australia (1986).

"When we first came here (Braidwood, in the Southern Highlands of NSW) we inherited about twenty old citrus trees.  They were buried in ink weed and blackberry, had been rubbed to bits by cattle and were totally defoliated except for a few yellow leaves.

Ten years later, we've lost two of them, but the others are dark green, bushy and good bearers.

To cure our trees we mulched them to the drip line about half a metre high, using old lucerne hay, hen manure, stable sweepings and old sawdust.  The first lot took nearly nine months to rot down.  Then, as the soil became more active we mulched heavily three times a year, with organic matter and nitrogen rich additions (like chook pooh and urine).

The first year there were more yellow leaves.  The second there were some tiny fruit.  After about five years the trees were green and healthy and the fruit reached its maximum size" 

What does her experience teach us about the care of citrus - mulch, mulch and more mulch and, as my grandmother would say - patience is a virtue.  Just remember that, armed with this simple knowledge, you will be able to get your newly planted trees to fruit well within a couple of seasons - you won't have to wait five years.

TIP: Don't overfeed with nitrogen rich fertilizers - you will end up with over large and very pithy fruit.

The caterpillar of the Large Citrus butterfly -  the red horns, on the front of their head, emerge as a defense mechanism when they are threatened - they think it makes them look really scary!

And now to caterpillars on citrus and what to do about them.  The answer is basically - nothing - just enjoy the butterflies flitting around your garden - they do very little damage.  You may see a small black/brown/white caterpillar on the leaves of your citrus - that  looks a bit like a bird dropping.  This is the larvae of the Small Citrus butterfly - a mainly black and white chappie.

If you are lucky enough you may get this gorgeous creature - this is the last stage in the development of the caterpillar of the Large Citrus butterfly - otherwise known as the Orchard or Swallowtail butterfly - something I rarely see in my garden, but would welcome any day.  Take Jerry Coleby Williams advice (ABC Gardening Australia) and if you find more than one on your citrus tree, just move one to another tree (to lessen any damage they may do to the leaves, and enjoy two beautiful butterflies when they emerge from their cocoons)

Enjoy - don't destroy.  The magnificent Large Citrus butterfly

TIP:  If you want to know about how to prune, feed and care for citrus go to the previous post.

Don't blame the damage, in the photo above, on caterpillars - it's caused by these large fellows crickets/grass hoppers or, in the case of this one - the largest of all - field locusts.  It's easy to do because both chew from the edge of the leaves inwards, but caterpillars on citrus don't devastate the tree in the way that these critters do.

What to do about them?  Plagues of them vary from season to season, usually at their worst in mid-summer, but are not always a problem.  Keep your plants healthy (but don't overfeed) and interplant with a wide variety of strong smelling flowering plants. 

Recipe: Berry and Ricotta Hotcakes

Three little, hungry grandchildren are about to come bursting through the door after a busy day at school - and I can guarantee that the first thing they will say is "Is there anything for afternoon tea Nanma"?

Fortunately, yes!  This is a very quick, easy and healthy recipe that I have been making versions of for years.   From start to finish they only take about ten minutes and they are simply delicious.

Berry and Ricotta Hotcakes
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 level tsp baking powder
2 desert spoons sugar
1/2 cup of ricotta
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk - approximately (depends how big your eggs are)
1/2 cup frozen berries - either raspberry or blueberry
1 tbs melted butter

In a mixing bowl combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
Heat the butter in a large non-stick frying pan until just melted (don't let it burn)
Stir the eggs, milk, melted butter and ricotta into the flour until you have a thick batter.  This is where you have to adjust the milk.  The batter should drop off a spoon without being runny ( it should hold its shape in the pan without spreading too much).
Lastly, lightly stir in the frozen berries.
Drop spoonfuls into the heated frying pan.  Turn over when the underside is golden.  You may need to add a dab more butter to the pan, but not too much.
TIP:  Use the mixture straight away as it doesn't work so well once the berries have defrosted in the batter

I think I might just have a couple, with a cup of tea, before they get here!

Lemon Grass: Top Plants (1)

Lemon Grass growing as clumps around the vegetable garden.  You can use this as a weed border then, when it gets too big, harvest the leaves and use them as mulch - they deter pests.

This is the first in a series that I hope will be a mile long - plants that are easy to grow
 and have a multifunction, i.e. you can use them for more than one thing.  Thinking about this concept is all part of Permaculture thinking - stacking a space full of plants that are going to sustain us in more ways than one (if only husbands were like that!! - it's alright, I have just had a bad day - I have shingles!!).

I recently went to a talk at the Mullumbimby Community Garden by Jerry Coleby Williams (from our national broadcaster, the ABC) about corner stone plants for the future - lemon grass would be right up there with them.

Why do I love this plant - because all parts are edible and it is very easy to grow AND - it is good for you.

I have lemon grass growing pots around the place - in very handy spots - so that we can make tea from the leaves without having to go out into the garden - i.e. the torrential rain!!

Lemon Grass

COMMON NAMES: lemongrass, ta krai, tanglad, serai, sereh, remon gurasu, xiang mao cao, zabalin, sloeuk krey, xa
BOTANICAL NAME: Cymbopogon citratus
FAMILY: Poaceae previously Graminae
ORIGIN: Ceylon

This is the part of lemon grass that you use in curries and soups - the white fleshy stem, just above the root.

PLANT DESCRIPTION
It grows in grass-like clumps to 1 m tall. Lemongrass is adapted to hot wet summers and dry warm winters, is drought tolerant and will grow on a wide range of soils but prefers rich, moist loams. It dislikes wet feet. If it is damaged by frost in cooler areas, the tops should not be cut until all danger of frost has passed. This helps to protect the centre of the plant from further cold damage.

USES
Food: a good source of vitamin A, the leaves can be used for tea, the stem bases are used in curries and Thai cooking & Vietnamese style salads.  Also contains C, potassium, magnesium, iron & phosphorus. Lemon grass with mint is the favourite tea of this household - for adults and children alike.
Medicinal: oil used as anti-fungal.  Tea used for calming the stomach (with fresh ginger and mint) – teas also used for lowering cholesterol (University Wisconsin). Use cut leaves in muslin bag added to bath water.
Mulch: it can be cut continuously for mulch during the warmer months. As an added advantage it will have some pest repellent properties.
Erosion control: it can be planted on the contour on steep banks to control erosion.
Edging: useful also as a barrier to running grasses around vegetable gardens.  Attractive landscaping plant forming strappy lime green clump.

CULTURAL REQUIREMENTS
Recommended Planting Time: Plant spring in cooler areas; in tropical areas plant during the wet season.
Plant spacing: Plant rhizomes at a spacing of 1 m, with .5 m between rows.
Details: It rarely flowers. Harvesting for oil distillation begins when the clumps are 4-8 months old, it is subsequently harvested every 3-4 months, and this continues for about 4 years. The fresh grass yields 0.2-0.4% oil, giving 40-112 kg of oil/ha/yr.
Propagation:  By division in  late winter.  For clumps around the garden, close to the house, you may want to dig them up annually and divide them before they get too big.  Where space doesn't matter - just shear off all the leaves in late winter (use as mulch) and just let it re-shoot.

Recipe – dipping oil for bread. Store this in cool dark place for month shaking regularly.
Olive oil
Twig rosemary, thyme
Bruised stem lemon grass
Clove garlic
Crushed peppercorn

If you want to see how to use lemon grass as a satay stick - go to the next article. I'm not sure if I'm this useful?

Recipe: Balinese Chicken Satay (Sate Ayam)

'Shining Day, Ibu'

The road to Kaliki with the active volcanoes of Batur and Besakih in the background.
(Ibu is a term of respect in Indonesian for married /older women and mothers)

Indonesia has long been a travel destination for my family and many of our friends - and, in particular the beautiful and exotic island of Bali.  We went there for the first time in the 80's and found ourselves in the hills of Ubud staying in the guesthouse of a Balinese prince that overlooked a lush and colourful tropical garden, rice fields, and rushing river where the locals (and us) went to bathe.  I remember that this holy place was surrounded by the beautiful white ginger (Hedychium coronarium) enveloping the bathers in it's heady, spicy fragrance.  I also remember the sign pointing to it for visiting westeners to find their way down to its cool, refreshing waters saying simply 'Holly Sprig' (holy spring - lost in translation?).

Household ceremonial displays for Galungan festival, Ubud, Bali

On that first trip we walked along this track, in the top photo, through the rice fields on our way to the holy mountain of Besakih; we went to a ceremony at the Palace with our Prince, where the royal children performed frog dances and gamelan music on bamboo flutes and xylophones - and we ate a Balinese feast.  Every day we came across roads clogged with gorgeously dressed men and women, carrying enormous head-dresses of lovingly made displays of fruit and sweetmeats, on their way to temple ceremonies,  for it was the festive season of Galungan.

Making satay is traditionally the work of men and eaten at ceremonies, as well as just everyday street food.  I bumped into these chaps - in their ceremonial sarongs and headscarves, just sitting in the middle of the parking lot making satay for the impending cremation ceremony of our Balinese prince's mother.

We saw every kind of artisan and artist at their craft and displaying their wears - basket makers, textile weavers and batik artists, wood carvers, stonemasons, painters, leatherworkers and the incredible everyday skills that everyone possesses for the making of ceremonial offerings (the Balinese are Hindu) And we ate, and ate, and ate.  By the end of our holiday we were well, and truly seduced.

I worked out that I have visited Indonesia about twenty times since then, both for holidays and wonderful working assignments, both our daughters ended up studying at UGM University in Jogyakarta for a year and being fluent in the language, and our travels further afield in Indonesia have taken us to the shores of Lake Meninjau in Sumatra, snorkelling on the Bunaken Islands of northern Sulawesi, climbing to the top of Borobudur in Java to salute the sun,  and travelling up the Mahakem River in Borneo to the Dyak villages.  How fortunate am I?  How fortunate that I went to Bali before there were any luxury hotels and the movie 'Eat, Pray, Love' and before it got loved to death.

Indonesian cuisine is not as well known as other Asian food, but it deserves to up there with the rest of them.  I'll give you a quote from one of the best cookbooks about Balinese food by resident Janet de Neefe The Food of my Island Home.

On the table in front of me lies my favourite meal: nasi campur, a serve of freshly steamed rice with small helpings of delicious things.  There is braised tempeh, gently spiced fish, wok-fried water spinach with a scattering of fried chillies, amber-tinged chicken, warm sprouts and green amaranth tossed in peanut sauce, plus fried sambal - which I simply can't live without.  Just a spoonful of each alongside the rice is enough to satisfy the stomach and enliven the tastebuds.

Nasi campur is in fact nothing out of the ordinary, but simply the nourishing daily fare that is prepared in every home, food stalls and markets in every Balinese village. The selection of toppings is determined by the bountiful range of seasonal produce available. Since I moved to Bali I have eaten nasi campur nearly every day and I will never tire of it. It pretty well sums up Indonesia: small islands of food brought together by steamed rice. (Literally translated it means mixed rice).

Workshop Nasi Campur

In 2004 I found myself teaching the principals or organic gardening to the Balinese - mostly those employed in the gardens of large hotels trying to grow some of the food they put on the menu in their restaurants.  We fed them nasi campur for lunch - delicious spicy little tidbits with rice, wrapped in a banana leaf - with any waste going straight into the compost bin. I learned far more on these courses than I ever taught the Indonesians.

Minced chicken satay Balinese style

Most nasi campur will contain satay of some kind and this is a really simple adapted recipe that you can make with any kind of minced meat or fish.  I usually make this when I have dug up a clump of lemon grass and have lots of the best satay sticks you could possibly find (you can also use chopsticks that have been soaked in cold water for a couple of hours to stop them burning).  You may be familiar with the pieces of meat. charcoal grilled on bamboo skewers, served with peanut sauce on most street markets in Asia - and a particular favourite of Malay cuisine.  This recipe is a Balinese specilaity that's really easy to make and particularly tasty - kiddies love them!

Recipe:
500 gm chicken mince
2 tbs toasted desiccated coconut

(for spice paste)
2 cloves crushed garlic
4 kaffir limes leaves finely shredded
1-2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp grated ginger
2tsp grated fresh turmeric (or one of powder)
3 long red chillies, roughly chopped
2 lemon grass stalks, chopped (white part only)

Blend the spice paste together in mortar and pestle or food processor and add to chicken mince.
Mix together evenly and mould over 'sticks'.   Cook on a barbecue hot-plate for about 10 minutes until cooked.  Serve with rice and peanut sauce or spicy sambal. Salamat makan

Summer in Sydney - and a girl's breakfast!

Surf's up Taj!  Bondi Beach on a perfect day

I missed some of the recent wild weather at home because I was down in Sydney visiting my daughter and little grandson, Taj, who is now one, and Bondi was definitely the spot for us all on such a beautiful summer's day.

A legacy of my life spent mostly outdoors is that in 2004 I was diagnosed with melanoma and spent an anxious year of surgery and treatment.  Consequently, I get regular check-ups with my specialist in Sydney and am happy and relieved, once again, that it does not seem to have returned.  But, it is also a golden opportunity to re-visit some of the places that I love and made Sydney a happy home for me and my family for 35 years. (Yes, I always wear a hat and am covered up).

Bondi Beach (after the cyclone) - Karen and Sue braving the huge seas.

One of the things I always try to do is catch up with my 'Tuesday Morning Girls' at Bondi Beach who have been pounding the beach, ploughing through the surf and then having a coffee at Billie's (Wave Cafe) every Tuesday morning for a very long time.  Karen, Heather, Rose, Gillian, Sue and Helen - some of their friendships go back to childhood over 40 years ago - I'm a recent ring-in of only about 10 years standing.  They walk (and talk) the beach, winter and summer, then have a swim, whatever the weather  (often getting incredulous looks from bemused tourists) - it's just such a fantastic way to start the day and it's one thing I do miss since I moved away.

Coogee Beach Pool

My daughter lives in a great location close to lots of my favourite places to swim and I never go anywhere without my swimmers in my backpack.  A swim always makes me feel better and its great exercise, even when - or should I say especially, when the body is aching or spirits sluggish.

Camp Cove, Watson's Bay

The great thing about Sydney is that there is always somewhere to get in the water no matter what the tide or wind direction.  If a southerly buster is blowing you can go to one of the fabulous protected harbour beaches - like Camp Cove at Watson's Bay.  Perched inside the southerly tip of the Harbour entrance it was named by Captain Arthur Phillip of the First Fleet - because that's where the British fleet first camped in 1788 after their long voyage from England.  Ironically, it was because of it's first inhabitants - the local indigenous peoples from the Cadigal tribe that it stuck out to Captain Phillip  - the headland from where this photo was taken is called Green Point.  And it is very green, and it does stick out because, for centuries, local aboriginal people have been using this spot to feast on the bountiful seafood from the harbour and it's rocky foreshores - those shells and bones, from left-over lunches, have added increased lime to the sandy soil and consequently made it very green.  This is known as a midden and are scattered all around the Australian coastline wherever it's first peoples gathered to eat - most are much smaller than Green Point - but you don't have to dig very far to find their legacy - lots and lots of shells.

View from my room at the Watson's Bay Hotel

And now for a big secret.  One of the best hotels I have ever stayed in is the Watson's Bay Boutique Hotel and, because I couldn't get home due to Cyclone Oswald, I went there for a two day return visit at the end of this trip.  Pure luxury, peace and relaxation with a great buffet breakfast overlooking the Harbour.  Just don't tell anyone!

In 2005 we had sold our business in Sydney and we took a big trip to the UK, France, Greece and Turkey.  I worked out that we had stayed in 32 different rooms in five months - everything from basic pensions to a couple of the top Boutique Hotels of the World.  When we finally got back to Sydney we had booked in at Watson's Bay before we flew home.  My husband and I just looked at each other and said the same thing - in the whole of our trip, this was the best hotel that we had stayed in.

Clovelly Beach

And now to the 'Girl's Breakfast' bit.  After a mountain goat kind of a walk - up and down the hills between Coogee, Clovelly to Bronte - I finally arrived at Bronte Beach and after a swim headed to Marcel's Cafe 'The Ex-Lounge'.  Finding something that I want to eat in a cafe has often been hard - especially around the egg and bacon menus - I neither can, nor want to do that kind of food anymore.  So how about this to satisfy a girl? (I looked around and saw that two other women had ordered this while the guys were tucking into bacon and egg stuff. I'll just throw this in to liven things up - Why do women live longer - discuss?)

Ex-Lounge breakfast, Bronte Beach.  Strawberry bruschetta with fresh ricotta, fresh strawberries and berry coulis on toasted rye bread - yum, yum.  Merci Marcel.