JANUARY

The January weather has been variable from extremely hot to morning fogs and dews. The cooler days have provided an opportunity to get some berries pruned and mowing done. It is the driest since we have been here (25 years) most of the spring fed ponds have dried up. Last week we have missed out on the storms that were associated with a very unusual weather pattern from the east.

Now the main raspberry season is over the main job is pruning the berries as well as picking and processing the ripening fruit.

Another job is removing the nets from the berries. This is one of those ‘many hands make light work’ type of job so with a group of students from the FOOD FOREST permaculture course coming for a farm tour it was an ideal opportunity to get the nets down. As well as a farm tour they enjoyed lunch in the willow house.

Picking mulberries is a messy business, they are plump, juicy and delicious but very few people are interested in buying them……So I’ll process them into vinegar and jam to sell and wine for our table. Some will be frozen for winter crumble tops and cakes. The plums have demolished by the rainbow lorikeets. Next year they will be netted, I’ve been pruning them lower to allow for netting. Which may work for the birds but what about the kangaroos? They are eating rock hard quinces plus the bark and leaves of the trees. They have been around for a couple of years now, in fact ever since a property at the back of us was sub divided and an electric fence was put around 20 acres. This has blocked the corridor through to Mark Oliphant Conservation Park. Add to this to the drought and our greener than average valley is very attractive to the kangaroos.

Catching Up

With the main berry harvest concluded it time to spend a little more time in the gardens. The paths have gone a little wild and need a bit of tiding up. I’ve had to replace a couple of irrigation fittings that succumbed to the hot sun after 20 odd years of service. The beans are powering along & the bush beans are producing daily harvests along with a large array of greens, carrots including purple, red & yellow ones The cardoon is growing well.

. The selected leeks & Seymour carrots are developing a new supply of seeds.

The Tomatoes & cucumber are developing slowly although we have tasted a few ripe ones.
Yesterday I weeded the pumpkin patch, which is looking good although the expected crop butternuts seem to be some other unidentified variety.

Over the previous hot spell I got all the garlic braided & hung around the kitchen.

It was also a good time to make some sorbets & develop some ice-cream recipes. By far the best sorbets are the citrus mainly lemon, Seville orange & tangelo. The best ice-cream was the chestnut mascarpone.
Citrus Sorbet
125ml water
250g sugar
500ml freshly squeezed citrus juice.
Grated zest of 2 citrus
Bring sugar, zest & water to the boil. When cool add to juice & churn & freeze.
Use the hot sun to dry citrus peels for winter firelighters.
Chestnut Mascarpone Ice-Cream
2 egg yolks
50g icing sugar
225g chestnut puree
225g mascarpone
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Wisk together egg yolks & icing sugar until thick. Beat in chestnut puree, mascarpone & vanilla until well blended. Churn & freeze.

The hot spell has also allowed time to sort out the harvested seeds .