How my garden grows
Summer humidity is swamping my garden. It survived the awful heat of New Year's Day (44C in Sydney) through some judicious watering in the early morning and evening (it was a Sunday, after all; we're allowed to water then!). All the local lillypillies and brush cherries are almost destroyed, so the fact mine is still alive is a small miracle.
Photos of my backyard bushfoods are found at My Garden.
Lemon myrtle thinks humidity is THE best thing ever. Finger lime not's adverse to it either. Note to self: rainforest plants LIKE humidity. Unlike me.
The finger lime got severely stink-bugged and, sadly, I lost ALL the limes. Grumble. Am consoling myself with the thought that maybe it's too young yet to be bearing and NEXT year will be better.
The tetragon that I thought had died ... well, didn't. Obviously it's actually unkillable. Not only unkillable, but unstoppable. And this plant isn't grown everywhere WHY??
Native raspberry is unstoppable. I've actually started cutting it back to control the triffid-like fronds.
Native ginger is spreading to the point that I might be able to spare some leaves for flavouring purposes. And maybe even the roots.
The midyimberry plants are flowering but I'm not completely convinced on how many berries I'll get.
News
- Australian Bushfoods Mag is doing a nice job of updating news. Mind you, I'm submitting quite a lot ... it's quicker to get online than waiting for me to do it!!
- Not really much happening as regards bushfoods in the media at the moment, although there's an awful lot of mention of bush tucker tours when discussing school holiday activities, which is pretty cool to see. And a lot of schools (in Newcastle, NSW, for example) seem to be setting up bush tucker gardens to introduce students simultaneously to the concept of "where food comes from" and "Aboriginal culture". Can't help but be proud of that!
- January 2006: The legendary Bushfood Magazine, run by Sammy Ringer, is re-launching! See the revamped site at ausbushfoods.com.
- January 2006: Eat Australia now has its own domain name: eataustralia.info. Makes it more "real".
- December 2005: Welcome to readers from the Bushfood and Native Medicine forums!
- 23.7.05. I have a letter published in Gardening Australia's Organics magazine! - which includes the URL to the blogsite, which is cool. :)
- On the to-do list - report on my trip to the Sapphire Coast area of NSW, and the native produce products I found down there.
- 8.2.2005: The Age reports on the Barefoot Botanist. He is publishing a range of books recording the flora and fauna knowledge of the northern Aboriginal communities, and particularly their food knowledge. (Subscription to Fairfax may be required to view).
- Feb 5, 2005: ABC News - push for a national bush foods body. See Media page for links to related sites.
- January 2005: Vogue has an article on desert limes. Page 32, February/March issue.
- Outback Spirit produce mentioned in SMH's Good Living and available in Coles.
- Recent additions to my blog, including a rant on unappetising lumps of roo and emu meat and some of the recipes from the Eat The Coat Of Arms dinner party.