After a dry Spring and a dry Summer, now we’re having a cold dry Winter. It’s hard on the wildlife and I suspect that’s why I seem to have many more visiting birds than usual. There’s so much sploshing around in the bird bowl that I’m having to refill it twice a day.
Yesterday I noticed this White-faced Heron strutting around the pond. It had stopped in either for a drink, or to terrorise the few remaining goldfish by staring trance-like into the water. It seemed relatively un-concerned with my presence, and allowed me to get fairly close before retreating with its characteristic slow-motion walk.
After exploring the garden for half an hour or so, it wandered slowly and elegantly off down my driveway – probably heading for my neighbours pond.
This morning I ventured up the mountain to the Made in Dorrigo street market. Dorrigo is located on the Northern Tablelands at 731 metres (2,398 feet), it’s potato country and normally quite a bit colder than Bellingen, but by the time I reached the top of the mountain, it was an almost balmy 12 degrees. Nevertheless being a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold, I needed a second (and third !!) breakfast of coffee and churros to warm me up.
Breakfast Churros
Amongst the usual Country Women’s Association type stalls selling knitted and crocheted “things” (and I’m not sure what some of them were) there were a few gems. Like Waterfall Glass, selling beautiful bowls made from recycled glass.
I had to buy this beautiful little heart soap dish.
Recycled glass heart bowl
Being a frog-aholic, I couldn’t resist cards drawn by local artist Chris Hundt.
Frogs in your Wellies
Throw in some fresh local produce and tempting home-baked goods and it was definitely worth braving the cold. And next time might hold back on the coffee and churros and warm myself with some of Red Dirt Distillery’s Ginger Liqueur.
It’s that time of the year again. When we intercept each other in the street and ask in a slightly desperate tone “Would you like some oranges, or lemons, or cumquats, or mandarins, or limes, or grapefruit ?”
We’ve all fed our citrus trees on cow poo, potash, blood and bone and garden lime two to four times a year and now we’ve been rewarded with a bumper crop. The only trouble is, EVERYONE has a bumper crop, and no-one really NEEDS a bumper crop. All we really need is enough for a few pots of marmalade, preserved lemons or citrus butter.
Bush Lemons
With all this overabundance, I could be excused for ignoring a small tree just visible in the bush at the back of my garden. It turns out to be a naturalised lemon, what in Australia we call a bush lemon. For “naturalised” read a bit feral, scruffy and covered in thorns. Apparently they shoot from pips from cultivated lemons and pop up along waterways and near old homesteads. They have a wonderfully scented nobbly skin, lots of pips and not much juice.
As the peel seems to be the best part, I’ve decided to make some preserved lemons and candied peel. I’ve varied the standard preserved lemon recipe by cutting the lemons into quarters which means that I can wedge lemon into every corner of the jar and I need less juice. Hopefully this won’t affect the outcome. I’ll know in a month or two…
I might also try a vintage recipe – like this one from the Brisbane Courier Mail in June 1945 – which won Mrs Jeffs two shillings and sixpence.
And … in recognition of the citrus glut, our local Bellopy Organic Market is starting a citrus festival – where people with an excess of citrus can set up stalls to sell their produce and win prizes. They can also sell their recipes and donate the proceeds to charity. Great idea, perhaps I’ll give the bush lemon tree a bit of manure and set up a stall next year!
Back in the Seventies, when I was saving for my first house, I was a serving wench in a German beer-hall restaurant in Hahndorf. My uniform was a Dirndl, a frilly white blouse, an apron and a green felt hat. … and that’s probably enough said about THAT!
It was a tough gig … all you could eat and drink for $20.00, with the inevitable messy consequences. But I still remember the day that two “serving blokes” wearing Lederhosen and carrying an enormous flaming Bombe Alaska on their shoulders slipped as they trooped through the bar. The lead serving bloke managed to duck as a huge metal platter shot over his head splattering burning meringue over the walls and floors like a sticky Molotov cocktail.
Some memories are just priceless!
Anyway, it’s been many years since I visited Hahndorf, and whilst some things like the pseudo-Germanic cafes and tacky souvenir shops haven’t changed, dotted along the main road there are little gems that make a visit worthwhile. Pretty little stone cottages built by German settlers, vineyards, quality craft shops and The White House.
The White House
The White House is a renovated heritage listed cottage – with not a trace of chintz, crochet or net curtains. Score three points immediately. More points for friendly and helpful staff, reasonably priced local wine and rustic, bistro style locally sourced food. Add an open log-fire on a chilly 10C day and you have an all round enjoyable experience.
We had a tasty lunch of Croque Monsieur (who doesn’t love Gruyère?) and a tender, tomato rich Lamb Ragout, and then finished the afternoon with a bit of shopping. I came home with a new winter woolly made from merino and possum wools from New Zealand. (The Australian brush-tailed possum being an introduced pest which has no natural predators, and is decimating New Zealand’s native forests ) Just doing my bit and being ecologically responsible!
A Bellingen Diary 