Category: My Garden

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Lilly Pilly Cocktails …

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DSCN3872 (1024x768)Lilly Pillys are probably my favourite australian native tree.  Usually fast growing, they are attractive to birds and bees, the flowers are beautiful, and now I’ve discovered that the berries make the most delicious cordial.  Not that I actually drink cordial … but I can tell you that on a hot night, a slurp of chilled Lilly Pilly Cordial and a sprig of bruised mint in a glass of dry sparkling wine is a wonderful thing. And I’m sure this still counts as “bush tucker” !!

This batch of cordial was made from Cascade Lilly Pilly berries.  The Cascade being a cross between two stars of the lilly pilly world – the Powerderpuff (syzygium willsonii) and the Riberry (syzygium luehmannii).  I planted both Cascade and Powderpuffs when I moved in, so the next batch will come from one of the many un-identified and slightly tarter lilly pillys growing at the back of the property.

Lilly Pilly Cordial

Just double or triple the ingredients according to how many berries you have
I had only a cupful and this made up approximately 650 mls of cordial

1 cup of lilly pilly fruit – rinsed to remove bugs and twigs
2 cups water
½  teaspoon tartaric acid
1 cup sugar & the juice of 1 lemon

Sterilise an empty clear wine bottle by filling it with boiling water in your sink.  Leave it for a few minutes then empty and put in the oven on a low heat to dry.  Use mitts of course!!

Meanwhile put all the ingredients into a saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes. The colour will gradually seep out of the berries and into the liquid turning it a delicate pink.

Remove from the heat and spoon the fruit into a strong sieve over a mixing bowl. Mash the berries gently with a wooden spoon, removing the seeds with a fork as they pop out.  Continue mashing until you force all the paste through the sieve.  Then pour the hot liquid through the sieve and into the bowl to remove the last of the paste.

Take the bottle from the oven (mitts again) and pour in the hot liquid using a funnel.  Seal and turn upside down for a few seconds.  Allow to cool.  As there are no preservatives (other than sugar) in the cordial, it should be kept in the fridge.  You can make a “virgin” cocktail by adding fizzy lemonade instead of champagne.

Powderpuff Lilly Pilly
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Bad weather baking …

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DSCN3735 (768x1024)I was originally going to call this post “What to bake during a cyclone” but that would be slightly melodramatic even considering that it has been raining here for 48 hours non-stop, the bridge has gone under, we’ve had over 300mm of rain and now gale force gusts of wind. All this is courtesy of Cyclone Oswald which has wreaked even more havoc in Queensland.

None of this seems to perturb the frogs and what with the rain, the wind and the myriad of excited frog calls, the last two nights have been “ear-plug nights”.

Just before the bad weather arrived, I harvested the first bunch of bananas from my “dwarf” Cavendish banana plant.  I say dwarf, but as you can see from the photo, it is quite obviously NOT a dwarf.  The label says “a smaller growing form – up to 2.5 metres” but mine is nearly two storeys high.  The bananas however are definitely dwarf and deliciously sweet.

The extreme weather meant that I was trapped inside, so I spent the whole long weekend experimenting with banana bread recipes. This recipe turned out to be a close replica of the cafe-style banana bread I love.  It is spicy, light, not soggy and delicious with butter or yoghurt.  Thank goodness I found it because I am now a bit over bananas! 

Attractive arachnids …

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I’m not particularly fond of spiders, and I normally wouldn’t use the words attractive and arachnid in the same sentence but, for these particular spiders I am prepared to make an exception.

The first is apparently Australia’s most photographed spider, the Two Spined Spider and it has been living under a ginger leaf in the garden for several weeks. The second is a St. Andrew’s Cross which has taken up residence on a Ruby Turmeric plant.

If only they were all this beautiful !

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I’m sick of Mulberries …

Published on by FJB

DSCN3182 (800x600)Apparently mulberries are somewhat of a wonder fruit … packed full of anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins, and even iron – which is a good thing because I’m picking an average of a kilogram a day.  And that does not include the berries eaten by the birds and bats, or those that fall onto the ground before I can pick them, or the ones that fall into my mouth as I am picking – although that quantity has lessened since I discovered that scoffing a large quantity of mulberries has a rather undesirable consequence (if you know what I mean!!)

Since finding the mulberry tree at the bottom of my garden soon after I moved in, I have done nothing to it except severely prune it about 18 months ago – no water, no sprays, no fertilizer – nothing.  Goodness knows what would have happened if I had lavished it with care….

So my freezer is full of mulberries, and so is Des & David’s (thank you), and now I need to add to my single mulberry recipe repertoire to avoid boring everybody including myself!