Blogging for what?

If anyone checks in on this blog from time to time, I'm sorry to say I've fallen behind in the game of life and have had no inclination to be journaling the finer details of my absurd existence... Yet... here I am wanting feeling like I should post something, it's been a month since I last wrote anything and July could easily pass without me entering a single detail. I have trouble recounting events in order, or even recalling the details of most days, but I usually take a few photos, which are good for jogging my memory. I won't write much, I'm still not interested... As I wandered through the local St Vinnies oppshop I noticed the attendant taking pity on me. I admit I looked pretty shabby. As I drove home I looked in the car's rear view mirror and the phrase which probably defines me came to mind... "You look like nobody owns you". No this is not a declaration of my freedom from conformity or defiance of institutions of rules... Those words have been said to me on many occasions, usually by older ladies who appear to be concerned for my welfare in some way and they are said with pity. The meaning being. "You look as though you have nowhere to live and nobody to look after you." (ergo. You look like shit and you can't even take care of yourself, isn't there anyone who cares enough to feed, dress and groom you?.... You need a carer) Here's the photos.

Kayaking in Darwin (HMAS Darwin at 1 0'clock)

Approaching Warruwi Goulburn Island

Centenary celebrations at Warruwi Goulburn Island

Developing the north (in all the wrong ways)

Last of this season's Rosella's stewed in a pot

Jasper the budgie chick, a friendly fellow

Gardening for broke!

Demise of a green space
The little front yard garden took a pounding this year!
Having lost two wet season crops in a row this season I discovered the most sinister of causes... The gardeners contracted by our body corporate had poisoned all my lemon grass, basil and snake beans! I caught the guy actually applying the poison while I was off work one day and couldn't believe my eyes!

Over the past couple of years I'd had pretty decent crops of snake beans which were providing our family with some pretty regular snack food and great shade for the north facing window! Our kids had become accustomed to picking beans and basil straight from the plant and eating it on the spot. It was great to see them discerning the ripeness of beans and determining which should be eaten green or which should be saved for seed. All that had to stop when I found the gardener spraying our beans with Roundup! I was really pissed off to find these guys knowingly putting poison on plants that were obviously food, but it was devastating to know that it was my kids who could be poisoned!


Disheartened I watched our beautiful food producing plants shrivel and die within hours of being sprayed? I recalled a previous time when I'd been away for a couple of days and returned to find my healthy garden looking like it had just been napalmed! At the time I'd convinced myself it must have been a soil borne disease. At least the PawPaw in the backyard was spared!

I don't grow enough in the garden to feed the family but it is nice to have a little home grown tucker if only to remind the kids where food actually comes from... Of course we don't go hunting the tree monitors, fruit bats or frogs we find in the back yard, but a few vegetables makes a good start for becoming intimate with your food. We generally leave the wildlife to go about it's business relatively unmolested.

Food production continues
Last year during the build-up, my kids got hold of the Roselle seeds I'd been saving for some time when they should be planted (I wasn't actually sure when that should be). It was November and they'd left them soaking in the tadpole water for a couple of days. Then when the bucket was full of wrigglers (mosquito larvae) they tipped the whole lot out on a bare patch of dirt where the trampoline used to be....! What do you suppose happened?

Yep it was just the right time and conditions for planting Roselle seeds! So some time in December I noticed the sprouts and before we knew it there was a beautiful thick clump of Hibiscus sabdariffa growing in the back yard. COOL!


(Young Hibiscus sabdariffa)

So weeks rolled by and we watched the plants grow and eventually the flowers came. Beautiful! (Don't worry this story doesn't end in herbicide!)


(Budding flower)


(Yellow flower as seen early in the morning, they turn pink before falling off in the evening)

There were heaps of flowers each living for barely a day before they would fall to the ground leaving a small red calyx... as more flowers bloomed the calyxes (the Roselles) grew bigger with the ripening fruit inside...


(Bushes in full flower displaying some maturing calyx and fruit)


(Maturing calyx and fruit)

As the bushes were looking quite laden with heavy fruit and brilliant red calyxes we took off to Mataranka for a long weekend. Having just celebrated a birthday party and spent the remainder of our money on the trip away we returned with a budget deficit but discovered that the Roselle bushes had blown over in the wind due to the weight of all that fruit!


(Laden bush fallen in the wind)

Well what great timing! with little food left in the cupboard what better time to pick forage in the yard! The boy and I munched on the leaves as we picked a bucket full of crimson treasure from the back yard then I sat with our eldest and separated fruit from calyx preparing for the boiling of the Jam (luckily there was sugar an apple and half a lemon just waiting to go in the pot)! Our home has become an Idlers paradise! No more trecking miles away from home, through 7 ft high grass to raid spindly ant covered bushes! We can just go and pick the fruit right in our own back yard!

Looking back in the cupboard the next day my darling wife discovered some wholemeal flower and when I got home from work we delighted in our hand made fresh bread and spiky jam! Sometimes the very best of life seems to appear just when you think the cupboard is bare!


(The fruits of our harvest)

Thanks to the natural habit of our kids we now know the right time and conditions for planting Roselles!

Wabi-sabi!

Rosella Jam (again)

(The first Batch)

I'm quickly typing this while some more Rosellas bubble away on the stove! This is my third and final Batch. Enough's enough!
I'm talking about Rosella jam and if you've never tasted it man you're missing something special! The plant Rosellas come from grows in the tropics so it's quite likely if you live in a temporate climate you've never heard of this jam.


(Rosella calixes. Jam aficionado behind, Ubud Botanic Gardens)

While in Bali we visited the botanic gardens in Ubud. I noticed there were some familiar Hibiscus bushes scattered through the garden. They were Hibiscus Sabdariffa (Rosella bushes). Back at reception on our way out I stopped to talk to the lady at the counter who had a basket full of very large Rosella calixes. On the counter were bags of Rosella tea and when she opened the door to the fridge it was full of jam jars.


(Jam)


(Tea)

Inevitably we got talking about rosella jam and I came away with a jar of some very delicious jam made right there at the Ubud botanic gardens. Great products!


(Complete fruits)

A couple of weeks after getting back to Darwin I headed out to a spot where I can usually find Rosellas at this time of year (Between the end of April and early June). There were heaps there but picking Rosellas takes a fair bit of time so I only took one shopping bag full. This was enough for me to cook up 6 jars of jam, twice the number I made last year!


(First Batch of jam)

The jam turned out fantastically! I don't like to cook it too long and use as little sugar as possible. Fortunately I had enough pectin for it to set just right.

After this great success I went back out there and picked another bag full which I soon converted into another 5 jars worth. This time I used less sugar and cooked for only 10-15 minutes. The result was thinner and much more tart but great on toast!

This is the most I've ever made and I've been distributing the jam to friends all over the place. Finally I went back out one more time and collected another bag full which converted down to 1kg of calixes. They are bubbling away on the stove right now and I can smell them cooking. I thought I'd blog about them while they cook as a means of distracting myself so I don't interupt the process before time. I just want to give them a bit more time than the last batch.

I expect after having cooked this batch I would have created about 4 litres of jam! That's so cool.
If you've never tasted it you've gotta try it. I suppose the closest flavour that matches it might be rhubarb. It has the same tartyness and is red but doesn't quite match the special flavour.

Get some if you can. It's awesome!

Rosella Season

Today I was bombarded with messages I'd left to myself at about this time last year. The message was simple and direct. It's Rosella season! Get them early before it's too late!!

A small tree frog on a rosella bush

Well it wasn't exactly this time last year as I recall. It was late May or early June and I'd just made my first batch of Rosella Jam! Oh the lovely tart flavour of lightly cooked Rosella Jam with not too much sugar and just enough natural pectin to hold the lot together. As I recall it was a huge success and a total fluke that the jam turned out so well. If only I'd collected the Rosellas just a couple of weeks earlier, I would have had enough to make more than three small jars!
I think they must all ripen within a couple of weeks of each other and should be picked straight away, last time I picked too late. This time it will be different!
So the message is on the wall and the computer screen, the mobile phone, my diary, well I think I left messages everywhere actually. So this Saturday is Rosella picking day! No what ifs, no buts no sleep-ins! The girls are coming with me and we will collect the rosellas! and I will make the jam and it will be good! So let it be written; so let it be done!

Bread and Jam

This morning I got up and made myself toast with some of that special jam. I believe the jam has a little something special in it and all my worries just melted away, so did my sore throat which I've been carrying for nearly a month now!

Rosella Jam

Rosella Jam
Originally uploaded by davidfntau.

The jam! Since Judith, from work, brought in a jar of delicious Rosella jam I have been obsessing about self-sufficient food production, gleaning, preserving and harvesting from wild stock! This sent me on a quest to find the wild fruit for jam.
Unfortunately I don't have time to go into what Rosellas (Hibiscus sabdariffa) are and can't offer any pictures because I didn't take my camera but they are a wild (introduced) bush that produces a mass of fruits for a short period during the dry season each year. I managed to get a shopping bag full but was a bit late in the season so missed the really good fruit.
So last night I set out to make the jam and with Sam's help we had 3 decent jars of the most delightful red tarty fruit spread within an hour. Samantha calculated the amount of water needed to boil the fruit and I followed her instructions (more or less....well less actualy). Of course this jam is by no means a self sufficient product we did have to use quite a bit of (evil) sugar but it was cheep and creative and I got to re-use some jars that would otherwise have gone straight to the recycle bin (the recycle bit is doubtful).
Mission accomplished!