 Another Country Diary Links to images and other pages are in blue. After about a week of diary entries, they go to an archive. |
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| 23 November -1 December. | ||
 Rain.
Not a lot, but after a thrashing of hail there were a few falls and some
on the following day. We walked out into it from the office and everyone
smiled and said what a great noise it was on the roof.
Coming home with the smell of that warm wet earth and grass, I wound the windows down, turned off the air conditioner and the radio, and sucked it in. |
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 The
garden seemed intact and everything had a wet lush look. It didn't do
much to the rapidly evaporating pond, but we didn't have to water for
two nights. That helped because we're now on water restrictions, and can only use all those nifty fixed irrigation, sprays and drippers that I've laid out in the vegetables between 6.30 and 8pm. |
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 We're
cautiously watering some of the trees as they look wilted, soaking
around their drip lines once a week. Most of the big ones are going to
have to fend for themselves, they're sucking from the pond anyway I
figure. With the heat and dryer spring he sweet cherry has ripened weeks
earlier but only the lower branches had reasonable size cherries, the
others at the top were in big bunches but with tiny fruit. The bottom
ones are for me, the ones at the top for
the birds.
|
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 I
know you're waiting breathless for the latest walnut pictures, so here
they are. About an inch, 25cm long and growing.
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It's Christmas party time but I hope they're not all as tiring as this
one. Jan and I drove up to Sydney for the 3rdMill party held at at Ano Roma
restaurant in the
Rocks. Divico said he'd book the hotel and although I argued, he did and it was just a few doors down
and very comfortable. It made getting up at 5.30 am to drive back to
Canberra for a 9.30 meeting a little easier. No smarter, just easier.
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 Kevan
the senior developer who works at 3rdMill, and his wife, had twin
daughters six months ago. They were a real handful at first and I really
was concerned for them. They now seem to have the girls synchronised
with feeding and sleeping times and are looking a lot less
frazzled.
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From the restaurant window we looked down onto George Street behind the MCA
(Museum of Contemporary Art) building. Jan and I went for a walk after
the party ended and I played voyeur with the slow camera exposures.
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The set of windows on the back of the MCA showed a flight of stairs through
either dusty or frosted windows. This looked like a cinema projection to
me, a minimal installation piece called 'Stair'. Stare?
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 Cardoons.
Related to the thistle as is the artichoke, but smaller and much more
spiky. The Italians blanch the stems by wrapping the leaves around them
and tying. I'll try the same because the stalks are edible, unlike those
of the artichoke, and there are recipes for them I'd like to try.
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 The
cardoon is a declared weed introduced into Australia and now growing
wild. The plant is taller and more decorative than the artichoke so we
have them growing in a few places in the flower garden. The
heads and stems are collected in Spain and Italy to make vegetable
rennet for cheese making.
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 Jan
asked me if I'd heard from Milton and Zana, two neighbours who moved to
Queanbeyan a few years back. I said no but I'll probably get a call any
day now. That's because I helped Milton set up his Christmas card
database a few years ago to print his mailing labels. Despite long
instruction, I've shown him each year since how
to do it. I got the call again. He's 75, a keen woodworker and
gave us a nicely turned bowl for helping him. Merry Christmas Milton
(and Zana),
see you next year.
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 Sunday
lunch, pick and boil up some artichokes and make a vinaigrette. Jackie was home
and at 21 we had to show her how to eat an artichoke petal. She got the
idea but said it was a lot of work. Usually it's just an excuse to dip
into melted butter, but this time Jan's vinaigrette with chopped chives
from the garden and the local virgin olive oil won out.
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 There
were enough cherries protected by the nets, all ripe at once (or near
ripe) to be a storage problem. This dry year they are not as full and juicy as past
seasons and the few I've had in a bowl on the table for the past week
were only tasted not gobbled. I decided to test out a couple of
preserving methods, drying and crystallising (glacé). I'd seen photos of dried
cherries but never tasted one, and I fancied that with some home made glace
cherries in a panforte, it would make a nice Christmas gift or two.
|
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 Well
the drying worked fine, ten hours overnight was about two hours too much as they
were a little dry, but still chewy inside. The mild flavour was intensified
by drying, and there were sugar crystals on them. A dryer tray full of pipped
cherries were reduced to a cupful of dried fruit. You'll get some idea
of the fresh to dry reduction from the photograph.
The glace fruits process however is still going, I'll save that for next
week.
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| Fred Harden | ||
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