Wasabi!!

Pretty and edible wasabi flowers and buds.

Down at the Tas Farm Gate market nothing inspires conversation at our stall more than the wasabi plants. It is always exciting to find a flavouring we are used to seeing in a processed form, in its raw, living state. Here are my thoughts on its cultivation and uses.

Potted wasabi, note the chook nibbled leaf on the right. Everyone likes wasabi!

Cultivation: Wasabi needs a cool, moist shady spot to thrive. It can be grown successfully in both containers and the garden. For containers, get the best potting mix you can. I've grown it in a 40cm diameter pot with a water reservoir in the bottom and it does really well. You then have the option to move it into the shade at different times of year. In the ground, a well composted, reasonably drained garden soil is great. A South facing garden is best. Don't keep it overly wet, still water will suffocate the roots, but give it some extra water when a hot day is forecast, and even an extra sprinkle in the hottest part of the day to cool it down. Full shade is important, even a glimmer of direct sun on a warm day can make wasabi leaves wilt.

It is irresistible to aphids, slugs and caterpillars. I use a couple of drops of detergent in a spray bottle of water to deter aphids, you can steep a little garlic in the water first which may make it more effective. The other major pest in the late Spring and Summer is the caterpillar of the white cabbage moth. You can keep an eye out and squish them by hand or use Dipel, an organically acceptable bacteria that paralyses the caterpillar but doesn't affect other creatures.

Uses: All parts of the plant are edible. The leaves are lovely shredded in a salad, the stems are delicious raw and can also be pickled in a light vinegar, I'm yet to try this but it's a traditional use in Japan. The flowers are a pretty addition to a salad. Don't over harvest leaves though as this can slow down the formation of the rhizome or 'root'.

In a year to 18 months the rhizome will be ready to harvest. Just scrape a little soil away from the base of the plant and check out the size, it should be about 15-30mm wide. Lift the whole plant and look for the little plantlets that have formed around the crown of the plant. Replant these and keep them moist.

Grate the fresh rhizome and use it fresh with sashimi or sushi. It's supposed to be best grated on a sharkskin grater. I would love one of these, but in its absence I make do with a fine microplane. This paste is best consumed soon after grating. It is gentler, sweeter and more complex in flavour, and paler in colour than the fake, bright green stuff you get in a tube, the two substances are really not alike at all.
It will keep in a ziplock bag in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and can be peeled and grated a little at a time.

Please get in touch if you'd like me to put a plant aside for you, they are a bit scarce here at the moment, but there are more getting established in their little pots as I write.

It must be love!

Check this fella out! The first, best Spring day of his holidays and he's done this. Double depth topsoil salvaged from excavating the nursery area, mushroom compost, generous handfuls of certified organic fertiliser (boy does it smell organic!) and a strong pair of arms spending a day on the rotary hoe. You can't imagine how exciting this is for us. After 6 years gardening with only buckets to move water, possums and pademelons helping themselves just before things are ready for harvest, and very little soil to work with, this possum-proof, deep-soiled, hose-serviced area is better than a years worth of Christmas, birthdays and Easter eggs all rolled together!

And while he's been doing this Elsie and I have sown loads of Cucurbits. Water and rockmelons, cornichons, zucchinis, cucumbers and Winter and Summer squash, in many different heirloom guises, all in their little pots ready to wake up, grow like crazy and fill our bellies with their flowers, flesh and seeds. And we've potted up 2 varieties of purple-tinged globe artichokes that will be ready for late Spring planting. What a great day! And tomorrow we'll start planting with those rainbow seed potatoes that are beginning to sprout in the shed.

I'll be at the Tas Farm Gate market, this Sunday the 12th of September, with my slowly expanding range of herbs and Tasmanian plants for sale, along with some Spring greens and herbs for your kitchen, and again on Sunday the 26th of September. Hope to see you there!

Beginnings

Borage

When does something like this begin? With the first inkling of an idea? The first hour of work to set things in motion? Registering the business name, or lodging a BAS? The first seedling to germinate? The sinking of the spade to turn the first sod, first order, first sale?

I'm going to go with now.

It begins now.

Snow dusted Betts Hill,
the view from my potting bench. Lucky me!

The hothouse is built, the possums are hopefully fenced out (not laughing at my efforts from the nearby forest!) and I've committed to a proper grown-up site at the farmers market for Spring. I've got a great job lined up with the Geilston Bay Landcare group, and have met some fantastic chefs, including my own wonderful live-in-chef, who have inspired me to grow lots of beautiful, interesting, unusual and healthy food plants. And I've got a swag of local native seed ready to sow for those of you who live in West Hobart, the Glebe or Sandy Bay and want to bring the local wildlife into your gardens. So here's some pics of what's happened here so far. Please pop on your optimistic, potential-seeing, rose tinted glasses and have a squiz at the soon to be fleshed bones of Provenance Growers!

Please click on any of the images for a bettter view! (especially the borage flower!)

Newly sown Tomatoes

My new toy for making up my own brews of potting mix with organic fertilisers

The mother of my, soon to be, Nettle patch.

Awakening Horseradish

A muddy helper

A planting fairy, very handy to have in the garden!

 Hothouse!!

Tomatoes sown include:

Snow White
Black zebra
Thai pink egg
Black cherry
Red Fig
Yellow cherry
Stupice
Leicter Jones
Brandywine
Debaro
Soldaki
George, the only non climbing variety so far, from a Greek market gardener near here, fat, delicious, field type.
These should be available as seedlings from early October (or earlier if the season is kind!) and fresh tomatoes from mid December.

I'll be at the Tas Farm Gate market on Sunday the 29th of August, the 12th of September and the 25th of September.

Sorting vegie seeds

Today I had my favourite visit from the postman. It was this year's order from Phoenix Seeds. The joy of mail order, little presents arriving in the post! And then another truck rumbled up the driveway with two ENORMOUS hessian sacks of seed potatoes. Unpacking these two deliveries was like entering a wonderland. The seeds, oh my, did I get carried away? 68 packets, when I already have a seed cupboard (a dead fridge, a great, insulated seed storage unit, just add mouse proof ventilation) full of saved seed. But I always need more, there are many little treasures that I haven't tried yet, and some seeds it takes skill to save like my Cucurbits. I grow them in shared beds and they are a free loving bunch and if you don't use techniques to prevent cross pollination you end up with a mish-mash of progeny that may be nothing like their parents. So I cheat, and buy fresh seed each year so I know that my squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchinis and melons will all behave as they should. One day I'll pick some favourites, do the hard yards to ensure purity of pollination and save some seed.

Sapphire, Cranberry Red and Purple Congo potatoes 

Then the potatoes! I found a supplier of certified seed from the North of the state who grows a big range of new and heritage varieties. I ordered two purple fleshed varieties, Purple Congo and Sapphire, and a tasty, red skinned, pink fleshed variety called Cranberry Red, Kipflers, Pink Fir Apple (my favourite even if it is odd roasting something that looks so much like a little baby!), and a variety I'd never heard of that is supposed to taste fabulous, Banana. Keep an eye out for these on my stall at the Farm Gate market from late December onwards. I'll be planting these using low carbon emission equipment, ie my own hands, so supply will be limited but exciting!

A wonderful thing about seeds is learning of the plant's origins and uses. A new one for me this year is Camas Camassia quamash. It will be a couple of years at least before I can harvest any, and even then I've read that the traditional cooking method takes two days! It is a North American plant, and its story echoes that of  a South Eastern Australian plant, Murnong, Microceris scapigera. The Murnong was once a staple food for the indigenous population of Victoria, and perhaps to a lesser extent, Tasmania. The roasted tubers were sweet and were a valuable source of carbohydrate and, according to one report, a woman could gather enough to feed her family for a whole day in under an hour. But with the introduction of grazing animals, especially sheep and rabbits, the once abundant food source was disastrously reduced. The story of Camas is disturbingly similar with indigenous Americans also losing a once valuable food with the introduction of European agriculture. The seeds of Camas need to be chilled for a period to trick them  into thinking they have been through a hard Winter, so right now I have a little piece of North America in my fridge. But I am yet to find  source of seed for its southern equivalent the Murnong (from a Tassie provenance collection of course). But I will.....one day....

As for the other 67 new packets of seed, and the 60 odd other varieties I already had (not to mention my unwieldy collection of Tasmanian plants), the question arose as to how I would organise such a cornucopia! Alphabetically? And if so, do I use common or Latin names, both of which can be confusing? Pumpkin and squash are really the same thing, shiso is also called beefsteak plant or perilla, and Latin names are notorious for being constantly revised. Or should I organise them with the part of the plant that is used? But with beetroot the leaves are as important in the kitchen as the root, and there are others, like coriander, where the entire plant is used, foliage, root and seeds. In the end I have chosen the major plant families to organise the packets. This should work for me, because many plants from the same family groups have similar propagation and cultivation requirements.

Singing children and 'George' tomato seeds.

Solonaceae, is the potato, tomato and nightshade family. It also includes cape gooseberries, tomatillos and another of their kin the cossack pineapple along with the Capsicum group, capsicums and chillies. The ones I grow for food are all frost tender so need to be started off in a warm place and planted outside when frosts are mostly finished for the year. As the fruit is the desirable part of the plant a lower nitrogen level is important for these. You don't want huge, leafy plants at the expense of good fruit. This picture is of my saved seed. I let my finest tomato ripen until it's almost rotten, then rinse the pulp in a sieve and let it dry on newspaper that I fold up, label and store as is.

'Freckles' cos lettuce.

The daisy family, Asteraceae, includes chicory, globe and Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce, salsify, radicchio, Calendula and sunflowers. Many species in this family have winged seeds that are designed to disperse in the wind and germinate where they fall. To germinate them successfully they are best only covered thinly after sowing as they seem to germinate better when exposed to light.

Scarlet runner, Borlotti, Roi de Caraboi snow pea,

and Aquadulche broad bean

Fabaceae is the bean and pea family. Members of this family are wonderful to have in the garden as they have a relationship with a bacteria that grows on their roots that can fix nitrogen, which is bread and butter for plants, from the air and make it available to your plants. I often pioneer a no dig bed with broad beans and cut the finished crop off at ground level leaving the roots covered in little white nodules of nitrogen in the soil to feed my next crop, usually some leafy greens that love the extra tucker.

Angelica

If I had to pick a favourite family, it might be Apiaceae. This family is distinguished by its fabulous umbelliferous flowers, yes I know, a big botanical word but it's a big, intricate, beautiful flower. This family includes carrots, dill, coriander, fennel, parsnip, angelica, sweet cicely, cumin, caraway, chervil, mitsuba, celery, celeriac and Mexican coriander.

Osaka giant purple-leaf mustard.

Brassicaceae is a really diverse and important family. Delicious, nutritious and ever so varied. The sweet, crisp swollen stems of kohl rabi, the meaty, satisfying greens of the kales. Piquant rocket, and its punchy cousin wild rocket, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and wasabi. Broccoli in all its colourful manifestations, birthday-balloon-bright radishes, and the textural divinity of Asian greens.

Pineapple sage

It's almost impossible to imagine cooking without the aromatic gifts of Lamiaceae. This family is rich in aromatic oils that provide us with so many distinctive flavours. Mints, thyme, rosemary, sage, shiso, oregano, marjoram, basil in all its forms, savoury, and many, many others. Some species such as shiso and chia have large amounts of omega 3 fatty acids in their seeds, others like thyme have great antibacterial properties and make a wonderful tea to help heal a sore throat.

Purple orach

Chenopodiaceae is a family of plants that we should see more of. I have a self sustaining patch of purple orach in my garden. Like others of its kin, my orach is a drought tolerant, nutritious green (or purple!). Many plants in this family have the ability to store water in their leaves and the young tips of my first harvest of orach each year sparkle with cells full of water. This group of plants provides leaves and stems for salad and cooking, protein rich grains, and roots for food and a source of sugar. Quinoa, amaranth, beetroot, chard, huazontle, epazote and spinach. What a feast!

I've already touched on Cucurbitaceae.  Melons, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers. Little squash for eating in one bite, mammoth pumpkins that get sweeter as they're stored through the winter, another diverse and delicious group. This year I steamed the tips of pumpkin runners complete with tiny, baby pumpkins and curly tendrils. A pretty and tasty use for garden trimmings! I also saw, on a cooking show, people growing pumpkins with the aim of using the foliage as a vegetable. Another experiment coming up in our kitchen this Summer!

Sugar baby watermelon, Thelma Sanders sweet potato Winter squash, Parisian pickling cucumber and Kakai pumpkin, a variety grown for its hull-less seeds.

There are a lot more seeds in my collection that have been piled in a random box as there are only one or two representatives of their family in my collection, like sweetcorn, miners lettuce, borage and purslane. This Spring and Summer many of these seed grown delights  will be available for you at the Tas Farm Gate market, either as plants for you to grow your own treats, or as produce to have fun with in your kitchen.  I'll also have many others, plants that are produced from cuttings or division and some locally collected Hobart native plants to bring the bush into your garden, but that's a story for another day!




I'll be at Tas Farm Gate this Sunday the 1st of August and the 15th of August from 9am till 1pm. Please come and have a chat about your kitchen or garden!

East

In 1952 a pregnant, cosmopolitan, young woman from Amsterdam sailed with her husband and 3 children to Australia to live as a lighthouse keeper's wife at Cape Schanck on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. There she and her family were introduced to a new life of isolation, wood stoves, copper baths, self sufficiency and correspondence schooling. They stayed there for a few months, and then moved with their new baby, my father Marc, to Eddystone Point on Tasmania's North East Coast. My Oma told us a tale of the fright she felt watching a blue tongue marching through the hallway of her cottage. Imagine being a sophisticated young woman from a very modern city, and finding yourself with your family in the midst of gales, snakes, chooks and firewood splitting. She grew to love the life, but couldn't bear sending her children to boarding school, and so moved from that place of kelp and granite. l doubt that a father spending his first 3 years of life somewhere can make it seep into the blood of the next generation, but the East coast of Tasmania has a special pull for me. I am most content when floating, surrounded by waving, slippery bull kelp, gazing on the world below, or wandering for hours looking in rock pools, losing entire afternoons marvelling at the multitude of textures and colours in the Granite sands, examining flotsam and jetsam. And then there's the botanising......

Much of the East Coast is home to Granite in Tasmania. Granite derived soils host a variety of plants not seen in the rest of Tasmania. Many of the plants here reflect those of the Granite lands in Victoria, a wonderful reminder of our State's past union. Then there are rare gems found only in small, isolated populations here, and nowhere else in the world. In my meanders there I have also seen strange forms of otherwise common plants. Blackwoods with giant 'leaves'. Trigger Plants and Pratias with white flowers. Wonderful, unique things that are worthy of conservation in their own right.

For indigenous Tasmanians this is a land of plenty, and for those of us who have come later it has proved to be the same. Every Summer my mother would miraculously squeeze 2 weeks worth of food, clothes and entertainment into our Kingswood, and off we would go. Cosy Corner in the Bay of Fires was our prime destination. Snorkelling for abalone, armed with a screwdriver and wearing a woolly jumper in the absence of a wetsuit, or walking the shores of the lagoons seeking additions for my macabre skull collection while my parents fished. I remember my first encounter with a Kangaroo Apple, Solanum laciniatum, there, being enticed by its tomato-like features, but discouraged by wary adults who didn't know how to deal with such a fruit safely. I have since learned the fruits can be buried in the sand and allowed to ripen until softened and a deep orange colour, well away from ravenous wildlife and then safely eaten, but are toxic until fully ripe.

  

Hibbertia riparia, Guinnea flower and Solanum laciniatum Kangaroo Apple.

I had the pleasure of a road trip with my little sister Belinda and her friend Trish, to Waterhouse on the North East corner of Tasmania, where we lay on a carpet of Pigface, Carpobrotus rossii, as Trish showed us how to pick the best fruits to eat and how to suck the inside pulp from the fruit. While we were enjoying the salty, sweet snacks she spoke of her great great grand father, Manalargenna sending smoke signals from Cape Barren to his family on the mainland of Tasmania. To hear such stories while in such a magical place brings a feeling of connection to the land, its bounty, history and language, that I think many of us are starving for. Next to our pigface picnic was another coastal edible, Coast Beard Heath, Leucopogon parviflorus. Here it was a full sized, well proportioned shrub, but was laying flat on the ground. The strong, salty winds had burnt off every shoot that attempted to grow upright, leaving this specimen and its neighbours looking very Dali-esque.
This species produces copious amounts of white acid/sweet fruits, with relatively large stones, through late Summer and early Autumn, but you have to be up before the seagulls to sample the best. For the horticulturally minded admirer to germinate these seeds we have to replicate the processes that they have evolved to undergo. Such a tasty fruit was designed to be eaten, and distributed by our feathered and furred friends, and to imitate the digestive tract we must ferment the fruits, then wash away the remaining flesh and soak in an alkaline solution, then sow the seed and await the following Spring to see it germinate. To have such a lovely plant in your garden is well worth the patience and effort involved. 

Further South, I recently had the good fortune to be asked to explore the flora of this area with some guides from a new East Coast resort. I couldn't believe my luck! To share the beauty of these plants with interested people within view of the majestic Hazards, all in the name of work! The garden and grounds of this development have been landscaped with native plants grown from seed and cuttings collected from natural vegetation on or near the site, by Tasmanian nurseries specialising in growing Tasmanian plants, like my training ground, Plants of Tasmania Nursery. These plants will have a great chance of thriving in the low nutrient, often dry soils there and tolerating desiccating, salt laden winds. Many of the plants in the resorts grounds are common throughout Tasmania. They include Tussock Grasses, Sagg, Kangaroo Apple, Native Cranberry, Pigface, Running Postman and a multitude of others. But these same species can also be found in the Central Highlands, on the West Coast and in the South. Would the same species collected elsewhere in the State have the same adaptations to climate, geology and other localised influences that prevail here? The benefits of choosing local genetics for gardening and revegetating areas of this site are many. The unique geology and climate of this part of Tasmania would favour plants that can make the most of the low nutrient, mostly well drained soils of the area, that will tolerate the salt laden winds blowing in from Oyster Bay and have evolved to have relationships with the other organisms in the area such as soil life, birds and insects.

The resort building is an intense piece of architecture and looks at though it is waiting to lift from the Earth and fly off into Oyster Bay. What better way to tether, or ground such a building, and allow it to nestle into the environment, than to wrap it with a blanket of Nature. The use of locally sourced native plants will soften the contrast of the man-made buildings, roads and paved surfaces with the surrounding environment. They will frame the stunning ocean and mountain views without jarring the gaze, and support the wildlife they have evolved with and existed alongside forever.

Calytrix tetragona, Fringe myrtle. Coles Bay.

The dominant tree on the site, the Black Peppermint, Eucalyptus amygdalina, grows naturally all over the State, but in a myriad of different sites that face differing climatic conditions, soils, herbivorous animals and insects. In the North West it can hybridise with nearby Eucalyptus nitida the Smithton Peppermint. In the Central Highlands it breeds with E. pauciflora, and on the Eastern shore it makes babies with the rare E. risdonii, the Risdon peppermint. On the site at Coles Bay it can hybridise with E. pulchella, the White peppermint. Would it be wise to mix up the genes from these differing populations? I would prefer to err on the side of caution and protect the unique characteristics of trees in healthy forests. After all, why are you deciding to plant local native plants in the first place? To support local ecologies and enhance natural values? To help your building settle into the landscape? I have recently heard whispers of someone doing a study on the effect of provenance on the germination rates of Eucalypts. Apparently some species will germinate faster or slower, depending on where the seed was collected. I can only guess at the reasons for this, but it's just another demonstration of the uniqueness of each part of our beautiful island.

If you would like some help to preserve the unique character of your land, while gardening or revegetating, please contact us, either on the email at the top of the page, or come and have a chat at the Tasmanian Farm Gate market on Sunday the 18th of July, and Sunday the1st of August, 9am - 1pm.

Provenance Growers on Food

Where does your food come from?
We all know about 'frankenfood'. The stuff where they print grill marks onto burgers with rollers drenched in food colouring, attempting to make them look as though they were cooked in a remotely natural manner. Or when something similar to pasta is put in a vacuum sealed bag with any number of numbered accompaniments, "anyone fancy some 621, 230 and 774 finished with a dash of onion powder?" in a different flavour for every night of the week, all sold to make our lives simpler. This stuff is obvious. It is easy to choose to read the back of the package and decide that you don't want dehydrated this and that with stabiliser, anti-caking agents and other mysterious 'nature identical' (don't you love that one!) substances.

Where we lose the choice is in the things that should be the healthiest for us. Vegetables largely come naked. Luckily now country of origin labelling gives us a little information, but this is a bloody big country! I want the right to choose. To know if my food has been treated, if it contains GM produce, how it was grown and where. For me, the only way to know is to grow my own or ask questions. Not only to consider food miles or organics, but to engage with suppliers and producers, but most of all to garden!

Heirlooms not all the same.
Heirloom tomatoes are all the rage. For the last few Summers many menus have been graced with 'heirloom' tomato soups, bruschettas or salads. But which heirloom? Without a story about its origin, or a description of flavour and texture, the moniker 'heirloom' means little. But it can mean a lot. My best cropping tomato so far up here at Neika is Stupice which, according to the delectable Phoenix Seeds catalogue, is a Czechoslovakian variety where Summer temperatures in Prague average 19 degrees Celsius. Makes sense doesn't it? I've had no success with the French heirloom rockmelon 'Charentais' so this Summer I'll try the brilliantly named 'Collective Farm Woman', again from Czechoslovakia, and the Sweet Siberian Watermelon. Thinking about this when you head to the nursery, or peruse the seed catalogue will prove rewarding.

But, to contradict myself, don't let that limit you. The curious palate will find all kinds of niches in the garden to support all manner of unsuitable but tasty specimens. And practice can teach us much. If I sow coriander in early March it will grow to a harvestable size and tolerate frost and snow and keep our family in green curry all Winter. A laksa, or Vietnamese mint plant that is supposed to succumb to frost has stood all Winter for years, since I sited it near a large rock, which gives out a hint of warmth all night and protects my plant from the biting chill. And this year my family will have the luxury of a greenhouse in which we can nurture lemongrass, early tomatoes, Mexican coriander and maybe even some of those French rockmelons...
Then there are the stories of varieties nearly lost forever, then saved by dedicated growers. By growing, or buying and creating a demand for diverse produce, you are helping to promote genetic diversity in the food industry. Which makes life a lot more fun than just peas, carrots and potatoes, I'll take Telephone peas, Purple Dragon carrots and Pink Fir Apple spuds thanks!


Locally grown plants.
When you visit a nursery, ask questions. Economy of scale means that it can be cheaper to import plants from the mainland for sale, rather than to grow them here. But a tree or shrub that has migrated to Tasmania during the Winter from warmer climes is unlikely to do as well as one that is acclimatised. And there is the issue of Methyl Bromide which must be used to treat much of the plant material, including fruit and vegetables, that enters Tasmania. And as with supporting local farmers, try and support local nursery-people (and I'm not just talking about myself here!). I recently purchased a plant from a nursery that had a sticker from a mainland grower on it, and when I tapped it out of the pot, a pile of little green granules fell out. I have no idea what they were, fertiliser, pre-germinant weedkiller, or pesticide, but I didn't like them rolling through my garden bed. Get to know your nursery as you would your butcher or grocer, ask where plants and seeds come from and how they were grown, look for young plants in smaller pots as these represent less embodied energy and often establish better. Demand creates change. This Spring, Provenance Growers will be trialing a plethora of unusual edibles, all with the potential to add excitement to your family menu, so come and join my experiment! Just drop me an email, or come down to the Farm Gate Market in Hobart (see dates below) have a chat and check out what's on offer.



Nutritional properties of naturally grown plants.
If you feed a child sugar she gets energy. She might even grow. But will she be healthy and strong? Will she have natural resistance to illness, healthy teeth, organs, hair and resilient bones? Plants behave the same way, you get out what you put in. Feed a plant with artificial fertilisers, and they will grow, but will be prone to attack from insects attracted to their lush sappy growth. They can grow faster than their natural rate and topple at the first breath of wind. They will probably lack flavour. Vegetables and herbs grown in a natural system will be fed from the soil. Composts, worm juice, fish and seaweed emulsions and weed teas are used to stimulate soil life which in turn releases nutrients in a form that can be used by plants. Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people! Plants grown at their natural rate, in the conditions they prefer can develop a greater depth of flavour. Torture your thyme with a dry sunny garden like its native Mediterranean climate, and you'll get a smaller plant, but one that is bursting with aromatic oils to enrich your cooking.

 

Connection to food
I have my own heirloom rhubarb plant. I don't know any more of its provenance than that it was handed to me over the fence 15 years ago when I lived in Howrah. It has never run to seed, it tolerates rugged gardeners and I have divided it, moved it and shared crowns with friends many times, and I still love it. Many rhubarb plants you see for sale have been grown from seed. This means their parent must have produced seed, which in turn makes it highly likely that the resultant offspring will too, and for a rhubarb plant running to seed is counter productive. A bolting plant produces very little in the way of edible stems, and stores less carbohydrates in its rhizome for the next years production. Using my Howrah rhubarb reminds me of that stunning view of the river, and my generous neighbour.
My mother grows a rosemary rumoured to be the progeny of a cutting that was struck by a digger in Gallipoli. It tastes the same as other rosemary, but when gathered and used it carries an air of romance not found in a generic plant.
Stories and connections help make the acts of gardening and eating an almost reverential affair. You can connect with the past, with stories of people, places and events, while sowing, reaping and feasting.



Informed is empowered.
Ask questions. Talk to your supermarket or grocer and ask the questions that matter to you. Is the broccoli I feed to my family treated on import to Tasmania? What with? And what about the tempting American cherries we are being invited to enjoy this Winter? What has to be done to satisfy quarantine regulations to bring these things here? And what about erring on the side of caution? Why, after past mistakes like DDT and the arsenic laden soils of some of our old orchards, is there still the mindset in our regulators that we can still mess with nature and consider things safe after only a few years of testing, when some chemicals can linger in the environment forever and disperse beyond our control. I buy my lamb from a local butcher who gets it from a farm where sheep are unmeusled, where social, cultural and environmental work is part of the running of the farm. And he was happy to tell me all of this, so go on, ask!



Curious palates.
There are amazing foods out there, thousands of them. Six years ago I'd never tasted miners lettuce or orach, four years ago mizuna was a luxury green, snavelled from an expensive pack of Asian greens to be munched raw, medlars were a curiosity and I had no concept of what bletting was, and this year I stumbled upon the deliciousness that is a tomatillo. All of these fabulous foods are now staples in our family diet, freshly gathered from the garden, and the only way you are likely to taste any of them is to find them a specialist grocer, or farmers market, or to grow them yourself. There is little else as likely to inspire appetite and connection to food as much as growing it yourself or talking to the person who did. My poor partner suffered a cross word from me last night as I discovered the travesty of purchased parsnips in the fridge, when there are some beautiful ones here in the garden. The delight of a parsnip fresh pulled after a couple of frosts have urged it to convert its starch into sugar is truly a revelation. Tender and sweet, roasted in a little of that Murrayfield lamb dripping. Nothing like it!




The disclaimer.
Like many of us, I do not always practise what I preach. Don't get me wrong, I would love, to but where would my quality of life be without staples like chocolate biscuits, fish sauce, rice and many other sins I am too embarrassed to confess here?
If someone should happen to bring some Champagne over and a little wedge of French cheese to go with it, should I turn them away?
And how can I resist the 'must have' new plant I haven't seen anywhere else, even if it has crossed the water? But I promise if it's good I'll propagate it and share it with you!
Oh, and sorry Matt, the parsnips in the garden were too small to pick, oops!

I'll be at the Tasmanian Farm Gate market
on Sunday 20th of June, 4th of July and the 18th of July.
www.tasfarmgate.com.au

Chocolate lillies and Risdon peppermints, what a sweet forest!

Austrodanthonia sp, or Wallaby Grass, wearing her Spring finery.


I remember falling in love with the Tasmanian landscape as a Primary school student with an especially enterprising teacher, Mrs Jolly, who had the energy and wisdom to get her unruly rabble out of the classroom and onto the slopes of Mount Wellington. Wandering through these forests, meeting the Octopus Tree, eating snacks while seated on moss cushions, in the shade of grand Eucalypts gave me an intense feeling of wonder and belonging. The flanks of the same mountain hosted my cousins, sisters and I on bonfire and cubby house building escapades and wonderful adventures, and her silhouette was the backdrop to many of our early memories.

This love was compounded by growing up with the wonderful Howrah Hills behind my home. These hills are covered with a sparse dusting of Eucalypts, mostly White Gums, Bluegums and White Peppermints, but the folds of these hills host the special, beautiful and rare, Risdon Peppermint, and the understorey… where to begin! Orchids, pink, yellow, blue and green. Chocolate Lillies, Billy Buttons, White Flag Iris, yellow Rock Lillies, yellow pea flowers, white daisies. Lush green grasses, in a multitude of textures, that change to shades of gold and brown with the passing of the seasons. Bandicoots, Wrens, insects, and frogs, a perfect playground for the curious child.

Sadly, over the years much of this landscape has succumbed to development, the tadpole pond muddied by excavators, favourite orchid patches and ‘thinking rocks’ with views across the river, where a teenager could gather her thoughts, were levelled to create house sites. Almost every new house was landscaped with a generous amount of concrete, pine bark and little, pointy, exotic conifers. Not a lot of room for the diversity of creatures that inhabited the old landscape to make their homes! Witnessing this woke me to the fragility of our special places early in life. Now I would love to get onto these sites before the excavators, collect plant material and grow plants ready to put back into the environment once building work is completed. To create beautiful gardens which will support the wildlife that was there before we were, and to help the buildings and people settle into the landscape in which they live.

In my first garden I began my philosophy of only growing plants that were native to Tasmania, that could support Tasmanian birds and animals, and food plants, to sustain me. This introduced me to the wonderful Plants of Tasmania Nursery, first as a customer, and then as an apprentice and employee.

Provenance Growers has grown from the seed of an idea, sown when I was studying Environmental Stream Horticulture at TAFE Tasmania in 2000. A large part of our training involved tree planting, and the most memorable site of all was a desolate, windswept place at Hollow Tree in the Derwent Valley. This area offered up almost every challenge a plant could expect to face. Hot dry Summers, followed by biting, icy winters with sometimes sodden ground. Soil depleted by years of grazing and drought, danger of browsing by wildlife. A harsh, unforgiving place to try and restore plants to the landscape. It seemed obvious that the remnant bush, that had thrived and survived up till now was the best source for seed to grow the plants adapted to this landscape. Plants tailored for success in this extreme environment. Some suggest now that we should consider using plants from hotter, drier places to create forests more tolerant to the effects of climate change. I would argue that we should give Nature the best chance to heal and adapt in her own way, as she always has.

The next step along the path to Provenance came from wandering about in Tasmania. I have seen Trigger plants on mountain tops and sea shores. Technically the same plant, but selected by Nature to have the genes best suited to the challenges provided by each environment. Manuka, or Common Tea Tree, is found in Tasmania, and New Zealand. To my mind it may be the same species, but can the New Zealand plant cross with the Tasmanian variety when planted in close proximity, and what effects will this have on the genetics of the bushland involved? Will the trigger plant be as successful when grown from seed from the high country then planted by the sea?

Now, with the planet under stress, surely the imperative is on us to tread as lightly as we can. We can use our gardens as havens, or corridors for wildlife, and places to grow food to sustain us and nurture our families.



Brown tree frog in Lepidosperma sp, our garden at Neika, December 2010. I was sitting inside when I noticed our Sword sedge leaves bouncing up and down, and went outside to find at least 10 little frogs making merry all over it!

I will be at the Tasmanian Farm Gate Market on the corner of Elizabeth and Melville Streets on Sunday 23rd of May, and the 6th and 20th of June from 9am till 1pm. Please come down for a chat about your land. www.tasfarmgate.com.au