Hugh comes down under!

Ms Tagalong only has to talk about it and the twittersphere goes viral! Well at least a few people are talking about it. It? The new River Cottage Australia coming soon to our TVs.

Such a great idea, super recipes and of course as sustainable as can be.

Ms Tagalong and Mr Ideasman were very happy last year whilst residing in Bridport to have visited the Axminster canteen and sample some of the local Devon and Dorset produce.

Last week Ms Tagalong was waxing lyrical about Hugh's Sweet Potato and Peanut Gratin. This week she has been experimenting with some of the recipes from her favourite birthday present.

Never one to miss the opportunity of using bush tucker, this salad of avocado, lettuce, spring onions, cucumbers and lily pillies drizzled with bush lemon juice was just the ticket.

Can't wait to see some of the Aussie chef Paul West's creations at River Cottage.

It's great to have some feedback, so please leave me some comments.

Glean, gleaner and gleaning

Midgimberries and cherry guava

'Gleaner, Gleaner,' the skinny barefoot boys would call as they dodged the cars at the traffic lights. Another world, another time and they weren't shouting at Ms Tagalong for celebrating the joys of gleaning produce but selling The Gleaner the daily Jamaican newspaper. So what's the difference, gleaning bits of news or bits of fruit and produce?

So who goes gleaning? And what does it really mean? The Oxford dictionary states that the historical meaning is to gather (leftover grain) after a harvest:(as noun gleaning)the conditions of farm workers in the 1890s made gleaning essential. Ms Tagalong feels that the conditions of people in the 21^st century may make it a necessity again.

So much food, so much wastage. Where do we start? Look around your neighbourhood. There's a macadamia tree dropping its little packages of protein right under your feet. There's a citrus tree and over there a mulberry tree. And is that an olive tree littering the street with olives ready for curing?

Up the mid-North coast there was bush tucker everywhere, midgimberries, cherry guavas, native grapes to name a few that Ms Tagalong spotted, popped into a bag and sampled later. Speckled midgimberries with their slightly aniseed taste were great fresh on her bowl of muesli. Cherry guavas, halved and scooped out with a spoon were a great morning snack.

Davidson plums with their smoky bloom don't taste so good straight off the tree but try stewing them with brown sugar for a wonderful tart taste. Perhaps even use Kylie Kwong's recipe and serve them with duck (not locally caught on Throsby Creek!) 

So Ms Tagalong thinks perhaps we need a tree register of our neighbourhood, a plan of fruit and nuts which usually go begging, mouldering or smashing. Supplement the lovely fresh herbs and plants you get from your community garden with some of these little wonders! 

Salad courtesy of Northbank Community Garden

It's great to have some feedback, so please leave me some comments.

Bush Tucker

As the debate rages over what to plant in the 'nature' strip outside the garden I offer these wonderful colours of fruit, bush tucker from the coast.

Purple lily pillies, damson-blue native ginger fruit, plum pine fruit and lime-green geebungs.

Whilst walking we foraged for more bush tucker and came across these Botany Bay greens much resembling spinach and tasting very similar. Cooked up for dinner we had a veritable feast, well some greens to go with the pumpkin risotto anyway!


Having been away I have not been in the garden this week, I have been enjoying the large, huge community garden of the mid-North coast, appreciating their plants and wildlife but word has reached me that Madam Fifi and friends are going to be joined by 6 new friends!

There's no stopping Ms Mova when she has no Ms Tagalong! Stay tuned for photos and the latest on how they are settling in next week.