On air on Byron Bay’s bayfm 99.9 community radio on September 5, 2011

This week the socks and cardies are coming off with the first true week of spring temperatures.  It was an endless cold winter by our totally spoiled sub-tropical standards.  For once the official start of spring matches what the skies are doing.  And weeks of sun and rain every day are making even the most neglected veggie patch come to life.  So we are celebrating by filling our plates with simple but vibrantly colourful salads, with plates covered in leaves and flowers like a happy hippie.  And we are leaving the fancy cooking to the pros, and tasting their efforts at a big delicious festival this Saturday, September 10, in Bangalow, the Sample Food Festival.

Into the beautiful bayfm studio, turned for the occasion into a flower decked bower buzzing with nectar drunk bees, and the odd bit of static (too much spring energy may interact with your hardware – beware!), Miss September wafted in, bearing a jar of  calendula and orange marmalade decorated with lavender flowers for sister T, and lots of seasonal goodness for the listener.  Just remember, if Miss September invites you to dinner, take along a bucket of your best pee for her peas.

Miss September's dandelion salad

BEST IN SEASON FOR SEPTEMBER – by Miss September, Alison Drover

Its spring time….. pick and eat your flowers and love your lettuces, and pee for your peas.

WHAT’S IN SEASON IN NSW

Vegetables:

artichokes, asparagus, beetroot, cauliflower, kohlrabi, bitter melon
asian greens including wombok (aka Chinese cabbage, aka celery cabbage),
broad beans, sugar snaps, peas
broccolini, broccoli
lettuce, spinach, silverbeet
mushrooms, cultivated and shiitake
new potatoes, swedes, sweet potatoes, potatoes

Herbs, spices and aromatics:

chillies, coriander, curly parsley,flat leaf parsley
ginger, horseradish, turmeric
mint, oregano, rocket, thyme
spring onions (aka green onions, aka shallots – not eschallots)

Fruits, berries and nuts:

apples (Lady Williams), nashis
bananas, papaya, melons, pineapple
cumquats, grapefruit, lemons, mandarins (Honey Murcott), Seville and Blood oranges, pomelo, tangelos
strawberries
Watermelons in Queensland being harvested

LOCALLY AT  NORTHERN RIVERS MARKETS

rocket, kale, lettuce, cabbage, beans, peas, fennel, beetroot, potatoes, ginger, passionfruit, bananas, herbs and honey

The best thing to be using a market and ideal for the arrival of warmer days are salads using combinations of different greens and lettuces, radishes and herbs. Make your own dressings and celebrate the arrival of the sugar snaps and peas.

Spring is a posy of flowers, which are great for people and planet. Many flowers are edible and can help us heal and stay healthy and also play a vital role in encouraging the bees in our garden, which are the pollinators for plant biodiversity.

EDIBLE FLOWERS

The first rule in growing edible flowers. Make sure of which kind of edible flower you are going to grow whether it is perennial or annual. The second rule is, you should choose those which you will likely use often. Thirdly, thoroughly check the soil you are going to use. If you want to grow the best tasting edible flowers, make sure that the soil is clean and the fertilizers you put in are organic.
In harvesting, the best time is at its growing peak and in the morning when the dew has already evaporated. It is also important to keep them cool after harvesting. Long-stemmed flowers must be placed in a vase with fresh cold water while short-stemmed flowers must be placed in plastic bags or damp paper towels and then refrigerated.
The ten easiest edible flowers to grow are lavender, chamomile, calendula, borage, chives, antique roses, sweet violet, pansy, Johnny-jump-ups, and nasturtium.

Violets aren’t just another pretty face. They are loaded with phytochemicals and medicinal constituents that have been used in the treatment of numerous health problems from the common cold to cancer. The late Euell Gibbons even referred to them as “nature’s vitamin pill”.  A 1/2 cup serving of leaves can provide as much vitamin C as three oranges.

This lady is very inspiring  www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/indexs.html

Her words on  nasturtiums:

NASTURTIUMS

Scientific research has found the plant has a natural antibiotic action that is fast-working in the body. It is interesting to note that the antibiotic agent, tromalyt, has been found in the urine within one hour of digesting the herb. Noteworthy, too, is that this antibiotic does not interfere with intestinal flora, and it has been found to be effective against some microorganisms that have built up resistance to common antibiotic drugs.
Nasturtiums are good companion plants. They excrete a strong pungent essence into the air and soil, which has been found to deter aphids, white fly and root pests; and the essence secreted into the soil is also absorbed by other plants, helping them to resist attack by pests and disease. Plant nasturtiums between cabbages, broccoli, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, potatoes, and around fruit trees.
Aphid Spray: nasturtium leaves (infused in boiling water, cooled, strained, and with a little liquid soap added) are used as a spray for aphids on vegetables and other plants.
Nasturtium is a vigorous ground sprawler, when the plants have thickened up and started to spread, start picking the leaves and flowers to eat.
Leaves have a pungent peppery taste, while the flowers are milder in flavour. If leaves and flowers are chopped up finely and added to other greens and vegetables, they are not as noticeably hot in flavour. I encourage every home grower to plant this valuable herb, learn to enjoy it and use it daily for its high content of vitamin C, iron and other minerals, and the powerful antibiotic, antimicrobial, antioxidant and general tonic actions. The hot pungent seeds can be eaten, too

NASTURTIUM VINEGAR

15g salt
100g nasturtium seed pods
A few peppercorns (optional – I used them)
Herbs, such as dill or tarragon sprigs, or bay leaves (optional – I used bay leaves)
200ml white wine vinegar

Rinse – make sure you don’t use pesticides
Tip – gather them up wrap in damp paper towel zip lock day

A SPRING PLATE

Spring potatoes boiled with a platter or greens rocket, radish,  fennel, oranges and salsa verde with a nasturtium. ( this is what I will be cooking at Sample event)

Take your pick of what you would like on the plate according to what is good at the market e.g.

•    1 spring new potato
•    1 radish
•    slices of orange
•    spring peas
•    rocket

“SALSA VERDE” – green sauce in Italian – goes with meat, fish or even pasta

1 spring onion trimmed very finely sliced
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped rocket leaves
1 tablespoon chopped French tarragon
1 teaspoon chopped lemon thyme
1 tablespoon chervil
1 tablespoon salted capers soaked and rinsed
¼ cup oil
sea salt
lemon zest and juice of one lemon

Add each ingredient stir in oil. Add lemon juice before serving so that you don’t lose the bright colour.
Variations: add croutons, add boiled egg

Tip for the garden fork :

Mulch to ensure you get onto those weeds and also make sure you are getting trellis ready for tomatoes ..
Visit www.sustainfood.com.au for planting and harvest tips.

Save your pee in a bucket as long as you are not taking medication it is a great fertilizer for your garden and cuts down the flushing.

Our urine is full of useful chemicals like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. But urine contains salt, making it a bit powerful to apply directly to plants. You’ll have to mix the urine with grey water at a ratio of 8 to 1.
You will also save on cleaning products.

Suitably nourished and refreshed by the spring energy and much giggling about peeing in the veggie patch (intriguing depth of flavour in those strawberries madame – what is your secret?), sister T went on to play an interview with the energetic and enterprising Remy Tancred, publisher of The Lennox Wave, and of the one year old Sample Magazine, the North Coast’s own Ita.  Actually she looked a bit tired – organising a massive one day food festival will do that to you.

Sample is full of stories about locals involved in food, from farmers to chefs.  Check out the recipes for a great idea to brighten pancakes in spring.  A recipe from the Byron Beach Cafe, hot pink pancakes, coloured with puree from beetroots roasted in their skins, layered with orange slices.  You could top them with nasturtium flowers for a truly vibrant breakfast.

The Sample Food Festival at the Bangalow Showgrounds will include lots of free music and entertainment for kids and adults, even those who don’t live breathe and dream food.   You should catch the goat milking demo – those Nimbin goats have rectangular pupils, you can see how they got the demonic reputation.  There is a session on knife skills, and some of our top chefs sharing knowledge.  Twenty two local restaurants and caterers will have plates to taste, for $5 or 10, the list of dishes sounds far too good for an easy plan of attack.  Tenterfield lamb to Barcoo beef, vegan lasagne to mixed grain risotto, cheviche to crocodile, lemon myrtle cupcakes to macadamia and honey meringues, goat, squid and of course lots of Bangalow pork.  Just to start.   There is a producers market in the morning, and about 60 stalls of other North Coast food and food related businesses.  And the lovely Leah Roland of the Bangalow Cooking School is holding a 2 hour kids class at 10.30  and then an adult cooking class at 12.30 in the Scout Hall, with the help of some top local chefs.  Lots more info here , in the new issue of Sample, or the local papers.

I think this is a great opportunity to see what our local restaurants, farmers and food businesses have to offer, with no entry fee.  I hope lots of people go,  so Remy and the Sample team are crazy enough to do all this again next year.    And thanks Remy for donating a free adult class ticket with Leah Roland and a bunch of Sample magazines for bayfm subscribers.

BELLY BULLETIN

Bangalow-based macadamia farmers, Pam and Martin Brook of Brookfarm have won a lot of prizes for their macadamia products.  Now they have been named finalists in the Diversification Farmer of the Year category in the  2011 Australian Farmer of the Year Awards. There are no categories for best ute or most battered hat, but a lot of emphasis on diversification, biosecurity and innovation.  It is an elite group.  Another finalist is Lindsay Bourke of Launceston (TAS), a beekeeper and honey producer. He runs 3000 hives and a honey production business without insecticides, preservatives or additives.  The national winner is in the running for a $50,000 scholarship.

Good news on the fast food front.  KFC has begun removing all toys from its children’s meals,  a move welcomed by anti-obesity lobby groups.  The Obesity Policy Coalition’s Jane Martin says:
“Parents are so familiar with the pester power that these kinds of toys create.  We’d really urge other fast food outlets,  to follow this example and stop using toys to market junk food to kids.”

Australia has brought in its biggest ever truffle harvest this year, due mainly to a big season in Western Australia.  One WA company has doubled last year’s crop.   Producers say  the increase will help Australia make a name for itself in the global truffle market.  And maybe prices will drop a bit for us consumers.

TODAY’S SUNNY SEPTEMBER MUSIC

Belleville Rendevous, by M – from the 2010 So Frenchy so Chic compilation

Yellow daisies, by Fertile Ground with Navasha Deva

The Street of Barefoot Lovers, by Muzika

Visa fran Utanmyra, by Jan Johansson, from ‘Jazz pa Svenska’, arrangements of Swedish folk songs

stay healthy and pee happy,

Sister T

SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE RECIPE – by Judy McDonald

7 Seville Oranges
10 cups of water [2.5 litres]
cc 8 cups of sugar [1.6 kg]

1.Wash oranges, scrub clean if necessary, cut out any imperfections in the skin.
2. Cut oranges into quarters and remove and save the central membranes and all pips [the source of pectin needed for a good set].
3.Slice oranges finely and put in a large ceramic or glass bowl and cover with the water.
4.Collect all the pips & membrane in a muslin bag [with string attached] and leave to soak with the fruit and water over night [24 hrs].
-soaking overnight will help tenderise the skins and reduce the cooking time in the first stage.
5.Next day, put the fruit, pips etc  [in the muslin bag tied to jam pan handle] into a large cooking container /preserving pan.
6.Bring to the boil slowly and simmer for around 45 minutes until the skins are tender.
7.Use a metal spoon to press all the pectin out of the muslin bag and into the fruit mix.
8.In the meantime it is recommended that you warm the sugar [reduces the time taken to bring the fruit pulp back to the boil in stage two] and thoroughly clean and prepare your jars and lids.
9.Measure the fruit pulp by the cup and then put back into the preserving pan with the equivalent cups of sugar [ie one cup of pulp =one cup of warmed sugar].
10.Stir and dissolve in the sugar with a wooden spoon and bring the mixture back to the boil quickly on a high flame and boil for up to 40 minutes.
12.Stir with a wooden spoon pretty constantly to prevent the marmalade sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
13.Whilst it is boiling skim off the scum with a metal spoon.
14.Start testing from about 20 minutes after it has boiled, to see if the marmalade has set [see note below].
15.Leave the jam rest for 5-10 minutes before putting into hot jars [ pre-heated in the oven to sterilise them] to ensure that the fruit sits evenly in the jars rather than rising to the top.
16.Wait for the jam to cool before putting on the lids to avoid condensation forming which can cause mould to form on the top of the marmalade. Cut rounds of baking paper inserted in the lid can help.

Setting point
-you will notice the mixture becoming more viscous, wrinkly skin will begin to form on the sides of the pan, sticky drops will fall from your wooden spoon when it is held up on its side.
-another test is to have a cold plate [put in freezer before etc] and when you think the marmalade[or jam] is beginning to set, put some ‘drops’ onto the plate.
It is set when the the skin wrinkles,or you when you can run your finger cleanly through the centre dividing the drop.

-freshly picked fruit will reach setting point more quickly, sometimes only 20 minutes of boiling is required.
-the longer you boil in the second stage,the darker the marmalade [or jam] will become and you’ll lose the fresh fruit flavour[as well as possibly ending up with over dense /hard set marmalade].

-don’t pick your citrus for marmalade in wet weather [it can adversely affect the process].
-don’t try and reduce the sugar ratio it will affect the setting process and the marmalade will not ‘keep’: it will not be ‘preserved’ …

Seville Orange Marmalade

7 Seville Oranges 
10 cups of water [2.5 litres]
cc 8 cups of sugar [1.6 kg]

1.Wash oranges, scrub clean if necessary, cut out any imperfections in the skin.
2. Cut oranges into quarters and remove and save the central membranes and all pips [the source of pectin needed for a good set].
3.Slice oranges finely and put in a large ceramic or glass bowl and cover with the water.
4.Collect all the pips & membrane in a muslin bag [with string attached] and leave to soak with the fruit and water over night [24 hrs].
  -soaking overnight will help tenderise the skins and reduce the cooking time in the first stage.
5.Next day, put the fruit, pips etc  [in the muslin bag tied to jam pan handle] into a large cooking container /preserving pan.
6.Bring to the boil slowly and simmer for around 45 minutes until the skins are tender.
7.Use a metal spoon to press all the pectin out of the muslin bag and into the fruit mix. 
8.In the meantime it is recommended that you warm the sugar [reduces the time taken to bring the fruit pulp back to the boil in stage two] and thoroughly clean and prepare your jars and lids.  
9.Measure the fruit pulp by the cup and then put back into the preserving pan with the equivalent cups of sugar [ie one cup of pulp =one cup of warmed sugar].
10.Stir and dissolve in the sugar with a wooden spoon and bring the mixture back to the boil quickly on a high flame and boil for up to 40 minutes.
12.Stir with a wooden spoon pretty constantly to prevent the marmalade sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.  
13.Whilst it is boiling skim off the scum with a metal spoon.
14.Start testing from about 20 minutes after it has boiled, to see if the marmalade has set [see note below].
15.Leave the jam rest for 5-10 minutes before putting into hot jars [ pre-heated in the oven to sterilise them] to ensure that the fruit sits evenly in the jars rather than rising to the top.
16.Wait for the jam to cool before putting on the lids to avoid condensation forming which can cause mould to form on the top of the marmalade. Cut rounds of baking paper inserted in the lid can help.

Setting point
-you will notice the mixture becoming more viscous, wrinkly skin will begin to form on the sides of the pan, sticky drops will fall from your wooden spoon when it is held up on its side.
-another test is to have a cold plate [put in freezer before etc] and when you think the marmalade[or jam] is beginning to set, put some 'drops' onto the plate.
 It is set when the the skin wrinkles,or you when you can run your finger cleanly through the centre dividing the drop.

-freshly picked fruit will reach setting point more quickly, sometimes only 20 minutes of boiling is required. 
-the longer you boil in the second stage,the darker the marmalade [or jam] will become and you'll lose the fresh fruit flavour[as well as possibly ending up with over dense /hard set marmalade].

-don't pick your citrus for marmalade in wet weather [it can adversely affect the process].
-don't try and reduce the sugar ratio it will affect the setting process and the marmalade will not 'keep': it will not be 'preserved' ...

On air on bayfm 99.9 on May 23, 2011

There’s a cliche at the moment that at home or in restaurants its good to know all about our food “from paddock to plate” – we’re spending a lot of time in the paddock today on belly.  I’m playing some talks recorded at the Northern Rivers Sustainable agriculture forum 2 weeks ago.  Jane Laverty from N R food links joined me in the studio to talk about how the events were received (very well!).  My favourite speaker was gorgeous Stuart Larssen, who looks and sounds like a farmer from central casting, has a dry Aussie wit, but has been a  thinker and innovator on his large farm for 20 years.  Another very interesting speaker was Greg Reed, from the department of Primary Industries, who is running a project to improve farm planning so local farms are as sustainable as possible with the advent of climate change.  And we found out, thanks to POAMA, a predictive tool that Greg highly recommends (and I hope you can understand, because I don’t, but you can find it here), that we will be swinging into a El Nino weather system by springtime, so it will be very dry soon.

For more information on the talks, see http://www.northernriversfoodlinks.com.au/sustainable-agriculture-projects/

For lots of information on local food, go to http://www.sustainfood.com.au/

BELLY BULLETIN

Oh yes, make mine a double espresso.
More is better when it comes to drinking coffee to ward off the risk of deadly prostate cancer, according to a major US study just released by researchers at  Harvard.  Men who drink six or more cups per day have a 60 percent lower risk of developing the most lethal type of prostate cancer and a 20 percent lower risk of  any type of prostate cancer compared to men who don’t drink coffee.
Even just one to three cups per day was linked to a 30 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer.  “Our study is the largest to date to examine whether coffee could lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer,” said Harvard associate professor  Lorelei Mucci.
The effects were the same whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated, so researchers  believe the lower risk could be linked to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of coffee.  A study last year also found that drinking coffee may protect against mouth and throat cancers.  If you are a tea drinker, sorry, no such link was discovered.

The whole of Casino is in a beefy buzz, it’s Beef Week.  The beef queen was elected last Saturday, there’s beefy fun all week, including a farmers market on Thursday, a free bbq breakfast with the butchers, cow pat lotto and milking competition on Friday, a parade, a mr beef week comp, bush poets, the lot.  See www.casinobeefweek.com.au

And if you’d like to see this region on one of the most popular TV programs in Australia, tune in to Masterchef this Thursday.  The contestants will visit  Season restaurant in Kingscliff, where the chef is cooking with some lovely local produce.  Hopefully they will show our area for more than a few seconds.
Bangalow pork belly braised in tamarind and rock sugar, crispy skinned Cudgen reef snapper fillet and coconut pannacotta is the meal they will enjoy…mmm
If you’d like to try one of chef Reuben Radonich’s dishes, clicking here will take you to a  Bangalow pork recipe.  He’s a local boy (actually born in Byron Bay, unbelievable), so he should know how to deal with the most famous local food product.

Also coming up, cooking demonstrations at the Byron Bay farmers market on Thursday June 2.