Kitchen Garden: A Floriade 2017 preview

For Floriade 1989, Neil Hermes, then Manager of City Parks, welcomed 50 new ambassadors for Canberra. These were volunteers from the Horticultural Society of Canberra and local garden clubs who presented the human face of Floriade to the public.

The two founders of Floriade, my friend Peter Sutton from Queanbeyan and Chris de Bruine of Canberra, were at the pre-opening day session. Peter, responsible for horticultural care, said that plant species had been increased to 268,000 bulbs and landscape designer Chris told one volunteer that his last name rhymed with 'de Bloom'. That set the scene for the huge annual Floriade success story, a blooming celebration of spring.

This year there are 200 volunteers and, the weekend before opening day, they were being trained walking around the site. Peter Sutton helped pioneer a Floriade apprentice program and one whose skills grew through that program was my friend Andrew Forster, Floriade's experienced head gardener for the past 20 years.

Jasmine De Martin from Events ACT invited me to a sneak preview of this year's Floriade. Last Saturday week, in late afternoon sunshine, we strode down to their Tasting Plate display. Jasmine unveiled large wooden tubs near the demo kitchen filled with rhubarb, Greek oregano, tomatoes, silver beet, corn, eggplant, ruby red chard, thyme and strawberries.

Large square garden beds in front of the marquee, still under nets for bird protection, were planted with red Chinese cabbage, Floriana's Tuscan nero kale, triple curled parsley, purple broccoli and silver beet.

Raised beds of sculptured rich soil displayed the fruit salad garden and spice market. Jasmine, a keen gardener at home, was delighted with parsley and kale plantings which create the green 'rind' for a triangle of watermelon beside a banana and an apple. Bold yellow daffodils in the spice garden hinted at the colour of turmeric.

We walked down to Nerang Pool, beside Stage 88, past filled planter beds, and up to the Commonwealth Park road inside Floriade which was stacked with trolleys of pansies. Rows of variegated kale sat waiting to be planted. Lining up at the site office, where visitors had to sign in and out, and collect uniforms, were fifty of this year's volunteers. Many of the faces were familiar, none more so than Joan Gale who told me she has volunteered at every annual Floriade.

Last weekend, Paul West, well known from TV series River Cottage Australia led hands-on dinners and food bloggers workshops and demos at the Ikea Tasting Plate pavillion. Paul shared recipes for leftover rice choc cup cakes, pea and spinach soup, skirt steak with beets and the luscious rhubarb cake recipe which follows.

Jasmine introduced me to Diego Bonetto an edible weeds advocate from Wild Foods in Sydney.

Diego's ticketed identification workshops at the Ikea Tasting Plate pavillion, are on September 23-25 at 3.45pm.

Diego grew up on a dairy farm in Italy, surrounded by traditional management of the land. They collected wild food as a seasonal chore, spring greens like dandelions and wild asparagus, summer berries and autumn mushrooms and chestnuts. He has lived in Sydney for 20 years and found many of the plants were here too, as weeds. He collects in parks and friends' farms in greater Sydney and grows a little patch of 'weeds' in his garden and all of the medicinal plants he needs.

In Commonwealth Park he imagines attendees will be looking at classic wild edibles like dandelion, flatweed, shepherd's purse, chickweed and farmer's friend. Diego shares a simple and nutritious recipe from his youth.

Diego's Wild Salad Greens

Collect a bunch of dandelion leaves before the plants flower. It is important to harvest at this stage of growth before the leaves get bitter. Wash thoroughly and select the best tender leaves. Toss in a bowl with hard-boiled eggs and season with olive oil, salt and a little lemon juice.

Paul West's Rhubarb, orange and almond cake

400g rhubarb

280g caster sugar

225g butter, softened

1 orange, zest and juice

225g self-raising flour

100g almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

handful of almond flakes

Cut the rhubarb into batons and place in a large mixing bowl with 50g of the sugar. Give everything a good toss and leave to macerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 160C. Combine remaining sugar, butter, zest and juice in a mixing bowl and beat. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat until incorporated. Add the flour, almond meal and baking powder and beat until smooth. Fold in the rhubarb and juices, then transfer the mixture to a lined baking tin. Smooth and flatten the top then sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Transfer to the oven and bake for about one hour. If the top starts to brown too quickly, cover with foil. Remove from the oven and stand cake in tin for ten minutes before allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve portions dusted with icing sugar and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.