When Joshua Broomfield lived in Gothenburg, Sweden, for two years he started playing around with growing things and one of the first was chillies. He discovered that the grandmother at the house where he was living was a potato farmer so he grew more vegetables and found he was quite good at it.
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Now Josh has two plots in the Canberra Organic Growers Society garden in Holder. He says that garden could be best described as an experiment that seems to have gone well over the last two years. He chooses to grow non-GM heirloom seeds from The Lost Seed, Diggers, Bonnie Seeds, Eden Seeds and searches internet forums for interesting plants. He is also part of a seed sharing forum run by backyard aquaponics in Queensland.
Josh and his partner Felicity Buckle and their rescue dog Macey live in Kambah. We met in the Holder community garden where they were planting garlic in neatly spaced rows. The garlic came from Tasmanian Gourmet Garlic in an 'award-winning' pack including Spanish Creole gourmet garlic, a cool weather pack and a lucky dip of neutral day-length garlic from Westmead Park Natural Farm. Leeks have been planted in a bed enriched with sheep manure and onions are going in too.
The last of the potato crop has just been pulled from the plot. The three varieties are 'up-to-date' from Diggers Club, a vigorous Scottish potato that was released in 1894 that bakes beautifully, Red Ruby purchased from a nursery in Pambula which was released by Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in 1994 and the UK heritage potato Pink Fir Apple from Boondie Seeds. Felicity said it took ages to wash all the soil from the potato harvest using a large Eske filled with water that was poured onto the garden.
Felicity pulled fresh carrots from a garden bed and Josh washed it under a garden tap and ate it as his breakfast. He says Felicity is the guru of direct seeding and she was responsible for sowing the carrot seed. Josh finds, for success, he has to raise seed in punnets. The carrots came in a mixed lot from Diggers and those with the longest biggest roots were white while the purple variety did not do well.
His pumpkins which came as free seeds for members of The Diggers Club including French heirloom variety Rouge Vif D'etampes which produced a dozen big bright orange pumpkins as a first crop and are now having a second round. These Cinderella pumpkins contain only a low percentage of flesh. His butternut pumpkins will provide an overload harvest after the first frost.
When Josh and Felicity were renting a house their grafted fruit trees were all growing in pots. Now they have been planted out in the organic plot including three dwarf apple trees, nectarine and peach trees from Woodbridge in Tasmania, an apricot from Daley's in Queensland and a cherry tree came from a roadside farm stall with an honesty box.
Scrambling beside the fruit trees are ornamental gourds raised from free seeds offered by another plot holder at the community garden. Gourds can make an interesting dining table decoration and Josh plans to dry one and turn it into a ukelele.
Final autumn pickings include beans, carrots, eggplant and zucchini but the triumph of this season has been the chillies which were all raised from seed.
Josh's Jalapeno and mango chutney
15 Jalapeno chillies, stems removed and roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 bulb garlic, chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 lemon, juiced
1 can of mango in juice
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
Put lemon juice and vinegar into a large saucepan. Add salt and sugar and bring to the boil, stir until sugar and salt have dissolved and reduce heat to a simmer.
Add chillies, onion, garlic, carrot and extra apple cider vinegar if required to cover and bring to the boil for five minutes or until carrot is soft. [Note: have stove hood extractor fan turned on to maximum and plenty of airflow as capsaicin released via steam during cooking process is an irritant and can be painful. Do not cover the pot.]
Remove saucepan from heat and spoon the solids into a food processor adding the liquid (minimum half cup per mix) as required to blend.
Pulse to make chutney or blend more vigorously for a smoother sauce texture. Add mango to blender gradually, to taste. Repeat this step until all solids have been blended and mix in a large bowl for consistency.
Store in fridge for up to seven days or seal in sterilized jars for prolonged storage. You can also freeze in ice cube trays for use as necessary. If you would like a hotter sauce, replace five of the Jalapeno chillies with Habaneros.
Felicity's pumpkin and apricot pull-apart scones
2.5 cups self-raising flour
1 cup mashed pumpkin (chillled in fridge)
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup lemonade
half cup cream
1 tbsp butter
Soak apricots in half cup lemonade overnight. Line a round cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 200 Celcius fan forced.
Sift flour into large bowl. In separate bowl combine pumpkin and cream until smooth. Mix with flour while adding half cup lemonade and (drained) soaked apricots. Use a butter knife to blend.
On a floured surface knead dough until smooth and mould into a 5cm diameter balls, place in tray with scones touching. Lightly brush with melted butter.
Bake for 12-15 mins or until golden. Serve hot with butter or cream.
Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.
