It was a surprise to read in the Sunday Canberra Times of June 11, 2017 that the top ten items (purchased most often) by Australian shoppers (data from Nielsen) are: banana, white bread loaf, whole milk, loose tomatoes, loose apples, beef mince, cucumbers, broccoli and broccolini, strawberries and reduced fat milk.
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Who knew that broccoli/broccolini and cucumbers were the most popular greens. Broccolini is said to be a natural hybrid between broccoli and kai-lan and it was first grown commercially in Mexico in 1994.
Would Canberra Good Food readers have a similar list of ten items purchased each week?
Send me your list by email to: bodenparsons@bigpond.com (and where you shop) and the most interesting (with a seasonal veg or fruit recipe if you wish) will win a copy of Wholefood from the Ground Up: Nourishing Wisdom by Jude Blereau (Allen & Unwin). The author founded the Earth Market in Perth in 1997, followed by a cooking school and she has cooked thousands of her Margaret River sesame and carrot patties for burgers. Among 120 recipes are imaginative vegetarian dishes including cauliflower which Blereau grows in the cooler months then tosses in spices, roasts and serves with chickpeas, fresh dates and a orange tahini sauce.
Hands at work
Cutting broccoli heads and pulling parsnips in winter can be harsh on the fingers. A local horticulturist told me the most popular garden gloves for professionals are Ninja from Ontario, Canada. Hers came from Gasweld in Fyshwick so I purchased a pair (style EN 388 #4131, small), and agree. A hydropellant technology coating makes them soft and flexible, they are latex-free, have the ultimate wet and dry grip and repel liquids. Inexpensive, too.
Whopper feijoa
Around town, Canberrans have been harvesting feijoas not stolen by currawongs and possums. In 2013 through this column, Dr Mark O'Connor of O'Connor sought the best feijoa trees in Canberra. More than fifty people came forward with samples of the fruit and with twigs he could use as scions for grafting. After a taste test, Mark named each fruit after its donor, and rows of small trees were planted at the Lindsay Pryor National Arboretum.
One of the feijoa donors was Pia Asa of Downer and, this season on June 1, her bush set a record for a feijoa that weighed 202grams. She makes a feijoa and lemon cordial from the fruit in a Finnish juicer-steamer.
Labouring in an allotment
When some rather intrusive sleuthing led a London journalist to discover the location of Jeremy Corbyn's allotment at East Finchley north of Hampstead Heath in London, the media went overboard in describing every last edible. Being summer in the UK, his crops include corn (which Corbyn calls maize), rhubarb, beans, potatoes, pumpkins and a redcurrant bush.
A crop of berries prompted to the leader to make jam including blackberry and apple, redcurrant and strawberry. He gave a jar to presenters of the One Show on television. Corbyn, a vegetarian and, as Annabel Crabb noted, married to his third wife, says he finds gardening in the allotment gives him time to think.
One wonders if any of our local politicians grow their own fruit or veg.
Possum's Pomegranate
With Yotam Ottolenghi in Australia and on MasterChef recently, the taste buds hanker for pomegranates as he was the chef who brought their jewels to the kitchens of Canberra readers in his books Plenty (2010) and, in 2012, Jerusalem the city where Ottolenghi was born and raised.
A woman with Middle Eastern heritage who gardens near me planted a dozen pomegranate trees in a rather small area late last year. One small tree produced fruit that shone in early winter like lacquer red nail-polish.
However a friend with a mature pomegranate tree found a local possum was destroying much of his crop, dozens of fruit. Being ex-army, he thought through the problem methodically and used metal netting to protect each remaining item of fruit. Our photo shows the result. Does any reader have a solution?
Over pumpkin, sweetcorn and rosemary fritters at Bookplate a week ago, I chatted with plant-loving sisters Jean Geue of Aranda and Susan Hart of Waramanga. We spoke of birds and possums stealing fruit and of pomegranates as Susan has a young tree growing in her garden.
She shared her tabouli with pomegranate recipe.
Tabouli with pomegranate seeds
Half cup of burghul (cracked wheat)
1 pomegranate
Lots of chopped celery
Lots of mint (and or parsley)
Grated carrot
For the tabouli, add half a cup of burghul to one cup of boiling water and allow to soak for 20 minutes. Strain if necessary. Susan digs the pomegranate seeds out of each half of the fruit using a knife. Add all other ingredients plus a splash of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice if desired.
Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.
