An autumnal visit to the south coast is always a kitchen garden treat. First stop Bungendore where local plantsman Paul De Jong, who sells potted edibles at Canberra's Southside Farmers Market on Sundays, had a quick story to tell over coffee.
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At home in Bungendore, the family raised a still featherless magpie lark that had fallen out of the nest. It developed male colouration on the face so the boys in the house called him Douglington.
The bird was raised on natural food including slaters and other insects from the compost and was trained to sit on their fingers. Now, four months later, Douglington spends all day in the production area on site, devouring all the troublesome caterpillars and cabbage white butterflies heading for the brassicas. So, when you buy your pak choy, kale, cabbage and broccoli seedlings from Paul, their provenance comes with a tale.
MYRTLE THE SPURTLE
With breakfast oats and vegetable soups on the Canberra kitchen menu, we all need a spurtle. These wooden Scottish kitchen tools have a rod-like dowel shape and have been used since the 15th century to stir porridge, stews and broths.
Tasmanian wood turner Chris Mitchell from Penguin has rolling pins and cheese boards among displays for sale at Bungendore Woodworks but most handsome are the spurtles made from Myrtle, Huon pine, Sassafras, Blackwood and other Tasmanian timbers $21.
BRAIDWOOD PROVISIONS
After a 'staff brekky' of chickpea hummus and slow roasted tomatoes at Cafe Albion in Braidwood, if you are in town on a Friday, Con Kindrachuk from Araluen has a street stall on the opposite corner. He sells homegrown mizuna, magnificent persimmons and other Valley fruit and veg.
Wander down Wallace Street to Provisions Deli and Grocery (open Wed-Sun from 10am) for a basket of chemical free veggies and local pastured eggs. Figs are from Honeywell Farm and there are eggplants, cauliflower and kale from Hazelwood Farm, Jillamatong Farm and Wynlen House.
At the visitor centre in the National Theatre a focus is on award-winning local black garlic from Garlicious Grown. Cathy Owen and Jenny Daniher say these caramelised, tarry black cloves add umami molasses flavours to crackers and cheese or warmed through an omelette. The powdered black garlic can be scattered on soup or roast veg and I use it as a dusting of black magic atop omelettes. The products are newly available at Canberra Visitors Centre and Poachers Pantry as well as Deli Planet, Essential Ingredient, Choku Bai Jo, Let's be Natural, and Ainslie, Braidwood and Yarralumla IGAs.
Garlicious Grown is featured in Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations, a book launched at the Australian Food and Grocery Council inaugural conference last year.
Also for sale at Braidwood Visitor Centre are jars of garlic scapes grown at Jembaicumbene and pickled at The Old Cheese Factory at Reidsdale.
FARM GATE
Since 1882, the Ralston Bros have been selling oysters in Batemans Bay. Last Christmas Eve, Ben and Johnny Ralston opened the Farm Gate pop-up oyster bar and cafe beside the helicopter landing site next to the Marina at Batehaven. To accompany Sydney rock oysters, being shucked while you watch, they sell micro herbs. These little packaged treats come from Mighty Micro at Malua Bay and include purple basil, red garnet amaranth and spicy green radish sprouts. Mighty Micro was established last year by a husband and wife team, and they use sustainable organic practices.
From the Ralston family farm, on Budd Island just west of the bridge over the Clyde River, they have Buddha's hand citrus and chillies 'sealed with a kiss'. You can sit on tree trunks under umbrellas and have a Black Market Roasters coffee or lie on mats on the grass.
HELP FROM KELP
No gardener can return from the coast without a small bag of kelp for the compost heap. I always do my collecting from the beach at Corrigans Cove where a local told me more kelp washes up than at the wilder ocean beaches.It is illegal to collect seaweed from marine reserves, there are quantity limits and it must be for personal use.
An article in the Australian Women's Weekly in 1970, told the story of the 'Kelp Lady' of Narooma, Betty Long, who established a business called Sea Health Products, hand harvesting Ecklonia radiata at Glasshouse Rocks and selling the dried kelp for its nutritional benefits. The business continued with Betty's son, Scott and partner Pip, until 2015 when it was purchased by marine scientist Jo Lane and husband Warren who live in Tilba Tilba.
Jo Lane says she has a permissible quota licence, from NSW Department of Primary Industries, to hand harvest the golden kelp around Mystery Bay and Bermagui. The kelp is washed, sun dried on racks and crushed into products which are available online (seahealthproducts.com.au). Sea kelp is packed with vitamins, minerals and trace elements. You can buy it in Canberra at Mountain Creek Wholefoods in Griffith.
Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.
