In 2002 I was included at a Forest History Conference in Tasmania where one of the organisers
was Dr John Dargavel from the Australian National University. Last month I received an email from John saying he had found a laneway in Melba which had veggie plots on either side, “just the thing for a Canberra Times column”.

After some slow cruising, I located the laneway, went for a wander, and found two townhouse front gardens with similar plantings. The owner of one came out for a chat. Gerry Santosuosso had just returned from cycling to the ACT/NSW border and showed me his photo of a shingleback lizard that had crossed his path.

Gerry said his neighbour, then in Ireland, was responsible for developing the laneway plantings and that he, too, enjoyed growing along the public pathway. He said the  neighbours love it, walking up and down admiring crops and flowers. Six years ago Gerry came to Canberra from five acres in Murrumbateman to be close to family and gardening is in his blood.

Heather Powell got in touch when back in Canberra where she has lived for seven years. She had used a crowbar to break up the compacted ground, clear the overflow of jumbled weeds and start nurturing the area.

Heather says she wishes more folk would feel the urge to have interaction with nature in public
areas. She said ‘The Lane’ for her is a consequence of a deep need to work alongside nature’s
generosity and appreciation of locals and friends who have contributed to the area. One eight-
year-old girl donated a star fairy to the ‘lovely lane’.

There are beds of strawberries, loquat and fig trees, and Gerry has seedlings ready for planting out including zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and herbs. Frost tender edibles have an upside-down storage tub cover at night.

Broad beans are about to set pods and Gerry has shared a recipe from the region of Italy from which he comes. The recipe was published in The Food of Italy by Claudia Roden (1989, reissued for its 25th anniversary in 2014) and it came from the Ristorante Cappuccini Convento. Claudia Roden says the restaurant is an old convent carved out high on the cliff top overlooking the Amalfi road and the chefs like to cook vegetable dishes from the old convents of the region.

1kg fresh broad beans

1 large onion, chopped

4 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

250g soft, barely salted sheep’s or goat’s cheese (caprini), cut into thick slices

Shell the broad beans. Fry the onion in the oil till golden. Add the beans, stir for a minute or two,
then cover with water, season with salt and pepper, and simmer till they are very tender and the liquid absorbed. Serve hot with the goat’s cheese, warmed under the grill, on the same serving
dish.

Good Food readers know that Peter Gilmore from Quay restaurant in Sydney is 2019 Citi Chef of
the Year in the Good Food Guide Awards. In From The Earth (Hardie Grant Books. $80) Gilmore explains that he planted his first vegetable garden 12 years ago and it is the pea, raised from seed to bee-attracting flowers to pods of young peas, which is his initial inspiration. He says the book “is about how nature and humans have worked together throughout the centuries to produce an extraordinary range of edible plants to sustain us”.

Like Gilmore, Canberra’s kitchen gardeners grow or know heirloom carrots and tomatoes, elephant garlic and kohlrabi, and unusual varieties of pumpkins and cucumbers. Gilmore provides exciting recipes for all his rare vegetables and, through research by his wife Kath Gilmore, provides details on species, origin and history.

Wonderful photographs by Brett Stevens show Gilmore in his Sydney Northern Beaches garden with raised beds filled with two metre ‘Country Gentleman Corn’ and there are botanical illustrations of eggplant, onion, beans and garlic by Susannah Blaxill (who has appeared in this column).

Four small-scale farmers grow Gilmore’s new discoveries to supply his restaurants and there is a feature story on each of them including Fiona Weir Walmsley and Adam Walmsley at Gerringong on the NSW South Coast.

Though I want to eat Gilmore’s white eagle corn crumpets with ocean trout caviar, it is his ‘Salad of Salty Ice Plant, Broad Beans, nasturtiums and pepitas’ that is closest to the Canberra home
kitchen. Tim and Liz Johnstone grow the succulent cultivar ‘salty ice plant’ (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) for Gilmore. The seeds are sold by Diggers in Victoria, for spring sowing in a pot.
The textural dish matches sprigs of the crunchy ice plant with young broad beans, lemon creme
fraiche, roasted pepitas and small nasturtium leaves.