There is no boubt that one of the easiest things to grow is garlic. They dont mind it a little dry and they grow like a weed, A good guide for planting and harvesting garlic is to plant ANZAC day and harvest on Rememberance day. This year I planted 50 cloves and I have harvested enough garlic to last most of the year.

Storing the garlic has proven to be a bit tricky. The first tome I grew garlic I thought it was a bit clever to braid it. While this looked cool, it added nothing to the taste. It seemed a good idea to hang it in the airy shearing shed at Camphill. This was successful until April when it all started to shoot. Of course it would., it was time to plant. I seperated the sprung and unsprung and of course had little option other than to plant all of the sprung bulbs. The remainder of the bulbs were peeled and I am trying my first attempt at frozen garlic. Once they were frozen the were vac seeled in bags of aroound 20.

I now have 80 cloves growing like mad in the garden. There is so much enjoyment in watching how quickly garlic grows.

It can’t get any busier than May on a farm. The season is changing and the days vary in temperature from an average max of 20º and minimum average of 2º.  There are days that are so glorious you just want to put your back to the sun and soak it up.  Other days there is a cold wind that blows right up you spine and you just need to be indoors.

Indoors is not where our farmers are spending their time in May.  The April lambs are getting bigger and stronger and the mothering ewes need more nutrition than they can usually find in the paddock.  It is most often the case that the oats that were sown earlier to meet this demand are not ready to have 100s of hungry mouths feeding on it.  May is often quite dry and the roots of the oats just don’t have enough hold in the ground for grazing.  It is a good practise to wait until after rain before the oats are opened up for feed. 

In the mean time daily feeding is often a necessary.  Dry feed and grain depending on the circumstances are used to supplementary feed the ewes. If you are lucky enough to have lucerne hay from last seasons cut or some stored grain the sheep will look forward to your daily deliveries.

As soon as the first good rain fall in May arrives it is time to start sowing  cereal grain.  Our plan this year is to plant a new variety of wheat along with seed that we have kept over from last harvest.  Approximately  700ha will be sown over a period of 2 weeks. 

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04/05/2023

Every day on the farm with my family, my dog and my garden is the best day of my life. 

May is my favourite month of the year.  The days are still warm, so time in the garden is very pleasant and with the sun on my back I can enjoy my time picking pumpkins, picking and planting chrysanthemums and watching the beautiful trees turn slowly into their beautiful Autumn colours.

Once the days cool off and frosts are around the corner (if they havem’t already arrived) the pumpkin vines start to die off and an excitement builds as I start to count the pumpkins.  Anything more than 10 or a dozen will have to be given away because you can only eat so many bowls of pumpkin soup.  It is so interesting to cut my first pumpkin to see what is on the inside.  My favourite pumpkin is a nice dark orange colour and thick pulp. 

This season I have butternuts and Queensland Blues which have grown wild around my veggie patch. They have covered beds and found the fence a handy trellis.   A mistake I will try not to make again.  I just find it hard to pull out a strong seedling simply because it is where mother nature planted it and not where I think it should be.

May is also a month that will forever be my dear Mums special time of the year.   I recall beautiful memories of past Mothers Days and birthdays.  Picking a bunch of chrysanthemums and bringing them inside to show off in a vase is always going to remind me of my Mum.  She loved flowers and particularly chrysanthemums in May.

May was also my Dads birthday and although I never did ask I am sure he would have thought May to be the perfect time of year too. He would have loved moving his chair around to follow the sun You could always find Dad sitting asleep on his chair enjoying the warmth of the sun in a sunny corner of the Garden.

03/05/2023

Every day on the farm with my family, my dog and my garden is the best day of my life. 

Sometimes the joy comes from a walk down the lane with my little dog spotting birds and new wild flowers ( which are probably  noxious weeds).  It’s a 5-6 km round trip and it takes about 1 hour as I am never in a hurry.  There is no need to rush passed all the little things as together they make my very big story. Today on my walk I saw two Black faced Cuckoo shrikes in a white box tree. They were very aware that I was there and cleverly hid behind branches and leave making it hard to see them.  While this wasn’t  the first time I have encountered these interesting birds, it was the first time I captured them in my lens. 

My Konica Minolta SLR camera has a few years on it now.  I believe it was purchased on the early 2000 to allow me to take family photos.  I zoom lens was added when Jack started playing football so that I could get closer action shots.  The problem has always been that I do not have a steady hand so with the zoom on my photos are often a little bit blurry. 

Everyone has a recipe for their best Potato Gratin. This however is my recipe for the best Turnip Gratin.

Why turnips?

The first week in July is shearing season for us and we are so fortunate to have two fantastic shearers, Daniel McIntyre and Byron Campbell. Daniel has mentions in other posts while this post is inspired by Byron and his fabulous turnips grown on his family farm at Red Range, just south east of Glen Innes. Byron is passionalte about his turnips and the many health benifits of eating them .

Turnips are loaded with fiber and vitamins K, A, C, E, B1, B3, B5, B6, B2 and folate (one of the B vitamins), as well as minerals like manganese, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium and copper. They are also a good source of phosphorus, omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Now that is an impressive list.

Usually only used in vegetable soup or pureed I wanted to find a tasty way to put turnips on the plate. This gratin recipe is easy to prepare, uses ingredients that we would normally have on hand and looks as good as it tastes,

INGREDIENTS

• 4 turnips thinly sliced
• 200 ml cream
• 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese
• 3/4 cup of chicken stock
• 6 garlic cloves chopped
• 1/4 cup of chopped herbs of your choice
• 3 – 4 tablespoons of butter

METHOD

In an oven proof pan melt butter

Place a layer of turnips over the butter and top with a splash of chicken stock and a splash of cream . Top with 1/3 of the herbs and 1/3 of the cheese

Repeat more times finishing with herbs and cheese

Bake in moderate oven 180 deg C for 45 mins or until turnip is cooked.

You may need to cover the top of the bake for the last 15 mins to avoid over browning,

Since 2017 the koala population has increased with up to 7 sightings in a day. We are most likely to find them in the white gum, stringy barks and the blakely’s red gum. It is believed that the increase in numbers may be due to the koalas moving to the higher cooler climates as a result of climate change. These new populations are referred to as cool country koalas.

In 2018 the Sunshine Coast university carried out surveys in the Delungra area, including the bushland on Nordale to determine how they can best help the koala population in our district. They used detection dogs to help locate the koalas, which in itself was incredibly interesting. These dogs have been trained to track and locate the animals by following the scent of their excretions and scat.

Click to access Koala-scats.pdf

The university was also very interested in collecting the scat for the study of genetics to determine the structure of the populations and if the are inbred

In October 2018 a koala took up home in a lemon scented gum tree at Nordale. It could be observed sitting up in the tree eating leaves and resting, As it was extremely dry I put a pot of water at the base of the tree for her to drink. I gave her the pet name of Muscles and she stayed with me for around 6 months. Recently she has been seen back in the tree.

In January 2021 when drought was showing first signs of breaking I was with Jack on our way to check sheep when we found a very young koala on the ground in the middle of nowhere. Apart from a small injury on his nose he appeared to ok. To pick up a koala can lead to some rather nasty scratches however this little fellow didn’t mind too much and to see him placed back in his tree was one of the warmest and most memorable things I have ever witnessed

Vegetable slice is one of those recipes that is so easy and will get you out of trouble when you need something quick. All of the ingredients are mostly in the fridge pantry or freezer.

I call on this slice when I need something for lunch boxes or for a light lunch to share with family and friends. While it is called vegetable slice I like to add some diced ham as it adds a nice flavour and hard working farmers like their meat. Over the years I have tried different ingredients and they mostly work fine. You can make up the 4 cups of vegetable with anything that you have on hand. Along with the ingredients listed don’t be afraid to add capsicum, corn, chicken, spinach or even try sliced tomatoes on top. It goes very well with some Spicy Tomato Relish in the side

Seasoning is important. Adding fresh herbs is fine, I rather like dried herbs sprinkled on top. The curry powder is something that I have added to the recipe over the years. Some may scoff when I say my curry powder of preference is keens curry powder. I have, on occassions, used green or red curry paste which is also fine as long as you don’t over do it and add too much bite.

This recipe is suitable to freeze however I would not try freeszing for more than month. To put it in the freezer I like to wrap in baking paper and then foil before place it in a zip lock bag. Take it out of the freezer to defrost before heating in the microwave. Remember to remove the foil before microwaving, It can also be returned to the over to reheat in the baking paper and foil.

I would also like to add that the pink pyrex dish that I have used was a wedding present to my Mum and Dad in 1961 making it 61 years old. While sadly it is now missing its lid it still does a wonderful job in the oven. How many things do we have today that last that long and still serve the purpose they were made for.

Ingredients

Leave stand for 15 mins and then serve warm in squares or slices with a small salad on the side.