TASMANIAN PEPPERBERRIES

I've just got a new lot of pepperberries in, please let me know if you need any as they are a seasonal thing. Pepperberries can be used just like you would your normal pepper in a grinder.

They are fairly hot so use with a little care at first. They have a faint eucalyptus aroma which reminds your of the Australian bush, I use the berries and the leaf all the time in my cooking and absolutely love it.

Mountain pepperleaf comes from the same bush, it's just the leaf that is ground to a fine power, sprinkle onto food or as you're cooking, perhaps not so strong as the berries, but still with it's own unique flavour.

Exciting Bushfood workshops - 15th May

CERES Nursery in Brunswick in Melbourne is holding a workshop on growing indigenous plants. I have been to CERES community environment part many times and enjoyed the odd cup of coffee there. It's a wonderful place to visit. CERES holds a huge range of workshops and this one in particular, I think, is well-worth attending.

Interested in growing indigenous plants and edible bush food plants?

This is an inspiring and informative workshop in which you will be immersed in the taste, texture and tantalising variety of our native food plants.

The teacher, Justin Caverley, is a landscape designer with 15 years experience in the horticulture industry. He has taught regular CERES workshops in organic gardening, fruit tree pruning, indigenous plants and Permaculture. Justin has extensive property design experience
and has also worked at the CERES Nursery. Justin is a regular broadcaster on 3RRR's "Dirty
Deeds", and presenter on Ch 31's "The Garden Tap".

FOR MORE INFO go to their website www.ceres.org.au

AUSTRALIA DAY

I hope that you all have a great Australia Day today and stay safe on the roads.

We are going to celebrate very simply with a BBQ and cook some Spanish Mackeral that a friend just caught on the beautiful Coolum coast. I'm going to cook it in foil with some lemon myrtle and mountain pepper plus plus, I'll take some pics and let you know how it goes.

Have a great day
Jude

Bush Tomatoes

I've just got some new bush tomatoes in, they were a little hard to get last year due to climatic conditions. Bush Tomatoes are still native harvested and most of the time are dried in the sun.

Bush tomatoes grow in the desert areas of Australia they are an important crop and one of the Aboriginal people's most precious fruit.

The plants will grow in force for a few seasons and then dry off waiting for the next bushfire to regenerate. Aboriginal women collect these fruits when dried in their coolamuns (a carved wooden dish) grind them to a fine powder add water to form a paste, roll them into balls to be dried again and stored in the trees for use later, this way they would keep for many months.

The fruit, after drying in the sun, looks like a raisin and is a reddish/brown colour. They can make you ill if you eat too many of them when they are fresh, the drying process reduces the level of alkaloids in the fruit.

The bush tomato has a spicy flavour and can be used in many recipes. For recipe ideas go to www.bushfoodrecipes.com.au