The last two times we have been up the mountain it has been cold and wintery – perfect weather for a nice big fire. Growth has slowed down significantly and the insects are hibernating. It is beautiful.
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There were plenty of lemons and limes at the farmers market this week. Feeling inspired by the Gourmet Farmer and the 100-Mile diet, and also keen to start filling our pantry, I thought I would try my hand at a bit of preserving. I have been stocking up on jars from garage sales in preparation.

This morning I made a small batch of preserved lemons. There are a lot of recipes online but I chose to use Ottolenghi’s recipe because they added rosemary and chili which I thought would look nice in the jars as well as add great flavour. It was very quick to prepare; now we just have to be patient and wait four weeks until we can try them.

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On Saturday we added three new members to our urban farm – Jean, Hazel and Nola. Our feathered friends were rescued from a battery farm just before they would have been sent to slaughter. If you have not already been shocked by programs like Jamie Oliver’s Fowl Dinners about the factory production of chickens then hopefully some information here might convert you. The battery farm we got our hens from sends 10,000 birds to slaughter ever 3 months and unfortunately only 100 were rescued in our batch (approx 1%).
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Dad's old house, which he built of stone, mud bricks and glass bottles.

We had a very productive weekend on our property over Easter; it’s amazing what a bit of machinery can do! Steve Hart, a local farmer, came up with his tractor and did some slashing, clearing and road repairs for us. In just five hours Steve widened our driveway and built some drainage humps, and then cleared the whole area between the bamboo and Dad’s old house, pushing out the old garden. I felt quite sad thinking about all of the work dad had put into the garden, rock walls and paths hidden below 18 years of growth that we have now pushed over the edge. The site looks like a big open wound right now but I hope we can create something beautiful that Dad would be proud of. Continue reading…

Brisbane is the perfect base to explore from. Travel 1 to 2 hours north or south and you have gorgeous beaches and more national parks than you will know what to do with.  We put together a suggested itinerary  for Nikki and Si and thought we would share it with you all.

Day 1 – Head to the beautiful North Coast of NSW. Take the Gateway Motorway south past Tweed Heads then turn off at the Tweed Valley Way for  Murwullimbah and Uki. Camp or stay at Uki for a night and do the hike to the top of Mount Warning early in the morning. You will probably be done by midday so you could spend the rest of the day at the beach or cruising around local national parks e.g. Border Ranges, Minyon Falls.

Day 2 – Head to Byron Bay via the Coast (we recommend you stop at Cabarita Beach and Brunswick Heads). Stay at least 1 night in Byron Bay, 2 if you can afford the time, and enjoy the beautiful beaches and relaxed atmosphere. The Top Pub is great for an afternoon bevy and people watching. Make sure you get away from Main Beach. Try exploring The Pass, Wategos, Kings (if you like nude beaches ).

Day  3 – Drive inland through the Byron Bay hinterland stopping at trendy little Bangalow  for  breakfast, lunch or dinner. Bangalow is a small town with lots of yummy places to eat and shop. For a great meal try Satiate or it’s more casual dining room Ate. When you are full of good food take a tour out to Nimbin. For a peaceful nights stay book into Black Sheep Farm or another bed and breakfast in this area.

Day 4 – Drive to the Granite Belt. This will take a couple of hours but it is a nice drive. Book into a bed and breakfast/camp site then head out for some wine touring or a hike at Bald Rock National Park.

Day 5 – Do a spot more wine touring or hiking  in the morning (don’t drink and drive!) and then head back to Brisbane.

Alternatively/additionally you could head North to Noosa, via Australia Zoo,  which also has gorgeous beaches and will be a bit warmer. You could head further still and go to World Heritage listed Fraser Island.

If you don’t want to travel then Brissy has a lot to keep you entertained. It has a great music scene. Some of our favourites music venues are The Zoo and the Tivoli. There are good markets (West End and New Farm to name a few), great museums and lots and lots of good cafes and restaurants.

Below is a link to a map flagging all of these great locations.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104751528505320966123.00047337b335b6004e729&ll=-27.054234,153.099976&spn=4.309267,6.047974&z=8

After an amazing 10 days in Japan, our heads are still spinning from the bright lights, fast trains and general craziness of it all. We started in Tokyo, then hit the slopes in Nozawa Onsen and finished off with a cultural fix in Kyoto.

The food in Japan was amazing everywhere we went, from the cheap and cheerful Onigiri at train stations, to a big warming bowl of soba on the slopes, to the rowdy tavern atmosphere of an izakaya. There are so many places to eat and as you can see in our pictures, we ate our way around the country.

We were given a great introduction to the food culture at the start of our trip by attending two of Elizabeth Andoh’s cooking classes. Elizabeth is an amazing women with an intimate knowledge of Japanese culture and food. We purchased her cookbook so we will hopefully be preparing some tasty Japanese meals in the future. Continue reading…

(We’ve been married for almost four months, but thought we’d better finally post about the big day. What better time to do it than Valentine’s Day!)

We had an amazing and beautiful wedding on the beach at Cutter’s Reserve, Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland on October 25, 2009. We had 70 guests including our parents, most of Lakshmi’s aunts and uncles, and many of our great friends from around the globe.

We made it a whole weekend of fun activities including a surf lesson on Friday (unfortunately the surf was flat that day!), barefoot bowls on Saturday, and our wedding and reception on Sunday afternoon.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather, as you can see in the photos. Our guests told us that they even saw dolphins and a manta Ray swim behind us during the ceremony!

We had a delicious reception dinner at Amis Restaurant, and our delectable cake was made by our talented friend Krista.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it an unforgettable day. Click the link to see all the photos!
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[Update: this post is a bit old, but I thought we should add some photos!]

It has been so long since we have posted. In between our last posts we have bought a house and got married!

On August 28th we moved into our beautiful new home in Wynnum, a suburb of Brisbane on Moreton Bay. Our house is a Queenslander “worker’s cottage” built in 1937 (so we were told, but we haven’t found documentation of the date yet). We love the Queenslander style — raised on stumps to increase airflow (and protect from floods and termites), with wide verandahs, high ceilings, and timber floors and walls (often called “VJ” or vertical joint walls).
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It was quite deflating to see new shoots of nasty weeds sprouting where we have been working relentlessly to clear. I was reminded of Michael Pollan’s brilliant  book “The Botany of  Desire” in which he discusses the Greek mythological gods Apollo and Dionysus—Apollo symbolizes the desire for order and control, while Dionysus embodies madness and mayhem. I think the Mountain is likely to always lean toward madness, no matter how hard we try to bend it to Apollo’s rule.

We are slowly learning the names of some of these nasties, often with groans of “oh no, you have that” from the locals.   Madeira Vine, introduced from South America, grows  aerial rhizomes (which look like cat turds) from its vine and drops them to sprout new growth.  Unfortunately we didn’t know about this reproductive capability and pulled a ton of this vine down from the trees.  After seeing how rapidly new growth spread from the dropped tubers, in the future we will instead cut and poison the vines from the ground up.  To combat the already dropped rhizomes we raked up an entire top layer of mulch and burned it in a bonfire. Continue reading…

I just made these Greek-style roast potatoes to accompany Lakshmi’s famous (to me) buttermilk-thyme fried kalamari. I recommend you try the potatoes — so yummy!  The kalamari recipe is simple: clean and slice up the squid, marinate in buttermilk, batter in flour, thyme, salt and pepper, and fry. Yum!   Serve with a nice greek salad.

Reminds me of a great taverna in Patmos… (images after the break) Continue reading…