As you know, I am a kangaroo advocate, and several of these wonderful creatures seek refuge on my property from the local shooters. But who knew the word was spreading through the emu population that I love all animals and not just kangas. One of our guests, Andrea*, popped outside early one morning in June to take photos. Standing with the camera ...
Brolgas once danced on the wetlands of Western Victoria. But agriculturalists drained the swamps to open land for farming decades ago. As the wetlands were lost, so were the enormous flocks of brolgas and other migratory and local birds that once graced our western plains.
Now, a community-driven project is underway to remediate Walker Swamp, seven kilometres north of Dunkeld on the Wannon River. It's a remarkable story of our community's determination to rebuild the wetlands, for so long a lost and misunderstood local treasure.
A big task gets community support
Down in the lower northern end of our retreat is a very old gum tree, probably 400 years old, according to local environmentalists! It's rare to see such an old gum tree away from the banks of the rivers, so she's a tough old girl.
One of the great things about this recipe is that you get to feel the texture by hand shaping the burgers. Over time I seem to have developed a little ritual when forming the burgers. Place a large tablespoon of the mix into your hands and press gently between cupped hands, slowly pass from hand to hand taking a moment to pause and reflect.
By Jane Gibb
Nothing beats a hearty soup in winter for dinner or lunch. My spicy chickpea is very simple to cook and it will keep you deliciously full.
You might be surprised to learn that Australia is the second largest producer of chickpeas in the world. So you are guaranteed to find local Aussie produce for this dish.
Chickpeas are good for us and tasty as well. They are a great source of protein and dietary fibre. They are a good source of manganese and iron – both essential for healthy bodies. Plus they have low GI – great for stabilising blood sugar levels. Chickpeas get the healthy heart tick as they lower bad cholesterol.
By Jane Gibb
There was a carrot crisis earlier this year at Griffins Hill Yoga Retreat. Clara, our resident Cardigan corgi, joined us for an overnight holiday in Melbourne, which meant she was absent from her vegetable garden minding duties.
Of course the wallabies, as smart as they are, took full advantage of the unguarded garden. In just one night they ate all the greens from the carrots. By this stage the carrots were almost fully developed so we had no choice but to harvest them. Bucket loads of carrots
were gathered and washed by Mayuka the diligent WWOOFer (willing worker on an organic farm).
The question was: what do we do with all these carrots?
Tomatoes are the base ingredient for dishes from many different cultures including my favourite – Indian and Middle Eastern dishes.
Here at Griffins Hill Yoga Retreat, we grow a large crop of tomatoes each summer, bottle them and store them in our cellar for winter use.
Tomatoes grown in organic soil have noticeably superior flavour to those grown in glasshouses. They are even better still if you grow your own – the shorter the distance from the garden to the table, the more flavoursome your tomatoes will be.
By Jane Gibb
Do you have kitchen implements you can’t live without? As a cook and a food lover I spend much of my time in the kitchen. My kitchen implements can be my best friend. Quite frankly I’m a little attached.
The best utensils and equipment make cooking a joy. Personally, I love an artisan’s touch. So I search out implements that are the best in quality and design or handmade, where possible, locally produced and made with a ‘green consciousness’ in mind.
Here are my five favourites:
By Jane Gibb
Ten serves, you ask? Yes, the rule of thumb on vegetables is changing. According to recent research by the Harvard School of Public Health, the indicators now suggest that we need to consume around nine serves (we just rounded it up for convenience) of fruit and veggies a day, with more veggies than fruit. (There’s a growing body of research to suggest that one piece of fruit a day is better for us than more). All up, that’s about five cups of veggies.
Of course, the question is how?
By Jane Gibb I love finding the first beautiful orange-coloured apricots that appear in my garden each December for a very brief period. Apricots have been cultivated for thousands of years and are thought to have originated in Armenia, the mountainous country bordered by Turkey on the one side and Georgia on the other. The delicate flavour of apricots is intensified by cooking them, which makes them an ideal fruit for squirrelling away in bottles. I remember as a child watching my parents lugging boxes of apricots into our family home, on a farm in foothills of the Victorian Alps, near Mansfield, marking the beginning of the bottling season. It was an exciting time as our kitchen filled with the scrumptious perfume of the stewing fruit, and my mouth was already watering at the thought of eating preserved apricots with my breakfast or after dinner with a dollop of cream or ice cream. At...
0 0 1 325 1857 Griffins Hill Retreat 15 4 2178 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-AU JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:JA;} The good thing about gardening is that there is always next year to try again – that’s how I felt after last summer, one of the most challenging I’ve face in term of crop production here in my organic kitchen garden. In January, Dunkeld was listed as the driest place in Victoria, which is amazing when you think if the usual contenders like the wind-blown Malley Wimmera region. Basically there was no meaningful rain between September 2012 and June 2013 – typically we would have had a good soaking month or so of rain in that time, with a nice downpour in January to quell the dust. This year,...
