BLOG: White Enamel Pie Dish

Connecting through the lens

We connected with Katoomba-based photographers Ben and Cerisse Urquhart of Kings and Thiev.es through Instagram when they posted images from an engagement shoot at nearby Hanging Rock. I asked if I could share the images on our Nundle community social media. When I read that Ben and Cerisse were back in the neighbourhood for a family wedding we asked whether they could swing by the shop and take some new photographs to freshen up our website. It turns our Ben grew up at Moonbi, near Tamworth, and is the nephew of our Nundle copper Ken Flemming. Yep, small world. We are blown away by Ben and Cerisse's images. I particularly love that Ben described our shop as an "enamelware nightclub". They completely overdelivered, even shooting a bonus video, and we are grateful. We hope you enjoy this insight into Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores.

Dog walk figs

Summer of my sweet ferment

I've been dabbling in fermenting and pickling for a couple of years now, mainly out of a desire to preserve excess vegetables (Milkwood Permaculture was excellent inspiration for fermented beans and curing olives, along with Brenda Fawden's recipe for Warm Cracked Manzanillo Olives in Eat Local). I may have mentioned elsewhere that my autumn green tomato pickle has a following of two! Meanwhile, winter kimchi is an excellent way to keep the kale crop in check. This year the interest in pickling and fermenting dug a little deeper to understand the benefits of fermented foods on gut health.

Gillian Bell homemade Christmas mince pies

When I began thinking about sharing a Christmas cooking recipe my Brisbane-based friend Gillian Bell of Gillian Bell Cake came to mind. I thought, "I bet Gillian has some great Christmas recipes." When I approached her to share one of her favourite recipes, her response had me laughing, 'I’d love to contribute to your blog with a recipe, and an interview. I make Christmas cakes, Christmas pudding and mince pies every year (I’m a bit of a traditionalist and a Christmasophile). For my mince pies, I make my own mincemeat and pastry as well, and always bake them on the evening of Christmas Eve after I’ve been to carol service.' I knew Gillian would be perfect.

Delicious rhubarb, orange and almond cake

Have you added ruby red stems of beetroot to your shopping basket lately? I bought some rhubarb this week and I was determined to overcome my procrastination, which too often leads to rhubarb wilting, growing mould and ending up as chook food. A terrible waste.  I hit my favourite recipe books and Sophie Hansen's Local is Lovely Rhubarb, orange and almond cake had the mouth watering elements of baked rhubarb, orange zest and nutty almond crunch that I love. In Sophie's book she states, "most people only cook around three recipes from every cookbook they buy. If that's true, then please let this cake be one of those three recipes." Well, I have definitely cooked more than three recipes from Sophie's book, and I am so glad that I added this cake to my repertoir. 

School holiday Lumberjack Slice

It may be spring, but we're still cutting firewood and usually keep our wood fire in the house burning until the end of October. The spring days are beautiful, but the mornings and evenings are still too brisk to be fire free. So it is fitting to post this recipe for Lumberjack Slice, a great school holiday filler, full of Granny Smith apples, chopped dates, and shredded coconut. After five months of cutting firewood I am sure Duncan is starting to feel like a lumberjack (see Wood Chopping video here). It is hard work, but there is joy in the physical work and the beautiful country.

An earthy collaboration and new friendship

Tamworth potter Sasha Jury-Radford sits at a table in her home studio, making the most of the natural light from the window, rolling, pressing, and carving chocolate coloured clay with earth stained hands into ceramic tea strainers. We joke that the upside-down mound shapes resemble tortoise shells, or, right side up, a squadron of planes about to take off. Sasha and I met when she contacted the store to order Robert Gordon organic swatch mugs. I had admired Sasha's work for some time, but this was our first opportunity to talk. When I delivered Sasha's mugs I asked if she was interested in collaborating to make ceramic tea strainers.

Foraging on the banks of the Peel River

After spending time in the company of chef Sarah Glover and admiring her talent for using food at hand, whether it is locally cultivated or wild produce, I walk on the banks of the Peel River with new eyes. At Nundle, near Tamworth in northern inland NSW, we've experienced our wettest June on record and I wouldn't be surprised if July follows suit. So walks to Nundle Creek and the Peel River have suddenly become more interesting. We walk to the river to see how high the water is after rain, after a couple of days of rare sunshine, after snow. Along Nundle creek we see two wild rose bushes with ready to harvest rosehips. It is winter, so the rose red seed buds are clear to see without the camouflage of foliage. Further along the creek we see clumps of stinging nettle growing in the creek bed and on the banks of the Peel River. In the shallows, where the crystal clear water rushes over river rocks, there is watercress.

Unplugged at the #dailyplentyworkshop

The knowledge that you cannot send or receive emails, SMS, internet or social media gives you the freedom to be present like it’s the 1980s. There are no heads down checking phone screens. Our ubiquitous phones are refreshingly absent for the duration of the workshop. Instead our group of 11 students and eight tutors and caterers fast become friends over a candlelight welcome dinner, leisurely breakfasts on the shearers’ quarters verandah, and a riverside picnic.

Big tomato love

We grow a lot of tomatoes. Friends visiting our vege garden for the first time comment, "That's a lot of tomatoes," eyes widening at the 3 x 4m patch. It is not a large crop by commercial growers' standards, but for the average domestic grower, it's a fair size. The reason we grow so many tomatoes is we enjoy preserving them, a passata of sorts, ready to break the seal of the Fowlers preserving lid to add flavour to slow cooked casseroles, pasta sauces, meat balls and more. Duncan teases that he could just go to the nearest supermarket and buy tinned tomatoes for less than $1/can. I protest, our cooking wouldn't taste the same.