A the beginning of winter this year I planted fennel in my vegetable garden for the first time. It’s been an astounding success and I am harvesting beautiful bulbs every few days. The aroma of the freshly cut young fennel is astonishing – so fresh and sharply aniseed, but also almost sweet in overtone. I…
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When my sister-in-law died just over three years ago we inherited a blueberry bush, which, in my part of Australia, is not a common thing. It has the most beautiful blossoms and the fruit changes from a pale watery green with a pinkish blush to deep blue when the fruit is ripe. Each year there…
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I’m spending a few days in Ballandean, near Stanthorpe, at my friends’ vineyard. They have gone to Italy for a joint 50th birthday celebration, and I’m teen-sitting. It’s a pretty easy gig, so I have had lots of time to explore, cook, read, reflect, listen to music and drink some beautiful wine. There are numerous…
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A lazy Sunday morning is not a regular feature of my week, but today was all that could be hoped for in that regard. After a gym workout I joined my husband and daughter at a local cafe for breakfast before discovering a treasure trove of new season fruits and vegetables at the Greengrocer’s Pantry next…
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“The air was fragrant with a thousand trodden aromatic herbs, with fields of lavender, and with the brightest roses blushing in tufts all over the meadows. . . .” William Cullen Bryant I gathered a bunch of lavender late one afternoon a couple of weeks ago for my friend Claire. This spring our lavender plants…
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“It is a very beautiful day. The woman looks around and thinks: ‘there cannot ever have been a spring more beautiful than this. I did not know until now that clouds could be like this. I did not know that the sky is the sea and that clouds are the souls of happy ships, sunk…
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These beautiful little morsels are very easy to make, but look and taste as if they took a whole lot of effort and skill. Peas are gently simmered in a little stock that has been flavoured with onion, garlic and fennel, then mashed up and piled onto toasted bread rubbed with fresh garlic and spread…
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Simple food 