Sunday brunch

FRESH from the oven Saxon Hot Cross Buns from 3RRR were a great success - a nice and chewy texture with the cranberries and orange peel giving the buns a lovely fragrance.

Best enjoyed fresh from the oven or toasted

However, Sunday brunch is not just about buns at the Jan Juc Surf Shack.

No sireee.

The preferred brunch menu during autumn can range from rolled oats porridge with some blueberries, Greek yogurt and passion fruit - low cost high taste - through to pancakes with lemons from the neighbours and sugar, or sourdough toast with Darryl's Dry Roasted Peanut Butter which it leaves the others which are way too oily in it's wake like steeplechaser Moss Trooper racing against the donkeys. 

Another favourite is poached eggs from the gals on sourdough with fresh spinach and corriander.

Hot fresh coffee is not optional, as are the Sunday papers and back issues of the New Yorker.

Meanwhile, the feather riot are served left-over pancakes or toast, before allowed out to chase insects.

Any leftover buns will be toasted by the fire and eaten later.

Heritage Apples

AUTUMN is the perfect time to enjoy an apple, especially a delicious heritage apple.

So heritage fruit lovers will be thrilled that on Sunday March 21 between 5-7pm tastings of heritage apples will be conducted at Pettys Orchard in Templestowe.

Chat to fruit growing experts and learn about growing your own apples and other fruit.
For more information: www.heritagefruitssociety.org.au
Petty's Orchard has over 100 varieties grown in the Heritage Apple Collection.

Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

HOT cross buns are on my mind and in my tastebuds this weekend.

So it's time to haul down the blank books where I have glued recipes torn from magazines,newspapers or downloaded and decide which yeast-based buns to make on Good Friday tomorrow.

One recipe which is a delight to bake and eat are Susie's Buns (scroll down to the second recipe under chick chick sandwiches).

I first heard them mentioned on the 3RRR Breakfaster's program a few years ago and I've made them each year since as they are sensational! Easy to make and yummy to eat and everyone seems to come back for seconds.

The cranberries add a different take on the usual spices and I like to use a little lemon zest along with the orange.

While the recipe says you can freeze leftover buns, they have always been consumed in my home within a couple of hours of coming out of the oven.
This is one time the chooks won't be getting to eat the leftovers.

Last of summer

WITH the temperature set to plummets tomorrow and rain due to pour tonight (hurrah!), it's good to look at which vegies and edible plants have survived having less water and TLC than usual.

While the fruit trees needed heaps of water, the pumpkins, beans, potatoes and coriander all seemd to do great with a bit of neglect. The fig tree has gone gangbusters despite the ravens stealing the yummy fruit and the parrots have enjoyed a run on the apple trees but there's plenty to feed the household and a friend's goat - not to mention the chooks.

Now I'm looking forward to the tank filling up, wearing gumboots and enjoying those traditional autumn days with a chilly start, golden sunny noon and rainy evening. 

Pumpkin training

KEEPING a pumpkin vine inside a garden bed is akin to herding cats.

While it is exciting to see my vigorous vines swarm around the garden, it can be a bit disconcerting to have to evade their tendrils when walking around chasing chooks or doing the watering. 

Gidget checks out the pumpkins

Growing pumpkins is so easy, their triffid tendencies can get out of control.

Constant vigilance is the key, otherwise you wake u one fine autumn morning and realise a cucubit the size of a VW bug is sitting in the middle of the grass and moving it will require a forklift or at least a friend with bigger biceps than I.

But the joy of seeing these amazing vegetables grow is unbelievable.
  
Now my pumpkins are looking pretty good and each morning I do a dash about and tap them to see how ripe they are.

A good way to to work out when these pumpkins are ready to be harvested is similar to spuds - when those big elephant ear like leaves start to look wiltered, miserable and sparse, this is a sign. A reliable method of testing for pumpkin ripeness you give them a sharp knuckle-tap. If your pumpkin sounds hollow then it's ready to be cut free and cooked or storied.

Another sign I picked up from (Sir) Peter Cundall, is when pumpkin stalks begin to shrivel and wrinkle and form tiny, vertical cracks, it means the darlings are fully mature.

My little darlings are stored in and on a wooden box, close together but not touching. By leaving them exposed to full sunlight for a couple of weeks it completes their ripening, hardens up their skin and ensures long storage so you can enjoy them all winter long.

Behind the wire

KEEPING the chooks off the new seediings and seeded garden beds can feel a bit like coming up againist the escape planning committee in a classic British WW2 film.

Keeping the chooks off new garden beds can be a challange...

No matter how carefully I wire off a bed with canary of chicken wire, Hilda, Gidget, et al will do their best to get around - and sometimes - over it.

This causes considerable annoyance such as last week when i planted out the been seedlings. Despite using one metre high wire, the wretched gals got in and tore them up, along with the spinach seedlings. Just doing what chooks do best.

Of course when you want a bed turned over at theend of the growing season, there's not better posse to call in these gals. I simply enclose the bed in the portable wire fencing sourced form the local tip and let them at it. Within a coule of days the soil is turned over, beautifully fertilised and it ready for me to add the compost and plant again.

But for now, it's a vigilant approach when i let the hens free-range.

Anyone who thinks chooks are birdbrained has never come up against their powers for deducing how to break into a garden bed.

Dirty Deeds

SUNDAY afternoons at 1pm, the wireless is hanging from a nail under the deck and I'm listening to 3RRR's stalwart and always fascinating gardening show, Dirty Deeds.

Gidget and the father riot gals are passionate 3RRR subscribers

From the mundane plant to the exotic, with the advice always practical, this wonderful gardening show is delivered with a healthy dose of humour by the knowledgeable, interesting and passionate presenters.

The moment you hear the ACDC opening chords, you know you are in for 60 minutes of quality green thumb radio.

Even the father riot love the show, so much u=in fact they are passionate subscribers and have their own membership card and a 3RRR sticker on their chook shack.

So do yourself a favour, and got to 102.7 FM every Sunday 1pm AEST.

Your ears,chooks and garden will thank you.