Araucaria's habitat.

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Curramore1, Dec 7, 2011.

  1. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    New to this format, please be tolerant.
    Orchard status: pinto peanut inter-row plants growing and flowering, wax jambo 3 years old has first ten flowers, 3 years old grumichama has produced 12 fruits a day for the last 3 weeks, Hawaian guava flowering, cherry guava flowering, choko flowering and fruit setting,
    Avacados fruit has set on Wurtz, the last Hass is falling off tree, but still yummy, Tahitian limes abound, figs setting fruit all over, all lemons, limes, oranges and mandarins have small, green fruit aboard, Valencia only fruit left and regreening, tamarillos half grown fruits, Macadamia flowers have set fruit, Tropical apples and pears about half size on trees, asparagas rampant, fennel rampant, Lady finger flowers finished female and on male flowers, turmeric and ginger sprouting madly, lychee with mini fruits and some black scale, Ice cream bean flowering, rhubarb on the rise, peanuts going nuclear in growth, leeks flowered and seeding, zucchinis ballistic, chillis all over the place....blah blah.. Summer is nearly here!! Mint exploded, oregano all over, sage and thyme banging on, radicchio exploding, potatoes ready to bandicoot, rhubarb on the go, parsley everywhere, arrowroot sprouting, kumara all over sprouting, climbing beans 500 mm high .....
     
  2. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    ooohh I want to move to..somewhere warmer.
    Sounds wonderful Im so jealous.
     
  3. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    yes it sounds great! nice part of south east queensland too.
     
  4. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    At least you've got lots to eat.
     
  5. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    How wet is it at your place at present? I've had days of lovely soaking rain, but not so much that it is a problem.
     
  6. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

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    Only one day of rain here in north Brisbane. Enough to get my a 10,000L tank 3/4 full though. Thank goodness, it was scraping the sludge.
     
  7. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    We got rain last week
    My tanks are full, before that we just had the driest November on record and now everything looks alive again.

    very jealous
     
  8. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Measured 118mm total rainfall in this session to date, 85mm from this morning early.The runoff has just begun and my tanks are full as are the four dams. Waterfalls can be heard 500 metres away at the house. The billabong hydraulic ram pump is clacking away like mad, It has already filled 20000L dam water tanks for the garden in the past 24 hours. Ah! the power of gravity pumping water for free! I'll have to shut off the supply valve I suppose, but I just love the metronomic sound of the pump.. Went to Woodford early this morning, a bit less rain over there. Just girding up to go out in the rain and plant 30 or so Hoop pines, Silky Oaks and Bunyas in a wet gully I cleared the lantana off when doing a boundary fence. Been too dry to plant before this. Curl grub and Xmas beetles showed in bulk on dusk last night in the humid calm before the storms. Thunder and heavy rain as I type, might have to be a shorts-only planting outing as the rain is so warm. Just discovered some arrowroot that I forgot I buried about 3 months ago in a drainage line. Any ideas on how to eat it? Nearly feels like Christmas here.
     
  9. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Yes, thanks Sunburn. Something to do with growing up in a large extended family in the 60's and 70's and not ever seeming to have a satisfied appetite, I remember a solid diet of mashed potato, cauliflower and cabbage, french beans in summer and green peas in winter and pumpkin, with a choko or too added for variety, rissoles or corned beef and plenty of fresh cow's milk and jam drops and anzac biscuits for smokos. I remember when zucchinis arrived, wow, what a wonderful addition. My family think that I'm preparing for the end of civilisation or something bizarre, I just like growing stuff- we probably share more than we actually eat. My kids are big eaters when home and are all just under 2 meters tall and ravenous eaters of good, fresh tucker. One day soon I will retire from wage-slaving and just enjoy the fruits of my labours, hopefully for a while.
     
  10. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Arrowroot pancakes - from Elisabeth Fekonia.

    Grate several arrowroot tubers and squeeze as much of the juice out as possible. Add an egg or two (depending on how much arrowroot you have). Add grated vegetables and freshly chopped garden herbs, and a little bit of flour to bind it all together. Mix and shape into patties and fry until brown on both sides.

    I haven't tried it - please let me know how it turns out if you do...
     
  11. juhill

    juhill Junior Member

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    Your garden sounds like a piece of heaven I'd love to be growing all those things and more but I'm a bit further west and it gets too cold here.
     
  12. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Thanks eco and Elisabeth as well, tried recipe for arrowroot pancakes-didn't need much wheat flour, added some par cooked potato, raw zucchini and a knob of fresh grated turmeric with parsley, oregano, a bit of sage and thyme. Used two eggs to three cups of squeezed, grated arrowroot. I had to squash them pretty flat to get the middles cooked without the outside getting too burnt. Next time I might add some chopped chilli, sweet paprika and a little cracked pepper.
    Just finished desuckering ladyfinger bananas, be running of places to stick them soon where the cows can't reach them.
     
  13. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Thanks! I night have to lift some of mine in a few months so I ca try it myself.
     
  14. aroideana

    aroideana Junior Member

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    I have been eating coco-yam [ Xanthosoma robustum syn. sagittifolium pancakes every week for last few months .
    Abundant tuberous offsets on these and a bit drier than potatoe or Canna tubers so no messy squeezing . Would be a great addition to any garden .
     
  15. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    How do you obtain coco-yam? Is it a fNQ native? My soil is an acid volcanic origin basalt a bit like up at Millaa Millaa. What other weird and wonderfuls do you grow please. I'll google the Xanthosoma sp. and learn something new. Thanks.
     
  16. aroideana

    aroideana Junior Member

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    It is easily available , I got mine from Isabelle Shippard ages ago .. ebay is easy .. many common names .
    tania , yautia , malanga as well as cocoyam . It is a very important crop for poor tropical people and many millions of tons are eaten every year. Just found another recipe I had saved ..
    cocoyam fritters from Cuba 500gm peeled tubers are added to a blender with 2 tblespoons of condensed milk , 2 tblespoons chopped parsely , some minced garlic , 1 tspn salt and 1 tspn vinegar and an egg ,all whizzed up and then a tablespoon is dropped into hot oil and deepfried .turn a few times . Would go well with 'tostones' plantain banana twice cooked chips .
     
  17. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Habitat update.

    Wet season is upon us. 160+mm here so far this week, 250mm+ 10km away at more Easterly farm in town. Planted some Tapioca/Cassava/Manioc sprouted stems, another very scented frangipani and a weeping mulberry today. The rosellas planted about a month ago are about a metre high and flowering. The first bunya cones came crashing down yesterday and signal the true start of our local wet. Desuckered and detrashed bananas this am. and bagged and debelled bunches. The first figs and tamarillos are ripening and I am harvesting the last couple of kilos of pears and the very last of the Hass avocados. I shore the last 50 of our sheep flock last weekend and am just about walking upright again! Planted out about 50 cilantro/coriander volunteer seedlings, harvested silverbeet seeds, parsley seeds, leek seeds and fennel seeds before they got any wetter. We pregnancy tested the beef cows and were pleasantly surprised to have 192 of 211 pregnant. We have bought in 15 tonnes of hay from Clifton to begin calf weaning in early March. With the prices up we may sell all the steers this year instead of growing them on for another 2 years. It has been a good season here. Youngest son off to Senior High School, eldest off to the North next week to work cattle for a season on a Cloncurry District Station, 30 000 head a bit different to home. I processed a fat steer and 4 lambs last Thursday and yesterday broke them down and put in the freezer. Tonight is sausage making with a few mates and their families and a few cooling beverages to assist in the process. 50 kg of snags always seems to turn into 15kg when they all help. Already the day lengths are noticably shorter only one month on from the longest day. I just love observing the changing of the seasons.
     
  18. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Habitat update February 2012.
    369mm of rain from the 12th to the 19th of Feb.! Mustered up the brood mares and weaned a couple of September born colts for handling and doctoring. Sheep drenched for barbers pole worm, pulled off 40 ewe lambs to wean. Cattle treated for ticks and buffalo fly this evening with the youngest son. Pulled off 30 weaner heifers to keep in the yards, so there will be some bellowing here for a few days. My wife says that I always manage to go away for a few days at this time. I wonder why? Tamarillos ripening, macadamias dropping, chokos and pumpkins growing exponentially. Plenty of rhubarb to eat and the rosellas are near ready to pick as well. Cherry guavas are ripening and the last of the first fig crop is ending. Limes aplenty, so we've been dining on lime pie, lime brulee, lime cordial, lime ice cream, lime in beers.....Persimmons are ripening and a few leaves are turning orange as well, custard apples are covered in little fruits just set, Bananas ready to bunch and dehand soon too. The first crop of my monstera's looks full and ready to pick. They bring back pleasant childhood memories of them with custard. Turmeric, ginger, arrowroot and galangal all flowering, so will harvest a bit in a few weeks. Only 19 more days to the autumnal equilux and the moon is a day short of new this year. Pulled the woollen blanket up early this am. as a chilly breeze from the NE. I suppose I will have to gather a load of firewood soon as we'll probably need it in 6 weeks or so. Everything here growing green and mouldy, so will have to break out the gerni and do a bit of repair and painting for the winter. Time to pull peanuts soon and dig some spuds. Sweet potatoes are full now as well. Garlic cloves are shooting so will plant them if it stays dry. The back paddocks that were blady grass 5 years ago are now kangaroo grass, bluegrass, clover, wynn cassia and Shaw creeping vigna legumes. These were slashed and the cattle were fed untreated seed in molasses and copra meal and locked on the paddock for a few days to spread the seed in their manure and trample it in, and then slashed each February for the last 3 years. The tree plantings from last year are about 5 metres tall and the next section is slashed and mulched ready for this years. Those 2 years old have been limb pruned and some culled and thinned. The fire breaks onto the National park have been slashed again for the late winter dry and August westerlies to come. The only thing I'd change is that at 6 am the light is way late and getting later. I hate getting up in the dark!
     
  19. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Finer weather at last. No damage to the creek banks on the Western creek that I call Forest creek, the eastern creek that I call Waterfall Creek has some slippage on steep banks and my vetiver grass has all but dissappeared. The Shaw creeping vigna has taken a leap all over the place. The late pumpkin vines planted after Xmas are setting fruit and expanding at about 1 metre a day. Cassava plants have grown over the wet period as have the arrowroot and turmeric plants. Cherry guava jelly made and bottled. Bucket loads left over so have fed some to chooks and pigs. Seems a waste. Mulched new garden areas to be with blady grass and sheep manure. Ordered some more European chestnut trees as the ones planted last season are growing really well. Carob trees are a couple of metres tall, English oak tree I grew from a perloined acorn down the road is now 2 metres tall. Figuring out what to underplant with under the deciduous non natives. Originally I planted these as a food source for animals underneath. Indian Sirus, Ice Cream bean, carob, oak, chestnut, all around an existing 50 plus years old persimmon tree. These are on the Northern side of a paddock and the plan was to allow light in from there in the winter and to shade the area in the summer and allow periodic foraging in there by our pigs and sheep. Let the pigs dig up underplanted sweet potatoes and peanuts in the autumn and then plant a winter annual brew like oats or rye or barley with clovers and chicory underneath and then let the sheep in to graze and manure in late winter when the grass grows slower. I probably made a mistake by letting horse radish loose out of it's container here as it has spread like wildfire.The sheep eat the leaves but the pigs don't touch the roots at all. First nuts off the macdamia windbreak outside the fruit orchard area planted 2 years ago, dissappointed that they do not husk easily. Wax Jambu fruits were pretty, but not really tasty fresh, so tree got a good prune until I figure whether it has another use. Citrus trees all loaded down with fruit, probably have to thin some before the branches start to break, most impressed with a japanese seedless mandarin, such sweet and juicy fruit so early. Grumichama trees fruiting yet again, what a great tree. Tasty feijoas ripening off the bush now too. A couple of young citrus trees showed signs of nutrient deficiency, probably more from waterlogging than leaching. Chokos everywhere, so the pigs are getting plenty, bananas full and ready to cut, desuckering and detrashing nearly every week now, they just love the rain. The cows wait at the fence for limes, lemonades, damaged pumpkins and banana trimmings if they see me in the orchard now, I may have created a monster there. Wild pigs have been digging up my pinto peanuts along the National park boundary. Last year I culled 9 of the little beeps from the same place, but I suppose they may spread the plant further afield for me? Wild dog tracks all over the place after the rain, probably just after the pigs and wallabies here I hope. 10 days left before the autumn equilux- feel like a celebration or get together with friends and neighbours is in order to mark it and the changing season. Looks like it's all on track for when I stop fulltime work in a couple of years and enjoy fully the fruits of my labours.
     
  20. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Must have been serious erosion to beat vetiver!
    You've got a lot going on all at once. Can you make a jam out of the wax jambu?
     

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