One week at the farm we were experimenting with candlenuts. They have a really high oil content, and like the name suggests used to be strung together and burned for light.
So one was strung on wire and lit; it burned for around five minutes, with a strong and not very smoky flame. A good two minutes longer, and with a cleaner flame, than the macadamia nut burned for comparison.
Imagine cooking a pot of rice in thirty minutes simply using the sun. It sounds unlikely, doesn’t it? Last week at the farm I saw just that done using a solar cooker, simply a few sheets of corflute covered in silver mylar and placed to reflect the sun’s rays in a concentrated spot.
Why one of these cookers isn’t part of every camping or disaster aid kit, I have no idea.
The demonstration also included cooking pikelets over a space-age looking solar cooker. An old satellite dish had been lined with dozens of tiny mirror tiles and had an adjustable arm affixed to one side. Oriented to the morning Queensland sun, it set a piece of paper afire in the five seconds and cooked pikelets in a not unreasonable time.
Thursday at the farm was a day of bananas. First we harvested a bunch of Ladyfinger bananas before the bats or possums could eat them, which involved cutting down the tree (and cutting my finger).
There were around 70 bananas in the bunch - it’s a good thing they ripen more slowly than at the height of summer.
Later, we planted two Goldfinger suckers in a greywater trench.
And - next week, I’ll be designing a guild for a banana circle.
Every week when I visit my garden at the farm, this tomato bush has doubled in size. I always thought tomato season was summer here in Brisbane, but autumn seems to be the time that the tomatoes rocket.
One of the cob ovens (the one with a personality) was fired up at the farm today, for a birthday lunch.
Two farm chickens were the guests of honour.
One of my favourite parts of my permaculture course is being introduced to new food experiences. Today, the Pitaya or Pink Dragonfruit.
I’ve tried the white version before, but this was the pinkest fruit I have ever seen, more intensely coloured than a beetroot and with a milder sweetish, musky flavour. It grows not on a tree but on a cactus-like vine.
