I’ve been down a rabbithole. I started with some research about the probiotic bacteria in Dosa batter, and how good it is for you. I like Dosa and we eat it a bit, so the research was fascinating. But it led me on to research about lactic acid bacteria and the surge in recent research about the relationship between gut microbiomes and all sorts of physical and mental health effects.
This morning on my picking walk, I picked silver beet, lucullus, chives, spring onion greens, nasturtium leaves, dandelion leaves, chickweed, scurvy weed, aragula, leaf amaranth, sweet potato leaves, lemon basil, dill, oregano, parsley, sorrel, curly kale, dino kale, rocket, warrigal greens, molokhia. So I made a last minute pie to take to a picnic lunch.
Tamarillos are like a sweet, tart tomato in a tough skin. If you like tart fruit, they are good to eat just out of the hand. To my mind though, the highest use is for tomato sauce. In the tropics and subtropics, fruit fly make bulk organic tomatoes a bit of a challenge. I grow cherry tomatoes for eating and cooking fresh, but I’ve moved to substituting tamarillos for preserving.
We have six bunches of bananas on (there’s a reason Coffs is the home of the Big Banana!) – three Cavendish and three Ladyfinger. We also have two of a Filipino variety that have yet to fruit. They are supposed to be a dwarf, cooking variety so they may be Saging Mondo? Luckily, my grandkids are as boring with their favourite lunchbox recess baking as they are with their pita…
I picked a couple of eggplants on my picking walk, and there were at least another three or four needing to be picked this week. It had to be eggplant for dinner. These barbeque skewers turned out so well that I had to write out the recipe even if just to remember it myself, for next eggplant glut, next week.
I make two wholemeal pita pockets fresh every morning for my grandkids’ lunchboxes. It sounds like it entitles me to grandma of the year award, but in fact it’s so ridiculously fast and easy. It’s one of the favourite things of my day. It’s like giving a fresh, warm, soft, wholemeal morning hug. And as a nice little side benefit, it eliminates the problem of getting rid of plastic bread…
It’s Shrove Tuesday. Good excuse for pancakes. What better, this time of year, than bunya nut pancakes.