My first introduction to star grass happened at 'Westfield" 23 years ago.  I was going out with Andrew and was visiting him and his family for the weekend.  Andrew's Mum was collecting a crisp, fairy floss type of seed head from out of the garden.  They are the seed head of a type of grass commonly known as star grass because the seed heads look a bit like a star.  In a good season like this one the seed heads are abundant and when they are ripe they are blown from the parent plant and scatter with the winds.

The star grass blows everywhere and can often be seen 20 to 30 meters in the air spiralling with the whirly winds.  My mother - in - law was collecting them from inside the garden fence and crunching them into tight balls and then she would make a bon fire with them.  They are so light that I was surprised at the fierceness of the fire, the flames were instantaneous and burned very quickly.  It was all over in a few seconds, but it was evidence of how bush fires could spread so quickly in a good season.

Andrew went to fight a bush fire on his brothers property last week.  It was started by a lightening strike.  I could see the smoke billowing on my drive home from town.  It took about a dozen vehicles with about 20 neighbours, until 11pm that night to put the fire out.  The fire burnt about 1500 acres mostly on Andrew's brothers' place, a small corner of "Silverwood" also burnt but luckily some storm rain fell on "Silverwood" that afternoon so it was too wet to continue burning.

I do love the effect that the star grass creates when it builds up on the fence posts as seen in these 2 photographs.

Andrew is lucky coming from a large family.  The youngest of 5 children and fourth generation to graze "Westfield".  There are often times when Andrew requires more than my help with the stock work.  I am quite capable helping with drafting and yard work, however if it is a job requiring more muscle power then Andrew relies on the help of his Father John and Brother Jim, and this year (in his gap year) nephew Richard. This help is reciprocated if Jim needs an extra pair of hands. Photo below shows the three generations.

Gone are the days when properties employed a couple of young jackeroos, a nanny or governess and maybe a handyman/gardener.  Family properties now rely on themselves and maybe contract workers for the busy stockwork periods.  The negative side to this is that Andrew works long hours and can become overwhelmed with the number of tasks needing to be completed.  The positive side is that we don;t have anyone else living with us and therefore providing meals for.  Watching my Mother-in-law feeding workers alerted me to the fact that this was nearly a full time job.  If I still had to do that it would be impossible for me to spend the time running the website side of Silverwood Organics.  We  still stick with the tradition of tasty smokos whenever the family come to lend a hand.  Andrew gets quite excited at the prospect of sausage rolls, a cake or warm muffins. Compared to the cost of contract workers, a couple of freshly cooked smokos is a small price to pay. 

Our resident shearing shed possum was very cooperative the other day and posed for some photos.  This little possum has been living in the shearing shed for the past few months.  We haven't seen possums on our properties for a very long time.  Her pouch looked quite dirty so I am hoping that there is a young one close by that has just left the pouch.


The wild life, both native and feral, has exploded in the wet season.  Little brown frogs and green tree frogs are in plague proportions.  They are lovely to see outside, however I am over removing them from the toilets and showers!  I am in charge of de-frogging, can you believe that my big strong husband hates the feeling of frogs and refuses to touch them.  We are also on the look out as we have seen two dead rats on our driveway (13 km long) in the past week.  I have never seen a rat here (20 years) Andrew's father has experienced 2 rat plagues out here in his lifetime and both were after good seasons.  I am definitely not the rat catcher, hopfully puss will keep them at bay.

Simon cooked our rare fillet of Lamb by first wrapping tightly in Glad wrap so that the fillet keeps it's nice round shape, and then vacuum sealing it.  Some people now have home vacuum sealers but I am sure if you took it to a local supermarket they would vacuum seal it for you.  Then the sealed fillet is cooked Sous Vide for 18 minutes at 61.5 degrees celsius.  Sous Vide is a french for "under vacuum" It is a method of cooking food in air tight plastic bags in a water bath, at an accurately determined temperature usually much lower than normally used for cooking in order to maintain the integrity of the ingredients. 

After the fillet has cooked for 18 min remove from plastic and it is optional to sear in a hot pan to brown the outside then rest for 10 min and slice thinly.

Home cooks are also able to use ziplock bags instead of vacuum sealing and a slow cooker with water in heated to the correct temperature using a thermometer will also work very well.  It is critical to keep watch on the temperature. 

Click on this link to watch a chef on utube cooking Sous-vide method.

We really enjoyed meeting lots of customers at our Lamb and wine evening at Brett's Wharf.  The canapes were really delicious, my two personal favorites were the Braised lamb spinach and feta Borek, and the seared lamb fillet with burnt carrot, labneh on toasted brioche.  Simon McAllister has kindly let me coerce the recipes from him. Braised lamb, spinach and feta Borek recipe now on the website.

The Lamb inside the borek has been braised for 12 hours and I think is what really makes this canape.  I think you could make much larger serving sizes of this and have as an entre or main.

The seared lamb is a real chef tip. The fillet has been wrapped in gladwrap to keep it's shape during part of the cooking process.

School holidays in the country are very much looked forward to.  High school teenagers are home from boarding school, Mothers are free from either lunches and bus runs, or actually teaching their primary school age children on the Distance Education system.  Routines wind down and families get to spend time together.  The first few days of school holidays the kids usually laze around and catch up on sleep and food and have time to just be.  Then Andrew will find a few lambs to mark or some stock work to do and the kids either help with the stock or help me in the kitchen.  After about a week they are always keen to start socialising with their friends in the district who are also away at boarding schools.



The country tennis party is very much alive and well, someone always has a tennis day during school holidays and the whole family love them.  Catch up with friends, play some tennis, teenagers socialise and play tennis, younger ones roam around the place playing and exploring.  The Day usually finishes off with a BBQ and a few more social beverages.  We have been including netball on the sporting activities here at 'Westfield for the past 5 year, with 3 daughters who are avid netball fans we decided to play some mixed netball.  The kids love it, everyone mixes in together, the girls enjoy being more skillful than the boys for a change and the adults love watching.  We did have an adults game a couple of times, loads of laughs but the bodies are a little less willing lately. The photos are from the tennis/netball day we had here in the September holidays.



The only drawback is that the old 'ant bed' (type of clay) court requires maintenance.  The court has to be rolled by pulling a very heavy roller over the surface after rain. Only bonus is that it burns more calories than the tennis! 

We have had two wonderful recipes showcasing Silverwood Organic Lamb published in the last couple of weeks.  The Queensalnd Chef, David Pugh, of Restaurant II in Brisbane, has posted a recipe and photos of Silverwood Organic Rack of Lamb with vegetables and Lamb sauce. Have a look, The Queensland Chef Blog spot. It looks delicious.  Leave a comment if you decide to try the recipe.



Restaurant II chef Glen Barret also used Silverwood Organic lamb to cook a delicious Butterflied leg of lamb with Warren Bolland on 612 ABC radio.  The Lamb is served with Potato Salad, home made mayonaise and Restaurant II's mint sauce which is one of it's most requested recipes. Have a look - Butterflied leg of lamb.



Photo by Rob Minshall local ABC

A large Blue tongue Lizard has taken up residence in one of our old outdoor storage sheds.  He gave me quite a fright the other day when I nearly trod on him.  I obviously frightened him too, as I have never seen one display his tongue so readily.  I can see how it frightens preditors away, as the shock of the dark blue does give you a fright.  He was very co-operative to keep displaying his tongue after I ran back upstairs to fetch my camera.

We had a light shower of rain on the weekend, which left a few small puddles on our stone path at the back door.  To our surprise we found a large bearded dragon having a drink and then a bath.  After it finished drinking it lay flat in the water and spun around on its stomach a couple of times.  Hamish thought it was very funny!

There is always an explosion of tomatoes in the vegie patch this time of year.  I thought I would share with you my all time favourite Spicy tomato chutney recipe.  The recipe belongs to some dear family friends who my family used to go camping with every school Holidays.  There is an indian flavour to this chutney.  It is fantastic on cheese, as a side for meat dishes, as an additive to marinades and bastes.



Volbon's Spicy Tomato Chutney.

1 kg tomato blanched peeled and chopped
450ml vinegar
2 onions chopped
1 tblsp salt
350g brown sugar
5 cm piece of ginger finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic crushed
4 hot chillies deseeded and chopped or 2 tspns powder
12 whole cloves
2 pieces cinamon bark
1/2 tspn crushed cardamon seeds
50 ml vege oil
1 tblsp mustard seeds

 I usually double or triple this recipe. Place all ingredients (except for the oil and mustard seeds) in large saucepan and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and summer for 5 hours stiring occasionally or until thick.

Heat oil in saucepan with a lid.  Add mustard seeds, cover and heat until they pop.  Add to the cooked chutney.  Fill jars that have been sterilised in boiling water and seal will last for months.