Garlic of Lewisham

Garlic is harvested and ready to go now and if you are travelling between Campbell Town and Ross on the Midlands Highway, take the opportunity to stop in at "Lewisham" and choose from three different varieties that they grow organically.

The ever popular "Tasmanian Purple".

The garlic is crop rotated every year and grown without any pesticides or fungicides (Rae Young's discussions about soil health and microbiome positively make my head spin but excite me at the same time!) and hand weeded.

."Spanish Red"

As you can see from the photos, the Midlands is a very dry area and lends itself to very good bulb growing, however it would be a fallacy to think they don't require any water, and conservation methods are employed on the farm.

"White Velvet"

Shopping this way allows you to

a) choose varieties specifically for your taste and cooking

b) buy enough to store and see you through most of the year

c) perfect for planting if you would like to try some home growing yourself as they have not been sprayed with any sprouting retardant.

d) buy cheaper and save money

and not the least importantly,

e) support a local farmer.

So look out for the bright red garlic sign below the property name. Go through the open gate on the western side of the highway and travel a short distance around the bend past the little cottage, till you see the small tin shed with the garlic sign on it.

There are a couple of ways to pay, you can leave cash or make a direct deposit and all the details are in the shed. 

Once you get your garlic home, keep it in any airey, dry, dark place so it will last for months and months.

"Riccarton"

Just on the eastern outskirt of Campbell Town is "Riccarton", one of the first land grants in the area dating back to 1826 and owned by the Lyne family since 1909.

It is a charming serene oasis created amidst the "bones" of very old plantings where Poppy Lyne has created sweeping beds and graceful turns to compliment her great passion for bulbs and peonies. 

Not only do I draw inspiration from plantings, but also from gates and structures, the visual clues to the "doorways" from one area to another. 

This can still be achieved even in small gardens and they need not be expensive, just strong to stand the test of time, winds and to support the weight of growth.

I note with interest also the various ways of using rocks, plentiful on our own land, about the structures for borders and walkways.

An example of "cloud" pruning, a technique where branches are stripped bare and balls are encouraged at the ends, giving trees another design look all together. Their whimsical look puts me in mind of Dr, Suess illustrations.

Strong straight pruning lines and formal clipped hedges.

Box clipped into fences, columns and pillars.

Some focal points are as simple as taking advantage of a lost tree and using the stump as a column.

Or interesting weathered sculptural garden art,

Clever vistas...

Views beyond....

A memorial garden commemoration 100 years of Lyne ownership of the property.

A gate on the outer perimeter of the house garden looking further eastwards. 

The dovecote in the orchard.

The sheep brought in for drafting the lambs from the ewes look on bleating, a reminder of the importance of the wool industry in the district.

And a little further along we come to Poppy's vast plantings of peonies for cutting.

A grand passion and I can certainly understand why she is so captivated. So many varieties, both herbaceous and tree.

I could have stayed for hours but it's also nice to get back to one's own garden and get stuck in with fresh eyes and inspiration. 

Riccarton is a working farm and not a public garden. I would like to thank Poppy for very kindly showing us her garden and sharing her passion, it was a rare treat.

The Bullock Team

Yesterday we travelled about 30 mins south to Oatlands in the southern midlands for an historic skills day. The bullock team was definitely a highlight for everyone. The team were part of a reenactment of taking wool bales to sale and came right up the main street.

There were people everywhere but quite by accident I took these two photos that collage together almost perfectly! There was a major frost in the morning and the temperatures were below zero but as always, a brilliant and dazzling day followed. 

These bullocks are trained by Brian Fish, this guy in front is named Major and he is 18 years old. 

They are so well trained and handled and Brian has a true passion for this skill set and an obvious affection for his team. 

Many farms in the district supplied a bale of wool for the "big load" reenactment carted on this wool wagon built in the 1880s. 

The team headed up the lane to the grounds of the famous Callington Mill where there was also a wonderful display of various carting and transport memorabilia.

It is quite probable that this very passenger and mail coach went past our front door regularly back in the 1840s and until the railway saw their demise.

Another valuable piece of Tasmanian history - the cart used by Campbell Pottery of Launceston to cart clay.

Oatlands made the perfect backdrop for the display and because we arrived early with the frost thick on the ground, I managed to get lots of photos before the crowds arrived.

How's this for a piece of branding!

Made by Ransomes don't you know...of Ipswich.

A beautifully made piece of equipment, not sure, but Craig and I speculated that it may have been a rock flicker type plough.

A wonderful day with more photos to bore you with another day.

Wool Centre at Ross- Yarn Tour Part II

Our first stop was historic Ross on the Midlands Hwy about an hour south of Launceston. Ross remains mostly untouched and unchanged visually from it's convict times and is so steeped in Tasmanian history that I'll revisit that subject another time but for now we'll visit the wool centre.

By the way, I think Ross has THE cleanest and most pleasant public toilets in the whole of Tasmania and makes an ideal stop for morning tea. It was an idyllic mild winters day, crystal blue skies, no wind and warm sun shining down. We set up a quick tea and coffee station on a nearby bench and served ANZAC biscuits and an Apple Spice Cake.

Directly across the road is the wool centre, perfect!

It is a retail showcase for woollen garments and knitting accessories but it is also houses a fabulous "museum" and historical display of the sheep industry in Tasmania.

You could spend at least an hour looking at the displays alone but unfortunately we only have half an hour and it's back on the bus so I arranged for a talk to the ladies about 

White Gum Wool

You can read the full story here about the ethically raised sheep in the Tasmanian midlands and you can also watch a story clip here from a Landline special here.

I contacted Nan Bray, the owner of the sheep farm, to see if she would speak to us at the centre but unfortunately she was right in the middle of shearing but we had a lovely lady from the centre give us a brief insight into the difference of White Gum Wool. Many of the techniques employed on the farm are in direct contrast to most properties and I would imagine there a few hairy-eared farmers having a bit of a scoff but I think Nan is a real hero. One of the really interesting things she does is manage pasture for greater diversity of food selection and she allows the lambs to self wean and stay within their family groups for five years. Her philosophy is that though genetics are certainly important, just as, or if not more importantly, is the way in which sheep are raised. You get back what you put in. Do watch the video link, it's a great story.

The ladies had a great time and most bought something from the White Gum Wool range. I bought a ball of the sock wool to try and look forward to working with it. They will become a pair of socks for Craig.

Don't you just love these needles? These are from Art Viva and are Tasmanian made, you may recall from a recent post that I tried these out at the Campbell Town show this year and bought a couple of pairs. I really like the point and angle on them. Here is the link for Art Viva if you would like to see more.

That's it, time's up!

Back on the bus for a bit more mystery knitting and on to our next stop in Hobart!

........

Smoko View of Shearing

One of our young is overseas at the moment and Craig took the camera to work to snap some "daily life" for him. So I thought that I would share Craig's album of "this is where I am. what I am doing" with you too.

Above is the board where the shearers work. The bare boards are coated in lanolin naturally from the sheep. Looking down the board, there are nine shearers set up along and you can see many have slings as back aids to help take some of the strain of the day. Each shearer has a motor mounted above where he works; long tubes extend from them upon the end of which hand pieces are mounted. 

Down the left hand side are the sheep pens with swinging doors where they get the sheep from and on the right is the drop doors to the shute that they go through into the counting out pen. Each shearer has a shelf and nail where all sorts of vital things are kept to hand like a sweat towel, a bucket for the cutters, a holder of combs and other hand piece tools and sewing needle and thread in case of cut sheep.

Their boots are also hung because on the board each shearer wears moccasins made from wool that grip better on the greasy boards and allow better bending and ankle and leg flexibility, I guess they also absorb sweat...there is always a lot of sweat. Very hard to tell in the top photo, but they are all wearing moccasins. 

This is a shot of the sheep in their counting out pens. Shearers get paid per sheep so counting is very important. 

We've had inches and inches of rain this month but a beautiful day this day and a lovely view from their pen.

It's lunchtime and this motley crew of workers are also waiting for more to do.

Inside the other workers are lined up for masses of veggies.

(Oh look, you can see a pair of moccies in this shot and a typical pair of cut dungarees)

After smoko it's back to the office...

Glossary of Terms

The Board - the floor along the shed where the sheep are shorn

Hand piece - the main part of the shearing piece weighs 1.5kg/3lb $750-$1000

Cutters - three toothed blades that attach to the hand piece, several used in a day

Combs - many toothed piece that assists the wool lift and feed towards the cutters.

Counting out pen - each shearers pen of shorn sheep to tally with the count

Moccasins - (Moccies) soft soleless shoes made from felted wool

Dungarees - (Dungas) refers to specially cut shearers trousers made from sturdy denim, cut high in the back and split at the ankle.

Smoko - usually the short break like morning tea but also used for lunchtime too.

(ps still waiting to hear from Renae who won the cook book)

Tagged My Tree

Emma and I popped out to the Christmas Tree Farm today for their Christmas in July event.

I have no photos because it was a dreary, drizzly day and we needed all hands available for hot pork sausages in bread with lashings of onion and buckets of hot hazelnuts and umbrellas and a little Chihuahua tucked up in Emma's coat too.

Thank goodness a young helper was on hand to take us over the paddock and count the rows and remember the trees as we criss-crossed and short listed.

What fun though!

I can definitely jump puddles in my new gum boots.

The children had made lovely salt dough decorations and I added a couple of doves to my decorations for this year. 

My tree will sit and grow and have another pruning or two and I will be able to collect it in December.

I know it's a bit early to be thinking of Christmas but I have started my "inspiration" board on pintrest for this years' theme as I plan to make my own decorations this year so I will need to start getting a bit organised now because I always run out of time in summer when the garden and preserving is taking precedence in our hemisphere.

This year the theme is natural and you can see some of the ideas I have found

here

(Lots of children friendly crafting ideas too)

Don't forget the give away this month will be drawn at the end of July.