Rainforest Liqueurs | Food and drinks company
Rainforest Liqueurs
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25.01.2022 The Buick club came to visit today. A few oldies and a few modern, and 1 Cadillac. A good day was had by all, and an inspection on my progress on my Buicks.
25.01.2022 Flutterbys are back. These are Caper Whites. Every now and then we get a mass migration and they come through in great numbers. It is hard to get pictures because they are so fast and seldom stop. They are on a mission.
24.01.2022 Being an old tree hugger I decided to go into my forest and take pictures of one of my best. it would have been best in summer as these trees are always cold, in a fog forest they harvest water from the fog by condensing it. The common name is a Python tree as they snake their way up to the canopy and light. The leaves make a herbal tea and they have a nice little berry. It only fruits in the light so the birds always get them and not me. They are very very slow growing here and this tree may be hundreds of years old. Even in winter you can see the condensation on the tree.
24.01.2022 We are off to Crystal Waters Market on Saturday, our second local market. It should be good if the rain stays away.
24.01.2022 For Jennifer, Kangaroo Fruit Cake Kangaroo Fruit Cake 500 Grams of Kangaroo mince (or pork, lamb, chicken, or beef) 500 grams of dried fruit (I use glace wild lime)... 500 grams of nuts (macadamia preferred but walnuts are good) 500 grams brown sugar 250 ml boiling water 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder teaspoon bicarb soda 3 cups flour (you can use self rising gluten free, leave out baking powder) 1 teaspoon nutmeg Pour boiling water over mince and mix in sugar, then bicarb soda. Mix the flour and fruit into the mince and then add the nuts. Place in buttered pans and bake in a slow oven for about 1-1/2 hours. Any dried or glace fruit can be used. I used native glace wild limes, Citrus glauca. This is based on my Grandmothers recipe for Pork Cake from Kentucky, my mother copied it in 1945 when she arrived from Australia. Now I have reproduced it for here. As Grandmother was from near Bourbon County Kentucky a good splash of that can be added, she would not have done that being a Baptist Fundamentalist. I splash in my wild lime liqueur. See more
24.01.2022 A couple bottles of Wild Black Gin done just for love. The Bunya Beer is in the bottles and the wild yeast mist is starting to settle. now the hard part - letting it age.
23.01.2022 I recently cooked a cake for a local dinner. I did a West Virginia recipe that goes back generations in my hill Billy family, and tweaked to fit Aussie ingredients. Kangaroo Fruit Cake 500 Grams of Kangaroo mince (or pork, lamb, or beef)... 500 grams of dried fruit (I use glace wild lime) 500 grams of nuts (macadamia preferred but walnuts are good) 500 grams brown sugar 250 ml boiling water 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder teaspoon bicarb soda 3 cups flour (you can use self rising gluten free, leave out baking powder) 1 teaspoon nutmeg Pour boiling water over mince and mix in sugar, then bicarb soda. Mix the flour and fruit into the mince and then add the nuts. Place in buttered pans and bake in a slow oven for about 1-1/2 hours. Any dried or glace fruit can be used. I used native glace wild limes, Citrus glauca. This is based on my Grandmothers recipe for Pork Cake from Kentucky, my mother copied it in 1945 when she arrived from Australia. Now I have reproduced it for here. As Grandmother was from near Bourbon County Kentucky a good splash of that can be added, she would not have done that being a Baptist Fundamentalist. I splash in my wild lime liqueur. See more
23.01.2022 Native Parsnips and Jasmine Tea Smoked Pork with wild greens salad 2 pork cutlets 2 Jasmine tea bags 1 tablespoon Jasmine loose leaf tea... 4 bishop hat chillies 8 native parsnips (Trachymene incisa) cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon extra brown sugar 1 tablespoon gelatine 1 Blue Brie cheese enough wild green weeds for 2 people Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a saucepan. Blanch your parsnips for 1 minute, remove and cool in cold water. Add your chillies to the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, remove and cool your chillies in the cold water. Add 2 Jasmine tea bags to the hot water and steep for a few minutes and then remove teabags and cook your pork cutlets for 5 minutes on each side then remove pork from the broth. Add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar to broth and reduce by half. Dissolve a tablespoon of gelatine in a little cold water and add dissolved gelatine to the broth, and bring back to a boil. Pour broth into a tray and place in the fridge to set. Line a camp oven with alfoil and place 1/2 cup of brown sugar and a tablespoon of Jasmine tea in the bottom of pan. Place a rack in the pan with pork cutlets and chillies on the rack and place a lid on camp oven. Turn stove to medium heat and allow to smoke for 15 minutes. Turn off stove put parsnips onto the rack with the pork cutlets and allow pork to cool on the rack in the pan. Gather and wash your wild greens and put them in the middle of a plate, decorate with squares of pork gravy jelly and blue brie cheese. Add the cutlets, either sliced or whole, and the Aussi parsnips.
22.01.2022 We had a visit from Barung Landcare rambelers on the range today. Around 30 people. Very busy morning for us with me walking along the Mary River talking plants and food. Unfortunatly I did not have time to photograph my cooking. We had Lemon Myrtle Cheesecake with a Macadamia shortbread crust, a Burdakin Plum and white aspen fruitcake, a whipped Kitcha-koontoo jelly (strawberry tea tree) and a sweet bean dip flavoured with glace' desert lime and cream on dark rye bread. There were no leftovers. A wonderful morning/afternoon for us here at Rainforest Liqueurs.
22.01.2022 After 21 years of everything but wholesale being illegal - I am now under the new licence scheme and I am an "Artisan Spirit Producer" now i can do markets and food and wine shows. Thank you Qld Liquor Licencing.
22.01.2022 In the northern hemisphere the leaves change colour in fall. In Australia they change in spring. Our deciduous trees lose their leaves in spring before flowering. The nnative figs are not ready to harvest yet, perhaps January.
22.01.2022 Two good old boys playing with a hudson, and a new camera. First drive in over 40 years.
22.01.2022 I went for a 3 hour walk this afternoon, along the river, across the fields, and through the woods. It is a marvellous thing living in a place with some of the cleanest air in the world, and deeply breathing that air. I did many years of yoga in my youth, a months worth would not equal a 3 hour walk in my woods. Walking the tracks with at least 6 different types of butterflies fliting around me feeding on the weed flowers. This is the lean time for the butterflies so the weed...s keep them going and the weed fruit then keep the birds going until the native bird food trees grow. The forest slowly takes care of itself, shading out the weeds, replacing them with bird food trees. Standing on my ridge looking out over the valley, the cattle grazing in the far fields, and the new houses sadly springing up in the valley. I can feel thankful for the land that I look after and for my lovely little woman that has watched over me for 50 years. I often wonder how this Hillbilly/Florida Cracker was gifted with this. We did our weekly shopping this morning and it depressed me. Almost No meat on the shelves, no bread, no rice, no dried beans, almost no eggs, no paper towels, no toilet paper, there was a bloke buying a hoard of yogurt (!!!?). I had a nap and then had to do my walk. It is a good thing that I know the edible wild weeds, we may need them soon. As to the paper I can make my own if needed. We hillbillies know how to make do. My moonshine heritage in my Scots Irish DNA and 200 years of Bourbon County Kentucky heritage on my Grannies side will carry me through. See more
21.01.2022 A wonderful visit by Maleny Rotary club. They cooked their BBQ in my kitchen and had a feed on the veranda. Me - I just talked and talked, as usual. t was a great evening.
19.01.2022 As there was no raspberry season because of the dry I decided to raid my files to some that I loved. The first is a raspberry custard tart with a raspberry topping.The second is raspberry jelly with a raspberry cream. The third one is raspberry dumplings. It hit 100 F today so I thought some cold deserts would be good.
19.01.2022 I felt like baking a cake yesterday, in seclusion. I decided on a citrus butter bar cake based on what I had at home. It has powdered dry orange peel, finger lime pearls, butter, raw sugar, gluten free flour and coco nut flour. After I baked ithem I glazed them with Lemon Myrtle Mead. By the first night 1/2 of one was gone, I think my mary liked them.
18.01.2022 May the year be a good one for all of us.
17.01.2022 Me and my Murri Cleaver Man brother. Taken about 5 years ago, my how time flies. Same Brother different Mother means something in their matrilineal society. And a native blue bee, they are hard for me to take a pickie off as they are so fast
17.01.2022 With all that is going on in the world I thought a couple more nature pickies were warranted. A Bower Birds Love bower, they use blue things to decorate their bowers, blue plastic must be scarce here in the bush as the next day the blue bits were stolen to decorate another bower a few hundred meters away. Recycling blues I guess.
17.01.2022 The butterfly on the azalea was a great surprise to me, when I studdied it, it is a rare female Richmond Birdwing, I saw a male the other day but did not have my camera. The cooking - our friends in the Blackall Range Horseless Carriage Club dropped in for a visit, I cooked Kangaroo pizza, sandpaper fig and pear danish, and apple and Midyim danish. With those and the cakes that I cooked I hope everyone had at least something to eat. We did lots of talking and a shed tour of the cars that I am working on. A very good day.
17.01.2022 With thanks to Halina Green some pictures from our weekend walk. Talking cars and wild food and holding some strawberry eucalyptus leaves. Walking beside the Mary river to look at the wild foods.
16.01.2022 What, more birds. A good shot of the sea eagles claws before it attacked the camera and turned it around. The camera was not hurt but it was the end of bird pictures. Sea eagle on the ground, I think the next are a pair of brown goshawks, and the wedgie being a show-off., its wing span is between 6 and 8 feet.
16.01.2022 37 C 100 F all week, the grass is powder dry and the cows are escaping everywhere to try and find feed. I hope that the rains come soon.
15.01.2022 Winter sunrise in the Conondales, at our little house by the Harper. Mary still rugged up in bed, sensible woman.
14.01.2022 Last Sunday the Rootes Group Car Club and the Sunbeam Car Club called in for a shared lunch. I did not get many pictures as we were all very busy talking, sampling, eating, and visiting my cars to see what work I was doing in my shed. There were 4 red Sunbeam Alpines but I only managed to get pictures of 3 of them. It was a wonderful afternoon and we enjoyed their visit immensley.
13.01.2022 I know that you can not eat them, but I love it when my wildlife camera picks up pickies like this. Australian Wedge Tail Eagle sunning.
12.01.2022 My lovely friend the Butterfly Lady Hellen came for a visit so I cooked her a cake. Cullen tenax seed cake, the plant is the host plant for the Chequered Swallowtail Butterfly. They eat the leaves and share the seed with me, for cakes.
12.01.2022 We have had 60 mm of rain in December and about only 10 mm in november so it is very dry here. the grass has just started to lose some of its brown and show some green, but not much. We have had no fires in our area and all of the kin folk are safe and well so far. We are hoping for some rain but it may not come until March or April. It would be nice if it comes soon.
12.01.2022 This KING parrot is reminding me that I have not posted in a while. Must walk the farm tomorrow with the camera just to see what I can see.
11.01.2022 I often keep Bunya frozen so that in winter I can cook up some sweet warmth. These are caramalized in a native fruit syrup. Just a little bit of indulgence.
10.01.2022 This is our Liqueur from those little white fruit. It has a spice citrus flavor and an interesting feeling of well being or raised energy. Not a strong flavor but the all is well feeling is wonderful.
10.01.2022 We have had the 100 year average rainfall for January and look like beating it for February. Our rain tanks are full but the creek is still low. The dam is down about 1 meter still so far. But the fungi are coming out, this one is Cymatoderma elegans, it is about dinner plate size. The name means wavey skin and elegant. Pitty it can not be eaten.
10.01.2022 Just for fun, a beetle on Lemon myrtle flowers. I use the flowers in my home consumption Gin. I wait until the beetles are gone though.
09.01.2022 My treat for the good people at ABC radio 612 today. It was good, the Burdikin Plum Jelley was excelant. Burdekin Plum Jellies with Lemon Myrtle Coconut cream Harvest your fruit, wash it and dry the fruit. Place in containers with a lid and set aside for a few days for fruit to soften. When the fruit starts to soften place in deep freeze until needed.... Thaw fruit and boil with added water until soft. Break flesh away from stone and discard stones. Refreeze fruit pulp for later use. Thaw pulp and place 2 cups in a blender with a little extra water and blend as smooth as possible. Place blended pulp in saucepan with 1 tablespoon of Agar-Agar, stir and bring up to a simmer. When pulp is simmering take from heat and pour in to glasses to set in the fridge. Topping: Open 1 x 400g tin of coconut cream and place cream in saucepan, add 100 ml of water. Add 1 tablespoon of Agar-Agar and 3 tablespoons of raw sugar. While stirring, bring up to a simmer and then pour on top of the set Burdekin Plum Jellies in their glasses, and chill again to set.
06.01.2022 I took a lot of pictures to get one of these little rascals, they move too quickly for my old fingers, and eyes. Scarlet myzomela, Scarlet honeyeater. Clouds of them in the Jacaranda but they move real quick.
06.01.2022 Off to Witta Markets on the weekend, this is going to be different for the old man and a long day. It shall be interesting. See people @Witta Market.
05.01.2022 My cake for Friday night was a Thai black rice cooked in coconut cream with purple sweet potato, glace' ginger, and glace' Keril (sandpaper figs) cake. I topped it off with a purple sweet potato rice cream. Black, coconut sweet, rich purple, and yummy. I did not bring any home.
05.01.2022 The butterflys and moths are out, our normally burbling creek is down to a few small pools. When the creek reaches 15 M or 49 feet at this point in summer floods - it roars.
05.01.2022 The local car club (BRHCC) having morning tea and tasting on our verandah. I baked apple and wild fig pastry, black apple tarts, white aspen butter cake, and a lime cheese cake, and wild raspberry and nut chocolate slice. They all ate well and there were few leftovers. A long morning tea after viewing my restored Hearse.
04.01.2022 The Flame tree has bloomed and the rain has come. The creek is up and the water tanks are full of water. Good Holiday season to start the new year.
03.01.2022 My friend B J in Texas loves ferns so I walked our creek today and took some fern pictures. It was a nice morning walk.
03.01.2022 This being NADOC week I thought that i might add a bit more on Bon-yee Bon-yee or Bunya. NADOC is a celebration of the native people of Australia.My land is in Jinibara Country. I have 30 acres of Bunya rainforest on the farm. Bunya was important to the native people and was ceremony time every 3 years when the pine cones were ready to fall. They would climb the trees and pick the cones before they fell. My farm is registered for cultural heritage for a few reasons. Their ancestors try to look after me and I try to look after the land and country for them. A usful food source to be treasured. My Bunya home brew beer is about ready to drink, I am excited to see how this batch turns out. Waiting on my Pine Nut Beer to be ready is hard work.
03.01.2022 Every year i do a Gruit or wild beer. A whole grain beer made from wild ingredients. I make it from our amazing Bunya pine nuts, honey, and a little lemon juice.... This year I am going to try for wild yeast to make it a truly wild beer. This is the start, I do this for the love of the experiment. If all of society fails, I want to still make a good beer and a better whiskey. See more
03.01.2022 Cakes and flowers. The cakes were great but the flowers are not good to eat. White aspen cake with a white aspen jelly topping, and a butter cake with a black apple custard topping. I love cooking normal things that are different with the wild fruit in non normal ways. A bottle brush "Pink ice" and a young Kauri (Agathis robusta) flanked by a Jacaranda. I know that the Jacarandas are weeds, but I sure love them.
03.01.2022 It is Bunya time ! These pine cones have a big year every 3 years. My old farm truck is loaded up from the trees in the front of the property. One tree had 40 cones.They are only 30 year old trees, so young for a Bunya Pine. The second picture shows the difference between a young tree and one from a tree over 50 years old. The small cone is 3.5 Kg the large one is 7 kg and had 1.5 Kg of seed in it. Now to try to malt them for this years brew of Bunya Beer.
02.01.2022 White Aspen, Acronychia oblongifolia, it took me two hours to harvest 9 kg of fruit, and Mary and I two days to sort and clean the fruit. You could not even tell where I had harvested afterwards the trees are that loaded. The next step is to glace' a few kilos, they come up like little clear golden pumpkins but with a citrus background as they are an ancient ancestor of the citrus family. I use them instead of glace' cherries.
02.01.2022 It has been white for over a week in the mornings. The origional people would not have been here at this time, they would have been down the beach in the warmth.
02.01.2022 It must be an early spring, the first Caper White Butterfly. What does one do with two amerous pythons in the garden, one stays out of the garden. The smaller of the two was 3m/10feet long.
01.01.2022 I went for a walk today in the dark, dank, wet forest, in the rain. To my surprise it was sprinkling orange drops, the fruit salad fruit were dropping to the forest floor.
01.01.2022 Looks like summer is on the way. The butterflies are starting, the trees are flowering, and the birds are flitting around everywhere.
01.01.2022 It must be Spring in the valley, you can not eat them but they look very nice. The birds are making the best of them and feeding on the nectar. Silky Oak and Jacaranda. A local and an import.
