At the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize at the National Archives, a woman also lunching at Cafe Constitution said she would like me to see her "pride and joy", a crabapple tree. Her email arrived as the crabapple blossoms were starting to open, "a fleeting time in the botanical calendar".
Robyn Gloucester's townhouse is surrounded by courtyards with well-planted garden beds filled with white, silver and blue flowers, raised vegetable beds with snow peas currently cropping, a Chiminea fire pit, worm farm and the tree. The north-east facing crabapple is only 12 years old but its lowest branches are head height and it is spectacular. Robyn has made crabapple jelly from the fruits.
After patting Smudge, the aged cat, we admired bright yellow blooms on Phlomis grandiflora "Lloyd's Variety" purchased from Lambley Nursery but which originated in the Great Dixter garden of British plantsman Christopher Lloyd. Writing about colour in his wonderful book The Well-Tempered Garden (revised 1985), Lloyd says people shy away from yellow in the garden but he says "go all-yellow" and describes the dusky yellow colouring of the hooded flowers and grey foliage of his huge Jerusalem sage with "its interesting bumps and hollows".
Then it was time for coffee and Robyn's easily made, delicious whole orange cake (recipe follows from Gardening Australia, July 2016).
Red/purple cabbage
Returning from an early evening walk up the hill, my neighbour Jean Odgers greeted me with a dish of braised red cabbage, still warm from her oven. I had shared with her half a baby red cabbage with deep purple leaves from Specialty Produce a few weeks ago. High in anthocyanins, purple cabbage is nutritious and adds drama to the plate.
Red Drumhead cabbage, an 1860s mild-flavoured heirloom sold by Diggers, is great for pickling, fermented kimchi and sauerkraut and even for coleslaw. Seeds of Plenty sell, online, the small Red Express and The Seed Collective have Savoy Verona purple.
Jean has been making the traditional recipe (which follows) for years and it comes from Delia Online and Delia (Smith's) Happy Christmas. Delia says it is the perfect accompaniment to venison, goose or pork and any left over does wonders for bangers and mash. Jean suggested veal schnitzel but I ate it with grilled cutlets and greens.
Blue tomatoes
We all grow red or yellow or black tomatoes. A neighbour, Marian, gave me a Green Zebra from Southside Farmers' Markets. It was raised by Paul from Bungendore who says it gets yellow stripes when ripe is sweet/tart, adds colour to salads and looks great on a bowl full of tomatoes. Due to limited sun, a friend, Jim, is growing it for us, planted in a large pot of richest soil with "a drenching of worm wee".
For new blue/purple tomatoes see Alliance for Science online, where plant biologist Dr Cathie Martin at the John Innes Centre in the UK has investigated anthocyanins for health and used a purple gene from snapdragons.
Whole orange cake
Ingredients
1 orange
170g butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
Method
1. Heat oven to 180C.
2. Finely grate the orange skin. Remove the pith and any seeds. Roughly chop the orange.
3. Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Bake for 40-50 minutes in a loaf cake pan.
Braised red cabbage
Ingredients
1kg red cabbage
450g onions, chopped small
450g cooking apples (Jean used Granny Smiths), peeled, cored and chopped small
1 clove garlic, chopped very small
1/4 whole nutmeg, freshly grated
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp wine vinegar
15g butter
Method
1. Preheat oven to 150C.
2. Discard tough outer leaves of cabbage, cut it into quarters and remove the hard stalk, Shred the rest of the cabbage finely, using your sharpest knife (or in a food processor but better by hand as it doesn't come out so uniform).
3. In a fairly large casserole (Jean used a large red Le Creuset), arrange a layer of shredded cabbage seasoned with salt and pepper, then a layer of chopped onions and apples with a sprinkling of garlic, spices and sugar. Continue with these alternate layers until everything is in. Now pour in the wine vinegar (and some water), lastly add dots of butter on top. Jean added a layer of foil on top under the tight lid of the casserole.
4. Let it cook very slowly in the oven for 2-2 1/2 hours, stirring everything around once or twice during cooking, and check it has not dried out. Red cabbage, once cooked, can be gently reheated and it does freeze well.
