My second favourite feral plant (nothing can beat the Cape Gooseberry)

I'm not really into the idea of monetising this blog. I decided therefore to friendinate it. By that I mean share the story as it unfolds with groups of friends and see what happens. I did this when I published the previous post and I'm already excited about the results.

The photo above is of a box of bush lemons from Tuntable Creek near Nimbin that were given to me by my friend Kim and her man Ken. They have excellent juiciness and zestiness, great colour, and are relatively blemish free. Bush lemons are a naturalised (feral) plant in Australia, and they grow well in subtropical climates like Northern NSW.

I took some of these into Harvey's where PJ gave them his tick of approval "Excellent, excellent!". I have offered Ken 6 dozen crown seal home brew bottles so he may well be bringing some more up with him next time. Awesome!

Another outcome of my friendination is that I have discovered that my friend Marilyn is a keen Limoncello maker. This is great news as Tony has expressed interest in making Limoncello and I have expressed an interest in drinking it. Marilyn says it takes about 8 weeks to make which is neither here nor there for me but good to know none the less. She also loves bush lemons and thanks to good timing received a fullsome bag of bush lemons on her doorstep last Friday.

My first trip to the countryside

My first trip to the countryside in Lavinia the danube blue Citroen DS was a bit of an emergency dash. Because of a paper work issue I had to take her down to Northern New South Wales to get safety checked. I decided to use my mate Tony's mechanic Fred who is based in Federal and was sure to pass her without trouble, which he did.

I have been hearing stories from friends in the Northern Rivers region of lemons of various types growing abundantly and often going to waste. After visiting the Rosebank Coop where my friend Rowena works her magic with baked goods and high level organisational skills, I decided it would be worthwhile to consider asking her/coop to preserve the lemons when the season comes around. This, I think, is an elegant solution and can only serve to engage the local community around the coop and beyond, which is precisely what Rowena is all about.

I can't sign off on this post till I've told you about the farm. Tony and the family have been looking after it well, planting new citrus, davidson plums, and an assortment of other orchard trees. Tony has nearly finished his house which I will show in a later post. He is constantly improving the property with new fences and removing the pesky camphor laurels. The place was gorgeous as always, very green (as you can see above) and never overgrown or over tended.

She's here! She's here!

Yesterday afternoon at around 1.15pm Greg arrived bedraggled from his solo road trip up from Sydney driving the DS. I got some photos as he drove in, got him to pose beside the car, then got him to help me move a cupboard out of the way so I could make more space in the garage.




15 minutes later we were off in the DS to see Fil at Paladar Fumior Salon about hosting the after party for next weeks APT6 DJ set at Bar GoMA. We really really want to have our after party there to celebrate the end of our 5 week residency at APT6. Fil is an absolute car restoration fanatic and recently he proudly showed me some photos from the Cars and Cigars charity fundraiser he helped organise last year. He's been meaning to get around to checking his calender to make sure he can open up for us that night. I decided if we swung by in the DS we should be able to butter him up and get him to commit. Which he did!






That sorted we dropped in at my favourite espresso bar to show off before heading out to our gig in, you guessed it! The DS.



Tucked away.

It's all about a big blue car, a little farm, and the lemony things the french call citron

This blog is all about the things I'll be doing with the beautiful lemons I get from my mate Tony's little family farm in Federal Northern New South Wales and the Citroen DS that arrives tomorrow morning to stay with me for a couple of years while it's owners sail the world in their ship Papillon.


I was going to wait till I had more photos but I'm so excited about the arrival of the DS! My mate Greg is currently on the road from Sydney in the Danube Blue Citroen, no doubt enjoying the generous lounge like seating. My friend Anne and her husband Tom and their kids Jasper and Rosie are off tomorrow for Amsterdam and then to the Norwegian fjords and who knows where else. To all of them I say bon voyage and thank you for bringing her to me!


My mate Tony, his brother Matt, his partner Sky, and their kids Cass, Maya, and Bupti live on a little property in Federal NSW with a little old orchard, chooks, cows, and veges. The property has a spring fed creek and an excellent northerly aspect. No wonder the Eureka lemons that they grow there are so awesome! There is such an extra ordinary spritzy sense whenever I cut into the zest of these lemons.


For the last two seasons I have been preserving the lemons Tony brings up from Federal and taking some preserved and fresh lemons into Harvey's Bistro and Bar where I work as a kitchen hand. The picture at the top is from 2 weeks ago when the sous chef Craig used last seasons preserved lemons for the pan fried fish garnish. Last seasons yield was smaller but of much higher quality. I would absolutely love it if this years yield was bigger. There is so much I could do, or get to see done and PJ and Craig are happy for me to come in and do the preserving.


I love visiting the farm. The weather is always nice and I've been keen to go down and catch up with Tony and the family and check out the orchard. I'm prepared to offer to come down and help to prune or apply some white oil at some stage. If I could be there for harvest I'd be stoked! I'm really looking forward to getting photos of the Citroen with a boot full of citron.

A new home ready and waiting.