Kitchen Garden: Jane Laloma's carrot experiment at Kambah COGS

I have since met her, Jane Laloma, who has been a plot holder at the Kambah since August 2021. She has lived in Canberra "this time" for three years but also lived and worked here, as a doctor, a decade ago. She says Canberra has grown into a diverse and vibrant community.

Jane's mother had fruit trees, including apricots and oranges, when they lived in hot and dry Moree in western NSW and she always watered them every evening as a peaceful close to the day. Their neighbour had a fig tree for climbing and fruit for snacking. Jane grew up in the 1960s when conservation issues were a high priority and she always wanted to grow as much of her own food as possible.

In Broken Hill she helped a friend plan, plant and establish a permaculture garden and, when the friend left town, Jane and family bought the place and she was "seduced and convinced about the importance of growing your own".

In Kambah, Jane has added organic matter to the soil, sugar cane mulch and lucerne, and Gunning Gold sheep manure collected after shearing. She is making compost in the corner of the garden and eliminating couch grass. Dutch cream potatoes from an earlier crop planted to improve soil structure have been dug for replanting now. Garlic came from seeds in the Sharing Garden at COGS, as did nasturtiums.

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This autumn she has commenced a carrot experiment. The seeds (from Australian Seed Savers Forum) take about three weeks to come up. Jane has a quote of the season: "Never underestimate the power of a planted seed."

She is saving seed from leeks, which are regarded as a kitchen garden staple, carrots, lettuce (Marvel of 4 Seasons) and parsley, and winnowing by blowing some of the chaff away from the dried seeds. Dill and fennel are volunteers and great with Jane's homemade black bread and white cheese.

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are allowed to get to foraging size then harvested when young, before they get bitter. Jane's son says they taste great and I brought some fresh dandelion foliage home with red sorrel and rocket plus nasturtium flowers, which are milder than the leaves, to eat as part of salad with grilled salmon. She has sown broad beans, snow peas and cabbages and will soon plant broccoli, Brussels sprouts and "corn salad" which is a winter green. There is also a row of young raspberries and thornless blackberries plus strawberries.

Jane's recipe for Apple Pye comes direct from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, published in 1747 by Hannah Glasse. Interesting how recipes change over the years.

Jane also has detailed instructions she's modified for an Autumn 2023 context. If readers prefer this, just email me: bodenparsons@bigpond.com for a copy.

Make a good puff-paste crust, lay some round the sides of the dish. Pare and quarter your apples and take out the cores. Lay a row of apples thick, throw in half your sugar, mince a little lemon-peel fine, throw over and squeeze a little lemon over them. Then a few cloves, here and there one, then the rest of your apples and the rest of your sugar. You will sweeten to your palate, and squeeze a little more lemon. Boil the peelings of the apples and the cores in some fair water, with a blade of mace, till it is very good, Strain it and boil the syrup with a little sugar til there is but very little and good, pour it into your pye, and put on your upper-crust and bake it.

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