Climbing at Mt Kuring-Gai

Tessa and I headed up to Mt Kuring-Gai for some easier climbing. With bolted routes in the mid-teens, it was great for me to practice leading (and Tessa to practice climbing).

It was the winter solstice so, after some delays on the train, and a longer-than-expected walk in (the walk in to the Lost and Found wall is half an hour from where it leaves the fire trail) we only had time for a few climbs. We headed up Ding Bat (14), Lactose Free (16) and Foundling (17), and enjoyed them immensely. Here’s Tessa on Ding Bat.

The climbing was improved by the excellent views up and down Berowra Creek. We speculated whether it was possible to get down to the creek, as in summer it would make a great swimming hole. Perhaps you could just abseil down…

Here are some photos from back up near the top.

As an added bonus, on our way back we spotted a mini-citrus orchard in front of a vacant warehouse. We crammed our bags full of mandarins and grapefruits, and lugged them back to the train station. Score!

Kirribilli, single origin

Since I noticed a couple of years ago that coffee beans were growing at Maria’s parents’ place, I’d wanted to harvest them and make coffee. I don’t even drink coffee, but it was too tempting to resist. It’s taken about 4 months, but it’s finally done – we drank the first cup this morning, and it wasn’t half bad (for coffee).

Here are some photos documenting the process.

The fruit after it’s picked from the tree

The pith is removed, and the beans reserved

The beans are soaked, changing the water daily, until the gelatinous coating has been absorbed

They’re spread on a tray and dried (we did it on the roof) for a number of days

After drying, they’re rested for a few days and then the shell is removed. We did this by hand and it was painstaking but strangely addictive. The “silver” beans can be stored for ages.

We roasted the beans in a popcorn machine.

And cooled them in a metal colander.

 

The roasted beans are ground and coffee is made!

Check out that crema.

The finished cup.

Stinging nettle pesto

It sounds crazy, but it turned out really well! I was a bit worried that I hadn’t cooked the nettles for long enough, and that someone would collapse after eating it, their throat closing up in a horrific allergic reaction… but that didn’t happen. Instead, it was delicious.

I’ll never look at a patch of nettles the same way.

Mushroom epilogue

After the underwhelming Newnes episode, I was still craving mushrooms. The universe must have been listening because yesterday I was at uni and ran into my friend Joe, who told me he’d left a box of saffron milk caps in the fridge for me. Thanks Joe!

I strapped them to my bike and set off home, and was cruising along when Else called. She was just around the corner and had found a box each of mushrooms and tomatoes, that she thought had fallen off the back of a providore’s truck. She was on her way to Katoomba and couldn’t carry much, so I helped her out and took the rest home.

This is why you must always carry a rope!

Mushroom box 1, mushroom box 2, tomato box

Slim pickings in Newnes

Ollie, Tony and I had decided to go mushrooming. Tony proposed a route from Bell to Lithgow, via the Newnes State Forest. Sounded jolly good. We set off on the train, Tony and I wish our practical Surly Long Haul Truckers, and Ollie with his ridiculous Surly 1×1 (because it only has one gear).

As usual Tony and Ollie set a cracking pace and I was soon wheezing up the hills behind them. The single speed helped slow Ollie down a bit. We turned off the paved road at the Zig Zag sign and cruised through the dirt.

We reached the edge of the pine plantations, and eagerly bounded into them, expecting to be greeting by a bounty of mushrooms (as experienced on previous trips to similar pine forests). However, we had a hard time finding any mushrooms at all, let alone edible ones. Various factors may have contributed to this paucity of fungus: time of year, location, temperature, rainfall, voodoo magic. All I know is, there were hardly any.

We sat down for lunch and I was delighted to find this little blighter sucking a hole into my leg. I’d forgotten to take any leech photos on my recent Mt Solitary trip, so I attempted to do so now. However the macro function of this camera is not very good, and this photo gives a better view of some campfire strewn with rubbish. Bloody rednecks.

There were a lot of wombat burrows. Perhaps they had eaten our mushrooms?

Eventually we found a saffron milk cap, and a few slippery jacks. Here Tony is seen with a slippery jack.

After an hour or so of bush bashing and foraging, we had a meagre harvest, and decided to ride into Lithgow and check out their bakeries.

On the road to Lithgow we encountered some stone pagodas that I thought indicated we were near the Gardens of Stone National Park (actually it’s much further north of Lithgow).

Thereafter we descended a long and bumpy dirt road, which was a bit of fun but also bone jarring. Despite Tony’s careful wrapping, the mushrooms got beaten around a bit. Here is some exciting descending:

We sampled the local bakeries in Lithgow (rating: average), and generally wandered around. We found a possible source for our bad luck: someone in Lithgow has been using Black Magic. We shook our heads sternly and muttered, “No good will come of this.”

Aww, sleeping babies.

The damage to the mushrooms turned out to be mostly cosmetic, and they were duly fried and eaten. Not a bad meal at all.

Macadamias

Pomegranates

It’s amazing what you can find behind a pub in Milsons Point.

Passionfruits

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Two excellent culinary/botanical discoveries today. First, our passionfruit vine has, after a year and a half of tender watering and brutal, emotionally-bruising pruning, finally borne its first flower! On closer inspection there are many flowers developing on the vine, so … Continue reading →