REFLECTIONS

The famous fig leaf

Watermelons were popular target for kids

Fig cuttings ready to be repotted

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Young date palm

Much time is spent doing simple repetitive tasks while maintaining the hobby farm. Menial tasks such as weeding or watering allow the mind to relax, wandering to past and distant places. Images, sounds and smells come freely when in a peaceful and reflective mood. Reminders of my life journey from the late fifties to the early seventies are signposted by the many wild and cultivated plants found within the agricultural and horticultural districts throughout Australia.

Hunters And Gatherers

On arrival to Australia our family first moved to the sugarcane fields of North Queensland. My earliest memories include images of mango trees laden with large aromatic yellow-orange fruit, succulent guavas and the acidic tang of star apple fruits. As a treat we cut sugar cane stems, chewing the sweet fibrous flesh. We hunted and foraged as a group of mostly immigrant kids, raiding watermelon and sweet corn patches, digging sweet potato yams and ran the gauntlet of large and menacing looking cattle to lick molasses from their feed troughs.

The early mangoes to ripen produced small fibrous fruit of poor quality. This however never deterred us from throwing rocks at the bright red and yellow fruit high on the tops of trees, eventually a half ripe fruit came down and we would gnaw its turpentine smelling flesh. There are also fond memories of sugar bananas and pawpaws growing in our backyard.

To a group of eight to ten year olds everything had to be investigated. We foraged throughout nearby swamps for wild guavas keeping an eye out for snakes and goannas, searched nests for bird eggs and collected the white latex from ficus trees to be boiled into a bouncy ball or eraser for school. During summer we fished fast running creeks and of course played brutal games with cane toads.

One of my strongest memories is that of a row of mandarin trees fully laden with ripe fruit. The leaves glistened after a downpour while pendulous branches sagged under the weight of its multicoloured load. A mixture of yellow, orange, red and green fruit is typical of citrus in the tropics, unlike the uniform fruit colours produced in temperate areas. Returning to the same area after many years I could not help but think of how tropical citrus fruits reflected the colours found within coral reefs.

Golden Harvest

After eight years our family moved to South Australia and to a very different world. No more carefree days - everyone had work to do.

My teenage years were spent in the arid horticultural districts that rely on irrigation water from the Murray River. We cultivated apricots, grapes and citrus crops and as we got older our responsibilities increased.

School holidays meant cutting and drying apricots. This was done by hand using a small curved knife, and for about a month during the summer holidays we sliced and slopped our way through buckets of sometimes over ripe fruit to be placed on drying trays. Plenty of band aids were kept at hand as everyone would cut a finger sooner or later. Quick reflexes and steady hands were needed in order to achieve a satisfactory quota of at least 40 trays each day. Stacks of trays would be treated with sulphur fumes and the bright golden fruit required at least three days drying out in the sun. Provided this process was not interrupted by stormy weather or dust storms we would collect the shriveled and leathery fruit to be scraped into bins.

Late summer saw the grape harvest beginning with small black currants used for drying. Following the currants, other grape varieties that could be dried or used for wine production were harvested until late autumn. During these times we hand loaded buckets of grapes onto open topped trucks. I often had to throw back the empty tins from upon the truck, running the gauntlet of bees gorging on grape juice. Doing this job barefoot meant several bee stings were in order, sharp jabs followed by the scent of their venom, one of life’s little hazards.

In the early years our family grew tomatoes as a cash crop. These were planted on vacant land or between rows of citrus trees. We mostly planted the dwarf Roma variety, spindly seedlings that quickly developed into small rounded bushes laden with pear shaped fruit. A flexible spine was needed while harvesting these low scrambling bushes weighed down with fleshy red fruit. Tomatoes carry many fungal diseases and care must be taken not to plant these close to stone fruit crops. Plants such as peaches and apricots will easily catch verticillium, a soil fungal disease, losing vigour and production. Once infected, trees are unlikely to recover, the only solution being to remove these and replant with new crops. Soil diseases take a long time to remove from infected soil; this lesson learnt from experience has never been forgotten - never plant tomatoes close to stone fruit crops.

As a sixteen year old I worked weekends for a citrus grower, scoring the unpopular task of removing fruit missed during harvest. Old fruit is a source of pest and disease infestations and should not be left on the trees. This job meant climbing under the trees then up through the canopy in order to remove fruit that could not be reached by the pickers. First dried twigs needed to be broken, next a path upwards into the canopy had to be found. Here exists a cool hidden world dominated by smooth brown branches, dappled light and an oxygen rich atmosphere. Apart from numerous scratches, it was an opportunity to escape the summer heat.

Irrigation was an unsophisticated affair. In most cases water was channeled down furrows between crop rows. This process required supervision to ensure an adequate spread of water and on many occasions I would be out late in the evening checking its progress. Stars and planets shone brightly appearing much closer in the desert sky, shooting stars blazed and a sense of wonder soon pervaded these still cold nights. Should there be a full moon it was a bonus, no need for torches. The moonlight was so bright it cast eerie shadows along the base of fruit trees and vines. All the while we were accompanied by the gentle sound of trickling water while dogs barked in the distance - something about the moon!

My Hobby Farm

More than thirty years later I have recommenced a journey signposted with many new types of vegetation. Plants able to survive drought, heat, strong wind and the stresses imposed by a rapidly changing world. Resilient fruiting plants such as the carob, pistachio and date palm protected by the hardiest of natives- eucalypts, acacias, hakeas and casuarinas.

Each passing day now presents new challenges. I know these can be met keeping in mind the past as a source of inspiration.