Julie Weatherhead

Julie Weatherhead runs the Living Classroom at Peppermint Ridge Farm, the Cornucopia Living Heritage Centre and the Cornucopia Consulting Group with husband Anthony Hooper.

She is an Environmental Scientist and Ecologist who has researched and developed the use of ecosystems to enhance organic vegetable gardening.

Julie and Anthony have led workshops at Peppermint Ridge since 1996, teaching others about bush food, organic vegetable gardening and sustainable land management. They have developed unique methods of gardening to save time, water and money.

Summer recipe from Peppermint Ridge: Make your own Native Creative Dukkah

November 27, 2016 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

We are expecting a bumper harvest here at Peppermint Ridge as the spring rains have given everything a surge. The Finger Lime bushes are heavy with fruit, the Mountain Pepper berries are looking very plump and the Blue Quandongs have fruited for the first time – can’t wait to taste them!

We have been testing a new Dukkah recipe to take advantage of the bountry – try it sprinkled on top of flatbread drizzled with olive oil and grilled, add a crunchy topping to your home made hummus, add to your favourite crumb mix before you fry fish or chicken, stir into a curry just before serving, sprinkle over kebabs or a fresh salad to add spice and crunch or dip your bread into good quality olive oil and then into the dukkah for an instant flavour treat. This recipe is straight from our new book on native foods – Australian Native Food Harvest – a guide for the passionate cook and gardener – we have added some finger lime which dries easily in a dehydrator when sliced – have a go!

Native Creative Dukkah

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Author: Julie Weatherhead, Peppermint Ridge Farm

Ingredients

¾ cup macadamia nuts – ground and toasted
¼ cup macadamia nut - chopped and toasted
½ cup sesame seeds – toasted
1 tbsp finger lime – dried and ground
1 tsp Mountain Pepper leaf – dried and ground
½ tsp Mountain Pepper berry – dried and ground
1 tbsp – Lemon Myrtle leaves – dried and ground
1 tsp Native Thyme – dried and ground
1 tsp dried garlic – ground to a powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Cumin seeds - dried and ground
1 tbsp coriander seeds – dried and ground

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together and store in glass jar in the refrigerator.

Psst…if you’re interested in learning how to cook with native foods, join us at our Australian Native Food Harvest cooking school on 3 December! Find out more details and reserve your spot here.

Homemade Pizzas Featuring Native Australian Flavours

June 15, 2016 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

We had a very special family time over the June long weekend. We all worked together to bake pizza in our woodfired oven flavoured with the native food spices of Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper, Native Thyme and Strawberry Gum. These recipes are featured in our new Peppermint Ridge Farm book on growing and cooking with native foods in your own backyard – it will be available soon! We are taking orders for advanced copies if you’re interested.

It is really easy to use these native food plants in your everyday cooking. All of these spices are available right now from the Peppermint Ridge Native Food online store–order and start cooking!

Pizzas

Start by making up a spice mix that you can use on pretty much any savoury dish. The trick is to add some of the mix right at the end of the cooking by simply sprinkling it over before serving.

Lemon Myrtle Spice Mix

Process together until a fine – 15 large fresh Lemon Myrtle leaves, 10 fresh large Mountain Pepper leaves, 1 clove garlic, 1/4 tsp salt, pinch of ground black pepper.

If using dried leaves use 1 Tbsp Lemon Myrtle and 1/2 Tbsp Mountain Pepper, or 1.5 Tbsp of our Lemon Myrtle + Mountain Pepper Spice Mix (available here).

Strawberry Gum Spice Mix

Replace the Lemon Myrtle with 1 Tbsp dried Strawberry Gum powder.

Pizza Dough

This is the recipe that never fails us here: Makes about 4 large pizzas.

200g medium ground Semolina flour
250g white “tipo 00” flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
290 mls warm water

Mix and knead until smooth. Place in a bowl and cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to double in size (about 90 minutes).

Pull off handfuls and roll out to cover your pizza pan.

Brush with olive oil, spread over some of our Warrigal Greens pesto or any other pesto and sprinkle over some of the Lemon Myrtle spice mix. Now place your favourite toppings over the base – we used a combination of salami/ham, capsicum, mushroom, onion, pineapple and topped our selection with mozzarella cheese, or we used roasted pumpkin, onion, blue cheese and honey. Bake until the base is golden and the top crisp – around 10 minutes. Sprinkle more spice mix over the cooked pizza and enjoy!

The secret to good pizza is to have the base of the oven very hot and it cooks from underneath as well as from on top. If you don’t have a wood fired oven, a heated pizza stone in your kitchen oven will do the trick. You may need to pre-bake the pizza dough before adding the toppings when using a conventional oven to ensure the center cooks thoroughly.

For our second pizza we used the Strawberry Gum spice mix with tomato pasta sauce or tomato paste on the base, mix in about 1 tsp of the spice for a small pizza. When the pizza is cooked sprinkle a little more of the Strawberry Gum powder over before serving. Strawberry Gum has an amazing affinity with tomato and will create a wonderful taste experience.

Have fun cooking your pizzas!

Lemon Myrtle Anzac Biscuits Recipe

April 25, 2016 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

For Anzac day every year, I make these delicious Lemon Myrtle Anzac Biscuits that add a native Australian twist to this traditional treat.

Anzac biscuits were originally sent to soldiers in World War I because they kept long enough to survive the long journey. It has been claimed that the original Anzac biscuits from Queensland actually had Lemon Myrtle in them! Now truly a part of Australian culture, it’s hard to imagine an Anzac Day without them.

Enjoy these delicious Anzac biscuits this Anzac day (or any day, for that matter)!

Lemon Myrtle Anzac Biscuits Recipe

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Author: Julie Weatherhead

Ingredients

1 tbsp dried Lemon Myrtle spice (heaped) or 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh Lemon Myrtle leaves (heaped)
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup Self Rising Flour
½ cup plain flour
¾ cup coconut
¾ cup light brown sugar
½ tsp bicarb soda
2 Tbsp boiling water
125g melted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup

Instructions

Mix together all ingredients except bicarb soda, water, butter and syrup.
Dissolve ½ tsp bicarb soda in 2 tbsp boiling water and add to the dry ingredients along with melted butter and golden syrup.
Mix well and place teaspoonfuls of the mix (or roll into walnut sized balls) and place on a lined baking tray
Bake at 160 degrees C for 15 mins.

Do you enjoy Anzac biscuits at this time of year? Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Strawberry Gum Ice Cream or Custard

April 13, 2016 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, I posted an article about the wonderful flavours and exciting benefits of Strawberry Gum (Eucalyptus olida), including a recipe for my Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls. I’d like to share another one of my favourite Strawberry Gum recipes with you–this one is versatile and can be made into either a custard or ice cream. Try both–they’re equally delicious!

This will make one of the best custards you have ever tasted! You can serve it before freezing with poached fruit or puddings. The Strawberry Gum adds a delightful flavour that is hard to describe. You will just have to try it for yourself.

The custard makes a wonderful ice cream if churned in an ice cream maker.

Strawberry Gum Custard or Ice Cream

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This is custard will be one of the best you have ever tasted so you can serve it before freezing with poached fruit or puddings. The Strawberry Gum adds a delightful flavour that is hard to describe. You will just have to try it for yourself. The custard makes a wonderful ice cream if churned in an ice cream maker.

Author: Julie Weatherhead

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Australian

Ingredients

8 fresh Strawberry Gum leaves or 2 tbsp dried crushed leaves (tie into a muslin bag for infusing)
6 free range egg yolks – (use the whites to make meringues and add some dried Strawberry Gum spice to the mix – delicious)
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
150gm sugar or to taste

Instructions

Heat milk, cream, sugar and leaves in a saucepan until boiling point.
Turn off heat and allow flavours to infuse for 15 minutes.
Take out the bag of leaves and return flavoured milk to a clean saucepan.
Whisk in the eggs and increase heat slowly, whisky constantly until mixture thickens to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Take off heat and cool, refrigerate and later churn in an ice cream maker until frozen if desired.

Note: If you’d like to taste the wonderful flavours of Strawberry Gum and other native Australian edible plants, come to our Bush Food Flavours Lunch this Sunday, April 17. Bookings available here.

Special thanks to Susan Gordon-Brown for her lovely pictures.

Let me know what you think about this recipe in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you!

Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls

April 12, 2016 By Julie Weatherhead 1 Comment

We have been experimenting with Strawberry Gum (Eucalyptus olida) here at Peppermint Ridge as the dried leaves make a wonderful spice. The fresh leaves are fine to use in cooking too and will keep in a ziplock bag in the fridge for weeks.

Strawberry gum tree in flower. Photo credit: Susan Gordon-Brown.

Strawberry Gum is a very rare tree from Northern New South Wales that we have been propagating here at the Farm. The tree is hardy if you can get a hold of one. Strawberry Gum leaves can be made into a spice by first drying and then grinding the leaves in a food processor – the ground leaves will last for 2 years if kept in a cool, dark place.

The best news about Strawberry Gum is that it tastes great – a bit like vanilla, strawberry, or passionfruit – but it really has a flavour all its own that is hard to describe. This unique flavour comes from an essential oil in the leaf called Methyl Cinnamate, which acts as an enhancer to any dish.

This spice will enhance and draw out flavour to anything with berries, tomato based sauces, dairy or coconut milk dishes such as custards, ice creams, or pannacotta. It also makes a wonderful hot drink when a little is added to your favourite black or green tea.

Use sparingly as the flavour can be strong, you can always add more if the taste is too subtle.

There are amazing health benefits to using the leaves in your cooking. The chemicals found in the leaves are high in antioxidants and the oil is antimicrobial against foodborne human pathogens, food spoilage bacteria, and yeasts assisting in keeping a healthy microbial balance in the human gut. Very important if you have been taking antibiotics or have been unwell.

So there are no negatives to using this plant in the kitchen!

TOP TIP:

Infuse the leaves in hot milk, sugar, and cream to make the base for custard, ice cream, or pannacotta.

Note: coconut or almond milk can be used just as effectively. We like to add a small amount of the chopped dried leaf to black tea for an extra antioxidant and flavour lift.

Here is a recipe to get you inspired–more coming later this week!

Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls

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Author: Julie Weatherhead

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Australian

Ingredients

200g 70% Cocoa Dark cooking chocolate - melted
1 tsp dried ground Strawberry Gum spice
1 cup pitted dates
⅔ cup toasted ground Macadamia nuts
½ cup desiccated coconut

Instructions

Process dates until smooth.
Add melted chocolate, Strawberry Gum and nuts.
Cool mixture in refrigerator.
Shape into walnut sized balls and roll in coconut.
Store in a clean jar in the refrigerator.
Try not to eat them all at once!!
This recipe can be made very quickly in a food processor that also heats.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have you tried Strawberry Gum? What do you think?

Slow Roasted Beef Short Ribs: Cooking with Australia’s Bush Foods

August 10, 2015 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

I love experimenting with our wonderful bush foods. It is so easy to invent new dishes if you have the plants growing in your garden – just like the other herbs we are used to growing. Many of them like to grow in pots so you can keep them close to the kitchen door – such as Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper, River Mint, Finger Lime and Native Thyme to name a few.

On these cold days we feel like some slow cooked beef–flavoured using bush foods, of course!

Slow Roasted Beef Short Ribs: Cooking with Australia's Bush Foods

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Author: Julie Weatherhead

Cuisine: Australian

Ingredients

2 kg beef short ribs
10-15 fresh Lemon Myrtle leaves
Few springs of Rosemary
Few springs of Native Thyme
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Mountain Pepper, ground (for seasoning)
Salt (for seasoning)
2 cups of water for roasting

Instructions

Place Lemon Myrtle, Native Thyme and Rosemary on foil. Add beef on top of leaves with chopped garlic. Seasoned the beef with salt and Mt Pepper, wrap tight in more foil and put into a large roasting pan.
Pour about 2 cups of water around the parcel and let slow roast at 100 degrees for 8 hours. You can do this overnight, pop it in the fridge during the day and then warm it up again at night or start it in the morning and it is ready for dinner!

The dish ended up with lovely spicy flavours from the bush foods and the meat was meltingly tender – brilliant. I teamed the meat with some sliced pears roasted quickly with chopped Lemon Myrtle, Mt Pepper and drizzled them with a little lemon juice and olive oil – a good non starchy alternative to roast potatoes – try it – they are delicious.

Then I wilted some fresh silver beet leaves from the garden and mixed them with some of the mix I put on the pears – yum and oh so healthy. We really enjoyed our dinner.

Here is a pic of the leaves I used – don’t they look fresh!

At Peppermint Ridge Farm we are passionate about Australian native foods and spices. We run bush food cooking classes, tours of our Australian Spice Garden, and foodie events on site in Tynong North, Victoria. We are also available for private functions. Find us on our website: www.peppermintridgefarm.com.au.

Illawarra Plums – Another Superfood

July 15, 2015 By Julie Weatherhead 2 Comments

We have just picked many kilos of our Illawarra plums (Podocarpus elatus). The Illawarra Plum is a small plant indigenous to New South Wales and Queensland. It is also called a Brown Pine and has a false fruit which is a fleshy sweet stalk attached to a big stone which makes it easy to harvest the delicious fruit.

Research and testing into the fruit by the CSIRO and Food Science Australia as recently as 2013 (Published in the British Journal of Nutrition June 28) have proven that compared to the blueberry it has more than 3 times the antioxidant activity. The study is exciting because the plums were shown reduce the growth of colon cancer cells and could be very useful in cancer treatments. Other studies at the CSIRO in Adelaide are looking into the ability of the plums to slow the growth & replication of fat cells in our bodies to help with maintaining bodyweight. Add to this that the fruit tastes great fresh and is very juicy!

I plan to make some delicious savoury and sweet sauces to go with the meat and desserts we are planning for our regular monthly lunches here at Peppermint Ridge Farm. The plant is very easy to grow in Victoria as well and has proven to be beautiful garden addition with glossy green leaves and prolific fruit in winter.

So get going and plant some for yourselves. To get fruit you will need to plant both a male and female plant as they are dioecious. You can plant many females to the one male plant. our plum is about 4 metres tall after 8 years.

Recipes using Illawarra Plums:

Jam – just use your favourite berry recipe and replace the berries with the Illawarra Plums.
Pickling – the fruit can be pickled and used on platters and to preserve it for later use.
Strawberry Gum and Port Poached Illawarra Plums – Place 4 Strawberry Gum leaves and 100gm Illawarra Plums in half cup Port, 1/4 cup water, half teaspoon cinnamon, 2 cloves and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a pot. Bring to boil and stir. Reduce heat, and simmer until plums are soft. Serve with Anise Myrtle ice cream/panna cotta, yoghurt or cream.

And here’s my favourite: an Illawarra Plum Sauce. Enjoy!

Illawarra Plum Sauce

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A delicious sauce to use with any meat or steamed vegetables.

Author: Julie Weatherhead

Recipe type: Sauces

Cuisine: Australian

Ingredients

200g Illawarra plums
100g sugar
200ml water
10 chopped leaves or Mountain Pepper or 10 crushed berries or 1 red chilli, sliced
1 Tsp crushed garlic
½ onion, diced
1 Tsp brown sugar
3 Tbs macadamia nut oil
¼ cup white wine vinegar

Instructions

In a small saucepan, add plums, sugar and water.
Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
Pour into a blender and puree.
For the sauce, heat macadamia oil in a pan, add diced onion, garlic and pepper/chilli.
Saute until transparent, add plum puree and vinegar and allow mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.
Cool.
Press through sieve for a smooth sauce.

Autumn bush food cropping at Peppermint Ridge Farm

April 29, 2015 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

Autumn is my favourite time of year at the farm as the days are mild with light soaking rain and the weather very settled. The light seems different and the slanting afternoon light is wonderful viewed from the terrace. The bush food garden is looking its best and with all three layers now well grown and lush.

Cropping has been good so far – we have started to pick the red finger limes and the green ones will follow when they are fat enough. I plan to use these wonderful fruits in a variety of ways. Some of my favourites are to make a finger lime curd with our fresh eggs – we will team this with maybe some lemon myrtle pannacotta or freshly baked meringues with a marshmallow centre or use it as filling for fresh vanilla cupcakes – all delicious. Fingerlime cheesecake is also wonderful – the red zest gives a very interesting addition to the dishes.

Mt Pepper berries just harvested

The Mountain Pepper berry crop is ready for harvest too and each year the number of berries increases. A good thing too because their flavour is quite unique. We dry them slowly and then grind them in a pepper grinder fresh for each dish or use them whole in a sauce to steep the pepper flavour. The leaves are also full of that hot pepper taste all year round. I like to grind them with lemon myrtle leaves to create a lovely herb crumb. Tonight I rubbed that mix into a leg of lamb and slow roasted it for a few hours – quite delicious. The berries will keep in a jar for a long time – that doesn’t happen here as we like to use them in dishes too often. Be creative in your own kitchen with these wonderful plants.

Having your bush food garden and eating it too!

January 6, 2015 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

The bush food garden here at Peppermint Ridge Farm continues to thrive and we are

Anise Myrtle

enjoying watching all of the fruits fatten and the edible leaves glowing. The anise myrtle has a particular secret. If you eat the the new red leaves you will discover they taste like a soft sweet licorice lolly but without the sugar – bonus. The mature leaves are high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals so perhaps the immature ones have some of these properties too.

The mature leaves make a wonderfully refreshing tea as well as great ice cream.

One of my interests is in encouraging gardeners to add bush foods to their flower and vegetable gardens. This year we have watched the growth of the finger limes, native blueberries, midyim berries, native currants and pepper berries and continue to propagate these in our bush food nursery.

Some of these fruits have very high nutritional qualities – the currant has very high levels of vitamin C, the pepper berries are high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Not all of the fruits have been tested by food scientists, but anecdotal evidence of the native blueberry discusses upset stomachs from eating too many of them. This could be due to a high level of nutrients or a presence of toxins, so caution in eating untested plants is always advised and never go eating fruits or leaves on forest walks as some plants are proven to be toxic (always buy your edible native plants from a reliable and knowledgeable source).

Not only do the tested fruits taste wonderful, the plants are very attractive additions to garden design. These plants are easily grown organically as they are not susceptible to attack by fungus, bacteria or insects – this is from 16 years of trials here. Some plants need a little protection from strong hot & cold winds and dry soil such as the Mountain Pepper and Lemon Myrtle, bit most are tolerant of tough conditions.

It is a lot of fun making up new recipes for these wonderful plants, and over the Christmas break we made up a new recipe for our macadamia, salted caramel and chocolate tarts. The new base is a bit softer and has a lovely chewy texture which we think is a great improvement on the original recipe. The whole eating experience is one of a toasted macadamia biscuit base, a soft gooey salted caramel centre and a crisp dark chocolate topping. This recipe will feature at our next cooking school class next month.

Finger Limes and Mountain Pepper growing well at Peppermint Ridge

December 10, 2014 By Julie Weatherhead Leave a Comment

This new summer rain has given a great growth boost to our bush food plants. We will have a great crop of finger limes and mountain pepper and the new anise myrtle plants are growing fast in their pots. I have been experimenting with grinding up the fresh leaves of our native herbs with salt and garlic, ginger would be good too – even better to use the native ginger. These ‘herb crumbs’ spice up any dish.

Anise myrtle with strawberries and rhubarb poached in pomegranate juice

We are doing a lot of experimenting and love anise myrtle – have made an amazing ice cream with it that we teamed with our own strawberries and rhubarb poached in pomegranate juice. Last week we marinated pork belly with anise myrtle before slow cooking it – the result was amazing – it creates quite a different flavour.

That’s the thing about bush foods, the flavours they produce are hard to describe because there is often nothing to compare them to. Strawberry gum is a good example – the oil in the leaf smells a bit of strawberry, passionfruit and vanilla – quite unique. But when you team it with your favourite dishes it creates whole new wonderful flavours that defy description. Try it and let me know if you agree.

Here at Peppermint Ridge we are thinking about how to create a Christmas lunch for our family that is spiced with Australian flavours, we will then carry that on to creating a truly different Australia Day lunch on Monday Jan 26 as our first event for 2015.

I think the finger limes should be great marinating fresh salmon and we love creating fresh sorbets with them. Have a look at some shots I have just taken of some of our crops that are growing fast – finger lime and mountain pepper. I have added a pic of our kangaroo family that doesn’t mind coming up close to the house.