Easter bunny

Along with the hordes of pademelons and wallabies in our front paddock every night, recently we've had more intruders of the feral and fluffy-tailed variety - rabbits. We see them bolting across the driveway as we turn in at night and they leave tell-tale little piles of evidence on patches of bare ground. They are also venturing into the yard, so we decided to try to reduce the population of non-native animal visitors.

He was a day late, but this little guy was in the trap when we got up this Easter Monday morning. I feel half-inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on River Cottage last week to try cooking them (don't mind a bit of rabbit stew) but in the end we did not eat this one. Maybe the next unfortunate bunny who walks into the trap will make it to the pot.

The perfect food for a Tasmanian winter

Given my love of German food, I was excited to find a store in Hobart called Wursthaus Kitchen not long after we moved to Tasmania. Then disappointed to find that other than bratwurst, they didn't actually stock any German foods. They have a lovely range of Italian and French foods and a good selection of local Tasmanian fare too. But the name was definitely misleading.

Then last week I spotted an article in the paper about German chef Rainer Oberdieck who moved to Hobart with his Tasmanian wife, and a classic German cooking class he was holding at the Wursthaus. The story mentioned Rheinischer Sauerbraten and I was sold. I rang the store first thing Monday and booked in.

We made a traditional apple strudel with vanilla custard, pork knuckles (Schweinshaxe), goulash, the sweet-and-sour roast silverside called Sauerbraten and Bavarian bread dumplings (Semmelknodel) which are a great way to use up old bread rolls and perfect for mopping up sauce or gravy. We then sampled a little of each, accompanied by red cabbage and a selection of German beers from Weihenstephaner. For some of these dishes, it was a case of "here's one I prepared earlier" because they take hours, or in the case of Sauerbraten, days to make. I came home with a booklet of recipes and new confidence to make more of the food I love.

I can't help but think that people who find German food bland have only sampled Schnitzel with mashed potato from a chain restaurant. Although Rainer said he has had to adjust his cooking in Tasmania for local tastes and the availability of ingredients, all of these dishes are well spiced, tender and extremely tasty. To test out what I'd learned, last night we had a few friends over for a giant pot of goulash and some bread dumplings. I am happy to report that everyone found it as tasty as I did . Now I just need to source the cut of beef I need to make that Sauerbraten. Lecker.

Hiking in the Huon

I finally managed to pick up a copy of this lovely little book called Family Bushwalks in Tasmania's Huon Valley. I knew of it because it contains a description of a walk that can be done from our place to the Old Mill, which I stumbled across on a web site while researching our move to Franklin. The book was published 20-odd years ago now and contains a good list of walks in the area as well as basic information about bushwalking in Tasmania, photos, drawings and poems as well.

Despite several attempts, we didn't actually manage to find the Old Mill hidden up in the forestry area until a friend showed us. This was because the "New Road" described in the book was no longer in the same place - forestry roads tend to shift, appear and disappear over the years. However, this morning while out for a run in the semi-dark (daylight saving ends this weekend), I discovered that there is once again a road or forestry spur leading to the Old Mill! The overgrown, wet path lined with man ferns and young myrtle beech trees has been cleared and fresh gravel laid. I feel kind of sad, as it was a pretty section of the walk, but if the nasty gorse patch and the spot strewn with beer cans are gone, it might be a good thing.

New and improved raised garden beds

The year we arrived in Tasmania, I was keen to start growing food. Unfortunately, most of our topsoil up here on the hill is clay. It's very hard to dig when its wet and even harder when it is dry. And most things don't like growing in it because of poor drainage. So we procured some beautiful old apple crates at $5 each from an orchard down the road, filled them with compost and soil and for almost five years they have worked really well and looked so nice to boot. But now the wood is rotting, and despite some handy fixes from David, the weathered boxes are starting to fall apart. This winter, we planned to replace them.

Then, a couple of weeks back at the Taste of the Huon festival, we spotted Dovetail Timbers with their ingenious lock-together system for building with wood. It turned out we could order the timber in a length that would go around the existing apple crates - perfect! No need to remove them from the possum-free chicken wire enclosure they live in. While we were at it, we ordered a couple of extra beds for stuff that doesn't need possum protection. They are made from Tasmanian hardwood and lined, so we're expecting many years of food production in them. We started installing them today and hope to finish the rest tomorrow. I think they look every bit as beautiful as the old apple crates - see what you think in the pictures below.

Dog squad on duty at Taste of the Huon

This year, members of the Huon Valley Dog Walking Association volunteered at the Taste of the Huon for the first time. Dogs are not permitted at the festival, for 'hygiene reasons' it says on the signs at the ticket booths. In previous years there were a few dogs left in hot cars who needed to be broken out by police, perhaps by people who didn't know about the 'no dogs' policy until they got there. So this year we offered to patrol the car parking areas for any dogs in distress. I'm happy to report that there were no such issues this year, although this lovely girl was chained to a fence all day Sunday and we kept returning to disentangle her leg from her chain and make sure she had water.

On Monday afternoon, our group was on the 'clean team', making sure the tables were clean, rubbish was in the bins and the bins were emptied promptly. It was a fun day actually and good exercise! The organisers did a great job and the festival was very busy, with lovely weather, great food and drink and entertainment drawing a record-breaking crowd of 14,000 people on Sunday and almost as many on Monday. On Sunday, David and I got there in time to have lunch. My oysters from Bruny Island, beef pie from Geeveston, Inn Cider from Margate and salted caramel ice cream sandwich were delicious.

Rhubarb. Jam.

It's my favourite kind, and thanks to a bumper crop, I made quite a few jars of the stuff this year. David brought home an enormous bag of plums from a customer, so I tried making jam with those too. It was less than successful... so I plan to use it in a jam tart recipe from Matthew Evan's Winter on the Farm book. Speaking of winter... Autumn hit with a vengeance last week, with temperatures at our place plunging to just 4 degrees and snow on Mount Wellington. We lit the fire and put our ugg boots back on. If that was summer, I think it might be over.

Franklin alive

Changes are afoot in our little village and I'm very excited about some of the recent new additions. We will soon have our own choir. Singer/songwriter Tiffany Eckhardt moved here recently with musician husband Dave Steel (formerly of Weddings Parties Anything). Last night she ran the first 'choir practice' in the upstairs supper room of the Palais Theatre. There was a fantastic turnout, men and women, young and old, experienced singers and newbies like me. Not only that, but a yoga studio, River Flow Yoga, has opened up in the beautiful old white stone church right in the middle of town. Owner Charly gave some free 'taster' classes this week to locals and I really enjoyed it. It's been too long between classes for me. These things enrich our community, which already has so much to offer. Exciting times ahead.