On The Road: Day 239 Nabiac Friday 1st February 2013

Hi All,

The apprentice is in the blog seat tonight, evening folks.

Today started with a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast for our day off.

I don’t know that it has been specifically mentioned previously but I gave up sugar in my coffee about 3 months ago, as a consequence I have not had a coffee since, until today. I haven't actually felt too deprived having found a couple of teas with vanilla/chai, and vanilla/rose that have satisfied my need for sweetness in a cuppa. I mentioned to Simon last night that I would try a coffee, the delicious aroma every morning of his espresso tantalises and frustrates me, so I took the plunge and actually enjoyed my first coffee without sugar, a lot less bitter than I had remembered when I had tried to give up sugar a couple of years back. So from 3 LARGE sugars to none is quite an achievement and having stuck it is even more worthy, good me!

I haven't been totally without a sweet treat, it is hard not to taste the honey when one is helping on a honey farm, this too I will give up when we leave, and my arthritis has flared up again with the honey so back on the straight and narrow.

Tuck in don't mind if I do

Anyhow onto the day.... we were still deciding what we would do at 11:00 so I suggested lunch again at the Maharani Bar and Tandoori in Foster, seemingly a safe bet as torrential rains were again forecast. The meal we had there last time was delicious and we opted for the same choices again today. The waitress remembered us and we were given a complimentary appetiser of pappadams and minty dip while we waited for lunch to be cooked, certainly encourages return custom!

As we were finishing lunch the rain pelted down, so we sat and watched for a while, lamenting our lack of umbrellas. We do have umbrellas my small compact one back at the farm, Simon’s large one still at the capsicum farm in Tassie, (hope Kaye and Eric are getting some use out of it) and an IKEA one at home which the girls probably use.

With bellies full and a break in the rain we dashed to the car, to drive up the road to Taree and wander about and walk off a few calories. We located the boot maker who also sells umbrellas and chose a large forest green model, other choices were footy team colours and none were to my liking. I even got to try it out later and it worked a treat.

Back at the farm Anna was up to her elbows in Rosellas and asked me to help her cook them up, no not the feathered variety, the native hibiscus. Yesterday we had been discussing the market, cost and merits of making up some of those flowers that people have in sparkling wine. Anna already makes Rosella cordial and jam, and thinks the flowers might be a value add item. The recipe was simple enough, the disgorging the seed from the flower without damage was a tad more difficult, the chopstick used to push the seed out once the end was sliced worked reasonably well but at 6 in a minute, we could see why the commercial ones sell for about $1.00 per flower in a jar of 20! We did have some of the less perfect ones and some syrup on ice-cream for desert - just delicious. Anyway we are hoping they plump up in the syrup and look a bit more like the commercial ones. Tomorrow will tell.