MACKAY BRANCH R.F.A. inc.
P.O. Box 5106 Mackay Mail Centre. Qld. 4741
email:
Check out the RFA web site at
NEWSLETTER. Editor: Shirley Kerle, Ph. (07)49540825
March 201213 Tweedies Road, MS 895
Mackay.Qld. 4740
Next Meeting:Sunday,1st April 2012 @ 1pm
Venue:Elizabeth Dobson, 45 Cavanagh Drive, BlacksBeach.
Schedule:BYO picnic lunch from 11.30am followed byGeneral Meeting @ 1pm;
Guest Speaker: Michelle Janes, from Bio Security Queensland,
will give a 30 minute presentation.
Fruit Tasting;Raffle and tree auction; Garden walk.
Directions:look up the mapin the phone book for directions
and look for the branch sign out the front.
Please remember to bring your own chair, plate, cup etc.
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A very warm welcome to our newest member
Andy Thomsen
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Outdoor meetings for 2012
JuneHost:Paul Andrew, Dumbleton
August.Host: Jeremy Robinson, Proserpine
October.Host: Victor Jordan Alyth Tweedie, Finch Hatton Gorge
The Fruit and Prepared Food Competition.
Prize winners for February 2012 Meeting: Judge - Alice Belado
Most interesting rare fruit: 1. Mamey Sapote - Paul Andrew.
2. Thai White Pitaya - Paul Saron3. Monstera Deliciosa - Jess Grima
Best tasting fruit: 1. Longon - Nick Cronan
2. Yellow Dragon Fruit - Paul Andrew3. Cherry Mango - Jim Hamilton
Best prepared food: 1. Lemon passionfruit Cheesecake - Mary Fox
2. Tree Spinach Frittata - Alyth Tweedie3. Fruit Slice - Angelina Barracano
PRIZE WINNING RECIPES
t/s = teaspoonD/S = dessertspoonT/S = tablespooncm = centimetre
S R = self raisinglt= litreml = millilitreoz = ounce
kg = kilogramg = grampkt = packet
Passionfruit Lemon Cheesecake
Base
2 oz butter 1 small egg a little milk if required
1 oz sugar 4 oz S R flour (sorry I measure in ounces)
Method
Cream butter and sugar then add egg and blend. Add flour to form a firm dough. Add milk if necessary.
Roll out or press into a slab tin, prick pastry then bake in a moderate oven until golden.
Filling
1 packet of cream cheese 1 packet of passionfruit jelly crystals
1 tin condensed milk (made with less water and cooled)
juice of 2 lemons Pulp of 2 passionfruit
Method
Mix all ingredients together then pour into cooled base and refrigerate until set. Spread small amount of passionfruit on top before serving.
Mary Fox
Tree Spinach Frittata
Approximately 1 kg pumpkin sweet potato (any root vegetable will do)
2 handfuls tree spinach (aibika) 8eggs beaten
200gm feta (crumbled, sliced or chopped)½ red onionthinly sliced
Method
Cut and steam pumpkin and sweet potato. Wilt the tree spinach in boiling water then cut up and squeeze out all liquid. Add spinach to the cooked vegetables, mix in fetta and lastly add the eggs.Transfer to 25cm baking dish and cover with sliced onion.Bake 40-60 minutes in a cool oven 130˚ C or until lightly brown and firm. Serve with chilli sauce and a green leafy salad.
Alyth Tweedie
Fruit Slice
1 cup sugar1 cup coconut6-7 dried apricots, sliced
1 cup mixed fruit1 cup wholemeal S R flour1 egg
1 cup milk
Method
Mix all ingredients then pour into a greased and lined slice tin. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes or until cooked when tested.
Angelina Barracano
Report for 5th February 2012 meeting
The first meeting for 2012 was held at the Dumbleton Rural Fire Brigade Shed. This meeting was very well attended despite the fact that it was our AGM. Alice Belado, the lady who judged the fruit and prepared food competition and happens to be Peter Reville’s cousin, came all the way from Canada. That’s a long way to travel for a meeting. For those interested, it starting with a BYO picnic lunch at 11.30am, followed by the AGM at 1.30pm. Nick read his President’s Report (next page) then Paul thanked Nick for all his hard work and dedication.
The election of management committee was a swift affair as all existing committee members were re-elected (unopposed) in a block. The management committee are as follows: President- Nick Cronan (49475890), Secretary- Paul Andrew (49598671), Treasurer- Alyth Tweedie (49583312), Library officer- Heather Camilleri (49583016) and committee member- Bill Fox (49590094).
Winners of the fruit and prepared food competition for 2011 were:
Best Rare Fruit:
Percy Abela
Best tasting fruit:
Jess Grima
Best prepared food:
Edith Querl
All of the above winners took home a cheque but the over all winner,
Paul Andrew, took home the Marion Burns memorial trophy.
This is the fourth time that Paul has won the trophy so
Congratulations Paul.
Well done.
Above photo- Nick Cronin (left) presenting Paul with the Marion Burns Memorial Trophy.
Report and photo by Shirley Kerle
President’s Report for February 2012
I would like to thank everyone for all your effort with ensuring our club continues to grow and prosper. To all our new members we thank you for joining and hope you continue to enjoy the rare fruit experience. Please bring your friends along to check us out.
Thanks to Paul for his tireless energy in making the club run so smoothly, organising our trip to Bundaberg and promoting rare fruit at various venues in the area. I also wish to thank Alyth, Heather and Bill for their work as branch and RFA committee members, Shirley for producing our great newsletter, Jess and Mary for presenting the tasting table with such enthusiasm, and also to all those great cooks who contributed our afternoon tea for each meeting.
Many thanks to the hosts who showcased their properties over the past year; I’m sure that everyone enjoyed your hospitality as much as I did. To all of you who have brought along items to be auctioned, thanks so much, the funds raised from our raffle and auction help to keep our finances healthy. Of course many thanks to Percy for selling the raffle tickets, what a mighty job! Last but not least, a special thank you to those who contributed articles to Fruity Talk, we have all gained lots of information from them.
Our first meeting of the year was the AGM at South West Mackay Neighbourhood Centre, where the current office bearers and committee members were elected. Weather conditions were not the best with cyclones and flooding a real threat. Percy took out the overall points trophy, well done Percy.
Our second meeting in April, at Paul and Pat Saron’s property at Hay Point, had to be postponed due to torrential rain and a prolonged wet season. It was eventually held on Sunday the 17th, with perfect weather. Previously a commercial mango grower, Paul and Pat are now organically growing trees for fun with dragon fruit and passionfruit now climbing over the old mango stumps.
In May members manned a stall at the Farleigh Palm Fete where there was a constant stream of interested persons checking out our display. On the last May weekend, 32 of us boarded a bus for Bundaberg and its surrounding areas. After a few mechanical problems, we finally arrived to a warm welcome from the Hinkler Club.
What a great time we had, visiting Gordon and Jenny Tait, Ted and Daphne Harris, Ray and Marsha Johnston’s properties and the Botanical Gardens, as well as attending the national RFA AGM where the Mackay team took over the reins for the next 3 years. We were pleased to have an uneventful return trip to Mackay with the bus carrying more trees than passengers.
In June we gathered at Kevin Whitton’s place at Shinfield near SarinaRange, a true PlanetArk, in sync with the elements. We gleaned a lot of information from Kevin’s vast knowledge and laid back approach.
It was another great day in Paradise with Ned and Jess Grima, our hosts for the August meeting at Palmyra. Our interest was held all afternoon as Jess took us around the extensive fruit and vegie garden.
In October we met at Peter and Val Reville’s property on the Hampden Road. Visitors who gave a short talk were Pauline Trappes, author of a beginner’s gardening book and Kim Kleidon from ABC local radio. Pauline has now joined the club. A leisurely walk around the orchard with Val completed a most enjoyable day.
Our final meeting for the year was at Dumbleton Rural Fire Brigade Hall, a very pleasant venue with all amenities. Old and new members got into the spirit of Christmas, with additional raffle prizes, lots of festive tasty treats and a visit from St Nick himself.
Throughout the year the club also participated in the Mackay Show, the Seniors Expo, Global Grooves, and Bunnings DIY garden club days. These were all well received by each organisation and we have been invited to exhibit again this year.
Since joining the club, the hospitality and camaraderie of all our members continues to impress me and I talk to lots of people about it. The wealth of knowledge and the manner in which it is shared, the friendliness and sincerity of the members and the willingness of each one to help in their own way with whatever has to be done, makes me very proud to be part of this vibrant club. I hope you all have a very fruitful year ahead.
Nick Cronan - President
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Sapodilla
The Sapodilla “Manilkara Zapota“ belongs to the Sapotaceae Family. Another fruit from the same family is the Mamey Sapote “Pouteria Sapota“. The word Sapote, derived from the Aztec word Tzapotl, is a term used by Mexicans to describe any soft sweet fruit regardless of botanical kinship.
The Sapodilla is an evergreen tree and is native to tropical Central America, the true lowland tropics, and will not live without constant warmth. It is commonly referred to as chiku in much of Asia and Central America. The branches contain a white latex-like sap, given the name chicle, and were once tapped and sold for export to the USA to form the base of that unique product, chewing gum.
Sapodilla and White Sapote (there is that word again, sapote – soft sweet fruit ) are amongst the hardiest trees that I have growing, because with very little care they have both borne fruit every year since they started fruiting.
The Sapodilla is a much maligned fruit, you either love it or hate it, there is no in between, so I believe for this reason people put it in the hate area.
From experience I found that if I leave the fruit on the tree until it is soft (wouldn’t it be nice to be able to live in the ideal world) then I have to share it with Mr f’ing fox (that’s FLYING by the way), with the sharing arrangements being 80/20 in his favour. So to overcome this arrangement and make it 98/2 in my favor there are two simple things that I can do. 1. Grab the tree and shake it and what ever falls off should ripen. 2. Scratch the outer brown layer off without damaging the skin, if it is green don’t pick, if it is pale yellow or orange it’s yours. For whatever reason Mr fox doesn’t seem to touch them at this stage. This is my preferred method. Usually within a week or so they will soften and are ready to eat.
If I let them get real soft they are very sweet and strong flavoured. I was told that you can put lime juice on them to kill the sweetness, I’ve never tried this as I have a sweet tooth, but if I eat them just after they start to soften they are not so strong or sweet. Yoghurt is another way to kill the sweetness. The flavour is similar to brown sugar with a slightly gritty texture and they contain 14% sugar.
They flower about late August to early November, with the fruit being harvested from about June to mid August. My fruit have very few problems, occasionally I get one with fruit fly larvae or some sort of a fruit rot or the above Mr fox because I forget to check for mature ones. The reason for this being that the fruit will grow to full size and just sit there for months until they mature, so there will be fruit with little fingernail scratches on them everywhere then I forget to look and hello Mr Fox (this is the reason for 98/2 as above).
I haven’t found too many uses for the fruit, simply because I eat them fresh. However in the past I have made icecream with them. I have dried them, but remember drying increases some of the properties that you start out with i.e. put in bad fruit and you get out worse fruit, put in gritty sweet fruit and you get out grittier sweeter fruit (I can live with that). But perhaps the best thing I found was to add them to home made fresh fruit salad.
My main fruiting variety is Makok, it was planted in 1988 and while the good book states that seedling trees can grow to a hight of 12 to 30 metres and grafted trees can grow to 6 to 15 metres, my tree is about 3.5 metres high. In the early days it was fed and watered regularly whereas now it only gets watered in the dry. When other trees are showing signs of being stressed in the real dry, between watering, the sapodillas don’t stress or throw fruit or flowers. They don’t seem to be effected if they don’t get enough water during the flowering or growing period and then split like some other fruit can during times of heavy rain.
While the tree itself is extremely hardy the seeds don’t seem to be, as I have never seen them come up in the scrap heap or growing under the tree. I have germinated the seeds before, but they take a very long time to come up.
Books of reference:Know and Enjoy Tropical Fruit – James J Darley
The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia – Louis Glowinski
Tropical Fruit – Glenn Tankard
Article and photo contributed by Paul Andrew.
Thanks Paul for an interesting article.
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