Dangar Island, NSW - The Place That Time Forgot

We're spending 24 hours on Dangar Island.

Dangar is on the Hawkesbury river near Brooklyn about one hour's drive north  of Sydney. A perfect weekend getaway distance.

No private cars are allowed on the island.

You can get here by private boat, water taxi or by using the local ferry service.

Only about 200 residents live here permanently but during the holiday season numbers swell.

The Island was bought by the Danger family in 1864 who leased some of the island  to the Union Bridge Company of Chicago while they were building the original Hawkesbury River rail bridge.

About 400 Americans and their families lived here while the bridge was being constructed between 1886-1889.

The preferred way of carting your goods around the island is by wheelbarrow

Every family has its own!

We're staying on the Brooklyn facing side of the island in Serenity on Dangar a lovely glass tree-house holiday home

No roughing it .... all the mod-cons were here

.... including a commercial-size kitchen

Then it was off to explore. A full circumnavigation takes about 1 hour and winds through bush and gardens.

on the lookout for some grub...

exotic native flowers

secret gardens

..even a rambling pumpkin patch. The locals have learnt to become self-sufficient and there are many vegie patches.

Not 100% sure but this imposing turreted mansion looks like the original Dangar family estate.

a ginger flower

A productive vegetable garden

sorry girls - nothing for you

a magnificent white spider orchid

Another native tree with extraordinary blossoms



They remind me of hula skirts

For dinner its off to the only evening eating spot - the local club. Under the whirring ceiling fans and humid night air we dine on steak and fresh grilled garfish

The next morning our water taxi is at our mooring to collect us...

And take us back to Brooklyn. It feels like we have been away for a week. That's what Danger does to you.

Edible Balcony - Late Summer Tomatoes

I'm up before the sun today to give the balcony plants a deep watering.

Early mornings are the best time to water plants because they have been transpiring (losing water) all night and are very thirsty.

Watering in the cooler morning also reduces loss of water through evaporation.

A few deep soakings are much better than many superficial waterings because the water gets right down to the bottom roots where it is needed most.

Somehow all the plants survived the recent heatwave in Sydney

In fact, as an unexpected bonus, the intense heat caused my late season tomatoes and strawberries to ripen early.

I planted cherry and grape varieties of tomatoes because you apparently don't get any white fly problems with them. And so far not a white fly in sight - only delicious, sweet, juicy marbles of fruit.

These varieties love to ramble so I needed to stake them with poles and many ties.

In this heat I've been watering them every day and every week I add a capful of tomato food to my watering can. Tomato food is a potassium rich natural fertilizer which boosts flowering and fruit yields.

..and we've been enjoying the tomatoes sliced on toast with pesto or tossed with some avocado, spanish onions, coriander and lime juice for a refreshing guacamole.

And what I'm most delighted by is that there have been no pest infestations yet. This time last year everything was covered with marauding caterpillars. Have I spoken too soon....

Better eat these strawberries before the bugs do

And these lettuce leaves might find their way into tonight's salad.

From Roof Top to Table Top

The urban food revolution took another giant leap forward late last year with the opening of a new roof top farm restaurant in New York.

For ten months of the year the Bell, Book & Candle restaurant on 10th St in Manhattan's West Village will source its greens, garbanzo beans, summer squash, lettuces, eggplants, tomatoes, broccoli and strawberries from its roof-top hydroponic farm. 

Restaurateur John Mooney is the first chef in the U.S. to grow most of his produce on a rooftop farm.

This is a CNN report on the chef and his garden from last year.

Edible Balcony update - wet, wet, wet

 Water is usually the life-blood of the living which is why it is easy to forget how deadly it can be as well. As most of the country drowns in water I should count myself extremely lucky to be high and dry on the 13th floor of my Potts Point apartment block. I do.

This rain has been quite unbelievable.

The heavens just keep opening up. It reminds me of the monsoon season in Zimbabwe where I spent much of my teenagehood. Between November and February each year we would be marooned indoors with roads cut-off and school often closed due to the deluge.

I haven't seen this much rain since then.

The plants on the balcony are getting a soaking and there's not much I can do about it. 

Only the edibles on the wall - cavolo nero, vietnamese mint, warrigal greens and sorrel - need any hand-watering

Pretty as a daisy: the feverfew has flowered.

Luckily my tomato vines are on wheels so I can move them out of the rain.

Too much water will destoy the crop.

I've already counted about 40 flower branches on the cherry and grape tomato plants.

I've transplanted my candy-striped beetroot seedlings into a grow bag.

I hope the rain and sparse sunny days won't retard their growth too much

the rhubarb is going gang-busters though

And the good ol' rocket is bushing up nicely

This ruby silverbeet is now in its third year and getting a little woody so I may put in a new plant soon

The strawberries have been down in number ....

... but super sweet

And the edible violas - both purple and yellow - may get tossed through a salad tomorrow night.

Ahhhh... here comes the rain again. The harbour has disappeared behind a grey mist. We are a country of such extremes.