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 It is felicitous that Vicki Berry grows berries, including blackberry, loganberry and silvanberry.
Her mini orchard also contains two plum trees, an apricot and nectarine tree, limes and lemons, a pair of kiwi fruit vines and two grapevines, a sultana (which is her favourite), and a white muscat (which is her husband's favourite).
Originally from Adelaide, Berry's love of gardening and growing fruit and vegetables came from her mother.
"She made me weed the garden but encouraged me to eat vegetables and fruit particularly peaches and almonds from trees in our backyard orchard."
Berry studied horticulture at Weston CIT just as an interest but discovered her passion and changed occupation from teacher to horticulturist.
Currently Berry is Australian Horticulturist of the Year and she can be heard on the 2CC garden show on weekend mornings from 7-9am where she took over from David Young on his retirement.
Berry is managing director of Easycare Landscapes in Pialligo, so named because she believes gardens can, and should be, easy to maintain and fun to be in. Her clients have an increased interest in growing vegetables on a small scale that requires little in the way of sprays and time.
At home, Berry grows tomatoes, carrots, corn, lettuce, silverbeet, zucchini, squash, Queensland blue and butternut pumpkins, potatoes, beans, asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes. The beds are mulched heavily with lucerne bales when the weather warms up. Leaves, kitchen scraps, weeds and shredded paper are composted and combined with what is cleaned out from the chook shed. The Berrys have three chooks.
"All my family are keen cooks," she says. "My son, Michael Berry, is an apprentice chef at The Boathouse in his last year and he is constantly making up new and delicious recipes. They are fantastic. Recently he cooked up a degustation of eight courses, every dish his own recipe."
"Michael created the recipe which follows as an entree but we use it as a main meal for the family. For guests it is great as it looks good and can be made ahead of time. I vary the amounts depending on the size of the mushrooms and whether it is to be served as a main or entree."
Berry Collects field mushrooms around Canberra and her husband, a scientist, checks that they are non-poisonous varieties before they are cooked. The parsley in the recipe is grown and shared by neighbours in a central bed in the street where she lives.
MICHAEL'S CHILLI AND APRICOT STUFFED FIELD MUSHROOMS
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Serves 6 (as an entree)
INGREDIENTS
6 large field mushrooms
500g Australian Fetta cheese
2 small red chillies (hot), split in half and deseeded
30 dried apricots
12 Kalamata olives, pitted
1/4 bunch parsley
100ml olive oil
salt and pepper to taste |
METHOD
Remove mushroom stalks. Wipe out mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove any dirt. Crumble fetta into a mixing bowl. Thinly slice chillies, chop apricots, olives and parsley and add to mixing bowl.
Add olive oil and combine until the mixture forms a thick paste.
Season to taste.
Stuff each of the mushrooms with one-sixth of the mixture.
Bake in a 180C oven until mushrooms are soft and the mixture is golden brown (approx 15-20 minutes). |
(This article by Susan Parsons, appeared in the The Canberra Times on 22 November 2006) |
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