I am very proud of a dear school friend who has recently published her second novel Red Dust, I haven’t read it yet, but if the reviews are anything to go by, it’s fantastic!  From humble beginnings as an Orroroo Area School student Fleur always had such a wonderful, vivid imagination and it’s great to see her living the dream.  To find out more about Fleur and her novels, please follow the link below.

Fleur McDonald — A novel life on the land.

Nature is a wonderful thing…this pair of Ringneck Parrots have made their home in the hollow of a dead gum tree, only 50 meters from our home at Moolooloo.  Each day they sneak in to eat the pomegranate seeds which are just outside our kitchen door.  I believe it is the same parrots each year, they are incredibly cheeky and most spectacular to watch. I thought you might enjoy these snaps…

Here is a sneak peak of our brand new fence!  Now you will have to come and see it for your self…it even has a gate!!!

Have you ever been to Magnetic Hill? It’s a great little spot to take the kids, just a few kilometers out of Orroroo.  Follow this link to the Flinders Ranges blog for more information.

Attractions | Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Rodney Vincent

award winning comedian from Victoria

@ Maggie’s Rendezvous

Friday 15th May, 2009

Tickets available at $25 head,  supper included.

Licensed

Bookings: Ph. 08 8658 1482

Moolooloo Shearer’s Quarters

Due to a cancellation, the Shearer’s Quarter’s are currently available during the second week of the July school holiday’s.  Check out our website or give us a call on 08 8648 4861 for more information.

Blinman Hut

We also have some availability at Blinman Hut, again, give us a call if you are interested or would like more information.

Nuccaleena Cottage, Orroroo

We currently have availability at Nuccaleena Cottage during the SA school holidays. Check out our website, or contact us on 08 8648 4861 for more information.

THAT BLOKE ‘MURPHY’!

In our December blog I mentioned we were heading to the Eyre Peninsula to plan a new trip. We were going well prepared as there was some quite remote travel and we were on our own. Well, I probably should not have mentioned that because our irregular traveling companion, one Mr Murphy, decided to pay us a visit around half way along Googs Track. For those who don’t know the area, picture yourself some 120 kilometres north of Ceduna on a remote and sandy track where only 4WDs go with a car that doesn’t go.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ingredients:

• 325gm Unsalted Butter, softened
• 120 gm Icing Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 cups of S.R. Flour
• 1 cup of Custard Powder
• Extra 125gm Butter for Icing
• Extra 1 1/2 - 2 cups of Icing Sugar for Icing
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract for Icing
• 2 tsp Wattle Seed (Wild Harvested Roasted & Ground) for Icing

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar for 5 mins. Add Honey and Cinnamon and beat for another minute.
2. Sift flour and custard powder, add to butter mixture.
3. Roll into small balls and place on lined trays. Press down with a fork.
4. Bake at 180°C for 15 to 20 mins, until just golden. Don’t over cook.
5. Transfer to wire cooling racks.
6. Beat extra butter, icing sugar, vanilla and wattle seed until creamy white.
7. When biscuits are cool, join with butter cream mix.

We sold these biscuits at our Tastes of the Outback stall, they were a huge hit. We have had many people since ask for the recipe. They really are delicious.  I made them for a Wedding recently too, so they are great for special occasions. If you don’t have ground wattle seed you can make up the butter mixture and fill the biscuits with jam and butter cream.

* We used Wild Harvested Roasted and Ground Wattle Seed by L. Dudley, Willmington, South Australia. Click here for more information. It is used as a coffee substitute and flavour for baking, ice cream.

If you didn’t get the chance to get down to our ‘Experience the Edge‘ stall, here is a picture!

We had a very successful day. We weren’t too sure what to expect as we hadn’t done anything like this before, so were very pleased with the results (as it also meant we didn’t have to negotiate fitting everything back into the car at the end of the day!).

Our most popular items of the day were our Pomegranate Cordial, Choc Coated Macadamia Quandongs, Sweet Mustard Pickles, Honey Biscuits with Wattle Seed Cream (stay tuned for Recipe), Mulberry Jam, Quince Paste and Old Fashioned Tomato Sauce.

• Nuccaleena Cottage brekkie provisions include a range of our Homemade Jams and Sauces.

There were 10 stalls scattered throughout the beautiful tree lined main street, a foodie’s delight!  From all accounts everyone had a great day.  A big well done to the organizers on a successful event !!!

Wishing you all a Safe and Happy Easter!

Towards the end of March we were lucky enough to be involved in a photo shoot for the Flinders Ranges.  This was just the incentive we needed to get down to Orroroo and catch up on all those little jobs that were beginning to mount up!

Along with general yard tidy up, some of the jobs included:

• building a retaining wall around the tank
• putting skirting boards and curtains up in the lounge room
• fixing the ceiling in the main bedroom
• replanting the poor standard roses that were only just alive into pots (relocated to the back courtyard) and planting native grass and iris’ in their place.

There were many other jobs in between, all in all a productive few days! We left feeling that we had accomplished a lot, which inspired us to make it a more regular occurrence. We already have a long list for our next maintenance visit. Stay tuned for more updates…

* Don’t forget our trading table at Tastes of the Outback *

18th April 2009, 11am - 3pm in the Main Street, Orroroo

We get many guests asking us if they can buy our homemade sauce and jams. Well this is your chance!

• Old fashioned Tomato Sauce
• Mulberry Jam
• Plum Jam
• Sweet Mustard Pickles
• Quince Paste
• Mushroom Paste
• Pomegranate & Lemon Cordial
• Chocolate Coated Macadamia Quandongs
• Marmalade
• Honey biscuits filled with wattle seed cream
• Dried Quandongs
• Pomegranates
• Pomegranate seedlings

If you can’t make it on the day and would like something in particular, please get in contact with us and we’ll see what we can do.

If you’ve stayed at Nuccaleena Cottage over the past few months you will have noticed that we are now supplying guests with a beautiful range of olive oil soaps made locally in the heart of the Clare Valley by R & J Soaps.

They smell divine and are great for your skin too! They even have an unscented soap that has been recommended by a dermatologist for dry skin and eczema.

Don’t just take our word for it, pop into The Soap Shed in Clare and see for yourself!

TASTES OF THE OUTBACK

Maggies Rendezvous

ORROROO

Friday Night Live

Friday 17^th April

7.30pm - Licensed & Supper

Limited Seats - Book Now

Tickets $20

Phone: 08 86581482 or 0427581351

Close and Intimate Night of Music and

Comedy with Golden Guitar Nominee

“John O’Dea”

Today was a busy day!  We excitedly set out this morning to set up camp along the Artimore Public Access Road to supply 80+ Variety 4WD Challenge members with lunch, tea and coffee.

Members of the Blinman Sports Club provided a tasty lunch (baguettes, roast meat & salad accompanied by homemade chutneys and sauces) followed by a bevvy of homemade cakes, scones and slices and a brew of billy tea.  Superb weather and an ideal setting topped off the day.

We hope you enjoy the snaps.

A friend sent me this earlier today and i thought it was so good that I just had to share it with you all.  Take the time to have a look…

The whisper has it that Blinman has been chosen as one of 6 Australian ‘Bush Slam’ locations for the new ABC TV/Freehand Productions series hosted by none other than HG!

“Bush Slam will feature Australia’s leading poets and lyricists.” (Media Release: Leena Thomas, 16-2-09 ABC TV Publicity).

• The series will be telecast on ABC 1 later on in the year.
• Stay tuned for more details about this very exciting event!
• For more information on Bush Slam please follow this link: Bush Slam
• This series is funded by Screen Australia and supported by the Australia Council

Sounds intriguing, right! ;P