Festival of the Olive

The image on the right is my amazing African Violet in the special plastic pot for such plants.
TODAY'S PROGRAM 2RRR 88.5 FM Saturdays 12noon-1pm
After interviewing the head gardener, Dave Grey, of Historic Houses Trust, we headed of to Elizabeth Farm for some olive tasting. I've decided the olive growing in Sydney is frought with problems. Best to buy fresh from local produce markets, but if you want to give it a go, here's that recipe.
By the way, the oldest olive tree in Elixabeth farm is actually dead, but has resprouted. The 500 cuttings taken from the tree to try and preserve the genetic link only resulted in 2 surviving. One was planted at Elizabeth Farm, and the other at Vaucluse House in the kitchen garden.
The recipe for olives in Brine is
Make a slit in each olive or crack each one open carefully with a wooden mallet.
•Put the olives in a large bowl and cover with water.
•Change the water daily for two weeks to extract the bitterness and make the olives "sweet".
•After 14 days, drain the olives and place in a solution of brine made with 100g salt/1 litre water for every kilo of olives - leave for 2 days.
•Drain again and place in a solution of vinegar and water made with 1 part water to 4 parts vinegar for a further two days.
•Finally, drain the olives again and store them in olive oil and herbs of your choice OR a mix of 3 parts brine (made as above) to 1 part vinegar covered with a layer of oil
The other topic on the show was growing Bromeliads. Ken from the Bromeliad Society gives tips on how not to kill the plants. DON'T OVERWATER. The next Bromeliad show is not till April in 2010!
But they have monthly meetings, 2nd Tuesday of every month, so why not join?
http://www.bromsocnsw.org.au/

Plant of the week is the rose. Next week is top 5 roses.

Rose Spray recipe:
3 tsps Bi-Carb Soda
2 Tablespoons horticultural oil.
4 and 1/2 litres of water.
Mix and spray fortnightly on roses to prevent black spot and powdery mildew.