GARDENING ............... pages

Spicing up your kitchen from the home garden has been a good way of bringing the world to our door - Dr Kevin Redd shows us the way to explore food and cooking, as ERLE LEVEY reports.

Basically, people have gone from not being into gardening at all to being totally obsessed. In a very short time.”

A taste of the exotic

Plants and cooking. It’s an easy way to bring the world to our door.

Better still. Combine them.

It’s also a good way of connecting us with the outdoors when we are tending to spend more and more time indoors.

Putting edible plants and cooking together in a colourful and interesting way at the Queensland Garden Expo was self-confessed plant nerd Dr Kevin Redd.

The Kiels Mountain nursery owner and speaker at the Expo brings a wealth of knowledge gained from his travels around the world.

In his career Kevin has crossed the USA and travelled throughout South East Asia, journeyed from the Arctic Ocean to the waters of Southern Australia, and now to Queensland.

Included in his backpack is a PhD in molecular ecology as he shares his wealth of knowledge on edible gardens, growing turmeric and other rare ingredients, and having a year-round supply of home-grown healthy greens.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, he grew up in Pennsylvania where the family was always interested in gardening.

No wonder it rubbed off onto an energetic and inquisitive Kevin.

I caught up with the enigmatic, passionate and highly engaging Dr Redd at the Nambour Showgrounds, home for the past 36 years of the garden expo.

“It’s the most amazing weekend of the year,” he said. “I just absolutely love it.

“People come from everywhere, who are fascinated about plants.

“Some are new to gardening and others are seasoned, experienced people.

“They all come to learn something new … to get a new plant for their collection or enjoy the atmosphere.

“It’s been an interesting year,’’ he said, “in that people have gotten into edible plants, gotten to turn their backyard into food security.

“There’s a lot of interest in that.

“People have renovated their backyard and are looking for that jungle vibe.

“If you cannot go to Bali you bring Bali here, so they’re creating a jungle.’’

There has been an exponential increase in gardening in the past year or so, Kevin said.

“Basically, people have gone from not being into gardening at all to being totally obsessed. In a very short time.

“Talking to people I know in the nursery industry, they have had the best time in their career for selling plants. It’s going off in every sector.

“People are able to do it more than before. The indoor plant sector is really popular.

“If they are stuck at home they want plants in their office.

“People are not going away on holidays, they are making the back yard a holiday place.

“They are concerned about food - they could not buy any in the shops last year so they started to grow their own.

“Pretty well every aspect of gardening has taken off in the past year and a half.’’

Kevin and partner Tracey Nicholson have established the Sustainable Cuisine nursery on four acres at Kiels Mountain, along with a registered training office and pilates studio.

This subtropical climate allows them to grow a very wide range of plants - many of which are suited to slightly warmer or slightly cooler regions.

They have the benefit of winters that are very mild - giving tropical plants frost-free growing conditions- and summers which are not too hot-giving the more temperate and Mediterranean plants respite from humid conditions.

Having grown up in Hershie, Pennsylvania, the chocolate town of USA, he describes it as like South east Queensland in summer.

The family always had gardens, and were cooking seasonal stuff.

That fired Kevin’s passion for plants and food.

While studying marine science at the University of California he met an Australian lady in Santa Cruz, who was into cactus and agave plants.

“That was in the ‘70s. She would drink Fosters beer from big blue tins at nine o’clock in the morning but taught me all about propagating plants and nursery techniques.’’

From university Kevin put his knowledge to work at Dutch Harbour in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, set in the Bering Sea and close to some of the richest fishing in the world.

He then spent a lot of time travelling in Asia where he discovered so many different plants and how they were prepared as well as cooked.

Australia was next and he worked with the CSIRO in Hobart before moving to the University of Tasmania (UTAS) as a micro-biologist.

That included a post-ed visit to Bali to study the DNA structure of plants.

Tasmania was where he met Tracey.

Born in Brisbane, she had studied at Queensland University of Technology, then UTAS and became a senior secondary college teacher.

Yet Tracey was also establishing a registered training office - a small version of TAFE - and was into pilates.

The pilates studio was next door to a restaurant Kevin co-owned in North Hobart - Amulet.

“He’s an amazing chef,’’ Tracey said.

“Amulet was fine dining and fresh produce.

“We loved Hobart, but couldn’t do any more winters.

“I was ready for a change.

“By this time I had started a national training organisation and we looked for a good place to expand the business.

“Kevin looked for a job in a lab and we found the property at Kiels Mountain.’’

Apart from meeting Tracey, the turning point for Kevin in his life has been while working in the genetics area at UTAS.

Put simply, he helped make malted barley available at a competitive price to breweries throughout South East Asia and Australia’s emerging craft breweries.

With a PhD in molecular ecology and a research background in plant biochemistry, he was also involved in the management and conservation of marine organisms; such research as marine ecosystems with an emphasis on the southern rock lobster. That and the ecology and habitat of a threatened nocturnal bird, the Tasmanian masked owl.

UTAS had just one genetics area and while Kevin was marine-based, a fellow researcher was approached about a bio-chemistry project by a Danish company.

It was to break down a particular group of enzymes involved in the malting process from Australian barley.

The enzymes become active and starches are converted into sugar which is part of brewing.

“A lot of money was involved ... it was a skitillion-dollar business.

“To make beer you need a process called malting.

“Malting companies purchase the grain. But the cost difference between what a farmer gets paid and what the brewery buys it for, you need to add a couple of zeros.

“The Danes came to us with the proposal to see if we could provide enzymes in a way to skip the malting process entirely.

“Malting is the holy grail for a barley farmer. If you cannot get a certain process, it goes for pig food.

“Their aim was to market it throughout China and South East Asia, and to take malting out of the picture.

As such, it would create a market for second tier Australian barley.

“You are a good lab scientist,’’ Kevin was told, “and you love beer.

“Will you take it on?’’

He did, and it was amazingly successful.

“The barley grew best in South Australia and Western Australia.

“We could send it to Asia, and craft brewers.

“They wanted me to move to Western Australia.

“But we looked at each other and said: ‘Perth?’

“We decided to stay in Hobart. The property market was sky-high in Perth.’’

Kevin and Tracey bought their Kiel Mountain property in 2014.

The house was already there but the garden comprised a few rocks, a couple of lilly pillies and some native trees.

Kevin got a science lab role at a local school and Tracey established a pilates studio as well as continued to develop her training centre.

The RTO went nuts, Kevin said, so he started working as the administrator.

Now the property is four acres of bush tracks through native bush and perhaps two acres of edible plants.

Dr Kevin Redd of Sustainable Cuisine nurser y at Kiels Mountain, a guest speaker at the Queensland Garden

Expo. 243367 Rhizomes of the turmeric plant. 243367

Galangal, sometimes called Thai ginger and one the world’s super foods. Used in cooking and known to decrease inflammation. 243367

The nursery came out of that.

Kevin used his science knowledge for propagation, and his natural interest in food to provide lunch and morning tea for the training programs.

At the Queensland Garden Expo he spoke about edible plants, especially those from Asia and South America - the type you will find if you go to Thai, Indonesian or South American restaurants.

Things that are quite hard to get as ingredients but easy to grow, especially in our climate, as it is similar here to where they come from.

Turmeric is both edible and medicinal, and is touted as perhaps the most effective nutritional supplement in existence.

A member of the ginger family, it is a powerful antioxidant and has antiinflammatory properties.

“It’s hard to buy fresh,’’ Kevin said, “but is stores modestly well, and you can freeze it.

“The plant takes up little space in the garden and is dead-set easy to grow.

“It’s like a weed. Almost impossible to kill.’’

Galangal is similar, another root plant and hard to buy in the shops.

“Growing it in your own garden is so popular, especially if you like spicy foods,’’ Kevin said.

“It’s one of the world’s super foods.

“An anti-swelling plant and found in nearly all your natural remedies for arthritis and rheumatoid conditions.’’

Then there is mitsuba - Japanese parsley. A biennial herb with delicious and fresh flavour … something of a celery and parsley taste.

Most commonly used in Japanese dishes and anywhere that you would use parsley or coriander, it makes an amazing pesto, Kevin said.

“It grows well in damp and shady conditions, and will seed to ensure an even better crop next season.

“Mitsuba means ‘three leaf ’ in Japanese.

“It is very uncommon outside of Japan but loves winter here on the Sunshine Coast or Mt Tamborine.

“We call it a self-sower, as it makes a tiny flower stock then sets a bed of baby seeds around it.

“You can use it in soup, or as a garnish.’’

Bo la lot or betel leaf is a Vietnamese plant, very high in protein.

You can use it as a herb or cook with it by putting beef or pork inside the betel leaf.

The leaves increase metabolism and help reduce respiratory issues.

Rangpur lime is another plant that’s easy to grow in coastal Queensland conditions.

It comes from a breeding program in India where they put an aromatic citron and a lime together.

“It’s got juiciness and aroma,’’ Kevin said, “but an unusual orange skin.

“Bigger than a mandarin, smaller than an orange, and about the same shape as a tangello, it fruits like crazy ... and is very, very juicy.

“Still sour but aromatic.’’

You might want to save the juice for the kitchen as it makes excellent marmalade, dessert pies, sauces and glazes, and adding zest to fruit juices or cocktails.

Kevin and Tracey believe they are living the dream in Queensland.

The Sunshine Coast has a very unique climate. Different to California and more like the Caribbean, Central America or parts of South America.

As for their land, they wondered what would grow there.

“A lot of this stuff wasn’t all in one place,’’ Kevin said. “The edible ginger was in one place, tropical fruit trees at Byron Bay, and we found an old Central American cook book.

“Putting them all together was an interesting part of the journey for us.

“We started the plant nursery from plants that had been collected over a couple of years.

“People would come over and ask about them.

“We figured out how to propagate and put them together as a collection.

“It’s a good location. The south-easterly winds are the biggest problem, so we planted bamboo as a protection.

“The site is difficult … steep. But I like that, as you are always looking at something. The views.

“On days like this the cloud is just hanging in the valleys.’’

Certainly an amazing setting for a couple with wanderlust in which to write another chapter in their lives of continually learning and passing on knowledge to others.

Tracey Nicholson of Sustainable Cuisine and the burn jelly plant. 243367

Dr Kevin Redd of Sustainable Cuisine nurser y at Kiels Mountain, a guest speaker at the Queensland Garden

Expo. 243367

So, is it spring yet?

By Kevin Redd

Hello Queensland gardeners- here we are in that time between our mild winter and the brief subtropical spring. This can be a challenging time in the garden where temperatures are fluctuating between quite cool and genuinely warm and there are plenty of drying winds and relatively low rainfall to help our soil and plants to thrive.

So what should we be doing in the garden now?

First and foremost- now is a great time to get out to apply a fresh layer of mulch to both the ornamental garden as well as the food producing patch. This will supress those weeds and hold in the precious soil moisture. It’s not too hot to get out and do this job and besides- it’s ‘lockdown’ time for many of us- so do your plants a favour and give them some mulch!

What sort of mulch is best? This is a great question and it depends upon what you are growing and how easy it is to access your garden.

At our site on the Sunshine Coast with lots of edibles and lush tropical foliage plants, we are big fans of sugarcane mulch- as it is light and easy to apply. Cane mulch is produced locally in our region and many long term cane farmers in SEQ have kept their properties going by shifting to the production of this valuable material. Ask around and we’re sure you will find a local farmer who sells the big wheels or smaller bales in your area. Many of these farmers will deliver for a small fee and it’s a wonderful way to meet some primary producers and to know the person who produces your mulch.

Alternatively there are some great bagged sugarcane mulch products (check out Rocky Point) available for those with smaller gardens or for gardeners who cannot easily bring in the bigger quantities.

Sugarcane mulch breaks down relatively quickly and does a great job of supressing weeds and feeding the soil, but it’s not always the best for pathways and where neatness is important.

Time to mulch but which is the way to go? Kevin Redd chats about just what we need in this season’s column.

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