Sardines on toast, flinders island style

We tried for flounder tonight, seeing as it was Clare's last real chance at it. No luck at all - we didn't see one. We saw any number of fat toby/puffer-fish (tetrodontidae) AKA 'fugu'. No I was not tempted. Not even slightly. However Clare proved a dab hand with tennis strokes and the 'girly net' (it's mine - sort of orangey pink. matches my eyes) and the garfish and so we ended up with six of those - sardines on toast, Flinders Island style, when we got home. It was still quite something to be out there in dark looking through the ripple.

We also hit our first wild animal - a wombat, that I had to kill. Rather grim, but I'm not a believer in just leaving anything to die in pain. We were going quite slowly about 40km/h and carefully, but it was so sudden and unlucky I think, as there appeared no damage to the Ute(and they're infamous for inflicting damage). We did see and avoid about 30 roos and another wombat.

We had lunch visitors - friends who have kindly lent us a printer so I can get this manuscript printed, seeing as so far I failed to get HP cartiges for my very basic everyone has one HP printer. And no, they say they can't refil either. So we'll have to get a cartridge out from SA. Anyway, we found some gluten free flour (friend is gluten intolerant) and made pumpkin fritters and flathead and squid and oysters for our guests. Oh and chocolate bread and for dessert ginger icecream Clare had made with Tasmanian Sauce Company chocolate sauce - seriously yum. Then Clare went to practice on the church piano and I did some work before our night jaunt. Someone was chatting at the Scottish dancing last night, and was taken aback by the fact that I spend most of my time working. They had the idea that we foraged and and tended veggies 24/7 just to stay alive. I guess we're lucky in that the sea is bountiful here and we have some idea what to harvest - not that I wouldn't like to spend more time doing it, but we actually do well out of an hour or two every two days. We're steadily meeting more people. It's odd, but in some ways we have more of a social life here than we did out Finnegan's Wake (and I can't say I felt that isolated there), where we spent nearly 8 years. I suppose we're nearer 'town' (well, Whitemark - pop. 170 IIRC)-- or maybe people are just more outgoing here. That was not what I was led to expect. In fact some South Africans said it would be 10 years before an Australian invited us into their home. Hmm. Maybe in big cities or with people who don't try to fit in?

The fruits of someone else's labours

I've always had a big thing about catching my own fish, but as a learning curve this present from Jeremy (a local commercial seine netter and a good bloke who I met on the self-sufficiency community garden thing) does show me how it could be done.



From left to right that's mullet (mulgil cephalis, I think), garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir) (2) 3 More mullet, Australian Salmon (Arripis trutta) (2) and yellowtail (Seriola lalandi (3) The Austalian Salmon and Yellowtail weigh about a kilogram each, in the round. You can see the freshness of these - barely a couple of hours out of the water. The eyes are bright and the gills were still deep, dark red.

On the board is a 'vlekked' mullet (gutted through the back to leave the belly intact for barbeque). Most of the islanders regard mullet and salmon barely fit for crayfish pot bait. Mind you they do like a bit of variety with their fish. They eat flathead, fried AND grilled. And if they feel like a change, there is flathead. As Mike (the local dive-master who was helping John put the new wood-burning heater in who is one of the most knowledgable people about fish and marine matters on the island) said there is also flake. And flathead. Trust me, the flathead is GOOD, and extremely so, but if, like us, you're eating seafood 28 days a month, variety is also good. And the tastes are different. Maybe not as good as flathead :-), but I hot-smoked a fillet of mullet then and there, and Mike did pronouce it edible (if not as good as flathead). John-boy would have eaten the lot and the table-top too if he hadn't been minding his manners. He said I done good with that. Much better than smoked mutton-bird!

Nice but nubbly

'He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate..." (How the whale got his throat, Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling)

I'm beginning to think we'd better carefully avoid catching any shipwrecked mariners, because they might interfere with our slowly expanding fishy diet (besides any other considerations like morality or the fact that we are not whales). The garfish were good eating (I can see myself venturing on sea-cucumber which is somewhat related to starfish - but that as close as I'm going to rhyming our diet.) with a flavour like but more delicate than fresh sardine. I can see why they're good bait and I can see why they are listed as medium priced (and flathead is listed as low-medium priced, and flounder high priced BTW). They'd be very good on a charcoal barbeque, and probably brilliant in in the Venetian Sarde in saor (a mild vinegar marianaded pickled fish dish). I was saying to B last night that we now have an increasing range of 'like very much' fish (Silver Trevally, Flounder, flathead, garfish) we catch ourselves, which are all quite unlike each other (as different as pork,lamb, and beef are IMO). There are also the wrasse and Leatherjackets which come under the heading of 'edible if disguised' and pike which is edible if smoked and disguised. We haven't yet been severly affected by seasonality (except we havén't had sea-pike for a while. I can't say that upsets me much) and the spiny lobster season will close soon (and I haven't yet found them in a place I can dive from the shore without tanks/ hookah). Our diet is actually very varied - OK long on certain things like spinach and potatoes, but it is probably 10 days before we eat the same principal protein twice, let alone cooked in the same way. I am trying to see we eat some form of red meat at least every 10 days. It's bound to change with the seasons - I really need to get some crayfish (spiny lobster) before it is too late and also catch more shrimps, some prawns and some crab that isn't just fit for soup. I've also heard there are razor-fish (a kind of shellfish) and we haven't got any octopus or cuttlefish yet. I'm hoping there is a seasonality to these and that's why we haven't. We're gradually moving (except wheat, sugar and vegetable oil products) - on a diet that almost all comes from the island... except milk (and the little cheese we eat) which of course is shipped in! Well, I am not prepared to make life too miserable so wheat, oil, sugar, coffee, tea chocolate and milk and cheese will just have to wait.

I like eating locally and seasonally - but I think I like coffee more. I'm going to stick with pragmatism on this. Pragmatism and coffee. And chocolate. Life without that would be very nubbly :-(.

Red-handed

Inge caught me red-handed. It happens when you pickle small beetroot and get visitors :-) (not what you were expecting was it?). The cucumbers are starting to die and so we harvested what we could and made pickles out of them and small beetroot - starting to prep for the next invasion (my boys - who can eat enough to put locusts to shame. Last-night's power-failure fishing produced these - with B holding the light and me making sort of frantic grabs with the little line basket from my sea-fly casting kit as we don't have a soft fine mesh scoop net yet. This is a very shallow little thing and the garfish were seriously un-impressed with it. The average attempt -- and I think there were about 7 attempts -- went something like this "Keep the light on him B!"
"There he goes!"
"Got.... B#$@$!"
"Try from the side instead"
"Got him! Oh B%$#%%!" as the garfish acrobatically leaps over the top and piroettes away into the black corduroy of a rather bumpy ocean.


Anyway sheer persistance paid off and we got three - and some squid. The squid took some seeing as they blend themselves with the background. All you see are baleful green eyes. We also chased two flathead half way across the ocean. They're a lot less inclined to stay still and rely on camoflage.

We were alone out there last night (the sensible experienced blokes having gone to bed) and it eerie, scary and beautiful. The value of no common sense was about 4 feeds and the biggest flounder I have seen - too big for my pan, I reckon - I'll have to grill it on the barbeque. Shows why I have no common sense (and that's my story and I am sticking to it).

Barbs collected our chainsaw today and we were remined once again of the folly of buying off a catalogue - it was expensive for size compared to the Stihl and... a lot smaller than we thought. A lot smaller than our old one and probably too small for planking which was our possible use besides firewood. However it does cut very well, and is very light. We have about one and half ute-loads of firewood ready now -- Only another 3 and half to go... We also paid for the Ute service and new radiator thermostat... nearly died of shock. We're probably more used SA prices which I always found hard to swallow... This was not the time to notice the newly serviced and sorted and checked ute was leaking green fluid (and it is a blue slug, not a squashed cabbage caterpillar). I expect people to tighten hoses properly even when I am not paying through the nose. Methinks we might try the Lady Barron alternative, before horror of horrors I face working on it myself. I've done so before but really I have better things to do with my time. I'm not one of these blokes that goes all gooey at the sight of oil. I'd rather fish, write, cook...