All My Male Readers, PLEASE TAKE NOTE!

In all men beyond the age of 40, the prostate gland begins to enlarge and continues to do so throughout the rest of a man’s life.
In about 10% of cases this enlargement will contain a cancerous element.
A PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) reading from simple blood test will indicate the possibility of prostate cancer.
Although not entirely reliable, it’s the best test currently available.
The disease can be confirmed by a biopsy.
3,000 men die in Australia every year from prostate cancer. That is equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer.
However with some 20,000 cases diagnosed every year it appears the survival rate is fairly high.
Treatment and possible cure will depend on the progress of the cancer therefore it is important to catch it early.
In my case I needed a radical prostatectomy.
My thanks to my surgeon, Dr. Phillip Brenner and his da Vinci robot, my anaesthetists and the wonderful staff at St. Vincents Private Hospital and its Clinic.
Thanks, too, to family and friends for all their love and support during this somewhat stressful time.
The good news is that, at this stage, the road to recovery looks to be a relatively short one.
Getting my dignity back may take a little longer.
But the real point of this post is to get a message to all the over 40 men out there.
Get the PSA test done on a regular basis !!!!!

A July Update

Mid winter has passed and the days are slowly getting longer.
We have begun the pruning process.
Tempranillo, Semillon and Pinot Noir have been done but the later shooting Cabernet Sauvignon can wait until the middle of August.
It was also time to repair the netting and 'close up' the blocks. A mob of kangaroos has moved into our neighbourhood and they were getting used to eating around the vines. No more guys, sorry. They like new shoots so it's time to keep them out. They have been patrolling the perimeter quite perplexed at this new development.

Grass is getting a bit light on in the paddocks so it will soon be time to start supplementary feeding of the cattle. They can work a bit harder finding feed for a few more weeks and then it will be a daily bale or two of lucerne. Luckily we did a good deal on hay earlier this year.
They have had a good season and all are looking well.
The 2011 wine is still in the tanks settling and we have been adding the required amount of sulphur on a regular basis. The wine this year is not great due to the wet weather. But knowing my neighbours, this won't matter much and it will all be drunk.
The house is getting a new roof. The storm a few years ago obviously altered the structure a bit and we had developed a few leaks. I had tried finding them but it was futile. Builder Ralph, a neighbour, came to have a look and said the only solution was a new one. So it's off with the old tiles and on with a nice new green metal one.
Our trip away this year is in the final planning stage. Plenty to look forward to.

Banksias

Some time ago I mentioned the Grevilleas that were growing in our area.

Another member of the Proteaceae family is the Banksia, named after the botanist Sir Joseph Banks who accompanied Captain James Cook on the first European exploration of the east coast of Australia back in 1770.

Australia wide there are 73 species but only 15 on the east coast. The rest are in south west Western Australia and are by far the most spectacular. Cultivation of the latter in the east is difficult as they have problems adapting to the naturally acidic soils compared to the alkaline ones of their natural habitat.

The plants range from ground covers to shrubs to large trees. Leaf shape is extremely variable as is flower shape and colour. The remaining seed case is also an attractive feature.
We have about half a dozen species growing wild in the bush around us as well as on the beach front.
Autumn and winter are the seasons the flowers are at their best.

Cleanskins

I have broached this subject before but a recent purchase rekindled my interest.
Cleanskin is a term used for bottled wine that does not carry a label or any other identifying marks.
They have been sold in Australia for a long time now but are generally more prevalent during times when there is excess wine in the Australian domestic wine market.
We have however recently had New Zealand cleanskins on our bottle shop shelves due to the over production of Sauvignon Blanc in that country.
Wineries sell cleanskins to get rid of unwanted stock while at the same time avoiding the negative consequences of discounting their existing brands.
This form of disposal often has very little to do with the quality of the wine and wine drinkers can benefit greatly by buying them.
Having said that, there is always an element of risk when purchasing cleanskins from a quality point of view.

During our trip around South Australia last year I had left my name at various wineries to be advised when specials came up.
One of those was the well known Pikes in the Clare Valley who are famous for their Riesling.
They contacted me to say they had on special many of their wines at 30% off with free delivery. For each dozen purchased, the customer had access to a dozen 2010 Clare Valley Riesling cleanskins.
I paid $18.40 a bottle for their labeled Traditional Riesling and $6.50 for the cleanskin.
The co driver and I did a comparative tasting the other night.
We both agreed they were probably the same wines or near enough to it.
We really could not tell the difference.
And there is also an 'in between' marketing ploy. Wineries have been known to produce a completely new label for a particular wine and sell it at a greatly reduced price compared to the established brand.
We think we have some of those in our wine rack too; no names, no pack drill.

The Daughter's Italy / Part 3

I always knew Positano and I would be great friends. What wasn’t there to love about it? There was the iridescent sea lapping gently against the pebbly beach, briny air caressing our faces and THE MEN. These are the men of the Amalfi coast! There is something unique about these men. They roam the shadowy corridors and steep stairways of Positano with tanned seafaring physiques that made our knees go weak with a casual “ciao bella!”. We knew we were in trouble from the get-go, but successfully managed to manoeuvre ourselves around the slick lothario’s with a smile and a quickened step.

Ms. B and I were in Positano to gossip, eat enough bread to fill a bakery, laugh from the pit of our bellies and get drunk on red wine in tumblers and stumble home arm in arm. What could be better?
After a few days of meandering through the snake and ladder like pathways of Positano, Ms. B and I decided to expand our horizons by going to Capri for the day. A stomach churning ferry ride out to the Island, complete with the mantra
“I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T/I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T”... we landed in the somewhat disappointing and glum looking Marina Grande. The blue skies that had been with us in Positano had disappeared under a cluster of clouds and it was cold and windy as we boarded our smaller boat to circumnavigate the island (I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T/ I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T).

Unfortunately due to the rough weather the Blue grotto was closed (seriously – who comes all the way from Australia to Capri and doesn’t get to see the Blue grotto? Me it seems!). Fortunately we did get to see the Green grotto (lucky for our guide... I was murderous with sea sickness by this stage (I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T/ I am AUSTRALIAN – I will not V-O-M-I-T)). The harbour couldn’t come soon enough as we disembarked the boat, green to the gills and still chanting the mantra over and over in our heads.

In typical family tradition, by the time we had made it up the heady slopes to Capri town my mind was on food. Seasickness, what seasickness?? There was no way we wanted to sit in the touristy trattorias dotted around the piazza, we wanted REAL Italian food. My trusty guidebook told us of a “secret” pizza joint (hey Lonely Planet – it’s not too secret if you published it in your guidebook is it?) that proved a little tricky to find. Apparently the restaurant had been cooking pizza for 18 generations and it involved going down various alleyways that led you to believe you were heading towards a public urinal.

After a couple of wrong turns, we finally found what we were looking for. Ms.B and I exchanged glances of “Do we/don’t we?”... I pushed her through the doorway to discover the largest living man we have ever seen! He looked like Jabba the Hut from Star Wars. Seriously. I could tell his genetic code was based on the piles of pizza the place was churning out. As we sat down Ms.B elbowed a bottle of wine towards me with a twinkle in her eye... Our host was pictured on the wine label languishing on the rocks of Capri in the sun... In just his shorts. There goes lunch we giggled.

What came out of that pizza oven in a dark and dingy alley in Capri can only be described as glorious. And believe me, I have eaten many pizzas across Italy and nothing will ever compare to this! A thin crispy base, lusciously creamy mozzarella, blood red tomato sauce and every meat an Italian butcher could find was washed down with an icy coke. Eyes glossy with desire and molten cheese hanging down our chins, I don’t think we spoke to each other for a full 15 minutes.

Ms.B and I still send each other desperate texts every once and a while with just 2 words “Pizza.. Capri...”.....

A Date Day

For a change we decided to head south for some shopping and lunch.
About an hour's drive away is the small town of Moruya which sits on the banks of the river of the same name.
The town's name comes from an Aboriginal word, mherroyah, meaning "home of the black swan". Black swans can still be to seen in the surrounding lakes and rivers.
There are a number of historic buildings preserved in the main streets of the town including the court house.

Although being the smallest of the three major towns on the Eurobodalla Shire, the council area bordering our Shoalhaven, Moruya is the administrative centre of the shire and home to the council offices and other public institutions.
Not surprisingly there is also a quilt shop.
At the mouth of the river is Moruya Heads which has a great surfing beach. The surf was very big when we were there and waves were breaking over the bar and heading up river.
There are many other unspoiled beaches to the south including Congo and Bingi as well as some others without names which are within a short drive from the town.

The town is also famous for its granite quarry.
The granite for the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons was quarried in the area. From 1925 to 1932, the Harbour Bridge works saw 250 stonemasons employed and relocated to Moruya by the contractor to produce 18,000 cubic metres of dimension stone for the bridge pylons, 173,000 blocks, and 200,000 yards of crushed stone that was used as aggregate for concrete.
During the seven years of this work, a small town of about 70 houses grew up near the quarry called Granitetown. Unfortunately despite the quarry still being in use not much remains of this historic town site today.
Moruya's other claim to fame is it is the site of our local airport albeit a pretty small one. You can just make out the runway in the above picture to the right.
The airline Regional Express, known as REX, flies mostly Saab 340B aircraft from Moruya to Sydney and Moruya to Merimbula, with connecting flights to Melbourne.

Goodbye, Old Friend.

Australians tend to keep their cars for quite a long time.
But this must be some sort of record.
Neighbour Bob has a 1987 Ford Falcon which has racked up 546,000 km (341,250 miles).
It has been relegated to a work horse for many years now, helping Bob carry his tools of trade around many rural properties as well as his rods to the beach for fishing trips.
He was aware that she was fast wearing out and his fears were confirmed during the last annual registration inspection when the mechanics said although they will pass it one more time not to bother bringing it back again.

The "Bobmobile" as it is known around here reacted to this news by developing a huge oil leak and internally destroying her power steering system.
So on Tuesday it's off to the wreckers.
There will be an appropriate wake that evening at the Tavern.
The number plates will obviously be transferred to the replacement vehicle.

Burning Off

Australia is very prone to bush fires especially during summer.
Our valley borders a national park and a state forest so we are surrounded by a potential fire hazard.
As some of my readers know, we were threatened by an out of season bush fire back in August of 2009.
To reduce the hazard, the local Rural Fire Brigade carries out 'cool burns' in the parks and forests around us to reduce the 'fuel' level during autumn and winter which is considered the low risk time.
Property owners are also encouraged to reduce fuel levels and burn fire breaks when it is safe to do so.

So Neighbour Bob and I decided to burn a fire break strip along the road bordering our properties. I had sprayed it all off with herbicide a few months before and cut down all the saplings.
This morning we had light winds and a bit of dew so we went ahead.
It all went to plan with no dramas. Bob kept guard on one side with a shovel in case any 'residents' who had been hiding there made a break for it. There were none.
I patrolled the fence line with a sprayer to put out any fence posts that caught alight.
There are plenty more of these jobs to do over the next few months. I have burn off piles ready all over the place.

Old Friends

Last week we had a quick visit from Pam and Bruce who live in Brisbane, Queensland.
I first met them in 1957 at my primary school there when we moved from Melbourne.
So I guess they are my oldest friends.
We certainly shared a great number of adventures together during our 'formative years'.
Bruce continued onto secondary school with me and became part of our surfing group.
Pam did her own thing overseas for a while but eventually came home.

We have kept in contact over the years since I moved away in 1968 and have visited one another sporadically.
Funny though that no matter how long it's been between contacts, we pick up the threads of our lives so quickly.
We had a fun day (and night) catching up on all the gossip about family, mutual friends, acquaintances and our travel adventures.
To say the wine flowed would not be an exaggeration.
And today is their 40th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations, guys!

pH Day

pH is the measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of an aqueous solution.
Pure water is neutral and has a pH of 7.0
Solutions with a pH of less than 7.0 are acidic, more than 7.0 are alkaline.
In wine production we usually work with pH levels between 3.0 and 4.0
In practice white wine should have a pH between 3.1 and 3.4 and red wines 3.3 to 3.6
Why is this so important?
From a drinking point of view, acidity accentuates the fruitiness and balance of wine.
However from a oenological point of view, the 'correct' acid levels have a bearing on the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the sulphur dioxide that is added to the wine as well as encouraging growth of desirable micro organisms, inhibiting microbial spoilage and aiding in the clarification process.

While sulphur dioxide is added to wine, it's the molecular sulphur content of the 'free portion' of that addition, as opposed to the 'bound portion', that is most affective.
The amount of molecular sulphur is dependent on acidity
Therefore simply put, the lower the pH, the more molecular sulphur is available to do its work.
Our wine region is considered 'warm' in viticultural terms.
This means the grapes ripen relatively rapidly with an associated degradation of acid.
In general all our grape juice, in particular the reds, can have a low acidity in wine terms (pH of around 3.5 to 4.0) at harvest. And pH becomes even higher during the fermentation process as well as after malolactic fermentation.
In Australia we are allowed to add acid to compensate for this.
So to get our juices and ultimately our wine to the correct pH level, tartaric acid is added. This acid is a natural acid component of the grape juice in any case.
But we need to know first what the pH of the wine is.
This is done with a pH meter.
There are some pretty sophisticated pieces of equipment around but we use a basic hand held unit.

First job is calibration. This is carried out using two commercial solutions of known pH, in our case, 4.0 and 7.0.
Once the unit is calibrated, the wines are tested.
Then, when the pH is known then, we can estimate the amount of acid to be added.
And I mean estimate.
There is no formula relating to acid addition and pH drop due to the 'buffering' capacity of wine which we wont go into here.
So it's a matter of adding acid in progressive amounts from 4 to 1 g/L until the required level is achieved. Doing a test run on a 1L sample initially will give some indication however.
The acid is dissolved into a minimum amount of water and added to the wine.
So I did this with three of the four 2011 wines as the Semillon at pH 3.4 was ok.
After a few hours or so I tested them again. And as usual they all needed more.
So the task was repeated until satisfactory levels were reached.
So what about titratable acidity (TA) I hear some of you ask.
I can say I used to do it but eventually questioned the necessity so now rely on pH (and my palate) only.

Easter 2011

To us Easter is hot cross buns on Friday and chocolate eggs and/or bunnies on Sunday.
The co driver had never seen HCBs before her travels to Australia. They are a UK thing with a bit of an interesting history.

She likes the newer chocolate chip version while I prefer the traditional spiced currant and raisin type.
They have been available in our supermarkets for months now, almost as soon as the Christmas decorations were taken down. Some bakeries produce them year round.
Sort of spoils the uniqueness of them but, hey, that's the way things are these days.

Easter is also crowded beaches, long supermarket queues and traffic snarls trying to get around and especially into town.
The big deal in town is the Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony and Easter Parade on the Sunday morning followed by Beach Games in the afternoon and finally fireworks around the harbour just after dark. There is always a range of carnival rides, displays and activities throughout the afternoon and plenty of live entertainment.
This year at home we had a female invasion.
The daughter brought down some friends she had met on her travels, one from Mexico and one from the UK.

Four to one is a bit of an unfair ratio but I survived.
Isabel made us wonderful Mexican food and Andrea kept us entertained by her amusing stories of teaching English in China over the last year or so.
Both leave for home soon. Come back to see us sometime!
And yes I know the daughter 'owes' us more Italy trip reports.
She is "getting around to it".

More Autumn Colour

Jerusalem Artichokes

Neighbour Gail, up the back, has a huge permaculture garden.
She supplies us with the freshest salad vegetables and herbs on a weekly basis.
She is also growing a few unusual things.
One, for us anyway, is Jerusalem Artichokes.
Having not come across these before we did some research on how to cook them and found out that they are a native plant of North America. The tuberous root is the part of the plant eaten.

We also read that they contain inulin which cannot be broken down by the human digestive system and this can cause flatulence.
In fact Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes as saying "which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men."
Believe us this is more than true!
Be warned!

Vintage 2011 Ends

We picked the Cabernet Sauvignon which came in at 12.1 Be' and 3.7 pH.
The fruit was in pretty good condition.
The grapes were crushed and inoculated with same Italian red wine yeast culture that was used on the other reds. French oak mini staves and MLF culture were added to the must.
Fermentation began within 12 hours.
After a week of punching down the cap four to five times a day, the wine was pressed and drained and the free run together with the pressings transferred to a stainless steel tank.
The oak staves were recovered from the marc and added back into the wine.
The marc was returned to the vineyard rows.

The wine was allowed to settle for a week and then racked off the fermentation lees. We established that MLF was complete so the wine was sulphured and egg white added to begin the fining process.
In the coming weeks and months, all the 2011 wine will be racked off their fining lees, sulphur added and in the case of the reds, pH adjusted.
The Semillon should be ready to drink by June and the reds by the end of the year.
Hopefully 2012 won't be as difficult a year, viticulturally, as this one has been.

Black Cockatoos

Everyone is pretty familiar with the Australian white or sulphur crested cockatoo. They are a favourite pet around the world. Its range extends throughout the northern and eastern part of the mainland as well as Tasmania. Its popularity as a cage bird has increased its range as these birds either escape or are released deliberately in areas where they do not already occur. The species has become a pest around urban areas where it uses its powerful bill to destroy timber decking, railings and panelling on houses. I once saw one for sale in the USA in a pet shop at a price that I estimated that sometimes I could have around half a million dollars sitting in the surrounding trees. They are particularly fond of our lemons. The black cockatoo is less well known however.

There are five species with a number on the endangered list eg. the red tailed black cockatoo. We have visits from the yellow tailed black cockatoo which is a pretty large bird and is easily identified by its mostly black plumage with most body feathers edged with yellow. It has a yellow cheek patch and yellow panels on the tail.
They love to eat the new pine cones from our huge radiata pine growing beside the guest house. They have a distinctive mournful call and fly about in flocks of around ten or so. They always remind me of a squadron of Lancaster bombers, with their slow cumbersome flight.
When they descend upon our tree there is always some chaos. Lots of noisy screeching and squabbling over the cones and a definite lack of table manners as they drop the half eaten fruit onto the metal roof.
Sometimes it sounds like a machine gun going off.

Jude's Jelly

The Lilly Pilly (Syzygium sp.) is a genus of rain forest trees growing in Australia and South East Asia. They come in all sizes and have been adapted well to cultivation and are seen in a lot of gardens and as street trees.
Most have dark green glossy foliage with red to bronze coloured new growth and lots of colourful flowers in summer and eventually small round fruit in bunches during autumn.
We have them growing in profusion, wild, along our creek banks. Ours usually have bunches of white fruit. What this exact species is, is hard to say.
One of our ex neighbours planted many of these trees (species again not known) around his property boundary.

This year due to all the rain they have fruited prolifically. Huge bunches of purple berries are weighing down the trees.
We 'oldies' in the neighbourhood realized what a bounty this was.
So neighbour Judy was out collecting them to make Lilly Pilly jelly.
And how delicious is it!
Took me back to my childhood as we had a tree growing in our backyard and my mother always made jelly from the fruit.

I guess this brings up the jam/jelly/jello language issue.
Jam to us is any fruit boiled up with water and sugar and allowed to set, then eaten on bread or toast ie. the USA jelly. Also sometimes called conserve here while the result of this process with citrus fruit is called marmalade.
Jelly to Australians is first and foremost the dessert made from flavoured gelatin ie. the USA jello.
Another jelly to Australians is jam that has been strained through a cloth during the cooking process which produces a clear fruit spread eg. Jude’s great Lilly Pilly jelly.

A Nocturnal Visitor

When you are being lazy and not taking the garbage and recycling to the bin, expect to have an alternative clean up service arrive during the night to help out. In this case it was a brush tailed possum. He/she showed no fear. Guess the taste of a week old rye bread crust was just too good to resist. There are lots of these little guys living around us. We just have to make sure they don't find their way into our roof space during the winter. One took up residence in the top of the chimney of the guest house one year and was not happy at being physically removed. I now have a spare pair of thick leather elbow length gloves should anyone want to try this.

Fish, Milk, Eggs and Nuts in Wine?

For those that bother to look closely at wine labels, it may be a surprise to see sometimes written there in the small print 'may contain traces of fish, egg, milk and nut products'.
What's this all about?
Newly fermented wine contains a lot of solid material in suspension. This can settle out naturally but will generally take a long time. To make the process quicker a process called 'fining' is used.
Fining means the addition of either natural or synthetic materials to wine to clarify and stabilize it. Particles in suspension are carried down with the fining agent to form a deposit on the bottom of the holding vessel, in our case a tank. The clarified wine is then racked (decanted) off this layer.
Historically, a wide variety of agents have been used for fining eg. ox blood, egg whites, milk casein, fish bladders, horse gelatins, seaweed, clay and others. In fact, almost any protein will work to some extent by binding to other proteins and forming the solid deposits.
During the prebottling filtering stage most of the remnants of these fining agents are removed but minute quantities can remain. In this litigious age however, wine companies will put a warning on their labels to cover themselves.
Here we use bentonite, a special clay, to fine white wine. Not only does it aid in clarifying the wine but it also removes heat unstable proteins which can cause hazes in the finished bottled wine. We make up a water slurry of the material based on 0.8g/L wine and add it to the ferment.
I guess this clay is not an allergen so it's never mentioned on labels.
For fining red wine we use egg white which is carefully mixed into a solution with water and a little salt which helps dissolve the protein. One egg white/200L wine seems to do the trick. The yokes we use in omelettes.
Other wineries in the area use milk to clarify their white wines. Here it is the casein content that does the work.
Isinglass is made from the swim bladders of certain fish and is also used to fine white wines.
So what about nut products?
This was new to me also.
It is allowed to add tannin to wine, predominantly reds, that are lacking it. Tannins come from the grape skins (and seeds and stalks) as well as the oak and give that dry puckering feeling in the mouth after swallowing red wine. They are an important component as they help give the wine structure and texture. Most tannin products used in the industry are grape derived but some are indeed tree nut derived eg. chestnuts.
Hence the allergen warning for the latter, not the former.