6) Another park, another Sunday

Nancy was excited to find the Sunday morning organic farmer's market just up the street in Miami, near Nobby (suburbs seem to meld quickly into one another--being only a few km in size), so that we're able to set "Ethicurean" food plans into action. (Another new word for us: Ethicurian- "food that is tasty, sustainable, organic, local and ethical".) Even though yesterday was the first day of winter, which sensibly(?) starts at the beginning of the month (rather than on the Equinox), the market appears to be flourishing. Plenty of rocket lettuce (arugula), happy chook (chicken) eggs, jicama, capsicum (bell peppers), bananas, avos and more, as well as custard apples.

The curious "custard apples" begged Dirk for a picture, but he was chastised by the Groovy New Age Herbal (pronounced with the "H") tea lady for not asking permission to take photographs of the fruits ( - steals the soul of the food... or something). We were pleased to learn that a Custard Apple" tastes "like an apple, with custard" (so the Groovy New Age Herbal lady tells us). We are eagerly awaiting its ripening to form our own opinion. If we had a blender, we would follow the Custard Apple Grower's Association website (http://www.custardapple.com.au/) tip to "put custard apple flesh in a blender and whiz for 2 seconds only, so the seeds will scoop out easily." Or perhaps we could test the assurance that "A cocktail comes alive with 400g custard apple flesh, juice of 1 lemon and 185ml gin." Whizzing and coming alive sound like fun things to do! We just love the cheeriness of everyday Aussie talk. It's difficult to hide our "charming North American" accent (they keep saying WE have an accent!), but maybe we'll get the hang of the slang sometime here.


We ambled on over to the "Green Day Out--the World Environment Day Festival" yesterday at a park in Currumbin. We learned that "World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action." We don't see any events planned in Boulder in recognition of the Day, so maybe you'll want to use your imagination to address the World Environment Day slogan for 2008, which is "Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy ." Our local festival was sponsored by GECKO, the Gold Coast & Hinterland Environment Council, a regional environmental group that Nancy may be joining up with.

There's hippies here to rival the rainbow children in Boulder, but there's evidence Australians can be Eco-friendly. We're gratified to find that recycling is "de rigeur," with every household supplied with a recycling bin, where non-sorted recyclables are collected weekly with the garbage. Furthermore, last year Australia became the first nation in the world to ban traditional light bulbs.

Among other Eco things, we learned, along with the children on the "Mangrove Walking Tour" that Pneumatophores are snorkels for the mangroves to obtain oxygen in their anaerobic soils (when covered by water in high tide, they transform into "SCUBA" tanks, we were told). Is this what we were missing, when unable to breathe, in our tabata workout?