Plantswap revisited and revamped

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4.90 avg. rating (98% score) - 10 votes

Plantswap revisited and revamped – Like the title says, and after spending over 12 months of my own personal time and finance, I have finally revamped the Plantswap website. It is now bigger and better than ever before! Well, not really bigger, or at least not until people start using it and posting photos of plants they are looking to buy, looking for free, want to get rid of, or want to sell.

I have added some new functionality and a lick of paint.

  • Members can now add photos of their plants and a map marker of the location of the plant on the map of Australia.
  • To maintain privacy, users can now post their plants by suburb only (rather than having the full address or personal details showing), and communication is all done through an internal messaging app – so their email address is safe.
  • New social interaction functionality has been introduced including member profile (you can upload photos of your garden), following of members, internal messaging, ratings of plant Ads, Member reviews and Badge system.
  • The map of Australia shows member’s plants and the location of the plant.
  • You can search for plants by category, location, or plant name.
Plantswap - For plantlovers and greenthumbers.

Plantswap – For plantlovers and greenthumbers. Australia’s first, free online website dedicated to plantswapping.

 

Plantswap member profile to show off your goodies, and talk a little bit about yourself.

Plantswap member profile to show off your goodies, and talk a little bit about yourself.

Plantswapping is easy!

Adding a new plant advertisement on Plantswap is straight forward and easy.

West End Bakery – A real taste of France

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4.80 avg. rating (96% score) - 15 votes

West End Bakery – A real taste of France

West End Bakery – A real taste of France has finally arrived in Brisbane! My good friend Frédéric Bossenmeyer and his father Didier are 3rd and 2nd generation pastry chefs and bakers respectively from Strasbourg, France. Together they are owners/operators of the West End Bakery and Oxford Street Bakery (Bulimba) both located in the heart of West End and Oxford Street. Fred’s grandfather, Pierre Bossenmeyer, was first generation pastry chef and baker and ran the original family business from 1949 to 1990. Fred and his father share over 53 years experience working in boulangeries (bakeries) in France and Australia.

You don’t need to be a genius to work out that Fred is passionate about fine patisserie, decadent cakes and classic, rustic breads. This aficionado, eats, lives and sleeps handcrafted bakery goodies. Since his early childhood, he dreamt of owning his own shop when he saw his dad and grand-dad working at the family bakery. He started his apprenticeship back in 2002 in France and has since worked in the best bakeries around Brisbane.

Fast forward to 2015 – Fred now takes great pride in serving some of Brisbane’s finest cakes, patisseries and breads. You only need to see the attention to detail, and taste the delights that come out of their bakery to understand that you are being taken back to another place and time.

They are also the proud owners of an authentic French Bongard gas oven and make the most authentic French artisanal baguettes in Brisbane – all handmade the traditional way, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Check out the photos and see for yourselves! Oh, he even uses flour imported from France!

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West End Bakery

2/163 Boundary St,
West End QLD 4101
(07) 3844 6261

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Oxford Street Bakery

153 Oxford Street,
Bulimba, Brisbane, QLD
(07) 3399 2018
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Grill on wheels

Grill on wheels

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4.93 avg. rating (98% score) - 14 votes

Grill on wheels

Grill on wheels – if you Google these words, you’ll probably end up seeing some hotted up cars with big fat “grills” and massive shiny rims. If that’s what you were looking for, then I congratulate you.

On the other hand, if you were looking for something to roast meat on, that has a certain level of mobility then you probably ended up here.

The grill on wheels was an idea that came to me after I made a grill for the WFO that I used for roasting a pig in the WFO. When I pushed the grill into the oven, it scratched the surface of the bricks and made my teeth grind at the same time. So I came up with this simple idea to easily insert and extract the grill from the wood fired oven.

The wheels are made from solid steel flat bar that I cut into squares, then transformed into circles. They are attached to the grill by bolts that were welded to the grill’s ‘feet’. If you have mild steel square bar (10mm x 10mm), some flat 10mm x 75mm bar and 4 M10 nuts and bolts (and know how to weld), then the grill on wheels concept is quite easy to put together. Here are some photos showing the build process  and then the grill on wheels put into action. I certainly hope you enjoy these, as much as I enjoyed eating the Peruvian charcoal chicken that came out of the oven!

Cut flat bar into squares 75mm x 75mm – transform squares into octagons.
Transform octagons into circles
Drill 10.5mm hole into circles
Prepare grill for MIG welding
Weld the M10 bolts to the grill’s feet”
Opposite view…
4 x M10 bolts welded and wheels fastened
Place grill on wheels at same surface as oven
Front view – make sure the grill is clean
Place the chicken on the grill
Note: Oven already hot – about 120 degrees Celsius.
Push grill on wheels into the oven. Note – stainless tray has hot coals inside.
Note the tray under the grill on wheels is full of red hot coals.
Grill on wheels – the chicken is ready!

Propagating Gracilis Bamboo by Division – 102

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4.68 avg. rating (93% score) - 19 votes

Propagating Gracilis Bamboo by Division – 102

Propagating Gracilis bamboo by division is much, much easier than from cuttings. I’ve had mixed results with bamboo propagation via cuttings, but one thing is for sure, the technique outlined below is fool-proof.

Here are a few guidelines that have worked for me that I’d like to share with you.

1) Larger bamboo culms do not work as well as smaller ones. I use Gracilis culms that have the diameter of a pencil.
2) Make sure the culm has a few nodes (3 or more is good).
3) When you dig up the culms, make sure the rhyzome and roots are still attached.
4) In the photos below, I have two culms and a new shoot growing off the rhyzome.
5) Keep the rhyzome wet and work quickly. Don’t leave it out in the sun to dry out.
6) Cut the culm where it is attached to the parent rhyzome, but make sure it has roots attached!
7)  Water new plant in and keep the soil damp (but not water logged)

Choose pencil size culms.
Make sure you dig up the rhyzome and roots carefully.
Young Gracilis culms and rhyzome still attached.
After the soil is washed off, the rhyzome and root system is exposed for division..
Propagating Gracilis bamboo by division
Make the cut using sharp secateurs.
New culm and root system attached
Parent rhyzome with other culm
Two new Gracilis plants propagated by division
Young Bambusa Textilis Gracilis

Progpagating Gracilis bamboo by division is quite straight forward and easy, Just be careful and gentle with the fragile young culms.

I’ll update this post with more photos as the new culms grow. These were taken on the weekend of the 25th of January 2015.

Giving the pig some TLC

How to roast a pork in a wood fired oven

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4.77 avg. rating (95% score) - 22 votes

How to roast a pork in a wood fired oven

How to roast a pork in a wood fired oven you ask? Well this was my first attempt at roasting a pork in my wood fired pizza oven. I had seen pork cooked in a bakery oven in Cuba previously and I had cooked a few pigs on the spit but never in my pizza oven.

I have to admit, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but it came out pretty damn good!

I do have a few guidelines that I’d like to share with you, this is based on my personal experience and on articles I read on other websites.

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