Red Dragon Inn - Organic Ginger Beer
On June 13th I got a ride from Byron Bay to Lismore with my next WWOOF host Richard. Richard is another crazy Australian, crazy and passionate about he does and what he has to say. He wisks me away from Byron Bay and we drive about 40 minutes or so southwest of Byron Bay to Lismore where he has his factory or commercial kitchen where he makes the BEST ORGANIC GINGER BEER! Check out his website at www.reddragoninn.com.au
Lismore, NSW is 45 km southwest of Byron Bay, NSW
Kyogle, NSW is 88 km west of Byron Bay, NSW
Kyogle (Richard's farm) is 43 km nw of Lismore (Richard's kitchen)
We stay in Lismore a night and then head to Kyogle, about 45 minutes northwest, to Richard's farm, WARRA WARRA ORGANIC FARM to stay for the next 4 days.
WARRA WARRA ORGANIC FARM
We unload the car and wander into Richards great little house that he built - he felled the trees for logs for house supports and everything. We stay here and it is a bit like camping out in the woods, no power and water from the rainwater tank, the doors are always open letting the chill air in and the porch is the front room with a fabulous view of the mountains.
His 200 acre property is right next to the Borders National Park. His house is on top of a ridge, the gully down the hill is rainforest - this area is part temperate and part sub tropical rainforest - and there is not a soul in site, no lights and no other houses. One of the only sounds is the bell chimes of the Bell Minor birds that seem to be plentiful here.
This is the view from the porch - we spent a lot of time hanging out on the porch with a cup of steaming tea - I saw this view with clouds, without clouds, with stars, with yellow and pink color in the sky, with mist, with haze and with bright blinding sun - all sorts of views!
Later Richard gave me a tour of the property - a certified organic property in which he has lots of kinds of fruit, citrus and nut trees and tea trees and fresh tumeric root and fresh mugwort to sell at the markets. We took a long walk and looked at everything - me running trying to keep up with Richard as he plows through the grass and up to a tree or into a patch of flowers to pick.
This fruit was not ripe yet, but boy I wish it was - I have heard that these are so very, very yummy!
BLUE QUANDONG TREE
The quangdong trees that I was familiar with, and the fruit leather that I made earlier when closer to Adelaide - was the from red quandong trees at Lyle's house - these massive, tall and thick BLUE QUANDONG trees are very different from the little delicate looking semi-parasitic red quandong trees
LEMON SCENTED MYRTLE
organic leaves that Richard uses for tea and essential oil and lemon myrtle rosewater cordial
The Red Hot Poker flower leads the way to pick grapefruits...
Richard at home on Warra Warra Organic Farm - I think this is a great photo of him!
So funny to see magnolia flowers here, but they are in full bloom and gorgeous.
Richard showing me and picking bits of flowers -
EDIBLE FLOWERING SAGE
these flowers tasted so very good - I want to try to grow them - a bit of nectar at the white tip - and the good taste and crunch of the flower
Richard standing next to his TURMERIC plants - we spend time digging up turmeric roots to sell at the market or show in Brisbane....organic turmeric and the fresh root is so great to use!
lanterns for light in the cabin - no power and no water - just rainwater - the house is like fancy camping - no lights, no pumped water and doors doors wide open
mugwort tea steeping on the top of the wood stove
I loved chopping wood - and on this day I was chopping wood and looking up at the moon - an almost full moon - as the winter solstice is nearing.
two of the many views from the front porch...
small coffee tree near Richard's house
harvesting MUGWORT
blue harvest tarp near the mugwort through the grass - I harvested a lot of mugwort - a bunch on two different occasions - I liked doing this - feeling the warm sun and listening to the variety of bell sounds coming from the Bell Minor Birds while feeling the pop pop sounds as I stripped off the mugwort leaves from the upper stems and smelled its musky scent - it was a bit of quiet that I really enjoyed
TURMERIC
fresh turmeric has a bitter starchy taste with a bit of a kick/spice and a bit of a flowery taste
this is my little test to see about drying fresh turmeric - I was reading about how to do it in one of Richard's "old timey" books - cooking the roots on the wood stove for about 4 hours or more - and then drying - then will try grinding to powder later...
The STAGHORN ferns are everywhere here in the Border Ranges - this is the creek that we have to drive across in order to get to Richard's house - a flowing creek with beautiful smooth grey rocks and these massive staghorns hanging from the trees - massive staghorns the size of a car hood high up in the trees! The track to his house is a very raw 2k track almost too difficult to navigate- rocks, mud, earth-slides, leaning trees
Richard's Red Dragon Inn Ginger Beer van painted by a Byron Bay artist
Organic Lemon Myrtle and Rosewater Cordial that we made at the kitchen in Lismore
The delicate round ball-shaped tree on the left - view from Richard's porch - is a LEMON SCENTED TEA TREE
harvesting the leaves for tea
more of Richard's vast area of land
RAINFOREST area in the gully of Richard's land - a really magical place
in this gully Richard pointed out these edible plants to me
RAINFOREST SPINACH
the white bit around the seeds inside this wild ginger fruit is edible too - a spicy taste
rainforest spinach and wild ginger harvested for dinner
BODHI TREE on Richard's land not far from the front porch
"That the Buddha was sitting under a tree at the time of his enlightenment has come to give trees even more significance and most specifially the asiatic fig, now known to Buddhists as the Bodhi Tree [bodhi = being awake, enlightened, supreme knowledge] and universally, botanically known as ficus religiosa (Latin). Bodhi trees are commonly found growing in Buddhist centres all over the world."
from www.astralgemstonetalismans.com/Trees.html
tree we felled and debarked to use for repairing Richard's house
BLACK MULBERRY grove that we weeded and trees that we freed from the net, clipped and tied down - Richard makes a Mulberry Cordial from the berries - the berries are plentiful on the trees now, but they are still green - it is mid-winter here
I took some of the leaves from the twigs that Richard trimmed, clipped from the trees - and dried them to make a tea - the mulberry leaf tea was quite good - not sweet - just a bit like a strong green tea
headed from the farm back to the kitchen in Lismore...
washing fresh turmeric and some ginger too from the farm
making and bottling lemon myrtle and rosewater cordial
we made, bottled and labeled 4 batches of ginger beer - also juiced a whole box of fresh ginger and 7 of 11 boxes of lemons - we tasted every batch of ginger beer - and I even got to try the old bottles of ginger beer - the ones he does not sell - the 2 year or younger brew that he calls the party brew - it is good in all of its stages
we juiced 7 boxes of organic local lemons
Richard doesn't make this ginger marmalade, but we ate it sometimes in the morning on toast and it was so very good! I will definitely try to make some.
first try of a CUSTARD APPLE the Richard bought for me to try - I was admiring it at the local outdoor market in Kyogle and he got 2 for us - thank you Richard - the flesh was so very very very sweet - almost too sweet to eat - I think it would be wonderful in a frozen smoothie
DANDELION ROOT drink - from dried and roasted dandelion root
Richard had many, many books that I liked to look at - I looked through many of them and took photos of lots of the pages to take with me
sewing fabric to make MUGWORT PILLOWS to sell at the upcoming trade show in Brisbane
trying a bit of my own stuff - found a bit of fabric called SOLUBLE VILENE - that dissolves in water - and used it to sew on a bunch of scraps of fabric - something that I had heard about and had been wanting to try
bits of stringy fabric scraps sandwiched between this white fabric in order to sew - sew and sew and sew - and then run it under water and the white thin fabric dissolves away leaving a textured carpeted mat
more photos of this later....
RED DRAGON INN BOOTH AT THE MIND BODY SPIRIT SHOW IN BRISBANE
Lismore, NSW is 45 km southwest of Byron Bay, NSW
Kyogle, NSW is 88 km west of Byron Bay, NSW
Kyogle (Richard's farm) is 43 km nw of Lismore (Richard's kitchen)
We stay in Lismore a night and then head to Kyogle, about 45 minutes northwest, to Richard's farm, WARRA WARRA ORGANIC FARM to stay for the next 4 days.
WARRA WARRA ORGANIC FARM
We unload the car and wander into Richards great little house that he built - he felled the trees for logs for house supports and everything. We stay here and it is a bit like camping out in the woods, no power and water from the rainwater tank, the doors are always open letting the chill air in and the porch is the front room with a fabulous view of the mountains.
His 200 acre property is right next to the Borders National Park. His house is on top of a ridge, the gully down the hill is rainforest - this area is part temperate and part sub tropical rainforest - and there is not a soul in site, no lights and no other houses. One of the only sounds is the bell chimes of the Bell Minor birds that seem to be plentiful here.
This is the view from the porch - we spent a lot of time hanging out on the porch with a cup of steaming tea - I saw this view with clouds, without clouds, with stars, with yellow and pink color in the sky, with mist, with haze and with bright blinding sun - all sorts of views!
Later Richard gave me a tour of the property - a certified organic property in which he has lots of kinds of fruit, citrus and nut trees and tea trees and fresh tumeric root and fresh mugwort to sell at the markets. We took a long walk and looked at everything - me running trying to keep up with Richard as he plows through the grass and up to a tree or into a patch of flowers to pick.
This fruit was not ripe yet, but boy I wish it was - I have heard that these are so very, very yummy!
BLUE QUANDONG TREEThe quangdong trees that I was familiar with, and the fruit leather that I made earlier when closer to Adelaide - was the from red quandong trees at Lyle's house - these massive, tall and thick BLUE QUANDONG trees are very different from the little delicate looking semi-parasitic red quandong trees
LEMON SCENTED MYRTLEorganic leaves that Richard uses for tea and essential oil and lemon myrtle rosewater cordial
The Red Hot Poker flower leads the way to pick grapefruits...
Richard at home on Warra Warra Organic Farm - I think this is a great photo of him!
So funny to see magnolia flowers here, but they are in full bloom and gorgeous.
Richard showing me and picking bits of flowers -
EDIBLE FLOWERING SAGE
these flowers tasted so very good - I want to try to grow them - a bit of nectar at the white tip - and the good taste and crunch of the flower
Richard standing next to his TURMERIC plants - we spend time digging up turmeric roots to sell at the market or show in Brisbane....organic turmeric and the fresh root is so great to use!
lanterns for light in the cabin - no power and no water - just rainwater - the house is like fancy camping - no lights, no pumped water and doors doors wide open
mugwort tea steeping on the top of the wood stove
I loved chopping wood - and on this day I was chopping wood and looking up at the moon - an almost full moon - as the winter solstice is nearing.
two of the many views from the front porch...
small coffee tree near Richard's house
harvesting MUGWORT
blue harvest tarp near the mugwort through the grass - I harvested a lot of mugwort - a bunch on two different occasions - I liked doing this - feeling the warm sun and listening to the variety of bell sounds coming from the Bell Minor Birds while feeling the pop pop sounds as I stripped off the mugwort leaves from the upper stems and smelled its musky scent - it was a bit of quiet that I really enjoyed
TURMERIC
fresh turmeric has a bitter starchy taste with a bit of a kick/spice and a bit of a flowery taste
this is my little test to see about drying fresh turmeric - I was reading about how to do it in one of Richard's "old timey" books - cooking the roots on the wood stove for about 4 hours or more - and then drying - then will try grinding to powder later...
The STAGHORN ferns are everywhere here in the Border Ranges - this is the creek that we have to drive across in order to get to Richard's house - a flowing creek with beautiful smooth grey rocks and these massive staghorns hanging from the trees - massive staghorns the size of a car hood high up in the trees! The track to his house is a very raw 2k track almost too difficult to navigate- rocks, mud, earth-slides, leaning trees
Richard's Red Dragon Inn Ginger Beer van painted by a Byron Bay artist
Organic Lemon Myrtle and Rosewater Cordial that we made at the kitchen in Lismore
The delicate round ball-shaped tree on the left - view from Richard's porch - is a LEMON SCENTED TEA TREE
harvesting the leaves for tea
more of Richard's vast area of landRAINFOREST area in the gully of Richard's land - a really magical place
in this gully Richard pointed out these edible plants to me
RAINFOREST SPINACH
the white bit around the seeds inside this wild ginger fruit is edible too - a spicy taste 
rainforest spinach and wild ginger harvested for dinner BODHI TREE on Richard's land not far from the front porch
"That the Buddha was sitting under a tree at the time of his enlightenment has come to give trees even more significance and most specifially the asiatic fig, now known to Buddhists as the Bodhi Tree [bodhi = being awake, enlightened, supreme knowledge] and universally, botanically known as ficus religiosa (Latin). Bodhi trees are commonly found growing in Buddhist centres all over the world."from www.astralgemstonetalismans.com/Trees.html
tree we felled and debarked to use for repairing Richard's house
BLACK MULBERRY grove that we weeded and trees that we freed from the net, clipped and tied down - Richard makes a Mulberry Cordial from the berries - the berries are plentiful on the trees now, but they are still green - it is mid-winter here
I took some of the leaves from the twigs that Richard trimmed, clipped from the trees - and dried them to make a tea - the mulberry leaf tea was quite good - not sweet - just a bit like a strong green tea
headed from the farm back to the kitchen in Lismore...
washing fresh turmeric and some ginger too from the farm
making and bottling lemon myrtle and rosewater cordial
we made, bottled and labeled 4 batches of ginger beer - also juiced a whole box of fresh ginger and 7 of 11 boxes of lemons - we tasted every batch of ginger beer - and I even got to try the old bottles of ginger beer - the ones he does not sell - the 2 year or younger brew that he calls the party brew - it is good in all of its stages
we juiced 7 boxes of organic local lemonsRichard doesn't make this ginger marmalade, but we ate it sometimes in the morning on toast and it was so very good! I will definitely try to make some.
first try of a CUSTARD APPLE the Richard bought for me to try - I was admiring it at the local outdoor market in Kyogle and he got 2 for us - thank you Richard - the flesh was so very very very sweet - almost too sweet to eat - I think it would be wonderful in a frozen smoothie
DANDELION ROOT drink - from dried and roasted dandelion root
Richard had many, many books that I liked to look at - I looked through many of them and took photos of lots of the pages to take with me
sewing fabric to make MUGWORT PILLOWS to sell at the upcoming trade show in Brisbane
trying a bit of my own stuff - found a bit of fabric called SOLUBLE VILENE - that dissolves in water - and used it to sew on a bunch of scraps of fabric - something that I had heard about and had been wanting to try
bits of stringy fabric scraps sandwiched between this white fabric in order to sew - sew and sew and sew - and then run it under water and the white thin fabric dissolves away leaving a textured carpeted mat
more photos of this later....RED DRAGON INN BOOTH AT THE MIND BODY SPIRIT SHOW IN BRISBANE
