tropical gardeners and cooks: some useful links

By , March 27, 2010

It occurred to me that it might be helpful to other tropical home kitchen gardeners and cooks to share some of the great online resources that I tap into when researching ingredients, so here is a start to some of the sites I visit:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/

Home page for the Purdue University New Crop website which has an enormous amount of information and links, some of which are below.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/parmar/index.html

An online copy of the Indian book Wild Fruits

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

An online copy of Julia Morton’s classic reference for tropical and sub-tropical fruits, Fruits of Warm Climates

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/documents/Research/Qld-Tropical-Fruit.pdf

A downloadable PDF by the Queensland Government with a nutritional summary of a range of tropical fruit.

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/

If you have an interest in in-depth information on particular tropical food plants, both introduced and native to Australia, it is worth searching through the reports and publications produced by RIRDC.

Produce glossary

By , March 9, 2010

Scomazzon's fruit stall image Catseye Productions

I thought it might be of interest to some readers to see the main items that will be covered in the Produce Glossary of Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen. As you may already know this cookbook is the first of what will be several volumes, and in each one a new set of produce will be featured. You may also know that in the produce glossary I am focusing on featuring produce which is available in markets and quality retailers, and/or grows easily at home, but with which many people are not so familiar. One aim of Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen is to provide information that assists people to experiment or make greater use of the fantastic array of produce we have available in tropical Australia. Continue reading 'Produce glossary'»

Setting up for international distribution

By , March 8, 2010

I am loving the process of both writing and publishing Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen, but I have to say it keeps me extremely busy, hence the tardy rate of posts. I have been immersed in the process of setting up for international distribution. Online sales within Australia will be available via this website. For international customers, online sales will be available via Amazon, as that is the most cost effective avenue for customers due to the high international postage rates from Australia.

Being both author and publisher uses every diverse capacity of my brain: from the creative processes of recipe development, writing, book and web design; to the more exacting processes of recipe testing, editing, evaluating contracts, assessing supply chain and international freight options and costs, developing business structures, and doing the maths of all of these to work out the most effective options.

As well as the above mentioned business tasks I am in the process of sending recipes and text through to my editor, Ilsa Konrads.  Fortunately I am still completing some recipe testing, which provides some creative respite from the desk work I’m mostly engaged with at this stage.  When we have the final electronic copy of Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen ready to go to the printer, we will be loading some sample pages here on the website, including the index so that you can get a good sense of the scope of recipes and information included.

Pre-launch sales of Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen are now live on this website on the pre-release purchase page.

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