Bronwyn Halbisch's Turkish-inspired garden in Pearce grows eggplant, olives and many herbs

Bronwyn Halbisch is an active volunteer and member of the Friends of the National Arboretum Canberra and she co-ordinates the newly established Harvesting Group that recently harvested fresh figs, dried others and made conserves.

As passionate food lover she grows, harvests, barters and cooks as well as belonging to the Food & Wine Watchers, a subgroup of Weston Creek Ladies Probus Club, and she travels overseas for culinary experiences.

Last May, Bronwyn toured in Turkey and attended a country village lunch at Ayvali outside Cappadocia. Her group visited a traditional stone house of a country woman where honey was produced in the family's beehives, fresh eggs from their chickens and a variety of organic fruit, vegetables and spices was grown in the kitchen garden. The owner prepared dishes in her kitchen and a highlight was the main course of stuffed eggplant (recipe follows). Bronwyn brought home their book, Cappadocia Home Cooking Secret Recipes and she has made the eggplant dish several times for dinner parties with great results.

During a day spent at Istanbul Cooking School, owner Oguz took a small group through a market off Istiklal, explaining Turkish fare, the fish, meat, vegies, history of Turkish delight and spices. Back at the cooking school they cooked and ate together and, in Canberra, Bronwyn has made Oguz's chickpea and tahini hummus and spiced burghul many times. In Istanbul she also went on the six-hour Culinary Backstreets tour. This writer experienced their wonderful "two markets, two continents" tour last August, suggested to me by Canberran Susan Bennett, and it included a walk through a community kitchen garden in the suburb of Kuzguncuk.

Bronwyn Halbisch was raised on a sheep/wheat farm at Kockibitoo, 75 kilometres south-west of Wagga. The family had a second farm 10 kilometres away, on the Murrumbidgee river flats at Ganmurra with a Hereford stud, lucerne and high ground where hay was stored in a shed.

At Kockibitoo they were self-sufficient, growing all vegetables and fruit and keeping a cow for milk, chooks and sometimes pigs. The staple was lamb, which was killed by Bronwyn's dad, plus a bonus chook for Easter Sunday and Christmas. In the kitchen garden they grew root crops, greens and berries and there was an orchard filled with stone fruits, quinces and citrus. Bronwyn helped her father at harvest time, being the "man" he needed rather than bringing in extra workers; she sewed wheat bags quickly and could throw the full bags onto the truck.

Her cooking interest materialised when she shared flats in Sydney where she kept a herb garden, in London in the 1970s and travelling in a Land Rover through Europe with a group of camping pals. She was always "the cook" and could make something out of nothing.

In 1983 she moved to Canberra and a townhouse in Pearce. In three small courtyards there are varieties of thyme, chillies, lemongrass, eggplant, crinkly lettuce, rocket and a huge pot of Vietnamese mint for laksa. A spreading Meyer lemon tree is covered in fruit, as is a cumquat tree, there are two olive trees and garlic has been planted for summer harvesting.

Basil and parsley crops have been turned into jars of darkest green pesto with pine nuts from the Cedars of Lebanon shop in Mawson, the source of Bronwyn's Turkish Aci Biber Salcasi (hot pepper paste) and pomegranate molasses, sumac and turmeric. Pine nuts are also used in her Turkish semolina halva while smashed walnuts are added to a Turkish Circassian chicken dish. The food is served in colourful bowls bought in Cappadocia.

After staying in Bermagui last month, Bronwyn came home through Moruya to attend the Tuesday Sage Markets which start at 3pm. That was the source of fish, mushrooms, radishes grown quickly to a huge size that were sweet enough to eat like an apple, and wonderful parsnips with which she made spiced parsnip soup for friends for dinner. Quinces are pickled to a recipe from Maggie Beer with white-wine vinegar, cloves and black peppercorns. Garlic bulbils or "seeds" from the markets in Braidwood's National Theatre are sprinkled on steamed vegetables.

Eggplant stuffed with tomato

6 eggplants (1200g)

3 big tomatoes (600g), peeled and diced

1 big onion. sliced into semicircles

3 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 green pepper, finely diced

2 sugar cubes

1 handful parsley

Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel eggplants completely and leave them to soak in salty water for 30 minutes to remove bitter taste. Remove from the water, rinse and dry well. Pierce eggplants several times with a fork and place on a baking tray. Brush eggplants with two tbsp olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Prepare stuffing: fry onion with one tbsp olive oil, turn onions until golden in colour. Then add green pepper, sugar cubes, tomatoes, garlic and salt. Cook for 10 minutes. Before turning off the heat, add finely chopped parsley and stir well. Remove eggplants from oven and place into a Pyrex dish. Remove the white part of each eggplant. Stuff tomato mixture into eggplants. Pour liquid remaining from stuffing over eggplants. Place dish in preheated 170C oven and cook for 40 minutes.