DANIELLE Caruana, AKA Mama Kin, fell for Congo several years ago while visiting friends and even considered a move here with husband and fellow musician John Butler.
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“I can remember saying, ‘why is this so quiet and amazing and no one in the whole world knows about it?’,” the performer said.
“It was one of the most special pockets in Australia.
“It was so beautiful and wild.
“At the time we were still working out where we should live and that was one of the conversations: ‘Maybe we should go back to that awesome place’.”
The couple settled instead in Freemantle, West Australia, to be closer to family, but they would have been perfectly at home in the Eurobodalla’s vibrant gardening scene.
The singer is looking forward to her visit to gardening-savvy Moruya next month (see story Page 7).
“I just went into my garden and picked a whole lot of kale, silver beet and beetroot,” Danielle told the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner during an interview from her home recently.
“I have a raging veggie patch and the pasta we had last night was made with tomatoes from the garden,” she said.
“I have grapes in my backyard, figs, macadamia, loguet. I am harvesting red cabbage and broccoli.”
She loved involving daughter Banjo, 11, and Jahli, eight in the life of the garden and dinner table.
“We always have a celebration about eating food we have made and grown,” she said.
“Banjo is heavily into the greens, spinach and Jahli gets a big kick from being our caterpillar police.
“He picks all the caterpillars and snails off and comes and shows us his bounty.”
Danielle finds inspiration in gardening, wild places, meditating and “anything that grounds me”.
“Anything away from future thinking, that is when stuff starts bubbling for me,” she said.
“Right now I have gone to the wrong side of that balance.
“I have been busy with lots of projects and need to pull back.
“I am craving to write a song and they don’t just fall into your lap, you have to work for them.”