Our edible elephant ride

Our edible elephant ride

What do you do with a steep sloped piece of land that is at the mercy of creeping bamboo threatening to overgrow it completely? Build an edible elephant on it of course.

The said steep sloped piece of land is on Sydney's Northern beaches suburb of Avalon. On it sits a simple cedar kit home, with magnificent Pittwater views, where we film most of our cooking videos. Martin and I bought the property in October 2008 and for the past two years have thrashed around various ideas of how to renovate the house and tame the very overgrown garden. I am finally at peace. Who needs the upkeep and expense of a swimming pool when you can tend to a living sculpture that earns its keep by supporting you with food? That's my argument anyway and one which I won, given that Martin wasn't all embracing of the idea when I first announced my intention.

If you are someone who believes in fate then perhaps you too will see that this elephant was meant to be. Perhaps it was fate or just great fortune shining down on the well intentioned but I happened to find the very engineers who worked on the Puppy outside the Guggenheim museum: And their office is not in Bilbao, it's in North Sydney. With Michael Loke of DW Knox & Partners enlisted (and slightly amused, bemused and hopefully a little excited too) we are ready to start. The land where the elephant will stand is appropriately like a jungle, but there is a bit of clearing to do and a retaining wall to be built, near to where she (or he) will stand.