Winter in suburbia

There are only four days remaining before my very first semester at uni is officially over. These last few months seem to have surged by at an unimaginable speed. My old life ended just yesterday but already it's almost incomprehensible to envision returning to the past.

For a short while I considered picking up work during the semester break or volunteering at a permaculture institute somewhere far away (Patagonia perhaps?) but heck.. I like being able to sleep in on weekdays and maybe I might actually be able to fix my bike and get through the pile of books that I've amassed on food security, vermiculture, manure and biodynamic principles.

An edible garden is such a beautiful thing. What was once an unassuming corner of the front yard has become an invaluable place to wander through when work becomes overwhelming, when I need to refocus, take my mind off all of the many things require urgent attention or are ridiculously stressful ..like cramming 32 chapters of biology for my final exam on Tuesday morning, or trying to forget that I almost died when an old bat tried to run me over at a pedestrian crossing in full daylight. 

There is an immense satisfaction in knowing that my hands have created something that will provide endless pleasure from the ingredients that can be plucked at a whim only a few steps from the front door. Even in the dead of winter there are herbs flowing from every crevice, rhubarb sending out crimson red stalks, chillies so heavily laden that their lanky limbs are almost pressed to the ground, and a myriad of insects that are just waiting to be poked and prodded with mild bemusement.

I invited some new additions into the garden this month - sour morello cherry, gooseberry, marionberry and blueberry. They're not giving away any clues as to how they're doing (I suppose they've all hit their dormant state). Around them, garlic cloves are shooting, elderflower buds are bursting, basil flowers are setting seed, purple cabbages are growing at a snail's pace, giant yukomo snow peas are attempting to topple their bamboo trellis and a single spud is hopefully making its way to my letterbox all the way from Melbourne.

Milkwood Permaculture will be running a mushroom growing workshop later this month at Alexandria Park Community Centre which I'm looking forward to. I can't wait actually. I love mushrooms grilled with garlic butter and herbs or combined with snails and puff pastry in an escargot en croute. Learning how to grow exotic mushrooms at home under the bed will be another awesome project to attempt once this final exam is over and done with.

Hmm who knows.. Maybe all this crap I'm learning about dikaryotic mycelium and pilobolus sporangia will actually come in handy...



Living with bees

It's strange to think that winter is almost here. I'm secretly still hoping for summer to wake me up one morning and take me by surprise. Locked away in a sweaty restaurant kitchen, I think I somehow let the entire season pass by without realising and already we're nearing the end of another chilly Sydney autumn. Rust-coloured leaves are collecting underfoot and bees are getting ready to hunker down in their hives until spring.

I can't wait for spring. This year could be the one to welcome bees into the backyard! I finally made it to the natural beekeeping course run by Milkwood Permaculture in Alexandria, Sydney over a weekend with Tim Malfroy. Backyard beekeeping looks like a challenge but one that I think I'm ready for!

For Primary Production I had to choose an Australian agricultural industry and write a report about current issues and how it relates to the larger industry on a global scale. Having read a few articles about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) leading to mysterious disappearances and endemic rate of bee deaths worldwide, my topic of choice was an almost instantaneous decision.

Imagine a world without bees. 80 percent of all flowering plants rely on insect pollination of which bees play an integral role. One book that I read (I think it may have been written by Eva Crane) identified 177 different crops of which rely on insect pollination for harvest, and another 60 or so that rely on insect pollination to produce seed and reproduce.

It's really scary to think that small and sometimes innocuous actions by us can have vast and far-reaching consequences, some of which we're probably not even aware of yet. Spraying plants with chemicals is a huge no-no that has somehow managed to become normalised over the last 50 years or so.

It's just amazing to think that people used to cover candy with vibrant lead paint. They had no idea of the health consequences because science at the time was not developed enough to detect every ill effect. We scorn the idiocy of mankind in its primitive state and yet we do the very same thing today. We douse our food, the soil and insects that we need for plants to continue thriving with all sorts of toxic concoctions without completely understanding what the hell we're doing to ourselves.

Imidacloprid is just one example of the latest variety of insecticide made available in Australia. The insecticide has been banned in four European countries since 2005 but we've seem to become so blase about chemical usage that we just don't give a shit. The systemic pesticide leaches into the soil where it stays for up to 3 years after a single spray application. It enters plants through the roots and travels to every part making leaves, stems, petals, seeds, pollen and nectar toxic. It kills bees on contact and it has been said that bees have died after drinking rainwater droplets on the leaf of an affected plant.

Neonicotinoids like imidacloprid cause nervous system disorders in people, disorientation or death in bees, paralysis in birds (perhaps this explains the mysterious phenomenon of birds falling from the sky in huge numbers), liver dysfunction in dogs and a hoard of other complications. Strange then that we're spraying the stuff on everything from stone fruit to vegetables, ornamental plants and turf.

We're quite lucky in the fact that CCD has not affected Australia with the same level of destruction as seen in Europe and the United States. This could possibly be due to the lack of varroa mite (a deadly blood-sucking insect that can transfer disease and weaken bees) in Australia so far but most beekeepers fear that it is only a matter of time before it catches up with us.

If we want to give our bees the best chance at survival now and far into the future, we need to think about the effects that our everyday actions have on the nation's primary pollinators. There are so many different pest control methods that don't require synthetic chemicals at all like beer snail-catchers, soap mite sprays and simple water+molasses concoctions that wipe out caterpillars by altering their osmosis gradient through sugar and water.

When spring comes around I'll be introducing a hive of bees into my backyard (fingers crossed). They'll help pollinate your fruit, flowers, vegetables and hopefully make lots of delicious, natural honey that I can share with you, my friends; so I ask that you help me to keep them healthy and safe. The next time you're outside in the garden and you pick up that spray.. Please think about the bees.

 see more photos of natural beekeeping here..

Giant Snow Pea Giveaway!

 beans in my backyard!

Over the last few months I've been quietly encouraging my friends and colleagues to become actively involved in the process of growing their own food. I think everyone has an appreciation for good food, but developing an appreciation for good produce really requires going out into the garden and giving it a go.

Having a kitchen garden that I can run out to whenever I want some fresh herbs to add to the pot is incredibly satisfying. I know where my food comes from and I know it's healthy. My salad leaves aren't doused with calcium chloride. They haven't been sitting in a bag for 2 days and transported from the other side of the country (or the world!) to reach my dinner table. I have black tuscan kale just begging to be picked; rambling nasturtiums providing ground cover and a bright, peppery addition to any salad. The apples I eat haven't been stored in a shed for 8 months. My bananas aren't artificially ripened with ethylene gas. I eat tomatoes when they're ripe and in season. I know what's in season.

I've worked for Matt Moran and now Kylie Kwong - top Aussie chefs who pride themselves on sourcing the best produce and letting it speak for itself, but before I tasted homegrown beets I had no idea they could taste so good!  My beetroots are unbelievably sweet because they're eaten within hours of being picked and there's absolutely no comparison with store-bought produce. None whatsoever. Zilch.

Encouraging as many people as possible to try growing at least some of their own food is an important step in becoming self-sufficient and (fingers crossed) sustainable. Our grandparents grew food in Victory Gardens during the war and the great depression to offset costs so it can easily be done. I find it highly ridiculous that my generation has grown up thinking that food comes from a shop when we can all grow food for free!

I've never ever had a giveaway before, but (..and I did say this was going to be a year of good deeds didn't I?) if there's a time to get people gardening, it's now.


Send me a picture of your garden (it can be anything - a large styrofoam box filled with compost, a collection of pots, a reclaimed verge, etc.) along with a few words about why you would like to grow your own food and I will send you some fun seeds to get you started:

· Hon Tai Tsai - I have no idea how to pronounce this but it's a super tasty Asian green that you can't find in the shops and is delicious stir-fried
· Giant Red Mustard - gorgeous leafy vegetable that can be added raw to salads when small or left to grow for a more intense flavour
· Lazy Housewife Bean - a climbing bean that is easy to grow with high yield
· Giant Yukomo Snow Pea - succulent snow pea up to 14cm long with beautiful purple flowers

All of these awesome plants will produce seeds so you'll be able to grow these for the rest of your life and share them with your friends for free!

Don't forget to include your address! This offer is for Australian residents only and will continue for 3 months or until I run out of seeds, whichever comes first. Not open to NT or TAS due to quarantine.

Active Ingredient in Roundup Weedkiller Causes Cancer

Revealed: the glyphosate research the GM soy lobby doesn't want you to read

Changes need to be made. Chemical applications containing glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) should be banned, period. Tell all of your friends to stop using any products containing glyphosate as they have been found to cause miscarriages, birth defects and childhood cancer.

A Fighting Chance..

Food security is critical for the survival of mankind, yet we've all but acknowledged its immeasurable importance until now. Ask anyone on the street if they know what it means and they probably won't have a clue what you're banging on about. Since my last post, cities around the globe have already witnessed riots due to rising costs and food shortages.

I don't normally write about articles (Foreign Policy - The Great Food Crisis of 2011) that I come across on the web but I believe that education leads to change and that this is so absolutely fundamental to human life that we simply cannot ignore the facets of contention any longer. It's more important now than ever, that we take personal responsibility for the resources that we use and do what we can to minimise our 'footprint', so to speak.

Although the future might seem bleak and overwhelming, we can help ourselves and those in poverty to offset the rising cost of food by growing our own vegies instead of fussing needlessly over perfectly manicured (not to mention useless and superficial) front lawns.

Ps. check out Garden Girl TV for inspired gardening ideas and how-to videos.

Resolute Thoughts In Motion

With Russia up in flames, and Pakistan and our very own Queensland under water; extensive losses of crops and livestock have propelled world food prices to a new high to a level not seen since the United Nations began compiling a monthly index in 1990. It is feared that rising food costs will spark new riots, mirroring those around the world that caused the death of 44 people in 2008.

With the current floods in Queensland, sugar cane growers are warning that production will be affected for the next three years. Australia is the fourth-largest exporter of wheat and the largest exporter of cooking coal. Both losses are expected to increase costs worldwide.

While people in less fortunate situations face serious hardships and food shortages ahead, the majority of us probably won't notice anything other than the inflated price of bananas, pineapples, sugar and meat.  For my fellow food lovers it may not seem like much of an affliction, but in a world where peak oil looms closely up ahead, supply and demand of fresh food are wildly disproportionate and millions of people starve each day, I'm challenging myself to make 2011 a year of good deeds and I challenge you to do the same.

This year I'm going to:

· Ride my bike more often to stay fit and reduce my carbon emissions

· Grow more food to become less reliant on supermarkets that frankly do not stock the best produce, and why pay $2 for a bunch of herbs that has been sitting on the shelf for a week when a packet of seeds costs the same amount and can provide for a lifetime!

· Buy direct from the source where possible, so all profits go straight to the farmer/grower/producer and as they say: "FRESH IS BEST!" 

· Recycle as much as possible - I save glass jars at work to use for my homemade preserves and at home I turn old newspapers into seedling pots that can be planted straight into the ground as is, eliminating transplant shock

· Compost as much as possible to prevent biodegradable products like paper and food from ending up in landfill where they produce methane and leachate

· Plan my meals to reduce waste and save money

· Use food waste to grow food via composting, food scraps decompose and return nutrients to the soil to fuel more growth

· Learn about permaculture and organic gardening methods without the use of harmful chemicals like Roundup

· Learn about beekeeping to prepare us for a future hive that will increase fruit and vegetable pollination within a 5km radius and hopefully provide our household and friends with delicious local honey!

Wild Weeds & Waste

A fly lands on the face of the artist behind Casula's Weedy Connection Tour but he is unperturbed as he ploughs through a list of dangers to native Australian wildlife caused by the application of Roundup. I try not to look too distracted as Diego Bonetto explains the cultural connections and employment of local weeds throughout history. It's not that I don't find all this information incredibly fascinating because I do. It's just that at this very present moment, there's a mysterious bug bite on my arm just below my elbow that is swelling to epic proportions.

Leading our intimate group around a small storage building to a spot where the fence line ends, the eucalypt trees part and the rushing river swells; Bonetto points to a common weed - edible plantain, enlightening us to its medicinal uses in Aboriginal culture.

Farther along, we pass through a field of wild fennel growing by the river bend. The bowing fronds brush against my hot skin with a feather-light touch. It's hot, it's muggy and the bloody flies are all over the place but standing here surrounded by overgrown weeds, it feels incredibly peaceful. It feels right. We're a million miles away from civilisation in a tiny pocket of Mother Nature's abode that has not yet fallen to the paradigm of human design.

Costa Georgiadis believes that the prevalence of convenience food is the bane of our existence. We're polluting the air when we drive to the shops, polluting the environment with non-recyclable packaging and slowly killing the earth by throwing away millions of dollars worth of food each year.

Researchers predict that 40 years from now, Australia will need to increase food production by a whopping 70%! With our increasing population, finite land and resources; it presents as a huge task to broaden the spectrum and adapt unconventional farming methods to urban landscapes.

Glen Op echoes a niggling thought in his presentation: 'Eating Liverpool' at The Garden Day, held at Casula Powerhouse Art Centre. "There's a lot of potential for us to grow food" he says, and a quick glimpse at Google Earth curbs any questions. Most people use their front and back yards to grow the occasional tree and a crapload of grass. We don't use grass and we sure as hell can't eat it so why aren't we growing our own food and taking advantage of the vast expanses of arable land around us?

By relying on big supermarket chains that care more about profit and quantity than quality, we're buying the short end of the stick. Our affluent society has become so engrossed with materialism and so far removed from the our origins. Sure my neighbour has a super expensive car and my cool friends all have the iPhone 4.2 but living this way is not sustainable. We're stripping the Earth of everything and giving only a minute portion back.

Costa challenges us with the problem of poo. Its more endearing term in the field is humanure and, with proper composting and decomposition, can safely return rich organic matter to the soil where it is needed to replenish all the nutrients that are extracted by the plants and animals that we eat. "Nearly a third of all household drinking water in the US is used to flush toilets" writes Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook. Costa's challenge is for us to devise a better way to manage our sewerage. Since 2008 Thames Water have been burning poop and methane derived from poo to generate electricity to offset their bill at the sewerage treatment plant. Sydney Water captures methane and ships treated 'biosolids' to farms around the Western Slopes of NSW. The website lists 3 simple ways to "help improve the quality of biosolids. These include:

· don't wash paint, pesticides, medicines or other chemicals down the sink or toilet. Put them in the bin or take them to a chemical collection point 

· use low phosphorous or phosphorous-free detergents and pesticides, and only use the recommended amount of detergent for your washing machine and dishwasher

· don't pour grease, oil or milk down the sink.

By improving the quality of waste entering the wastewater, you ultimately improve what returns to the environment after treatment."

Although any steps towards sustainability are positive, I don't believe that it's enough to call it a victory for the human race any time soon. Perhaps when every household has one of these nifty machines in the garage next to the solar-powered hot water system and Google Earth reveals more food than grass, then maybe I'll change my mind.

How To Compost, Reduce Food Waste & Save The World

As I've slowly learned the basics of growing food at home, I've become increasingly impassioned by the origins of my food and the process that it undergoes to reach the dinner table; however It wasn't until I transformed my front yard from a muddy bank into a tiny but thriving vegetable patch that I gave any thought to the path that food takes when it leaves the kitchen.

Since the 1950's when large scale supermarkets and centralised food production became the norm, we've lost some of what was once considered common knowledge. Nowadays you rarely see people tending to their vegetable garden out in the suburbs or picking edible wild 'weeds' by the roadside. My sister practically lives on dehydrated 2-minute noodles loaded with MSG; the girl next door can't eat anything with a recognisable face; a little boy who lives across the road believes that everything he needs to live a healthy life resides in a packet of crinkle-cut chips.  

As a society we're spoiled rotten and our ethos has turned largely to materialism so it's no wonder that we're becoming increasingly detached from the origins of the very lifeblood of which sustains us. We've ceased to think of food as food should be. It's just another product that comes from only God knows where.

Food and paper, if left to nature, both decompose and return nutrients to the earth. It's terribly ironic then that food waste is the #1 least recycled material and it's absolutely horrendous to think that these two components combined, contribute to nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste. When buried in landfill, they're deprived of oxygen and begin the long process of anaerobic decomposition. This produces methane: a greenhouse gas, 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Food waste in landfill also results in something called leachate - a toxic chemical runoff which seeps deep into the earth to enter our drinking water.

Dumping food in landfill not only contributes to polluting our environment, but also detracts from precious nutrients that should be returned to the earth. Farmers are forced to use chemical fertilisers to replenish nutrients in the soil year after year, which itself poses a cataclysmic kaleidoscope of problems.

If you have a garden and even if you don't, there is something you can do. Reduce the amount of methane-producing waste you send off to join the millions of tons of compacted waste already in landfill. You can do this by composting your food scraps, plant debris, charcoal, paper, cardboard, toilet rolls, coffee grounds, even hair. Newspapers can be composted too since printing ink is soy-based nowadays. If in doubt, anything derived from something that was once living can be composted. In Sydney, 52% of the average household bin is compostable material. Some councils offer cheaper rates for rubbish disposal if you ask for a smaller garbage bin which could potentially be a huge money saver.

There are a few different options when it comes to compost.

The cheapest option (if you have a garden) is to mound up your scraps with grass clippings and dried leaves in one big pile. Thermophilic micro-organisms will heat up the pile and if you give it a mix (for aeration) once every week, in about 2 months you'll be left with a lovely rich compost. The heat produced with this method will effectively kill bacteria and weed seeds.

A compost tumbler is a fancy barrel fixed to a pivot that can be filled with material and aerated by spinning. It composts quickly but without reaching high temperatures.

Keeping a worm farm is a little more compact and neighbour friendly if you don't have a large garden space. All you have to do it place some moist coir (fibre from coconut shells) into the bottom, put a box of composting worms inside, give them some food scraps, a sprinkling of soil and a moist layer of newspaper over the top. Keep them out of the sun and rain. They'll eat their weight in scraps a day and any liquid produced can be diluted with 10 parts water and used to fertilise the veg.

The Bokashi Bucket is a relatively new system. Its design allows you to compost meat and fish which are usually avoided so as not to attract rodents or vermin. The bucket is able to be kept indoors or under the kitchen sink; the micro-organisms work anaerobically and the sawdust/bran mix sprinkled on top acts to absorb any unpleasant smells which may occur from the decomposing matter.

There is one more option that in my mind, is also the most efficient for home users: 

"NatureMill brings home composting to the mainstream user. It is essentially a miniature in-vessel kitchen composting system. NatureMill delivers an answer to the problem of space and labor for both traditional composting.. Waste is collected right where it is generated—in the kitchen. A computer controls the temperature, air flow, moisture, and mixing to accelerate the process and eliminate the backbreaking work. Everything is fully self contained in a modern, attractive container. Just a few square feet of floor space is required. No special plumbing or electrical connections are needed, other than a standard electrical outlet.. Best of all, NatureMill provides home gardeners with a source of rich, organic compost. And there is something uniquely satisfying about witnessing the entire food chain: from the garden, to the dining table, and back to the garden again." 

All of these systems work by employing either worms or micro-organisms or both, to turn carbon and nitrogen-rich waste into beautiful, dark compost that can be added back to the garden. The benefits of composting are many. Not only does it act as a fertiliser, but the addition of organic matter also improves soil structure which enhances moisture and nutrient retention, increasing microbial activity.

Composting eliminates methane production in landfill but digging compost into the garden goes further through a process called carbon sequestration - atmospheric carbon dioxide is trapped in organic matter and buried. All plants need carbon and with a more readily available source for them to tap into, they'll have more energy to grow.

Scientists are looking to sequester carbon to counter global warming on an industrial scale in the future but we don't have to wait for years to make a difference. Do your bit by simple composting and help save the world, at home.

Own Stephanie Alexander for 25 Bucks!

Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion is a book that I've long been craving. I spent a whole afternoon at Kinokuniya bookstore reading and re-reading the first few chapters while I was in the midst of planning out the execution of my no-dig garden last year. Six months later, I found myself glued to its open pages in the middle of a David Jones hall, completely oblivious to having lost my friend in the frenzy of a kitchenware sale. As much as I loved to flick through the pages of this encyclopedic cookbook, I could never bring myself to justify the $125 price tag but then, only yesterday, a serendipitous moment occurred.

Searching online through booko for the cheapest available copy of 'Bakewise' by Shirley O'Corriher, randomly clicking on another title called 'Sorted: A Rookie's Guide To Crackin' Cooking', I saw it. Down the bottom of the page amongst a jumble of other books I read: "The Kitchen Garden Companion 88 days to go Pre order AUD$25.79". TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS?!?! That's one hundred dollars off the original price! *Click click click* well that's my copy sorted! Hoo! Hoo! I sure as hell can't wait to be holding it in my hot little hands! 

I remember reading somewhere that kitchen gardens were once commonplace. In America, Canada, Germany and the UK, "Victory Gardens" were designed to provide food and keep up morale in times of war. Community allotment gardens are gaining popularity in leaps and bounds, as are vertical window gardens and green roofs. Working on the outskirts of the CBD, I've walked past a few terrace houses where people have even reclaimed the tiny verge outside on the street.

I love food and the many pleasures derived from frolicking in the front yard, pruning a little here and there, poking insects with a stick and tending to my fruit and veg. It's just so darn peaceful, I'm often surprised and it saves me money too! I can't remember the last time I went to the shops to buy a bunch of herbs. If you've ever pondered over starting a vegie patch or potted herb garden, I have a few words of advice: "Just get on with it!".

a little surprise

This Is All

cherry tomatoes from my garden

It's that time again when we can wipe our slates clean of all things passed and start anew with fresh resolve and resolution. This year has not been an easy one for many of us, with all that is going on in the world. I've had a few ups and downs, stops and starts, a shade too many periods of emotional turbulence, lightning and stormy weather caused by nothing more than a nondescript drop rippling the surface of a distant ocean. And then, this year has also been one of the most grounding, as a colleague, slightly drunk and more than a little rowdy, summed up in one profound statement: "This (life) is all you get."

Let's help one another to make those resolutions for the new year and a final cheer for 2009 (for me, a year of firsts) and some of the highlights:
- Giving in to impulse and buying my first digital SLR camera,
- Meeting a very lovely Cassandra on a market tour, chatting away idly for hours like old friends and then saying goodbye without getting her number (so stupid!),
- Completing 'The Science of Baking', a 2 year correspondence course run by the Bread Research Institute of Australia, in 8 months by studying laboriously on the train ride to and from work every evening,
- Discovering with horror, the unfortunate depth of my suspected 'minor' seafood allergy,
- Digging up the front lawn to make way for a small 1.5 x 2m vegetable plot,
- Presenting a pastry chef friend with bright yellow nasturtium flowers, picked from my garden, which ended up on a restaurant dessert,
- And uncovering the first hairy, little muncher burpless cucumbers hiding amongst scattered pea straw.

I have my fingers crossed that 2010 will bring just as many exciting moments and cucumbers (of course!) to fruition, and hopefully also a little more personal growth for myself, friends and those around me.

Happy holidays everyone!