.

Barley, Walnut and Pear Salad with Raisins

2012-02-12T17:59:00.001+08:00

Ingredients:
• 1 cup barley
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
• 1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable bouillon

For the dressing:
• 2 tablespoons walnut oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons agave or maple syrup
• 1 generous teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder

Directions:
1. Cook the barley in 3 cups vegetable bouillon until the barley is soft.
2. When the barley is cooked (about 1/2 hour), drain of the excess liquid and place the barley in bowl.
3. Cool the barley in the refrigerator.
4. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with boiling water.
5. Chop the walnuts and toast in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly to keep from burning.
6. Chop the leafy parts of the parsley very finely.
7. Mix the ingredients for the dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Bring the barley from the refrigerator.
9. Mix in the walnuts.
10. Drain the excess water from the raisins and add them to the salad.
11. Mix in the parsley and stir the dressing over the top.
12. Mix once again well so that all the pieces have been seasoned with the dressing. Peel the pear slice along the core and chop the slices into small pieces.
13. Add the pear pieces to the salad and mix.
14. Serve the salad at room temperature.

Protestors & Syria

2012-02-05T22:35:00.000+08:00

I am sure I will upset some applecarts with what I am about to write, however when enough is enough, it is time to speak out.

On the news tonight were scenes of people protesting about the conditions in Syria in several Aussie cities. Now I happen to agree that what is happening over there is horrendous, however why protest in another country?

Surely if you are that worried you would go back! When you violently storm the Syrian Embassy in London or in Berlin, Cairo or Kuwait, smash everything you can lay your hands on in our Embassy in Canberra, you forfeit (in my opinion) your right to live in our country.

I don't want those who escaped violence in their own country to bring it into ours! And before you start on me for being racist or anything else, I enjoy all people, just not the bad in them, we have enough trouble with some of our own home bred cretins who think violence is the answer to any problem!

I understand that some have families, and yes, it must be soul destroying to think you have left them behind to live with it, however protesting in our country (or any other than Syria itself) won't solve the problem, and to my mind, there are other ways to work on changing things, just protesting in our country is not how I see anything changing.

Raspberry, Blackcurrent, Blueberry & Cranberry juices & cordials.....

2012-02-04T22:30:00.001+08:00

I keep a couple of bottles handy always. For tummy upsets there is nothing better than Raspberry cordial in my book.

Microbiologist Dr Heather Cavanagh, whose research found some raspberry juice and blackcurrant juice cordials can kill at least 12 different types of nasty bacteria responsible for stomach bugs, including E. Coli and several strains of salmonella.

Cavanagh first became interested in the use of raspberry cordial as a preventative and treatment of stomach bugs when she heard that some farmers in parts of New South Wales and Victoria were adding raspberry cordial to their livestock's drinking water to treat diarrhoea.

She also began to hear stories of other people using raspberry cordial to treat stomach bugs: "I heard anecdotal reports from as far away as Queensland and Western Australia, I heard of how people used it to treat themselves and their family. Not just their animals".

Antibacterial properties
In the lab, Cavanagh tested juice made from a number of fresh berries – including raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, cranberries, mulberries, loganberries and boysenberries – as well as commercially available cordials made from these berries (these cordials were made with real berry juice, not apple juice and artificial colours as is sometimes the case).

These juices and cordials were then diluted down with water to different strengths, the strongest was one part water to five parts cordial and the weakest was 1:100. Then each type of bacteria was mixed with each of the berry drinks. The researchers found a number of the raspberry and blackcurrant juice cordials killed most of the bacteria.

And while there has been some speculation that it's the sugar content of cordials that kills bacteria, Cavanagh says there is something unique to raspberry and blackcurrant juices, which seems to be responsible.

Those cordials that had the best antibacterial properties contained at least 35 per cent raspberry or blackcurrant juice, and worked when diluted down to one part cordial in 10 parts water. Undiluted raspberry juice and blackcurrant juice worked just as well as the cordials.

Now for the Cranberry, there is always a couple of bottles of that in the house too. For the ladies, nothing will help quicker with a bout of Cystitis than a few small glasses of the juice daily in addition to LOTS of water.

Cranberry juice has held up under scientific scrutiny. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, women who drank cranberry juice were 58 percent less likely to develop a urinary tract infection than those who drank a placebo.

If they already had an infection, they were 27 percent less likely to have their infections continue if they drank cranberry juice. Advocates of cranberry juice treatment for infections used to think that it worked by acidifying the urine, making it less receptive to bacteria. But now it appears that cranberries (and blueberries) contain a substance that disrupts the glue bacteria use to adhere to tissue, making it harder for them to get established on the lining of the bladder.

The more we find out about taking our foods in as natural a state as possible the more it astounds me how much healing power is wrapped into our food supply.

Monsanto won't release their death grip....

2012-02-03T05:11:00.008+08:00

On January 31, family farmers, organic seeds growers and sustainable farm advocates travelled to New York City to begin the first phase of the lawsuit filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed, which contaminates organic and conventional farmer’s crops and opens them up to abusive lawsuits by the world’s largest biotech seed and chemical corporation.

In March 2011, Food Democracy Now! joined the lawsuit Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al v. Monsanto during the first round of plaintiffs, in what could be an historic lawsuit that protects family farmers and challenges the legitimacy of Monsanto’s patents on their genetically engineered (GMO) seeds and their right to sue farmers indiscriminately.

Before the New Year, Judge Naomi Buchwald announced that oral arguments on Monsanto’s motion to dismiss OSGATA et al v. Monsanto would be heard in federal district court in lower Manhattan.

This is a crucial moment not just for America's farmers but for all of us around the world, and the future of our food supply. Farmers need your support. Now whilst the case is current, the support needs to continue.

Judge Buchwald’s upcoming decision on Monsanto’s motion to dismiss is a critical hurdle that the case must clear in order for it to move forward.

The motion by Monsanto falls within their clear pattern of diminishing plaintiff’s rights and filing frivolous legal motions similar to past legal maneuvering makes it clear that Monsanto fully intends to continue to threaten and harass farmers.

According to the Public Patent Foundation, Monsanto has one of the most aggressive patent assertion agendas in history. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 128 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts.

As a result of these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear amongst farmers and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy. Family farmers need your help today to send a message to the world: It’s time to put an end to Monsanto’s campaign of fear.

It doesn't matter that this is an American fight, it is an Aussie one too! If we want a world free of this devious bunch of control freaks we HAVE to unite as one across the world, we have to stand together to say NO MORE to their attempts to monopolise seeds, NO MORE genetic interference with our foods, and NO MORE attempts to control or interfere with our farmers rights!

Stand up and be counted and send a message of support for the farmers HERE

Summer is just no fun!

2012-01-24T21:34:00.000+08:00

Lordy, summer is setting in here! Given you can always add at least 2 degrees to what they forecast for us the air cons get a work out, and this isn't even our hottest month!

I close all the house up during the day, (looks like a cave it is that dark), then once it begins to cool in the evening I open it all up again.

There are a few things you can do to make sure you dont end up with heat stress:
> Drink plenty of water or other cool, non-alcoholic fluids. (Check with your doctor if you are on limited fluids or fluid pills.)

> Avoid drinking extremely cold liquids as they can cause stomach cramps in some people.

>Avoid heavy exertion.

>Reduce physical activity and avoid vigorous exercise in hot weather. If activity is unavoidable, try to schedule activity for the cooler part of the day and rest often. Whenever possible, stay indoors or in the shade.

>Stay cool and keep air circulating around you. Use air conditioning if possible. If you don’t have air conditioning, consider visiting an air-conditioned shopping centre or public library.

>Eat regular, light meals.

>Wear lightweight clothing that is also light in colour.

>Take a cool shower, bath or sponge bath.

>If the fan is just circulating hot air consider using a spray bottle with water in to spritz yourself

The more I see.......

2012-01-21T11:02:00.003+08:00

the more I wonder!

Why on earth would anyone even contemplate buying something like this?

Apparently they sell tons of them.............the mind boggles!

And environmentally friendly???? Who on earth was the bright spark that came up with that ludicrous idea? Since when has using batteries whenever an object is needed more environmentally responsible than buying one item that does its job with nothing additional required??

Have we all gone mad?

Why would you a)...spend this much money on the gaget, then b)...spend even more on buying the batteries to put into it each time it was to be used, when something as simple as a t.towel or even one of these food brollys would work perfectly and would cost you nothing other than the original purchase, and then at about about a tenth of the cost! And c)...you are being far more environmentally responsible with the simple solution than you would be with that junk at the top.

Empty Nest......

2012-01-13T19:01:00.002+08:00

Well here I am, still trying to get used to this “Empty Nest” idea!

I must admit I have found it strangely unsettling, first with my daughter, and only just this month my son, who has moved to Perth to begin his boilermaker/welders apprenticeship.

Whilst there is no mad gnashing of teeth, desperate wailing or depression I do miss having the kids’ home. On the other hand I am proud watching my young adults work their way through this madness we call society, and I am enjoying the change it brings to our relationships, more friends than parent/child (most times lol) and certainly I am enjoying the fact there are no school runs!

I don’t have to leave work at a set time now (used to be 3.30pm), I can set meetings when it suits my diary instead of around the school bell and if I don’t feel like cooking after a horrendous day I just make do with “anything” easy like salads.

Now there is one thing I am over the moon about…..no more picking up/tidying up! Man I love that!

The washing has reduced, the grocery bill is half, the water bill and not having to nag about 4 minute showers is nothing but a blessing these days LOL!

I am about to become “Molly” again……now that is quite a strange thought! It reminds me of the person I was before I had my children, yet still seems somewhat different, perhaps that’s age though LOL!

I have planned a trip to one of my sisters in Kalgoorlie and will head to my only brother sometime towards the end of the year.

I have my first grandchild due in July so of course there will be a week at the coast with my daughter, and perhaps a week in my garden after that before returning to work.

Strangely, this empty nest stuff is making me re-evaluate just what it is I want to be spending my time on, and what I don’t want to be wasting my time with.

I do miss my kids, I loved my mother time, but I love all the new things that will arrive in this new chapter too. I have more to give, more time to give and I am thankful for every chapter.

We are losing it......

2012-01-11T06:35:00.000+08:00

Losing what? Well, just about everything of true value, but this post relates to losing the nutritional value in our foods.

Over at Mother Earth they have a great article about the evidence that continues to accumulate in relation to our industrial food system not serving us well when it comes to the nutrient value of food.

True, agribusiness has given us one of the cheapest food supplies in the world, but science reveals this food is “cheap” in more ways than one. Here are some of the things we know at this point:
•Over the last 50 years, the amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C in conventionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables have declined significantly. We know this thanks to rigorous analysis of USDA nutrient data by biochemist Donald Davis of the University of Texas. Similar trends have been discovered in the United Kingdom.

•Wheat grown 100 years ago had twice as much protein as modern varieties.

•Major declines in protein and several other nutrients have been documented in modern corn varieties

Davis lists the following causes for declines in the nutrient value of food:
Environmental Dilution Effects. Scientists have known for years that high rates of fertilizer and irrigation use can lead to higher yields, but sometimes at the expense of nutrient density of the crops. Nitrogen in particular is difficult to manage in the soil, and when farmers apply too much it causes plants to take up more water, resulting in high yields but giving us foods that have lower nutrient density.
Genetic Dilution Effects. As plant breeders develop “improved” varieties that give farmers ever higher yields, they are inadvertently causing food nutrient values to decline. Consider calcium in broccoli: Widely grown varieties in 1950 had about 13 mg/g of calcium, but today’s varieties provide only about 4.4 mg/g of calcium.

Similar declines are also being documented in meat, eggs and dairy products. Compared with industrial products, foods from animals raised on pasture are consistently richer in vitamins A, D and E, beta-carotene and beneficial fatty acids.

A compelling reason (amongst many others) for growing our own food!

Saturday sowing.....(click on pics to enlarge)

2012-01-07T20:03:00.009+08:00

Todays weather was gorgeous in the morning, sunny but with a delightful cool breeze so out came the garden gear and in went: more amaranth, beetroot, carrots and chives.

I also took the time to trim back the shrubbery that lines the drive, fertilise the garden beds with our home grown manure (thank you wee chookies) and clean up ready for the new water tank going in later this year.

The pond really has set its' own little system on the go, the water is clearing beautifully and the edges of the pond are slowly naturalising and blending into the rest of the garden.

The marron in there are breeding madly, we found more babies in there during the week. The kingfisher is still stealing my minnows but they breed like crazy so we ignore that one:)

The Ice Cream Beans survived last winter, this year after losing four to the cold I covered them in shadecloth and left it on until the frosts had passed.

Having tasted these, I can tell you that they really do taste just like vanilla ice cream!

I only have two of these in, however I am thinking that once I pass a few around I will need to keep up with demand, so am going to try growing them from cuttings in a year or two.

Down either side of the round about in the back yard I have planted out Asiatic and Oriental Lilliums. They look so magnificent and the wide range of colours really brightens up what could be drab otherwise.

My idea is that later on as a pensioner I am going to have lots of fruits and flowers to make a little cash so I have about another 100 to plant LOL!

The pomegranate has put out dozens of flowers, I really love eating these both as a fruit, in sauces with meats and in salads. The taste is very refreshing and it really is a great health food whose nutrition includes:
* Poly-phenol Antioxidants – assist and take care of the body against “free radicals” – compounds which damage the body as time passes. Free-radical injury is often a main factor in growing old and persistent illnesses like cardiovascular disease and most cancers. Find out more about poly-phenol antioxidants.

* Ascorbic acid – facilitates and sustains muscle tissue and blood vessels, aids in the development of collagen helping your body take in iron. Ascorbic acid might also decrease the duration and intensity of the common cold.

* Vitamin K – performs an integral role in blood coagulation.

* Potassium – assists and manages high blood pressure and sustains building powerful bones.

* Iron – required by the body for the manufacturing of hemoglobin, the actual oxygen-carrying parts of the blood.

* Fiber – assists with keeping digestive regularity and could decrease Low density lipids cholesterol levels, which might aid and reduce the danger of cardiovascular disease.

Not bad for a little bundle of juicy seeds is it?

The white adriatic fig has really put some growth on over the last few months. It seems everything in the garden has finally found its spot and growth is going haywire all over.

I have 3 of the figs, the brown, white and black, all 3 have their own tastes but all 3 are equally as delicious in my book.

I am going to try drying these next year when I have more fruits, the other 2 trees are only about 1/4 of the size of this one.

This is last years chilli bush. Because our winter gone was so mild it just kept on growing instead of being the perennial it should be in this area.

I actually cannot stand them, but staff at work and the neighbours love them so I pick and share, it's a good feeling and it does make for some pretty reds in the garden:)

Well, thats me for the day, tomorrow it is more planting out and tying up of tomato bushes that are wanting to climb everywhere but up the stakes!

Enjoy your weekend:)

Tag.......and you're it......

2012-01-04T22:43:00.002+08:00

Recently I was tagged by Liz from Eight Acres, (Thank You, Liz, it is an honour). Her blog is one I always enjoy reading, full of info, reality and inspiration. Despite her being a banana bender (said in jest-slang for Queenslanders for those who are not aussies) I thought it would be fun to pass it on.......rare that I do this so please enjoy the blogs I have chosen from my 200+ list, some favs and some are randomly chosen........

Leanne from Hazeltree Farm
Rose from GreeningtheRose
Lynda from Alternative Homesteading
Annie from Edifice Rex
Jo & Joe from the FunkyFrontyardFarmers
and two others: Wisebread & The MicroGardener

There is so much to be found amongst these bloggers. From the hard realities of learning homesteading and the failures as each grows to marvellous successes as the learning continues.

You will find tips and hints for just about everything you can think of, and then some. They write with passion, honesty and wisdom, I hope you enjoy them all as much as I do.

If you visit my profile you will see my complete list. I would recommend each and every one in a heartbeat, they are marvellous writers and educators, and always with some humour and/or deep insight:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR......

2011-12-31T20:59:00.003+08:00

Today is our last day in what can only be called a year of recognition by many.

I believe the community in general is very slowly awakening to the fact that we have some very real challenges ahead.......peak everything!

For the New Year ahead I wish for you all Peace, Compassion, Health, Love and all that is needed to keep you safe, secure, fed and somewhere you can call home.

Shopping Local......

2011-12-17T21:50:00.001+08:00

Last week I went shopping to our local butchers, who also has a local fruit and vegie counter. He is producing our Christmas ham himself from local pork. His meats are all local or no more than a couple of hundred kilometres away, he knows his suppliers and can tell you anything you want to know about the product and the same goes with the local producers of the fruit and vegies. Now perhaps I am a bit of a nerd, but to me this is exciting, wonderful stuff!

In a world that is gripped by one financial crisis after another, in a world where the dollar needs continual growth but is attached to finite resources, it is about time we all took stern stock of how we can increase our own local resilience ready for the challenging times ahead where oil costs increase considerably....and we have already seen how that will make our food much more costly.

It's time to consider the real costs to a community that loses its local business base. Independent local businesses employ a wide array of supporting services. They hire architects, designers, carpenters, sign writers and contractors for construction. Opportunities grow for local accountants, insurance brokers, computer consultants, lawyers, advertising agencies and staff to help run it. Local retailers and distributors also carry a higher percentage of locally-made goods than the chains, creating more jobs for local producers.

In contrast, a new chain store typically puts in place a clone of other units, eliminates the need for local planning, and uses a minimum of local goods and services. In a company-owned store, the profits are promptly exported to corporate headquarters.....and that more often than not is overseas!

If we all chose to shop locally we would have more choice and a better price, it's the same old game of numbers. Instead we chose cheap nasty products, made god knows where most times by people who are paid a pittance and the money flies not just out of our community, but out of our country in many instances. Stop and think about your community right now... If it's anything like many smaller towns, the food is controlled by Coles & Woolies, if they left town tomorrow where would you be?

Local owners with much of their life savings invested in their businesses have a natural interest in the long-term health of the community. Community-based businesses are essential to charitable endeavors, frequently serving on local boards, and supporting a variety of causes. Local businesses build our community, give it greater strength when times are hard and often provide a far superior product.

Have you ever thought about your food miles when you're eating snow peas from China?

Food Miles in Australia: A Preliminary study of Melbourne, Victoria by Asha Bee Abraham and Sophie Gaballa, estimates the distances travelled for food items found in a typical shopping basket and the resulting greenhouse emissions from this transportation.

The research revealed that food items like oranges, sausages, tea, baked beans etc with ingredients sourced from overseas have seen more of the world than most people. The report estimates that the total distance travelled by 29 of our most common food items is 70,803 km—that's nearly two times the distance around the Earth.

Calculating road transport alone, the shopping basket travelled 21,073 km, almost the whole way around Australia's coastline. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions estimate for all food transporting trucks carrying these 25 items on any given day is the equivalent of 2,830 cars driving for a whole year. And that's just for one shopping basket of 25 items.

The Solution? What about choosing to buy organic, that will help the planet?

Well, no Food miles still count here, what you need to do is:
• Buy Locally Produced direct from farmers either at the farm gate, farmers markets or shops that buy local produce and sell on.
• Buy in Season avoid summer fruits in winter.
• Grow your Own - now we are talking food feet, not food miles (This is my all time favourite thing to do, nothing better than walking outside and picking your dinner)
• Learn to preserve the excess and
• Buy canned or bottled goods from your own country by preference.

Buying local is all about bringing resilience back into your community. It is about US taking responsibility for creating demand for local sustainable practices and doing something about it through our choices.

I think it is time to ask ourselves the hard question.....why buy another countrys product when we can support local, or at least Aussie! For many I fully realise there is a budget in mind, and not much room to move in it. But that is where smart shopping comes in, buying on special, using less and making it go further etc.......there are options that would allow even those on a budget to buy local, it just takes smart planning and usuage in most cases.

It eases the load on our environment, it builds local community resilience, it is often healthier, you have greater knowledge of the product you are purchasing, and being local you can build some great networks and friendships.

GM contamination continues...

2011-12-15T21:15:00.000+08:00

The latest debacle over GM foods, again only a few towns away from our farmers here, the story on one of my favourite sites HERE.....Ian and Jodi James have been farming near the small WA town of Cunderdin for over 15 years. They’re proud to grow conventional canola that's not genetically modified. But on 3 November, a violent storm washed GM canola from a neighbours’ paddock across their farm.
Ian and Jodi suspected they would have GM canola seeds on their farm, so Greenpeace provided Ian and Jodi with free GM canola test kits.

Over two days of testing, they found numerous GM canola seeds up to twenty metres into their crop. Ian and Jodi were devastated. They have lost their crop, and now face the expensive task of trying to get rid of GM canola from their land. They might even lose their premium for GM-free canola in the future.

Ian and Jodi have lost their right to grow safe GM-free canola. Why should the James’ have to pay for the costs of GM canola contamination, when they didn’t want to grow it?

Greenpeace is urging the Western Australian Government to protect farmers like Ian and Jodi from the costs of GM contamination by introducing Farmers Protection Legislation.

Want to know what's in your food? Tough luck!!!
Around two years ago, the federal government set up an expert panel to make recommendations to improve Australia’s food labelling laws. They needn’t have bothered. The public’s call for comprehensive labelling and testing of all GM ingredients fell on deaf ears. While the panel’s recommendations weren’t as strong as we need, the government snubbed them anyway. Once again, Australians are being denied the fundamental right to know what’s in our food.

Baker's Delight commit to GM-free bread
With Australia on the brink of commercialising GM wheat, we called on the biggest bakery franchise – Bakers Delight – to support the call for better GM labelling and to rule out using GM wheat when it becomes available. Baker’s Delight quickly promised customers that they wouldn’t be using GM wheat in their baked goods.
When will mankind ever learn?.... believe me, there is much still to be discovered about GM effects, and none of it will be want we want to hear.

Rain, Rain and more Rain.....

2011-12-07T22:57:00.000+08:00

Yesterday saw a huge thunderstorm here. We had an inch in about 30 minutes! Roads were flooding and of course I was loving every minute of it, but felt desperately sorry for the farmers who stand to lose money because of it!

Again the odd roof flew off here and there, one whole one landing neatly in front of the premises in the middle of the street!

Flash flooding of course, a few shops inundated with the surge of water poor things and one building hit quite hard with a lightening strike!

This street had completely vanished after about 15 minutes of the downpour.

As awful as it was for some I am so glad I don't have to water for at least 3 days.

Our government is at it again....

2011-12-05T21:23:00.000+08:00

Just when does the bloody government actually do what the people want?? I am so fed up with the latest debacle related to the labelling of GM food!

The Commonwealth Government via Health Minister Nicola Roxon has decided:

Most GM ingredients should remain unlabelled. This includes: GM canola, soy, corn, and cottonseed oils; starches, sugars and other derivative from GM crops. Milk, cheese, honey, eggs, meat and fish derived from animals fed GM feed. Additives from GM bacteria and fungi.

Producers with GM contaminated products can avoid being monitored or tested. This means that companies such as Wyeth which produced GM contaminated soy infant formula don't need to be monitored to ensure their product is clean of unintended GM contamination in the future

GM labelling should eventually be dropped altogether.

Enough is enough, it is time we put pen to paper people!.....well, figuratively speaking anyway. If we don't take the stance now we cannot complain years later when problems arise....

So, using this link I made sure I was heard. The letter took me 2 seconds to do, I added a couple of paragraphs myself and with one click it was gone to those that make the decisions...my letter went something like this:

Attention: Members of the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council
Dear Minister,
The Blewett Report recommendations will leave most GM ingredients on our supermarket shelves unlabelled. This is unsatisfactory - 85% of the 7,000 submissions to the Food Labelling Review called for full GM labelling.

Please label all ingredients fully or partly derived from a GM crop or process. This includes ingredients from a GM crop (ie GM corn, canola, soy, sugar and cotton); milk, meat, eggs, fish and honey from animals fed GM feed; from GM derived additives, processing aids, colours and flavours.

Remember how safe Thalidomide was? It was not discovered how dangerous it could be until years later when the connection was made between birth deformities and the medication. GM food will be even more insidious and on a cellular level we are asking for trouble unless we complete more research before we consider adding it into our food chain.

I urge just one thing, one human right. Please allow me the freedom to choose what I want in my food by ensuring any and ALL GM food, partial or otherwise, is subject to compulsory labelling.

The letter goes bulk to:
Ms Katy Gallagher, Minister for Health AC
Ms Katrina Hodgkinson, Minister for Primary Industries NSW
Mrs Jillian Skinner, Minister for Health NSW
The Hon Konstantine Vatskalis, Minister for Health NT
The Hon Geoff Wilson, Minister for Health QLD
The Hon Tim Mulherin, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Regional Economies QLD
The Hon John Hill, MP, Minister for Health SA
The Hon Michael O'Brien, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries SA
The Hon Gail Gago, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries TAS
The Hon Bryan Green, Minister for Primary Industries and Water TAS
The Hon David Davis, Minister for Health VIC
The Hon Peter Walsh, Minister for Agriculture and Food Security VIC
The Hon Dr Kim Hames, Minister for Health WA
The Hon Terry Redman, Minister for Agriculture and Food WA
Federal Government:
The Hon Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing - Federal
The Hon Catherine King, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing - Federal
Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig, Minister for Agriculture - Federal
New Zealand:
The Hon Kate Wilkinson Minister for Food Safety

Please think about sending in your thoughts too, you have until the 8th of December, 2011.

Climate change and our food....

2011-12-03T20:34:00.000+08:00

Food prices have reached a record high this year, fueling unrest in regions like North Africa and the Middle East.

A recent study presented at 2010's UN climate summit in Cancun predicted that global warming could double grain prices by 2050 and leave millions more malnourished. This latest research, "Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980," was published in the journal Science.

Australia is the canary in the coal mine for climate-change impacts. The driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country’s blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as “potentially the most fragile” on earth in the face of the threat.

Australia is but the first and most seriously impacted of the arid sub-tropical (and near-sub-tropical) climates that are facing horrific desertification from climate change.

Some regions are already at times near the upper limits for farming. The tropical north is vulnerable to staggering floods. The country is increasingly being whipsawed by human-caused climate change — just as the U.S. SouthEast is

“In southern Australia, and most clearly and strongly in southwest Australia, the warming will be accompanied by a drying, on average, that will create a special challenge and that is already being felt in the Western Australian wheat belt, leading to some major changes in farming patterns,” Garnaut said today, based on the climate outlook provided by models

World food prices are expected to gain in the first half of the twenty-first century, reflecting a rising population and higher incomes, slower agricultural yield growth and the effect of climate change

The drying trend has important consequences for the Western Australian wheatbelt. The growing season has become shorter and drier in the northeastern part of this area, and yields in this region have declined (Stephens et al. 2009). By 2050, changing rainfall and higher temperatures could result in yield losses of more than 30% (van Gool 2009).

We are fast running out of time to change our habits, and I suspect we have supassed the time to make big changes for our benefit. The challenges now I believe will be in learning how to manage what is coming over the next decades.

I now have 3 large shaded areas for growing vegies, those fruits that need it are also shaded, and next year it's water tanks all over the place.........what have you got planned or already in place?

Planting for December in the temperate zones of Aussie..

2011-12-02T21:50:00.002+08:00

Just click on the list and you will be able to read:)

Courtesy of gardenate.com

Now this is Scary Stuff......

2011-12-02T16:52:00.001+08:00

In a stunning move that has civil libertarians stuttering with disbelief, the U.S. Senate has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Bill of Rights in America.

This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a "battleground" upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.

It's being called the most traitorous act ever witnessed in the Senate, and the language of the bill is cleverly designed to make you think it doesn't apply to Americans, but toward the end of the bill it essentially says it can apply to Americans "if we want it to."

...the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.”

Americans need to stand up fast to this one I am thinking!

More on the story from HERE
Picture courtesy of: science.howstuffworks.com

Walking your own Path........

2011-12-02T03:03:00.004+08:00

Tonight I read a friends post on how she is perceived by others around her when she talks about her lifestyle, it brought to mind some favourite quotes instantly so I thought it a good opportunity to voice my thoughts on the whole matter!

Often when we talk about our simple lifestyle it challenges others, and that's not always comfortable for them, perhaps it is because they know on a deeper level they too should be paying more attention to the simpler things in life like caring for our planet, sharing more resources, caring for those around us by being good stewards etc?

Perhaps it is because they have never been educated so they find the concept too complex to understand, or is it because they would find a simpler lifestyle too much hard work and prefer the easier consumeristic, instant gratification lifestyle?

For decades now I, like many of us, have been described in various ways, kook, greenie, mung bean etc. Does it bother me? No, because I know that what I am working towards feels right!

Don't ever let anyones opinions move you away from what you believe to be right, don't let anothers derision sway you from the path you have chosen, a good life is one lived honestly in every way.

How have I dealt with it over the years? I choose to either take that particular opportunity to educate the person or I ignore, either way I will stay true to who I am.......

Most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions. ~Author Unknown

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary. ~Albert Einstein

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. ~J.K. Galbraith

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest”

Report warns of deadly climate change...........

2011-12-01T21:48:00.000+08:00

A new report is warning Australians face dying in heatwaves and catching infectious diseases as a result of climate change.

The Climate Commission says climbing temperatures will lead to more natural disasters and changing rainfall patterns, which will have an impact on people's health as much as on the environment.

The report includes a worst-case scenario where deaths from hotter temperatures in Queensland and the Northern Territory could multiply tenfold by 2100.

The dire predictions were released as the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released figures showing that 13 of the warmest years on record have occurred within the last decade and a half.

The year 2011 caps a decade that ties the record as the hottest ever measured, the WMO said in its annual report on climate trends and extreme weather events, unveiled at UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

"Our science is solid and it proves unequivocally that the world is warming and that this warming is due to human activities," WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud said in a statement, urging policy makers should take note of the findings.
Story from HERE

Yesssssssss....(with a fist pump for emphasis)!!

2011-11-30T21:31:00.000+08:00

My submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Rural Affairs and Transport about The management of the Murray-Darling Basin was accepted and placed into the interim report.

Submissions HERE

Now whilst very happy to see that the Senate has decided no more licences will be granted until a full investigation into CSG (Coal Seam Gas-Fracking) has been completed I have to say I was saddened by the lack of submissions. How many Aussies are there that care about our country???? Only 372 it seems!

Why is it so many are so apathetic? Every day we hear how unhappy someone is about this sort of thing yet obviously only a few bother to get their fingers into gear and make it an issue, how hard is it to write an email??

Anyway, enough of the ranting, let us hope that common sense will prevail and CSG will not be allowed to continue.

And if you are not sure about the CSG, you can find some concerning facts about the process HERE

Just call me Granny.........

2011-11-28T22:15:00.000+08:00

I found out last night I am going to be a grandmother, what a wonderful surprise!! It seems so funny to feel so young (at 51) yet have that title lol.

Of course my mind has been racing with all the things I need to do, like buy a cot for the guest room, finish off my grandmothers rocking chair to give to my daughter, who was also rocked in it, crochet some beautiful soft blankets.......and the lists keep spinning around in my head lol.

Now back to more interesting things for you.......check out the sunflower, it towers over me and I am 5'10"! I will collect the seed from some of the flowers for next years crop and allow the birds the rest.

The Cape Gooseberries are still producing madly. I love these things, just little balls of delight, quick "on the go" meal if you pick enough of them:)
Calories 54.00, Water 85.90%, Protein 1.50 g, Fat 0.50g, Carbohydrates 11.00 g, Fiber 0.40 g Calcium 9.00 mg, Phosphorus 21.00 mg, Iron 1.70 mg,
Vitamin A 730.00 UI,Thyamine 0.01 mg, Riboflavin 0.17 mg, Niacin 0.80 mg, Ascorbic Acid 20.00 mg

And here's one of my daily visitors. We now get about 8 of them every day coming in to see what treats I have left out for them. I make sure I have a day or two during the week where I don't put anything out to ensure they don't become completely dependent on the human providing sustenance.

If you look very carefully bottom right hand side you can see the 2 day old chick on its first day out of the roosting shed. Mumma hen was very protective and wouldn't allow me one step closer to get a better photo.

I think we have about 12 chooks now including the latest batch of chickens, which really is enough given we don't eat a mountain of eggs each week. That means either we separate the rooster out or find him a new home............the latter will be the best I think, otherwise we are going to end up with a pen for the males and one for the females!

I am currently loooking at solar pumps for the rainwater tanks....ready for next year. The idea being that we will have 2 very large tanks, one off the house and one off the workshop that we will be able to pump onto the gardens during summer instead of using tap water. Anyone have any recommendations please?

I am also looking into the cost of putting in a water diverter to run from the hot water taps. The idea is that the cold water we run whilst waiting for the tap to heat up in the shower etc is diverted into a rainwater tank until it reaches a certain temp, it is then sent back to the shower tap to utilise. You can also buy a similar product that will recirculate your water back into your storage hot water system, not a bad idea given we all waste about 20,000 litres waiting for water to heat!

The strawberry and yellow cherry guavas are loaded with the last of the flowers, looks like a bumper crop this year, delectable and good for you, you can find the following nutrition in 1 cup (165 gm) of Guava, apart from Iron and Folic Acid:
•Calcium - 50 mg      •Carbohydrates - 19.6 gm    •Fibre - 8.9 gm
•Niacin - 2 mg.     •Phosphorus - 48 mg     •Protein - 1.35 gm
•Total Fat - 0.9 gm       •Vitamin A - 412 IU   •Vitamin B - 1.15 mg
•Vitamin C - 498 mg      •Calories - 84

Hope your week ahead is a good one:)

This month in the garden.......

2011-11-18T06:47:00.008+08:00

Things are going haywire, as they do in Spring, although the fast approaching heat will slow that down somewhat soon enough.

The waterchestnuts are sprouting all over again, and although I detest them my mother adores them:)

In the pots either side of them are pitcher plants which I thought I had lost, it turns out they are annuals and are now sending through new shoots.

Remember what was inherited on the left when bought 2 years ago? On the right shows you where I am at now, still more shrubs etc to put in but slowly getting there, not bad given the whole thing was rebuilt into 3 areas.

I have closed the back run off now and have planted out with all manner of seeds, the girls now run in the front pen, and there they will stay for another year or two, this will hopefully turn what is currently absolutely shocking sandy clay soil into gorgeous garden bed soil for vegies.

I am madly collecting my seeds as plants are ready to give them up.

This way I get to keep seed that has performed the best in my home soil. This silverbeet is as tall as I am, amazing what plants will do to ensure they reproduce in following years!

All of the berries have gone haywire! I have about 6 varieties and they are all doing well. The only thing I do struggle with is how prickly most of them are, working with them requires gloves at all times. The other thing I have noticed is that they are more than happy to spread all through the garden beds with new plants coming up, have cut out about about 4 that would otherwise have taken over everything!

The pineapple guava is producing fruit, something it didn't do last year. I cannot wait to taste this one having discovered I love all the others! Did you know you can eat the white part of the petals too? They have a delightful "floral" taste.

The chilli bush is from last year too. The past winter was so mild that these and the tomatoes just kept on producing......unheard of to have year round plants in this area usually......sign of the changing climates we will face. The yellow cherry guava you can see just to the bottom of the picture has flowered profusely and is covered ready to start fruiting. If you haven't tried these do..they are heavenly!

The chinese gooseberry has been absolutely loaded this year, I love nothing better than getting out there, picking a huge handful and sitting on the patio eating them for breakfast.......brilliant source of Vit C by the way:)

I left the last of the radishes to seed too, prickly bloody things those! This was my first time growing them and some of them were woody in texture, flavour was still ok.....anyone have any ideas as to why? I was thinking I may have left them in too long, or not enough water?

The ginger plant is coming along nicely. I have no idea why I am growing this...do you do the same thing? I think years ago my idea was to grow as many of my own herbs and spices as I could.......except I only have one recipe that uses it.......Ginger Bread Men LOL!!

If nothing else the flower is pretty on them, and who knows, further down the track I may use more....

The elders are looking beautiful. Not only are they a pretty shrub but I want to make both elderberry tincture and elderberry champagne from them once they are older.

Well, that's about it for me this month. Now the heat is coming in I tend to slow down a little, getting out early mornings or late evenings only.......thats the part of summer I dislike, my garden hours get reduced by the unbearable heat!

Hope you have a super week ahead:)

Our weather for the week......

2011-11-01T06:57:00.000+08:00

Here We Go.............

2011-10-30T07:53:00.003+08:00

The world's population will hit 7 billion tomorrow and is set to rise to at least 10 billion by 2100, the United Nations says.

In a report ahead of ceremonies on October 31 to mark the 7 billionth human alive today, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned demographic pressure posed mighty challenges for easing poverty and conserving the environment.

The UNFPA warns the world's population could reach as high as 15 billion by 2100 if birth rates are just slightly higher than expected.

Ahead we face some serious challenges - peak everything: water, food, security, population, climate change, resources and money that requires infinite growth tied to finite resources.

I am often asked by readers in email what I think about the world as it is. My response is always the same. I think we are an amazing species, capable of so much good....but...........we have a lot to learn about living in harmony with our planet.

I hope we do learn that, sooner rather than later, but in the meantime I plan for more simple days where I will need to provide for me and mine by prepping. I grow my own fruit and vegetables, cook from scratch, can goods for eating out of season later, collect my own water, mend most basic things, look after the chooks and marron, kill them to eat if we have to, have built networks from mechanics to seamstresses and share all I learn with those who want to know as I go.

What do you think about your world ahead?

HELP SAVE TROPICAL SEA LIFE

2011-10-26T11:42:00.001+08:00

Over the next few weeks, Australians have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create tropical sanctuaries for threatened turtles, whales and dolphins, dugongs, whale sharks and a host of other animals.

If you genuinely wish to preserve this habitat for future generations, to ensure fish stocks are not decimated, and care for just one very small eco system then utilise this easy 2 second page, letter already completed for you to just add your name and postcode!

Sanctuaries are places where wildlife can feed and breed without interference. Wildlife in marine sanctuaries is fully protected from the oil and gas drilling operations and from trawling and other forms of fishing.

Yet less than 1% of northern Australia is protected in sanctuary zones.

Marine scientists recommend that a proportion of habitat like shallow coral reefs, seagrass meadows and and deep underwater canyons be fully protected.

Help to demonstrate that Australians really want our magnificent and unique northern tropical wildlife protected.

Please take a few seconds to tell Minister Burke that you want him to protect our tropical wildlife. These sanctuaries will provide areas where tropical wildlife and exist naturally, undisturbed by oil and gas drilling and fishing.

Send your letter HERE

Hawthorn Berry (Crateagus oxycanthus)

2011-10-20T07:41:00.002+08:00

I once heard said by a herbalist that the plants you need in your life for health will find you, and here I am wondering if the 3 gorgeous horthorn plants I purchased some time ago just because I thought they were pretty are here for that reason.

Heart disease runs in our family (along with a host of other things like diabetes, hypothyroidism etc-(my parents should never have been allowed to breed LOL).

The hawthorn tree has been revered for centuries with many legends being associated to it for its magic-like healing properties. It is considered the ultimate herbal heart tonic, as it has a natural ability to either stimulate or depress the heart's activities accordingly. Hawthorn also aids in depression and anxiety, while promoting healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. For any hawthorn remedy to be effective, it must be used over a long period of time.

Hawthorn Berries are used since the nineteen century to support the heart and to normalize cardiovascular functions. Till today, Hawthorn Berries is still one of the most valuable medical herbs that is used in the treatment of congestive heart failure circulatory disorders.

Hawthorn is considered as a cardio tonic herb, the flowers and berries are used in traditional medicine to treat irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure , chest pains, hardening of arteries and congestive heart failure. Some of the medical benefits of hawthorn Berries are they are thought to be a great herb for heart as this flavonoid rich food is tissue specifically for the heart and the vascular system. It also strengthens these issues and removes the inflammation on them.

Hawthorn itself is also used to treat people with insomnia who have difficulty sleeping in the night. It is considered a cardiac tonic for all heart related issues. It has a strong antioxidant power to remove unwanted acids from the body. It is also an excellent inflammatory medicine and should be used in all cases of inflammation.
Hawthorn however has their own side effects to when it is taken unknowingly to a person who suffers from a low blood pressure because of the hawthorn strengths and effects on the heart, people with low blood pressure may not be able to take it.

Hawthorn itself although regards as a safe medicine, other side effects such as nausea , sweating, fatigue and rashes do develop on unexpected occasion so it will be better to watch for the symptoms and stop taking the medicine when it really do occurs to the one taking it or we should consult our doctor beforehand to ask whether is it safe before consuming it.

Create a tincture using one or all consumable parts of the hawthorn tree. Most tinctures are made with alcohol, but if you have sensitivities or prefer a non-alcoholic version, simply use vegetable glycerin or apple cider vinegar instead. If you do use alcohol, use a quality grade of 80 to 100 proof.

If using glycerin, dilute 50/50 with water. With vinegar, it works best to warm it. Chop your herbs finely. Fresh herbs are recommended over dried herbs, regardless of quality, as your ultimate goal in making a tincture is to preserve the freshness of the plant.

Place chopped herbs into a clean, dry jar. Shoot for a ratio of 1 part herb to 2 parts alcohol (or chosen medium). Generally, there should be 2 to 3 inches of liquid above the herbs to insure total submersion.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and place in a warm location for 4 to 6 weeks. Shake the bottle daily.

After the appropriate duration of time, strain your herbs and place the liquid in a colored, glass tincture bottle.
Keep in a cool dark location.
This tincture will keep almost indefinitely. Take 1 teaspoon of tincture three times daily for a month -- or more.

Always consult with a physician prior to consuming any herbs. Though herbal side-effects are generally uncommon, it's important to consult with a professional before embarking on any new health regime.

Hugelkultur Garden Beds.......

2011-10-18T21:02:00.002+08:00

My next project! Have you heard about Hugelkultur Beds? Very much a permaculture process, though having said that the method was around eons before the word permaculture even arrived!

Woody debris, leaf litter etc that falls to the forest floor can readily become sponge like, soaking up rainfall and releasing it slowly into the surrounding soil, thus making this moisture available to nearby plants.
This process improves drainage, keeps water/moisture onsite, uses garden refuse you may not be able to use otherwise and builds healthy soil fertility.

Building a hugelkultur garden bed is easy:
1. Select an area with approximately these dimensions: 5 feet by 3 feet (or any size you can fit into your chosen area.

2. get together: logs, branches, twigs, leaves,nitrogen rich material (I am using our chook manure which will help to maintain a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio in the decomposing mass within the hugelkulter bed), top soil (enough to cover the other layers of the bed with a depth of 1 – 2”) and some mulching material (straw works well).

3. Lay the largest of the debris down as the first layer of the hugelkulter bed. Next, add a layer of branches, then a layer of small sticks and twigs. Hugelkultur beds work best when they are roughly 3 feet high,there is no fixed rule as to the size of the bed.

4. Water layers really well

5.Fill in spaces between the logs, twigs and branches with leaf litter and manure or kitchen scraps.

6. Finally, top off the bed with 2” of top soil and a layer of mulch.

I am madly saving all my prunings and will add a few bales of pea straw before I add the soil and mulch to the top.

If you want more great ideas, here is where my inspiration comes from:)

Selling off our Food and Water Rights.......

2011-10-15T07:37:00.008+08:00

Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets.

The sale of agricultural land is exempt under Foreign Investment Review Board regulations and the FIRB’s attention is usually triggered only by the sale of companies whose assets exceed a $231 million threshold.

In recent years, and especially since the global food shortage in 2008, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have all been engaged in massive agricultural purchases around the world and in Australia

In a new book, The Coming Famine, by University of California Press and the CSIRO, Australian science writer Julian Cribb raises major concerns about how the world will feed itself.
"Between now and the 2060s, the human population is going to grow to about 11.4 billion people... So basically the world has to find twice as much food as it is producing today."

All the resources needed to produce that extra food will be in increasingly short supply, including arable land, water, fertilisers and oil.

While the impact of extreme weather has caused immediate food shortages, Australia also needs to focus on its sale of arable land and water to foreign companies and governments.

If more widespread food shortages continue, food produced and grown in Australia will be transferred to countries that are buying up Australian land, rather than being sold on world markets, says Milne, who points to the ongoing land grab by China, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
"The world changed dramatically when countries realised it didn't matter how much money they had – if other nations decided to withhold the export of food, they would have a problem," she points out. "Nations started buying production land and water elsewhere in the world to feed their own people."

More than $9 billion of prized agricultural assets have been sold to offshore interests in the past two years alone.

And it's not just our land thats vanishing under our very noses, our water is taking the same path!

Australian businessman Richard Lourey will climb aboard a plane bound for Hong Kong to sell our water to the world. Not water in bottles. Farm water. He wants to bag $100 million from overseas investors in Asia, Europe and North America to buy up permanent water rights along the Murray-Darling Basin, one of the longest river systems in the world. He plans to lease it back annually to those who want it - and can afford to pay.

Lourey is one of the new breed of global investors who see fresh water as business - big business.

Another is John Dickerson, a former CIA analyst in San Diego, who set up one of the first funds in the world dedicated to acquiring water rights.
$20 million worth of entitlements bought by the US-owned Summit Global Management through an Australian subsidiary;

An estimated $130 million worth of water bought by Olam International of Singapore in a deal involving the purchase of almond groves in northern Victoria

More than $30 million worth of rights in western NSW held by Tandou which has substantial overseas ownership.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of the NSW Irrigators Council, Andrew Gregson, has revealed that merchant banks have approached the organisation for advice on how European investors can pour hundreds of millions of dollars more into Australian water.

Australia has spawned the most advanced water market in the world, with more than $3 billion worth of rights changing hands last year.

In short,Aussies are in danger of becoming servants, not masters, of their own food and water resources.

Write to every Minister, both sides of the house, let them know we want security for our children and the generations that will follow. In one of the driest countries in the world we don't have a lot of good farming land or water to give away!

Further references can be found here and here.

TODAYS HARVEST....no words required!

2011-10-13T20:38:00.000+08:00

Weekend Catch up........

2011-10-09T21:51:00.003+08:00

I have been in a planting frenzy over the last 3 or so weeks. With the last of the rain around I wanted to give all the seeds the best opportunity to grow, and nothing does that like rain water!
I have added another 2 Elderflowers and a Davidsons Plum too, the plums are delicious as a jam and of course who can pass on Elder Champers (Champagne for non-aussies).

There are some things I didn't plant but have volunteered anyway such as these tomato bushes that must have found their way from the compost I added at the end of last summer. I have already harvested at least a couple of dozen fruit from the larger one and it is still producing madly!
Nothing tastes better than organic tomatoes straight from the vine:)

The Dragon Fruits have suddenly taken off, for a while there I thought they didn't like where I had placed them as they seemed to stagnate for quite some time.

Now they are covered with lots of new shoots, so much so that I will need to do some serious support work on them next weekend.

In terms of seeds planted nothing seems to sprout quicker than radish, almost overnight they are peering out of the soil!
I have put 6 crops of these in, I am hoping to have a large enough crop this year to try my hand at pickling them. Not the fridge type that only last a couple of weeks but rather the longer term water bathed kind I am thinking:)

And here is some of the latest "goings-on" in the backyard. Dad in the front making sure my
camera and I don't get too close and mumma hen with her 2 new babies.

We still have another broody in the pen with about 6 eggs under her.........such cute wee things!

The pepinos are absolutely huge this year! There are 4 bushes of them and each is loaded.

I noticed when watering the other day that a wee mouse had made its home under the rocks around one of them, and I might add had neatly eaten a hole in one of the fruit! As long as it doesn't run out and over my foot whilst watering I can live with it.......just LOL!

And of course there has to be some beauty and bee material in the garden too! I find that by interspersing all sorts of plants I never really have to cope with too many pests, it's almost as if they take one look and think it's all too confusing.

I have already been raiding the celery, picked young as the plant is still reaching maturity it is tender, crisp and so sweet....just delectable:)

The pond is going so well. The plants have all settled in and the natural rhythm of the native critters is in full swing.

The only thing I find is that this very appealing pond is so well loved that every frog within 500 miles seems to have set up home there......almost a little too noisy in summer! Perhaps relocation of any taddies next year will be the way to go:)

Planted out now in the garden is Amaranth, Basil, Beetroot, Cabbage, Capsicums, Carrots, Celery, Chillies, Chives, Cucumbers, Leeks, Lettuce, Luffa, Pumpkins, Rockmelons, Silverbeet, Spring Onions, Tomatoes and Watermelon. Just before the end of the month I will plant out more of the above. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the same winter next year, lots of rain and a warm winter, my garden loved the last winter season.

Well, that's it for me, worn out in the best way.....garden fatigue.......and time to sleep! Have a super week ahead:)

Lessons to Come......

2011-09-24T07:49:00.000+08:00

Cuba will have much to teach us in the years to come, particularly when it comes to peak oil. Their experience is well worth watching, indeed a resilient people.

The Power of Community. How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (sub español) from El Tránsito Necesario on Vimeo.

Have a wonderful weekend:)

Because a Smile for the Day is Healthy....

2011-09-20T06:50:00.002+08:00

Catch up........

2011-09-19T22:47:00.001+08:00

Isn't this just delighful? Friday night & Saturday was our annual leaders retreat, sort of respite from the mad world of welfare work for us.

We spent it in a gorgeous isolated homestead with log cabins, nothing but natural bushland surrounding us and spas!

Meals were had on a large patio that overlooked all this native bush, birds landing at our feet to be fed and plenty of human food around too! Was a great group of ladies and a wonderful time for catch up.

As a result of the time away Sunday was leisurely at home, I pottered a little in the garden to check out how things were going.

The Kangaroo Paws are doing very well as you can see, this by the way is an Aussie emblem, hard to find naturally now, a shame, they were everywhere when I was a child.

This is my latest order from Daleys, the iconic Quandong.
The Quandong is a truly unique native Australian fruit. Found in the arid and semi-arid regions of all Australian mainland states , Quandong trees have been classified as belonging to the santalum genus of plants. Ideally adapted to arid environments, the Santalum Acuminatum species is known to be a semi-parasitic plant. Quandong trees can tolerate high soil salinity levels and often rely for their complete water requirements from the root systems of host plants. Across their native distribution range, Quandong trees typically grow 2 to 3 metres in height, with a dense leathery crown of leaves perhaps 2 metres wide

Amongst Australian aborigines Quandongs were much valued for their medicinal properties. Specialised uses of the Quandong included a form of tea which was drunk as a purgative. Quandong tree roots were also ground down and used as an infusion for the treatment of rheumatism. Typically Quandong leaves were crushed and mixed with saliva to produce a topical ointmnet for skin sores and boils.

Encased within each Quandong seed is an oil rich kernel which was also processed in a similar fashion to treat skin disorders. Quandong kernels could also be eaten and some tribal groups were known to employ crushed kernels as a form of "hair conditioning oil".

Fossilised Quandongs have been discovered in the coal seams of Southern Victoria. Apparently these fossils date from 40 million years ago - a time when Australia was still linked to the Antarctic continent.

Australian people often refer to Quandongs as the Wild Peach, Desert Peach or Native Peach.

Quandongs have a vitamin C content higher than oranges and and almost certainly saved many early Australian explorers from scurvy.

Quandong fruit can be dried and frozen for 8 years or more, without losing any flavour whatsoever.

The tree is a hemi-parasite requiring macro-nutrients from roots of hosts. The host should be surface rooted, evergreen, water storing, nutrient storing and with a high osmotic pressure. Olives, accacias and most Australian natives are good. Eucalytpus, conifers and citrus are not suitable hosts. The more trees and shrubs and groundcovers you have in your yard as host plants the happier the Santalum will be. Drought and salt tolerant.
Known as the sweet quandong the flavour is tart and reminiscent of peach, apricot or rhubarb.

QUANDONG PIE WITH MIXED BERRIES AND CUSTARD

Prep Time: 1 Hour
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 cups quandongs (dried preferably)
1 litre water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornflour
250gram short crust pastry
200 grams mixed berries
200 ml custard
Method
Simmer quandongs with water and sugar until thick and hydrated then stir in mixed berries. Make a smooth paste with the cornflour by adding a little water. While quandong and berries are simmering stir in the cornflour mixture bring to the boil until the first bubbles appear then take of the heat and cool.

Grease a 20cm pie tin and then line with pastry pressing the pastry into the sides and leaving an overlap of pastry. Fill the pie crust until 3/4 full with quandong and berry mix, pipe a swirl of custard over the quandong and berry mix. Brush egg wash around edge of pie crust and top with a pastry cover. Crimp pie edge to form a seal and brush top with egg wash. Run a folk over pastry to form a pattern then place five holes in pastry top and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 180C for 30-45 minutes or until pastry is cooked and nicely browned.
Notes:
May need to extend or reduce cooking time depending on your oven
Keeps for 5 days in the fridge sealed well or 4 months in the freezer
Serve with whipped cream

Quandong Jam
Makes 8cups

1kg fresh quandongs
1kg caster sugar
100ml water
Chop up the fruit and combine with sugar and water in a large saucepan and put it over medium heat, stirring constantly as it comes to the boil. Lower the heat so it simmers. Cook until it reaches setting point (usu 45mins ish). Test by dropping a teaspoonful onto a cold saucer. Let it cool, and when you push it with your finger, it should wrinkle.

Be careful not to overcook and caramilze the sugar as this will alter the colour and flavour of the jam.

Once its ready, pour into sterilized jars and seal. Should keep about a year unopened in the pantry, refrigerate once opened.

Quandong, port and chilli sauce

1/2 cup or 50 g of dried quandong fruit
2 cups or 500 ml apple juice
1 cup port
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons cornflour, dissolved in a little cold water

Place the dried quandong fruit in a saucepan with the apple juice and bring to a simmer.
Cook at a simmer for 10 minutes,turn off the heat, allow them to cool, then stand for at least 2 hours to rehydrate fully.
Add the port, chilli powder and salt andsimmer for 5 minutes. Thicken the sauce slightly by briskly stirring in the dissolved cornflour and cooking for 3 minutes before removing from the heat.
This rich and flavoursome sauce suits most game meats such as kangaroo, duck, rabbit and lean pork.

The Madness Continues....

2011-09-08T21:05:00.001+08:00

I received this in my email today:

MADGE has drafted an email asking your Minister/s to immediately review our food regulator’s (FSANZ) approval of a GM corn.

This GM corn is designed to be sprayed with 2,4-D, a weedkiller known to cause birth defects and illness.

Please forward this information to your friends, colleagues and family

Suggested email:

Dear Minister,
Please immediately review Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s (FSANZ) approval to release 2,4-D corn line DAS-40278-9 into our food. The reasons are as follows:

• 2,4-D was an ingredient in Agent Orange, the herbicide used in the Vietnam War that is still causing birth defects, illness and trauma in affected people. This GM crop will also be sprayed with the herbicide quizalofop-P-ethyl.

• No animal feeding studies were conducted on this GM corn. Instead 10 mice were fed a GM protein twice within an hour. Two weeks later the mice were killed. One male mouse had signs of an ulcer in the stomach, and one female mouse had a dark area in the cerebrum of the brain.

• This GM corn will escape labelling when refined into ingredients in many processed foods.

• This GM crop has become necessary due to the failure of the existing GM crops sprayed with the herbicide Roundup. The 2,4-D chemical can be used to kill weeds that can no longer be killed by Roundup. It is sprayed directly on the crops.
• FSANZ have assessed and approved one new protein in the GM corn. They also consider it acceptable for us to eat a chemical cocktail of two herbicides 2, 4-D and quizalofop-P-ethyl. No animal or human has ever eaten this crop before and FSANZ have not considered if the chemicals are safe for human consumption.

A majority of Ministers in the Food Regulation Ministerial Council is required to begin an investigation into a food approval. Please join with your colleagues to halt the approval of this GM corn while suitable investigations can be made.

Regards

Your Name Here

Minister Contact Details:

ACT: Ms Katy Gallagher, Minister for Health gallagher@act.gov.au
NSW:
1) Ms Katrina Hodgkinson, Minister for Primary Industries office@hodgkinson.minister.nsw.gov.au
2) Mrs Jillian Skinner,
Minister for Health office@skinner.minister.nsw.gov.a

NT: The Hon Konstantine Vatskalis, Minister for Health minister.vatskalis@nt.gov.au

QLD:
1) The Hon Geoff Wilson,
Minister for Health health@ministerial.qld.gov.au
2) The Hon Tim Mulherin Minister for Agriculture, Food and Regional Economies mackay@parliament.qld.gov.au

SA:
1) The Hon John Hill, MP, Minister for Health
minister.health@dhs.sa.gov.au
2) The Hon Michael O'Brien, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries paul.tsoundarou@sa.gov.au
(advisor to M. O’Brien)

TAS:
1) The Hon Michelle O'Byrne, Minister for Health Michelle.O'Byrne@parliament.tas.gov.au
2) The Hon Bryan Green, Minister for Primary Industries and Water bryan.green@parliament.tas.gov.au

VIC:
1) The Hon David Davis, MLC
david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au
2) The Hon Peter Walsh, Minister for Agriculture and Food Security peter.walsh@parliament.vic.gov.au

WA:
1) The Hon Dr Kim Hames, Minister for Health
kim.hames@mp.wa.gov.au
2) The Hon Terry Redman, Minister for Agriculture and Food Minister.Redman@dpc.wa.gov.au

Federal Australian Government:
1) The Hon Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing nicola.roxon.mp@aph.gov.au
2) The Hon Catherine King, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Catherine.King.MP@aph.gov.au
3) Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig, Minister for Agriculture, joe.ludwig@maff.gov.au

New Zealand:
The Hon Kate Wilkinson Minister for Food Safety k.wilkinson@ministers.govt.nz

More information on the GM corn and Ministerial Council:
Madge Press Release "Serious alert about our Food Regulator; mother calls in MADGE."
GE Free New Zealand "Minister Called to Intervene Against 2,4-D in Food."
The Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council (ANZFRMC)
2,4-D, an ingredient of Agent Orange, causes birth defects in laboratory animals, damages DNA, and is an endocrine disruptor. It is toxic to bees and fish. Ref: http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Actives/24d.htm

Quizalofop-P-ethyl is a herbicide about which not much is known. Ref: http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC38972

I've sent mine off, you going to send too? Remember, if you don't act now tomorrow you cannot complain that it should never have been allowed! Too often we whinge but don't step up to the plate!

Why do we never learn?

2011-09-07T22:06:00.003+08:00

Remember Thalidomde? Years of pregnant mothers being told it was safe.........and then..........disaster. In my opinion COAL SEAM GAS mining.........AKA FRACKING is just another of these disasters waiting to happen! It is something many of us have been talking about for more than a few years.....why?..........Watch the video at the end of this post on the american experience, that will give you an understanding.

So concerned in fact that when I was notified of the Senate Enquiry I sent a letter off to the Senate Committee Enquiry, here's part of the response to date:

Dear Submittee
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your submission to the Inquiry into the management of the Murray Darling Basin

Your submission has been provided to the Committee for consideration at its next formal meeting. Once the Committee has formally accepted your submission, it will be published on the Committee's webpage. Please note that in some cases it can be a number of weeks before your submission is published.

Your submission is protected by parliamentary privilege. Parliamentary privilege refers to the special rights and immunities attached to the Parliament or its members and others necessary for the discharge of the parliamentary functions without obstruction and fear of prosecution. This means that you cannot be prosecuted or disadvantaged because of anything you have provided in evidence, or because you gave such evidence. If you believe that anyone has disadvantaged you in any way as a result of the submission you have made, please advise the Secretariat.

Please note also that a submission to a Committee becomes a committee document, and must not be disclosed to any other person until it has been released ('published') by the committee. The content of a submission may be published in another form or for another purpose before the submission is released by the committee, but that publication will not be protected by parliamentary privilege.

So I won't put the whole submission in here, what I will do is post the video I also included in the submission..........see for yourself.......

Question.................

2011-09-03T07:10:00.001+08:00

Are you making or have you made

a difference in our world?

A Life of Contradictions...............

2011-09-03T06:29:00.005+08:00

Do you ever find yourself feeling like you live in two worlds? I do!

I am a CEO, so there is a certain "image" I am expected to present in at least my clothing, which of course means no "op shop" clothes for work.

Basically I only have 2 sorts of wardobe, work and home clothes. The work gear is suits, vests etc, the home gear is tracky daks (sweat suits I think in yanky jargon) and whatever work shirts/blouses that have got too "tatty" for the image..... two worlds.

I have a morgage to pay, so work is essential. Getting divorced close to 40 meant starting all over again basically, retiring not an option for at least 10 years.......the dream of spending all day in the garden tending to everything home grown is a way off.

I have a fridge when I just want to live from zeer pots (see the zeer idea on the list to your right), but I don't have time to shop everyday for things like milk, meat etc.

I have a washing machine when I just want to hand wash, but I dont have time to spend plunging and hand wringing etc

I'd love to go electricity free for all but 2 months in summer, but I need the PC for working from the office at night and son is still home so I can hear the screams from here LOL

I'd like to spend more time working in our local community building greater resilience and greater homesteading skills but by the time I am finished work I am exhausted (thanks hypothyroidism), it's enough to get home, clean, cook, garden and organise before a little time in the office and bed.

How do I work through the duality?

I grow many of our vegies at home, have planted over 40 fruits and berries, keep chooks who fertise the garden, provide eggs and keep the pests at bay. A lot of time is spent rebuilding the soil and keeping it healthy.

I spend no time trying to uphold the CEO image at home. I don't live in a fancy house or have expensive decor or other items.

I repurpose everything I can or find a home for it.

I cook from scratch 99% of the time.

I use healthy alternatives at every opportunity for cleaning, washing etc, soapwort plant, soapnuts, vinegar etc.

My fridge is a basic one and when son leaves I will be changing down to a bar fridge with a zeer pot on the side for fruits, vegies etc

I only buy clothing as needed and recycle from office to garden gear when they get a little old.

I promote at every opportunity alternatives to the modern lifestyle, for example introducing classes at work for community members on how to make home grown beauty products, how to cook from scratch, how to grow your own food.....all slotted into our Money Matters seminars

It is slow progress, there are times I get absolutely bloody frustrated, but there is light at the end of the tunnel:)

How do you cope with that duality?

Climate Change is about more than just the weather....

2011-08-30T21:16:00.003+08:00

More and more often we are finding out the hard way that our unhealthy obsession with "having it all" at the expense of everything else isnt working......

Rates of mental illnesses including depression and post-traumatic stress will increase as a result of climate change, a report to be released today says.

The paper, prepared for the Climate Institute, says loss of social cohesion in the wake of severe weather events related to climate change could be linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse.

As many as one in five people reported ''emotional injury, stress and despair'' in the wake of these events.

The report, A Climate of Suffering: The Real Cost of Living with Inaction on Climate Change, called the past 15 years a ''preview of life under unrestrained global warming''.
''Recent conditions are entirely consistent with the best scientific predictions: as the world warms so the weather becomes wilder, with big consequences for people's health and well-being.''

The paper suggests a link between Australia's recent decade-long drought and climate change. It points to a breakdown of social cohesion caused by loss of work and associated stability, adding that the suicide rate in rural communities rose by 8 per cent.

The report also looks at mental health in the aftermath of major weather events possibly linked to climate change.
It shows that one in 10 primary school children reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of cyclone Larry in 2006. More than one in 10 reported symptoms more than three months after the cyclone.

''There's really clear evidence around severe weather events,'' the executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, Professor Ian Hickie, said.
''What we have seriously underestimated is the effects on social cohesion. That is very hard to rebuild and they are critical to the mental health of an individual.''

Professor Hickie, who is launching the report today, said climate change and particularly severe weather events were likely to be a major factor influencing mental health in the future.
''When we talk about the next 50 years and what are going to be the big drivers at the community level of mental health costs, one we need to factor in are severe weather events, catastrophic weather events,'' he said.
full story HERE

We are so far behind the eight-ball now that I am not sure we can ever catch up, we desperately need to find a healthy balance between comfort and the health of every other living thing...which includes our planet.

Satisfying Sunday.........

2011-08-28T20:39:00.000+08:00

What a delighful sight to wake to! This morning the ballooning mob were out and about in droves, this is just one of about 6 I saw.

Today was perfect for a day in the garden, cool, slight breeze and sunshine.

I moved two of my roses that seem to be stuck in growth, hopefully they will take off in their new posi.....have to love flowers to admire and brighten the house:)

The lettuces are doing wonderfully, I thought they would have bolted with all the warm weather we are having, but no, they just keep on producing as I keep stripping away the leaves!

The Cape Gooseberry has gone haywire, there is bucketloads of ripening berries on it.

Ive not tried making Jam from these, although I am thinking that with the amount of fruit being produced it may be time to try. An amazing fruit very high in Vitamin C.

The next door neighbours dropped off bottles of lemon juice as you can see to the right. They use the rind dried in their spice
mixes and were kind enough to juice the left overs for me........looks like there is going to be another lot of Lemon Butter being made this weekend. I also freeze in ice block trays, loving nothing better than a great glass of icy water with a couple of lemon ice cubes.......very refreshing.
Or..........you can add boiling water for a drink first thing in the morning, supposedly very healthy for you on an empty tummy.

Some of the pickings whilst out weeding today. I am clearing out the gardens to plant more vegies again. Very strange that I still have tomatoes producing and it's now time to plant this seasons, just goes to show how mild our winter was!

My favourite new objects! I have finally purchased two very large water baths for my preserving. Each comes with the tray to stack your jars in and a handy basket to lift it all out with.

I cannot wait till tomato season, am I going to have a blast!!

The chooks got wheelbarrow loads of weeds today. I haven't let them out for the last couple of weeks because of all the new seedlings just raising their heads, instead just picking bits and pieces to throw in amongst their grains etc.

I've ordered a Chinese Cedar, ever seen one?
They have the most amazing flush of lipstick pink leaves before they turn green for the season, so very pretty.

I love growing my fruit and vegies but having something for the soul is important to me too:)

I've also ordered some of the Albany Woolly Bush,
(Adenanthos sericeus) enough to do the length of the house along the driveway, will keep the summer sun away from the house and ensure it remains a little cooler in the warmer months.

It won't shed leaves into the guttering, the birds love it and it has the loveliest touch to it, soft and feathery.
It is extremely hardy and once settled in is very drought tolerant and doesn't appear to care what sort of soil it is in.

All in all a fantastic weekend with much achieved. Hope yours was a good one too and your week ahead a super one:)

Farmer sues neighbour over GM contamination

2011-08-20T23:23:00.002+08:00

JULY: A Western Australian farmer launched legal action against his neighbour for allegedly contaminating his organic property with genetically modified (GM) crops.

Steve Marsh was stripped of his organic certification in December when a neighbour's GM canola blew onto his property in Kojonup in the south-west.

Mr Marsh is now suing his neighbour for loss of income, because he can no longer sell his produce at a premium.

His lawyer, Mark Walter, will issue a writ in the WA Supreme Court claiming Mr Marsh's neighbour was negligent.
He says it is a landmark case that will be watched closely by farmers across the country.

"It's an opportunity to provide all farmers with clarity as to how the law will deal with these circumstances," Mr Walter said.
"I think it's going to be very important because there are both conventional and unconventional farmers who are concerned as a result of the introduction of GM and how that may affect their farming practises and how they protect themselves from that form of contamination.
"It's likely to be an increasingly important issue because the prospect for further losses or unwanted contamination will rise."
GM canola has been grown in WA, Victoria and New South Wales since 2008.

AUGUST: A farmer near the site of a spill of genetically modified (GM) canola in the Great Southern in Western Australia says the seeds are now germinating.

Last week, a truck carrying more than 15 tonnes of GM canola caught fire on the Albany Highway near Williams in south-west Western Australia, spilling its contents onto the side of the road.
The spill has reignited the debate about the State Government's decision to lift its ban on GM canola last year.

Grain transporter Co-operative Bulk Handling issued a statement saying all appropriate protocols had been followed to remove the grain and prevent any contamination.

Narrakine farmer Geoff Reed says he is worried the germinating seeds will contaminate his non-GM oat crop.
"Saturday night we had nine [millimetres] of rain and that exposed a lot of seed that has just started to germinate," he said.
"There's millions of them there, they are spread along about 50 metres of the road-side in the water table."

My personal opinion of GM food is that there has been nowhere near enough, nor any long term studies completed on if and how it may affect our bodies, for all we know this could be another "Thalidomide" waiting to happen! If you haven't already obtained a copy of Jeffrey Smith's "Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods" do so, it's a worrying amount of data.

Arpad Pusztai and other scientists were shocked at their results of animals fed GM foods. Other independent studies showed stunted growth, impaired immune systems, bleeding stomachs, abnormal and potentially precancerous cell growth in the intestines, impaired blood cell development, misshaped cell structures in the liver, pancreas and testicles, altered gene expression and cell metabolism, liver and kidney lesions, partially atrophied livers, inflamed kidneys, less developed organs, reduced digestive enzymes, higher blood sugar, inflamed lung tissue, increased death rates and higher offspring mortality as well.
FULL story HERE

"Multiple animal studies have shown that GM foods cause damage to various organ systems in the body. With this mounting evidence, it is imperative to have a moratorium on GM foods for the safety of our patients' and the public's health," said Dr. Amy Dean, PR chair and Board Member of AAEM. "Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions," said Dr. Jennifer Armstrong, President of AAEM. "The most common foods in North America which are consumed that are GMO are corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed oil." The AAEM's position paper on Genetically Modified foods can be found HERE

AAEM is an international association of physicians and other professionals dedicated to addressing the clinical aspects of environmental health.
More info HERE

Grow your own, buy organic and cook from scratch.....the best way to avoid most of it:)

At Last..........

2011-08-15T07:39:00.000+08:00

Peace. Ever had something you know you had to do but kept procrastinating?

Well, I have, after 2 years, decided that above all one needs to be true to ones heart regardless of any other factors.

Hope your week ahead is a super one:)

Knocking off work to carry bricks....

2011-08-07T22:52:00.000+08:00

Ever hear that old expression? Well it was certainly applicable this last week of my holidays......and I had a wonderful time!

The back steps have been completed, the old

brick ones that were so deep and killed both my dicky knee and our wee dogs arthritis have gone, in their place pine ones that are much easier to climb.

The garden has been going crazy with all the sunshine and rain, and of course with perfect weather goes much planting, beetroot, lettuce, capsicums, leeks, peas, onions, shallots snow peas, watermelons and tomatoes.

What is reallly strange is I still have last seasons tomatoes bearing fruit!! This year certainly has been very different weather wise......I could live in this climate quite happily if the summer was as mild as the winter has been :)

The amaranth in the herb garden, have no idea how that got there, although it is obviously enjoying the space, the remainder is in the back yard behind the shed where it loves the old chook pen soil.

I plan on putting more of this in next year, we cannot grow enough of it here to be totally self sufficient in it, but love just growing a little:)

The parsely has taken off yet again, despite my having cut it back numerous times for dehydrating!

One more cut from this lot and I will more than enough for my years supply of this versatile herb.

The Feverfew has done really well, self seeds itself every year. A useful herb to have around, I dehydrate this too and now have enough for a year, so will cut this right back with the exception of a couple of flowers for self seeding purposes.

The pepinos have bushed up with wee fruit just beginning to show. Earlier this year we placed some old builders rubble around the plants, they seem to have thrived on it! I suspect its the lime content.

A few of the peas. I have these all over the garden and love them raw, however they leave me with the itchiest throat if not cooked so this lot will see the pot, any I have in abundance for the week get dehydrated.

The chinese goosberries have spread themselves all over the place with many fruits just developing.

These never last long enough to make into jams :)

The fruit trees are all starting to bud up, should be a wonderful year for fruit, although I am not sure how my cherries will go, it hasn't been cold enough I suspect for fruit set.......we shall see.......

One more day of holidays and it's back to work, tomorrow will be spent putting more seeds in, cleaning out the chook pen (hen house) and some weeding.

Enjoy the week ahead:)

Taking the time.......

2011-08-01T22:10:00.001+08:00

Having a brief holiday this week and loving every minute of it.

I've had time to clean out the linen cupboard that was outside the bathroom and move it all into the wall to wall vanity we have finally had built into the bathroom.

The cupboard came in useful, is now in my laundry storing all sorts of laundry goodies like dried soapwort and soap nuts:)

I had time to make some of that delectable Lemon Butter/Curd that we so love after a friend gave me two very large bags of lemons.

The recipe is a brilliant one. Unlike most of the recipes, this one will keep on your shelves for at least 12 months. You can find it on the right under recipes.

I thought I would try something different with some of it that wouldn't fit into the final jar, so popped some puff pastry into muffin tins, let them do their thing, then whipped some cream until VERY thick, mixed in some of the curd and piped into the pastry.........result? Scrumptious!! The remainder of the lemons we juiced, saved the zest too and froze into icecube trays ready for the next batch:)

It has rained here just about every day for at least two weeks. This weather is what it used to be like when I was a child, and I do so enjoy it! The garden obviously does too as everything is going haywire........and the cockies (aussie slang for farmers) aren't complaining either, the crops are loving it!

Dinner tonight came from the garden, well, with the exception of the bacon which I buy from the local butcher (locally produced). Potato, Bacon & Broccoli Soup........a deliciously thick soup. I know I consistently point this out, but truly, there really is nothing better than walking outside to pick dinner!

In the case of the potatoes they had been blanched and frozen, the broccoli was picked straight from the plant, amazing the difference in taste too!

Just in case you feel like cooking a soup, here's the recipe:

1 Tblsp butter

1 diced onion

garlic to taste

pepper to taste

3 cups broccoli

2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

4 potatoes

1.5 cups milk

bacon rashers

1/2 cup plain flour

salt to taste

Melt the butter over medium heat

Saute' the onion, bacon, garlic and pepper until caramelised

Add broccoli, stock and potato

Bring to the boil and cook for 15 mins

In a separate bowl mix the flour and milk, slowly add to soup whilst stirring well

Reduce to a simmer for a further 15 mins

Some add cheddar cheese at this stage, I find it rich and flavoursome enough, just finish with your salt to taste:)

You may want to play with this recipe a little, I cook by a splash of this and a slosh of that...

It's nice taking time to smell the roses:)

Purslane.....the healthy, edible weed

2011-07-16T22:15:00.001+08:00

Common in our yards but little known in the kitchen, Purslane is both delicious and exceptionally nutritious.
Given there seems to be dozens of people landing on my blog after searching for info about Purslane I thought I would repost for those readers that missed it..

Regarded by many as a weed, common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is also known as duckweed, fatweed, pursley, pussley and wild portulaca.
Purslane is somewhat crunchy and has a slight lemony taste. Some people liken it to watercress or spinach, and it can substitute for spinach in many recipes.

Young, raw leaves and stems are tender and are good in salads and sandwiches. They can also be lightly steamed or stir-fried or simply make a wonderful fresh garden salad with it.

Purslane has: High levels of soluble fiber help lower cholesterol Six times more vitamin E than spinach Best known plant source of essential omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) Seven times more beta carotene than carrots Rich in vitamin C, magnesium, riboflavin, potassium and phosphorous

Purslane may be a common plant, but it is uncommonly good for you. It tops the list of plants high in vitamin E and an essential omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

Purslane provides six times more vitamin E than spinach and seven times more beta carotene than carrots. It’s also rich in vitamin C, magnesium, riboflavin, potassium and phosphorus. Omega-3s are a class of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids.

Your body cannot manufacture essential fatty acids, so you must get them from food. Unfortunately, the typical diet contains too few omega-3s, a shortage that is linked to a barrage of illnesses including heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition to ALA, other omega-3s include eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids mostly found in aquatic plants and animals, especially oily fish. Nutritionists now think all forms of omega-3s need to be plentiful in our diets plants such as purslane may be part of the missing link to better nutrition.

Ethnobiologists — scientists who study the relation between primitive human societies and the plants in their environment — believe that the plants humans ate long ago provided a greater proportion of nutrients than the plants we consume today.

They estimate, for instance, that humans 40,000 to 10,000 years ago consumed an average of 390 milligrams per day of vitamin C from wild plants and fruits. In contrast, the average human today consumes just 88 milligrams of vitamin C per day.

One cup of cooked purslane has 25 milligrams (20 percent of the recommended daily intake) of vitamin C Records show that wise folks in the East Indies and in Persia were chowing down on this glorious weed 2,000 years ago. Folks in China and Mexico, in Europe and Africa were all getting into Purslane munching long before it was ever introduced to most other countries.

Purslane can be confused with another plant that is dangerous to eat, so before you go grabbing a handful to eat
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PLANT!
Read THIS link to double check

Pickled Purslane Recipe Ingredients
1lb loosely-packed purslane stems and leaves
800ml cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves, sliced
10 black peppercorns
200ml water
30g sea salt

Method: Add the water and salt to a pan and heat until the salt dissolves then set aside to cool.
When cold, bring a pan of water (unsalted) to a boil.
Plunge the purslane in this and blanch for 5 seconds.
Drain and rinse under cold water then mix with the salt water in a bowl.
Allow to marinate for 10 minutes then top-up with the vinegar.
Leave for 10 minutes then divide the purslane, garlic and peppercorns between clean jars.
Top-up with the vinegar and salt mixture and seal securely. Store in the fridge for at least 2 weeks before using.
This makes an excellent accompaniment to omelettes or fish. It's also good when used sparingly in sandwiches.

Cucumber-purslane-yogurt salad
5 large Cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into quarter-round slices
1/4 pound Purslane, large stems removed, washed and drained well
2 tablespoons each, Fresh chopped mint, cilantro and chervil
4 cups Whole milk yogurt
1/4 cup Virgin olive oil
3 cloves Garlic, puréed with the blade of a knife
2 teaspoon ground Coriander kosher Salt and ground Black Pepper
Place the cucumber, purslane and herbs into a large bowl.
In another bowl, stir together the yogurt, olive oil and garlic, coriander and season to taste with salt.
Add the yogurt mixture to the vegetables and mix well.
Add a pinch of ground black pepper.
Taste the dressed cucumber-purslane salad for seasoning, adding a little more salt if needed. Serve chilled.
Enjoy:)

New additions......

2011-07-12T21:46:00.001+08:00

Planted out this week were a couple of elderflowers. For those not that familiar with them, Elderflower is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995. I am also going to try making elder champers (champagne for those not aussie) lol.

Also planted out was a Davidsons Plum. A small to medium sized tree with large, dark green, leathery, divided leaves. The new foliage, produced throughout the year, is vivid pink. Pendulous clusters of reddish-brown flowers are followered by purple, edible fruit, resembling small plums, which ripen in late Summer. A great bush food for either eating straight from the tree or making into jams, cordials etc.

Davidsons Plum contains high levels of the antioxidant called anthocyanins which appear as natural red pigments. It also contains lutein, vitamin E and folate, Zn, Mg, Ca, Mo and a high potassium:sodium (K:Na) ratio.
Some studies support the view supplemental lutein helps protect against Macular Degeneration and the development of cataracts.
It is known anthocyanins produce hydrogen which supports cellular health, promoting generally better all year round health.

Increased intakes of antioxidant anthocyanins resulted in a 13.7 per cent increase in levels of HDL cholesterol (good) and a 13.6 percent reduction in levels of LDL cholesterol (bad) in a 2009 study involving 120 people in the US.

Hope your week is going well:)

Sultry Sunday...

2011-07-10T10:23:00.003+08:00

Amazing what a little time will do!
Things are progressing, although slower of course than what I would like.....nothing unusual for this woman who wants things done now LOL!

The kitchen garden (all the goodies I use a lot of) is planted outside the back door off the patio and is really doing extremely well now we have shaded it.
In here you can find carrots, borage, feverfew, silverbeet, parsley, the last of the tomatoes, celery, soapwort, curry plants, the last of the capsicums, the goji berry, blueberry, onions, leeks, elephant garlic, coriander, peas, rosemary, strawberries and a few other bits and bobs:)

As you can see, I am taking no chances this winter after last winters 19 frosts in a row, this year everything that might be the slightest bit sensitive is covered with 50% shadecloth!

This is the White Sapote-Casimiroa edulis
Other names: Zapote blanco, Casimiroa
Intro: Although a member of the citrus group, it is nothing like any citrus. Do not eat the seeds-they are poisonous!

History: Originates from Central and South America.
Shape: The fruit is round to oval.
Weight/size: The fruit are 7.5 - 12.5cm in diameter.
Colour: Thin skinned, green when immature and remaining green to golden when ripe.
Taste: Rich sweet flesh tasting like vanilla custard.
Storage: Best eaten fresh. Allow to ripen at room temperature. Fruit will be soft when ripe. Ripe fruit is quite perishable, but it may be refrigerated, however, it is best to use fruit as soon as possible.
May be frozen whole, as pieces or as pulp. The fruit may be stored in the refrigerator when firm and unripe and then taken out and left at room temperature to ripen.
Preparing/serving: Primarily a dessert fruit. The soft fruit may be halved and scooped out, avoiding the pulp near the skin. It can also be used in milk shakes and sherbets. It is frequently combined with milk to produce ice-creams and milkshakes. With added lemon or lime juice, the fruit makes a good jelly, and also sherbets.

The berries (youngberries, boysenberries, loganberries, raspberries etc are all taking off this year, of all of them the boysenberry would have to be my favourite, sweet, crisp and beautiful flavour.

These will all cover the fence in time to come, so far the birds have left them alone!

The Cherimoya Sophia is new, it's possible that no known fruit compares to the delicious taste of the cherimoya. They're absolutely amazing when devoured icy-cold from the freezer

Given this too is really meant for tropical areas as the white sapote is, I am hoping it will find its' secluded area enough to keep it growing! I think summer will be more of a challenge for this one.

The dragon fruits are now putting out new growth, it will be interesting to see if this wire suport on the side of the workshop is sufficient, we may yet need to further support if the commercial pictures of them growing are any indication of what's needed.

At last count we have over 40 fruits, the idea being of course to be completely self-sufficient in that area, besides which NOTHING purchased can compare with the taste of sun-warmed fruit straight from the tree/vine!

My latest purchase.....2 gorgeous weeping cherry trees. I am hoping they will do ok here, one for the front garden and the other at the side of the pond.

And that's it from me, time to head back out and enjoy the cool weather......nothing worse than trying to garden in 45C heat.......did I mention I love the cool and detest the heat......

GM Crops & Food

2011-06-18T05:30:00.003+08:00

GM food trials are going on in our Wheatbelt region, and it is absolutely infuriating that there was no consultation with the community at all!

Following is a letter I sent off this morning to Senator Ludwig

Dear Senator

I live in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia, where GM crop trials are underway.

I write with grave concerns that the allowing of GM food trials in our country may have some unintended long term effects.

"Gene technology has the potential to cause unintended effects due to random insertion of the introduced genetic material", a quote from our own government!

Whilst it is very clear to any who spend enough time researching GM food effects long term on the body that clinical trials are scant, that does not negate the fact that there could be some dire consequences, why would our own government allow this sort of thing to go on before spending a good few years on research & trials, do we want another “Thalidomide” on our hands in the years to come??

It must also be kept in mind that any potential harm with GM food can be most acute in the young, elderly and sick, particularly those suffering from HIV, hepatitis or other viral diseases. Many people suffer from allergies and other disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and for these the consumption of GM food may have unforeseen consequences and some of these may be irreversible.

Thus, for these the clear labeling of GM food must be made mandatory. ("Food Safety: Contaminants and Toxins" by J P F D'Mello, Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK, April 2003.)

Also dismissed was any risk of contamination of non-GM crops from this year's GM wheat field trials, even though all local and international evidence shows that GM can't be contained in the field.

The biggest GM contamination event in history started with a small scale field trial of Bayer's GM rice. That single contamination event cost the rice industry $1.2 billion.

I don’t want GM contaminated wheat or pastas, or any other food for that matter, and I am entitled to that choice, just as everyone is.

Since GM crops cannot be contained they should not be grown. What little research there has been today on the crops has shown very clearly that there are no long term benefits from them in terms of production, they don’t outlast our older heirloom crops, and they aren’t as robust long term!

This year organic farmer Steve Marsh lost years of work and income after GM contaminated his farm. As a result he’s been forced to sue his neighbour.

Redman’s eagerness to let GM companies have their way has resulted in a poorly managed rollout of a new technology without adequate protection for either GM or traditional farmers or the person eating those foods.

WA’s wheat farmers already supply some of the best wheat in the world - good, drought-resistant and profitable, all without GM.

Why is the taxpayer helping biotech companies run trials of GM wheat in Corrigan and Williams?

And why is food and agriculture minister Terry Redman cosying up to the likes of Monsanto?

Western Australia is the only place in the world, outside of the US, holding trials of GM wheat.

In August 2010, the WA Government sold 20% of the state’s wheat breeding company to US chemical giant, Monsanto, to develop further GM strains.

Key export markets such as in Europe have strict laws to stop its import.

Non-GM canola is currently fetching $50 more per tonne than GM.

Canadian farmers rejected GM wheat outright following their experience with Canola which saw them suffer loss of markets and widespread, unwanted crop contamination.

It’s time the WA Government stops prioritising the interests of Monsanto and other chemical companies over the farmers that grow the safe healthy food we’ve always known.

I want the introduction of farmer protection legislation in states across Australia and an end to the proliferation of GM crops. I want consumer protected laws that clearly label every food that has GM content and I want a choice…….something you don’t get when you cannot control a crop from contaminating others!

Thank you

If you feel the same way use the link at the top to let him know, you are welcome to utilise my letter if you wish:)

To read more on the issue look at True Food Network.

Cherimoya Sophia

2011-06-14T07:29:00.001+08:00

It's possible that no known fruit compares to the delicious taste of the cherimoya. They're absolutely delicious when devoured icy-cold from the freezer and eaten like ice-cream. A large evergreen tree with flowers and a scent just like the fruit tastes. Very closely related and similar in appearance to the custard apple.

The Sophia is a prolific fruiting selection with white flesh that is sweet and rich with a smooth, custardy vanilla flavour. Has performed exceedingly well in Adelaide SA. Originating in Quito, Ecuador.

My latest planting, one I am very excited about, cannot wait to taste that fruit!

This weekend we will be covering all the more sensitive fruits with some 50% shadecloth to ensure we dont lose things like last year.....19 frosts in a row was too much for about half a dozen of my plants!

Cool.......very cool.......

2011-06-12T21:54:00.001+08:00

Now this was how cool it was today, even my babies needed a blanket to sit in the sunshine!

I have to be honest, I didn't spend long outside today, the wind was absolutely biting.

I took the time to thread the Goji Berry through some framework hubby put up for me in the sheltered garden, the branches are so long and thin they were leaning all over the place.

I also took the time to clean out the chook pen, plant some more carrots, basil, celery, strawberries, onions and peas, potted a celpar for a collegue at work and did the usual domestic engineering duties (yes, housework lol).

And I took the time to do up some Prunes in Port, something my folks love.

Very simple recipe, just bring to the boil 1/3 cup brown sugar, 3 cups of any good Port, 2 cinnamon sticks and some orange and lemon peel. Once it has reached the boil pour it over the prunes in your jars, lids on and let it sit for a few months. I am told it is delicious, however since I dislike port I will never know lol.

The garden is really starting to take shape, I can finally see the last 2 years of hard work beginning to pay off, with the trees and shrubs finally settling in and putting on a lot of growth......some photos next week, I ran out of time this weekend:)

Hope your week ahead is a good one.

That Monster Monsanto......

2011-05-20T06:50:00.004+08:00

bande annonce film Monsanto by rue89

The French documentary The World According to Monsanto, directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals.
FULL LENGTH MOVIE HERE

Of plants and pavers....

2011-05-15T22:52:00.002+08:00

What a marvellous change in the weather, cool and breezy......my time of the year!

Much work has been done in the garden over the weekend. I planted out plenty of herbs and veggies, and a few trees and shrubs to boot, we cleaned out the chook pen and placed all the well worked over pea straw around the garden beds and laid out another 4 bales for the girls to de-seed for us.

And I found this pretty little thing........and have no idea what it is!

Any ideas?

There doesnt appear to be any particular smell to the flower, however I noticed the bees love it, so it stays:)

The borage is doing wonderfully.
I cut quite a lot off, including some flowers and have dried for those medicinal things we newbee herbal freaks do :P

You can see some of the carrots in the background, this is the patch I am always raiding when working in the gardens, so sweet!

The Cabbage Tree.....ever heard of it?
The leaves contain a strong fibre, used for making paper, twine, cloth, baskets, thatching, rain capes etc.

The tree produces pink to purple flowers in dense terminal bunches which are highly fragrant.

There are many medicinal uses in tribes around the world, however due to its well documented toxicity, it is not recommended to be used in modern herbal medicine practices today.

The Midyim berries are doing well after all this time, certainly took them some time to settle in. After a year the 3 of them are putting out new shoots.

The midyim fruit is likened by many as the native equivalent to a blueberry. The narrow leaves flush pink with new growth and nestles nicely into the landscape in a partially sunny spot.

Speaking of berries, I also grabbed another blueberry to try (the last one died) and a raspberry to add to the berries collection along the fence.

And of course who can go past the basil?

I dry mountains of this each year and always seem to go through it all by the time planting comes around again.

This versatile herb can be utilised in so many of your recipes.

The amaranth is sending out its flowers, I can't wait to collect this seed. I didn't put anywhere near enough in this year so will have to wait until next, thankfully I have a good few containers of it in store!

The harvesting of this seed is laborious, the seeds are miniscule, but the eating of it makes it all worthwhile!

I found more strawberries at the local garden centre, so of course had to add some more to the strawberry plot. Gives us about 10 plants now, I am hoping to add another 10 or so before its time to pick another crop next year.

Along with an Elephant ears plant and the cabbage tree, I also purchased a Galangal Ginger.

Being from the same family as ginger, it tastes similar but is stronger in flavour with a peppery citrus flavour, absolutely amazing with any type of seafood.

The Chinese system of medicine has traditionally placed great emphasis on the warming potential of the galangal herb; it has been traditionally used in the treatment of abdominal pain, in treating cases of vomiting, as well as in the treatment of persistent hiccups.
Remedies made from the galangal are also used in the treatment of persistent diarrhea

The bactericidal action of a decoction made from the galangal was observed during the course of research trials held in China in 2009, different pathogenic organism such as anthrax could be suppressed and resisted by the galangal.

The effectiveness of the galangal against the fungal organism Candida albicans was observed in the results of a research published in the year 1988, the herb was seen to be distinctly antagonistic to the pathogenic organism

And I just had to grab a couple of delightful carniverous pitcher plants

I have no idea how they will fare, they have been placed around the pond where they can keep their feet wet, if you have any hints please do share:)

And the pavers? We are putting in some drainage, if we ever got heavy downpours it would flood back in towards one of our rooms, so out with the shovel, cement and pavers and in with a good drain to carry any excess away:)

I hope your weekend was a good one, here's to a wonderful week ahead!

Delish Oils, Good Neighbours and a bountiful garden......

2011-04-30T13:50:00.005+08:00

One of the joys of gardening is that you get to share your excess produce with others. Our next door neighbours have a home business that does the most exquisite things with herbs, spices and oils, today I received the most wonderful smelling Chilli oil from them for some of the fresh chillies from my garden....a great way to share!

If you love healthy products and live in WA you really should check them out HERE, their products are all delightfully delish!

Today I planted out more carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, onions and silverbeet, all of which we eat a great deal of most of the year. The silverbeet is used fresh in quiches and I dry large quantities to use in soups, casseroles etc, in addition my chooks love it!

I've picked a pile more chillies, they too have been dried and whizzed into flakes, those I use in just about everything too, here though we like just a taste, not the full heat thing :)

The capsicums are just about ready to finish, I have dried about 3kg of them, the last plant has 3 left on it, those I will use fresh.

The tomatoes are still madly producing, with still more flowers arriving.

We love these either fresh, roasted or in soups, casseroles etc........can never have enough of these little beauties!

My white sapote has gone mad! For a tropical fruit it has certainly survived our extremes very well. It is native to the Mexican highlands and Central America. It is a pleasurable tasting fruit reminiscent of vanilla custard mixed with creamy banana and peaches.

Although often called a white sapote it is not a member of the sapote family. The yellowy-green skinned fruit has white flesh and is used primarily as a dessert fruit.
The trees have a very appealing drooping habit with long branches that can almost touch the ground. They are fast growing with two main spurts, once in early spring and again in early autumn. Casimiroa trees fruit prolifically and a healthy mature tree can produce 1000 fruit per year. They are also long lived and can crop for 100 years or more. Fruits should be picked when they are just beginning to soften and change colour from green to yellow, if picked too soon they are astringent.

The pommegranate has fruited, although I have to say it seems as though the fruit takes forever to ripen!

Of course being the impatient one that I am I will admit about 4 fruit have gone by the wayside because I picked them way too early!

This time they stay until a brilliant red :)

Chooks are waiting for a feed! They have had their ramble in the garden, before I planted out all those seeds I might add!

The Dragon fruits are doing very well, I have both the pink & yellow, hopefully next year we will see some fruit on them!

And what do they taste like? The pitaya or dragon fruits are delicious, they have a delicate flavour, the flesh is watery and textured with the small black edible seeds. They are lovely eaten fresh out of hand or sliced into a fruit salad.

Research show that this red dragon fruit is good for the circulatory system and also reduces emotional pressure and neutralizes toxins in the blood. Research also shows that this fruit can prevent colon cancer, reduce level of fat in the body, and prevent high cholesterol.

Overall, every red dragon fruit contains adequate protein that can increase metabolism and care for cardiovascular; fiber (to prevent colon cancer, diabetes, and diet); karotin (eye health, strengthen the brain and prevent the disease to enter body), calcium (bone strengtening).

Dragon fruit also contain adequate iron to increase the blood’ vitamin B1 (prevent fever); vitamin B2 (add to taste); vitamin B3 (lower cholesterol), and vitamin C (increase slipperiness and smoothness of skin, prevent acne).
Quite a list of benefits I'd say:)

The Indian Cream Guava is growing madly, seemingly putting on inches a day now it has settled in.

Even if this never bore fruit I just love the shape of the trees, we have 3 in, two red and one white, can't wait to taste the fruits, however I suspect it will be a year or two yet.

Another of the guavas, only this time the Strawberry one. Now these, like the yellow cherry ones I could eat all day.

What I love about these fruits apart from their taste is the prolific nature when fruiting, they just keep sending out fruits for extended amounts of time here.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend:)

Pay it Forward Day: 29 April

2011-04-13T22:14:00.005+08:00

There is tremendous power and positive energy in giving – it is a shame that not enough people have experienced it to the fullest.

Pay It Forward Day is about all people, from all walks of life, giving to someone else and making a positive difference.

More than 15 countries around the world, including Australia, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany, participate in the event.

There are many of us that have been doing this for years now, not just on the day, but regularly over the years - its fun, it costs nothing more than a little postage, and it promotes sharing with others. It's about recycling, passing on information, skills, goods or sometimes its just a simple smile or how are you...try it:)

I would like to offer the Pay It Foward to all Aussies (sorry to those outside of Aussie, but postage rates are horrendous here), with the book titled "The Great Disruption - how the climate will transform the global economy" by Paul Gilding.

If you would like to win from a draw there is only one rule..........you must join in on the Pay It Forward on your blog, with something you think others would enjoy. Just leave your name with your comment. Entries close 29th April, 2011.

You know, I often ponder on the pay it forwards, we so often touch lives but are unaware, (from the simple smile to the real "going out of our way" stuff).....that in itself is worth treasuring:)

On another note, my garden is overflowing with guavas, capsicums (peppers), chillies, pepino and other goodies, just have to love eating what you grow, there is so much satisfaction each time you put it on the table!

Saturday sowing.......

2011-04-02T09:32:00.004+08:00

This morning was just delightful-sun shining, breeze cool, I just couldn't help but spend the early hours of this morning in the garden!

I planted out the Elephant Garlic. Now for lovers of a VERY mild garlic taste, this is the garlic for you, although truth be told it is more closely aligned to the leek than true garlic, and doesn't have the medicinal values, so I also planted out some of the more traditional garlic for tinctures.
Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum) is probably more closely related to the leek than to the normal variety. The bulbs are very large and can weigh over a pound. A single clove of elephant garlic can be as large as a whole bulb of ordinary garlic.

In terms of flavour, elephant garlic is to garlic what leeks are to onions. It is much less intense and sweeter. It has been described - rather unkindly - as "garlic for people who don't like garlic".

Cloves are large, easy to peel and can be eaten raw, sliced into salads. It can also be steamed or boiled as a vegetable, cooked like onions in a soup or baked in the oven. Young leaves can be sliced and added to salads or used as a garnish. It is high in vitamins A, C and E.

Pest Control; useful as an ornamental planted at the back of rose gardens to repel pests such as aphids.

One more secret. The flowers, the big lovely flowers are very tasty indeed. Sweet, floral, onion-garlic spice. Toss a few in a salad, the flowers alone are worth keeping the plant for.

Elephant garlic is a source of manganese, phosphorus, iron, copper and Vitamins B6 and C.

Calories: 13.4, Protein: 0.6g, Carbohydrate: 3g, Total Fat: 0.04g, Fibre: 0.2g

I also planted out some Herb Robert. There are some very intriguing stories on this herb, apart from anything else it is a pretty plant to have in the garden....be careful though, it can spread like wildfire!

Herb Robert
Geranium Robertianum
Family GERANIACEAE
This delightful herb has many names: Herb Robertianum, St. Robert, Storkbill, Cranesbill, Red Robin, Fox geranium, St. Robert's Wort, Bloodwort, Felonwort, Dragon's blood.

It is an irrepressible, joyous addition to any garden and will add beauty, health, healing wherever it grows.

Constituents: volatile oil, bitters, tannin, geraiine

Vitamins: A, B, C
Minerals: calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, germanium

Actions: astringent, antibiotic, adaptogen, antiviral, styptic, tonic, diuretic, digestive, sedative, antioxidant

Medicinal uses: Herb robert is a supreme, therapeutic herb. Although, very little information is available, on the constituents, this herb’s action is one of the most outstanding herbs that we can use regularly, as an enhancer of the immune system.

Research has revealed herb robert is a source of germanium, a valuable element to the body, as it has the ability to make oxygen available to the cells.

It is used internally for diarrhoea, gastrointestinal infections, dysentery, peptic ulcers, skin ulcers and haemorrhage. It also helps with inflammation of the urinary tract, cystitis and kidney stones. It staunches bleeding and mucous discharge, and promotes healing.

Externally Herb Robert is used for skin eruptions, inflammations, wounds, bruises, nosebleeds and herpes. An infusion makes a good gargle for inflamed gums and throat, and also as an eyewash for inflamed eyes. Fresh leaves rubbed on the skin repel mosquitoes.

Herb Robert contains tannins, which probably are responsible for its ability to check bleeding and diarrhea and alleviate sore throats and skin irritations. Research showing that herb Robert lowers blood-sugar levels supports its use in treating diabetes. It is little used today, however. Further studies are necessary to confirm its use in treating other illnesses.

The herb can be used fresh and dried. It is best harvested for drying as flowering begins.

The details provided above are for information only, and is in no way intended to substitute for the advice of a health care professional. I encourage readers to consult a physician or a medical herbalist before trying anything herbal.

Around the pond......

2011-03-30T22:19:00.003+08:00

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Today was delightful. I pottered in the garden until it was too warm for comfort and then came inside to try preserving guava pulp in a syrup for bottling - time will tell if this little experiment worked or not:)

The pond is looking so natural now, hard to believe it has been less than a year in, and already the local wildlife are calling it home. The only problem we are having is with the algae, anyone have any ideas about how to control this in a natural manner? If so please let me know.

The days are still warm, with cooler evenings and mornings. I am hoping this will help the latest lot of seeds I have put in, including my first crop of Amaranth.....for those not familiar with this amaging grain here are a few facts:
Amaranth (Amaranthus) has a colorful history, is highly nutritious, and the plant itself is extremely attractive and useful. Amaranth was a staple in the diets of pre-Columbian Aztecs

Amaranth is used in various cultures in some very interesting ways. In Mexico it is popped and mixed with a sugar solution to make a confection called "alegria" (happiness), and milled and roasted amaranth seed is used to create a traditional Mexican drink called "atole."

Peruvians use fermented amaranth seed to make "chicha" or beer. In the Cusco area the flowers are used to treat toothache and fevers and as a food colorant for maize and quinoa. During the carnival festival women dancers often use the red amaranth flower as rouge, painting their cheeks, then dancing while carrying bundles of amaranth on their backs as they would a baby.

In both Mexico and Peru the amaranth leaves are gathered then used as a vegetable either boiled or fried. In India amaranth is known as "rajeera" (the King’s grain) and is popped then used in confections called "laddoos," which are similar to Mexican "alegria."

In Nepal, amaranth seeds are eaten as gruel called "sattoo" or milled into flour to make chappatis. In Ecuador, the flowers are boiled then the colored boiling water is added to "aquardeinte" rum to create a drink that "purifies the blood," and is also reputed to help regulate the menstrual cycle.

Since 1975 amaranth has been gaining support in the U.S. and is now grown in Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, and other states, but is still not a mainstream food. It is found in many natural food stores and the flour is often used in baked goods.

The name amaranth hails from the Greek for "never-fading flower." The plant is an annual herb, not a "true" grain and is a relative of pigweed, a common wild plant also known as lamb’s-quarters, as well as the garden plant we know as Cockscomb. There are approximately 60 species of amaranth and there is no definite distinction between amaranth grown for the leaf (vegetable), and the seed (grain).

Amaranth is a bushy plant that grows 5 to 7 feet, with broad leaves and a showy flower head of small, red or magenta, clover like flowers which are profuse, and constitute the plants exquisite, feathery plumes. The seed heads resemble corn tassels, but are somewhat bushier. They are quite striking as well. The seeds are tiny (1/32"), lens shaped, and are a golden to creamy tan color, sprinkled with some occasional dark colored seeds.

Each plant is capable of producing 40,000 to 60,000 seeds. The leaves of ornamental varieties, such as Joseph’s Coat resemble the coleus plant and are quite striking. Their coloring can range from deep red, purple-red, orange, pink, green, to white. The sight of a full-grown amaranth field with its vividly colored leaves, stems and flower or seed heads is an amazingly beautiful sight that evokes much emotion.

Aside from amaranth being such an attractive plant it is extremely adaptable to adverse growing conditions. It resists heat and drought, has no major disease problems, and is among the easiest of plants to grow. Simply scratching the soil, throwing down some seeds, and watering will reward you with some of these lovely plants.

Amaranth can be cooked as a cereal, ground into flour, popped like popcorn, sprouted, or toasted. The seeds can be cooked with other whole grains, added to stir-fry or to soups and stews as a nutrient dense thickening agent.

Amaranth flour is used in making pastas and baked goods. It must be mixed with other flours for baking yeast breads, as it contains no gluten. One part amaranth flour to 3-4 parts wheat or other grain flours may be used. In the preparation of flatbreads, pancakes and pastas, 100% amaranth flour can be used. Sprouting the seeds will increase the level of some of the nutrients and the sprouts can be used on sandwiches and in salads, or just to munch on.

To cook amaranth boil 1 cup seeds in 2-1/2 cups liquid such as water or half water and half stock or apple juice until seeds are tender, about 18 to 20 minutes. Adding some fresh herbs or gingerroot to the cooking liquid can add interesting flavors or mix with beans for a main dish. For a breakfast cereal increase the cooking liquid to 3 cups and sweeten with Stevia, honey or brown rice syrup and add raisins, dried fruit, allspice and some nuts.

Amaranth has a "sticky" texture that contrasts with the fluffier texture of most grains and care should be taken not to overcook it as it can become "gummy." Amaranth flavor is mild, sweet, nutty, and malt like, with a variance in flavor according to the variety being used.

Amaranth keeps best if stored in a tightly sealed container, such as a glass jar, in the refrigerator. This will protect the fatty acids it contains from becoming rancid. The seeds should be used within 3 to 6 months.

The leaves of the amaranth plant taste much like spinach and are used in the same manner that spinach is used. They are best if consumed when the plant is young and tender.

Amaranth seed is high in protein (15-18%) and contains respectable amounts of lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids that are not frequently found in grains. It is high in fiber and contains calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamins A and C.

The fiber content of amaranth is three times that of wheat and its iron content, five times more than wheat. It contains two times more calcium than milk. Using amaranth in combination with wheat, corn or brown rice results in a complete protein as high in food value as fish, red meat or poultry.

Amaranth also contains tocotrienols (a form of vitamin E) which have cholesterol-lowering activity in humans. Cooked amaranth is 90% digestible and because of this ease of digestion, it has traditionally been given to those recovering from an illness or ending a fasting period. Amaranth consists of 6-10% oil, which is found mostly within the germ. The oil is predominantly unsaturated and is high in linoleic acid, which is important in human nutrition.

The amaranth seeds have a unique quality in that the nutrients are concentrated in a natural "nutrient ring" that surrounds the center, which is the starch section. For this reason the nutrients are protected during processing. The amaranth leaf is nutritious as well containing higher calcium, iron, and phosphorus levels than spinach.
Check out more info on Chets site

I love popping this unique little grain. Simply heat a pan, no oil and put a small amount in to pop, set that aside and repeat. I have found putting too much in the pan at once tends to leave some burnt and unpopped. I love the mellow flavour of this grain and add it io just about everything!

Food and Peak Everything..........

2011-03-30T09:47:00.000+08:00

Peak climate, peak oil, peak population, peak water....amongst the many things these conditions affect, one of them that immediately comes to mind is your food!

Today’s world is plagued by hunger, and despite all our technological advancement we are unable to control many of the aspects that cause it.

With climate change, the earth’s climate has changed drastically, influencing the seasons and thus crop growth around the globe. While the climate is contributing on one end to the ever-increasing food prices, another major contributor to this issue is oil.

The fossil fuels are undergoing fast depletion with excessive usage, and as the stock continues to decline or become ever harder to extract, the prices increase steadily.

Fertilizers are one of the by-products of oil refining. Increases in fuel costs directly affect the cost of fertilizers. Then of course, an increase in fertilizer prices, leads to increased food pricing.

Fuel is also required for the transportation of food from farms to the local markets, or for export.

We also need to examine the new trend in biofuel. Several crops today, including corn and sugar cane, are mostly grown for biofuel, leaving less food for people to eat!

While maize is the staple food of Africa, it the most widely used biofuel in America. As much as food is important, fuel is also important, and the nations are torn between attempts to attain a balance between both.

Will 2011 be the year that we point to as the beginning of the great global food crisis? Food prices are soaring, supplies are very tight and already we have seen some very intense food protests flare up around the globe this year.

When people don’t have enough to eat, they tend to become very desperate, and unfortunately it looks like the global food situation is not going to improve much any time soon.

Right now the world is really struggling to feed itself, and with each passing day there are even more mouths to feed.

It is being projected that the population of the world will reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. A worrying factor given the planet can only support 2 million of us living as we currently do and maintain a healthy balance!

There are already way too many people starving to death around the globe, and unfortunately starvation is only going to become more rampant as food supplies get even tighter.

Some of the key food producing provinces in China are facing their worst drought in 200 years.

Flooding has absolutely devastated agricultural production in Australia and Brazil this winter.

Russia is still trying to recover from the horrific drought of last summer.

Global weather patterns have gone haywire over the past 12 months, and this is putting immense pressure on a global food system that was already on the verge of a major breakdown.

Food stockpiles all over the world are disturbingly low at this point. If a major global famine broke out not even the United States would be able to last for long. The U.S. government is supposed to be keeping a lot of food stockpiled in the event of an emergency, but that is just not happening, not in the US or anywhere else.

The following are 14 facts that make you wonder if the coming global food shortage has already begun….

#1 According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. corn reserves will drop to a 15 year low by the end of 2011.

#2 The United Nations says that the global price of food hit another new all-time high in the month of January.

#3 The price of corn has doubled in the past six months.

#4 The price of wheat has roughly doubled since the middle of 2010.

#5 According to Forbes, the price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.

#6 The United Nations is projecting that the global price of food will increase by another 30 percent by the end of 2011.

#7 Due to all of the unprecedented flooding, the winter wheat crop in Australia has been absolutely devastated.

#8 This winter Brazil was hit by some of the worst flooding that nation has ever seen. This has substantially hampered food production in that country.

#9 Russia, one of the largest wheat producers on the entire globe, is still feeling the effects of last summer’s scorching temperatures. In fact, Russia is actually importing wheat this winter to sustain its cattle herds.

#10 China is busy preparing for a “severe, long-lasting drought” that is projected to have a huge impact on several provinces. In fact, Chinese state media says that the eastern province of Shandong is dealing with the worst drought it has seen in 200 years. The provinces being affected by this severe drought grow approximately two-thirds of the wheat in China. The following is a very short video news report about the horrible drought that China is going through right now….

#11 It appears that Chinese imports of corn will be about 9 times larger than the U.S. Department of Agriculture originally projected them to be for 2011.

#12 Approximately 1 billion people around the world go to bed hungry each night.

#13 Somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds, and 75 percent of those are children under the age of five.

#14 As food has become increasingly scarce around the world, many companies have started using whatever kinds of “fillers” that they can think of in their “food” products. For example, Raw Story is reporting that some companies in China have actually been mass producing “fake rice” that is made partly of plastic. According to one Chinese Restaurant Association official, eating three bowls of this fake rice is the equivalent of consuming an entire plastic bag.

Growing your own food is more important than ever. The shortages may not have hit you, but the rising costs of everything associated with food have, look at what you are paying for those groceries and compare it even to even 6 months ago.

By starting your home garden now, you are putting those skills on a learning curve. By the time you really need to be growing much of what you eat you will be well versed in growing foods, your own climate and how it works on your food and you will have a stockpile of preserved goodies......

Think about it:)

Growing, harvesting & processing.....

2011-03-27T17:59:00.000+08:00

Yesterday in the cool of the morning I went out scouting in the garden to see what was available to add to dinner......and came up with this selection:)

Fresh, no chemicals, and grown with my own hands, nothing beats the food from our gardens!

I made tomato, chilli and bacon pasta and used the pommegranate and the yellow cherry guavas as a sauce over ice-cream.

Obviously there were too many chillies, we like the flavour with little heat, so out came the dehydrator and in they went. One jar of them whole dried, the remainder I whizzed in the blender and have now stored as chilli flakes:)

I love that later on in the year, when these foods are out of season we can still eat them without any of the food miles you get when you buy from the super markets!

Speaking of the ice-cream, somebody asked me for the recipe....cannot for the life of me remember whom, but here it is. You have not lived until you have tried it!

Homemade Ice-Cream:
2 cups evaporated milk
2 cups of cream
1/2 cup fine sugar
1/4 tsp of vanilla essence
Whisk well until sugar is disolved. Place in freezer and whisk every 30 mins to prevent crystals forming.
Try not to eat all at once!

OR..........
If you are feeling realllllllly bad, here is my:

Cake Batter Ice-Cream:
1 cup milk
2 cups of whipping cream
1/2 cup fine sugar
1 and 1/4 cups of sifted vanilla cake mix
one small pinch of salt

Whisk well ( a blender is best for this mixture) and place in freezer, whisking every 30 minutes to prevent crystals forming.

Both of them are delicious, but very rich - one scoop with your favourite fruit is enough.

Hope your week ahead is a good one:)

Scientists blown away by rising wind speeds.........

2011-03-25T20:52:00.002+08:00

Swinburne University of Technology 3122 Wind speeds and wave heights over the world's oceans have been steadily increasing for the past quarter of a century, a new long-term study shows.

The researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne say the trend could also have an effect on the transfer of energy between the sea and the atmosphere - one of the great unknowns in climate change calculations.

The study, published today in Science Express online, uses satellite altimeter data taken from 1985 to 2008 to show wind speeds over the oceans have been steadily increasing.

The areas that show increased wind speeds in the study also show increased wave heights.

The lead author on the paper, Professor Ian Young who is now Australian National University vice-chancellor, says the study shows the largest increases are happening in extreme conditions.
"Extreme wind speeds have increased over most of the globe by approximately 10 per cent over the last 20 years, or 0.5 per cent every year," he says.
"Extreme wave heights have increased by an average of 7 per cent over the last 20 years.
"Off the southern coast of Australia, the highest 1 per cent of waves has increased in height from approximately five metres to almost six metres."

Rising faster
The researchers say average wind speeds over most of the world's oceans have also increased by at least 0.25 per cent per year.
Co-author Professor Alexander Babanin says it is unclear yet how, or if, the trend relates to global climate change.

"All we can say is that there is an overall trend, but extrapolating that into the future has to be done with caution," he said. But he says the record adds an important and often overlooked variable to climate change studies.

"If we talk about climate, usually we talk about temperature changing, we talk often about precipitation; but we talk much less about the winds and the waves," he said.
"They are environmental indicators of changes in the climate just as the temperature and precipitation and other parameters in the air-sea system."

"The ocean will be warmer in some parts and colder in other parts. That creates pressure differences and that creates winds.
"When you change the pressure patterns and if the temperature difference is getting bigger, pressure differences are getting bigger, the winds will perhaps grow higher, and the patterns of the winds may change."

Professor Babanin says it is the first study to deliver such a complete picture. Previous studies had relied on observations from ships at sea and wave buoys, which meant most data was collected close to shore and in major shipping lanes.

"So in terms of the uniform and consistent global coverage this is the first one of its kind," he said.
FULL STORY HERE...

Autumn is here.......

2011-03-21T07:40:00.003+08:00

I am loving the cooler nights and mornings, such a change from our horrid summer! Because of the heat nothing much gets done in my garden over summer periods, however there was one blessing... we added some shade to beat the heat on the more sensitive summer vegies and herbs! Growing in here are carrot, amaranth, leeks, welsh onions, cabbage, cauli, a vaiety of herbs, capsicums, silverbeet and a gogji berry. The yellow tags are to remind me what I planted where :)

The fruit trees are all doing well. This miniature pommegranate is fruiting for the first time, ideal size for lunch boxes and a quick snack-they taste delicious.

These trees seem to thrive on relatively little water, a bonus for our area!

We have had extraodinary amounts of fruits from our Yellow Cherry Guavas. They taste divine and seem to go on fruiting for many months-as you can see it is still loaded and we pick daily. We have 2 of these, 5 of the strawberry guavas which are my favourites, along with 3 indian cream guavas and a pineapple guava. An excellent source of vitamin c you cannot go wrong with guavas in my book.

The Chillies are fruiting and still have a ton of flowers on them.
We use them sparingly since none of us like anything super hot. I keep a few fresh to use as I need, the remainder I dry, whizz into flakes and powder and that keeps us going for a year:)

The new roof is on, the house is certainly cooler with it being tin and double insulated. The old was a charcoal coloured cement tile. No more leaks, no more heating the house in summer!

The bathroom is nearly complete having been renovated from the floor up! New everything, just waiting for the cabinet maker to finish off the vanity which will run from one wall to the other.....hey!....a girl can never have enough bathroom space ................ :)

All in all its been a very productive 12 months, most of what we wanted changed after we purchased is now complete, with the exception of the garden, that will take more time of course, and a lot more plants....why am I smiling as I type that? LOL

Hope you all had a great weekend, here's to a wonderful week ahead:)

Global Food Prices.........

2011-02-04T06:39:00.001+08:00

World food prices have hit a record high in January after rising for a seventh consecutive month, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said, warning the poor would be hit hardest.

The FAO Food Price Index, which monitors monthly price changes for a basket of commodities, averaged 231 points in January - up 3.4 per cent from December and its highest level since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990.

"The new figures clearly show the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating. These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come," FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian said.

The rises were particularly high for dairy products - up 6.2 per cent - and oils and fats rose 5.6 per cent from the previous month, while cereals went up 3 per cent because of lower global supply of wheat and maize.

Meat prices remained broadly stable due to a fall in prices in Europe caused by last month's scare over dioxin poisoning in eggs and pork in Germany, compensated by a slight increase in export prices from Brazil and the US.

"High food prices are of major concern especially for low-income food deficit countries that may face problems in financing food imports and for poor households which spend a large share of their income on food," Mr Abbassian said.

"The only encouraging factor so far stems from a number of countries where - due to good harvests - domestic prices of some of the food staples remain low compared to world prices."

FAO data released on Thursday showed the Food Price Index hit 200 points in 2008 at the height of the 2007-08 food crisis. It breached that level for the first time in October 2010 with 205 points and has risen further since then.
Link

Add the cost of all the natural disasters across the world impacting on things such as bananas and sugar, wheat crops and other staples and it really does pay to grow your own wherever you can!

Absolutely terrifying......

2011-01-30T21:42:00.000+08:00

This is the storm we are just getting over! It rolled in about 5pm here yesterday, power has been out since then, came back on 25 hours later. The sky turned pitch black and then blood red.....almost biblical in effects!

Never in the 50 years that I have lived in this region have I ever seen anything like it!

Winds were well over the 100km's an hour, and the dust?....you had to see it to believe it, I am still trying to get it all out, it covered absolutely everything....and that was with every window closed...

Our side fence metal posts have been bent over so the fence is on a lean, we lost 3 sheets of tin from our double storey workshops and the flame tree in the very back of the yard split in half, other than that we were very lucky, others fared much worse poor things.

Massive trees just like this one looked as though they had just been effortlessly plucked from the ground, and they were everywhere.

Most Aussies would know what trees I am talking about when I call them "Widowmakers"...the ghost gums. Never, I mean NEVER plant one of those on your property unless it is miles away from any buildings, those things snap limbs off whenever they choose, and believe me, after my drive around our community today I am betting we see nearly all of them removed. I lost count of how many were on top of houses!

The power came back on about 6pm today thank heavens, it was so humid I spent the day spritzing myself every 5 minutes, I truly don't cope well with heat and spent most of last night sitting outside in the dark just to try and find some breeze....remember, no power=no aircon!

When the power went down we covered our freezer with a large heavy blanket, after 25 hours I am pleased to say all we lost was the icecream and some ice. One thing I had forgotten was to have at least 8 litres of ice ready to put into the fridge to keep it cool, however because we didn't open it everything survived there too.

And as the power returned, life settled back into routine.........and I thought about Queensland and their floods and how easy we had just got off, how relatively minor we had suffered in comparison....

I hope your weekends were a little less eventful :)

And time marches on......

2011-01-26T21:52:00.000+08:00

Good grief time can fly can't it? Time here has been taken with family, work and the dreaded renovations, gardening has come a sorry last for the last couple of months sadly.

The bathroom renos are underway, everything has been ripped out, floor sorted, new shower unit put in, now I am waiting for the flooring ppl to come put the floor covering down. Hubby has to complete the walling where the old shower was removed, then the plumbers back to put in the pedestal handbasin and the loo..........only then can I get the cabinet maker in to put in a room length vanity unit....after that the painter!

To top it all off, with all these tradeys running around we have had roof leaks that we haven't had before. Upon getting a few to check we have had each of them say the same thing, the old cement tiles have had it, as has all the cement etc up there............there goes $19,000.00!

On the bright side, by the time I retire there will be nothing left to do on the house and I can sit back and relax a little LOL

The heat here is just horrid. Friday they are forecasting 44C.....ugh!! Thankfully I am on long service leave that day, you can bet it's garden at 5am and hibernation from 9am onwards!

The yellow cherry guavas have got the most enormous crops on them, if you haven't tried them, buy a plant, they don't mind light frosts and are very drought hardy........and the taste is delicious:)

My mango finally bit the dust. That horrendous run of 19 frosts last winter was just too much, no matter how much I nursed it it did not help. I will try another though, only this time in winter the shadecloth will come out!

The white sapote is going crazy, the black ones are doing it a little tough, will be interesting to see how they all end up.

The variety of berries are slowly taking off, there is a mix of boysenberries, youngberries, elderberries, silvanberries etc, they will eventually cover the fence on one side of the property.

The dragonfruits, both pink & yellow are also beginning to throw some wonderful growth.

We are training these over one side of the shed, not only will it look lovely it will cool the shed too.

Five red panama passionfruit are beginning to trail across the fenceline on the other side of the yard, this will not only provide us with a little more privacy (not that I mind really, we have a lovely couple next door) but will also provide more shade to the garden bed.........and in this heat you can bet it's needed lol.

The four grapevines are also putting on a display of grapes, albeit a limited crop as they are only a couple of years old. The birds have already found them of course, I am trying to decide if I should bag or net........any thoughts?

The strawberries were burning so badly that I have had to cover them with shadecloth, this of course has reduced the fruiting to some degree, however, given they are only new plants I would rather they grow and send out runners (which they are doing) for next year, by then we will have a permanent, lighter shade cover over that area.

I am hoping to get some amaranth in this weekend, I just love that grain, especially toasted (it pops like corn only the grain is miniscule), leaves a soft nutty taste, try it over your salads.....scrumptious, brilliant in almost any dish you can think of!

Well, that's it from me tonight, age must be creeping up, 10pm and I am ready for bed and a book lol.

Take care of you and yours:)

Rain Water.......

2011-01-09T07:57:00.001+08:00

I simply adore the sound of the pitter-patter of rain on any hard surface. That water flowing down the gutters and into the storm drain is a valuable resource.

We not only depend on water, we also pay for it. So, why not put that rainwater to use?

A few posts ago I spoke of our receiving just a little rain, a blessing considering we are in drought mode. It got me thinking about my comment that plants tend to thrive so much better on rainwater...........why?

My research shows a few considerations. Rain may contain a variety of nutrients: phosphorus, sulfur, ammonium, nitrate, even metals like iron and manganese.

Fresh normal rainwater is naturally mildly acidic, because it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and makes a weak carbonic acid solution.

My understanding is that the acidity of rain varies quite a bit, depending on the season as well as geography, but it is always at least mildly acidic.

Electric charges from thunderstorms also dissolve a small amount of nitrogen into the rainwater in the form of nitrates

Most plants are better able to take up nutrients when the pH is between 6.0-7.2, so it does seem logical that when you've got fresh rain saturated soils, the plants are able to take up more nitrogen and other nutrients than they are when watered with tap water.

The other factor that makes rainwater different from tap water is the hardness, which is a measurement of minerals in the water.

Rain is "soft" water, in that there are no minerals deposited in it, while the ground water from rivers, lakes and reservoirs that becomes our tap water absorbs some of the calcium and magnesium in our soils, and is "hard" water.

These calcium deposits raise the pH (making our soil more alkaline), which makes it harder for the plants to take up certain nutrients.

In addition, rainwater doesn't contain chlorine, fluoride and other salts that have been added to tap water.

These added chemicals affect the soil flora which have an effect on soil fertility.

Nearly any homeowner can collect rainwater, since the roof and gutters do most of the work.

Furthermore, they can harvest huge volumes. An inch of rain, falling on a 2,000-square-foot roof, produces 1,200 gallons of runoff, which is enough to supply a family of four for about two weeks.

Assuming homeowners are allowed to collect it, there are a slew of benefits that come with the purity of rainwater.

Plants prefer it, especially if tap water has been treated with softening salts, which dampen plant growth.

The lack of minerals in rainwater make it more effective for washing hair or doing the dishes.

Furthermore, reducing or eliminating mineral deposits in pipes and water heaters can extend their life, requiring less maintenance and associated costs.

Using rainwater has obvious budgetary benefits, but there are reasons to do it besides putting a dent in the water bill.

With countries around the world anticipating water shortages within the next five years, this may become an attractive option for many

In some places, collecting rainwater is a crime.

Colorado and other western states in America have water rights dating back to the 1800s that give priority to decades-old properties for water access.

Under these restrictions, any captured rainwater is considered stolen from those who own the waterways into which that water would have flowed had it not been collected. Who would believe they would still allow such a moronic law to exist in an age where the lack of water for ever burgeoning populations is a constant threat

Resolution? Get as many water collectors (rain water tanks) around your home as you can, use them with soaker hoses, solar pumps etc. Build swales where you can hold the water for longer periods, allowing it to spread deeper across your land.

Don't waste a drop.....

WE ARE ALL CITIZENS OF A PROFOUNDLY DISTURBED PLANET..

2011-01-07T06:44:00.000+08:00

This video, full of simple home truths is well worth watching. It very clearly explains we are well past the "fix-it" stage and suggests a way forward that is simple, managable but to my mind not enough........see what you think....

Holiday Activities....

2011-01-04T22:13:00.003+08:00

It was wonderful to take some time off over the Christmas/New Year period. I got stuck into the garden..albeit in the early hours of the mornings, the days have been scorchers!

The first area to be cleaned up was around the dragonfruits. The border had come adrift in some places, some cement and a hubby later and all ready to have a fresh layer of composting materials.

The herb garden was the next job. I pulled out all the herbs that were finished, saving seed as I went. The soil had a great load of chook manure spread over it and some mulched branches from a host of various trees I had been pruning.

I picked the last of the onions and leeks, keeping enough fresh for the week and dehydrated the rest, the same with the last of the silverbeet. Seed saving was done with those too.

The welsh onions are getting ready to harvest, I love those things! Grow some Welsh onions and you need never be without an onion. This non-bulbous perennial, the so-called everlasting onion, keeps on increasing. So long as the whole clump isn’t gathered, the few remaining onions will continue to produce more stems. Each clump looks something like a bunch of spring onions about 12 ins in height

Bunching or multiplier onions (also called green onion, Welsh onion, Japanese onion and scallions) produce continuous clusters of small pearl type onions. To grow them from seed, plant in late winter to early spring for an early summer harvest, and in fall for late winter, early spring harvest. Sets should be planted in the fall. Once you have established some clumps, simply harvest as needed

Onions will store better if they are dried for several days outdoors, away from direct sunlight. Leave tops on bulbs during drying. After drying, cut tops within an inch of bulb.

Fresh sweet onions can be stored for several weeks in a cool, dark place. They can be stored in the refrigerator, but do not put them in plastic bags. This will inhibit air circulation.

Storage onions should be dried for a longer period of 10 to 14 days. After cured, the tops can be removed and onions stored in mesh bags, or dried tops can be braided into a string of onions. Depending on the variety, storage onions will remain firm and flavorful if kept in a cool, dry place (32 to 45°F) for 3 to 6 months or more.

The pond is becoming more productive, check out the size of the bullrushes above! Water lilies are edible a number of different ways as a cooked vegetable, the seeds can be ground into flour, the buds can be cooked, and as a cooked green in soup.

The roots of some varieties when they are released from the mud at the bottom of a pond float to the surface and can be eaten like potatoes.

The marron (fresh water crayfish) are growing steadily, we won't be eating them though for a couple of years to allow them to build in numbers.

We have kingfishers, magpies, doves, 28's (parrots) and all sorts of other birds visting the pond, some to sit under one of the waterfalls, the kingfishers to steal the minnows and water scorpions and yet others such as the cranes from the river to wade and see what they can garnish!

I hope the New Year ahead brings each of you all you need along with much happiness:)

FOOD STORAGE IS MADNESS?

2011-01-03T05:41:00.002+08:00

I don't think so! For those of us who homestead, and that of course includes having storage.......we will be miles in front. Why? Let me tell you with this article in todays local news.......

Western Australian consumers can expect to pay much higher prices for fruit and vegetables in the coming months due to the floods in Queensland and Carnarvon.
Flooding has destroyed crops in three key food growing regions of Queensland and John Cummings from the National Association of Retail Grocers says WA growers will struggle to meet national demand.

Mr Cummings says pumpkin prices have more than doubled this week and he is expecting more pressure on the prices of other fruit and vegetables.

"Local tomatoes will be travelling over to Queensland so if we want to buy local tomatoes we've got to pay more for it because they can get a higher price in the eastern states," he said.

Prices for mangoes, bananas, tomatoes and capsicums are expected to cost four times their normal price within days.

Mr Cummings expects the prices to remain high for months while farmers come to grips with the damage.

"It's a 10 to 20 billion dollar industry that we're talking about here and a big section of that has been wiped out. (source)

Now admittedly my fruits and veggies are home dried, purchased & stored or home canned, but it does mean I won't go without or pay a ludicrous price because of the old "supply & demand" law.

Yet another example of why it pays to play the ant and not the grasshopper:)

PEAK OIL? THINK PEAK WATER...........

2011-01-01T06:13:00.003+08:00

If you think peak oil is going to be a problem, then there's an even bigger one facing us in many regions of Aussie............Peak Water!

2010 hottest and second driest for Perth

The city recorded 503 mm of rain in 2010, well below the average of 868. The Water Corporation says WA's dam levels are very low. About 13-billion litres of water flowed into the state's dams in 2010, compared to 100-billion litres in past years.
The corporation's Clair Lugar says it is the worst it has been since 1913.
"Dam levels at the moment are at around 30 per cent full. So they are about 110 billion litres of water less in them then we had at this same day last year," she said.

Nadine Baillard from the weather bureau says temperatures also soared.
"That was an average of just over 25 degrees and that ranges from a hot 42.9 to a cool 13.3 over the year," she said.
credit: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/31/3104550.htm

State Agriculture Minister Terry Redman says the state's grain sector is losing $250 million a week because of a lack of rainfall.

The Wheatbelt has a Mediterranean climate characterised by hot dry summers and cool wet winters. The western part of the Wheatbelt is generally wetter than the eastern Wheatbelt.

In the south-west of the state, climate changes include an increase of average temperature by 0.8 oC since 1910, with temperature increases, and a decrease in the average daily range. Rainfall in the south-west has decreased by 10-20 per cent since 1975.

A predicted drying of the eastern Wheatbelt will heighten the importance of cereal producing areas in the west of the region, which are also under the greatest pressure to accommodate non-agricultural land uses. In particular, the shires of Toodyay, Northam, York and Wandering may come under pressure for further non-agricultural land use.

I remember as a child in winter it would rain at least 3 times a week in this region, if not daily. We had crazy summer storms that brought heavy rain.......I haven't seen weather like that for years.

The importance of recycling every drop of water we can and placing rainwater tanks onto our properties cannot be stressed enough, at least that way we have some control over our pottable water in the future.

2011-01-01T05:34:00.001+08:00

And the New Year is upon us. I wish an amazing year ahead for each and every one of you, may it bring all you need with lots of joy:)

The year ahead for me is going to be simpler and slower. More time in the garden and more time with friends and family...........can't get much simpler than that:)

Simply Cute........

2010-12-21T06:54:00.001+08:00

The WWF and Greening Australia partnered in putting a few cameras around our local bushland, here is a glimpse of what they found:)
Yet another reason to leave what little natural habitat we have left alone.....

Finally.............some rain!

2010-12-06T07:53:00.001+08:00

Not a lot of rain, but a gentle drizzle for most of the night, at least it means a little less water from the mains and of course we all know that the rain will make everything grow sooooo much better than anything from a tap!

Seeds to be collected are everywhere, this lot are from the Rhubarb, which was tender and made delicious pies!

The garden is quite productive at this time of the year. Already I have dehydrated so many goodies for the next 12 months ahead.

From onions to peas, some early carrots and a boatload of silverbeet.
Fruits are arriving and it is a race to protect it from those bloody birds who like to peck a bit and then jump to the next, rendering most of the fruit useless. Some netting around those have slowed them right down!
The Yellow Cherry Guava to the left is covered with an incredible amount of budding fruit, one of our favourite fruits, it is loaded with some real health benefits.

The Dragon Fruits have decided to take off at long last! We have both the Yellow and Pink, I am hoping they will fruit this year, although that may be a little unrealistic, they haven't been in 12 months yet lol.

The chooks are laying so many eggs. I love to be able to share them with the neighbours and family. This weekend I am going to be doing some pickled eggs to enjoy with the salads, yet another great way to extend our supply.

I planted like some possessed maniac this weekend: Amaranth,Basil,Broccoli,Cabbage,Capsicum,Carrot,Cauliflower, Cucumber,Coriander,Leeks,Lettuce,Luffa,Pumpkin,Rockmelon,Silverbeet,Sunflower,Tomato and Watermelon all went in:) It is a constant battle to keep the slaters at bay, one of the downsides of so much mulch.....anyone have any ideas other than upturned orange peel halves?

Most of the onions, leeks have been harvested. I still have a large quantity of the Welsh Onions left, it will be interesting to see how they go, first time planting of those!

The beauty of the Welsh Onion is that you never need to replant, just grab what you want over the year, it keeps multiplying via bulb, just be careful to plant where you dont mind it spreading!

The herb garden is the best it has been since we arrived just over 12 months ago. This lot of Evening Primrose has been harvested and dried 3 times and still has a mountain of leaves. This weekend I will do the flowers.

The herb garden is a mix of those herbs I use continuously for cooking and those I require for herbal remedies. I make mostly tinctures for medicinal purposes........much easier for the inexperienced hand like mine:)

In going through the store room yesterday I noticed I still had dried chillies there from 2 years ago so last night I utilised them in the dinner......you would never know they hadn't been added fresh!

How much do you process and store of your own garden produce? How long a shelf life do you expect to get from most produce?

ONLY WHEN.......

2010-10-24T07:46:00.006+08:00

... all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover.......
.......you cannot eat money........

It is time.......time to move to a simpler life where we care about cause and effect, where we take time to smell the roses and where what we do every day matters, for our planet and our fellow man.

HERBS - A natural way to health

2010-10-10T10:53:00.003+08:00

My goal towards creating a healthy, natural medicine chest and culinary addititives herb garden has been somewhat of a mixed sucess. Many of the plants I put in were killed by the summer heat or the seeds just did not take off.

As you can see, some of them are doing very well......others have either died with the summer heat or the seeds never sprouted for whatever reasons.

In addition I now have plants coming up that I have no idea about! I am not sure if I planted them or they have just arrived with the wind or perhaps are seeds from those plantings last year that decided to wait until this year to show their faces! Talk about confusing lol.

Here is one....recognise it?

If you do let me know, I have noooooo idea!

And this is another, again, I have no idea, it is very tall though, similar in height to a sunflower?

I recently purchased James Wong's "Grow Your Own Drugs"...delighful recipes for all sorts of health ailments. Once I learn what all these plants are, what they look like and how to use them I should have quite a pharmacy going lol.

The Celpar is doing amazing things, I have cut this back 5 times already and dried the leaves for soups and casseroles, it truly does taste like celery. I use it when the celery is not in season, a great way to stick to cooking with a seasons flavours all year round without the importing attached to it!

The italian parsely is going great guns too. I like this variety far better than any of the other varieties, it is milder and seems softer than the others. I also dry this all season ready for when the season is finished.

We have planted Tagasastes along the fenceline where the afternoon sun hits the house. Hopefully this will shade it completely and keep the summer heat at bay. I am not worried about them not being a deciduous variety, it is never that cold in the house in winter.

What I do love about these trees, (other then the fact they make great chook food with their high protein content) is that they are fire resistant, in fact they hate fire, great to plant around the house in this region where fires are so frequent in our summers.

Work is beginning to slow a little thank heavens, a couple of weeks and I will be taking a week off, with another couple in December/January, I am really looking forward to the rest. Today however I am feeling like I want to garden all day, even with the very slight drizzle we are having..........so, I will say bye until my next post.

Enjoy your weekend and take care:)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

2010-10-03T08:59:00.001+08:00

Good morning to you all :). It's such a delightful day outside I have been snapping a few pictures to show you we finally have something happening again after such a cold, harsh winter.

The Bay leaf tree is covered with lovely new shoots. not only will this provide shade for visitors cars, it saves me buying bay leaves for cooking and pest control:)

The cherries are sprouting new leaves, I have 2 bing and a stella. The bing are marvellous for those of us that suffer from gout and/or arthritis I am told.

You can read about it in the links here:
USDA and here:
at the Science Daily site.

The fig is sprouting new leaves too. This is the black one, sooooo delicious, and brings back many happy memories of my childhood....pinching them on the way home from town from an old tree in a paddock lol!

Figs make super jams and delicious desserts, try these recipes: Burkes BackYard-Dessert and this delicious jam: Cooks .com

I just had to include these flowers :)

I have no idea what they are, they were given to me by a friend mixed in a box full of other bulbs....whatever they are they are stunning!

And the fruit trees are taking off too! Just about all of them have started producing leaves and/or blossom. This one I noticed has peach leaf curl, which means once finished I will have to watch it for bud swell next year around and treat. The curl won't kill the tree however it does weaken it.

The pomegranate I thought had been killed by the frost has taken off!

This is the dwarf variety with fruit that is smaller, the perfect size for lunch box snacks!

The berries are all beginning to sprint across the fence. As you can see hubby was very liberal when spraying the fence, I was certain he had killed them, there was bloody paint everywhere LOL!

And I just had to share this picture with you:)

The pond is doing wonderfully, full of minnow, water scorpions, we have half a dozen queensland blue marron (don't ask, they were given to us) LOL

The water iris plants were given to us by the same couple, just stunning.

I haven't seen the turtles, however I suspect they buried themselves in the garden over winter, I hope so, they were such fun to watch.

Well, there you have a few snapshots of my favourite place to be.....and that's where I am headed again............have a super weekend and enjoy your garden too:)

Tomatoes and more tomatoes....

2010-09-12T21:51:00.000+08:00

What do you do with huge bags of tomatoes? You turn your kitchen into a processing plant and make some wonderfully rich preserved tomatoes!
I wont mention here the place looked like a hurricane had gone through it, with cutting boards, pots bubbling, jars everywhere and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!

I decided to try making some of my own tomato paste, dried form. The question was whether it should be reduced first or just pureed and dried in the dehydrator.......so I decided to try it both ways:)

The lot you see to your right was reduced on the stove first, it came out much darker naturally.

This is the lot I simply pureed without reducing, much lighter in colour as you can see.

The interesting part came when I set about reducing it to a powder in the mixer.....whilst this lot was fine and easy to turn to a powder, the reduced form just would not chop up well!

I ended up cutting the reduced lot into strips and will use in casseroles and soups, the remainder that did turn to powder form will be utilised in other ways.

Of course I couldn't resist just drying some to pop into oil with some basil, the dehydrator is still going with 9 full trays. I make a variety of flavours, some with basil, some with garlic and thyme, some with italian herbs, others with chilli....there really is no limit other than your own taste preferences:)

And remember, don't throw away the oil when the tomatoes have gone, use it for salads or on the grill, it has a real tomato tang that is delighful!

Hope your weekend has been a good one and the sun is shining on your garden:)

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS....

2010-09-12T00:34:00.002+08:00

The garden is slowly warming to the change of season.......thank heaven! I was beginning to think I had lost quite a few of my trees to the hard and continuous frosts (19 consecutive -1C at least)

The sunflowers are doing wonderfully, this one is a multi-head, or a mutant! I have never seen one like this before be interesting to see how it progresses.

The lemon guavas have fruited like crazy, they certainly didn't mind the frosts. They taste gorgeous, to me nothing like a lemon.

Guavas are often included among superfruits, being rich in dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, folic acid, and the dietary minerals, potassium, copper and manganese.

Having a generally broad, low-calorie profile of essential nutrients, a single common guava fruit contains about four times the amount of vitamin C as an orange.

I couldn't resist including a pic of the wee flowers just poking their heads up.

These are planted around the fruit trees. The bees go crazy over them so pollination is at an all time high, beauty and purpose.......what more could anyone want!

And whilst these can be found all over the place I can't resist them.

They love our hot summers, love being around the rocks of the pond where soil is rather shallow and rarely need any work other than a prune once a year.

The silverbeet has taken off too. We have 4 varieties in, the red, gold and standard, along with a Foodhook Giant that I use only for the chooks, it does not taste anywhere near as nice as the others. Chooks love it though:)

The celpar has gone beserk! It has been cut back 4 times since it came up and still continues to send fresh new shoots up.

I have dried a mountain of this for soups and casseroles, always nice to have that celery taste when the celery is actually not in season.

OK, last one.................and can anyone tell me what this is? A herb of some sort, but I have no idea what, it has just appeared and is now about 4 feet tall!

Now you know why I label everything LOL!

Today was not only hectic in the garden, but in the kitchen too............posts on that in the morning:)

Hope your weekend is a good one:)

Never a truer word said......

2010-09-07T22:07:00.000+08:00

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it.

Hope your week is a good one! Back to posting this weekend:)

My apologies....

2010-08-15T07:45:00.000+08:00

Just a quick note to all those who have sent emails. Thanks, I am fine, however work is keeping me busy - always madness around this time of the year with audits and funding applications.

Back to posting normally next month, till then forgive the flying snippets please lol

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL

2010-08-15T07:40:00.002+08:00

Whilst I believe, I generally don't advertise, however I found this today and thought it was an exquisite display of parental love and the determination we can all find within when we dig deep....
Hope your weekend is a good one:)

WARMING WEATHER AT LAST!

2010-08-08T10:07:00.001+08:00

Finally the days are warming! The nights and early mornings are still cold, frosts still show themselves every few days however the later mornings and afternoons are nice:)

I got out yesterday around noon to play in the sun, and planted out: spring onions, silverbeet, onions, rhubarb, and some herbal tea seeds. Today I have capsicum, chilli, sunflowers, a cape gooseberry, oregano, thyme and a ton of tomatoes going in once this post is complete:)

Given the winter we have had it will be interesting to see if it is too early to plant out, although normally at this time of the year these things would go in here.

I am hoping my poor frozen cream guavas and ice cream bean trees will survive, they dont look great but there is still the odd green leaf on them.....fingers crossed!

We finally got the last of the side fence up and the painting finished, feels so good to know the weed seeds cannot find their way in there anymore!

I also planted out 10 tagasaste trees along the afternoon sun side of the house. These trees not only make for a wonderful protein food for stock (including our chooks) they are fire resistant. In addition to their stunning masses of white flowers every year they hopefully will shade the worst of the summer heat from the side of the house....lowering indoor summer temps is the aim.

Our bathroom renovations are coming along slowly. The things you find when you do renos......lordy! Some drongo decided to fill from the end of the bath to the side of the shower with a ton of cement, it took Al some time to get through it all, now we can remove the bath, cover the gap left in the floor by the bath and install the new shower, then its a case of removing the old one and installing storage cupboards......will be nice when complete but lordy I hate the mess in the meantime lol.

Topping up of the mulch has been completed. I generally order 10 bales of pea straw every 3-4 months, throw it all in the chook pen and let the girls go mad on it for a month or two and then rake out and cover the garden beds with it. Works wonderfully: the worms love it, keeps the soil moist, warm in the winter and cool in the summer and all that chook manure does wonders, not to mention the fact that the girls have cleaned out most of the seed left in it at baling time.....win win all round!

My mind lately has been on the weather and the changes we are seeing. I remember as a child vegies could be grown out in the open, did not matter if it was summer or winter, they thrived. This doesn't happen now, at least not in the last 5 years or so.

What does it all mean? For me, to grow successfully, we are going to have to put in some shade for the summer and shelter from the winter frosts. It appears over the last few years summers are much hotter, and frosts more continuous in numer and colder, like -C numbers.

All this mulling over weather had me doing more than a little research into our local town weather patterns, and the results look something like this:

An approximate 100 year comparison of average annual mean minimum and maximum temperatures.
The temperature averages have been extracted from the database publicly available at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website for Western Australia, and from the first ever climate study conducted in the colony of Western Australia before 1900.

Minima
Late 1800s/early 1900s minima - 181.4 / 16 = 11.33
Late 1900s/early 2000s minima - 193 / 16 = 12.06
August 2009 - July 2010 minima - 193.94 / 16 = 12.12
Average mean minimum in 16 inland locations combined has risen .73 degrees C from early to late 20th century
Average mean minimum in 16 inland locations combined has risen .79 degrees C from early 1900s to 2009/2010

Maxima
Late 1800s/early 1900s maxima - 409.1 / 16 = 25.56
Late 1900s/early 2000s maxima - 412.6 / 16 = 25.78
August 2009 - July 2010 maxima - 429 / 16 = 26.81
Average mean maximum in 16 inland locations combined has risen .22 degrees C from early to late 20th century
Average mean maximum in 16 inland locations combined has risen 1.25 degrees C from early 1900s to 2009/2010
For an indepth report HERE
Western Australia's capital of Perth is said to be on the coalface of global climate change, with 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery in 2004 predicting that it may become the first city in the world to become a ghost metropolis due to lack of water (BBC, Sydney Morning Herald). Hence my desire to cover our place with water tanks!

Now those temperature changes don't look like much at all.........translated into planting and harvesting it can mean one hell of a lot, certainly the times we plant will change, protection of crops from frost and sun becomes an issue, pests and their cycles will be another challenge....and so on it goes. If only mankind realised that every action, no matter how small has a massive effect downstream.........the whole pebble in a pond concept.

Well, that's me for the day:) The sun is shining and seeds are calling my name:)
Hope your weekend is a fantastic one!

BITS AND BOBS...

2010-07-18T21:46:00.002+08:00

Well there is little happening in the garden with the veggies and fruits. Our biggest challenge is the bloody frosts! I could scream blue murder after seeing some of my beautiful trees frozen solid!!

This winter has been the harshest since they have been record keeping. Not only have they gone on day after day but in very low -C numbers. To see the bushes turn into something that looks like a flame thrower has been through them, and the fruit frozen solid breaks my heart :(

On the up side some of the fruits are doing well, the yellow cherry guavas have fruit (unlike the Indian Cream Guavas that have been frozen). The Bok Choy, rhubarb, silverbeet, carrots & lettuce are going berserk, time to gift some to family & friends I think. I purchased another 4 strawberry guavas, 3 have been put into the garden and one is to take to Mum & Dad, they grow well in this region.

I spent most of this weekend doing tidy up and weeding. Winter, though I love it is very slow in the garden here, not a lot in and not a lot to do. Having said that we are putting the remainder of the side fence up, once done the lot will be painted to match the sheds.

Last year one of the fruits I brought in came with peach leaf curl, so this weekend will mean some spraying before buds really develop too far, otherwise it means waiting another year and weakening the tree further! I have never seen hibiscus burn in this area from frosts, but everywhere you look they are, as are my passionfruits which were just realling beginning to take off. Hopefully they will survive this lot. I will be putting in some more trees before the next winter, in hopes they will protect the trees under them! *mumbles more expletives*

The new car arrived this week. Not that we wanted one, our 10 year old was running perfectly, however not a lot of choice, it was written off when some fool with a license from a wheatie box decided to cut in front of hubby who had the right of way on the highway. Despite my grumbling I am just glad they both walked out if it with nothing more than a few brusises!

LOL, I've just realised what a whinge this post was....my first grumble since beginning this blog so I am sure you will forgive me or be mildly amused :)

Hope your week ahead is a good one:)

SOME THINGS NEED NO INTRO.......

2010-07-07T09:31:00.000+08:00