Food feeds our body, heart, head and soul. It is joyful, health giving, fun and can bring people together. Taking care of what we eat, sharing it, talking about it and enjoying it is one of the gifts of nature that makes life a joy. Make the most of food and enjoy life more fully.
And there is more. Food is a major part of your ecological footprint, at least as big as transport and a significant part of your energy use. There is the food you eat, the food you throw away, and the food that everyone from the farmer, the factory, and the grocer throw away in the process of getting your food to you. I could go on, about the water, soil, fertilizer, pesticides and so on, but … no. Let’s focus on the joy.
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Spinach galore
Popeye traditionally got his hit of power packed spinach from a can, but I prefer mine fresh. Unfortunately, in sub-tropical Australia the summers are simply too hot for spinach, silverbeet (chard) and most other leafy greens. Enter the sprawling, scrambling and climbing leafy greens that get used like spinach around the world. We have spent…
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Making the most of Malabar spinach
This preparation of Malabar Spinach for Palak Paneer works just as well for any of the sub-tropical plants discussed in Spinach galore. You can pick the individual leaves from the plant, but I generally just use the garden shears or secateurs to cut off a large section of the plant and separate the leaves from…
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Let it Ferment!
Beer and bread are not the only fermented food fit for humans. Fermentation a traditional method of preserving fresh food to feed us when there is nothing in the garden or on the grocery shelves. When I have a good crop of cabbage my neighbours have a good crop of cabbage. You literally can’t give…
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What is this thing called Malabar Spinach?
We have had a number of questions about the soft and silky, fleshy plant that threatened to take over large sections of the community garden at the back of the property. It is Basella Alba, Indian spinach, Ceylon Spinach, or Malabar Spinach. A subtropical plant, that grows very well in Brisbane – as you can…
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Preserving the Harvest
This week we’re going to talk about preservation, and I don’t mean preservation of the natural environment through bushcare. I’m talking about preserving food. You can listen to the Podcast. There is lots of fresh food around right now because the summer harvest is coming in. Whether you are growing food or shopping for it,…
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Harvesting rewards
Avoid disappointment – harvest your crop before the pests get it. (Listen to the podcast) Summer is harvest time and lots of gardeners celebrate their harvest on social media. What we don’t see is the failures: the cucumbers eaten by rats, the tomatoes that split in the rain, the pumpkins that rotted where they touched…
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Make and Taste: Sourdough
Sharing our food culture is one way to build resilient communities and to help us thrive as we go through the challenges of degrowth. Make and Taste is an initiative of Your Life Your Planet where one person a week shares food that they make regularly with their work colleagues or neighbours and shows them…
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Processing the tubers
Keen followers of Your Life Your Planet will have seen the tubers of turmeric and ginger harvested from my townhouse pot garden last week. This week I have started processing them. The photos below, provide an idea of what the various stages look like. Peeling them makes them dry more quickly and results in a…
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Herbs and spices in a tiny garden
Having just moved into a townhouse with a tiny yard, I am reduced to growing my ginger and turmeric in pots. I’m still impressed by how productive my plants have been. This year’s crop included a yellow and an orange turmeric and classic ginger. The yellow turmeric is really high in curcumin, the orange one…
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Cherry Tomatoes, Tabbouleh and FoodWaste
Much of East Coast Australia gives the tomato grower a pretty hard time. Fruit fly starts attacking when the weather warms up, and the humidity in summer causes mildew and mould. Planting in March and picking in August and September is the only way to survive. Unless of course you are prepared to fall in…