Cheese

Here is a decent size piece of cheese, the photo being stolen from a friend's blog Olives and Artichokes. It would not have cost the earth and its taste would have beaten hands down anything made here in Tasmania for 5 times the price and 1/5 the size, with a fancy name and plastic packaging. But help is at hand! Gavin makes cheese, good cheese, great cheese, even, and I am soon to have some......

Where is our acorn gene...

It seems to me that humans, on the whole, have lost the "acorn" gene. The squirrel gathers acorns and keeps them safe ready for the winter. Squirrels and all other plant and animal species seem to know in advance, of changes in their environment.... you see fruit trees flowering early or late, not just one tree, but all in a region.... baby birds of one variety hatching all at similar times, and those times vary year to year.... late ripening tomatoes (from a colder than normal summer) somehow managing to defy the frost, and ripening through into June when normally one frost and they are gone.... All these are signs that everything else is adapting to constant change, planning for these changes and altering their daily behaviour.

But humans? Oh no! They expect everything to stay the same. They do not prepare their nests / collect food / follow the seasonal changes / adapt in any way to patterns in their surroundings. Scientists study things that stay the same as well as things that change and, for the last 200 years or so, humans have relied on technology to react to these findings and create ways to allow humans not to have to adapt to change but instead to change our environment to fit our needs.

Genetic modification in agriculture is an example of humans trying to adapt its world to its own needs so ordinary people can still buy cheap packets of flour, bags of eggplants and litres of soy milk on the shelves in the supermarket (so they have more money left for entertainment and stuff), oblivious to desertification of the planet, destruction of biodiversity and consequent climatic challenges to agriculture and farming communities and, ultimately, themselves.

Can we have lost the acorn gene so fast or is it still there, lying dormant? It seems to still be visible in some humans and these humans are trying desperately to, firstly, make the rest see the changes all around us and find ways of adapting to them, and secondly to realise that we are causing the changes through our own short-sightedness and lack of the acorn gene which makes squirrels plan for the future....

A disease has crept in and is sweeping the world; a disease which has laid dormant this gene for planning and adapting, for their future, in humans. It is called money. If you have the money disease, you can ignore everything else. It develops like a computer virus..... working away behind the scenes, infiltrating every corner of your existence, making you feel busy and useful; too busy to stop and think about what you are doing and where it will lead. And, like with the computer virus, its insidious nature means it is sometimes not apparent until its too late.

So, before we self-destruct, lets put money aside for a while, open up to our minds and get out our innate "acorn" gene, think about what really would be best for the future of mankind and take a small step on a new path. If 6 billion people took one step on a new path, wow, what an impact that would make on our future.

Caution; thinking required.....

Make the connections. Change a little every day.

Life is good; let's keep it that way.

Bananas and climate change; a symposium in Peru

Bioversity International always has interesting news and information on everything to do with biodiversity and food....

Bioversity International uses agricultural biodiversity to improve people's lives.
We carry out global research to seek solutions for three key challenges: Sustainable Agriculture, Nutrition, Conservation

Representatives from 21 countries met last week in Peru for the first international symposium on ‘Banana and Plantain in Latin America and the Caribbean’. Peru, especially the north west, is an important organic banana growing region.

The meeting focused on the impact of climate change on banana and plantain diversity and finding alternatives to prevent or mitigate its negative impact.

“The symposium opened with some great presentations, with many questions coming from the smallholder farmers who are the real beneficiaries of climate change research” said Miguel Dita, Bioversity's banana expert in Latin America and event co-organiser.
For more information visit the symposium website (available in Spanish only) or read 'Desert Bananas', a report by Andy Jarvis (CIAT/CCAFS) one of the keynote speakers at the event.

Amazing local women.... and then there's me.....

The wind that blew Dorothy's house away to the land of Oz was nothing compared to last night at my place. I felt like I was on a ship caught in a storm at sea..... buffeted this way and that, the wind howling through the gum trees down by the road before crashing into my bedroom like a series of giant waves.... the rain and hail hitting the windows, hammering the tin roof and no doubt filling my already gushing creek.

By 4.30am I gave up on sleep. By 5am I was sitting up in bed with the hood of my thickest jacket covering my head and a hot coffee in my hands. Sunrise is not until after 7.30am so I could not see outside, except that it was very black when I nipped out to the verandah for a couple of pieces of wood for the fire.

I managed to get back to sleep for an hour or so, much later, and decided at 9am that I was not going to the community garden today at 10am. I was sure no-one else would be there anyway so I threw some more wood on the fire and settled down to writing some emails and reading some blogs. At 10.30 I was still in my pj's, luxuriating in the unexpected free time, when the phone rang. I could hardly hear for the noise of the rain on my roof.....

"Hi Kate, its Jane. I have brought a load of mulch in my ute and wondered if you are coming to the community garden today to help me unload it...."

"Not sure if you have noticed Jane but its a bugger of a day for gardening and....."

"Yes but it'll only take 1/2 an hour and I have the wheelbarrows out ready...."

The community garden is only at the end of my street ..... surely Jane had gone mad....it was about 4 degrees and pouring....but her enthusiasm is infectious and rarely have I come across someone even more passionate about it all than me .... so.....

"OK Jane. I will be there in a few minutes."

Seventeen layers of clothes later, I left home. By now two others had turned up at the garden. They must be mad too, I decided.

The 4 of us did not even mention the weather as we slogged away. I mean, there was no point at all; it was cold and wet and bloody obvious! It didn't take long to unload the stuff and then wimpish me suggested everyone might like to come and sit by my fire and have a coffee and congratulate ourselves but...... Jane and Laura said they'd just pop down to the IGA and pick up some more cardboard for another project we are working on and Alex said, sarcastically I thought, that she'd brought some native plants to plant and it was a GREAT day for planting them.

"Alex, its not a great day for anything but coffee by a fire" I suggested but already she was out of earshot and heading off with her home-grown tea trees and bottlebrushes. 

We worked away and the sun came out for a moment before once again the rain beat down, but we got the job done, discovering an overgrown pile of mulch which we dug out and used, along with 5 large car tyres, completely hidden by weeds.... perfect.... the trees were now mulched and guarded from enthusiastic brush-cutters.

Three more community gardeners popped in.... two stayed for tea on the verandah. They are definitely mad as well.... There we were, stalwart gardeners in very wet pants, and 17 layers of woollens and coats sitting out on Liz's verandah in the cold Tasmanian winter drinking tea as if it were summer.

I congratulate these women and especially Jane, who rang a few of us up and got us out for a memorable morning's work.... my wet and muddy jeans hang in front of the fire, my old black ski hat hangs there too and my new gardening gloves have made a muddy puddle on the hearth tiles .... I am sitting here on the couch in my long johns which are nearly dry and, finally, I have coffee.

Life is good; sometimes unexpectedly so.

Recently in my garden kitchen

We talk about our kitchen gardens, where we grow food, so I thought I'd call my kitchen a garden kitchen, where I cook food from my garden.

	My sourdough bread is so forgiving... the only really important thing is taking good care of the starter.... Not from my garden... oh well.
Cherry clafoutis.... my bottled cherries plus garden-laid eggs!	Finely sliced red cabbage, fennel, sorrel, carrot, oil, herbs,lemon juice, my tamari seed mix.... oh lalala!
	Brussels sprouts, kale and chicory from garden to plate in 10 minutes... just look at the colour! Cook veg then toss in a pan with cooked potato, garlic, grated lemon peel, shredded, cooked chicken, toasted fresh
	breadcrumbs, herbs (I used sage and winter savory), a light dressing of olive oil and verjuice/lemon juice. Bon appetit!
Baked pasta.... cook pasta, layer with anything... eg my bottled tomatoes, basil pesto I freeze in ice cube trays, roasted pumpkin pieces, herbs, then all topped with a mixture of yoghurt, eggs, a little parmesan then grated nutmeg. Bake until settish.

Our Daniel

 

How lovely it was to see Daniel grow in confidence and maturity during the last couple of years I was in Adelaide.

I first met him, with my friend Maggie, at the Urrbrae Agricultural High School Saturday markets, where his enthusiasm for his stall was so endearing and his knowledge amazing.

 

With his mum, he soon joined Maggie and I in our Hills and Plains Seedsavers group and young Daniel could be seen mixing with families, newcomers and the rest of us old farts, with not a care for the age differences.

Now he is a TV star appearing frequently on Gardening Australia with Sophie Thompson. I think this is the best episode yet....Daniel is relaxed and happily chatting about what he is doing in his winter garden in Adelaide. You will see this on Gardening Australia tonight or here, now.....

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/