World Kitchen Garden Day 2011 at Glandore Community Garden

Last Sunday we all gathered at the beautiful Glandore Community Garden for an enjoyable World Kitchen Garden Day afternoon.

When we arrived plot holders were busy working in their plots.

Harry was busy working on the wood fired pizza oven which will be is going to have a mosaic added soon.

Everyone chatted about what excess produce they had bought along as well as something they had cooked from their country of origin.

Produce to share included Lebanese cress, bunches of coriander, Jerusalem artichokes, lima bean seeds, plum jams, chilli jams, lemons, fennel, chillies and a lot of different potted up plants.

There were lots of seeds to share and a favourite seed we saved this year was chervil which is a lovely herb we are picking at the moment.

We had an apple amaranth cake from Argentina, Indian Spinach and onion fritters, Irish pumpkin dip, German lemon cake, Middle eastern Humus, French Cheese and Biscuits, German raspberry muffins, Spicy Orange Muffins and an Aussie multicultural creation of brightly coloured Nasturtium flowers filled with humus and topped with sweet chilli jam.

Daniel (from Gardening Australia fame) told us all about an Orchid show he had just entered in and his Mum said he was being very modest and had won 2nd prize in his Category.

Thank you everyone who came and shared their knowledge, kitchen garden food and kitchen garden produce with us.

We look forward to World Kitchen Garden Day 2011.

Saving seeds... do we have a choice?

Natabar Sarangi - The Source from the source project on Vimeo.

The Magic of Seeds

A few weeks ago I spent a lot of time processing dried seeds from their pods which we had saved from last winter and summer.

What a treat to see escaped seeds sprouting everywhere in the back yard including sprouting in the cracks on the old BBQ table and stools.

I must have saved thousands of seeds and now to see them germinating so well, MAGIC!

Seed and Produce Swap Days

We have been very fortunate to have 2 great Seed Swaps at Glandore Community Garden recently.

We have had lots of new young gardeners join in as well as all the older folks who have been growing food for decades.

There is nothing like getting together with like minded folks and sharing produce, seeds and home made afternoon tea.

It is very easy to arrange seed swaps, just look for a community garden close to where you live.

Find some gardeners who want to save seed and swap produce with each other.

Make a time to do this and you will find it is lots of fun.

This is a collage of our February gathering.

Note : Bob took these photos and said Daniel and Harry were discussing tomatoes, what a great photo!.

 

 

Last weeks gathering was also an absolute delight as everyone chatted about what they had brought and were planning to grow in winter.

 

DR VANDANA SHIVA - Sydney Peace Prize Winner 2010 - The Future of Food and Seed

Take a tea break to listen to Dr  Vandana Shiva interviewed on Lateline.

Listen to her full address after receiving this years Sydney Peace Award at Vandana Shiva's Website

There is also a free download ‘ Manifesto on the Future of Seeds’ on the  Navdanya International website.

Check out her new book “SOIL not Oil”.

Dr Vandana talks about many issues in this speech including the future of food and seed for humans and the essential role we must play in caring for this precious planet.

Glandore Community Garden

Last weekend some of Adelaide's most famous Gardening Gurus from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers visited the Glandore Community

Garden for a pizza garden afternoon.

Many thanks to Lyn, Helen and Harry and others who made us feel so welcome.

It was a great afternoon, with garden tours of the plots and much discussion over the size of plants and what everyone was growing there.

There was always lots of laughter and great energy as we meet together and planned bumper crops for our own summer gardens.

In the Glandore plots there were lots of winter plants going to seed and lots of summer plants coming along nicely.

The pizza from the wood oven was delicious, thanks again Lyn for setting this all up for us.

There is always something new to learn when we wander around others gardens particularly when everyone there had many, many years of gardening experience.

Some Seedsavers had just come back from touring Italy and told us all about visiting Puglia, home of the Bari cucumbers we grow and an area where Cima di Rapa (another winter vegetable we grow) grows in abundance. We initially got some Rapa seedlings from Andrew who got seeds from an elderly Italian neighbour. We passed on many seeds & seedlings to many others in the group. The Bari cucumber seeds came to our group when an elderly Italian vegetable grower asked Kate to keep his cucumbers growing on. Several Seedsavers did & now we enjoy these unusual cucumbers.

We hope to go back soon for a seed swap and chat about our summer gardens.

Here are some photos from this delightful event.

Rosella Enjoying Salad Burnet Seeds in the Garden Today

We save seeds to plant out in our next seasons garden.

We let plants go to seed so they self seed and reappear in our gardens as the seasons change.

We save seeds to give to others.

We save seeds so we have nourishing food next season.

We let things go to seed to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and seeds.

We let things go to seed so bees and birds and other insects are attracted to our gardens.

These visitors pollinate, eat bugs and keep our gardens healthy.

SEEDS, SEEDS, SEEDS!

Tell us a tale of your seed saving adventures!

Adelaide Spring Garden Bee Feast

Here are some pictures from our Adelaide spring garden with rocket, brassica rapa, parsley & flame tree mustard green going to seed. And an amazing array of flowering herbs including sage, borage, pineapple sage, thyme, watercress, salad burnett, society garlic & many more flowers attracting a myriad of bees other insects.

A bee enjoying our borage

Colour maze

Brassica rapa going to seed

Flowering coriander

Watercress flower

Gardening Australia & Video of Seed Saving

Most Aussie gardeners have grown up watching gardening Australia each Saturday or Sunday for many years.

The programs continue to inform, entertain and delight us as the years roll on.

Did you know that wherever you live around the world you can watch the video clips of the different segment of the program online.

Just go to http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/ and then you can choose what you would like to watch.

I particularly enjoyed Jerry’s segment on Seed Saving which was aired on October 2, 2010.

Russia’s seed bank under threat

AN INDIAN INVITATION

Oh how wonderful it would be to be able to go to this. If there are any readers who are nearby, please go, and take some photos to show us. Sunita is a board member of Kitchen Gardeners International. Click on the poster to read.

Dear friends,

The Malnad Mela is back in Bangalore for the third year running!
Come and join us in this celebration of produce and local art from the Western Ghats. Explore the importance of seed biodiversity and supporting conservation oriented livelihoods that seek to preserve and enhance age-old practices. Take home traditional seed varieties and enjoy fresh vegetables from your very own home garden.

Date:     February 27-28,  2010  (Saturday & Sunday)
Time:    10 am to 6 pm
Venue:  4, Ashley Road, Off Brunton Rd (behind Hotel Ajantha on M.G. Rd),  
             Bangalore: 560025

 

Some of the produce and products from the forest home gardens this year include

• indigenous seeds
• wild forest foods
• traditional snacks and preserves
• spices
• honey
• dairy and poultry products
• kokam butter balm
• mud paintings
• vegetable hair dyes
• hand-sewn patchwork pieces
• yoga mats
• soap-nut scrub
• natural incense
• areca leaf plates
• seed jewellery
• herbal oils
• seed murals
• natural insect repellents ……and more.

We will also have products from the Concerned for Working Children (CWC), Kundapur and Himjoli, Himalayas.
This last year has been ecologically eventful with wayward weather (blame it all on climate change we are told!), failing crops, rising food prices, insane development plans, and the threat of having Bt Brinjal seeds on the market (fortunately thwarted for the moment thanks to people’s pressure). The hope is that our modest effort will help with seeking saner alternatives and pro-active responses to the current dismal state of affairs.
Thank you all for your encouragement and support. Please do pass this mail on to others you know or e-groups. Print out the attached poster if you can, to put up in your neighbourhood store, office, school, college or other place.
We look forward to seeing you again over the last weekend of February!
Regards,
Sunita Rao
94802 99200
Founder Trustee - Vanastree
www.vanastree.org

WHY SHOULD WE SAVE SEEDS?

As we all know, different parts of the world have different plants, animals, weather, soil and water conditions. For millions of years creatures of the earth developed characteristics that best adapted them to these conditions. Those that did not have the genes to adapt to the slow but constant heating and cooling of the planet died out; those that could survive the changes went on to flourish. Humans began to collect the seeds of those flourishing plants and sowed them closer to home, allowing them to stay in one place and so gradually the nomadic lifestyle died out in many parts of the world, starting about 10,000 years ago. They also herded animals together, built barriers to keep them in and so began rudimentary farming.

Every season the peoples of the mountains and valleys and plains of the Middle East, Africa and Asia sowed their seeds, grew their food and saved some of the resulting seeds for next year. Travellers in ships, on camels and on foot started to swap their seeds and produce and so to introduce new vegetables and fruits to each other. The people in the new lands would try to grow the new crops and sometimes succeeded, sometimes not but always they saved their own seeds from year to year and in this way the new crops adapted to the new lands and so, over the centuries, different varieties became suited to very different conditions. This is called conserving the processes of evolution and adaptation.

These days seeds are sold in packets in supermarkets, garden centres, hardware shops and nurseries. Mostly we have no idea where they come from. In South Australia, for example, there are no seed companies growing seeds suitable for our climate. Every year lots of people buy the same seed, and do not save the seed from their previous crops. As the climate changes, our seeds are therefore not adapting because they come from somewhere else. Soon we begin to find that fewer and fewer seeds are working for us in our gardens because they simply are not suited to our climate. People try adapting to the seeds by covering everything with shadecloth or using more water or adding things to the soil or spraying for pests which like to eat the sick plants. We have stopped conserving the processes of evolution and adaptation.

People who save seeds are saving the genes of adaptation and allowing evolution to continue so that no matter what happens to our climate, our seeds will have adapted year by year to those changes. There is a lot of fear about climate change and food security but all we need to do is allow our seeds to adapt season by season; always saving the seed from the best plants to sow next year. Buying seed from seed companies far from your home will not work, as our climate changes faster, and artificially genetically modifying the seeds is a pointless task and only seeks to make money for seed companies, destroying the processes of evolution and adaptation forever, leading ultimately to the destruction of our food chain.

So that is why we must save seeds. If you don't feel competent to do it alone, join a local seedsavers group where others can help you get started. You can find one here in Australia, but there are people saving seeds in every corner of the world. In our Hills and Plains Seedsavers group, we swap seeds between ourselves and give them away to friends. This way you don't have to save all your own seeds, just a few to share and soon you will find you have lots of different seeds to try and that these seeds will be adapted to your growing conditions.

Please read more about agricultural ecosystems here.

Saving, Storing and Growing Heirloom Seeds

Like everything else in life everyone has their own way of doing things.

People often ask me about saving seeds so when I found these videos I thought I would put them on the blog and see what comments we get.

Thanks to these folks who made these videos for us to enjoy.

Greetings from Michel and Jude – Byron Bay Seedsavers

News from Michel and Jude, the people behind the 24 year old Seed Savers’ Network based in Byron Bay, Australia. We are now on a working sabbatical in Malaysia, after two months in Rajasthan, India, and some weeks on a speaking tour in Japan. 

Love food gardens? See our perceptions of food plant diversity and food issues, as short pieces, pictures and film clips at www.seedsavers.net We continue to take footage for a third documentary, after the success of “Our Seeds”(have you seen the trailer on our website?). A second, “Our Roots”, was shot in Vanuatu for French CIRAD, is now in post-production and due out in March this year.

The Seed Savers Foundation is a registered charity that fosters fruit and vegetable seed exchanges in twenty countries. It manages eighty local seed networks around Australia - see Google map at www.seedsaver.net.

We would be tickled pink to receive emails from Seed Savers' friends, fans and supporters and be part of your dreams and realisations. This month you will receive news from wherever we travel, now in the equatorial forests of the Cameron Highlands Malaysia, the home of a cornucopia of fruits and, importantly, the Orang Asli, the original forest people. The highlands are the vegetable basket for Singapore and lowland Malaysia, even Japan.

All the best for 2010.

Summer Garden in Adelaide December 2009

Welcome to our garden, we took these photos a couple of days ago, before the temperature rose to 40 degrees Celsius.

Today the whole yard is covered in shade cloth, which will come down tonight as the weather cools down.

The left top is turmeric, right top is a large female Romanesco zucchini flower, centre left is a curry leaf tree, centre right is some produce from the garden (pepino, salad onion, tomato & chilli), bottom left is society garlic flowers & bottom right is our Bari cucumbers.

We are picking zucchini, a few little tomatoes, pepinos, chillies, parsley,  lots of herbs,  lots of mint, chives, salad onions, lemon verbena and lemon myrtle for tea, sorrel, red shiso, basil, land cress, a little errbet spinach, purslane, parsley seeds, wild rocket and a few lemons.

So brown rice Tabouli with mint, tomatoes, parsley and salad onion; Persian zucchini, mint, spring onions fritters; chimichurri sauce; potato and curry leaf samosas; yoghurt and herb dip; salads of herbs, flowers and garlic; hummus with parsley, garlic and chilli; spinach and onion pakoras; gazpacho with fresh basil, garlic, cucumbers and tomatoes; onion tops frittata; eggplant chutney; zucchini slice; salads with garlic and herbs; pasta with parsley, anchovies, garlic and capers; pizzas with tomatoes, basil, onion and garlic; sliced pepinos with mint and yogurt; zucchinis stuffed with rice, tomatoes and herbs; potato bake with herbs, chives and cream; chickpea and pepino salad with parsley and mint; wild rocket pesto; polenta with butter, herbs and chives; rice noodles with chopped onions and basil; sushi with cucumber, spring onion and shiso; blackeyed beans with coriander, parsley, onions and tomatoes; Peruvian casserole with winter pumpkin, potatoes, cumin, tomatoes, garlic, coriander and lima beans are all on the menu at our home this summer.

When you have a kitchen garden your world expands, you have a lovely setting to relax in. Somewhere to enjoy the beauty and magic of the seasons, bird and insect life and all the things growing in your garden.

You are able to experience joy and beauty when you gaze at a chicory plant and a lettuce plant going to seed, leaning on each other and showing the world the exquisite beauty of their flowers.

 

I watched neighbour’s pack up their very large boat and SUV vehicle, ready to head off some where. Then I wandered through the garden, looked at all our baby tomatoes, eggplants, tiny cucumbers and figs, parsley plants going to seed everywhere and masses of bees on every flower and I thought of simple things.

Simple things are often disrespected, not noticed or ignored but simple things are life, they are the essence of being a human on this planet.

I hope 2010 is a great year for you all, a year when you can accept life as it is, enjoy your friends, neighbours and family, enjoy your garden as it keeps you healthy and gives you good exercise.  Next year let’s continue to reach out to others who have never even tasted how great home grown organic food is.

Have a Happy, Healthy, Go Organic New Year. We shall gather soon and check out someone's garden, share food and enjoy each others company.

Happy New Year

Maggie

Bari Cucumbers December 2009

We hope you enjoy this collage of Roman Camomile, Agapanthus & the world famous cucumber from Bari, Italy.

A Seedsaver’s Garden

For all us new & experienced gardeners it was a wonderful afternoon visit to Claudia & Andrew’s amazing backyard “farm”. Where once the garden was surrounded by Italian & Greek backyard vegetable gardens, today this garden is surrounded by paved “Tuscan’ villas. It is so refreshing & encouraging to see what healthy herbs, fruits & vegetables can be grown for you family in a suburban backyard.

As Seedsavers it is important, as Andrew said today, to save the seeds from you favourite plants and vegetables so you are able to provide this healthy food for your family & friends.

Backyard gardening, although enjoyable does take time & effort & patience. Plants are grown, the seeds saved & then each season the seeds are returned to the soil, the plant grows & the cycle continues.

Claudia & Andrew have worked hard to save all the water coming onto their property so that through the long dry Adelaide summer their garden is watered with pure rainwater, which creates a healthy environment for their plants, their chickens & themselves.

For more photographs use this link: A Seedsavers Garden

A great big thank you to Claudia & Andrew for their great hospitality & for sharing their wonderful backyard farm with us today.

We have some more plans to visit other seedsavers vegetable gardens soon.

The Seed Savers Network

The Hills and Plains Seedsavers group is part of the Seed Savers Network started many years ago by Michel and Jude Fanton.

Seed Savers Handbook Online

This is a complete reference for growing, preparing and conserving 117 traditional varieties of food plants. Written especially for Australian and New Zealand conditions in 1993 by Michel and Jude Fanton, founders of The Seed Savers' Network.

Browse the Seed Savers Handbook online

“This is the online version of our enduring classic work. Please feel free to browse here, and remember that there are translations for the work, and you can always purchase a print version for your bookshelf or as a gift to a dear friend.” 
Check out the Seed Savers web site for other resources for starting a seed saving group or starting school gardens for children.