THE TROUBLE WITH ITALIAN FOOD....

 

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that

five or six days later you’re hungry again."

~ George Miller

There are more and more blogs in Italy and some about Italian food. This quote and photo came from Aglio, Olio & Peperoncini and some ideas for polenta that make me go straight to the cupboard to start cooking lunch, before it is even 8am!

My favourite blog in Italy is Path to Self Sufficiency.... obviously not by an Italian but here is a lovely snippet from a recent post by Heiko ( a Dutchman, who was brought up in Germany and has lived in the UK for a long time and who now lives in Italy on the border between Liguria and Tuscany):

 

.......To put it quite simply, I really do not understand the concept of money. I mean it, I don't. I can just about follow why they invented it in the first place. Back in the days when humans just roamed the countryside, life maybe wasn't exactly easy, but it was simple. All you needed to sort out was who went foraging for berries and roots and who did the hunting. In the evening they all met up again and shared their spoils.

When they invented culture you could still manage quite easily. You hunted an extra wild boar or deer, picked a few more berries and invited the guy with the interesting metal contraption from the other valley to bring along some pina colada and the other chap who manages to extract those strange sounds out of an old goat skin to join your feast and hey, you had a party!
But once people started settling down people started to specialise. There was the cabbage farmer, the goat herder, the medicine man, the carpenter and the plumber. Once the cabbage farmer got himself yet another acre of land he needed a bit of help. But soon his workmen got bored being paid in cabbages, there's only so much you can do with them. So they needed to come up with some sort of currency, some sort of token with a value they all agreed on..... read on...

It gets better and better and is a great little story!

A NEW BLOGGER IN TASMANIA

Often people ask me what is my favourite gardening book. This is a tricky question to answer because, as many readers of this blog would know, I am a little bit outside the square in my ideas and I wonder whether this person means a reference book, like Oriental Vegetables by Joy Larkom, something inspiring for the beginner like Backyard Self-sufficiency by Jackie French or something more meaty like Permaculture One by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.

There is, however, a book that is all of these in one.... easy to read, inspiring, philosophical, Australian and full of wonderful ideas and information. It is Beyond Organics, by Helen Cushing. Luckily for us, Helen has just started a blog, called Gardening with Helen. Here is an excerpt from Nasturtiums are like Teenagers.......

If you have nasturtiums in your garden, you will know what I mean when I say they are a plant requiring a relationship with their gardener.

I am a great fan of the nasturtium, but let’s just say they regularly test the friendship. They are a sort of teenage plant – lots of life, energy and beauty, but unsure of their boundaries. Or perhaps more accurately, uninterested in their boundaries....

.....There is another patch by the veggie bed. As an organic gardener and nature conservationist I believe in having a ‘living mulch’, maximising the habitat, protecting the soil, growing biomass etc – I’m sure you know the reasons. But as with teenagers, so with living mulch/nasturtium. The relationship must be interactive to achieve best results. Neglect means loss of influence (otherwise known as control), blurred boundaries, the need for a firm hand at a later date. Recovering the veggie garden from the enthusiasm of nasturtiums is more an act of archaeology than gardening.

She explains in her introduction.....Hope someone likes whatever it is that evolves here – it will be a rambling garden of words, of that you can be sure! Let me know if you enjoy it, and if you have any gardening questions, try me.

Helen is new to the whole blog thing so go and say hello, and leave a comment, she is our new neighbour! I have put a link to her blog in the side bar, under Tasmania.

Have you been around the world lately?

This morning I took a tour of some of the blogs we have listed in the side bar, under "Around the World in 80 Blogs".  I am so glad I live in blog-land, and can learn and laugh and wonder at all sorts of things people are doing in their back yards, allotments, window sills, balconies and in their research and handcrafts. Here are just a few, from Ireland, Japan, USA, Zambia, Singapore and Barbados.....

 

There is Peggy, of the Hydro farm allotment in Blarney, Ireland who is harvesting parsnips, Brussel sprouts, potatoes and one leek! She also has this lovely idea for some pots of flowers, that she calls tumbling pots.

Read more about Peggy :

Organic Growing Pains

Adekun seemed to be pining for parsnip seed to grow in Japan and has produced some edible parsnips at last!

Adekun's Japan Blog

 

Christa has Brussel sprouts growing under the snow at

Calendula and Concrete

 

 

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I love reading about Zambia and the work that Thulassy and 2 colleagues are doing there...... It really makes you think... a lot.

This is where it starts:

A farmer wakes at daybreak to ready his oxcart for the market.

He pulls his cattle from the crow and leads them into the yoke. He fastens a rope over the sacks of grain that represent a season’s worth of investment – money for seeds and fertilizer, a favourable rainfall, back breaking work to weed and harvest, and a lot of luck.

It’s cold and quiet. In the distance, the sky begins to glow with the rising sun. With a short whistle, he sets off on the first of many rocky miles, anxious for what awaits him at the market.

This is what we’re about:

The three of us work for Engineers Without Borders Canada in Zambia and Malawi, where we’re partnered with local organizations and companies that are working to include small holder farmers in agricultural markets.

This blog is a place for us to ask the question:

What does it take to make this work?

Read more at:  The First Mile

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Wilson is a wonderful gardener and writer in Singapore who I was lucky enough to spend a day with in September 2008. He has established a community garden and this food garden is an inspiration to many who live in apartments in Singapore. Here is a little from his latest posts:

 

Appreciate the beauty of Astonias

.....Besides being valued as handsome trees that profusely produce scented flowers, Alstonia has various other uses. The sap, which contain alkaloids, exuded from the bark of Alstonia has medicinal properties. The rather light timber fromAlstonia is used to make a range of products, from posts, coffins, corks, household utensils, floats to boards. In particular, timber from A. scholaris is used in the past to make writing slates for schools, which gave rise to the species name scholaris.

 

The Balsam in the Water

Waterlogged areas can be a headache for many gardeners as they can be expensive to improve for growing plants that demand a well-draining location....

....Like Impatiens balsamina, the flowers of Hydrocera trifolia yield a dye and the flowers of the latter are used to prepare a red dye for fingernails which serves as a substitute for henna (Lawsonia inermis). This use is behindHydrocera trifolia’s alternative common name, water henna.

This plant is easy to grow that are suited for growing inside or near the edge of ponds. Although aquatic in growth habit, one can also grow it in a pot of soil that is kept moist at all times. It thrives in semi-shaded areas to locations with full sunshine and can be propagated easily via stem-cuttings or via layering.

Read more at Gardening with Wilson

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Barbados.... and the dry season begins.... oh what diverse and wonderful things we can discover from blogs....

 

Now, this is an excellent use for a swimming pool that may no longer be wanted....

 

....For those of you who don't know tamarinds it is the most sour of fruits. It is a pod fruit and can be used green and dried. As a child in Trinidad we would eat it with salt and pepper or rolled in sugar into a ball. I used to boil a syrup with it and add spices. It was delicious. In Barbados they would put it in cane syrup in a crock and leave it for several months to a year. That is sooo delicious , my mouth is watering now that has a unique taste and is no longer found.

 

Visit Barbados and read about the island gal .... I loves to cook for company and adore a fusion of various cuisines. I speak some french with some degree of fluency having studied Pattern making in Paris many many moons ago. I work as a water garden consultant and my husband and I grow water lilies.

Read more at My Rustic Bajan Garden

DANISH SEEDSAVERS ANNUAL MEETING

I love reading the blog "In the Toad's Garden" by Skrubtudsen in Denmark. And I noticed he has recently added this blog to his reading list, so I thought I would pop over to Denmark and see what's been going on there lately.

He has been to the Danish Seedsavers annual meeting and visited some interesting and beautiful gardens, such as this culturally diverse one, as he describes....

From Toftegård we drove to the allotments in Ishøj. It was exciting to see how much can be grown, when 100 sq.m. is exploited intensive. Ishøj is know for its large immigrant community. The allotments is a cultural melting pot, where people with very diverse cultural heritage meet each others gardening culture. Some are faithful to their origin, others are more curious, letting themselves getting inspired to grow new crops and grow in new ways. The joy of gardening prevail, almost every gardener there seems to share it. Almost, because here like every where some people with good intentions are not able to keep the garden from growing in to weed and wild trees. But in this allotment they are willingly helping if allowed. An old man kept his garden very well, but has fallen ill this summer. Those who can keep his garden for the time being. He probably helped others in need at times.

We are so lucky here, in Adelaide in particular, that we do not need to grow our tomatoes and capsicums etc in glasshouses like this one but I would so love to go and see how things are done in such a cold place as Denmark one day.

The Story of This Blog

This blog was started in October 2006 soon after a small number of individuals gathered at Fern Ave Community Garden to see if they were interested in forming a seedsavers group. Most of us had never met before and none of us had a plan! We put our names and email addresses on a piece of paper and said yes, we would like to meet again and talk about our gardens, our histories, our ideas and get to know others who enjoy growing food in some way.

Diana said: "What shall we do with the piece of paper.... who is going to look after it and do whatever needs to be done? I am really a bit out of touch with technology to do email lists?"

Viv said "I don't think I want to do that.... is there anyone who would like to?"

Ever the sucker, I said I would do it.... I would be the communicator between us all. And so I took home the piece of paper and wondered what to do now! Every day I would say to one or another of my family members... "I have a great idea for the seedsavers group".... or "hey I mustn't forget to tell them all about this insect / compost / funny story / great vegetable harvest " etc etc. But I still didn't know what to do to keep us all in touch with one another.

One day in October son Alex said "Mum you should start a blog for all these people and all this stuff you want to tell them." I knew nothing about computers and had never heard of a blog. Alex is a wonderful lad who always makes you feel good, no matter how little you know. He turned on the computer and took me to blogland..... and I thought "Wow! Why didn't I know about all this before? Where have I been all my life?" And so the Hills and Plains Seedsavers blog was formed, there and then, by an ordinary mother and extraordinary son, in a very messy study in a very messy house with a very messy garden.

And the rest, as they say, is history. These days it is even easier to get started with a blog as Google has made things much simpler and more user-friendly over the years. Now you can do amazing things with feeds and ads and links and videos and maps and you can even blog from your phone. Moreover its all free.

It has introduced us all to each other and I have even been and stayed with some of you in 6 different countries.... something I would very much like to do again, and include some of you who I could not get to last time. Times change and membership grows but I hope this blog will stand the test of time and that we will all grow old together in blogland, so happy that each of us has found this wonderful use for technology.... ironically, the same root technology that we often complain is ruining the earth, unless we run our computers or homes on alternative energy.

Three cheers for blogs!

Better Late Than Never Musical Gnome

The Mad Gnomes have a great mad give away, today is the last day.

Check out Friday the 12th of June too see some really cute gnomes.

My Musical gnome has just arrived home from being on the road playing at all sorts of gigs around the country.

So here is my entry, I would love a copy of The Silver Spoon book or an Italian cookbook or some seeds to give away or Kiva gift.

I don’t know why more gnomes have not shown up, but maybe they are all over at Gavin’s with his clucky chicken shed gnome making cheese or beer!

Happy last day of June from Mad Maggie.

DAPHNE, PEGGY and THE TOAD....

What a nice way to spend a little time, wandering about in a garden you hadn't taken enough notice of before. You can peek over the fence and see all kinds of things you know and don't know, when you go by yourself with plenty of time. I saw a few black aphids on the borage but then noticed the eggs of the predator lacewing and I knew Daphne's ecosystem was working to keep things in balance.

Her beans are very robust and may outgrow the corn that they are climbing on..... I look forward to seeing what happens there. And since I have visited her garden there has been quite a bit of rain to keep things looking fresh and growing well.

I had a lovely time at Daphne's, while she was out somewhere and I hope you will drop by too. She says we are always welcome, anytime. Here is her address. And here is the post that I took the photo from, all about her garden in June. Thanks Daphne.

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 In the Toads Garden  is about growing food and seed saving in Denmark

There is always so much interesting stuff in the toad's garden and I always learn something every time I go there. I just can't keep up with it all and find it fascinating that people can grow such a diverse range of vegetables even in very cold climates, such as Denmark.

......Red Russian is a different kale. The classic kale is deep green with curly leaves, whereas this variety has feathered leaves. Color is somewhat different, with a notable silvery shine. Taste is sweet, and raw leaves are crisp to the bite.

A villager probably recognise the colors from the swedes/rutabagas. Red Russian belong to the same species, whereas most other kales belong to same species as cabbage. When saving seeds it’s important to isolate from swedes/rutabagas and from other kales of this species, like the russian, siberian and baltic kales, as well as the north german scheerkohls. Read more about this here.

Thanks Skrubtudsen....

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It being the self-proclaimed "International day of vegetable garden blogs" I thought I'd take a little trip to Ireland, to Blarney, and see how Peggy is going with her allotment.

She has made a wonderful discovery....I collected 2 bags of compost from our municipal composter which I only found out about recently even though it is very near me!All green waste can be taken there and the finished compost is free to take away. Read more of this post here...

 

(There used to be a place like that in my council area until some idiotic neighbour complained and now it is a carpark! I hope they like it. Sorry Paggy, some things make my blood boil....)

Peggy's latest post talks about their allotment's open day On June 20th....I'd love to come Peggy, maybe next year!

Our Open Day is on Sat 20th June and this year we are going all out to have a super day with all of the new plot holders. Everyone can bring friends and family to view their own and others plots and we will be on hand to answer any questions. We spent the morning painting in glorious sunshine. Zwena has lots of old farm implements stored in the barn and outhouses so they are all being cleaned and painted and being put out on display as it has been a working farm for many years and the machinery tells the history of the place.

Her blog is called Organic Growing Pains. Thanks Peggy....

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WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO GROWING FOOD?

There are so many people now wanting to start growing some vegetables and fruit and herbs for themselves. They pop up everywhere we go and often people send me an email via the blog, asking for advice and help and tips on this and that. I love it because I get to help people get started or solve some problem or just direct them to the seed companies we have in the side bar etc. I love it because it means this blog is doing something useful and sometimes they join our group, which now has 50 members. I love it because it makes connections and develops friendships and this is good for the soul. Last week it was fellow seed saver Lou from Albury who called in and soon Linda from Victoria via KGI is coming to Adelaide, to name 2 recent connections.

All this shows that there is so much more to growing food than growing food! The simple acts of sowing seeds and later harvesting something for dinner, give so much more to us than it takes in time. Apart from all the learning involved, you get to see and feel real life, from those tiny insects you may go hunting for, that are eating your broccoli leaves to the pleasure of raking to a fine tilth a rich, black compost ready for sowing. Suddenly, you are aware of every drop of rain falling or not falling on your seed beds! You are out early on summer mornings judging if the day is going to be too hot to uncover your baby seedlings and let the sun help them grow. And covering them in winter to keep off the chilly night air.

You start to notice the phases of the moon and wonder what all this means for your plants. Daily thoughts turn to eating from what is in your garden and you begin to understand about the seasons and what will grow when. Conversations with friends and family and neighbours change and begin to include topics such as what to do with 25kg of zuccinis and did you watch Gardening Australia last week and what do you think of the new compere and even when shall we go on holidays that will be best for our vegetable garden! I hate going away between Christmas and New Year because that is when my mother's apricots are ripe.

If you are like me, you will prefer to spend money buying good gardening boots and new secateurs than hand bags and high heels. You will begin to get to know which roads in the hills are likely to have bags of horse or sheep or cow or chicken manure out for sale on the weekends, and try to remember to take the trailer to avoid the rest of the family complaining about the smell on the way home! You start reading gardening magazines and swapping vegetable-growing stories with shop assistants.

Your interests spread into nutrition and you wonder if it is OK for your children to eat a bucket of figs or grapes or capsicums when once you may have worried they never ate any! You gather books on preserving and scan garage sales for suitable bottling jars and drying machines. Thoughts turn solar and you may have a green epiphany like Gavin, from The Greening of Gavin, which changes your outlook on what's important in life and maybe, like Gavin and lots of the rest of us, you might start a blog to write down what you feel and think and have discovered.

Once you have a blog or join a seedsavers group or start talking to your neighbours or make connections through schools etc you feel the links strengthen , like the links in a chain, joining together all the knowledge and wisdom of thousands of generations of food growing families.

By now your children will have grown up and the greatest thing of all happens; they want to start a vegetable garden and wish they had taken notice when they lived at home. But that's what you are for and you gladly drive to the other side of the city to help because you know what it will mean to their soul, to grow food.

And as you increase how much time you spend living in the real world, you realise that your life has indeed become rich; rich beyond your wildest dreams and that with dirt under your nails, a healthy glow on your cheeks, and friends all over the world you are finally satisfied. That is what else there is to growing food; satisfaction and a sense of worth.

SEATTLE one of my favourite BLOG STOPS

I have been visiting Seattle online for a long time.
There are quite a few Seattle blogs I visit. So I just thought I would send greetings to all of you.

Melinda, One Green Generation, and her family and fellow bloggers of course.
Melinda has a list of North West bloggers on her site.

Tea and Cookies shows off Seattle as she spends time walking and writing and dining around Seattle.

Crunchy chicken and her Seattle buddies had a North West Bloggers meet up on September 7th this year. Melinda wrote about it on September the 8th.
It looks like it was a lazy afternoon for them getting together and meeting each other for the first time.

Crunchy has a very popular blog and many of her readers support her "Goods 4 Girls", check out her blog.

So I look forward to seeing some more of Seattle as Kate visits.

Amazingly a lot of bloggers do not show local gardens or local community gardens.
Come on gardening bloggers leave your back yards and show off your local community.

I also have read a lot about the wonderful markets and cafes in Seattle.
Seattle looks a great place to visit. I guess us South Australians just love the look of all that water and snow.

(You had best stay somewhere wet and cool Kate as it's starting to get hot and dry here.)

I wrote this in January when I was wondering what to do with all the chillies in my garden.

Chillies, Spring Onions, Zucchinis and Beans

I have a lot of chillies growing in my garden.This year I decided to grow some milder varieties.
I have ancho, pimento, caysan, anaheim, hot wax, Thai chillies and purple tiger.
I have been thinking of using them in Mexican dishes but I found this image when I was looking for chilli images.
It is a Thai lunch special from Fremont in Seattle. A Pad Thai recipe with things like zucchini, beans and spring onions all of which we have in our gardens at the moment.
I think it looks pretty good so as I can not get to Seattle this week I shall try a vegetarian version with the Thai chillies I have growing.
Click on Brad Hole's Review in the Seattle Weekly.

This recipe looks as good to me today as it did in January. I might make Pad Thai for dinner, we have a great crop of snow peas we have been eating as we garden but some of them be perfect in this recipe. We even have some Seattle dark beer brewing in the kitchen but this wont be ready for awhile.

I reckon if you want to encourage people to grow their own food, eat organic or get children interested in gardening, Snow Peas are the best crop to grow. Imagine a front yard full of sweet snow peas and friends and neighbours wandering around sharing a snow pea feast!
If you think I am exaggerating, garden gnome mentioned they have more snow peas than they can eat!
Well it's our allocated watering day so I had best get back out in the garden.
Happy eating and gardening in Seattle Kate and everyone else.
Maggie

Search Engine- for our blog- a new toy to play with!

I just realized a search engine has been added to this blog and it works beautifully.

Now you can read all about Cath's capsicum's growing at Kate's or find my article about the bee attracting plant -Agastache Foeniculum ( anise hyssop), chillies, our visits to Nirvana or The Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

WOW it is so cool, thank you Alex or Kate who ever added this.

No longer will our words and images disappear into blog land and take ages to find.

So if you are a new reader of our blog go back in time and see how much fun and learning and sharing we have experienced together.

For those with a passion for REAL cheese

Warning these blogs can make you dream of far away places & make you wish you had volunteered to help carry Kate’s electronic equipment through France.

Everytime I look at this picture of the cheese (& mountain honey) shop in St Nectaire (auvergne area ) I can still smell and taste their wonderful cheese.




http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/french-cheese-from-place-in-auvergne.html
http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/french-cheese-from-auvergne.html

http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/pasteurised-milk-v-raw-milk-in-cheese.html
http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/09/french-market-pictures.html

And if that’s not enough to get the travel bug happening (at least in your head) check out this exciting blog.
Farm Blogs from Around the World http://www.farmblogs.blogspot.com/) Imagine the very best of global blogging about farms, farming, rural life and anything concerning the production of food and fibre all together in one place.
PS Kate its raining today hence the posts however I got plenty of seedlings potted up in the tunnel this morning.