FROM ADELAIDE TO DETROIT TO ZAMBIA...WE ALL FEEL THE SAME

I have a very soft spot for Thulasi, out there doing what must be done, while I just sit here and talk about it. Here is an update from Zambia.

....."I was down and out and in desperate need of a pick-me-up, and there’s no better place for that than in the village. In the village, you say? Yes, in the village.

Whyson, my co-worker, says that when outsiders see images of village life or drive through in roaring white land-cruisers, they say, “Oh, these people are suffering.” Yes, one cannot deny that there is a fair bit of suffering in rural Zambia. But what visitors fail to see, Whyson says, “is that these people are living.”There are a lot of lessons to be learned in the village, many of which fall into those “habits of mind” the author described in the Times article. Waking when the sun rose, sweeping the ground, harvesting the maize crop, milking the cows (and making tea with it 5 minutes later), watering the garden, bicycling to see the relatives, greeting everyone we passed, heating water for a bath, and sleeping when the sun set.

I worked very hard alongside my hosts, trying my best to keep up and realizing all along that not only have my muscles atrophied from under-use but so has my mind. The abundant world in which I was raised has actually limited my ability to conceive of what is possible, of what my body is capable of, of the elegance in simplicity...."

"Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will."

Read the rest...

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INSPIRATION FOR EVERYONE

Here is Holly, in Detroit, doing amazing things on her balcony and in her worm farm! If she can do this where she lives, then not one Australian has an excuse for not doing it too. Watch and listen.

Holly's Balcony

Holly's whole blog is full of the passion for turning around the ridiculous agricultural mess the USA is in and getting people to take charge of their own food growing, as she has done. Does this all sound familiar? I am so looking forward to meeting her next year at Ian's gathering, in France.

DAPHNE'S GARDEN

Every week at the market,for years, I cross paths with several people; the same old ones who frequent Wilson's Organics, Barossa Organic Meat and various other stalls - all local stuff that we each care enough about to seek out. We chat while we are being served and sometimes get to know each other's names, sometimes not. One such person is Daphne. For some reason once we were talking about olives. She asked me for my pickling recipe and she told me I could have some of the olives from her tree and that she would ring me when they were ripe.We exchanged names and phone numbers.Well, on Friday she rang. I said I would be there in an hour - it was nice to change my afternoon plans from vacuuming to picking olives and I needed no encouragement!

Romanesco broccoli	Such a dainty begonia. I will cherish my cuttings.	A citrus hedge the whole depth of the block

When I arrived, her husband answered the door and told me "She's down the back somewhere" pointing out the back door and off into the backyard. Halfway down the yard I still couldn't see her so called out, thinking she might be in the shed. However, at 78, Daphne was up the olive tree with a bag over her shoulder, picking olives for me! Already there was a bowlful on the ground below. She just said to me, looking me up and down, "Oh, that jumper looks a bit good for olive picking" and continued right on with the job. I climbed up onto the platform she has built to gain better access to the tree and got into it too, assuring her that my jumper was an old one.

We chatted away and I took a couple of photos of the olive branches - some with as yet unripe olives on them, as in the photo. I have never seen such a crop and the weight of them had unfortunately already broken one branch. Of course, on my walk down to the olive tree I had noticed some vegetables and other things growing so after the olive picking was done we spent a pleasant time talking about all that too. Now, you may have read previously about my love affair with begonias, and I was ecstatic to see so many at Daphne's and I have come home with some cuttings.

Every nook and cranny of Daphne's porch and garden is filled with plants and she told me stories about who or where they all came from. Isn't that what is so wonderful about our gardens - they are filled with memories of friends and adventures and happy times. I know, when I wander around my own garden that each plant there has a story - it is like a perpetual photo album, reminding me of things and people from my whole life.

Daphne is the keenest propagator of everything I think I have ever met and she always has plants to give away. One particular plant - a most unusual succulent - she received from a friend on her 50th birthday, 28 years ago. She has propagated many since and gave me one, for my 50th birthday. I hope I will still be around when I am 78 and probably I will have also given away many cuttings from it; life, in perpetual motion.

Daphne doesn't have a computer so I didn't go into details about the blog but I said I would write something and print out a copy to give her next time we crossed paths at the market.....Some of the loveliest times I have are those unexpected encounters with people like Daphne.

FRIDAY...ON THURSDAY, AND THE STORY OF THE PEA

It was supposed to be a Thursday like any other - walk with mother's dog on the beach, lunch at mother's house, do a couple of jobs for her, head back home, cook dinner for mother-in-law, greet mother-in-law, feed her lots of cheeses, give her lots of wine, eat dinner, give her some homework - she loves me to print off something I have written during the week to read and we discuss it next week! But....son Hugh, who for many reasons happened to be home at our place on Wednesday night, said he would like to go with me to the market on Thursday as he was busy on Friday. So, being the mother-who-has -nothing-to-do-but-bend-to-her-family's-wishes, I said OK. What I imagined would be a quick trip in, a bit of food shopping, some morning tea at the market with mother in lieu of lunch and the whole dog thing and then home to the garden for the afternoon, turned into a mammoth day with Hugh, arriving home at about 5pm.

Hugh is larger than life! He is not tall or fat but is just plain all-encompassing, no matter how you look at him! From the top of his no doubt expensive, white sunglasses and blonde hair, down past the bulging arm muscles, great all-year round tan and the pale yellow T-shirt that says certified organic, to the shorts, hairy legs and sandshoes, he oozes presence! He knows how to have a good time, he understands people (especially his mother!) and he has a job the envy of many and the despair of his girlfriend's parents! He is a watch-leader on the One and All sail-training ship - a square-rig ship that takes groups of disadvantaged kids out for a week at a time to show them there is more to life than drugs, alcohol and bad language. He loves it and he and the crew are seeking the title "Best Sail Training Ship In The World". He has a passion and wants to lead the world - does that sound like anyone else you know from around here? He has plans and ideas - wise and otherwise - and nobody is going to keep him inside the square and I love him dearly for it and am very proud of him. .

So, at the market we just bought double of everything (and guess who paid?) - half for him and his house-mate (another lad from the One and All) and half for Roger and I. Sounds simple but life with Hugh is never simple or cheap. Of course, he wanted some special French cheeses, expensive wine and other things for a picnic on the weekend with his girlfriend - there I drew that line that pops up from time to time! He could buy them himself, that curtailed the spending enormously because he spent all his money living it up in Sydney after sailing there on the One and All last week. So he bought some fish and borrowed the smoker box and I picked him a basket full of goodies from the garden as well as some of my jars of preserves from the cupboard - olives, chutney, jam and bottled peaches.

My mother, at 85, has been going to the market all her life - well, since she and her family arrived in Adelaide from England when she was 2 - and she still goes, without fail. Instead of going to her place for lunch this week, Hugh and I joined her for morning tea at Zuma - a cafe in the market, where the coffee is excellent and the muffin of the day, cooked in little terracotta pots and served hot with cream is one of the best things in Adelaide. Once they stopped having these at Zuma because the pots are a bother to clean, they said, and there was a riot in the streets! I for one, told them I was going to take my patronage elsewhere because what was Zuma if not the place with the best muffins in the world?! Next week they were back. Speaking up is always good. They get the little pots from Bennett's Pottery in Magill, if anyone is interested in cooking them this way. John Bennett has a passion too and it is making terracotta things - another story. (I took the camera but alas, again, the battery was flat. Holy valotta I was disappointed but c'est la vie.)

We were sitting there in the window, slurping our coffee and chatting about this and that when my mother laughed and said she had something to tell me.....the other night she was at home, sitting at the kitchen table, shelling the peas she had bought at Wilson's Organics last week.... her glasses on, the radio going, the dog at her feet, dinner in the oven and so on. She slid her thumb down the line of peas in the next pod, to scoop them out into the bowl and she noticed that one of the peas had sprouted, there in the pod. She probably said "Well look at that, Sandy!" to the dog. She promptly stood up, took off her reading glasses, got the torch from the drawer and a trowel from the laundry cupboard and walked purposefully out into the dark, winter's night with the single, sprouted pea in her hand. Outside on the patio was an old concrete pot that I had filled with potting mix for her to plant a lemon verbena in. Instantly she decided to put the lemon verbena elsewhere and that this tub was to be the home of the pea. Into the soil it went.

Now, because my father was a nurseryman and had a passion for plants - all plants - he always did the gardening. My mother only started gardening at about 80 when my father died. I keep and area near her kitchen door clear for her to plant some vegetables in but more often this patch gets filled with bulbs and flowers - "Just for now, dear, until the weather warms up / cools down/ rains etc etc" So it was a wonderful thing for me to hear that she had planted a pea, - one of her favourite vegetables, in the dark on a cold winter's night. You see, parents can take after their children, even if it takes 85 years!

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Later that evening Roger couldn't find his wallet, missed the train from work, rang his mother who said she wasn't coming to dinner because it was now getting late and she doesn't like to drive in the fog. Then Roger's bike chain broke, it started to pour with rain and I had to go and pick up him and his bike from the corner of the parklands...dinner got late, very late. Hugh rang to say his car battery was flat and so was a tyre and why didn't I stay and help him instead of abandoning him at 4.30pm in Pt Adelaide...Hugh is lovely but there are limits to my endurance!...I went to put some wood in the fire after dinner, just thought I would lie down in front of the fire for a minute and went to sleep there....

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Life is good, if unpredictable... Go with the flow....

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(Bloody blogger...why won't Alex fix it!....he says he is doing other stuff but will get to it soon. Oh yeah! Don't hold your breath... I have been using Windows Live Writer which is much better. Today I forgot, in my enthusiasm to write this!)

Real People, Real Stories, Real Veggie Gardens by Maggie

We were up on the roof cleaning the Autumn leaves and moss out of the gutters, Bob says what's happening in your blog world?
Well where to start,with an invitation like that.

Kate had cake at The Mad Gnomes and Veggie Gnome is getting some polycarb to line the sides of their veranda "so the icy wind's can't damage their precious seedlings and potted shrubs".

Deb from Nirvana has a wonderful picture of their cosy kitchen with its wood stove. See all the wonderful produce that comes from their farm and that kitchen. Geese, berries, chestnuts , walnuts and citrus, read how to make sour dough bread or homemade wine. Visit Nirvana, you may want to stay there.

Matron from Down on the allotment (UK) is picking purple podded peas, artichokes and new potatoes and making Elderberry Cordial.

Ilex, from Homesteading in a Condo, is picking all sorts of greens and cooking yummy things .She lives in Detroit, has great photos of all the old derelict buildings in Detroit on her blog as well as photos of her garden and pet rabbits.

Theresa from Pondering the Myriad things has started a new garden which is growing well, she lives in Alberta, Canada and has to keep deer from eating her plants. She has a great post called Greed and Disconnection, please read it .

Gintano of jardim com gatos is picking summer veggies and mint. It looks really dry there in Portugal.

Costa de la Luz Gardening - Spain, is talking about water shortages in Spain and how they are shipping water from France.

Scarecrow (SA mid North) has had ice on their car already and has wonderful photos in different places on her blog as well as a new blog called Outback Edge Harvest. I was Googling for an image of calendulas and found a wonderful collage(shown above) by scarecrow, she put together of all the different types of calendulas in her garden.

Ian in France has started his own Kitchen Garden in France blog, now he has rabbits eating his plants.

Nami Nami in Estonia always delights one's senses with her wonderful recipes, good place for a coffee break.

Indian Garden- Pradesh India- is talking about world food shortages and how much grain is required to produce 1 ton of beef. She talks about the health benefits and antioxidants in the vegetarian diet.

La Gringa's Blogicito in Honduras thinks she may have Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome and warns bloggers, get that left elbow, your leaning on off the table while your right hand clicks and clacks with the mouse on your table. A good blog, as she chats to many whose lives are not always easy.

Heather from New Mexico has a great website called Albuquerque- local food. See Heather's husband standing in the middle of his food supply!

Pattie from Foodshed Planet is experiencing Atlanta's 3rd year of drought and as always is passionate about changes we humans should make to save our planet. And she makes great broccoli pizza and bread!

Chile Chews, from Desert SW USA, is running a Quit now challenge, its amusing to read everyones comments and what they are quitting.
Chile thinks the soil in her backyard is "darn near sterile".
Chile and others are keen to support Crunchy Chicken from Seattle, as her family is having a hard time at the moment.

Crunchy Chicken thought she may give up her blog but 147 comments later, she's back.
Crunchy Chicken has "Goods for Girls" which helps girls in Africa remain in schools.

Elements in time have moved back to Seattle, they are the couple whose cat nearly died after the grape vines, across the road from where they were living, were sprayed with chemicals. Scary stuff those sprays.

Calendula and concrete have black spot on their roses and are going to try spraying with 1 teaspoon of baking soda in 1 quart of water.

I was Googling to find a cartoon about blogging and I came upon the blog Leaves of Grass
Besides 4 good blog jokes you will find a site full of amazing photographs of the writers surrounds in Brazil. There are wonderful photos of trees and water and art galleries and works of art.
Another good place to stop and ponder.

4 different kitchen garden blog writers are in this photo, as well as other like myself who write occasionally.
So many people, so many gardens, so many stories and so many lives.
So thank you one and all for sharing your lives and telling your tales.

I hope I got all the names of your blogs correct.
Keep writing.

BEETROOT, A REAL PASTY AND SOME DESSERT

 

I love growing beetroot because you can eat the whole thing and it all tastes so good. I picked these today and there are still quite a few left. I don't know why I didn't sow more...actually now I remember why - it was that REALLY hot weather we had in March. Luckily I sowed more in April and again just recently. They look so wonderful in the garden, with their dark green leaves and crimson stems and they don't seem to get attacked by anything much at all.

 

I cook them using one of Jamie Oliver's recipes and we have them hot one night and then cold after that. It involves lots of whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, a handful of oregano, some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. I will put the recipe on Gardeners' Gastronomy.

Another night I made my mother's recipe for Pasty Slice. I will put that on the link too. Here are all the vegetables and a bit of finely diced kangaroo, all raw and ready to go into the pastry.

 

 

 

 

I love making pastry and my mother's recipe is foolproof and excellent. It has some self-raising flour in it which makes all the difference. I use this recipe for all pies and just add a tablespoon of sugar if it is for a sweet pie.

 

 

 

Yum. Now that is what I call a decent pasty!

 

I also made pears in citrus sauce with the last of my pears and the first of her oranges. One of my favourite desserts...I feel as though I have written this before. Please excuse me if I am repeating myself!

NOW WE ARE GETTING SOMEWHERE....

Tuesday is my Italian lesson and it is great and I will never starve in Italy because I know how to order anything to eat and drink, add up the money, get change and be very polite. I can tell you who I am, why I am there, when I was born and whether or not I have my passport/ drivers licence/ a booking/ lots of friends/ lots of money/ lots of or a few of dozens of things! I can tell you if I play a sport or a musical instrument and what type of wine I like, what colour car I have and what I like to do in my spare time. BUT, until today, we have not learned one word about growing vegetables / seed saving or treading lightly on the planet.

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NOW though, I can at last say one very important thing.....Ho quattro galline...which means....I have 4 chooks!! Yippee! I can venture alone into rural Italy with this phrase and be certain to find my way somewhere appropriate...well, eventually! You may hear me from where you are, practising this phrase out in my vegetable garden or chook yard tomorrow.....say it with me (don't pronounce the 'h'; say the rest each syllable at a time)...ho quattro galline...

Chooks of Italy take heart, I am on my way! Well, some of them might not be too pleased as I intend to eat a few! And maybe I will be able to post to this blog from there, next year....standing there with happy and vibrant Italians all around me, all raising their glasses of limoncello and saying with me..."Ho quattro galline!" or something more appropriate like "Hooray for chooks", in Italian! I must ask the Italian teacher next week how to say that!

I pity the poor lady I sit next to in the Italian class because I am always saying something that makes her laugh, when we are supposed to be practising Italian together. Today when I said "Hooray at last we are learning something useful I can say about my chooks", when everyone else was saying "I have a dog or a cat or a fish", she laughed so much I thought I would be expelled for causing such a disruption!! Often I say something in Japanese, accidentally, or on purpose or even in French and she just waits until I get to the Italian; I wonder if she wishes she had sat next to someone else that first day??

Today we went down Hutt street to get a coffee afterwards and managed to order our stuff in Italian from the bloke serving who looked Italian, in the Italian cafe. That was quite fun to do but he didn't seem interested in my 4 chooks; I wonder why not?

Tomorrow it will be back to '501 French Verbs'. Ian, my French teacher, seems to think I should love this new book I have bought but it has no mention of chooks in it anywhere, so I think he doesn't know me well enough yet! And the only vegetable I know in French is cabbage - how English is that! Give me some names for bok choy or okra or Chinese broad-leafed spinach or Lemon Myrtle or Muntries please Ian!