It is time to start doing the unthinkable....to sow some seeds of some of the summer vegetables that take ages to mature. So get your mind into action and in the cold and fog and rain, gather your seed raising gear and sow some tomato seeds. Keep them inside, somewhere warmish, and if you do this now you will have them in the garden by the end of September or potted up and ready to plant out in October. I like to pot them up and plant out later so all the winter vegetables can be left to finish and some plants selected to gather the seed, before the summer vegetables go in to the ground.
Things to sow now, in early August - tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant, okra. Sow again in late August. Don't leave it, like I have done in the past, and regret it all summer when everything is a bit later than ideal; it only takes a few minutes and makes you feel all skippity doo for months! And anything that makes me feel that good, that easily, is definitely worth while.
Funny how just writing this down makes me want to go out in the dark and thick fog of this early winter's morning and put my hands into the compost and start sifting it and making a heavenly place for those tiny seeds to start their life.
As a small child I used to spend hours playing with the textures of the sand on the beach at our shack at Aldinga.... so much so that I can remember the feel of them running through my fingers even now. I would collect the dry sand from the top of the beach and walk down towards the sea, collecting in little buckets the different sands - getting damper and coarser closer to the sea. Then I would tip them and mix them with my hands and feel the differences... there was a particular concoction that I liked best, I remember. I was ever so young when I did this but that enjoyment of the feel of the sand then and the soil now is somehow quite integral to me becoming a vegetable gardener and connecting with the earth.
When I am sowing seeds I sometimes think of all the people before me who have made this seed what it is now. Originally it was a wild thing, native to somewhere and it is quite mind blowing to think of the first people who thought to gather some seed and sow it for their own use, thousands of years ago. Some seeds have been sown and harvested and selected for vigour and taste and disease reisitence and so on, by thousands of people before us...this very seed you sow today may be just one such seed and you and I are the guardians of that variety of tomato or okra etc. If we stop growing it and stop passing it on to others it may well disappear from the gene pool of the earth, forever. We are its future and we are responsible for the future... not some seed company who may or may not continue to sell it... you, me, all of us, individually and together.
So take a look at the seeds you have. Think about how long ago it was that they originated. Feel them in your fingers. Sow them in your soil. Love them like your children. Help them grow up and reproduce. Save some of their seeds and be a part of their future.
"Ho un orta"...seems like a pretty short and simple Italian sentence doesn't it but its meaning reflects everything this blog is about and holds such depth and meaning that I am almost speechless! This little group of 3 words says ....."I have a vegetable garden".
The reason this is so wonderful is that 'orta', like 'potager', in French, is purely and simply a one word name for a vegetable garden or kitchen garden. The Italian and French life has revolved around the growing and producing of food for the family, for friends and for sale, for thousands of years and still today connects the people to the culture and to the land. One word. If I could have another go at life as a human I would like to be of a nationality that had just one small word for a vegetable garden.....
So far in Italian we have learned a lot about food...raw things like fruit and vegetables, cooked food and what you might find on a menu, cafe food and drinks and how to order them and so on. Today we moved on to another side of Italian life and learned about love! To love happens to be one of the first verbs in a list of hundreds, which conjugates in a certain way and so we delved into the language of love in Italian with lots of kissing and hugging...and then of course, after all the fun is over, comes the housework! And we learned how to say do the ironing and the washing and the dusting and make the bed.
So now I can say I love my vegetable garden... but it would seem quite a crazy thing to say out loud, as I do the gardening, so I think I will practice this verb by saying I love my chooks...well, maybe this is even more odd.... I will have to think of something else; I can hardly go around talking about kissing and hugging chooks!!
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Monday, 4 August 2008
SUNBEAMS AND RAINDROPS SPRINKLING MAGIC OVER MY GARDEN
 | ....irresistible effects of the sun playing amongst the petals of this polygala from South Africa... |
| ....the blue winter sky is such a beautiful colour, contrasted with the brown, falling oak leaves..... |  |
 | ....dainty and pretty,fine and lacy ; a weeping wattle.... |
| ....the low winter sun brings out the texture of this young broccoli leaf, still dusted with rain... |  |
 | ...raindrops on the buds of a succulent just catch a ray of sun through the trees... |
| ...the buds of the satsuma plum are fattening already.... |  |
 | ....like a string of beads hanging on a clothesline, these raindrops teeter on the stem of another succulent... |
Sunday, 3 August 2008
AND NOW THE PARTY
See more photos here and check out the humorous slide show Roger presented on the night or download the full PowerPoint presentation (unzip for sound effects).
Prepare Daikon leaves
Here is one way to prepare daikon leaves if you find them too tough or too bitter to eat.
Rub the leaves with salt.
Leave it overnight, massage them from time to time. The liquid of the leaves would come out a bit.
Chop into small pieces. Stir fry with some chili.
Salt the leaves.
Leave it overnight, massage them from time to time. The liquid of the leaves would come out a bit.
Squeeze the liquid out. Wash out the excess salty water.
Chop into small pieces.
Stir fry with some chili, delicious.
Daikon leaves are full of Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, B2 ,Vitamin C and Iron.
To eat whole food is always good from Chinese Traditonal Medicine's point of view. Because each part of the vegetables usually has different properties, by eating whole food you get a more balanced diet. So don't threw away your Daikon leaves!
From CTM's point of view, the properties of Daikon are:
Daikon leaves: Neutral, sweet and bitter.
Daikon roots: Cool, sweet, and Pungent.
More information on Food properties in CTM, see:
Propterties of Food From a TCM Perspective
Rub the leaves with salt.
Leave it overnight, massage them from time to time. The liquid of the leaves would come out a bit.
Chop into small pieces. Stir fry with some chili.
Friday, 1 August 2008
FRIDAY AT THE MARKET...AGAIN
There is always a story to tell about the market on a Friday and today it is all about fun. This whole 50th birthday thing seems to have taken over even my Friday market trip as everywhere I went people said happy birthday. At Vegas, the chicken stall, the bloke gave me a free insulated bag and a little jar of Thai sauce to go with the chicken shasliks I bought for the party....At Wilson's it was pumping and full of all the regulars and was like a party already! Final details for James and his fruit cocktails, checking with Victoria that the food was happening with her boyfriend Jarrod, giving the address to Angela and talking to Daphne about that post I wrote about her garden and how much she and her family liked the printout I gave her.
Tony Scarfo was there at Wilson's too, delivering his vegetables and showing me how the female shape had developed voluptuously for his fennel. People of Italian background see things in a nice kind of way, I think! I ran my hand over a barrow load of his gorgeous broccoli and asked him how he could part with them as they were so divinely shaped and fully grown and deep, deep green.... We talked about all sorts of things as usual, before the crush of incoming customers separarted us and he drifted off to get more stuff from his barrow, outside the door.
Where else would I find so many lovely, friendly, happy, quirky, crazy people gathered together in the pursuit of growing, selling and buying fresh, local, organic food? This is a place of inspiration, joy and understanding and what I want to know is why life in our cities isn't packed to overflowing with experiences like this because it sure is working in this tiny shop where local and organic are mainstream and not expensive and the backyard grower can sell stuff too, like I have sometimes done. Today I bought leeks grown in Plympton...not certified but home-grown, claiming to be natural and looking full-flavoured, robust, fresh and thick. I will take the chance as Angela only buys from the regular customers.... what comes around goes around.
Ting and Tina, two of our newest members who have never met each other but have each read this blog, have discovered the joys of the central market because of all this stuff I write about it and, for me, that is reason enough to keep writing about life in this slow and quirky lane. If you want life and a laugh with your food, immerse yourself in the market and the surrounding shops.
If you like, meet me there on a Friday morning and come and experience it with me..... all I want in return is a coffee at Zuma's at the end!!
Life is good. Get to the market fast and then take it slow.... really slow.
.
Tony Scarfo was there at Wilson's too, delivering his vegetables and showing me how the female shape had developed voluptuously for his fennel. People of Italian background see things in a nice kind of way, I think! I ran my hand over a barrow load of his gorgeous broccoli and asked him how he could part with them as they were so divinely shaped and fully grown and deep, deep green.... We talked about all sorts of things as usual, before the crush of incoming customers separarted us and he drifted off to get more stuff from his barrow, outside the door.
Where else would I find so many lovely, friendly, happy, quirky, crazy people gathered together in the pursuit of growing, selling and buying fresh, local, organic food? This is a place of inspiration, joy and understanding and what I want to know is why life in our cities isn't packed to overflowing with experiences like this because it sure is working in this tiny shop where local and organic are mainstream and not expensive and the backyard grower can sell stuff too, like I have sometimes done. Today I bought leeks grown in Plympton...not certified but home-grown, claiming to be natural and looking full-flavoured, robust, fresh and thick. I will take the chance as Angela only buys from the regular customers.... what comes around goes around.
Ting and Tina, two of our newest members who have never met each other but have each read this blog, have discovered the joys of the central market because of all this stuff I write about it and, for me, that is reason enough to keep writing about life in this slow and quirky lane. If you want life and a laugh with your food, immerse yourself in the market and the surrounding shops.
If you like, meet me there on a Friday morning and come and experience it with me..... all I want in return is a coffee at Zuma's at the end!!
Life is good. Get to the market fast and then take it slow.... really slow.
.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
A small journey of Ting
Hello seedsavers!
Our roof garden in Taipei. I had a worm farm in a bathtub.
Farmers in Taiwan usually live in villages and go out to the fields.
A Shou-Ming Natural Farming farm I wwoofed in the north of Taipei.
Weeding in a pineapple Shou-Ming Natural Farming farm in the east of Taiwan.
In the middle of betel nut trunk is very tender delicious shoot.
The backyard of our rental house in Adelaide when we moved in in 2005.
In April of 2008, I came back since I left here one year ago. Olly has planted some vegetables.
After 3 months, it started to produce abundant foods.
Broccoli Vert Romanesco took awhile to grow. It has been feeding us, white flies, snails, slugs and caterpillars. Good on you!
Edible Chrysanthemums. Delicious! Typical vegetable in winter hot pot dish in Taiwan.
Beautiful Sunking sunflower flowers in winter.
Daikon Radish.
Mandarin skins
I'm one of the lucky new members of the Hills and Plains Seedsavers. I think I should write something to introduce myself.
My name is Ting. I grew up in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. Taiwan is an island somewhere between Japan and the Philippines. It's about half the size of Tasmania, but we have a bit more population than Australia.
I was a typical city kid, most of the time I lived in an apartment. I had no clue where my food or tap water came from, or where all the waste went. I have memory of the paddy farms near our house, wild fields, and playing in the clean small stream. However the environment changed very rapidly since I was10. Maybe because we had to produce everything “made in Taiwan” or “made in ROC” to satisfy world's crazy consumerism. For a long time now, the stream near our apartment was no longer clean, and skyscrapers are all over the place. There are subways, expressways, cablecars. You could probably find McDonalds every 2 km.
When I finished my law degree at University, I translated several books in 10 months, and I saved some money. Then I packed my backpack and headed to South America. It was a grand journey for me. I was immersed in the colourful peoples and cultures. It was amazing.
I was lucky, just as usual, I met an artist who lives in a small town in the middle of Argentina. Guille, his name; Merlo, the lovely small town. He invited me to stay with him, and I did, for 2 months. He is an artist. He has a beautiful stall in the handicraft market in the town centre. I was helping in the market. From sunblock to shoes, from paper to earrings, you name it, you could find it somewhere in the market, people would make them by hand.
It was the first time I realised that some people have a garden in their backyard and harvested food from it. People would collect fruits and make them into jams or dry them! We visited friends who live on the hill. There is only a trail to the house. We walked to their house which they built on their own from local materials. On the way, we collected mushrooms for dinner. We had a shower under a small waterfall. A bathroom is a luxury not here yet. They have a very productive veggie gardens, some rabbits and an orchard. We had hand made noodles and mushroom sauces for dinner. Everything was beautiful.
One year later, I went back to Taipei. I translated another book for 6 months, and I bought a bicycle and a ticket to Bangkok. I started my first cycle tour. On the way, I met a Kiwi guy, who is very tall, very hairy, but at least he is on a bike. His name is Olly, and he is now my partner-in-crime. That's why now I am here in Adelaide, leaving my parents and friends in Taiwan behind.
In 2005, Olly went to Adelaide to work and I followed his footsteps. We rent a house only 2 km from Olly's work in the north west of the city centre. The old Greek landlords are very generous to let us grow veggies in the garden, even though she thought I am too lazy to weed, put ugly mulch on the bare soil and don't use the trash bins that she has to pay the city council for.
Life was a bit difficult in the beginning. Travelling is different from living. Everything was new to me here. I didn't have any friends. And I couldn't speak or understand English well. I wanted to start a vegetable garden, but I knew almost nothing about it. I complained we didn't have big enough land, and I wanted to live in the countryside. I tried to read those gardening-related books from libraries, but books just made me fall asleep very quickly. I made a trip down to far away Tasmania to wwoof, wishing I could learn something more practical.
In the winter of 2007, Olly and I left the country for our trip from Beijing to Paris on our home-made recumbent bikes, which we planed 3 years ago when we met.(beijingtoparis.com)
After one year, I came back to Adelaide. I started gardening right away in April 2008. Maybe because of the help of the rain, I found that this time was much easier. After few months, I have reduced my bills on fruit and veggies 2/3. I think this month would be even less. Mainly thanks to friend's neighbour's mandarin tree, vigorous silverbeets, spinach, and stingingy nettles in the garden, and vegetables from friends, like Maggie, Deb and all other kitchen gardeners.
Now I know learning is a life long habit, it's a slow progress. Only when after few years has gone and you look back, you find you have gone a long way. Now I more enjoy living on our small rental property in an industrial suburb. Olly likes his job and it's great that he could cycle safely to work everyday. Even it's small, it still has a lot of possibilities!
Final words:
Thank you to the bloggers of Hills and Plains seedsavers. You helped me find a lot of like-minded people and groups locally and internationally!
Our roof garden in Taipei. I had a worm farm in a bathtub.
Farmers in Taiwan usually live in villages and go out to the fields.
A Shou-Ming Natural Farming farm I wwoofed in the north of Taipei.
Weeding in a pineapple Shou-Ming Natural Farming farm in the east of Taiwan.
In the middle of betel nut trunk is very tender delicious shoot.
The backyard of our rental house in Adelaide when we moved in in 2005.
In April of 2008, I came back since I left here one year ago. Olly has planted some vegetables.
After 3 months, it started to produce abundant foods.
Broccoli Vert Romanesco took awhile to grow. It has been feeding us, white flies, snails, slugs and caterpillars. Good on you!
Edible Chrysanthemums. Delicious! Typical vegetable in winter hot pot dish in Taiwan.
Beautiful Sunking sunflower flowers in winter.
Capsicums are a bit small in winter.
Zucchini has wrinkle in winter.
Hope potatoes will survive after so many frosts lately.
Broad beans everywhere.
Frost came to my garden on 24, 25 and 28 of July.
Daikon Radish are thriving.
Stir fry radish leaves is definitely delicious. I'll write the recipe later. 
Olly grafts2 apricot scions on plum trees. We also planted an apple rootstock with 2 variety: Top-King of Tompkin, and Pitmaston Pineapple. Maybe I'll stay here long enough to harvest them.
For me, Adelaide is a City of Sunshine. I could still sundry my food in winter on the window sill.
Daikon Radish.
Mandarin skins
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