Giant Snow Pea Giveaway!

 beans in my backyard!

Over the last few months I've been quietly encouraging my friends and colleagues to become actively involved in the process of growing their own food. I think everyone has an appreciation for good food, but developing an appreciation for good produce really requires going out into the garden and giving it a go.

Having a kitchen garden that I can run out to whenever I want some fresh herbs to add to the pot is incredibly satisfying. I know where my food comes from and I know it's healthy. My salad leaves aren't doused with calcium chloride. They haven't been sitting in a bag for 2 days and transported from the other side of the country (or the world!) to reach my dinner table. I have black tuscan kale just begging to be picked; rambling nasturtiums providing ground cover and a bright, peppery addition to any salad. The apples I eat haven't been stored in a shed for 8 months. My bananas aren't artificially ripened with ethylene gas. I eat tomatoes when they're ripe and in season. I know what's in season.

I've worked for Matt Moran and now Kylie Kwong - top Aussie chefs who pride themselves on sourcing the best produce and letting it speak for itself, but before I tasted homegrown beets I had no idea they could taste so good!  My beetroots are unbelievably sweet because they're eaten within hours of being picked and there's absolutely no comparison with store-bought produce. None whatsoever. Zilch.

Encouraging as many people as possible to try growing at least some of their own food is an important step in becoming self-sufficient and (fingers crossed) sustainable. Our grandparents grew food in Victory Gardens during the war and the great depression to offset costs so it can easily be done. I find it highly ridiculous that my generation has grown up thinking that food comes from a shop when we can all grow food for free!

I've never ever had a giveaway before, but (..and I did say this was going to be a year of good deeds didn't I?) if there's a time to get people gardening, it's now.


Send me a picture of your garden (it can be anything - a large styrofoam box filled with compost, a collection of pots, a reclaimed verge, etc.) along with a few words about why you would like to grow your own food and I will send you some fun seeds to get you started:

· Hon Tai Tsai - I have no idea how to pronounce this but it's a super tasty Asian green that you can't find in the shops and is delicious stir-fried
· Giant Red Mustard - gorgeous leafy vegetable that can be added raw to salads when small or left to grow for a more intense flavour
· Lazy Housewife Bean - a climbing bean that is easy to grow with high yield
· Giant Yukomo Snow Pea - succulent snow pea up to 14cm long with beautiful purple flowers

All of these awesome plants will produce seeds so you'll be able to grow these for the rest of your life and share them with your friends for free!

Don't forget to include your address! This offer is for Australian residents only and will continue for 3 months or until I run out of seeds, whichever comes first. Not open to NT or TAS due to quarantine.

Active Ingredient in Roundup Weedkiller Causes Cancer

Revealed: the glyphosate research the GM soy lobby doesn't want you to read

Changes need to be made. Chemical applications containing glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) should be banned, period. Tell all of your friends to stop using any products containing glyphosate as they have been found to cause miscarriages, birth defects and childhood cancer.

A Fighting Chance..

Food security is critical for the survival of mankind, yet we've all but acknowledged its immeasurable importance until now. Ask anyone on the street if they know what it means and they probably won't have a clue what you're banging on about. Since my last post, cities around the globe have already witnessed riots due to rising costs and food shortages.

I don't normally write about articles (Foreign Policy - The Great Food Crisis of 2011) that I come across on the web but I believe that education leads to change and that this is so absolutely fundamental to human life that we simply cannot ignore the facets of contention any longer. It's more important now than ever, that we take personal responsibility for the resources that we use and do what we can to minimise our 'footprint', so to speak.

Although the future might seem bleak and overwhelming, we can help ourselves and those in poverty to offset the rising cost of food by growing our own vegies instead of fussing needlessly over perfectly manicured (not to mention useless and superficial) front lawns.

Ps. check out Garden Girl TV for inspired gardening ideas and how-to videos.

Resolute Thoughts In Motion

With Russia up in flames, and Pakistan and our very own Queensland under water; extensive losses of crops and livestock have propelled world food prices to a new high to a level not seen since the United Nations began compiling a monthly index in 1990. It is feared that rising food costs will spark new riots, mirroring those around the world that caused the death of 44 people in 2008.

With the current floods in Queensland, sugar cane growers are warning that production will be affected for the next three years. Australia is the fourth-largest exporter of wheat and the largest exporter of cooking coal. Both losses are expected to increase costs worldwide.

While people in less fortunate situations face serious hardships and food shortages ahead, the majority of us probably won't notice anything other than the inflated price of bananas, pineapples, sugar and meat.  For my fellow food lovers it may not seem like much of an affliction, but in a world where peak oil looms closely up ahead, supply and demand of fresh food are wildly disproportionate and millions of people starve each day, I'm challenging myself to make 2011 a year of good deeds and I challenge you to do the same.

This year I'm going to:

· Ride my bike more often to stay fit and reduce my carbon emissions

· Grow more food to become less reliant on supermarkets that frankly do not stock the best produce, and why pay $2 for a bunch of herbs that has been sitting on the shelf for a week when a packet of seeds costs the same amount and can provide for a lifetime!

· Buy direct from the source where possible, so all profits go straight to the farmer/grower/producer and as they say: "FRESH IS BEST!" 

· Recycle as much as possible - I save glass jars at work to use for my homemade preserves and at home I turn old newspapers into seedling pots that can be planted straight into the ground as is, eliminating transplant shock

· Compost as much as possible to prevent biodegradable products like paper and food from ending up in landfill where they produce methane and leachate

· Plan my meals to reduce waste and save money

· Use food waste to grow food via composting, food scraps decompose and return nutrients to the soil to fuel more growth

· Learn about permaculture and organic gardening methods without the use of harmful chemicals like Roundup

· Learn about beekeeping to prepare us for a future hive that will increase fruit and vegetable pollination within a 5km radius and hopefully provide our household and friends with delicious local honey!