Food

DIY Gifts from the Heart – Christmas Olives

...Leave a comment

oilives

2016 has been a whirlwind of a year and life doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down any time soon.  I guess that is the life of a working mum of three kids. And a mum with a garden too!

Despite all the mayhem, there has been many fun days too. My children are growing and coming into their own.  But as we got to the end of the year, we still managed our Christmas DIY Gifts from the Heart. This year, we decided to make Herb infused olives for our family.  As usual, I spend the year saving jars and then decide what to do with them.  Here is what to do in case you’d like to make your own:

What you need:

  • Old jar, cleaned and boiled to sterilise
  • Olives – we used plain olives and a mix of black and green
  • Olive oil
  • Herbs – we used the following from our garden:
    • Chillies
    • Thyme
    • Lemon myrtle
    • Sage
    • Rosemary
  • Decorations/ wrapping
  • Some helpers 🙂

herbs-kids

What to do:

Add everything together. I filled half the jar, added some of the herbs and pressed a few against the glass to make it look pretty.  The jar was filled, I added the olive oil and decorated the jars.

herbs

The idea of the gift is also that once the olives have been eaten, the herb infused oil can be used to make salad dressing – just add lemons/ lime juice or balsamic vinegar.  This gift is so easy to make and looks special too.  Nooshejan

Verge Gardening

...4 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Source

One of the benefits of my house is that I have a corner block and thankfully the longer side of my block is in a quiet street. The bad thing obviously is how much mowing we have to do!  Last year I took a cutting from my large frangipani tree and eventually this ended up on our nature strip (verge).  This year I planted a Mulberry tree in my house, but unfortunately I didn’t choose the best location. Rather than remove the tree altogether, I’m going to try and move it to my nature strip.

I’m not sure if I’m really allowed to do all of this. My Council is not one of those Councils that encourages verge gardens. In fact, my Council strongly discourages this. Not all Councils are like mine however. Some like Marrickville and City of Sydney Council are actively encouraging residents to plant and maintain verge gardens.

###IMAGE-CQC

Source

 

A friend recently shared this video of the City of Vancouver and its verge garden revolution.  However planting trees is one thing, planting vegetables quite another.  When I first saw this video I liked the story behind it, but then thought ‘hey having vegetables grown so close to the road and encouraging their consumption – is that good?’ so I decided to find out.

My initial reaction really had to do with fumes from cars and run off from the road and houses entering the soil and thereby being taken in by the plant.  Was this safe? Well after much searching, I may have found the answer.

Lead

Lead is one chemical that can have significant health impacts to humans, especially children. Exposure to lead can lead to brain damage and impaired intellectual development. In Australia lead was prevalent in houses (paints) and petrol.   But its use in petrol was phased out from 1993 and in paints from the 1970s. Therefore, as most of the toxic issues related to verge gardens would be related to lead poisoning, that’s a good thing.

But that’s not the end of the lead story.  Lead would not only be found in the soil on your verge, it would also be found in ordinary homes such as mine.  Depending on the age of your house, if lead is likely to be found in paint work, it may be best to leave it alone. Similar to asbestos, if lead is left intact it is not likely to cause harm. It will cause harm if you damage it and disturb it so as to create dust. If this dust is inhaled, touched or let to settle on soil, that’s when problems may start to arise, particularly for areas where food may be grown.

A study by Macquarie University found that children were most at risk in that they absorbed more lead than adults. The study also found some plants absorb more of this toxin and then pass it onto people than others. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach and silverbeet were the worst offenders (sources: 1, 2 & 3).

While all of this may seem scary, there are ways to address this. Firstly, it is very important to test your soil before growing any food. Another way to address this is to have raised garden beds which is what I’ve done.

Apart from the toxins issue, those opposed to verge gardens may cite safety issues which are perfectly valid. These really have to do with the maintenance of the plants planted to ensure they don’t impact people’s ability to use footpaths and to ensure they don’t obstruct visibility for motorists. These issues are easily addressed however by having a set of guidelines in place for those that want to plant on their nature strip.

Other management issues with verge gardens include the application of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilisers running off into the stormwater system and ending up in creeks and other water bodies.  Again, this is where having a good set of guidelines that encourage organic gardening techniques would come in handy.

So with my health concerns related to verge gardens allayed, I hope to see more people participating in gardening. Participating in local urban farming whether through a verge garden or a community garden can only be good.

verge

Source

 

Resources

To find out whether you are allowed to plant a verge garden, contact your local Council and read the City of Sydney guidelines.

You can also contact your local Council to see if there are any local community gardens that you can participate in. You can also check out this website: http://communitygarden.org.au/

Also, the presenter of one of the shows that I really enjoy watching is a big advocate of verge gardens. You can also check out Gardening Australia’s take on this through this LINK. There are loads of videos in the 2012 archives.

Let me know

If you already participate in a verge garden or a community garden, let me know your thoughts and share your story and pictures. I’d love to hear from you!

Palm Oil Detox – an Update

...1 Comment

Oil_palm_plantation_in_Cigudeg-03

Earlier in Spring, I decided to go on a Palm Oil detox. I set myself a target of reducing palm oil in my house by 50% within 6 months. I’m about half way now and I thought I’d give an update on this journey.
After finding palm oil all too pervasive in many things within my home, I wanted to take action. While I am a lot more aware of the issues related to palm oil, I have to say it hasn’t been easy to detox.
These have been my challenges.
Time: juggling a family, work commitments and home renovations gives me little time. In fact I don’t always do the shopping and leave this to my husband, but the times that I have gone shopping since my detox mission have taken considerably longer. I usually wander through the aisles reading labels and looking up whether something is on the okay list or not according to these sources (http://www.orangutans.com.au/orangutans-survival-information/helping-you-buy-responsibly-palm-oil-free-alternatives.aspx). All in all, I end up a little frustrated and stressed because I usually need to be in and out of a supermarket quick smart.
This issue has gotten a little easier though because we’re starting to know the brands and products that are on the ‘ok’ list which saves us time trawling through websites and wandering aimlessly in supermarket aisles.
Education: As I stated earlier, my husband often does the grocery shopping, so it has taken a few goes to get him to remember to check the palm oil status of a product. The result has been some big purchases which I’m still working through…..
Again, this has gotten better as my husband now knows to check before making purchases and comes and tells me proudly when he has done his research.
Alternatives: If you’ve checked the websites for alternatives to palm oil, you will find that there are not always alternatives. For example, one night I tried to find sustainable palm oil or palm oil free ice cream, but I couldn’t. Or I should say the miniscule and very expensive tubs were not enough to convince me to buy them. Also, I recently had a few guests for an afternoon tea. Without time to bake something myself, it was a mad dash to the shops to buy something. I looked, but apart from bland biscuits there was nothing I could buy! So this got me thinking – the lack of alternatives makes it very difficult sometimes to stick to the plan. I am not a purist and I admire those that are, so I ended up with a few things in my basket which were decidedly not palm oil free. But I also did discover that some products are starting to exhibit their palm free credentials and that makes me happier because at least it’s on the radar of manufacturers as being an issue.

Peckish Brown Rice Crackers - Lightly Salted(1)

So how am I going really?
I’m doing okay. It was once starting this challenge that I realised how much toiletries I had. Some are quite old and probably not the best to use, but rather than throw things out, I’ve decided to use everything up. This is going quite well and I’m happy in that I am simplifying my life to a degree. I still have a little way to go, but actually there are alternatives that I can readily use, so once I’ve finished the various lotions and potions, I will easily transfer to sustainable palm oil or palm oil free products – yay!
This also extends to cleaning products. Thankfully I was already buying sustainable palm oil products anyway, so a small tweak going forward will have me in a better position.
Now, my main challenge is foodstuffs. I usually eat healthy, so usually buy fresh products, but sometimes I am not so healthy and buy processed foods. The next phase of my detox will be to continue the path I have chosen for where I am doing well, but also to concentrate on food! Here are some general tips from what I’ve found over the last 3 months or so:
• Simplify – simplify your life. Like I said earlier, once I got all my toiletries together, I was quite surprised and I am not a person that buys a lot of toiletries to begin with. Still, I had accumulated a lot and now that I am working through them, I feel so much lighter. I am probably going to buy from now on: Sukin because they are sustainable palm oil products. This is not a paid endorsement, simply my opinion. For more info go to: http://www.sukinorganics.com/sustainability.asp?id=80&pid=3
• Go natural: this is the main tip and one I have to live by more and more. While I use more ‘earth friendly’ cleaning products, I want to reduce these even more and not use many cleaning products. I did an experiment on some grout using bicarbonate soda and I was very impressed with the results. I think the mainstays in my kitchen and bathroom are going to be bicarbonate soda and white vinegar.
As for food, I am going to focus on fresh and homemade. It is one of the surest ways of knowing what’s in something anyway.
As general tips though, what I have found is:
• Opt for chocolate blocks, rather than those with a filling;
• Go for shortbread biscuits rather than filled biscuits;
• Do your research – you may have to make a choice of one things over another. For example, with candles, well that opens another can of worms in relation to soy vs palm oil: http://www.alohabay.com/people/why_no_soy_candles.html
However, I did buy MikeRa candles for my sister as a gift and I especially selected them because of the Sustainable Palm Oil certification.
Candles
• Educate those around you. This not only spreads the word, but also helps make sure that gifts that you receive are aligned with your beliefs.

Eat more- waste less: Mushy rice experiment!

...1 Comment

My kids are those annoying children that are super fussy when it comes to eating. At first doctors and professionals told me not to worry as they would grow out of it. Well they aren’t. In fact, they’re getting worse. I honestly have no idea on most days what to cook or make for school lunches. Too many days whole sandwiches come home. So I’ve taken to making a meal plan for breakfasts, lunches and dinners to ensure some sort of nutrition is reaching those little bellies.
On Thursday I was to give my son and daughter sushi. I thought I’d get all organised the night before and make the rice, and that’s when my rice disaster began.
Instead of having sushi rice, I had a lump of mushy rice. I tried to somehow make it work, but it didn’t. Instead I had to give them store bought sushi, but that still left me with my mushy problem. I couldn’t make myself throw it out, but I couldn’t eat it as it was, and so began the mushy rice experiment.
Kiana Dec 14 007

My mum suggested that I make some sort of stuffed rice number. This is my recipe:
1 bowl of mushy Jasmine rice;
2 tablespoons of turmeric;
Olive oil;
1 small onion;
A cup of sultanas (I salvaged these from the little box of sultanas that you can buy from the supermarket. My daughter stopped eating them. They became a bit funny, but I kept them for cooking);
¼ cup pine nuts;
A pinch of cinnamon;
A pinch of salt;
Method:
Add a tablespoon of turmeric to the rice and set aside.
Chop the onion and fry over low heat until golden. Add the sultanas and fry for a few minutes.
Add the remainder of the turmeric, cinnamon, salt and pine nuts. Fry for another 3 minutes or so.

Kiana Dec 14 008

Kiana Dec 14 010

This is the tricky part. You will need a bowl of water close by to stop the rice sticking to your hands and a bowl of flour.
Grab a small bit of rice and flatten in your palm. Add a little of the sultana mix to the rice, then add a little more rice, so that it becomes encased in the rice. You may need to dip it in flour to stop it being too sticky.
Then fry until it is quite crunchy on the outside. It should be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. So the taste test?? It tasted good and nice to know that I avoided throwing them out.

Kiana Dec 14 013

You can use other fillings. Get creative, but mostly try to avoid mushy ride. Remember not to overcook rice and add too much water to it to make sushi!

What to do with over ripe pears?

...Leave a comment
Some pears looking to be saved from the worm farm!
Some pears looking to be saved from the worm farm!

What to do with overripe pears? My sister works for Batlow apples, so I am always well supplied with apples and when my son surprised me one day by declaring his love to pears, I inherited a lot of pears. We have slowely been making our way through the pears, but yesterday I noticed a few were looking particularly sad and had been placed in the sink, ready for their journey to the worm farm. But, rather than give these to my worms, much to my children’s chagrin (looking at the worms in my worm farm is like the highlight of their day. They stand there squealing with delight at all the wriggling, squirmy and squishy action!), I decided to ask some friends for ideas on what to do with them. I mean I had no idea for recipes really. Some suggestions that came in were:
– Banana and Pear Loaf;
– Danish; and
– Muffins.

So I decided on a Banana and Pear loaf which my niece and daughter delighted in helping me back. This is the recipe that I followed:

I followed this recipe overall except that I used 2 bananas, used more pear (about 2) by grating them into the ‘wet’ mixture and lastly, I did not add walnuts because my niece is allergic to nuts.
Thank you Alchemy Kitchen (http://www.alchemyinthekitchen.ie/2012/05/banana-pear-and-coconut-loaf-reason-to.html)
Banana, Pear and Coconut Loaf
250g very ripe bananas, mashed (that’s about 3 medium bananas)
100g sunflower oil (or other flavourless cooking oil)
100g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
250g plain flour
50g dessicated shredded coconut (unsweetened)
10g baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 soft sweet ripe pear, such as Rocha, chopped into small pieces
a little butter to grease the loaf tin
1. First, lightly butter and base line a 2 lb loaf tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas roughly using a fork or a potato masher. Add the oil and caster sugar and stir together until just combined. Next add the beaten eggs, again stirring until just combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, coconut, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and fold these dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just incorporated and no dry mix remains. (To fold, add dry ingredients to wet and taking a spatula or a metal spoon, cut through the centre of the batter. Move the spatula or spoon across the bottom of the bowl, and back up the side and across the top bringing some of the cake mixture from bottom to top. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Keep folding the mixture and turning the bowl until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter. Folding avoids overworking the batter, giving a tender crumb in the finished loaf.) Finally, mix in the chopped pear, making sure it is well-distributed throughout the mixture.
4. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin and place in the preheated oven. Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. A cocktail stick inserted in the centre should come out clean. If there is batter clinging to it, pop the loaf back in the oven for a further 10 minutes then test again. Leave to cool in the tin. While you can eat it straight away, this cake is best wrapped in cling film and left for 24 hours before eating. A wonderful alchemy takes place and it becomes more banana-y, pear-y and utterly delicious.

In the oven
In the oven
Yummo!We did not wait 24 hours to enjoy this treat!
Yummo!We did not wait 24 hours to enjoy this treat!

Organic garden winter wonderland

...6 Comments

I loved creating my veggie patch in my backyard last year. Over summer I had many days filled with wonder at what was growing in my backyard. It was also a great opportunity to get my children involved and help them learn about where their food comes from. Also it was a cheap way of eating organic!

My daughter watering her plants
My daughter watering her plants

But alas, summer is definitely over in Sydney and many of my summer veggies were removed to make way for winter ones. After a little research on what winter vegetables exist and what would grow in my garden I came up with my list of goodies:
• Carrots;
• Beetroot;
• Kale;
• Turnips;
• Spinach;
• Spring onion, onion;
• Snowpeas;
• Lots of herbs!
Well the list is not as impressive as my summer vegetables, but given the number of things I was growing, I am trying to be more sensible and scale things back a little.
To prepare I visited my compost which has been slowly composting vegetation and food waste. I saw slowly because I have left it to mature for many many months. It is taking a long time because it is completely shaded, hence once I use the compost I want to move my compost bin to a sunnier area.
This addition of compost was obviously good for my plants, but I think that there were seeds that had not died off, so my veggie path became overrun with weeds like onion weed. This has become confusing, as I don’t know if any of my onions/ spring onions grew at all. When they are little, they look the same I think!
I am also trying to get a double benefit in planting some snow peas in all my garden beds. I am hoping that they will add some beneficial nitrogen fixing bacteria to my soil in preparation for my summer crop.

My blueberry plant. I have some planted in the ground, but don't think they are in the ideal spot, so I am trying to grow one in a pot. Let's see how I go
My blueberry plant. I have some planted in the ground, but don’t think they are in the ideal spot, so I am trying to grow one in a pot. Let’s see how I go

A very old lemon tree that just keeps on giving. maybe it was a little bit of the love I gave it over summer, but the crop this year is A LOT better than last year. Much juicier.
A very old lemon tree that just keeps on giving. maybe it was a little bit of the love I gave it over summer, but the crop this year is A LOT better than last year. Much juicier.

My special looking carrots, but damn they taste good!
My special looking carrots, but damn they taste good!

I planted my beetroot in summer and let me tell you, I don’t know what the problem is, but honestly it is taking SO long for them to grow. I mean they’ve been there for like 6 months and all I feel is a little bulb!
My carrots however are a delight. I am so in love with my carrots! I am like a super excited child when I pull and a big (if somewhat strange looking at times) carrot comes out. And the smell, oh the smell. If you were to see me, I am sure you would think me strange, but the smell of carrot taken straight out of the ground is so beautiful. When I do pull them out, I just stand there inhaling their aroma!

My ever slow growing beetroot, though I do at least pick the leaves off sometimes and include them in salads.
My ever slow growing beetroot, though I do at least pick the leaves off sometimes and include them in salads.

Snowpeas
Snowpeas

Tomatoes and nasturtium growing side by side.
Tomatoes and nasturtium growing side by side.

Fresh dill...grown from seed. It took a while but it got there.
Fresh dill…grown from seed. It took a while but it got there.
Kale
Kale

Turnip in the ground. I never knew it would have such a large amount of foliage.
Turnip in the ground. I never knew it would have such a large amount of foliage.

Turnip out of the ground. It tasted really good in my soup.
Turnip out of the ground. It tasted really good in my soup.

My other vegetables are growing well too and it is only last week that I removed my tomatoes. What a good crop they were. They became like a baby to my mum and I, but especially my mum who tended to them every day. So many tomatoes grew, but towards the end, they would stay green and not ripen. So I am preparing for my summer season of tomatoes.
Who knew that I would have so much winter heartiness and delicious veggies growing in the colder months! Do you have any suggested winter vegetables that I should try?

World Environment Day Blog Off!

...Leave a comment

Okay, so I am not a selected blogger that the United Nations Environment Program has shortlisted in its Blog Off prior to World Environment Day (5 June 2013). This year’s theme is food waste ‘Think. Eat. Save’ and they are having a competition between bloggers: 

http://www.unep.org/wed/blog-competition/bloggers/ 

This is an issue that I am particularly passionate about, as I see there should be no reason for wasting food. To me it is a waste of resources and I feel terrible throwing away food when there are people going hungry.

So, while I am not a shortlisted blogger, I am a blogger nonetheless and earlier this year, I put forward this ‘letter’ to an editor as part of my attempt to be accepted into a sustainability leadership program. Here are my thoughts on food waste and if you’d like to know what other Bloggers think about it and to vote for one, please visit the UNEP website at the link I provided earlier.Image

What should the horse meat scandal have brought to light? Apart from the ethical horror of eating what many see as a beautiful animal, it should have brought to light the globilisation of food and its consequently large ecological footprint. While there are complex and interconnected reasons for the large amounts of water and energy that go into producing our food, the value of food and what you and I are willing to pay for it is something that is yet to be discussed in great depth by the mainstream media.

Increasingly we are spending proportionally less of our income on food and therefore there is the expectation that our food will cost less.  What this does is place more strain on smaller farmers in favour of large corporate agricultural produce and the rise of the major supermarket chains and their homebrand products. 

While some consumers may be happy with the super low prices, this reduction in the value of food could be one contributor towards the significant amounts of food wasted globally (it is estimated that at last half of the food produced around the world goes to waste).  Feeding the 925 million of the world’s hungry, addressing climate change and global water shortage may be a daunting task, but there is something that ordinary people can do each time they go to the super market and each time they cook. I’m unsure however that a greater number of people will ask these questions when faced between a $1 carton of milk against the sometimes higher prices that smaller scale locally grown produce may demand.