In Defence of Food

Book Review

In Defence of Food - The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating. By Michael Pollan.

While discussing Coal Seam Gas, Organic Farming, Biofuels and Peak Oil with friends over a few glasses of wine, the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen was recommended to me, and this one was mentioned as being good too. So when I searched the BCC Library catalogue I put a hold on both of them.

This one arrived first.

Brilliant! It sums itself up in 7 words in the introduction "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

The book then proceeds to define 'food' (nothing that your great grandmother wouldn't recognise is one) and eliminate all that confusion that has been created by the science of nutrition.
The explanations of the history of nutrition science, 'nutritionism' and government health recommendations (USA but we can relate to some here in Aus too) are fantastic, as is the explanation of the limitations of the science itself.
The book is easy to read and engaging, but not 'dumbed down'.

This could cure you of 'dieting' for life, and certainly points out how unlikely any of the fad diets are to make you healthy, or even help you lose weight in the long term.

Yet another (very cohesive) argument for going organic, mixed farms, and 'slow food' - or at least cooking most of your meals from scratch and eating at the table with your family.  Though that isn't its purpose.

A 21 page list of resources (by chapter) and a 12 page index make it a book to refer back to, or lead you on to further reading.

Invest a couple of hours.  Borrow it. Read it.

Highly recommended.

PS The picture is of the American edition of the book - hence the different spelling of the title.

Green (eyed monster?)

I did promise to put up some photos of my friends' vege garden in Stanthorpe.  They live on a mostly bush block with a cleared area around the house, a creek at the bottom of the property & a HUGE granite outcrop on one side.  Plenty of space for veges, chooks & kids.

Wide view of the vege garden.  Fenced for the usual offenders (wallabies, rabbits, pet dog, etc)

The chickens going through the 'tunnel' from their house to the run.

A rotated view of an orchid in the bush area down the back of the block.

Various Irises in the "Fairy Garden" - their bathtub is located in this area - Yes, it really is outdoors.  The kids loved it!

No Fairy Garden would be complete without Foxgloves!

Onions & friends - plus two other beds.

Lettuces and friends.

The mushrooms growing in the purchase spent mushroom compost.  They made a great addition to dinner! Broad beans can be seen behind.

Yet another glorious vegetable bed.  I'm told the carrots never get terribly big - the kids eat them before they get the chance.

Another view of the onions.

A cage made from recycled materials - protecting the delicate seedlings.

It is so long since I wrote that I have much more to fill you in on.  But I'll just have to do it a bit at a time.  Need to take some more photos.
And Christmas is coming - another reason I haven't updated you recently, I've been spending my time shopping online for the last few things, and creating the annual family calendar.
Take care & bye for now, but before I go....
.....a couple more of the chickens.
Ravs

Chickens in their run.

The man and his harem. Lookers aren't they?

 

Egg Thieves!

A long time between posts - mainly due to a neck problem (2 herniated disks, C5/6 & C6/7) which limits my stamina (due to pain) at the computer. Plus my computer is playing up recently (I'm using SMD's work laptop to do this), and I can't sit at the computer long enough to sort it out.

Anyway - when I get a chance I'll put up some photos of a friend's wonderful garden in Stanthorpe.

But for now - I need some help.

Does anyone have a suggestion to stop crows stealing our eggs?
 
We started loosing eggs, then found the occasionaly broken, but completely clean shell.  Very puzzled at first, until we saw the crows going in & out of the tractor.
Unfortunately Elsa & Blacky don't always lay their eggs before we leave in the morning.  So the crows have all day to find them.

Hope someone can help.
Ravs

Avian Aggression!

Here in Aus it is Magpie Season.
For those of you who aren't familiar with our magpie - it is nothing like the European one!  It is a large black and white bird with one of the most beautiful series of songs you are ever likely to hear (so good they are called 'carols') and a deadly beak.
They are quite intelligent, can become very friendly when hand fed, but the males can be deadly during the breeding season.  They swoop, from behind.  First thing you know is a loud rush of air & a clacking sound as the bird snaps its beak shut.  That is if you are lucky.  Sometimes they draw blood, or knock you off your bike.
But they don't attack everyone, some just attack cyclists, some just certain individuals, seems they can actually recognise faces!  If a certain bird gets really dangerous, sometimes the local council will relocate it - they are a protected species, as are most native birds.
Actually - they are one of my favourite birds.

But we have another bird that is starting to show a lot of aggression.

Elsa & Fasty Africa

All by itself!

I leave the garden for 9 days of cycling - and this is what I come back to!

The 

The Kangaroo Paws are in full flower.  I haven't managed to get a photo that really does them justice - they are really gorgeous.  I want to put some more plants in - especially of the 'original' green & red variety.  This sunny well drained spot seems perfect for them.

I also picked (for us just starting out) a heap of produce.  The potatoes are sebagos - just one plant's worth.  There's BokChoy, Calendula leaves & flowers, the last of the Sugar Snap peas, two types of carrot (still just thinning them out), and a beetroot.

The boys had the peas as a snack immediately.  We had the smaller potatoes, the bok choy & carrots for dinner within two hours of picking them - delicious!

The next day, last Sunday, I made a salad for a BBQ consisting of mixed salad leaves (from the supermarket), calendula leaves & petals (above), grated raw beetroot (above), and boiled eggs from our chooks.  I was very please with the result.

Planted a heap more potatoes after looking in the box and realising all my seed potatoes had sprouted.  They are probably too crowded but nevermind - we'll just see what happens.  Hopefully I won't disturb them too much when I harvest the remaining older plants in that bed!

I might go & see what I can harvest for dinner tonight!

Ravs.

Woodenbong

Well, a few days after being burgled I had to go out & buy two cameras to replace the ones the 'gentleman' kindly took from us.

We would have waited longer if we weren't leaving for our (approximately) annual Cycling Holiday - CQ11!

I mean - you can't go on a family holiday without a camera! Can you?

This year's ride was from Goondiwindi to Brisbane (Jindalee to be exact), via Yelarbon, Texas, Stanthorpe (two nights & rest day here), Killarney (Qld not Ireland), Woodenbong (great name heh?), Boonah and Rosewood.
The first two days were flat, but a bit cold & windy.  Can't complain though, it was sunny, the winds were behind us, and the scenery was beautiful.

Day Three now.....Texas to Stanthorpe, 100km of continuous hills!  Total rise in altitude about 650m, but the actual amount of climbing was a lot more than that - because of the downhills of course.

Such a tough day that for the first time ever BQ put on an 'express Sag Wagon' from the lunch stop.  J4 & I didn't even make it that far.  We got about 5km past the morning tea stop, 40km in all, and gave up.

Me towing J4 on his trailgator.

SMD & L7 on the other hand - made the whole distance!  Every time we go on a CQ ride (this was our third) I am reminded that I married Superman!
By the way, L6 left us a little while ago and his place was taken by L7 (in other words someone had a birthday).

SMD & J7 - celebrate completing the 100!

Burgled!

Sorry folks - can't give you any photos for this update, we were burgled on the weekend.

Not too much taken - think he had to be quick to catch the bus (which only runs once per hour).  But it did include the cameras.

The main thing I wanted to photograph was the inside of the bee hive!  We put the super on on Sunday.  That is super as in superstructure, ie it goes on top.  There is a small hole through which the bees can enter and a perspex top.  You put the original lid back on to keep out the light and seal the hive.  When it is full we will remove the honey comb, and put it back for them to fill all over again!

We have also had peas, some baby carrots (from thinning) and bok choy from the garden.

Will have a new camera soon - so hope to show you photos then.

On another environmental note: if the invasion of Coal Seam Gas extraction into our country, and the rest of the world, scares you as much as it does me, then please visit this site.  You may want to think about joining Get Up - and make a difference to issues that matter to you. Remember - being a member doesn't mean you have to agree with, or support, every issue that Get Up campaigns on, just the ones that matter to you.  It is not a political party.
Would love to hear what you think though.
Enough for now.
Ravs

Quilt Show!

After 10 years it's finished (or will be by tomorrow evening)!

Friendship Baskets - Queen size

If you want to see it on display, and are in the area on Saturday (27th August), come along to our show.
10am - 3pm at Milton State School (Qld Australia) in Bayswater Rd, Milton.

It's not just my quilt of course, you'll see a whole selection of the past two years output of my quilt group, Inner City Circle, in a huge variety of styles. Definitely something for everyone.
We are raffling a beautiful quilt with hand embroidered blocks. And there is an apron draw, 14 aprons to choose from, all different styles made by the members.
Add to that a sales table with many hand made items - looking for Secret Santa gifts anyone?
Your entry ($5) includes refreshments. And all proceeds go to Karuna Hospice, a local Buddhist organization who provide wonderful in-home palliative care, to anyone.
Hope to see you there!
Ravs.

Spring is Sprunging

Signs of the coming of spring are in the air!

Kangaroo Paw Spike

One of the Kangaroo Paws is coming into flower.  The spike is about my height (the photo was taken 1/2 way up the front steps).

Apple Blossom

I have my first apple blossom! No expectation of any fruit though - the other tree needed for cross-pollination hasn't even developed any leaves yet.

Carrots, Beetroot, Calendula & Garlic

The veges are still growing. The garden isn't overflowing as I would really like.  I put that down to a number of things: Lack of experience; lack of sufficient sunlight in their position; lack of sufficient water (we've barely had any rain & I am hand watering a couple of times a week); and the earlier depredation by the Brush Turkey.

Peas

The pea plants actually have pods on them though!

If you want to see a beautiful & prolific vege garden - go and visit Northey St City Farm.  It looks magnificent at the moment!  I am helping to take J4's kindy class on an excursion there on Friday.  They have started a bit of a garden at the centre.  I am looking forward to seeing their faces as they explore & discover all it has to offer!

The birds have also picked up considerably (magic stuff yoghurt!). Compare Blacky now:

Blacky after the moult (and probably with a gut infection).

 

 

 

To then (May):


You'd think it was a different bird.

I've also managed to do a tiny bit of refashioning.
I bought a denim Regatta jacket from our lovely local cafe, Bowerbird, great versatile colour and a really good weight for Spring (and Autumn) in Brisbane.
But it was a bit boring.
So I jazzed it up just a little.

Suffolk Puffs (or yoyos) added to front placket, pocket, & collar

It was a bit large & shapeless - so it got a 'tuck' to bring in the waist.

Closer detail of the collar & placket.

And of the fake 'belt' to dress up the tucks.

I wore it today to lunch at 'Sails' restaurant.  Early celebration of Mrs Skivvy's birthday.
Sat outside - and the kids were able to go play on the beach when they got bored - leaving the grown-ups in peace! Wonderful!

Bye for now, Ravs

Learning Curve

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funfearlessfoodiephotos/sets/72157624618089285/

 

 The other day at work we were discussing how to cut onions.  Can't remember how we got there but never mind.  A couple of us cut the top end off first, leaving the root end intact, then cut vertically in half and peel.  The next step is to lie the half flat side down and chop from top to bottom, perpendicular to the rings, without chopping through the roots, then chop crossways, parallel to the rings. This way the onion is held together until you have finished cutting, making it quicker, easier & safer (my fingers don't get in the way as much). According to one of the participants this also reduces the amount of crying because the most potent store of the aromatics is in the base of the onion, she could very well be right.
Now it is fairly recently (in the scheme of things) that I learnt this method, but once you have learnt it you wonder why it took you so long, it seems so obvious.  And this is how another participant felt, she had never come across this method before.

http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-7472855-original.jpg

 

 To reassure her that she isn't the only one who doesn't recognize what later appears to be blatantly obvious, I had to admit to planting whole bulbs of garlic without separating them into cloves!

Netted & Patched

The day after I last posted Mr Skivvy did come over, first thing in the morning, to help me put up the net over the vegetable garden.
And a good thing too - on a second look the Brush Turkey had done even more damage than I first thought.  I will have to replant a considerable amount.  Hopefully, given Brisbane's climate, it isn't too late.
When we put the net up we discovered that it wasn't quite big enough to fully enclose the ends of the frame - bad move thinking I could get away with the slightly smaller standard size of net and save money.  I will definitely not be fruit fly proof - but I'm not planting a lot of susceptible veges anyway.  And it will be safe from possums and turkeys and chickens.
Especially as a week later Mr Skivvy donated the remainder of the the net from their mango tree, which they had cut down for their vege garden.
With this I was able to cover the frame over the potatoes - becoming more tempting to chickens & turkeys as they poke their green shoots above the surface, and the open ends of the large vegetable enclosure.  I used baling twine from all those straw bales to 'stitch' the ends together.
And here is the result.

 I haven't had much time to sew - but I did manage a couple of repairs.
J4 had put holes in the knees of three pairs of trousers - so I had to patch them.  But no reason to have boring patches.

I patch both inside & out to make them stronger & longer lasting.  I use iron-on applique webbing on both the inside & outside piece of fabric, then zig-zag around them.
Here are a couple of earlier trousers.

The boys are really happy to wear them.  Might change when they are teenagers though!
Ravs

Productivity Plus

It was a bitterly cold day (for Brisbane) when standing in the wind at soccer - but once I was out of the wind and in the sun back at home, it was just perfect for gardening.
Which was a good thing because I really needed to get some planting done.
The strawberry hanging garden & strawberries arrived in the post a couple of days ago.  They recommend planting straight away, but I had to get some potting mix first.  So, as per the instructions, the strawberries were watered and put in the fridge.  Today I planted them & hung the garden up.  This is what it looks like.

It contains ten Cambridge Rival strawberry plants and one Temptation in the top, which has been slightly neglected so may not survive.

I also got busy and planted all the rest of the fruit trees - six plants.

News from the Farm

Just thought I'd give you a quick update - no pictures though - sorry!

The chickens, Blacky & Elsa, and Fasty the guinea fowl, are looking really healthy now.  I really think the Organic Yoghurt has done the trick.  I'm continuing this, but 2nd daily now, to maintain their weight gain.  I'll probably reduce to twice a week sometime next month - just for maintenance.

I've planted some of the fruit trees - the Lemon, Orange & Mandarin along the side fence in the front yard, and the raspberry & blackberry in pots behind the safety fence - which will become their trellis.  I think I'll probably put the Tahitian Lime in a pot as well.

I need to move my greenhouse to somewhere with a little more sun - the seedlings are struggling.  I thought they would have been ready for transplanting by now.

Had a nice long weekend.  Spent Saturday at the Textile Art Festival at the Convention Centre.  Sunday we had a lazy day inside (it was cold and grey) and I actually read 2 books.  And a third on Monday night!  The kids were brilliant!
Monday was GOMA and then over to a friend's house for the kids to get together - and me to borrow her dress form for photos of the vintage clothing I hope to put up on Etsy soon.  This made me feel as if I achieved something over the weekend!  Assuaging the guilt of just being.

I'll let you know when I get myself organised re the Etsy stuff.

Ravs

Bye Bye Octopi

On Friday a good friend, who also happens to be a talented artist and J4's kindy teacher (and previously L6's) had her last day of work - she's off to enter the land of parenthood herself.
The kindy had a lovely morning tea send-off for her, with pink balloons, all the kids together (of course, the only way all the staff could be there too), and a few parents, like myself, who could make it.
As she is such a special person I had wanted to make something special for her, and as her favourite animal is the Octopus, and her class are also called the Octopuses (all the rooms are named after sea creatures), I decided an Octopus for the baby would be appropriate.



Made with fabrics from my stash.  All the body fabrics have fish on them.



Vale Velda

SMD & I had a lovely child free weekend away, while J4 & L6 stayed with Mr & Mrs Skivvy.
But it ended sadly.
Velda had not quite seemed herself when we left on Friday morning, and by the time we got back, forewarned by our neighbour, she was in the corner of the coop, leaning up against the wire.  She could walk, but only a couple of steps, and she would perk up and look around, but again only for a minute or so.
I took her to the vet within an hour of getting home, but really there wasn't anything they could do for her except speed her gently on her way.
I have never had to make this decision before, we only had a few budgies, a couple of mice and some fish growing up.  I am still dwelling on it a bit, and missing her, wondering if I should have brought her home and nursed her 'til she passed away naturally, but everyone tells me she would have suffered.
Now I am worrying about the other birds.  They don't show illness until it is almost too late.  And I have to recognise that Blacky is looking very skinny, nothing like the beautiful bird in the picture.  The vet told me that Velda had lost a lot of weight, and had probably been going down hill for some time, certainly the illness started well before Friday.  And she did have some bad bacteria in her droppings.
So today I bought some organic natural yoghurt and fed that to Blacky, Elsa & Fasty Africa.  It was something mentioned on one of the websites I visited, and I figured it was worth a try, after all we eat live yoghurt when we want to balance our internal flora.  The girls loved it!  I'm going to feed them some every day until this tub is finished and, if it makes a difference, I will continue a couple of times a week as a preventative measure.
I also bought them, from the cheap table at the greengrocers, a whole lettuce of their own.  We actually don't have a lot of kitchen waste, not as much as I would like to add to their diet, so I am going to supplement their greens as well (despite them being free range).  Fingers crossed.

I'll miss you Velda.
Ravs

A Nation of Wimps

Thought I'd start doing a few book reviews now that the intensity of work in the garden has died down.

I have just finished reading "A Nation of Wimps - The high cost of invasive parenting" by Hara Estroff Marano.

This book has the potential to turn you into a much more relaxed parent, and save the sanity of yourself and your kids.
The crux of the argument, and it is well researched and documented, is that to grow into successful, independant & happy adults, children actually need to separate from their parents, they need to be allowed to take risks and to fail as this is the most effective way to learn, they need to face challenges, not have them removed, and they need to be allowed to discover their own passions.

New Life

Due to J6's soccer carnival being rained out today, and SMD deciding to take the boys to see 'Hoodwinked' at the movies, I got some unexpected time to garden today.

I needed to do a bit of weeding as some of the lucerne hay has sprouted over the last few weeks.  But luckily this has happened just around the edges of the beds as some of the veges are already starting to sprout too!

Sex Without Strings!

Aren't there some super plant names?!  This time it is a bean plant.

After all the work I have finally started planting my veges.  So far I have sown the following in punnets to transplant later:

Silverbeet 5 colour mix

Garlic Chives, Sage, Thyme, Parsley Continental, Lettuce Royal Oakleaf, Mignonette and Flame, Silverbeet 5 Colour Mix, Chilli Tobago, Capsicum 7 Colour Mix,

And 7 colours of capsicum!

Capsicum Mini Sweet, Cabbage Red Drumhead, Broccoli Di Cicco and Romanesco, Tomato Currant Mix, Wapsipinicon Peach (what a mouthful!) and 3 Colour Zebra, and some cherry tomato & basil.