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Make A Brighter Planet
Starting Out: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! (Part One)
I have wanted to do this for a very long time and now I am committed to writing a comprehensive series on just how to start your own organic vegetable garden.
With the economic times we live in, it’s a sensible idea to grow your own organic vegetables, however small your place. I guarantee it will save you $100’s every month and the benefits for your health are huge as you will actually be getting some nutrition from the food you eat and your own satisfaction will far outweigh the initial hard work in setting up your plot.
Starting Out
I will explain each step necessary to achieve this goal in simple, step by step articles. I will also be putting all this into a guide so it will be all in one place and so those of you who wish to can download it. If at any stage there is a subject you would like covering or there is something you don’t understand, then please ask, remember there is no such things as a silly question and all our plots will be individual with their own unique challenges.
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Stuffed Kamo Kamo with Mushrooms & Lentils
This is an amazingly simple dish which packs a punch on the flavours and looks really impressive when taken out of the oven!
This is a week day supper dish or a saturday night dinner with friends dish and the beauty of it, is you can use up left over vegetables, rice of add anything you want, you are only limited by your imagination!!
Yummy Stuffed Kamo Kamo
Kamo Kamo or Kumi Kumi are traditional Maori squashes and they are another food item that has been kept secret, just like the Maori potatoes!!
Kamo Kamo are beautiful heirlooms that resemble large zucchini and are lime green with dark green splotches and they have a sweet delicate almost nutty flavour, they can be eaten raw, steamed, sauteed or baked.
Garlic – Nature’s Medicine Chest
Garlic is a cornucopia of goodness and is really should be on your list of ten things to have on a dessert island!! It will heal you internally and externally, you can eat it raw, cooked or just use it to flavour, just think how it would add new dimensions to that raw fish supper!!
My Heirloom Garlic
When I was young I can remember garlic was ‘that foreign stuff’ and to be avoided at all costs!! Oh how things have changed, and I am so glad they have, as I adore my organic heirloom garlic, it’s truly THE World’s best garlic and I lovingly treasure it.
The Hidden Depths of the Dandelion
Many people know what a dandelion looks like, from it’s distinctive flower seeds aptly called ‘parachute balls’ and used as such in the childhood game of blowing off these fluffy bits …correct me if I am wrong but I seem to remember it going like this: ‘what time it is Mr Wolf?? One o’clock, two o’clock….’
Young Dandelion Leaves
What the majority don’t know or overlook, is this ‘weed’ they so freely trample on is a powerhouse of nutrients… and all for free if you can pick your own in an area free of chemical sprays and dogs. Or you can sow & grow your own personal supply and believe it or not, the humble dandelion comes in three varieties: Broad leaf, ‘Ameliore à Coeur Plein’ and ‘Vert de Montmagny’.
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I Have A Dream
As you know when we first saw ‘our’ piece of paradise it gave me a very very clear ‘picture’ in my minds eye of exactly what I needed to do for this unkempt piece of land.
We have been slowly turning that mental picture into reality over the last few years and it has not really changed that much but it has been refined and gained clarity. Today however, I received an even bigger picture for the one paddock that has always been challenging to picture complete.
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An Ambitious Project : The Self Sowing Garden
This year just before the onset of Spring I got to planning my crop rotation for the vegetable growing season in front of me.
While I was drooling errr I mean pouring over heirloom seed catalogues I got to thinking about the nature of heirloom seeds and their ability not only to set seed but to do their fair share of self seeding.
I have brocolli Rabb sprouting up all over the place and I haven’t resown any it’s done it all by itself. So with this in mind an idea began to form all by itself in my mind…
The Victorian Language of Flowers
Roses are red, Violets are blue… I know their meaning, so do you???
Today, we all know the significance of receiving a single red rose, it’s message clearly conveying passion and love but, if you received a yellow or a lilac rose would you know what it means???
In the Victorian era, a whole new language arose, a form of non-verbal communication so powerful it still has a place today for those wishing to use it… it’s called the Victorian Language of Flowers …
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What’s a ‘Blue Moon’
They told us in a Sky and Telescope Article in 1946 that the phrase ‘Blue Moon’ is derived from Mother Nature’s gift of enabling two Full Moon Phases to fall in the same calendar month and as this is a rare event, occurring roughly every two to three years, the saying ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ is based on this happenstance, and used colloquially to describe any event or circumstance which is considered a rare event.
January 2010 has been one of those rare lunar events and we have had two Full Moon Phases in one calendar month. The first Full Moon Phase in this event is referred to a ‘Rose Moon’ and this fell on January 1st and the second Full Moon Phase, the ‘Blue Moon’, began it’s cycle again on January 31st.
In 1999, the media’s attention was captured by the unusual pattern of two Full Moon Phases falling, not only in one, but, in two separate months that year: January and March which naturally, left February without a Full Moon Phase at all. This lunar phenomenon triggered the public’s interest, for it appeared, it was the first time the public’s attention had been brought to our skies to notice this lunar oddity.
Following widespread media coverage of the event and an article written by Phillip Hiscock a folklorist, who told the World about the definition of a ‘Blue Moon’, a Universal acceptance arose to embrace the second Full Moon to fall in one calendar month as being referred to as a ‘Blue Moon’.
Roger Sinnott et al, writing for a publication called Sky & Telescope in 1999 disagreed strongly with the article written by folklorist Philip Hiscock, and told the World ‘The trendy definition of a ‘Blue Moon’ as the second Full Moon in a month is a mistake.’ But, the hilarious part of the tale is it was THEIR mistake all be it from 53 years ago…
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Holy COW!! Mia’s a Mummy!!
Talk about surprises, I was bleary eyed this morning when I went to let Flynn out of his bed in the laundry.
I always look out of the window and survey the paddock, I didn’t realise I did this until later today, but every morning I look out and scan the paddock to see all is well.
Our First Look
Well, this morning I had a bit of a surprise when I saw a little white head and golden ginger body lying amongst the long grass next to Mia, my house cow.
Holy COW!! it’s a calf and it looks like Mia’s…but hang on, we were told by our neighbour ‘expert’ dry stock farmers that she wasn’t in calf and if she was, she would have calved at the end of SEPTEMBER…then I ran through the possibibity of ‘strays’ getting into the paddock, no there have not been any weaner calves in the paddocks aorund us for a while… so it must be Mia’s…
How To Sharpen Your Shears
Having your tools in the best condition makes life easier and the end result of the job you used them for is smarter looking, tidyier, lasts a whole lot longer than a job done badly.
And the best thing of all, it makes you FEEL proud, satisfied and you go strutting around like my rooster: don’t tell me you don’t- you keep going back to survey your handy work, a smile and a silent pat on your back, you SHOW anyone you can redirect to your handy work…yep just like my rooster:)
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