Grandiflora

Moon rising before the eclipse.

For better photographs than mine, please take a look here - there is also a link to a slideshow and here

I kept rushing out every so often (between studying for the dreaded exams) to gaze at this wonder. It was so mild outside - really unusual for late August - that I could have stayed out there. Avoidance? Procrastination? The frog chorus has started up at night and flies are buzzing around during the day. Days that should be spent gardening not studying. Sigh!

The anticipation of spring and collection of a gardener’s enthusiasm. The neat box is thanks to my sister.  Many thanks! She cut out all the cardboard dividers and neatly wrote on them. My system was more …ahem..random, but I could find everything!

She and I put in two seed orders and there was lots of, “Do you want to try this?, as we looked through catalogues so the orders were rather large…full of enthusiasm. It was a lot of fun. Now the question is, “Where are we going to put this stuff?” Some of the more interesting items for us, were the Popcorn “Golfball”, quinoa and amaranth.

Our mother, on seeing one order (and none of the seeds I already had) remarked, “If you two had farms, you’d still have more than enough seed.” Now she’s going to be growing lots of things, she hasn’t before….beets, carrots and the popcorn.  We are popcorn fans.

Were the orders OTT? Maybe but seeds can be viable for a long time and I’m a total sucker for heirloom vegetables. I love the stories…carried across the Carpathian mountains and first grown in the US in the 19th century or grown by one family in Burwood ( suburban Sydney ) since the 1920’s. They are history, sustenance, endeavour, harvest, generosity…..and more.

Potato pizza and salad

This post takes its inspiration from El and the One Local Summer project.

This meal epitomises how I’d like to eat. Well, how we’d like to eat. Focus not on the form but the substance. Most of the ingredients come from local sources. Mea culpa - Italian Grana Padana and balsamic vinegar. If I can master wine vinegar and cider vinegar making, I will try the balsamic method. All I need is an oak barrel and I already have the family’s grape crusher and then perfecting the method. Yep, my folks used to make their own wine. Cheese….well, a cow would be good but even without a cow there are cheeses I can make from local-ish milk.

Ingredient dissection

Salad - arugula, lettuce and cress - grown by my sister and me in our mother’s garden.

Snow peas (A variety called Melting Mammoth) eaten whilst cooking but from the above source.

Herbs - same. (Used with green garlic from my garden to make that green paste)
Potatoes - Blackheath Growers Market from a farmer in the Central West. (other side of the mountains)

Tomato sauce - bottled by me but tomato provenance not known.

Wheat from NW NSW - Ground by Charles.

Olive Oil - also from the Central West but if I were more organised there is a local source in the Megalong Valley.

My ideas about local food started to cement, after reading Joan Dye Gussow’s book and really, I haven’t looked back. It was the first time I’d read the term, food miles. Now, this consideration forms part of my process for making food choices. The foundations, to this sort of rumination, were laid by my upbringing; my immigrant parents continuing those traditions they’d grown up with and also trying to feed their family well on a budget.

Obviously, I’d like to be able to grow as much of what we eat as possible but for that to happen, our location may have to change or I’ll have to accept the limitations of the land and use it as best I can - become a better gardener. It all takes planning and preparation and I’m getting ready for spring. These are things I like learning.

To dig in. Prepare bed for potatoes. Note the lean towards the sunnyside!

Nigella “Love in a Mist” seeds to collect.

Broad(fava) beans. Marvel - seeds collected from last year’s crop. Beans survived both snow and frost. Alas, the peas are not in such good shape. I replanted some last week. I think that might work better up here in the Mountains. Plant peas once the days are longer.

* Actually, these are not broad beans (aquadulce) that I saved but the last of the Egyptian broad beans hence the purple flower.  More miracle than marvel, is that I discovered this by looking at my records. Further the seed saved beans are the ones that were planted at my mother’s place - thank you records!

Am I standing in the way of progress…..you know, with all this conserving, hand-cranking,monitoring, questioning and thinking? Well, I guess that depends on your definition of progress. Personally, I don’t want progress defined by the World Bank or financial markets. Progress to me is achieving some sort of global equity and fairness…..hmmm…..now I’m sounding like a Marxist and a social justice Catholic.

The progressively reducing is slow. Once you’ve made those first, big and exciting cuts you get down to the grind. Sometimes I feel crippled by the analysis and strategy - my desire to do it properly……and the vigilance. How quickly do these things become ingrained and habit? Second nature without the anxiety!

We have continued to make reductions in all areas. Slow, incremental shifts. We were even congratulated by the electric company representative (I had a bill query) for using as much power in a year as she did in 3 months!!!!! However, food (especially in winter) is one area that is not so easy but I like trying to find local sources for things. Can someone please tell me why organic pasta made in Italy and shipped here is 25% of the price of organic local pasta? Interestingly, I think both are made with durum wheat from Australia.

And on old marxists, check out this article by John Berger ( Yes, he of “Ways of Seeing” fame - cast your mind back to those art school, fine arts and cultural studies undergraduate days….daze!)

An update on Charles and his “I could live on the smell of an oily rag” mantra. Dear readers, let me tell you, that oil is light sweet crude not EVOO! Ha!

Hellebore hybrids showing some snail/slug damage. I’ve neglected that garden bed a little, as I await for the arrival of hostas and lilies to fill out the planting ….oh and the wood and stone wall, which is on Charles’ list, needs to be completed. The hellebores flower on, regardless of their less than grand surroundings. I hope that our efforts will match the standard of beauty and elegance that they have set. Maybe one day I’ll post a wide shot!