Seasonal surpluses and improving soil one trailer load at a time
It’s the time of year when people get generous with bunches of silver beet, bags of broad beans and more bags of broad beans, that are given away with gusto. The Backyard Pharmacy at Maison Bleue is flush with greenery but it’s a battle to keep up with eating it. Warmer weather means salad days are here so that’s great as a catch-all for anything you fancy in a salad bowl with a good dressing, especially the sweet snow peas that are replenishing themselves as quickly as they are picked.
A knock on the door and a friendly inquiry as to our silver beet status is politely declined, seeing as I had just made a mega batch of four dozen silverbeet and ricotta sausage(less) rolls. This was followed by a visitor with a huge pot full of purple kale and the words ‘please take more’ when I took half a dozen handfuls to ferment (which turned out very well). Where’s the local vegie swap when you want it?
The unseasonable dry and heat has made the long awaited Brussels sprouts and a few other tasty treats bolt and an incursion into our newly fortified yard by The Girls saw the leaves eaten off a second batch of cavolo nero, the sprouting broccoli and the kohl rabi. They love their brassicas. It doesn’t pay to get too attached to what you are growing. The local Spring fair was a chance to relocate some rapidly spreading warragul greens, oregano and rocket, but there’s plenty more popping up where they came from. Meanwhile the tomatoes growing from seed in the potting shed are starting to look strong and my impatient purchase of two grafted heritage tomatoes recently planted have been prudently protected with shade cloth just in case of another frost – and we have had two this week!
Last season the old repurposed trailer/garden bed produced tasty spuds so I reasoned that a crop of broad beans would be a good nitrogen addition for the soil, providing beans in the meantime. When they die off the stems will be cut and composted and the remainder dug in to enrich to soil.
Broad beans are also known as fava beans. They contain high levels of protein, fibre and other plant nutrients plus levo-dopa, a precursor for production of compounds like dopamine in the brain and used to treat people suffering Parkinson’s disease.
But what to do with the prolific beans? The small ones are beautiful in salads, when larger they need cooking and each bean needs peeling, which is OK for small amounts. Try them in risottos, soups or pureed with peas or make a tasty batch of avocado and broad bean sourdough toast topper.
Fair Food Week – Our Feast of Food Films
A recent community food film night, auspiced by Growing Change and the Bendigo Community Food Network, brought people together at the Old Church on the Hill in Bendigo.
It was the bleakest winter’s night – pouring rain and single digit temperatures, yet the cosy Old Church on the Hill was filled with people keen to find out more about why Australia needs a food system that nourishes people, is fair to farmers and nurtures the environment.
In a venue filled with comfy couches, crocheted rugs and a country supper to be envied – dozens of people gathered in this newly emerged community hub, ranging from medicos to producers and business owners, educators and community gardeners. All heard how the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is raising funds to make a film to tell the story of Australia’s food producers, with a short film clip Orange Tree Blues introduced by Costa Giorgiadis. It will feature the stories of those who are struggling as part of a food system that favours cheap and suspect imports over local producers, community and viability of our food manufacturing industry long term.
They heard about the story of our food with the Nourish documentary, then about the issues of our modern food system with Fresh the movie. Both films highlighted the solutions being sought by people who know the problems we face in favouring an industrial approach to agriculture. One where the reality we face is a future of a changing climate and vulnerabilities of our food system touted as the ‘food bowl of Asia’.
This was but one of a hundred events around the country to mark the inaugural Fair Food Week and celebrating the rejuvenation of food citizenry and democracy. Proclaiming a role for everyone in determining the food we want in the future and how it needs to be produced. It celebrated the People‘s Food Plan. Where nationwide consultation has produced the first people’s policy for our food system, divorced from vested interest and its sole focus on market economics. It’s a plan with a resilient community as its goal and an aim of prosperity for producers. One where enterprise is supported at all scales and the community benefits from improved access to fresh and healthy foods, key to a healthy and happy older age for all.
The evening ends, the migrants who work in a rural chicken farm have heard about the dilemmas faced by Mr and Mrs Fox (real names) who are locked into a chicken production contract that is less than favourable for them and the community, to say the least. In contrast they have also heard Joel Salatin celebrating the need for chickens to express their ‘chicken-ness’ (you had to be there).
The words of Will Allen of Growing Power, the national non profit and land trust urban farm in the US reverberate as people discuss composting and food growing. The community is discussing how they can work towards implementing initiatives locally to build on what’s underway in making Bendigo’s food system a fairer and healthier one. Conversations of hope and enthusiasm. Yes the evening has been a success. From these seeds many things may grow.