relishing the garden

First things first. Tomato Relish made - tick.

Zucchini Bread in oven - tick

So like, I was at the checkout buying some malt vinegar and keens mustard and curry powder and the woman in front of me said "Looks like you are going to be busy - what are you making?" "Tomato Relish" I said. We god talking and she got so excited when I said i boil everything up in the vacola to preserve it - no mucking about with sterilizing bottles n all. It seems her grandmother used a vacola and we talked about preserving fruit and jams and relished and the like. Well, she is off to search the internets for a vacola RIGHT NOW. Very cool. She said THANK YOU for INSPIRING ME.

Another friend said to me the other day "You know, food is getting so expensive - I think we will have to be like you and grow our own food" "HOORAY" I replied. But it got me thinking.

On the one hand, I am not sure we SAVE money by growing our own food. But on the other, there is no way we could AFFORD or even BUY the beautiful luscious food that we eat. What price for nutrient dense, pesticide, fungicide and herbicide free food? Mr Duck Herder and I EAT LIKE KINGS

You can't even BUY an organic, freshly picked, loved and sung over Black Krim or Brandy Wine tomato - no matter how rich you are. Our tomatoes are so fresh and delicate and huge they have to be picked so carefully and not even BREATHED on unless they split.

I have probably picked and processed 5kg of blackberries, and snacked on another 2kg while out running or walking each morning. Our raspberries are so sweet and luscious. Last night, at my MILs house for dinner, I tried some commercially grown frozen raspberries - they were inedible - sour and tough. Who wants to eat those?

And what about the dirty dozen? They are a good reminder that pretty much ALL commercially grown veggies and fruit contain chemical residues. They are also grown in sick soil. They can not be in any better health that the poor soil they are grown in. Who wants to pay to eat those?

For an interesting list of foods in descending order of chemical residues, see here. It is certainly a good place to start in terms of thinking about which foods to grow or source organically.

And if you think this doesn't apply to Australia - remember the choice magazine study that found banned fungicides and residues far in excess of allowable levels in strawberries? This one in particular upsets me - I never eat strawberries from the shop, how can you once you have tasted home grown ones, but so many folks feed them to their children, understandably thinking they are healthy.

Can't afford to grow our own food? Well, I don't think I can afford not to.