Preventing Apocalypse

The 'holy trinity' in just about every recipe calls for carrots, celery and onion. In french cooking it's called a mireproix , in Italian it's call soffritto . And as a snack leaning on the healthy side, a home-grown carrot will surpass any store-bought on any day of the week. Growing can be a challenge at the start, but once the carrot seeds germinate, there's nothing left to do but keep up the watering as irregular watering can lead to splitting, and a little feed every now and then. For best results, soil prep is key. To get long, straight carrots, the soil needs to be free of obstructions; stones, stick and even compacted soil can affect the shape of the carrot, but this doesn't affect the flavour of the nutrient density. Shifting the soil you wish to plant in will produce long straight carrots. Add organic matter to your soil before planting. Rotted manure, worm castings, rock dust, potash are all good additions to the growing soil to make healthy car...

What is manure composting? Animal manure is one of the best things we can add to the garden to create healthy soil micro-biology and give our plants a thriving ecosystem.  The type of animal will greatly influence the 'outcome' and each manure will vary in the micro and macro nutrient present. For most manures you will need to compost it if you collect in from the farm, which is also the best way to create the best compost.  Horse manure For most farms, especially with horses, they will gather and bag the manure and sell it outside for a small fee (very small fee considering someone had to collect and bag it). Grasses grow slowly over winter. In my food garden, the last lawn mowing, along with the autumn leaves get composted in one compost bin, leaving one compost bin empty over winter. I go to a local farm on the outskirts of metropolitan Melbourne and collect five or so bags of freshly collected horse manure, then add it to the empty compost bin, add some water and forg...

To understand the principles of organic gardening you must understand this;  You do not grow plants You may have vegetable plants growing, but you do not grow vegetables. You may have fruit trees but you do not grow fruit. Without a gardener, nature will do it's thing.  A seed would fall, water will rain down and the seed will sprout and grow into a plant that will produce fruit that contains seeds that will fall to the ground. the pant will die and fall to the ground; bacteria and fungi break the plant down and feed the soil where the seeds are and the cycle repeats. Healthy plants come from healthy soils. An organic gardener is a steward of the soil. When the soil is active and full of life, the soil biology will grow healthy plants because the soil biology relies on plant roots for survival. They will enter into an exchange with the plants for what the plant needs and in return the plant exudes sugars and carbohydrates. The microbes in the soil excrete broken down micro and...

Dried beans like borlotti, cannellini and kidney beans, will store well and keep you fed and healthy through the winter. Not only that, they are healthy for the soil. Pulses, peas and beans, are known as nitrogen fixers. 70% of the atmosphere is nitrogen and is usually not in a form plants can access. Pulses can 'fix' nitrogen into the soil by photosynthesis, as it does with carbon, and collects on the roots for form root nodules. Soil bacteria access the root nodules to feed other plants and should be incorporated in your planting plan for next season. "Leafy greens planted after beans will thrive." This is also why you should never pull the roots out of the ground. The less disturbance of the soil the better. Simply cut the main stem just below the surface of the soil, and leave those beautiful, rich plant roots where they are. When to harvest dried beans When the pods start to form they are good to eat, but if you are growing for dried beans you need to be ...

You can add anything and everything to a bokashi bin, except liquids.  It can take fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, fish, coffee grounds, even paper. When you get a new bokashi bucket you will also get a masher to squash the bokashi down (this is very important) and either a spray bottle of effective micro-organisms (EM) or a bokashi bran made of food industry waste product that is soaked in the EM.  With each addition to the bin, you need to squash it down with the masher. Crush it into the previous layer. Squeeze out as much air as possible.  Air is the great enemy of bokashi.  Air will create a foul-smelling, dry-retching inducing, maggot-infested hell-hole that is not usable unless you wish to have your garden infested with blow-flies and rats. ​ Because air is the enemy of bokashi, it's best not to add to the bin too often. It's best to store scraps in the kitchen and empty it once a week or if there's a hint of a smell brewing. In my first bokashi attempt I made...

Worms will break down your kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, tea leaves and even shredded paper and turn it into a rich, fertile soil amendment that will produce healthy plants to feed you and your family. The juice produced is called worm tea and is rich in soil bacteria necessary to keep the soil healthy and feeds the soil biology you already have. The only things that cannot go into a worm farm are highly acidic items like citrus, onions, garlic, salt, bread, potato and meat, fish and dairy. When used in conjunction with a bokashi bucket, you have a complete system for zero food waste that will keep your garden healthy and productive.