Epsom salts

cloverIf clover starts growing in your vege patch, I’ve been told it’s a sure sign of nitrogen deficiency. I’m picking that’s right given the space that used to be occupied by my under-achieving heavy-feeding brussels sprouts now has a lovely patch of clover, coming up through the pea straw. I’ll be adding lots more organic matter into this little spot before I plant anything else here. In the meantime, it just lies sleeping under it’s little blanket of mulch.

I’ve just added epsom salts to water (rate = 1 Tablespoon to 3 litres of water) and watered that area of the garden. Will I see results? I have no idea. Is this a conclusive, rigorously scientific test? Oh no. But I shall wait and watch and hopefully learn a little.

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Zucchini blossom end rot

Zucchini Blossom End RotSo I was wondering why the zucchini plants growing in one bed were half the size of the ones growing in another. The answer became apparent as the zucchs set. The soil in one bed is lacking in calcium. The signs being a nasty little problem called Blossom End Rot.

I’m ok with it as I’m drowning in zucchini at the moment and I’m choosing to see this as a valuable garden lesson. Still, I don’t like to see unhappy plants. I’ll be laying them to rest in the compost and adding lime and crushed egg shells to the soil, reapplying mulch and hoping for better healthier plants next time around. I’ll do a soil test in the future to see if I got it right.

Zucchini Blossom End Rot is not your friend! Make sure you look after your soil and avoid these problems!

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Basil pesto

basil1I had the sincere joy of of prancing through a huge greenhouse of culinary herbs yesterday. And I picked a shopping bag full of deliciousness – mainly basil. All destined for pesto…

My pesto recipe isn’t a strict one. Basically, I chop a whole lot of basil, a couple of cloves of garlic and pinenuts by hand. I then add shaved parmesan, salt and olive oil. My amounts depend largely on how much I have at hand and what tastes right. It’s not so much the amount of each ingredient, but a really good balance and it will taste absolutely sublime.

I chop everything by hand, which takes more time, but is so worth it. It’s much easier to get quantities and texture just right. I really don’t like pesto made in a food processor. It tends to turn into green goo. Don’t get me wrong, it still tastes mighty fine – but hand-chopped looks better.

It takes about 30 minutes. All that added love, care and attention that goes into each tasty morsel is totally worth it!

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How to grow your own fresh air – TED Talk 2009

[slideshare id=962055&doc=ted-university-presentation-kamal-meattle-february-4-2009-jm-1233160628221731-1]

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Flower: Zen gaming for PlayStation3

flower playstation 3I’m a firm believer that there needs to be a lot more variety in gaming. Flower, a soon-to-be-released ‘zen game’ for the PlayStation 3 certainly ticks that box.

“You are a gust of wind inside a flower’s dream and you must carry petals to other flowers in order to progress to the end of the level.”

Sounds lovely doesn’t it. Maybe Sony is trying to lure Olivia Newton-John away from Nintendo.

Watch the video here.  Via Treehugger

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Learning From The Elders on The Internet

dsc01420Terrific work is happening in the recording of traditional food knowledge (TFK) from indigenous people around the world. TFK refers to the cultural tradition of sharing food, recipes and cooking skills and techniques and passing down that collective wisdom through generations. I see this as a very important for two reasons:

1 – To help populations regain their connection to the land, keep their traditional knowledge and reclaim their identity, health and mana.

2 – I’d like to believe that it’s now pretty well understood that many modern intensive-agricultural methods aren’t beneficial to the environment or mankind. We need to take a look at different ways people beneficially work with the land and apply some of the lessons to our own little piece of the earth.

Indigenous Nutrition is a fantastic website with seven quality webisodes exploring the traditional knowledge of seven different peoples, and what they’re doing to keep it. The focus is primarily on health issues. This is an excellent resource and will hopefully inspire others to do similar things within their communities.

From a New Zealand viewpoint, Te Ara covers Māori food production economics and The National Library does a brief introduction to traditional knowledge. The Māori Plant Use database allows easy access to records on traditional uses of NZ native plants. The same people (Maanaki Whenua, who incidentally have a wonderful bookstore) also provide excellent information on harakeke (NZ flax, Phormium spp.).

A lot of work is being done in this area and it would be great to see more resources online in the near future. If you’ve got any great links in this area, please share in the comments.

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