Plant Propagation

Agribusiness Training is commencing a course in Plant Propagation next month, i.e. July (in Palmerston North). It’s a course that is taught over one year so that all seasonal propagation activities can be undertaken. If you’re a NZ citizen or NZ permanent Resident, the course fee is $150 for the entire course.

Apart from all the knowledge you'll acquire, you'll also receive:
-A fully functional propagation unit, including watering systems and temperature gauges to keep at home
-Home visits from the tutor for one-on-one tuition
-Field-trips to view commercial nursery production units and other areas of gardening interest in your region, where available

All in all a fabulous course for any garden enthusiasts. I’ll be enrolling for this course, and hopefully more urban permies will join me as well.

If you are interested, go to http://www.agribusiness.ac.nz/ for more information. Clink on the picture to enlarge the timetable.

Keeping Pigs- Part 1

More than a year ago, a good friend and her husband decided to begin their journey of self-sufficiency. Karine and David (K&D) started their adventure in their urban backyard with 2 kune kune piglets that D bought off TradeMe. It was all very refreshing and fun. The piglets were so cute. The piglets grew and grew and grew. Soon, challenges started to surface.

The kune kunes were great experts in digging the ground over. The downside was, those grounds weren't in the plan for vegs beds. It got muddy in wet weather and was only accessible by gumboots

As the pigs got bigger and stronger, the fence wasn't strong enough to keep them in anymore. It wasn't uncommon for the pigs to wonder out of the backyard to the neighboring properties or found wondering along a residential street. It is a funny thought, but not so funny for K&D. A stern advice from K: NO 1 RULE: BUILD A SERIOUS FENCE

K&D suddenly found themselves engaging in a steep learning curve when it was time to move the piggies to a friend's property before their overseas trip. The pigs didn't like to be pushed nor forced to move; it needed to be persuaded or guided with food, preferably with an empty bellies, K&D discovered. Also, when the pigs were under stress, it responded to nature's calls more readily. Consequently, their transporting trailer was completely stunk out covered in you know what!!

Not long after K&D got back from their overseas trip, the pigs were sent to the works. Unfortunately, there was nearly as much fat, if not more than meat. Nevertheless K&D still spent a few evenings transforming the meat into lovely pates, sausages, salamis and chorizos. The lesson learnt: kune kune pigs aren't exactly the best for serious meat production.

K&D enjoyed the experience so much that they bought two more piglets to replace the belated kune kune pigs. The pigs are now being housed at K&D's acres 10kms from their urban dwelling. This is where the story begins...

June's Urban Permies meeting

The meeting fell on a cold and wet winter afternoon. Judith did a short presentation on the ram earth house that she visited in the Kapiti at the soil and earth meeting.

Next, we talked about closing the loop in the permaculture garden, in the sense of preserving excess vegetables from the home garden for a later date.

In earlier times, people knew how to preserve vegetables for long periods without the use of freezers or canning machines. This was done through the process of lacto-Fermentation. Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacterial. Starches and sugars in vegetables and fruits are converted into lactic acid by the many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria (read more about this at this link).

We made Korean sauerkraut (kimchi) with an organic cabbage that I bought from the local organic shop – cabbages in the garden aren’t ready yet!! This is the first time I’m trialing with purple cabbage and with whey. The cutting and bounding and bottling came up to less than an hour. It will take about 4- 5 weeks before it’s ready. The flavor gets better over time. But in my household, a bottle doesn’t last more than a week. We’ll be able to do some sauerkraut tasting at the next meeting – exciting.  Overall, we had a lovely time despite the wet and cold weather.

Whole Grain Bread (Breadmaker)

Matt loves bread and he can finish a loaf of vogel bread in one sitting, and that is pretty expensive to maintain! Fortunately, my good friend, Tara came to the rescue with a whole grain bread recipe that comes pretty close to achieving the same texture as vogel bread.

This recipe uses breadmaker cups & spoons for all measurements.

Cover 1 ¼ cups kibbled wheat with water and soak overnight. Drain in a sieve for a few minutes.  This should give about 2 cups softened wheat grains.

Place the following ingredients in a breadmaker:
2 ½ tsp breadmaker yeast blend
2 1/2  cups wholemeal flour
2Tbs gluten flour
2 Tbs cream
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbs butter or oil
300 ml water

Add the drained wheat, and use a standard white loaf baking programme of about 4 hours (the wholemeal programme seems to make the bread too dry).

Childhood and Chicken Feet

During my childhood days when mum and dad were doing pig farming in Singapore (yes, in Singapore), we used to have all kinds of food served up on the dinner table.

One of them was chicken feet stew. Mum would deep fried the chicken feet and throw into a pot with Asian spices ( star anise seed, cloves, Chinese five spice, cinnamons, soy sauce) to stew up the chicken feet with Chinese mushrooms, hard boiled eggs and cabbages. This dish would be eaten over a few days. The flavor got better each day. I would gobbled down bowls of rice flavored with the galantine gravy and suckle on those flavorsome chicken feet, and mushrooms and cabbages. One of my favorite dishes for sure. The children were always fighting over the feet, for real!!

Tara has suddenly reminded me of those yummy chicken feet, and got hold of numerous kgs of it for me, and sparkled lots of nice childhood memories. I’ll now do a bit of enquiries with my mother and grandma to hopefully collect a list of my family favorite recipes.

As a starter, I’ll probably make some delicious stock with I kg worth of it. I’ll put it in a slow cooker on low for a day or two with a few onions, carrots, leeks and apples. Then, I’ll freeze the stock in small containers to use it for later. It’s so good to be able to reach into the freezer for stock to cook fast food that’s delicious and nutritious.

Change lifestlye, be prudent

The Prime Minister of Malaysia very wisely advised the nation to stop wastage and to live within their means. He went further by encouraging those who own land to plant vegetables and fruits. He also added that all these efforts may seem trivial but the impact would be great if everyone changed their lifestyle. Personally, this is the wisest thing I’ve read coming from any leader with regards to food shortage/rising cost in the coming months/years. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Asia/STIStory_234144.html

Food price crisis

This is a timely reminder for me to keep up the motivation to grow as much food in my urban garden as possible, and to eat locally and not depend on imported food.

 

For a start, I should think of providing carbohydrate through locally produced staples such as potatoes, pumpkins, yams, kumura etc. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables. Most of these could be grown in our backyard

 

Also, I’m working on building networks to find out where I can buy directly from the farmers locally. I love the PYO concept where the middle man is removed from the picture; people can harvest the produces themselves. The farmer doesn’t get ripped off by the supermarket but be paid for their effort and be compensated fairly.  It also reduces their cost, thus the price can be kept low and affordable.

 

I’m thinking

local = sustainable

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4490471a12.html

Food price crisis may hit world growth, security - UN

Reuters | Monday, 21 April 2008

The surge in global food prices risks setting back the world's anti-poverty efforts and, if not properly handled, could hurt global growth and security, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Opening a UN trade and development conference in Accra, Ghana, Ban said the huge increases in prices of food staples like cereals since last year could erase progress made towards UN-set goals of halving world poverty by 2015.

"The problem of global food prices could mean seven lost years. . . for the Millennium Development Goals," he said.

"We risk being set back to square one," Ban told the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting.

The food price surge has sharply increased the risk of hunger and poverty in developing countries and has already sparked food riots in parts of Asia and Africa.

The UN chief noted that several countries had moved to try to offset the food squeeze by barring exports of rice and wheat, or introducing incentives for easier imports of foodstuffs.

"This threatens to distort international trade and exacerbate shortages," he said.

"If not handled properly, this crisis could result in a cascade of others . . . and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world," Ban told the conference.  

 

What' I"ve learnt this season

I've observed and learnt some things that I would like to remember for next year:

1) Sown first lot of corn in September, and second in October
2) Plant something every month - first week.
3) Italian tomatoes aren't that great, disease prone - won't plant it again
4) Start eggplants, capsicums, tomatoes indoor in July - keep this season's plants from frost and they will come back again, and you'll get fruits earlier next season. Repeat the cycle for the new plants.
5) Start Austrian Oil seed pumpkins in icecream containers in the hotwater cupboard - germinates in 3-4 days
6) Zucchini Ambassador F1 - extremely prolific especially if a scoop of cow dung is dumped into the planting hole first before putting the plant. 1 plant is more than sufficient for the entire family with more to give away.
7) Japanese eggplants is prolific and tasty, eggplant Golden eggs is late so not worth growing in NZ climate
8) Butternut Chieftain - Prolific - each plant has at least 3 good size squash (it will keep longer if allowed to harden properly)
9) Plant Basil with Capsicums, eggplants.
10) 2 crops of dwarf beans possible - Sow first in November, second January
11) Only grow the Purple Fred climbing beans - early and prolific - two crops in the season
12) 2 telegraph cucumber plants sufficient for a family
13) 4 gerkin plants if you want to preserve
14) Mulch, mulch, mulch

More to come in the next blog

Veggie gardens a growing love

By LIZ WILLIS - North Shore Times Tuesday, 08 April 2008

BEN WATSON/North Shore Times

GOOD LIFE: Growing enough veggies for salads saves money and the planet, says Beth Hansen.
The secrets behind a Devonport plot to foil the looming oil crisis are about to be revealed. It’s a down-to-earth approach rooted in Beth Hansen’s strong belief that even the smallest backyard can be home to a beautiful organic veggie garden.

At 63 after a lifetime of gardening she says it’s time to share her knowledge. She’s warning that vegetable prices will skyrocket as fuel prices rise. It wouldn’t surprise her if lettuces sold for $6 by Christmas.

"I don’t want to panic people but we need to start growing our own produce."

Ms Hansen’s garden is testament to just what can be grown in a small space. In her average-sized front garden she grows basil, parsley, lettuce, rocket, carrots, onions, kumara, spinach, capsicum and bok choy.

"You don’t need a lot of room. This is one thing I want to teach people." If you prepare the soil correctly you can plant intensively which also keeps the weeds down, she says.

As a watercolour artist she’s conscious of colour and veggies and flowers grow happily alongside each other in her cottage garden.She’s now devoting more time to giving organic vegetable growing lessons than painting watercolours.

"It’s all very well painting nice pictures but if I can inspire half a dozen people to start growing their own veggies I would be thrilled."

The old-fashioned art of veggie gardening has waned as people move to smaller properties, she says. Children aren’t taught to grow plants so vegetable gardens have started to disappear. But Ms Hansen says you can grow a lot in a small area, saving money.

Her recipe for a good veggie garden includes:

- Planting veggies in raised beds near the kitchen
- Getting family involved
- Using a mix of organic soil, water crystals and crushed metal aggregate
- Running the mower over dried seaweed then spreading it on the garden
- Having an automatic watering system

An Amazing Online cookbook

http://www.panix.com/clay/cookbook/