Eating local is eating in season

We've been eating small variations of practically the same meal for the past several weeks and are strangely enjoying the repetition. It feels increasingly right to be eating repetitively and in season like this. Silverbeet and zucchini have been in abundance, so they have constituted the major source of iron and vitamins. Then we have added basil, garlic, wild rocket, eggplant, potatoes, mint, oregano, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and onions from the garden, eggs from our lovely girls, and a line-caught redfin or two from the nearby lake. What we then add to these meals are the products we are still reliant upon transporting in. There are usually two or three of the following ingredients with any of our evening meals: salt, pepper, butter, balsamic vinegar, brown rice, sour dough rye bread, or pasta.

In order to keep going with relocalising our food into the colder months, the poly-houses also keep going up over the raised beds.

I also planted 200 more of our saved broad bean seeds on the lower side of the swale (near the pitchfork below). This is to improve the soil quality while providing a hardy winter crop.

Our chooks in chook heaven attending to our city neighbours' neglect of their 'investment' property all throughout the fire season. When non-attendance is a blessing in disguise our chooks will be there to capitalise.

Sowing and picking

We've had rain on and off today, which has come at a time just after I had added horse manure to the north bank garden and turned it over. It's also a few days after the full moon, so what better time to throw around some tree kale seeds and plant some broad beans, collected and dried from spring last year.

I then picked tonight's dinner veggies in the rain, which we'll have with brown rice and a light smatter of tamari.

To get decent rain in Autumn is a rare and welcome pleasure. Happy birthday Zephy.

Late summer produce

What follows is a visual record of what is currently growing in the garden. Additionally we have potatoes, rhubarb, spinach, silverbeet, basil, leeks, onions, carrots, lettuce, and many herbs to pick.

Chilli

Olives

Lime

Grapefruit

Pumpkin

Zucchini

Cucumber

Corn

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Warm fish salad

Here is a recipe that pretty much determined itself tonight. Almost all of the ingredients have come from what's on hand in the garden and from the nearby lake – beautiful Lake Daylesford.


Ingredients

Locals:

Baby silverbeet fordhook leaves
Green spouting broccoli
Snow dwarf peas
Sugar snap climbing peas
Spring onion
Spearmint tips
Peppery wild rocket
Baby broad bean leaves
Soft oregano tips
Parsley herb
Lemon (from George and Geoffrey)


Redfin (English perch caught by Meg)


Foreigners:

Tamari and sesame seed oil (to pan cook fish)
Salt and Pepper
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Olive oil

Procedure:

Throw all the herbs and vegetables into a colander and lightly rinse off any soil. Gut, clean and pan fry fish in sesame oil, add tamari and steam with lid to finish off. Remove cooked scales, head and bones and with the raw gut feed to the chooks for extra protein. Lightly toss fish meat in with garden salad and add salt and olive oil.

The result:

Delicious!

And now for more Fukuoka:

Culture is usually thought of as something created, maintained and developed by humanity's efforts alone. But culture always originates in the partnership of man and nature. When the union of human society and nature is realized, culture takes shape of itself. Culture has always been closely connected with daily life, and so has been passed on to future generations, and has been preserved up to the present time. The One-Straw Revolution, 1975, p138.