Livingseeds

How to make a simple Cold Frame

Here is the promised article on how to make a cold frame. This is a simple project that should not take more than 2 – 3 hours. I built both of these in 3 hours, the longest part of the job is measuring and cutting.

455 x 2400 standard pine shelving

A cold frame is used specifically to allow for the germination of seeds and protection of seedling in sub-optimal weather conditions. Typically the cold fame is closed just before sunset so that the frame can store heat at night and opened soon after sun-rise, to ensure that the seeds or seedlings are not cooked during the day. This is very important and will need to be controlled as weather conditions change. We typically will have 3 lengths of wood that prop open the lid depending on what temperatures are experiences. During hot weather you will want to have the lid open on maximum and vice-versa for colder weather.

All the pieces for two cold frames cut to size. The fourth shelf at the top was not used for this project.

Watering is also important as the seed trays and pots used inside the cold farm will require at least an everyday watering and sometimes more, you will need to maintain a watch and if you see wilting use a watering can with a fine rose to water your seedlings.

Ok onto the cold frame. We used standard pine shelving (2400 x455 mm wide) from our local board centre. I bought 4 pieces but only needed 3, to make two cold frames. The wife is happy as she gets a new shelf in her pantry that she has been pleading for with the 4^th piece.

I’m going to give rough dimensions as each person will have their own size requirements, and the two that I made will allow us to germinate over 4000 seedlings in one go. There are not many gardeners out there that need to germinate so many seedlings, unless you are supplying seedlings at a farmers market. So you can adapt this to your needs.

A few screws and some cold glue and the basic frame is completed.

Basically the design will work on the following principles. The back of the cold frame (South side) needs to be higher than the front (North side) ours is 300mm at the back and 150mm in the front. We cut one of the shelves into two, lengthways to give us the 300mm high back and the 150 mm front pieces. The sides of this cold frame were cut from a full width board and we measured to the same height as the front and back boards.

These four pieces were screwed together with standard 40mm chipboard screws using a pilot hole to prevent the board ends splitting. Handles were cut and screwed on made from off cuts, this allows two people to pick up a cold frame and move it easily.

For the lid of the cold frame we used Thermoclear but you could use any rigid transparent material. We decided to use Thermoclear as a) we had a spare sheet lying around and b) it has a twin wall with wonderful rigid cells running the length of the sheet. It’s the perfect way to make double glazing with minimal effort. Although the boxes are a bit draughty, I felt that this little bit of extra insulation should keep the heat in and cold out for a while longer. When measuring your lid, have the materialoverlap by 15 – 20 mm all around as this will allow moisture to drip away from your wood and helps to preserve the cold frame.

Edge-on view of Thermoclear showing the cells that run through the sheet.

This plastic sheeting is also great, because if you carefully cut through the top layer of plastic you have a hinge and it solves a lot of construction issues with additional hinges and effort. We sealed the ends with clear silicone to create a ‘double glazing’ effect on the lids. Just make sure you dry the silicone in the shade, as it’s amazing how quickly the heat (pressure) builds up in each tube and starts to push the silicone out before it has a chance to dry.

Close up of the hinge, note that only the top layer of plastic has been cut. The 'hinge' portion is carefully screwed onto the back of the cold frame.

One everything is dry, oil the wood to keep it weather proof, we use Waksol (R90.00 for 5 Lt) but use up whatever you have lying in your workshop/garage.

Filling the ends of the cells with silicone. Note the overlap to keep water away from the end grain.

The cold frame is then placed directly on a tarp which is laid on level ground, the seed trays and pots (for cucurbits and larger faster growing seeds) are then placed inside onto the tarp. The tarp is there for two reasons, 1) to prevent grass and weeds coming up through your seed trays and 2) it helps to keep the roots inside the cell divisions / pots. If you place the trays or pots directly on the soil then the seedlings roots grow straight into the soil and you destroy half of the plants root structure when you lift them to transplant. In larger more formal seedling operations the seed trays are placed onto a wire frame to discourage the roots from growing through, we are not quite there yet.

Job done, all it needs now is to be oiled and put to work.

That’s about it for making a cold frame, it’s simple and easy, and will allow you to get a good 5 – 6 weeks head start on the planting season.

Farmers Markets 101

Are you a market gardener, or are you looking at becoming a market gardener?

Market gardening is taking off at a pace that is astounding in South Africa, one can hardly believe the number of Farmers Markets and Local Produce Markets that have sprung up over the last 3-4 years.

Typically one finds that they are either an evolution of the typical Flea Market, all the way to full blown Fresh and Homemade produce markets that are supplied by Market Gardeners, small farmers or home industry type entrepreneurs. This post will focus on the market gardener and some things that you need to do, to literally stand-out from the crowd, while at the same time have your wares and name become a sought after attraction at your local farmers market.

Firstly you will need to understand who your target market will be. If you are selling at a farmers market in a low-mid income area, the chances that you can sell your high-end organic/biodynamic crops at a premium will be limited. However, if your Farmers Market is situated where higher income customers frequent, you will have a much better chance at moving your stock. That said there has simply never been a better time to be a fresh market grower and seller. These markets are thriving and customers are excited about locally grown food.  They will often brag to their guests where and how they purchased the unique tomatoes that are in the salad, or the stunning carrot/pumpkin/bean/cucumber variety that adorns their serving dishes. That bragging will bring new people to your stand, and it can only happen if you are the one that stands head and shoulders above your competition, and more importantly gets customers coming back week after week.

Produce piled high

Below are a few hints/tip and suggestions that you can use to be the supplier at your local farmers market that stands out.

Specialise: Look for a gap in the market and capitalise on that gap. Are there already heirloom tomato suppliers at your local market? If there are, how can you capitalise on that? You could offer the makings of an entire salad instead and not just tomatoes. You could can your excess tomatoes into a ‘sous’ or braai relish. Another idea is to specialise in a crop family, like brassica’s/beans/pumpkins or chillies. Chillies that are sold loose do well but if you package chillies into segmented punnets with different heat rating or similar heat ratings you will move so many more. In the off season, dried chillies or chilli products are great. Beans can be sold green and dried, speciality beans can be sold off by weight or pre-packaged. I love the sight of buckets of different dried beans that one can buy by the scoop.

Add History: If you can tell your customer about the origin or history of the particular fruit/vegetable you spark their interest, that interest makes sales. A good example would be to say that Carbon won the title of best tasting tomato in the world. Tell a story about your produce, like the Mayflower Bean was carried over to America before it became America and helped keep starvation at bay for the first pioneers.

Add Value: A free recipe card that is thrown in with their purchase for the items that they have bought will always bring a customer back… but only if the recipe is good. Try to keep the recipe simple, but it must make the dish memorable. Offer a bulk discount, one bunch of Purple Dragon Carrots for R10.00 but you can have 3 for R25.00. Or combine 3or 4 items at a special price.

All produce is well labled

Cross Sell: Group vegetables together that would make a meal, that way customers are more inclined to buy a number of items together, see recipe idea above. If you can’t group them because of your display then offer cooking suggestions with a combination of your veggies.

Banter: Talk to browsing customers and offer tasters of unusual vegetables. While a client is paying, offer cooking/eating advice that other customers can hear, that you can expand on once the paying customer has left. Combine your banter with information and how you grow your produce, tell them what’s coming in a few weeks time, it all helps to sell now and bring them back later.

Stack it High: A Madeiran friend of mine says that veggies only sell if the pile is high. So don’t put out a few of your veggies, stack them out and way high. It’s visually appealing and helps to draw the feet… those feet need your veggies. If you have crates, fill them and then tilt the crate up so the customers will notice your amazing produce. Next time you are browsing a farmers market look at who is busiest and what their stand looks like. I can almost guarantee they have produce stacked high. If you can bring feet to your stall, others want to know why everyone is there, that’s when you start selling.

Colour: Try to arrange all colours together to create a mass of individual colours, Reds together, yellows, greens etc. This is more visually appealing than a kaleidoscope of colour that tends to confuse the brain. This will also get you noticed from across the farmers market.

Bright colours stand out from a distance

Be ahead of the pack: Try to get your new produce onto your display as early in the season as possible. If you are the first one with a particular type or cultivar at your market you start to build a loyal client base. Capitalise on this and work it. It may require you to plan ahead and invest in cold frames or tunnels. If it’s worth it, do it. Also, don’t drop out of the market suddenly, your clients can be very disappointed. Make sure you can supply the whole season, it need not be the same produce but your face needs to be there, with the same, new or different produce.

Mailing list: Work up a client mailing list that you can send out every Thursday/Friday with a produce list for Saturday and possible idea’s that they can cook up with your produce. This will ensure that a higher number of clients are coming to your stall for your produce. You may even find over time that they will drive out to you during the week to buy straight off the farm, or you can use the newsletter to start of a box-scheme.

Quality: It goes without saying, your produce needs to look as good, if not better than the stuff at your local supermarket. It’s a Farmers PRODUCE Market, not a place for you to sell soil samples and the occasional earthworm. You may think it shows freshness, your potential clients only see extra work and ‘dirty’ produce.

Glistening: Take a hint from the flower sellers on the street corner, mist your produce often. A spray bottle is cheap and will make your produce look so much more appetising while at the same time keeping it cool.

Signage: The little bit of effort you put into making nice signs for your produce will pay you… literally. Some hardboard, a few lengths of wood and a small tin of blackboard paint will allow you to chalk up specials and prices for your produce. Many people will walk past a stand with no prices without bothering to stop and ask.

Smile: This should go without saying, shake hands and tell them your name, this makes it a personal shopping experience for them, and helps to bring them back.

Book Review: The Garden Guardian’s guide to environmentally-responsible garden care

This is one of those books that every natural gardener needs to get. It’s the refreshing breath of insightful knowledge that one needs when looking at how to naturally control pests and diseases in your garden.

Johan Gerber’s Garden Guardians is now well ensconced on my gardening bookshelf for me to use and learn from. I am particularly thankful for the very impressive collection of full colour photos that this book contains. I have found it quite useful to look and identify  the symptoms in the photo’s and then cross reference this to the treatments listed earlier in the book. The photo’s are clear, and cover almost every aspect of plant health that one may possibly encounter in our growing conditions. This is a book that is well worth the space in your library and will become the reference that you will turn to when you are puzzled by that strange rot or gogga that is destroying your precious plants. By using this book you will be able to identify and decide on a course of action to halt the damage without resorting to detrimental chemicals in your garden.

The chapters on Natures little helpers was for me the best part of the book as it introduces one to insects and organisms that most people overlook and has given me a re-awakened appreciation for my gogga’s. Gardening is not just about the plants in your garden, and Johan’s book highlights this to the conscientious gardener like no other.

Something that has been lacking for gardeners is easy (and impartial) access to information on the various chemicals that are all too easily available to the gardener, and specifically what their actions are on the general environment. Too often I hear of people being incorrectly advised on chemicals to use in their gardens, in this book you will have a quick and handy chemical reference that you can turn to with simple and succinct explanations on each of these chemicals.

The only complaint that I could possibly raise, is that diatomaceous earth with only but a passing mention has not been covered in this book. The only reason that I can think of is that it’s a relatively newcomer in South African gardening circles, however I’m sure that this will be better covered in updated editions.  We have had some wonderful results with DE and will soon be offering it on our site.

If you are looking at growing any food crop (actually any garden plant, as they are all covered in this book) without resorting to detrimental chemicals, this is the book that you will need to have on your shelf.

The Edible Quote

He that would look with contempt on the pursuits of the farmer, is not worthy the name of a man.
-~Henry Ward Beecher

Poultry for Sustainability

Am I the only one, or have you also noticed in recent years that young girls are ‘developing’ at an earlier age? My firm belief is that this phenomenon is intrinsically related to the amounts of hormones, antibiotics and associated junk that have been fed, injected and variously sprayed onto the food that makes up the bulk of modern diets. This in turn is passed onto us and our children. Generally we have no way of monitoring or ascertaining what pesticides, drugs and poisons are being added to our foods, we just believe that ‘they’ would never do anything that is harmful to us. Mmmm, somehow methinks that people are too gullible. ‘They’ are more concerned about profits and fast turnaround times than the health and wellbeing of the dutifully trusting public.

One of my Koekoek Cocks.... a good looking bird if I may say so myself

So, where does one start in the first step of providing a healthy source of meat for your family? One of the first animals that most people on farms and smallholdings decide to acquire, are chickens. The reason for this is generally the ease of obtaining birds, and for many the perception is that they do not require much in the way of housing or feed. Or so it’s believed, very few people realise that a poorly managed flock becomes a constant financial drain on the resources of a farm, especially one that is trying to be self-sustainable. What people do is either get a few birds from a local auction, get ‘passed on’ birds, or they pick up some day old chicks from a roadside vendor, all in my opinion are poor choices.

The beautiful Black Australorp is a firm favorite in South Africa

Most people believe that any bird will do, and they like the idea of a multi coloured flock running around their farm. The problem here is that you never know what kind of bird you are getting. A mixed flock may look nice and homely, but invariably it has major limitations. Not all birds are equal. Generally if they have been bought off auction, it’s the runts and poor layers are sold off, this is not even thinking of the sick and diseased birds, or the diseases and parasites that are transferred in an open auction environment.  So you are literally starting off on the back foot, with poor stock. It is very difficult to build up a sustainable flock if your foundation birds are made up of the unwanted birds from another flock.  The day old chicks on the roadside are very often males only. Battery birds are sex-linked to be able to sex the chicks on day one, the females are kept for mass egg production and the males being worthless, are sold to vendors that sell them off to the passing trade. These males make very poor meat birds, and not much good for anything else. I have a friend that recently bought broiler birds from a local auction, they looked fine and I could not tell what breed they were. However the lady that sold them assured us that they were top quality broilers. Three weeks later, these chicks have not gained much weight and honestly look as if they are still only a week old. So, the lesson here is, when you are at an auction and looking at any kind of livestock. Beware! Don’t take what’s said for granted.

It’s always best to do a bit of research into what kind of bird is needed for your family, before you rush out and ‘just quickly get some birds’. Are you looking for egg production, a meat bird, would you prefer a dual purpose bird that is good for both meat and eggs? Or are you a vegetarian that does not want the birds for any kind of consumption but would rather have a scratcher to assist with bug control in the veggie garden? There are chickens for almost every requirement that you may have, but how do you find out what is the right bird for you? This is an individual choice, and needs to be made with some kind of plan in mind. Setting out your goals and requirements are paramount. From there you can work out what is needed in a breed to sustain your family.

White Leghorns are great producers of white shelled eggs

Our first flock of birds was a rush purchase for egg production. We bought a flock of 30 laying hens from a friend at work. Based on our understanding and calculations, we would be able to run a small profit from almost day one. The birds were duly delivered and we waited expectantly to make our promised deliveries of free range eggs. However, the birds were just not laying as expected. After much discussion amongst those in the know, we found out that a diet of grain and free-ranging was not conducive to high egg production. These birds have been specifically bred to be fed a high protein diet, they required 18 hours of artificial light every day and they needed to be housed in closed batteries. Not something that we wanted. We wanted real free range eggs, locking them up to increase production went totally against what we believed. Once we realised our error, we could not even slaughter the birds for our own consumption as they were not meat birds, they were purely egg layers.

We now had to rethink our entire poultry set-up. What we wanted was a hardy dual purpose bird that would do well free-ranging, with a grain based diet to supplement their protein requirements. In addition it had to have a high egg and meat production that would provide us with a good protein source. Personally I am partial to indigenous animals so naturally we had a look at what was available. I started speaking to an expert poultryman and he was able to supply me with some day old Koekoeks, these birds were considered for many years as one of South Africa’s finest dual purpose breeds. The Koekkoek was developed in Potchefstroom by line-breeding three top class heritage breeds. The Black Australorp (Meat and Eggs), the Plymouth Barred Rock (Meat and Eggs) and the White Leghorn (Eggs) from this mix the Koekoek was developed and a unique South African breed was developed that fit the bill for a locally robust and productive bird. Unfortunately, it has now fallen out of fashion due to the commercial Ross, Cobb, Hiline and other breeds that are now used for concentrated meat and egg production. The Koekoek has over the last 6 years been the main breed that we have worked with on our property. We have been through a number of generations of this amazing bird that is a consistent layer and a wonderful meat bird. As to being hardy, I can attest that we have had birds that have easily survived -8 C winters with no additional heat or supplementation.

A good looking Plymouth Barred Rock Cock

My advice to new or prospective poultry owners is to firstly understand what you want from a breed, each breed has strong and weak points. Then find a breeder, or two (try get Cocks and Hen’s from two separate lines) that keep the breed you are looking for. A good place to start is the classifieds in agricultural magazines or The South African Show Poultry Organisation. http://www.saspo.org.za First decide if you want to buy adult birds or if you are prepared to take on chicks and raise them. If you take chicks they will be cheaper so you can get more birds for your money, but you will need to have the correct set-up to raise them. Such as infra-red lamps, drown proof waterers, chick food dispensers, a cosy well ventilated draught free place, and the right food. All of this comes at a cost and needs to be factored into the equation. Depending on the season, it can take you up to a year to get them to the point of laying your first eggs. Birds generally start laying at 6 months, however if you start them late in spring or summer you could have birds that don’t come into lay before winter and you might have to feed them the whole winter before you get your first eggs in spring.

If however you decide on adults, expect to pay a premium, as the breeder has already got them to a breeding age, taken the mortality losses and fed and cared for them. Expect to pay at least a few hundred rand for a trio of pure-bred birds. The cost however will be paid back in higher egg production and better slaughter weights than anything generally available from an auction. One word of caution when purchasing from Show Poultry breeders. Make sure that you ask for commercial stock and not show stock. Don’t fall for the idea that you need show quality birds, show birds often do not have the ‘working traits’ that one would need for self-sustainability. Many working breeds have been reduced to pure show breeds and do not have the desirable traits that the traditional working birds used to possess. This I believe is a failure on the show breeder’s side as the original robust genetic integrity has been traded for prestige on the show bench. Very good examples of this can be seen in the low fertility or inbreeding found in Indian Games (Cornish Hens) and Wyandottes. Two of my favourite breeds, that I have stopped working with due to the poor genetics available in South Africa.

Golden Wyandotte hen showing the beautiful lacing on their plumage

The satisfaction that you gain from running a purebred flock is immense, excluding the additional benefits of quality meat and eggs, you are able to use the birds in trades with others looking for high quality birds. We have used our birds to trade for other desirable breeds as well as selling birds directly for an additional income or to pay for their own keep. The difference in quality is clearly apparent when two birds of differing quality are placed next to one another. To have a flock of birds that even a novice can see are superior is a worthy achievement. I want to encourage you to have a good look at the heritage breeds of poultry that are available in South Africa. Within these breeds lie the future of your self-sustainability. They are genetically robust, they are able to provide and reward your families with quality meat and eggs, and this for very little input and maintenance as opposed to factory breeds. Lastly, you will have the honour of keeping alive rare and fast vanishing breeds that may very well provide the basis and genetic blueprint of future breeding stock.

The next meat bird that many people try, are turkeys. Here is a bird that is almost guaranteed to frustrate, as they are notoriously difficult to raise and breed on a sustainable basis. Nearly all of the turkeys that are sold in our supermarkets are Large Breasted Whites. This is a highly selected variety of turkey that is unable to reproduce, the turkey hens need to be artificially inseminated to produce viable eggs. Basically the ability to self-perpetuate has been destroyed in favour of faster growth and more breast meat. The mind boggles at what needs to happen on a turkey farm ensure the successful production of the next generation of ‘healthy meat’. We won’t even go down the mental logistics that this act requires, suffice to say it does not bode well for the genetics of turkeys, where nearly all the birds bred by this method are from an incredibly small gene pool. With such limited genes in the global turkey population, all it will take is a viral outbreak to wipe out an industry, and bring upon the world a disaster of tremendous proportions. The same applies even more too chicken populations, thankfully without the artificial insemination issues….. yet.

Turkey Tom in full display for his girls

With free-range turkeys the story is a lot different. The Tom’s (the males) have a harem of female hens that they preen, puff and generally show off for. Egg production is a hit and miss affair that may or may not work out. Often the turkey hen forgets where she’s laid her eggs and starts a new batch elsewhere. Two year and older hens seem to have better success and hatch rates. Once the little chicks hatch, this is when the next danger period starts. They are notoriously prone to the slightest infection or draught. A common saying goes; ”If the weather report says bad weather will arrive tomorrow evening, the chicks start dying tonight.” However once they are past the initial few weeks, what a pleasure. Being able to watch the fluffy little chicks transform into beautiful glistening bronzed adults, with sunlight reflecting off their iridescent feathers, more than makes up for all the hassles of the first few weeks. Turkeys are predominantly grazers and go through a surprising amount of green food, always make sure that they have some form of greens available. Winter may be a problem, what we do is plant a lot of cabbage and other brassica’s to supplement our birds in the dry winter months. One thing I can say is that free-range turkey is without a doubt the best flavoured meat that you will ever taste. Unfortunately, there is no way to get real free-range turkey meat than to do it yourself.

Finally, a word on using your animals for the table. This issue is by its very nature, sensitive. I for one look at the issue from a sustainability and health view. Trying to become self-sustainable and being an omnivore presents unique challenges. Some will vehemently disagree with my beliefs and frankly they have the right to do so. Each person has their own self entitled belief system that is shaped by their perceptions and worldview. My belief system allows me the luxury of meat, for others it may not. The fact that our family consumes meat is compounded by the need to provide this protein source in a healthy and ethical manner. Either I buy plastic, hormone laden meat from a shop or I produce it myself. The idea of eating meat that has been unethically raised revolts me and I take great pleasure in being able to feed my family with healthy meat, meat that has been bred and raised on our own property, where the animals have led a contented life without the multitude of stresses that occur in an unnatural factory farm environment.

The slaughter of these animals is a solemn and dirty task, there is no pleasure in this act. It is however required to get this food source onto the plates of my family. What it does do for our family is underpin the cycle of life that we as humans are so quick to gloss over, or are even loath to consider. Especially when one picks up a clean and sanitised pack of chops, or de-boned chicken breasts off the supermarket shelf, without a second thought as to what was required to get this protein source to our tables. Uniquely, every one of my children understands exactly where the drumstick or chop that lies on their plate comes from. They have been intimately involved in raising and feeding our animals, and as such understand the work involved to get this food onto their plates. This in itself provides a profound respect and insight into the value of our animals and what I believe is an integral part of the noble pursuit of becoming self-sustainable.

Book Review: Animal Vegetable Miracle

Have you ever wondered what it would take to live entirely off the land? It’s not as easy as one thinks, in this insightful book Barbara Kingsolver and her family decided to take a year and become true Locavores for that year. (Locavore = People who only eat products raised or grown in a set distance, typically 100-200 Km radius) This is an entertaining book that follows this family from spring to spring and takes you through the first asparagus of the season all the way through to a zucchini glut and back again. Her husband and oldest daughter also have their say with informative and frank discussions on self-sustainability and other essential issues. One of the things that really struck me was her being listed as one of the 100 most dangerous authors in America, mainly because she was advocating the need for people to understand where their food came from.

I read this book twice, back to back, I enjoyed it so much. I found it very instructional and found myself drawn deeply into her world. Primarily I think because I could understand exactly what she was trying to achieve, as it’s very similar to my families own ideals.

In addition, we often use some of the recipes in this book, specifically the 30 min Mozzarella recipe, which is a firm favourite with our pizzas.

Is it a worth while book? Simply yes. It will appeal to almost every person that has the remotes interest in food and more specifically it will bring about an awareness and understanding of what is sitting on your plate.

The Edible Quote

“In the depths of winter, I finally found that within me lay an invincible summer.”
~ Albert Camus

The Wilson’s get rid of the (City) menace

[Below is an article written by one of our clients, Tristram and his family have made the break and are settling down in their own piece of paradise. This is his initial post describing their beginning, we at Livingseeds.co.za wish him and his family every success and joy in their courageous descision]

At the beginning of 2010 we made a conscious decision to leave the city to start on our journey of self sustainability. We took a conservative approach and retained our suburban home whilst taking up residence in our very basic small country cottage. The idea being to at least start the journey and make that first “city” break, sever the ties as it were.

The advantages (depending on how you look at it of course!) was to be able to leave behind the clutter, gadgets, crime, and general consumerism. We became sick of crime, not only because of feeling threatened, but because of having to constantly watch your back and be “expected” to do neighborhood watch.

At the end of last year we had made a decision to home school as we had totally lost faith in the sausage machine education system and were keen that our children get as much time to be children. The underlying pressures (peer and marketing/in your face advertising) in a City environment certainly don’t promote this. Children need to be able to free play, to be able to create, and more importantly to self stimulate (boredom is a swear word!). It is also important for them to develop self confidence through making things and seeing the result. For this, the countryside is a canvass of opportunity.

So, I had 2000 square meters and a small house to start with. My first priority was to get the veggie garden going and so I demarcated an area of 3m x 20m. Up until this point I had been reading and tinkering around with a small veggie bed to give myself the best head start. A small garden is a good start, firstly because it is easily manageable and secondly it teaches you how long growing times are, what seeds look like, and collecting them. It also teaches you as to what is eating the veggies and moulds and how to overcome these issues. Yes, I had my fair share of issues; letting the mint get out of control, snails, caterpillars, aphids and generally not keeping on top of things!

View of all our vegetable beds

I decided on 10 beds which would be laid out down the left hand side of the property as it is the “driest” part in winter and closest to the house. The grass had to be cleared, irrigation installed, and compost laid down. Unfortunately I had none of my own compost yet, so had to get in a truck load. This was after doing a little research and listening to some recommendations from the locals into organic compost.

In the meantime I had got a few old pallets together and set them up against the back fence and added some sides. Initially, to start the heap, I went to the local dump to collect greens (fresh grass and leaves) and browns (dead grass and autumn leaves) and layered them with some horse or cow manure and kitchen scraps and a little wood ash in between. To maintain this, I am adding my lawn clippings and any other of my neighbors’ dump material.

The beds were laid out 1mx3m. I opted for drip irrigation with the main line running down the side of the property and the smaller feeder/drip lines running perpendicularly off of this and over the beds. Each bed has 3 lines running along the length with drippers spaced approx 300mm apart (I figured this would be a good standard spacing). I bent wire into 300mm long “hoops” and pushed them into the soil over each dripper which helps to keep the dripper line straight, and when the compost was laid down, helped me to locate where the drippers are were (I figured this may be good when it came to planting, i.e. plant near the dripper!). 100mm of compost was laid over the top of each bed, burying the lines under it. There was a little experimenting here as this is a half mulching and half raised bed method where the set up is fairly minimal. I took up the grass which is very intensive, but I had no cardboard or plenty of newspaper to sheet mulch. The flexible polypropylene irrigation piping was purchased in rolls from a national agricultural supplier who had their “own” brand of drippers.

Irrigation pipes into beds

Then came planting. I had various sources of seeds, and although wanted to plant the basics, I was keen to try out different crops, specifically heirloom. The reason for this was to rediscover crops that had been lost through the modern marketing forces of today, and of course variety.

I decided to plant about 10 -12 rows, depending on the crops, along each bed. Although many people write about companion planting, I decided to basically plant whatever I felt like next to each other, onions being the exception! I will fill in with some of the pest preventing plants like chives, nasturtiums and marigolds etc later. I started with carrots, beans, peas, beetroot, NZ and Swiss chard spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, chives, radishes, lettuce and cabbage.

The challenge has been to try to figure out how many of each variety to plant for my family of four, and how to stagger the planting times to ensure a continuity of crops. Here I have flown by the seat of my pants and letting experience be my guide. There are always ways to improve, for instance I got caught out with frost with my beans and had to make a simple tent system until I work out something more permanent. Common sense and a little creativity is all that is required; see what you have lying around.

I set out an excel document, documenting each bed; what had been planted, where and when, and who’s seeds were used.

Time passed and the crops began appearing. Peas had to be staked and the crops checked for bugs and a bit of weeding etc.

After about a month and a bit I am already eating lettuce, radish and NZ Spinach.

So let’s see what happens! Watch this space.

Book Review : “The” Encyclopedia of Country Living

This book is a tomb, a reference work of note and well worth every cent that you will pay for it. Running to well over 900 pages this book covers almost every aspect of living off your land. From buying land, planning a veggie garden, planting an orchard, raising and using livestock their by-products and even home birthing. The book is filled with everyday recipes under each topic and has a friendly personal writing style that quickly sets you at ease. The explanations are in simple language and in many instances are referenced with personal anecdotes.

Just after receiving our copy, my wife Nicola was paging through it, she happened upon this passage and had to sit down she was laughing so much.

“Catching a Goat

How do you deal with a goat that jumped the fence and is happily munching your neighbour’s roses and does not want to be caught?

1) Try the grain-shaken-in-a-can-bit. Turn the grain so he can see it.

2) If he’s leery, walk past him carrying the grain but completely ignoring him. Go pick up some curious object beyond him and examine it. Then put down the object and walk back past the goat, still carrying the grain, and still carefully ignoring it. Whistle if you can. The goat will be overcome with curiosity and follow you. Slow down. At a point of closest approach dive for legs or horns, whichever you think you have the better chance of grabbing. I love horned goats because in desperation I can usually catch them by those handles. Then yell for help.

3) If that didn’t work, rope him and put him up for sale.

4) If you can’t rope him, shoot him and make goat sausage. (recipe and methods on pages 628-633)”

In this style the whole book is filled with good advice, humour and practical ‘real-world-useful’ information. In our house we refer to The Encyclopaedia of Country Living as “The Book” and when an unusual question comes up, like how do you make sausage casings? It’s the first place we turn to. If you live on a plot or farm, and even if you are a homemaker and desire to do things yourself you will find this book a worthwhile asset to your bookshelf.

The Edible Quote

“The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.”

~ J.B. Colbert, French Statesman, circa 1665

Are Heirloom vegetables important?

The very idea of eating a carrot that is possibly the same as Jesus Christ ate, or beans that were on one of the first ships that landed in America (before it was America) is unique and romantic. Eating food that has been passed down from generation to generation as a precious gift, is something that most people do not think about, it’s just not important in today’s age. One can easily walk into the grocer and pick up a bunch of carrots or tomatoes without a second thought of how those carrots got to the shelf.

In days gone by, almost every household had a veggie garden and grew at least a few food items. The seeds that were used were open pollinated and heirloom seeds that they had saved, shared and swapped with neighbours friends and relatives. Only the best was considered worthwhile and the home gardener would specifically select those that produced well, were tasty and disease resistant. This was because 50 or 100 years ago we did not have the plethora of fungicides, pesticides and various assortments of chemicals for dealing out indiscriminate death to the malicious critter that dared to snack on “our” food.

Gardeners and farmers in days gone by used mixtures of soap, garlic and natural elements like sulphur and copper (you know… substances that actually have a number on the periodic table) that occur in nature to help them combat their common garden pests. In today’s world of new is better, we have chemicals that have lingering effects on soil for over 15 years, rendering the soil unfit for any type of food production.

OK back to heirlooms…. as I was saying, only seed from the best plants were saved. From this selection our renowned heirlooms were formed. I say formed as the continuous selection of plants and fruit caused distinct varieties to be created. These varieties sometimes created a cult-like following where gardeners made sure that every year they planted at least a few of these plants, so distinct and superior was the flavour and production of these plants.

In addition to the above, disease resistance was also important. What point would a well flavoured vegetable be if it succumbed to environmental stresses and pests before it could produce fruit? Now, I’m not saying that heirlooms are more disease resistant than hybrids (often they are not). Hybrids have been bred specifically for certain traits. Chief amongst these is disease resistance. In the process of creating a “good disease package” flavour is the hardest to keep and is not reliant on a single gene that can be turned on or off, much to the dismay of the GM market.

The biggest difference with heirlooms and hybrids is the genetic diversity of the individual variety. Let’s take a look at corn or as we South Africans prefer to call them…. mielies. In the Eastern Cape it was estimated that there were over 300 different landraces of mielies grown by individual communities. These landraces were distinctive in the fact that each community that lived in the isolated valleys saved and planted their seed for generations. Over time distinctive varieties were produced that could thrive in the unique microclimates where they were grown. This was only possible due to the inherent genetic diversity that was available in the original seed that was planted, this allowed natural selection (by nature and man) to winnow out the mielies to a point where each valley in the eastern cape had a distinctive variety that was accustomed to the specific environmental stresses that that valley experienced.

With Monsanto’s “upliftment” program (aided by our myopic government) they have been handing out “free seed” that has all but destroyed these unique varieties. The seed supplied has come from a very narrow gene pool where it has been engineered, re-engineered, hybridised and modified to a point where almost no genetic diversity remains in the seed to allow for unusual circumstances. One good example is as follows.

All of the GM and hybrid seed is currently being designed for today’s environmental conditions. With ‘climate change’ (the scientists have not quite decided if it’s warming or cooling) if there are any severe changes, all of the seed currently in production by the big GM houses will be worthless to farmers, no matter what chemicals they might desire to throw at them. Where do you think that will leave the average consumer that would like to eat a meal occasionally?

Heirlooms are our genetic guarantee of future food supply. No matter what nature cares to throw at us, if you have a handful of heirloom seeds you can be assured that firstly you can plant the seed, secondly you are able to save the seed for the following year and thirdly, if environmental conditions change the plant will have the internal genetic diversity available to adapt via natural selection. Something that cannot be said for any hybrid or GM seed.

It is interesting to note that ALL hybrids and GM crops have their roots in heirloom and open pollinated seed. Heirlooms were (and still are) used by breeders to create hybrids and GM crops. Heirlooms are the original source of their technology. So when you see a seed house or article denigrating the heirloom or OP vegetable, know that they have used these selfsame vegetables to create their frankenfoods.

So do I believe that heirlooms are important? Yes, without a doubt! We seed savers are literally the protectors of vegetable genetic diversity. One day scientists could call out to home gardeners to provide real vegetable seed that will feed the world, because the GM seed houses are busy engineering themselves and the farmers into a blind corner, and they can’t see what conditions are waiting around the bend. Look after your heirlooms and share them, the world may one day need them!

What’s in our Garden

OK finally winter is here. Full swing and with big white teeth. We have had our coldest ever recorded morning last Wednesday with -10.5 deg C. The amazing thing was when I went out it certainly did not feel that cold. There was not a breath of wind and everything was absolutely still. After I had gone up to do the milking I really felt the cold… I suppose it takes a while to sink into your bones.
Our garden has come to a standstill, not much is happening and it’s now time to plan for spring. We will be putting up the first of our tunnels in the next week or so and it’s now a case of deciding what needs to be planted. We are going to concentrate on all of the new seed that we have received this year so that you guys can get your teeth into some great new veggies. Old actually, but new to planting in South Africa on a wide scale.
Our lambing season is going well and we have harvested a bull, 6 lambs and we will be doing a few pigs in two weeks time. I have just finished making our boerewors for winter and we are looking forward to a few hearty lamb curries over winter… Oh, the joys of a 100% home grown meal.

The Edible Quote

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

~ Frederic Bastiat

Bargaining, Bartering and lessons in haste.

We live in a world where most things can be bought electronically, you can pay your bills, buy things, sell things (yes I’m guilty) browse the local super market, even buy individual songs online and not just the whole album.

What I’d like to do is talk about an almost lost art. Bartering and bargaining and haggling for a desirable item.

Bartering has been with us from when man first had the ability to perceive value. The value of an item is generally defined in today’s world as a price, and in South Africa it’s generally in Rands. That price has the tendency to increase every few months. Contrary to what most people believe, it’s not that the item is getting more expensive. It’s that the money that you have in your hand is losing value. But that is a whole other discussion.

So back to bartering and bargaining. I love to haggle, I feel it’s one of the best ways to get the best value for your produce or your hard earned cash. There is skill in bargaining and bartering, it’s a skill that is often learnt the hard way, by getting the raw end of the deal. This post is hopefully an instructional post, where you can learn from our mistakes, and possibly some of the info that we have picked up by going to an auction or flea-market with people who know more than us.

Here is one of our “failed” attempts at barter. I say “failed” as it’s debateable as a failure, we achieved what we wanted… in the end. We also learnt some valuable barter and bargaining lessons and about patience in training animals… something my wife says I need a lot of. Patience not training! Ok that’s debatable as well… onto the story, please.

A few years back we decided to get a milk cow, after much research we decided on a Dexter. As they were a good dual purpose breed that did not produce milk in excess with a fairly high butterfat content and also would not be too heavy on our grazing. At that point the value of Dexter’s suddenly shot from being an almost unknown breed into the limelight and prices doubled accordingly (and they are still rising). We could just not afford to pay cash for a cow. So we set about planning on how we could get a Dexter for ourselves.

We also keep Pedi Sheep, an indigenous breed that is hardy, requires minimal inputs, needs no de-worming nor dips and the ewes drop 3 lambs every 2 years. They are the perfect sheep where minimal maintenance is required, and compliment organic grass fed meat production. We started off with just 4 sheep seven years ago and now eat at least 5-7 rams that are 100% organic and grass fed every year. Our flock fluctuates between 20 and 30 animals, mostly ewes and slaughter rams. At the same time that we were looking for the Dexter we had a surplus of ewes in our flock that we needed to cull. So I put and ad in the Junk Mail for a swap, 4 Pedi Ewes for a pregnant Dexter Cow or one in milk. I thought it was a lopsided trade as a pregnant Cow was worth more. However a few days later a guy from Potch phoned and agreed to the trade, he had a heifer that was ready to drop her first calf in 3 months time. He offered to bring the heifer to me if I added a ram in as well. I jumped at the trade and he came round the next day with our new heifer. We were ecstatic! We dreamed of cream, butter, homemade cheese and real full cream milk.

Dexters are known for their calm nature, sweet disposition and ease of handling, we named her Lacey and she was madder than the March Hare. She was not pregnant and had never been ‘handled’ in her life. What an introduction! We only found out about the lack of ‘pregnancy’ two weeks later when she came on heat, but it was too late to complain. Anyway almost three years later, after much patience and time, we have her trained, she milks easily, she’s dropped her first calf and she’s due to have her second in 3 months time.

So what did we do wrong?

1)      Did not have a look at her before we agreed to the trade. When looking at animals or anything in fact, try to arrive a good 30-45 minutes before you said you would. This allows you to see how the animal works with people. Most people will try to have the animal in a stall or stable before you arrive, so you can’t see how she reacts with people. If it’s an item, people often do the clean-up just before you arrive. If you get there early you may see what the item is really like and get a better bargain.

2)      If you are buying an animal for a purpose then make sure that the animal is trained/able to do what you expect. Ask for a demonstration!

3)      We did not ask for a vet’s certificate of pregnancy, alternatively we could’ve had our vet on-hand to confirm pregnancy. I would have had the upper hand in bargaining with her already transported to my property.

4)      I did not ask anything about her history or breeding. She’s 100% pure Dexter, but we could have questioned more on her temperament (foul) and how she is handled (with difficulty) if she was lead trained (she wasn’t), did she allow petting and stroking (she didn’t) was she used to people working with her (she definitely was not).

5)      Lastly, we were so happy that someone agreed to a trade that we jumped at the first opportunity, with both feet and no clue. LOL it was great, and we can laugh about it now, but it could have been a lot easier…. and we would have gotten our own milk a lot sooner as well. That extra year of buying milk cost us more than the value of a trip to Potch, a Pedi Ram and the charge of a vet’s call out together.

We spend a fair amount of time at our local auction/flea-market, below are a few of the tips that I have employed to good effect.

1)      As a rule, wherever I spend money, I ask for a discount. The worst they can say is no. This was illustrated with my daughter yesterday. She bought two books at CUM Books and I told her to ask for a discount. She was shy and said they would not give her a discount. So as she was paying, I asked the assistant if we could get a discount and she obliged with a 10% discount. If we had not asked, we would have paid full price.

2)      If you are going to a flea market, and something catches your eye. DO NOT pick it up immediately. Rather pick up an item near it and inspect it and comment on how nice it is. ask the price and put it back down. This lets the seller know you may be price sensitive. THEN pick-up your item and ask the price. He will probably drop his price slightly and tell you. Inspect the item and if it’s used then mention that it’s in nice condition. You like it, however the dent/rust etc should qualify for some discount. If it’s a new item, then ask this simple question. “Is that the best you can do?” while you are waiting for his response, put the item down, to affirm in his mind that you are really considering walking away. Most of all keep quiet, he who talks first loses!

3)      In the same vein, don’t point out an item, nor rush over and comment on an item. And lastly don’t tell the seller any information about the item that you may know and he may not.

4)      If it’s a bulky item that you may need to carry around then counteroffer at a lower price and say you will pay cash now and pick it up later. He may be concerned that you will find a cheaper version down another isle and accept. This works both ways as sometimes you do find a cheaper/better condition one down the next isle

5)      Note that once you walk away at a spoken price if you come back, that is the price that you will pay.

6)      Never haggle a seller down to your price and then walk away, that’s just bad form.

7)      One trick that we like to use is if we are haggling on a particularly desirable item and the seller just won’t budge, my wife (or I depending) will say out loud, that I only have X to spend, if I can’t get it at that price tough. She then walks away. I apologise and put the item back. Often the seller will cave and give it to me at that price.

8)      Bargain hunting at the end of the day while they are packing up is great. You can often get some stunning bargains while guys are packing-up. Especially if they have had a slow day.

9)      At an auction there is typically a minimum acceptable bid, most times the auctioneer will either have a schedule of minimum prices. However at informal actions, after an item is put up for sale and the bidding has run, the auctioneer will often look at the seller and confirm if he will accept your price. If you were bidding right from the start and countered every bid you may still not have reached the sellers minimum price. (or he could just be sly and bump his price by a R100.00 to cover the action fee) He will see that you are very keen on his wares and will push for his price. However, if you only entered the bidding right at the end, your reluctance to bid would be seen as reluctance to spend money and he may just accept the final bid, especially if he was unhappy with the outcome.

10)   Another auction trick that occasionally works is to jump in early and push the bidding with big increments. If your target price is say R1200.00 for a calf (the real value is around R 1400-1500), the auctioneer starts at R200.00 and it goes in R100’s from there(for some reason people always want the bidding to start as low as possible, I’d love to know why? Also people always prefer bids in small increments so when a big bidder suddenly bids it scares them off). What you do is right from the start on each counter bid, name the price (say R400)and then name the price (R800) again and name for a third time to your target price(R1200). Never more than three bids and two bids is better. SOMETIMES it scares the other bidders that they might suddenly overpay for an animal so they back-out and you win the bid at your price. It’s a risky game and you HAVE to know when to stop. Naming the price gives the bidding power to you and not to the auctioneer, and it unsettles other bidders. This only works every now and then but it’s a nice trick to have up your sleeve when the right animal comes along.

I’m sure there are many other tips that people have for haggling on price and bartering, if you would care to leave a comment we could all benefit from your experience.

The Edible Quote

“Neither a state nor a bank ever have had unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power”

~ David Ricardo

Pumpkin Sex… the other side of Curcubit Pollination

My Mother-in-Law would be horrified at the title of this post, she would rather it was termed Pumpkin Relations… however here goes.

Cucumbers, Pumpkins, Squashes and melons have been favourites amongst gardeners for generations. One is able to carry seed through generations from your initial purchase as long as you keep the seed pure. This is quite difficult as these plants are generally bee pollinated and bees can travel quite far in their search for nectar and pollen. So the chances of a natural crossing from a neighbours plants is very possible.

I’m going to base pollination article on pumpkins, however all of the information is easily carried across to cuc’s, melons and any “curcubit” type vegetable. Typically in the garden environment there are 4 species of Pumpkin that we make use of. Broadly speaking the different species of pumpkin will not cross pollinate. So using Pumpkins as an example, if you had Curcubita pepo, C moschata, C maxima and C mixta you could grow one of each of all four varieties in your garden without concern for cross pollination. However your neighbor a few or even up to 10 roads down who also has a veggie patch could most definitely contaminate(well the bee’s actually) your variety.

So, what is one to do? The best answer is to hand pollinate one or two flowers of each variety. Here is a step by step instruction of hand pollination for pumpkins, cuc’s and melons. The melons/cuc’s are a bit harder as the flowers are smaller and you may go through a few attempts before you are comfortable and get it right. Aren’t we lucky we work with forgiving plants. Just remember you only need to save one fruit to provide you with enough seed for a few years.

Step 1: The evening before you plan to hand pollinate select two flowers a male that is just about to open and a female that is also just about to open. You can normally see this by watching the flowers for a few days and you will very quickly be able to establish at what stage the flower is about to open. Make sure that the flower has NOT opened to allow a bee or insect in. Bee’s will typically push themselves into a flower even if it’s just slightly open. So timing is critical. Do not use a flower that you think has had a bee in it. Pick the male flowers that are about to open.

Step 2: Peg the two flowers together ensuring that the peg keeps the ‘opening end’ closed and wait about 12 hours. One of the problems with cucumbers is the fact that as the flowers are so small a peg will not hold them closed. One way to get around this is to have small gauze bags (for the guys…. A small bag made from your wife’s net curtains are good. I’ll just deny I mentioned it) or do what Bill a friend of mine dose and uses a folded page from the Farmers Weekly and a peg to enclose his flowers. Enclose the two flowers in the bag as for the peg method. You need to wait the 12 hours otherwise the “reproductive bits” will not be ready.

Selected Male and Female flowers attached the evening before pollination.

Using the male like a 'paintbrush' to pollinate the female flower.

Step 3: Tear the petals all the way away from the male while trying to keep as much pollen on the anther as possible and VERY carefully open the female flower, insert the male flower and rub the male anthers onto the style of the female flower. Thereby transferring pollen between the chosen flowers. You should also mark the fruit so that you know which ones are hand pollinated and from where you need to save the seed. Just a light scratch will do, it will carry right through to maturity. We use cable ties once the fruit has clearly started to show growth.

Step 4: Very Important. Close the female flower with the peg again. And leave it on until there is definite growth on the fruit. For smaller flowers, keep the newly forming fruit in the bag for a few days and then it can safely be removed and used for the next vegetable.

Female flower closed again after pollination to ensure that there is no contamination by bees or other insects. Note the 'used' male flowers on the ground.

Step 5: Harvest the fruit when fully ripe. For Pumpkins it’s when the stalk turns brown and for cucumbers it’s when the cuc turns yellow and/or the flesh is soft. Once cut, give the pumpkins three weeks so that the seed can fully mature. With cuc’s as soon as they are over-ripe they are ready to harvest seed from.

Step 6: Scoop the seed out, wash clean in a sieve and dry. Cucumbers will benefit from a few days of natural fermentation to allow the flesh to completely break down around the seed. The fermentation process also helps to protect the seed from diseases. Just scoop the flesh with seeds into a glass and leave in a warm place for 2-3 days, then wash the flesh off the seeds. Pumpkins don’t need to ferment. Drying is a simple process, just remember to stir the seeds everyday so that they don’t stick together. Once they are brittle and snap they are ready for storage.

Notes: If you do a search on the web you will be able to pick up a number of techniques. One that will also work quite nicely is the paintbrush method of transferring pollen.

This may seem like a process, but bear in mind that you only need a one pumpkin or cuc to give you enough seed to start a farmers market. But that’s a perfect reason to share, so don’t forget to share some seed with family and friends.

What’s in our Garden

Wow! This time of the year we are normally fighting off frost every morning and are looking at our last veggies with pity as we watch them die off with the winter cold. With this strange weather and an extended autumn, I’m still picking tomatoes out of the garden, our peppers have come into their own (I thought we would not make it with some of them) and we have harvested about 15 bags of mixed peppers yesterday that will soon become next years chillie sauce for our family and friends.

Our corn is also going to make it as it looks like frost will only be coming from the end of next week. So be prepared!

We will have everything up on the shop within the next week so if you are holding off for the final listings they will all be up by Friday the 28th. Those of you that are still planting on the highveld, onions are now the last crop for you to be putting in. If you are blessed to live elsewhere then peruse your favorite planting guide and make your own assumptions for whats best in your area.

I have a feeling that when the cold comes this year it’s going to hit hard, so make sure you tender trees have been properly covered to avoid the killing frosts.

The Edible Quote

“As the state grows, one’s sense of self-ownership is destroyed, liberty is traded for ’security’, the human spirit diminishes, and the citizenry increasingly thinks and behaves like dependent children”.

~ Eric Englund

Planning an Orchard..

There is not much left to now in our season, but if you are determined to do something in your garden that you are sure to gain years of pleasure from, an orchard is the way to go. It need not be a full blown orchard but even a few fruit trees will make an immense difference in your persuit of self-sustainability.

The idea of a conventional orchard conjures up vast plantings of a single type of fruit tree, orchards full of well manicured trees that are control-watered, sprayed with fungicides, pesticides and fertilized according to a regimented plan. They are pruned to allow easy access with mechanical harvesters and then they are scheduled for replacement on a short term cycle. All of this to ensure maximum production and predictable cropping, within a very narrow production schedule. The fruit is most often picked early, treated with waxes or chemicals to inhibit any unwanted growth of fungi or moulds. They are then probably force ripened utilising an artificial external environment that can use temperature, gasses, or additional chemicals to ensure that your ‘healthy’ fruit is delivered to your local grocer in the best state possible for sale to you, the health conscious individual. The scary thing is that you could be eating a ‘fresh’ apple, that when bought from your local grocer could be as much as 8 months from when it was picked from the tree, not too fresh any more is it? Any locally produced apple (or fruit for that matter) bought out of season has been artificially tampered with.

I would like to propose a real alternative to what is available to the average person on the street. This alternative is planting your own orchard. Whether you only plant some trees in old wine barrels, a few trees in your back garden or a full blown orchard on your farm or plot, having one’s own orchard is a thing of beauty. Designing, planting, feeding, tending and watching your orchard grow from knee high plantings into fruit bearing tree’s gives one a unique satisfaction. Tasting your own first fruit picked straight off the tree and eaten immediately is a truly unique experience, one that can never be compared with the best of organic store bought fruit.

In today’s world it’s a rare thing for the average person to own their own orchard, and it’s not often that one gets to plant an orchard. If you are lucky you will get to plant one, or probably at the most two orchards. The greatest limiting factor to having your own orchard is space. Many of you who read this site will be people that have an active interest in self-sustainability and are owners or are soon-to-be potential owners of a smallholding or farm. Our family did the rural migration about 7 years ago and have not looked back since. We are still learning the lessons and enjoying every step of it. However, even if you are not looking at a smallholding and are more interested in urban self sustainability, you should not feel excluded. There are many ways that you can have your own producing fruit trees, first take out those botanical abominations, Flowering Plums, cherries and other useless exotic trees. They were designed for lazy gardeners that wanted the show and not the mess of dropped and rotting fruit. (They would not be dropped or rotting fruit if you used them!) Plant a fruit bearing tree in its place. If you are still limited for space you can plant dwarf trees into an old wine barrel or large pot. This gives you the additional versatility of have trees that would not normally grow in your area as you can move the tree out of frosts or killing winds in winter. A dwarf tree is generally created by grafting a normal tree onto dwarfing rootstock to keep the size down, either for small gardens or for putting into large pots. Have a chat to your local nurseries and see what they can do for you. Don’t make the mistake of planting a full-size tree into a pot, you will only come unstuck after a few years.

Another option for those with limited space, is to graft a number of varieties onto a single rootstock. They will need to be the same kind of tree naturally, apples onto apples, plums onto plums etc.  I have a friend that has a few trees in his garden that have been multi-grafted and he grows 3 or four different peach varieties off a single tree, with each variety ripening slightly later than the next, so he has a constant flow of peaches. There are many ways for you to get around the space issue, all it takes is a bit of imagination.

One of my dreams was to have my own orchard with fruit and nut trees that would provide my family with wholesome produce. It is not our intention to have a commercial operation, just one that would provide for us and possibly a bit left over to barter with neighbours and friends. So based on that departure point, we started planning what fruit trees we could plant. My initial idea was to have an orchard where different trees produced fruit over the whole summer season. Mainly because we could have fresh fruit available for our own consumption for an entire season, without having to resort to the grocer for fresh fruit. Secondly, we could stagger our fruit preserving over the whole season so that we would not be inundated with bucket loads of fruit in a space of just a few weeks or months. Next, we would have lower waste as the chances of getting tired of a particular type of fruit would be reduced. Lastly anything that did go to waste could be re-cycled into pork and provide us with another healthy, organic protein source.

Now, I’m a great believer in learning from someone else’s mistakes and hard earned lessons. So we set about chatting to nurserymen and owners of existing orchards, specifically asking them what to plant and how to go about creating the ultimate orchard. Each person has their own ideas as to what the best way is to plant an orchard. What we did was take all of the advice and distil it to our circumstances. I would like to set this down mainly to get people excited to plant their own orchard and secondly, those that are thinking of creating an orchard, NOW IS THE TIME. Winter is one of the best times to plant fruit trees, Spring is possibly the second best.

The first thing that we learnt was that an orchard that has staggered ripening is possibly one of the worst planting methods. Especially if one is looking at an organic orchard where the closest thing to a harmful chemical or pesticide is the exhaust fumes from our milk cow. Next come pests, fruit fly is one of the prime threats to your ripening fruit. Having staggered ripening will give fruit flies and other pests a start in early summer and allow them to increase exponentially through the rest of the season, almost guaranteeing a total crop failure in late summer and autumn. Based on that information we opted for an early ripening orchard. We would rather have a lot of work early in the season and minimal fruit loss than loose fruit to fruit fly and other orchard and fruit pests. A late ripening orchard was also a possibility, however we decided that due to the number of established fruit trees on neighbouring farms we would do better to get our harvest in before pests made the move from those trees onto ours. We finally planted a 38 tree orchard with mixed fruit from apples, pears, two kinds of nuts, cherries, pomegranates, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, olives, fig and a few others. We also planted 3 kinds of grapes and are busy with our berry section. The only fruit that is still outstanding on my list are Kiwi fruit and I have reserved a special place for those vines, when I find a supplier with both male and female vines.  All in all, our orchard will provide enough for our families seasonal fresh fruit, annual jam requirements, dried fruit and some left over for me to play backyard brewer with. Any waste goes to the pigs or sheep. So all in all it’s a balanced orchard that will allow us to have a broad spectrum of fruit and a busy early summer preserving and drying.

Something else to look at are ‘bridge trees’ these are trees that ripen in the ‘off’ season and allow pests to survive and gain an early foothold in the next growing season, one of the most common is the loquat. The Loquat is a winter bearing tree that will give pests a source of sustenance and accommodation in the off season when the pests should be dormant, killed by the cold or lack of food. So if you specifically want one of these trees plan accordingly. Unfortunately you may need to resort to chemical remedies in this situation.

I’m not going to spend much time on what trees to plant as each area in South Africa has particular types of trees that will do better than in other areas. We live on the Highveld and would dearly love citrus trees in our orchard, but with winters that can get to – 8 C so this is not an option for us. But we do grow stunning nectarines, peaches and other deciduous fruits like sweet cherries, almonds, apples and apricots. Something that many people cannot grow as they do not have the required cold for proper dormancy of stone fruits. Speaking of cold requirements, many fruits require a period of cold to set fruit properly. This is typically termed as chill units, and trees (depending on variety) require between 300 and 700 hours of chill for them to complete their dormancy correctly and set fruit properly the next season. The trees that are most affected by chill units are deciduous trees. Chill units are counted as temperatures below 18 Deg C. The chill units are also offset by warm days or nights and typically you would like an extended run of cold to ensure a good fruit set. So if you are in a warm area and would like to have deciduous stone fruit, check your annual weather charts and work out if a stone fruit will produce in your area, just because a tree is available in your local nursery does not mean that it will produce in your garden. Growing and producing are two totally different things. I for one will always think twice about buying from a nursery that is offering fruit trees that are not suited to my area. Especially if they do not give the correct advice or caution about it’s bearing ability in your area.

So your best bet is to speak to the local growers in your area, they should be your first stop. They have been growing fruit trees in the area for years an they will know what works. I’m horrified at some nurseries that offer totally inappropriate fruit trees to new or unsuspecting gardeners and will sell unsuitable trees without batting an eye. Take a drive down some back roads and stop in at a few farms where you see fruit trees growing and have a chat, hey you might even make a new friend or mentor, it’s also the perfect way to find your dream property.

Finally a word on planting your trees, all fruit trees like well drained soil, so dig your holes 1 meter cubed, it’s a fair whack of work but at the end of the day (actually 3 or 4 years later) you will be well pleased with the results. We fill the hole with 100% pure compost that has been well compacted and then back fill the last 30 cm with topsoil. In addition, before the hole is filled we insert a length of 40mm black irrigation pipe that we use to water the trees. Our trees get watered once a week via this pipe and all the water is then directed at the root level and ensures water conservation and water retention in the soil. The trees roots will also become established at a lower level thus ensuring that the tree is well anchored. Finally, every 6 months each tree gets two barrow loads of compost added to the top surface where it creates a living mulch encouraging earthworm and beneficial gogga populations to aid in soil health.

The Edible Quote

“Everyone who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed. — Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Frugal Living – Making the most of what you have.

The whole idea of self-sustainability encompasses a number of issues, eating what you grow, processing and storing food for later use and generally trying to minimize your need to purchase goods and items from stores.

The whole ideal is admirable, and goes a long way to improve your health, finances and general self-satisfaction of not being an everyday “sheeple”. A person reliant on other peoples productivity to ensure your comfort. I have written before about the immense satisfaction we find in setting a meal on the table where everything is a product of our property and own effort. However this is not the only place where one can step out of the mould.

There are many instances where one can make use of traditional “throw-away” items in ones household by putting them to a second use, or even with a bit off effort make a store bought item at home that is firstly healthier, secondly tastier and thirdly more cost effective.

Below I have a list that was quickly compiled between my wife and myself of different ways that we stretch our hard earned rands. This list starts off with simple to implement ideas on frugal and self-sufficient living, some of which has been passed down from my Grandparents who lived through the Depression era, they did many things to stretch their wages, most of which has now been lost to our instant gratification generation. When you get a chance to speak to one of the older generation, ask them what they did to “fill-the-gaps” in their monthly budget. You may be surprised at the wisdom, knowledge and insight that comes out.

One of the first things that we started doing was saving all of our old wax to use as firelighters, candle stubs, the scrapings off the candle stand, or that red/blue wax off the cheese that you buy. All of this generally gets thrown away. We put it into a container and when we have a braai or need to light the fireplace, those candle ends get wrapped into newspaper and make a fantastic fire lighter.

If we have run out of wax pieces we use an old egg carton that has some used kitchen oil. You know that brown ugly oil that “has” to be thrown away. Don’t! It makes a great firelighter with either egg boxes or newspaper.

Peet a good friend of mine says that in the old days his parents used to dry out all of the used teabags and then drop them into a jar of paraffin. They used those to light the wood stove on their farm. I have not tried it, but I can’t see why it won’t work.

Another fire lighting trick I learnt from my grandparents who used to have a gas stove. There was always a saucer next to the stove for used matches. When lighting a new ring, Ouma used to take one of those used matches, get it started on one of the existing flames and use that to start a new ring. Who says a match can’t light twice!

Another thing I learnt from my Ouma is to save and use the netted bags that you get fruit and vegetables in. She used to roll them up and turn them into a pot scourer. A quick way to make sure you get the most out of everything you buy. I find that the green bags with the rougher plastic make for great scourers, the orange bags also work well, they just don’t last as long. Use some fishing gut and a darning needle to give it a few quick stitches to hold the shape that you desire. We also save the bags to keep our own produce in. They are great for drying beans, garlic, chilies, onions etc as they allow for good ventilation and easy identification.

Living on a farm one gets a lot of mosquito’s and we go through a fair amount of Peacefull Sleep every month. I can’t stand the new mosquito stick dispensers, as they are finicky to use and the stick often falls out and rolls around on the ground. Have you applied a mozzie stick with grit in it? Not a pleasant experience. Also, they sell these sticks as weighing 34 grams, but you can never use the full 34 grams, there is always about 10 or 15% left in the cup at the bottom. Nicola saves all the finished ones and once she has a bunch she will make-up 2 or 3 sticks by scraping the cups out, then melting it in the microwave, she then just reuses one of the original sticks and cups for the “new” stick.

We make our own soap, but this would work for anyone that uses soap. All the little pieces of soap that start to fall apart, (Homemade soap is a big culprit) get dumped into a 5lt ice cream container. Once the container is full we then do a melt and pour exercise with the crock-pot. Weigh the soap and add 10% water and set the dial to low. Let this bubble away for most of the day and stir every hour. Don’t open the lid too often, or you will lose a lot of moisture. Once you are happy with the melting process, just tip the lot out into your mould(s) and let it harden. We can make a good 10 months supply in this way. (but it does take about 2 or 3 years to collect the 5lt tub full) If you make your own soap, then the bits that are cut or peeled off (we use a vegetable peeler) to make the bars look good, can also go into the tub.

Nicola also uses the soap bits to make a washing gel, she starts with small bit and adds boiling water to get the soap to a gel stage. All the bits must be melted or else you get sticky soap bits in your clothes. She then dumps about 1/3 rd cup of the gel into the machine and presses play. It works just great.

We buy 50kg bags of feed salt from the Co-Op for our animals. This salt is clean, white and non-iodated. We will open the bag as we get it and take out what we need for the next few months, this is stored at home while the remainder of the bag goes up to the stables. It’s a coarse salt and our cost is 1/10^th of what you pay in the store for coarse salt.

Talking about the Co-Op, we actually get quite a bit from there for our own use. Bear in mind that the grains given to animals come from the same source as the grains that are diverted for human consumption. We used to buy all our wheat in bulk from the Co-Op, and grind it for real whole wheat flour. Now we grow our own Hard Red Winter Wheat for part of the year and buy the balance in. This flour makes a great loaf of bread, the nice thing is that it has all of the essential oils that are processed out of the “plastic” whole wheat flour bought in the shops. We also use this to make puffed wheat to add to muesli as well.

Making your own roast peanuts and peanut butter. We learnt this by trial and error. Either buy (Co-Op again) or grow your own fresh peanuts. Lay them in one of those blue/grey oven pans and put the oven onto roast. For about 3kgs of peanuts, use 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir the oil in until all the peanuts are very slightly covered in oil. Then put the tray into the oven. Stir every 5 or so minutes and do this until you are happy. I like to use the grill in the last few minutes to get a bit of toasting on the finished nuts. Just make sure you are watching ALL THE TIME, this part burns very quickly. Salt and/or season to your own taste.

To make Peanut butter. Take the roasted peanuts and put them through a hand mincer two or three times with a fine mincing plate. This will give you a chunky peanut butter the more you send it through the finer the “butter”, but you will never get it to the smooth consistency of store-bought smooth peanut butter. Add a little oil to make it more spreadable in your last stage. This stores perfectly well in the cupboard and needs no preservatives. If the oil separates you have added to much oil in and you can either remove it for a stir-fry or mix it back in. I recon it would be at least a 60 or 70% peanut oil and it’s great in a stir-fry.

We make our own Muesli, generally we will buy rolled oats, and different bran fibers from the store and from there it’s build from scratch. The oats and fiber make the base of the muesli. Honey from our hives is thinned just a bit with water and this is drizzled and run through the mix. This whole mix is then, baked in the oven to toast it, stirring regularly so it won’t burn. Once it’s all done, we also add homemade puffed wheat, puffed corn and sometimes even strawberry popcorn. Depending on the season and what dried fruit we have on hand it all gets mixed in. We have worked out our costs and it’s marginally (about 20-30 % depending on season) cheaper than store bought muesli ….. but way healthier.

With the cost of meat going through the roof, one of the fastest ways to stretch a mince based meal is to throw in a brinjal. Just chop up the brinjal into small pieces and throw it in, it seems to take on the flavors around it. Brinjals were for a long time the bane of my life, I can remember my father making many various versions of brinjal dishes to try and introduce us kids to the pleasures of brinjals. We kids wanted nothing to do with them. His frustration was palpable. This year is the first year that I have come to appreciate the beauties of this stunning fruit. Sorry Dad.

We have a special in our family called the 3 Day Chicken. Not the most appetizing of names but let me explain. We grow and slaughter or own birds, so for a family of 7 we need to take out 2 birds on the first night and they are generally roasted. Each person gets a portion and the balance is kept for the next night. The following night we will have a chicken stir-fry, chicken salad or a similar meal that uses de-boned chicken pieces. The remainder of the chicken and all the bones then gets turfed into a stock-pot and boiled down into a broth for chicken soup that is either frozen or eaten the following day… that’s the story behind 3 day chicken. So instead of “gutsing” ourselves on two birds for one meal, then throwing the bones to the pigs. We can stretch those two birds into 3 meals.  It’s a great way to use everything on a bird and use it properly, and the pigs still get the bones.

Those are just some of the things that we do on a regular basis, we do these for a few reasons. First I think it’s because we actually enjoy the processes. Secondly we don’t have a time-thief (TV) and actually have the time to play around with things. Next, it’s healthier. It’s also better for the environment and reduces our load on landfills. Lastly, you get to save money, learn a new (old) skill and not waste opportunities.

We and I’m sure other readers of this site would love to hear your hint’s, tips and suggestions of how you make your “buck stretch” so please feel free to leave a comment below.

What’s in our Garden

Not much has been happening recently, all of our winter stuff is now in and we are just waiting on crops to ripen so that we can harvest. I have started getting some of the new tomatoes off the plants and we will have these up by mid April latest.

I picked my first Pubescens chillie today and I’m very pleased. This would have been the second year with a poor harvest, but the cooler weather recently really helped the plant to set fruit. We won’t have many of these seeds available this year but I’ll make sure that some does get onto the site. As this rare gem needs to be spread around.

I’m continually amazed at the response that our plants give to applications of vermicompost, for those of you that don’t have a wormbin. Get one, you will not be sorry! When we transplant now, each seedling gets a handful of vermicompost around its base, and the growth is almost visible.

We continue to add seeds, to our site and the beans are coming in thick and fast. Most of the corn will be up by the week-end and there are a few odds and ends that are busy drying. We have had some cool wet weather so it’s taking a tad longer than normal.

Our next big drying and packing session will be for all the peppers, but we are still a few weeks away there so if you are a chillie-holic “hold onto ýer britches” there are some real cool peppers coming up shortly.

The Edible Quote

Save a match and buy a farm.

~ Frank Oswald Adair Freeman ( 1922-1995)

The War on Heirlooms

Being in the Heirloom and Open Pollinated seed industry is for me one of the best vocations, I love the fact that I get to grow and eat many varieties of vegetables that most people never get to hear of, let alone taste. The sheer beauty of some of our heirloom vegetables is astounding, and we get to eat them.

It’s a privilege for me to be able to supply the widest range of heirloom and open pollinated vegetables in South Africa and it’s an honor to receive new varieties every week from other gardeners throughout the country. Many of whom want no recognition, just the knowledge that the precious variety that they have will be carried forward for future generations.

We have been picking and packing beans and corn over the last two weeks and you will soon see some exciting new varieties on the site. Every time I start to shell a new bean variety the pleasure I get from watching the beautiful seeds drop into the bowl is immense. I have a weak spot for beans and we in South Africa are limited to a few varieties on our shelves, most grown in China and imported at a huge carbon cost to the planet. Livingseeds is fortunate to have close to 20 bean varieties this year and a few more coming again next year.

So what’s the point of this post? Well simply there is a war on people planting and growing Open Pollinated and Heirloom vegetables, this war is being fought openly and with considerable cunning by the large GM houses, all under the guise of social development and “sustainability” for rural small holders and subsistence farmers.

In the past, rural farmers used to save seed every year. They would take the seed that looked the best and this seed was kept back every year and planted. What happened was unique heirloom varieties were created that were specifically adapted to their own environments. The variety was resistant to their local pest and disease loads and the farmers had a unique treasure in what they planted every year. These varieties were landraces or heirlooms and they were all, most importantly, Open Pollinated. This simply meant that every year they could save and plant seed at no cost to themselves… every single year.

Now, what is being done is simple, but disastrously effective. The large GM houses will approach the local agricultural department and offer to supply free seed to rural farmers, this seed is invariably of hybrid or GM origin. The seed is distributed to the local farmers with promises of higher yields, less insecticide and of course it’s “free”.  These rural farmers knowing no better, plant the seed and either plant their own seed stock or eat the “old” seed stock as they have “new and better” seed to use.

A few months down the line, the traditional varieties and the GM seed stock now start to blossom and shed pollen. What happens is that this new GM seed stock starts to infect the old varieties and thereby wipe-out an entire history and genetic resource that can never be recovered.

Mission accomplished by the GM seed houses, and the farmer is now trapped into planting hybrid and GM seed. They may try to save the seed, but the problem is it’s too late! The damage has already been done.

On Monsanto’s website is a very chilling article that at first glance is the picture of social responsibility, but reading between the lines and sometimes even blatantly it states that it wants to get rid of Open Pollinated seed. In a world were GM seed houses have control of all seed varieties and where they can literally prevent someone from planting seed. Where does that leave the average smallholder, farmer or gardener? If you want to feed your family or make a living you will need to bow to the giant seed corporations and pay their taxes.

What’s in our Garden

Summer is now really drawing to a close and I’m watching my tomatoes in the bottom garden so that we can start processing, we have a few that are getting there but just not fast enough for my liking.

One can feel the winter chill in the evening and with the loss of light we know it’s just around the corner. We still have quite a number of seeds to process and it’s a hectic time for us, as we lift, dry, sort and pack seed for the site. I recon we will have everything up by the end of April with just a few varieties that will be added in over winter.

It’s a race against the seasons now as the last seeds of carrots, beetroot, spinach and peas, are going in, we also planted out the last of our brassica’s as well so with all the cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli and kale etc, it’s going to be a windy winter in our house.

We have had our first 3 lambs of the season (1 ewe and 2 rams) and we expect another 7 or 8 to come through in the next month. Lacy, our milk cow is pregnant again and we are now loosing milk production as she nears the time to dry-up. But that’s great as early morning winter milking never excited me anyway.

The Edible Quote

Regarding the general Seminis [Monsanto's vegetable Division] business in Africa, the main project is the hybridisation program where Monsanto is actively working in all areas to convert growers from growing open pollinated varieties to hybrid varieties.

~ Monsanto Website

The Strange Case of the Organic Jekyll and Hyde

When one uses the term “Organic” with reference to food consumed by the general populace, it tends to conjure up warm fuzzy feelings about good farming practices and people up to their elbows in compost and earthworms. The truth is however slightly different.

It’s taken me a while to write this post as I’ve been struggling with how I’d like to present the argument and at the same time be rational and fair to all of the truly organic players in the market. I have a particular bug-bear with the term “organic”, as I feel that it’s been overused and prostituted for the benefit of corporate interests and skillful swindlers at some accreditation agencies. I’d also like to preface my discussion below with a clause that I make no claim to be an expert, this is my opinion and I’d like it to be seen as such.

Broadly speaking there are two kinds of organic growing going on in the world. The first is the warm fuzzy kind, where gardeners, growers and farmers are actively looking at ways to improve the soil health, nutrient and organic content within their soil. They make tons of compost every year, practice no-till, and generally care more for their soil than they do for the actual plants that they are growing in it. Truly organic farmers are actually soil farmers, with a vegetable byproduct. This is what organic farming should be all about, where the soil gets a chance to provide the nutrients, sustenance and protection to the plant that it was originally designed to do. Once one gets to this stage you will be amazed at the response you get from the seeds and plants that live in your soil.

I’m going to use my own property as an example and explain what we do, as this in my mind is exactly what should be happening if someone would like to make an organic claim on their property or their produce.

When opening a new piece of ground for planting we will either use black plastic over well watered ground, this is to exclude light from the grass that is growing there and thus kill it, or we will just remove the existing grass, form beds and plant straight into the soil.

Once the plants have “gotten away” we will start to add compost / vermicompost on top of the beds and allow the soil organisms to take the nutrients into the soil. Typically we will apply a top dressing like this 2-3 times a year. Once a crop has been harvested we will either leave the remains of the crop in the bed allowing it to break-down naturally, or it will be lifted and put onto the compost heap. Our compost is made with the chimney method and we find it the best way to get plenty of compost quickly.

There are NO other supplements that we add to our plants or soil.

When I say no other supplements I mean NO other supplements, not an organic fertilizer, nor an organic pesticide nothing, not even homemade remedies…. nada, squat, zilch!!! The soil looks after the plants and in-turn we get great produce.

Now, it will take about 3 years using the above process to get soil to a point where it has a great nutrient and “gogga” population that will allow the plants to react favorably when they come under attack or stress from external sources (insects/disease etc). Just remember that you will never have a plant population that is always 100% pest/disease free, even if you use chemicals and toxins to “help” the plant. The minute one adds a chemical (whether organically certified or not) to the plant or soil you are detrimentally affecting the soils health, as well as the macro and micro organisms that make up the soils ecology. We sometimes loose an entire crop to some kind of failure, be it caused by weather, insects, disease or even simply poor conditions for that crop. That is one of the things that as a truly organic grower you will need to learn to accept.

Now let’s get to the other side of “organic farming/gardening”. This is where conventional farming practices are used, but instead of conventional fertilizers, chemicals and toxins to produce the crop, the farmer uses “organically certified” fertilizers, chemicals and toxins. There’s minimal emphasis by the farmer with regards to his soil health nor is there an emphasis on increasing the organic content of his soil. People something is wrong here when a person can still put chemicals onto plants/soil (yeah I know they are organic chemicals) and then claim that they are organic. This is generally what you buy in the stores as organic produce. It may be certified organic but there is a good chance that it never followed the “natural” principles of organic farming.

One cannot rip the soil up with a plow, throw on some organic fertilizer to give nutrients to the plants and then expect that the plants must fend for themselves. It’s the soil that does most of the work, it’s the soil that releases nutrients for the plants to take up, and it’s the soil that is literally the immune system of your vegetable garden. Once you tamper with the soils health you tamper with the health of the plant, and in-turn you tamper with the nutrient content and quality of the food that is harvested from this soil.

I’d like to leave you with this question. How is your next organic purchase grown? It may be time to start asking for organic produce that is really grown organically.

The Edible Quote

If organic farming is the natural way, shouldn’t organic produce just be called “produce” and make the pesticide-laden stuff take the burden of an adjective?

~Ymber Delecto

The Flipside of GM Seed.

In this last week I’ve had two emails from people that are concerned about the effects on GM on our food security. I’ll come to the two mails shortly, however I’d like to lay a foundation as to why we are in the predicament that we are.

We are in a predicament you say? Howso? Well to start off South Africa is the only country in Africa that has embraced the GM seed houses with their efforts to rid the world of Open Pollinated and Heirloom seeds. Every other African country has turned away from the tide of GM food and many other countries will only accept food aid if the whole grain has been crushed to ensure that this seed cannot be planted and infect their own local crops. In my opinion it’s a hard thing to do but in the long run it many actually protect these countries in the future, when GM crops are the only ones available on the open market.

In South Africa, we eat GM food and GM derived foods every day… without us knowing it. The current estimation (2010) is that more than 75% of our maize production is GM, if you eat soya, canola, sunflower  and many other staple food you will be almost guaranteed to be ingesting some of them. It’s hard to believe but South Africans eat GM foods every single day.

A large percentage of the meat produced in South Africa is produced with the aid of feedlots, whether Beef, Lamb/Mutton, Pork or Chicken. GM grains are used to feed these animals to get them to a point where it’s economical to slaughter them. In-turn you are eating GM organisms that are transferred unadulterated into your system where they in turn can do damage to your own system. The term Grain-Fed in any meat product is possible the worst thing you can put into your body, as none of the aforementioned animals eat grain in their diets naturally. They are either grazers or omnivores and only a very small portion of their diet is naturally made up with grain. Their digestive systems are not designed to break-down large quantities of grain. They are kept in cramped feedlots and grain is fed to get them to a point where it’s worthwhile (economically) to slaughter them. The faster they can turn a feedlot around and get the next batch in, the more profit they make. No thought is given to the animals or the proper environment that the animals need for a quality life.

Grass fed and free-range animals on the other hand, get a choice as to what they want to eat, and naturally they will eat what they prefer. This form of animal raising takes a while longer, but the meat that is produced is infinitely better. Better flavored, better for your health and better for the animal. There are scientific tests that are available that prove that eating grass fed beef/mutton will actually LOWER your cholesterol level. Not something that the feed-lot industry would like you to know about. (Much like the “no MSG Added” clap-trap, just be careful about the marketing ploy of grass finished beef/mutton, it’s not the same as grass fed)

So that’s just one example of how South Africans eat GM foods, I could go on with all sorts of things like Milk, Yogurt, cheese, Margarine (do you still eat that stuff?), Cooking oil, Mielie Pap, Corn Chips, Your kids cookies, or your babies formula and even your favorite cereal are just a few examples of GM infected food stuffs that you put into your and your families mouths.

In fact in today’s South Africa, if you buy a processed food you are almost always infecting your kids with a GM contaminated ingredient.

Tina sent me a mail about GM and it’s effects on our feed security. Her concern is outlined in the following extract

“I shudder to think of the possibility of GM seed cross pollinating with Rural farmer indigenous and Heirloom maize Varieties and feel that we as seed savers should do something about it!

On a more serious note this is a massive threat to our food security for the future, if Their GM maize infiltrates local varieties and open pollinated seed what happens then?”

My answer is twofold. First, the problem has already started! Our Government is already distributing GM seed (with the help of the GM Seed Houses) to rural communities for them to plant. This in effect allows GM pollen to infect neighboring crops, this in turn will create a crisis when the GM seed houses decide to prosecute locals for “infringing” on their patents. However the biggest loss is that of traditional landraces, heirloom varieties and open pollinated varieties as these are all infected with GM pollen, the net effect is that GM houses will have the “intellectual rights” to historical varieties that have become infected with the GM pollen.

Secondly, once South Africa is at a point where ALL maize varieties are GM infected, we will have no option but to plant the GM seed stock and pay the royalties that the GM houses demand. This brings to mind a very pertinent quote from Catherine Bertini the Executive Director of the UN World Food Program. “Food is power! We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.” If and/or when this point is reached in your life, you will very possibly have to change your behavior to that which the UN decides is desirable. Free choice goes out the window, you will have to do as the UN says or you will not be able to feed your family. That I believe is where GM crops will pay a major role in subduing the farmer. Especially if terminator, traitor, gene-deleter and similar gene’s are allowed to become a standard feature in future GM seed production.

The next mail comes from Martinette a friend of mine and is in fact a link to a site that has picked up on alarming weed resistance in the US to glyphosphates (Trade name Roundup sold by Monsanto). I’m not surprised by this and it just makes logical sense that resistant strains of many weed organisms will develop when any chemical control is implemented (One very good example are DDT resistant Mosquito’s in parts of Africa)

The scary thing for me is that Monsanto representatives are recommending that farmers use “Cocktails” of a number of different and potentially illegal chemicals to help control the resistant weeds. Note that it’s only the control and not eradication that they can do. What happens when these weeds develop a resistance to the new cocktail and even more dangerous mixes need to be made to once again “control” the new super resistant weeds?… or will they be called SuperHyper Resistant weeds???

What’s in our Garden

At this time our season is winding down to late summer, we have many beds that are opening up for our winter planting and seed processing is high on our daily chore list. In the open beds we will be putting in Hard Red Winter Wheat, as well as a host of pea’s, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale and some of the root crops like turnips, carrots and beetroot.

We now have to eat our way through a number of crops so that we can get to the seed and it’s a great way of gaining firsthand experience and taste tests on all of the new produce. We still have about 20 tomato varieties that need to ripen so that we can add the seed to our catalogue and then there are all the chilies that are almost ready for picking. Our corn varieties are almost ready and we have Krug Dent and Golden Beauty that will be up soon. The Indian Rainbow, Ciskei Mielies will soon follow and I’m really hoping that Stowell’s Evergreen Sweetcorn will make it before the first frosts, I did plant it a bit late. Our bean and pumpkin varieties are going to be great this coming year and you are in for a real treat.

As for the rest of our little farm we’ve had a run-in with some stock thieves that tried to make-off with some of our livestock but thankfully they were scared off before they could do any damage. Our lambing season has started and we have our first lamb (an ewe) of the season.