Back to Basics Day #15 - Vegetable successes and failures

Back to Basics Day #15

Well, it's half way through the month already, where did that time go? I'm so thankful for all the positive comments about my Back to Basics posts this month, as, for me, it has really achieved my intended goal of making me focussed on (aware of) the simple things I do each day, and exposing the areas that I can work on more diligently. The process of writing these things down has shown me how far I've come in my journey, which in itself is a motivating and inspiring thing to me. Being a "domestically challenged" ex-professional career woman, I could never have imagined how many "time-consuming" things I can now fit into my day with ease, nor imagined myself seriously contemplating sewing or knitting garments. Nor frankly, how damn satisfying doing these things could be! It just goes to show what you can achieve when you accumulate a number of baby-steps over a period of time.

Doing: Harvesting my very first garlic crop!

Eight Oriental Purple bulbs:

And two dozen Australian White bulbs:

All of my garlic was grown in three deep foam boxes that I punched drainage holes in the bottom of. Not too bad for limited space growing.

Picking my very first lebanese cucumbers!

You can't win everything though. My poor potato patch looks awful :-( A combination of attacks by 28-spotted ladybirds (check out more information here) and blight bought on by heavy rain and humid weather, I think... Bugger.

Making: Sundried tomato bread.

Dinner: Stuffed zucchini and sundried tomato bread.

Challenge/s: Finding an ethical source of bacon. As much as we have limited our meat consumption, we love the flavour of bacon. But finding a source of bacon that is organic (let alone local) has been impossible for me, the next best thing being infrequently available free-range bacon, which I buy through my organic grocer on occaison. I still feel a bit guilty about it however, after having read The Ethics of What We Eat and the author's disturbing descriptions of how conventionally-grown pigs are born and raised.

Solution/s: I periodically peruse the smallgoods section of the supermarket looking for any new organic products, and last week I noticed that they are now stocking Castlemaine "Bred Free Range" ham and bacon. So I checked out their website, and while I take these things with a grain of (marketing) salt, pigs that have been allowed to bear their young outside (instead of in tiny farrowing crates in big sheds, where they are unable to move), as well as to be free-range after they have been weaned, must be a step forward in the scheme of things. In my ideal world, an organic (which by default, also means free-range, by Australian organic standards) pig farm would start up not far from here and sell lovely fresh meat at the local farmer's market (like King Valley Free Range in Victoria), but in the interim - although I'd like to know more about the KR Castlemaine farming practices - I'm wondering if the occaisonal (packaged in plastic of course) packet of this "Bred Free Range" bacon might be OK? Nine times out of ten it's DH that comes home with the ham or bacon impulse-purchases so at least he will know to look out for that next time I suppose.

Transgressions: Buying rubber gloves. I need them to protect my hands from the heat when making the 30-minute mozzarella apparently, and I couldn't think of a decent alternative! That I'd want to have near food anyway.

Reading: Greenharvest Garlic Info

Utilities for November: Petrol 46.1 litres used so far; Gas 37.0MJ/day; Water 324L/day; Electricity 12.5kWh/day (8.9 kWh last 24 hours).

Contemplating: Buying a solar oven (with all the money we will have left over after buying an icecream maker/repairing DH's car/buying an electric bike/paying extra for 100% GreenPower. Sigh).