Roasted Sweet Potato (Kumara), Rocket and Feta Salad

Sweet potatoes are usually planted out mid- to late-spring as they need a long hot summer to produce nice fat tubers. You can begin harvesting them about 20 weeks later, and when you do you can dig the whole lot at once to store, or you can do as I do, and "bandicoot" them from the patch, i.e. dig them up one at a time, as you need them, until the weather cools and the vines start to die back (unless you live in the tropics).

Sweet potatoes (kumara) are therefore in peak season here in Australia from late summer through autumn. The following recipe is for a delicious warm salad that we have been enjoying lately, accompanying grilled meat, a vegetarian quiche or zucchini slice. It is also pretty good served cold the next day. Feel free to substitute or add other vegetables too: the photo below is of a salad made with carrot and yacon instead of sweet potato.

Roasted Sweet Potato, Rocket and Feta Salad.

1 large Orange sweet potato (kumara), diced
1 large Red onion, cut into wedges
1 Sweet pepper (red or orange), de-seeded and diced
2 large handfuls of Rocket (arugula) leaves
About 200g Feta cheese, diced or crumbled
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbs Brown sugar
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180' C/ 355' F.

2. Add the sweet potato and red onion to a roasting pan, drizzle with the olive oil and season to taste. Toss to coat and roast for 15-20 minutes. Add the diced sweet pepper and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Place in a serving bowl, add the feta cheese and rocket leaves. Mix the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar together and drizzle over the salad. Toss lightly to coat, and serve.

Variations:
* Add some garlic cloves to the roasting pan.
* Sprinkle the vegetables with ground cumin before tossing and roasting them, and omit the dressing.
* Adding nuts to the final dish is also nice, we've tried pine nuts which were delicious, but walnuts would also be nice mixed with the feta.

Book Review: Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Super Natural Cooking is written by photographer and blogger Heidi Swanson, author of two of my favorite food websites: 101 Cookbooks and Mighty Foods, and it's not only written in a down-to-earth and easy to read style, but it's full of delicious-looking photos - a win-win combination in my opinion.

As my regular readers would be aware, I am trying to move away from using highly refined food products in my kitchen such as white sugar, to using more whole foods and less refined ingredients; as such I found this book a terrific read. Indeed, this passage from Heidi's first chapter had me completely hooked:

"When cookbooks repeatedly call for the familiar cast of cheap, refined, basic ingredients, people forget how to use anything else. The ingredients they seldom use fall out of favor, and they lose confidence in experimenting with new ones. Many of the ingredients that have fallen out of favor with the home cook are whole grains and whole-grain flours, natural sweeteners, and minimally processed fats."

That paragraph pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment; I've taught myself to cook the basics from scratch and now I want to take it a step further, but feel hampered by the sheer volume of white flour and white sugar in the recipes I find and my lack of experience in using new-to-me ingredients.

The subtitle of the book is "Five ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into your Cooking" and the book is thus divided into five chapters; Building a Natural Foods Pantry, Explore a Wide Range of Grains, Cook by Colour, Know Your Superfoods and Use Natural Sweeteners, and is interspersed with recipes and serving suggestions for the foods she discusses. The chapters include so many ingredients I've never even heard, of but it's wonderful to realise that there is a whole world of alternatives to white flour and white sugar out there, just waiting to be found.

My main criticism of the book - as an Aussie - is that the focus of the book is (not surprisingly) US-centric; I've found that a few of the foods Heidi discusses are either difficult to find in Australia or are quite expensive because they have been imported (which doesn't do much for my 'food miles' either). I am intrigued by a good number of the recipes but - in all honesty - find some of them a little intimidating as I am relatively new to cooking.

Having said that though, there are enough very simple recipes (particularly sweets and snacks) in the book to start me experimenting. After all, when I first starting cooking I would never have dreamed of making up my own recipe because I'd never given much consideration to what flavours go well together (other than tomatoes, garlic and basil!), but now I can throw together a quiche based on ingredients picked fresh from my garden minutes before, knowing that I can substitute silverbeet or kale or greens for spinach for example. I'm hoping that my initial experiments with Heidi's ingredient lists will lead me to a similar ability to substitute with (more locally available) whole foods and grains.

Overall the book has - literally - given me some serious food for thought as well as providing some delicious inspiration in our move towards a less processed diet.

Well worth the read.

Australian University Students "Eco-Minds" Program

I don't usually use my blog to promote such things - and I don't know how many students read my blog! - but I would have really loved to participate in a program such as this one when I was at University :-)

Jon Dee and Bayer-UNEP begin search for Australia’s “eco” students

Australian university students with something “eco” on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use.

“What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there,” says Dee. “Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow’s leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today.”

2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply.

Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says:

“Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.

“Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It’s opened up doors for me and I’ve created some wonderful friendships.” said Ms Cain.

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand’s hydro and geothermal supply systems.

For those “eco-minded” students who have ever seen something and thought “I could do it better”, this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to http://www.eco-minds.bayer.com/, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on (02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

Seed Saving - Cucumbers

I mentioned last week that I had stumbled across a cucumber that was old and yellowed on the vine but was perfect for seed saving, so for the benefit of seed-saving newbies (like me!), I thought I'd show you briefly what I did with it.

According to my seed-saving bible, The Seed Savers Handbook, cucumbers will cross-pollinate with other cucumbers, so if you have two or more varieties growing (unless they are separated by 500m or more), you could end up with some weird and wonderful new cucumbers LOL. Otherwise, you can hand pollinate your flowers (for a good overview of how to do this, have a look at these instructions).

Then, for seed saving, cucumbers need to be left on the vine until they are large and matured. Pale-coloured cucumbers will be yellowed and green ones will be yellow or brown. As you can see in the photo below, my Richmond River Green apple cucumber grew much larger than the one I harvested to eat on the right, and ended up dark yellow.



Cucumber seeds (like many vegies including tomatoes) are covered with a slimy jelly-like coating, which needs to be removed before drying and storing them. Luckily this is easy.


Scoop the seeds out into a jar and cover with fresh water, preferably rain water or filtered water, as the chlorine and other chemicals in treated water will inhibit the process.


Leave the seeds to ferment for a few days, until a mouldy scum has developed on the surface of the water. This mould is beneficial in that it helps kill off any seed-borne diseases.

Shake the jar and pour off the water and any seeds which have floated to the top - these will be unviable. Drain the seeds left at the bottom of the jar through a sieve and wash any remaining coating off with fresh running water.

Shaken them onto wax paper, a paper towel or leave them in the sieve (don't forget to label them!) and leave them to dry completely for a week to 10 days. Move them around in the first few days to separate any clumps to ensure that they dry completely.

Once they are completely dry, store them in a labelled envelope somewhere dry and cool. Under normal conditions they should last for up to four years, although under ideal conditions they can last up to 10 years apparently.

The greatest benefits to saving your own seeds are that it not only provides you with free seeds, but by selecting seeds from plants which produce the best vegies and show the most pest / disease resistance, you are able to consistently grow plants each year which are acclimatised to your local environmental conditions, and therefore produce better (and more) fruits and veg! Good stuff.

Doing: ...Thinking of the Aussies in the southern states about to go through the biggest heatwave in 100 years over the next four days. I am blessed in that I don't have any water restrictions here, so I'm really feeling for the gardeners who will probably be bucketing water around over the next few days...

... Finally shelving plans to get chickens for the foreseeable future. I'm really disappointed by having to face up to reality, but over the weekend our dogs found and attacked another Blue Tongue Lizard in our backyard :-(

This one was a large adult lizard and although the dogs were in a frenzy, I think it managed to escape unhurt? They've killed two lizards previously but they were smaller Blue Tongues, so perhaps this one was faster and a bit more savvy. They rustled it up while I wasn't home and I found them going for it around the compost bins when I got home - I hauled them inside and investigated but couldn't see it (and didn't prod too much since I was a bit worried it was a snake!). A little while later the girls yelled that they could see it and I saw it disappear behind our shed - I could see it was a large one but even shining a torch in there I couldn't see if it was injured. I can only hope it has moved on to safer dog-free yards.

I was incredibly distressed when they killed the other two Blue Tongues (not only because they are defenceless native wildlife, but because they are quiet vegie gardener allies - their main diet includes snails!

Anyway, long story short, I am now totally convinced that any chickens we might get would be instant prey for our dogs. Even if we were to securely fence off an area of our yard, they could never free-range properly, they'd probably die of stress from being barked at (one of our dogs once spent 20 minutes barking at a Praying Mantis) and since they are heavier than our kids, they could easily push past the girls (or me if I wasn't paying attention) and get into the chicken pen... Bummer. At least we are able to source local backyard eggs from one of DH's work mates, which is the next best thing.

Making:... A new batch of heavy duty laundry powder.


... Another batch of bread dough from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. The Crone raved about the pizza base it makes so pizza is definitely on the menu this week!

In the Garden:...Speaking of The Crone; if she can blame me for her book expenses, then I'm going to blame Nature Witch for my garden splurge at the nursery yesterday ;-)



I don't have time to sow seeds of some plants now if I want to harvest before the weather cools, so I relented and went to the nursery to buy a couple of punnets of seedlings to plant out - capsicums (peppers) and Lebanese cucumbers - plus a couple of herbs... but came home with another banana tree (a Lady Finger) and the beginnings of a tea hedge, three Camellia sinensis bushes. I've got my coffee hedge going out the back so - in the interests of not being biased - it seems only fair to grow a tea hedge out the front to make our own green tea :-) I'd suggest we'll need a great deal more than just three bushes to provide all our tea requirements though LOL, but I've got room for several more; ultimately they'll form a low (1m/ 3 foot) hedge at the rear of the medicinal herb garden I have planned. More information about processing your own tea leaves is here.

...Planting out three sad-looking Pink Brandywine tomato seedlings into the veg garden. They have suffered badly in the heat, despite being in the shade, so I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to grow.

...Harvesting cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, kale, silverbeet, mustard greens, carrots and the first of the Lazy Housewife beans.

Dinner: ...Silverbeet, kale, mustard greens and tomato quiche, and garden salad.

Homemade Laundry Powder

I'm updating some of my very old posts as a lot of my recipes are in the middle of discussions about other topics, so here's my washing powder recipe again.


Laundry Powder
4 cups grated pure soap (e.g. Sunlight soap) or Lux Flakes
2 cups Borax*
2 cups washing soda**

Mix all ingredients together well, and store in a plastic container with a lid. Use 2 tablespoons per wash.

It won't lather, but you don't need it to (commercial detergents have additives to make it lather, as we all think we need bubbles to get things clean!), and it is therefore suitable for front loaders.

* Borax is a naturally occurring mineral (sodium borate) but too much on your garden is toxic to plants and worms, so if you are going to use your grey water on your garden, leave out the Borax.

** Washing soda is the mineral sodium carbonate and in Australia is commonly known by the brand name "Lectric". Lectric soda comes in crystal or powdered form - the powder is much easier to use as it dissolves in the wash water more quickly.


My kids are filthy little critters, so I like to use the heavy duty powder for extra stain removal:

Heavy Duty Laundry Powder
2 cups grated stain remover soap (e.g. Napisan or Sards Soap; Sards has a nice eucalyptus scent)
2 cups grated pure soap or Lux flakes
2 cups Borax
2 cups washing soda

Mix all ingredients together well and store in an airtight container. As above, use two tablespoons per wash, and it is suitable for front loaders.

I also occasionally use white vinegar in the "fabric softener" compartment of my machine; it helps prevent a build up of pure soap in your machine (which can happen if you have hard water and/or use cold water washing only) as well as softening your clothes much more cheaply than commercial petro-chemical filled softeners. Some people like to also add a few drops of essential oil to the vinegar to scent their washing.

Happy washing!

Happy Australia Day!

It would come as no surprise to most of my Aussie readers that I am a huge long-time Midnight Oil fan (despite Peter Garrett - in my opionion - having a disappointing start to his appointment as federal Environment Minister). And yes, I really am that old.

So, on Australia Day, here is the video clip of one of my most favourite Midnight Oil songs, complete with it's backdrop of iconic Aussie landscapes. Brings a patriotic tear to my eye every time, it does ;-) Turn the volume up and enjoy the scenery!

Growing Challenge Update

Phew! It was a stinker of a week here, weather wise. Tuesday's maximum was 42'C and yesterday topped out at 41'C in the shade of our back verandah (that's 106'F for those still working in Imperial). I can barely keep the water up to my fruit and veg. We've not had any substantial rain for over a month until last night, when the stifling heat finally brewed into a storm complete with hail and strong winds. We got 20mm out of it in the gauge (a bit less than an inch) but probably had a bit more than that, since most of it blew in sideways and wouldn't have registered in the rain gauge.

It's a bit cooler today thankfully, but the heat is forecast to return as of tomorrow (although only the mid-30's). I have to laugh reading about bloggers in North America participating in Crunchy Chicken's "Freeze Your Buns" Challenge. I think I might have to start my own for those of us Down Under - the "Boil Your @ss" Challenge perhaps?


Not surprisingly, I've lost a few things in the garden to the heat and nearly everything else is refusing to flower, so it's a very quiet time in the garden at the moment. Too hot to plant anything either, and too hot to spend much time doing anything other than the bare minimum of maintenance work (and watering).

Still, some plants are hanging in there. The Rainbow Chard (silverbeet) is almost big enough to start harvesting:


The Cos Freckles lettuce are growing nicely:

And as I was watering out the front this morning I wondered if the biggest of the rockmelons (cantaloupes) was ready to pick yet. As I went to inspect it, it fell off the vine in my hand! It was promptly taken inside, dissected and devoured :-) It wasn't very big, but it made up for it by being sweet and juicy - no comparison to shop-bought melons.

Elsewhere, the lemons are starting blush yellow (although I have only one mandarin and one orange on those trees - they are much younger trees and suffering from water stress I think):

The cherry guavas are developing fruits:

And what's this? Is it?... Yes! Another flower bud is forming on my Dragon Fruit (yay!):

The mint and oregano are flowering (the oregano is the pink flower in the background) and are attracting a halo of bees, both honey bees and native blue-banded bees:


And the Fiddlewood tree is flowering. Many times I have looked at the Fiddlewood and seriously contemplated digging it out in favour of an edible tree, but every time it seems to sense it's impending doom and decides to send forth a profusion of delicious, honey-scented flowers. Of course I am forced to grant it a stay of execution then :-) At the moment it is attracting not only bees, but Black Flower Wasps, large black hairy things with iridescent blue wings, which regularly buzz past my ear and give me a fright. Fortunately, they are beneficial in the garden, parasitising the curl grub larvae which like to eat the roots of my plants.


I haven't been able to get a photo of one yet to show you, but a couple of other beneficial bugs in my garden at the moment include this fungus-eating ladybird, dealing with some of the mildew on my cucumbers:

And this little fellow on one of my cucumbers, I believe is the hatchling (nymph) of an Assassin Bug, which preys on many plant-sucking pests (and honey bees unfortunately, I guess you can't have everything):

Next week I hope to have report on a a big seed-planting frenzy LOL, more in keeping with the Challenge requirements. I'll also go through my autumn and winter-planting list.

Happy gardening!

Freezing Basil and Basil Pesto Recipe

I grow my own basil during the warmer months, and it always tastes so much better fresh than dried. Of course I can't have it fresh in winter though which is a pity.

However, I picked up this handy hint on Gardening Australia some time ago - pick over your bunch of basil and put it in a bowl. Drizzle liberally with a good olive oil and mix thoroughly. Spoon leaves into zip-lock bags and freeze. The oil stops the leaves oxidising and going black, and you can use as many or as little as you would like in your cooking.

Of course you can always freeze basil in the form of pesto as well. Purists would never freeze pesto because of the oil content (it can affect the flavour) and there is some debate between those who do freeze pesto, as to whether you should add the parmesan cheese before or after freezing (i.e. just before you use it). But for me, freezing the whole thing is the way to go.

There are various recipes but the one I have used is heavy-handed with the garlic and light on the oil for a nice, chunky paste :-)


Basil Pesto

4 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
salt and pepper to taste

1. Whiz the garlic and pine nuts briefly in a food processor until roughly chopped.

2. Add the basil leaves and pulse until mixed, then with the motor running, slowly add the olive oil through the feed shute until incorporated.

3. Add the cheese and salt and pepper to taste and pulse until combined.

4. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week, covered with a thin layer of olive oil. Otherwise, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, pop into a container and label. Store for up to 6 months in the freezer, using individual cubes as required.

For other pesto combinations and recipes, see my post about Pesto last year.

Doing: ... Posting at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-Op today on waste-free lunches. You can check it out here.

Making: ...Ginger beer.

In The Garden: ... All together now.... Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Yep, the Dragon Fruit bud fell off the vine this morning :-(


It has been (rather evilly) tricking me for the past couple of days, slowly turning a nice shade of pinky-red around the edges, which had me thinking that it was almost certainly developing into a fruit.

But, nope. Ah well, next time I will definitely hand pollinate the flower and see if that works. In mean time I will dose it up with some more fertiliser and see if I can't get it to flower again before the weather cools down (if it ever does!).

Dinner: ... Leftovers, salad and garlic bread. Although I was Sorely Tempted by Kels' cashew curry suggestion, the Eggplant Parmigiana won out in the end, and it was Good.

I can't find a similar recipe to the one I used online, but the sliced eggplant is marinated in balsamic vinegar for 30 minutes, then crumbed with a breadcrumb and parmesan cheese mix, fried off, then layered in a greased dish and topped with a Napoli sauce (fresh chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and rosemary, simmered until thickened) and then grated mozzarella, and baked in a moderate oven for 10 minutes until browned. Divine.

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

If you don't have any tinned sweetened condensed milk in the cupboard, this recipe is a great substitute. It makes the equivalent of one tin.

Ingredients

1 cup powdered milk
1/3 cup hot water
2/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons softened butter

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until the sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate until use. Will last for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Sniffle, sob, meep...

OK, so excuse me while I sniffle into my hankie a bit here: I dropped my "baby" off at 3 year old preschool for the very first time this morning. She's been visiting the preschool almost every week for her entire three and a bit years, dropping off and picking up either of her sisters: in fact I've spent the last 6 months trying to prise her away from the painting easel each day to leave!


We'd barely got in the door this morning and she was waving me away (meep!) but we (myself and her sisters - big school doesn't go back until next week) hung around for 10 minutes or so, chatting to staff and other parents. When it was time to leave she was all smiles and waves ("See you this afternoon Mummy!")... until we actually got out the door, when she went hysterical. A few other new children had a quiet sniffle when their Mums left, but this was the full-on screaming and reaching for me as I tried to be cheery and positive and wave goodbye. Sigh. I put it down to her being sick over the weekend and still feeling a bit clingy but it's a distinctly horrible way to leave your baby in the care of others, regardless of how well she knows them :-(

Fortunately, just after we got back home (and I made myself a huge cup of tea to calm down), it started to drizzle with rain. It's been stinking hot here for weeks, and whilst it was forecast "showers" here today, that usually means we watch the storms go past on the other side of the hills about a kilometre away.

Only enough to "knock the dust off" so far, as they say, but it made for a nice break to sit outside with my cuppa and watch the garden soak it up.

After my cuppa I did a quick garden tour and it was then that I realised that the bunch of grapes lowest on one of the grape vines was pretty much ready to pick! So here it is, my very first bunch of grapes:

I savoured them as I wandered around the rest of the garden in the misty drizzle, and they were good :-) But lo, it seems that good things happen in threes as I decided that it was also time to harvest my first eggplants of the season:

Aren't they cool? I've grown Little Finger eggplants before but this is the first year I've managed to get the heritage Italian Listada Di Gandia eggplants past the seedling stage.

I think they deserve to be cooked into something a big spesh don't you? Any advances on Eggplant Parmigiana?

Doing: ...Trying to work my new front-loading washing machine into my routine. My old washer took 45 minutes for a cycle; my new machine takes 2 hours and twenty minutes! It does have a "quick" 60 minute cycle but I have found it's no good for anything but very lightly soiled items like sheets. I keep meaning to put a load on the night before and use the delay start function... but I keep forgetting! I also used to do several loads on one day, so I would sort all our clothes into various coloured piles in the hallway. That doesn't work when I can only get through two loads at the most per morning now, before it's too late to hang the clothes in the outside line. I'd also had my old machine for 12 years and could tell which part of cycle it was up by the sounds it was making - I can't even hear the "I'm finished" beeps at the end of a cycle on my new machine, so it's inevitably been finished for 20 or 30 minutes before I remember to go check on it. Ah well, I've got another week to get myself sorted out before school goes back next Thursday LOL.

...Starting the fermenting process to save seeds from my Rouge de Marmande tomatoes which died last week. Scarecrow has a wonderful tutorial on saving tomato seeds on her blog.


Making: ... Honey cleanser and deodorant for me (using lavender essential oil instead of tea tree oil).


Harvesting: ...Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, rainbow chard (silverbeet), beans, carrots. Noting that Miss Five's sole surviving dwarf sunflower has finally come out to play:


Dinner: ...Stir fried marinated kangaroo fillets and vegetables with brown rice.

Contemplating: Whether the fact that the Dragon fruit flower bud hasn't fallen off yet is a good sign (and trying not to count my fruits before they've developed, so to speak).

Replacing refined white sugar

I don't think there is anyone - except perhaps those working for the junk food industry - that would disagree that the Western diet contains way too much sugar. Most of this sugar comes in the form of highly refined white sugar (table sugar and caster sugar) and fructose syrup (also known as the infamous high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup or glucose syrup). It's in almost everything prepared commercially, even foods we don't consider to be sweet such as savoury meat marinades and potato crisps.

They're bad for the environment (because of the energy used in their extensive refinement and - if they aren't organic - all the pesticides and herbicides that go into their production), they're bad for us, but most of all, they're bland.

If you're looking for instant gratification - that sugar 'rush' - you can't go past white sugar or fructose syrup. On the other hand, I am interested in eating 'real' food - 'slow' food, so I want - need - to get rid of those highly refined sugars from our diet.

I am not tempted however, to replace them with artificial sweeteners. There are numerous studies and anecdotes regarding the possible adverse health effects of artificial sweeteners on the internet, but regardless of whether there is any truth in them or not, there is no debate that they are all highly processed, manufactured foods - the essence of the foods I am trying to avoid!
So now that I am looking to replace the highly refined sugars in my family's diet, I have found a good place to start is this table of sugar and sugar replacements, which lists some healthier alternatives to white sugar. Note that brown sugar and demarara sugar are - from an environmental point of view - worse than white sugar. They are made by adding molasses back to white sugar, so are even more processed than white sugar, and even more energy is used it they're manufacture. Muscovado sugar (unrefined, dried sugar cane juice, also known as Rapadura sugar or by the brand name Sucanat), on the other hand, is a good substitute for brown sugar as it is unrefined cane sugar which naturally retains the molasses and therefore the nutrients contained in the molasses.

Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks also has a great post about the natural sweeteners she uses as replacements for white sugar, which include agave syrup, brown rice syrup, blackstrap molasses and honey. The post about How To Quit Sugar on My Year Without, is also a terrific read.

Another sweetener I have tried in the liquid form is Stevia, and I have begun growing the Stevia plant in order to use the leaves in cooking. Although there is also some controversy regarding the health effects of Stevia, in my opinion, it's likely that at least some of that controversy has been generated by the artificial sweetener industry worried about losing money. In addition, only a tiny amount is needed to replace table sugar, so in my opinion, it can't be any worse than the amount of refined white sugar we consume in our current diet.

Stevia seedlings

Many years ago, when I discovered wholegrain and wholemeal breads, I could no longer tolerate bland, store-bought white bread, as to me it tasted and felt like pieces of foam in my mouth. Wholegrain and wholemeal breads - particularly home-baked breads - have a texture, mouth-feel and flavour that just doesn't compare to sliced white bread (the junk food of breads). In the same way, as I learn to find replacements for white and brown sugar in my cooking, I am hoping to discover a whole new world of textures and flavours, and in turn, enjoy introducing them to my family.

I suspect that once we replace the instant 'rush' of white sugar in our diet, that "a little of a good thing" will be go far further towards satisfying our sweet cravings than a bucket of highly-processed, artificially-coloured and preservative-packed store-bought "goodies" ever did!

Back to Basics Challenge Update

Sowing Seed or Planting:

Sowing: Nothing since my last update.

Planting: Two Amish Paste tomato seedlings.

Harvesting: Cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, zucchini, beans.

Planning for the Future:

* Meal planning around our vegies and what's in the pantry to save some money this week.
* Writing a list of seeds for autumn vegetable plantings and working our what I need (um, want) to order.

Working for the Future:

* Going through the pantry again and tidying up.
* Cooking and freezing four Zucchini slice.
* Making six jars of Zucchini Marmalade.
* Making four jars of Spicy Plum Sauce with the leftover almost-overripe plums.
* Grating and freezing four monster zucchini.
* Making three litres of chicken stock for the freezer from the carcass of a roast chicken.


* Had three new ceiling fans installed, which are making a huge difference to our comfort levels in this hot weather.
* Installed new 5-star water efficient tapware in the bathroom.
* Using our new water-efficient front-loading washing machine which uses almost half the water of our old top loader.
* Rearranging our playroom and study and in the process going through the kids toys and purging another two huge boxes worth - one box is going to my sister and one to the local Salvation Army Store.

Building community:

* Donation of toys to our local charity.
* Discussion of vegies and our Riot for Austerity project with two lots of friends.

Learn a new skill:

* Nothing as such this fortnight. Getting slack!

Healthy Date Slice

I make this for my kids as an after school snack. It's relatively low in fat, but high in fibre which is great, and the best thing is that I can use preservative-free dried fruit. I pinched the recipe from the March 2007 Australian Table magazine.



Ingredients

1½ cups chopped dates (I've used sultanas, dried apricots and mixed fruit)
1 cup wholemeal SR flour
½ cup SR flour
½ cup Rapadura (Muscovado) sugar or brown sugar
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup natural yoghurt (I sometimes use kefir, strained to thicken it)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup light olive oil or rice bran oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200'C/ 390'F or 180'C/ 350'F for fan-assisted ovens. Grease and line a 20 x 30cm/ 8" x 12" lamington pan.

2. Combine dried fruit, flours, sugar, and oats in a bowl. Fold through combined yoghurt, eggs and oil until just combined. Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, until golden. Cool for 5 minutes in pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3. Cut and store in airtight container. I freeze it in portions, and get out one container at a time.

My Dragon Fruit flowered last night.

"Dragon fruit", also known as Pitaya or Strawberry Pear, are so named because the fruit has scales much like a dragon does, and since it originated in Asia, it's a logical association.


It is a climbing cactus with a distinctive three-lobed cross-section, and grows to between one and three metres high with lots of branching. It is usually grown from cuttings - simply remove a section, allow the end to dry for a couple of days to heal the wound and prevent rotting, then plant it up in some free-draining coarse potting mix. It likes lots of water (but not being waterlogged, it is a cactus) and lots of nitrogen fertiliser.

There are basically three types which produce red-skinned white-fleshed fruits, red-skinned and red-fleshed fruit and yellow-skinned white-fleshed fruits. My Dragon Fruit is the first type, Hylocereus undatus. I've had it for around 18 months (I bought my cutting from Daley's) and has formed flower buds probably four of five times in that period, but they have all either dropped off, or been knocked off by rambunctious kids or animals! It's not uncommon for flowers to fall off immature vines however, so I wasn't too worried by it.

They also only flower at night, and I've never managed to catch it before.

So when my vine formed another bud like this one recently, I was keeping an eye on it to see if it did anything interesting. It started about the size of the photo below (about 10cm or 4 inches long) and stayed that way for a week or so,


Then it suddenly and rapidly elongated a couple of days ago to about a foot in length:


Then late yesterday afternoon I noticed that the flower bud looked about ready to burst open, so I excitedly kept an eye on it as the sun set to see if it did anything.

Well, did it what! As the sun set, it slowly opened up into this gorgeous - giant! - white scented flower around 40cm wide in the middle. The whole flower was probably two feet across from tip to tip.


The flowers are usually pollinated by moths and bats in their native regions, so I left our outside floodlight on for a while after dark, hoping to attract some moths big enough to do the flower justice! Notice how the male stamens form a "landing pad" for the insects? Cool, huh?


I've heard from another local that hand pollination with a small paintbrush is best as insects are unreliable this far south of the tropics, but I left mine to nature's devices. If this one is not pollinated I might hand pollinate in future. Fruit is ready to harvest 30-35 days after pollination so I should find out pretty quickly if this one was pollinated - fruit forms at the base of the bud as the spent flower browns and drops off.


So, I've got all my fingers and toes crossed that I might get one of these amazing fruit next month. Pretty amazing flower by itself though, yes?