5/ Convenience Goes with out saying. Just walk out your back door and you have a whole smorgasbord of fruit, salad and veggies. It doesn't get any better than that. No traffic, no finding a park, no waiting in line for a check out.
4/ Environment As good as organic is it doesn't make any sense to me to have organic Tomatoes trucked all the way from Victoria to a Queensland market (about 1600km's for non Australians) or visa versa to have organic Lettuce trucked all the way from Queensland to a Victorian market.
Therefore if you are growing your own BOV you are by default helping the environment.
There is also the extra carbon stored in the soil by using organic methods.
Less waste ie:- packaging, spoilage, apparently BOV gardeners also use less water to grow their produce as well.
There are bound to be other benefits to growing your own BOV. If you have any please leave them in the comments.
3/ Excitement To plant seeds in soil you have prepared to the best of your ability and knowledge and to wait in anticipation (checking daily, sometimes twice daily or if your really obsessive every time you walk out to the veggie garden) for them to emerge and when they finally do it's like a huge sense of relief couples with the euphoria of succeeding.
Every time this happens I feel like dancing (Dire Straits 'Walk of Life', usually comes to mind) and maybe a smug sense of achievement.
2/ Taste Probably should be #1 but that would ruin the effect of having "Why not", at the top of the list.
Sooo, taste!! If anyone is going to tell me BOV don't taste any different or better than store bought veggies then (1) I want to know if the have a pulse or (2) smoke more than 50 cigarettes a day or (3) had their taste buds removed at birth.
Everything I have ever grown has been superior in taste without exception. There are some veggies I didn't know could taste as good as they do or how they do. I made spaghetti bolinagse the other night and used fresh Tomatoes instead of tinned tom and I've never tasted spag bol so fresh and full of flavour.
The taste of home grown BOV is second to none.
1/ Why Not Any takers?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
10 reasons for growing your own Backyard Organic Veggies(BOV). Part 1
10/ Health. I've posted before about the health benefits of BOV here before (see links below), there's not much left to be said. Except wrap your laughing gear around a plate full of BOV.
9/ Blogging: Without my BOV I'd have nothing to blog about. Definitely a good reason for growing BOV.
8/ Make friends
I could almost include this in #9 but growing BOV is a good icebreaker or conversation stater. It seems there is a lot o people interested in growing their own BOV but aren't sure how to go about it. There's always little tips and tricks to share.
7/ Exercise Goes without saying. If your out there in your BOV garden, digging, weeding, carting, picking, watering, mulching, feeding, composting, etc, etc, it can be hard work, but as long as I can remember I've been told, "Hard work never killed anyone, it's good for you". Also I like beer and as far as I'm concerned beer tastes better after you've done a hard days work.
6/ Variety If you go to the supermarket or even your Fruit and Veg shop you can only have what they want to sell you. If you grow your own BOV the choise is almost endless. Growing from seed you can have all sorts of weird and wonderful varieties, most you'll never hear of in your local supermarket or Fruit and Veg shop.
Tomorrow I countdown from 5 to 1.
It's Official: Organic really is better
MEDIA RELEASE Organic Food Benefits
9/ Blogging: Without my BOV I'd have nothing to blog about. Definitely a good reason for growing BOV.
8/ Make friends
I could almost include this in #9 but growing BOV is a good icebreaker or conversation stater. It seems there is a lot o people interested in growing their own BOV but aren't sure how to go about it. There's always little tips and tricks to share.7/ Exercise Goes without saying. If your out there in your BOV garden, digging, weeding, carting, picking, watering, mulching, feeding, composting, etc, etc, it can be hard work, but as long as I can remember I've been told, "Hard work never killed anyone, it's good for you". Also I like beer and as far as I'm concerned beer tastes better after you've done a hard days work.
6/ Variety If you go to the supermarket or even your Fruit and Veg shop you can only have what they want to sell you. If you grow your own BOV the choise is almost endless. Growing from seed you can have all sorts of weird and wonderful varieties, most you'll never hear of in your local supermarket or Fruit and Veg shop.
Tomorrow I countdown from 5 to 1.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?). |
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Have you heard the one about
A MAN and a woman were sound asleep when suddenly at 3am a loud noise came from outside. The woman, startled out of her sleep, jumped up from the bed and yelled,"That'll be my husband!"
Instantly the man bolted from the bed, grabbed his clothes and shoes and ran out the back door and jumped off the porch. He smashed himself on the ground, ran through thorn bushes, and reached his car, bleeding and exhausted.
A few minutes later he returned and screams at the woman,"I am your husband!" The woman yelled back, "Oh yeah? Well then, why were you running?"
Instantly the man bolted from the bed, grabbed his clothes and shoes and ran out the back door and jumped off the porch. He smashed himself on the ground, ran through thorn bushes, and reached his car, bleeding and exhausted.
A few minutes later he returned and screams at the woman,"I am your husband!" The woman yelled back, "Oh yeah? Well then, why were you running?"
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?). |
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Straight forward Tomato Jam
After requesting a recipe for Tomato Jam on the Aussies Living Simply website, and with many thanks to Kirsty for her recipe, I set about making my first batch of Tomato jam.
I've been eating this stuff ever since I can remember, between two Grannies a Mother and the local markets I've never had to go without, but I had to have a go myself.
Tomato Jam Recipe3kg ripe tomatoes
500gm green apples
4 medium lemons
2.5 kg sugar
Peel and slice tomatoes. Peel, core and chop apples finely. Put all in a saucepan. Add grated rind of the lemons and cook 1 hour.
Add the juice of the lemons and the warmed sugar, stir until sugar has dissolved and then boil rapidly until it jells when tested.
Pour in to warmed sterilized jars and seal
I had about 10 Tomato Jam recipes to choose from and a few said to use a teaspoon of Cinnamon, which I did.Apples about to get the chop
Just starting to cook.
A little bit longer
I cheated a little bit here, rather than wait for the apple to blend in with the Tomatoes I used a stick blender. It worked really well and even blended the Tomato skins into a smooth pulp.
In goes the sugar. Note the colour change.
Ready
Ta Da.I also had a recipe my Mum sent over which said basically the same thing with smaller portions, so between the two of them I managed to get the job done.
One and half kg tomatoes skinned and sliced. Skinning optional
500 gr apples, peeled and chopped.
Finely zested rind and juice of 2 lemons
One and quarter kg sugar
Put tomatoes,apples ,lemonjuice and rindin boiler or large saucepan
And simmer until the apples and tomatoes are tender and partially blended.
Add sugar, stirringuntil it dissolves. Boil until setting point is reached.
Bottle and seal.
The Verdict
Pretty bloody good if I do say so myself. I would have liked it a bit thicker but I'm not sure how to go about that, does anyone have any suggestions?
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?). |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)