It’s almost time…

…for this year’s Seed Freedom Food Festival!

In September last year the second Seed Freedom Food Festival was held here in Adelaide at the Market Shed on Holland. It was a huge success with over 2000 people coming through the doors and indulging in workshops, visiting stalls and listening to guest speakers. You can read about our experience working as part of the co-ordinating committee at this great event last year here.

I am happy to say this amazing festival is on again at the Market Shed on Holland, Saturday September 24.

If you are in Adelaide on September 24th make sure you come along. There is going to be an incredible line up of FREE workshops and talks plus kid’s workshops, organic food stalls, a huge food swap and seed swap, another seed mandala creation, seed displays, local musicians, storytelling tent, raffles, organic stalls and lots of community!

From its conception 3 years ago, to meetings throughout the year, to its fruition on the day the Seed Freedom Food Festival is run entirely by volunteers.

With no money wasted on flashy meetings we put all of our hearts and energy into creating a Festival that celebrates, informs and inspires people to grow and eat organic food, local food, and to save seed! Our latest core group meeting was very cosy but filled with much laughter and sharing.

 

Our volunteer call out is happening right now and we’d be so grateful to have you organic/gardening/seed/earthy passionate people on the team.

So if you’re a budding seedizen who can offer a couple of voluntary hours on Saturday 24 September and some crafty hours painting, screen-printing, building in mid-September (all our festival deco is upcycled/homemade) do get in touch ASAP by emailing our volunteer coordinators Joni and Atma at sfffvolunteer@gmail.com

There will be lots of different areas that will require help from our volunteers to run smoothly such as assisting on the stages, helping on the swap tables, and aiding us with the setup and pack down. It only takes a few hours from the day, the rest is for you to enjoy the festival! Though I can safely say that most people have just as much fun in their volunteer role as they do in their off time!

Let us know asap if you would like volunteer and come along to our first craft night!The Seed Freedom volunteers sprinkling love, friendship and seeds!

Jamie and I had a wonderful time volunteering last year and 2016 looks set to match it. But if I haven’t quite persuaded you to come to the festival or volunteer then please watch this amazing compilation of the day. Then you will understand what a fabulous event it is!

Not all the photos are mine but I am unsure who to credit as they are saved on my computer with no name, sorry if I have caused offence by using them. The terrific video was put together by the very talented Kevin Chan.

Bellwether Wines

While in the Coonawarra during the recent school holidays, Jamie and I discovered a gorgeous winery with its own produce garden.

On the Riddoch Hwy in the Coonawarra, Bellwether Wines is housed in a converted Shearing Shed.

Built by Chinese labourers en-route to the gold fields in 1868, the Glen Roy Shearing Shed has been beautifully renovated and now houses the boutique winery, cellar door and a community kitchen.

Filled with lots of quirky and vintage items, the interior is gloriously homey and welcoming.

Unfortunately, we did not get to meet the founder Sue Bell, but we did meet some of her extended family and we tried her wines – and bought some to cellar too! While Jamie stayed inside and talked wine, I wandered around the property taking photos accompanied by Mabel the winery dog.

The owner’s eclectic decorating style was also evident outside.

Behind the shed is a camping ground with powered and unpowered sites and some glamping tents. A really impressive amenities block – that includes a deep bath – is available to campers, as well as the use of the community kitchen and produce from the garden. 

 

The Glen Roy produce garden was established in 2011, using the well-composted sheep poo from the interior of the shearing shed.

The garden was filled with veggies, herbs and edible weeds.

Though small it contained lots of different styles of vegetable beds.

With so many ornamental and flowering plants amongst the vegetable and herbs, the garden is a haven for bees.

The chook shed at the end of the garden; only one occupant popped out to say hello to me.

I was particularly envious of the lush nettle patch.

There is fruit as well as veggies.

And plenty of fun things in the garden too.The property also has a number of Highland cattle.

It was certainly a pleasant afternoon at Bellwether, a place I am sure we will revisit.

We are in no way affiliated with the winery and were not paid to write this post, we just know a good thing when we find it!

Sweet Potato

Way back in December of 2015 we planted a purple sweet potato in one of the galvanised beds. We have never grown them before and did absolutely no research on how to grow them – we just planted  it and left it to its own devices.

Long after the squash and pumpkin were over the sweet potato kept growing.

We looked up when to harvest and found that it was either after it flowered or when the vine began to wither. A few weeks ago there was no sign of flowers but the vine was yellowing and starting to wither. We assumed that like when harvesting potatoes we would dig into the soil and find lots of delicious sweet potatoes. So we dug only to find…

One giant sweet potato!

What we now know is that as the vine grows you need to bury sections of it. The buried sections will start forming roots within a week and new tubers will form from these roots. If you don’t do that well…you will get a monster like we did🙂

As you can see it had grown so large it had started to crack in places and appeared quite wooden, it also had lost most of its purple colour. Undaunted, we were determined to eat it! As we still had a few capsicums and coriander in the garden I turned half of the sweet potato into a Morrocan vegetable bake. I sliced centimetre rounds of the sweet potato, quartered the capsicums, halved some baby carrots and cut two red onions into wedges. I poured 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a big bowl and added 2 tablespoons of Morrocan seasoning, a tablespoon of smoked paprika, and a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes. I then added the veggies and gave them a good toss before putting them in a single layer on a couple of baking trays. While the veggies baked for 25 minutes I finely grated a lemon and then prepared some couscous adding the juice of the lemon and half the rind. I also steamed some spinach and rainbow chard. Once everything was ready I put the couscous into bowls with the veggies, added a good dollop of Greek yoghurt topped with the remainder of the lemon rind, coriander leaves and some toasted pine nuts, and served with the steamed spinach.

It was delicious! The sweet potato was perfect, the vegetables had slightly caramelised and the seasoning was spot on. A really amazing dinner, try it for yourself and see!

Lightfoot Eco Store

We recently took granddaughter Ruby to see the training tall ship The One and All at the Port Adelaide docks.

  

Whilst in Port Adelaide we visited the Lightfoot Eco Store at 257 St Vincent St.

 

Run by Jo Seater with help from husband Mark, the store has been open since February this year providing people friendly and planet friendly homewares and lifestyle products to aid in reducing the footprint we leave on our planet.

There is an amazing range of eco-friendly, sustainable and reusable goods in the store from silicone and bamboo lunchboxes to reusable straws in glass, steel or bamboo. There were so many reusable water bottles for sale I just had to get another to add to our collection. We got the one on the top right.

The store also stocks natural products to use instead of commercially made plastic gear.

We were most impressed with the sustainable and ethical goods made from sugar cane fibre waste including kitchen towels, facial tissues and toilet paper. Bamboo toothbrushes and facial wipes, natural sponges, and cornstarch, bamboo and palm leaf disposable party gear. We plan to return to buy some of the gorgeous beeswax reusable food wraps – a great alternative to cling wrap.

There are some truly stunning bamboo products such as thick fluffy towels, ethical clothing, and beautiful bowls.

There is also a great range of ethically made tote bags and beauty products.

Lightfoot Eco Store also collects products normally considered non-recyclable waste. They have a collection depot for oral care products including plastic toothbrushes and toothbrush packaging, toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers etc; Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee pods; and cleaning and beauty product packaging including spray pump triggers, push pumps, beauty product tubes and face wipes packaging. 

We came away with some terrific products, including a silicone ‘lily-pad’ to use on bowls rather than cling wrap.

Ruby thoroughly enjoyed helping us shop at the Lightfoot Eco Store.

We are not affiliated with the store in any way, we just like to promote stores that sell sustainable goods to help us reduce the footprints we leave on the planet. I did, however, borrow a couple of their photos from their facebook page as we had trouble with light on the day we were there, but I am sure Jo won’t mind.

 

Spinach!

The time in between one harvest and the next is always difficult; the last of the summer veg are gone and the winter crop is still to reach maturity. It is during this time that spinach comes into its own. We have a patch out the front that is currently filled with  perennial spinach and rainbow chard – both heirloom varieties.

Next to them we have some new plantings of Bloomsdale spinach.

Given the wet weather, snails and slugs are an issue so the baby plants are currently cloched under plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off – a great way to reuse and they can still be recycled once their usefulness is over.

We used the last of the Lebanese fingerling eggplants with the spinach in an amazing Vindaloo.

First, I sauteed and onion before adding a couple of spoonfuls of a bought Vindaloo curry paste (sometimes cheating is just easier!). To that, I added a can of tomatoes, the diced eggplants and a mountain of spinach. I left the curry to saute for a good 30 minutes or so and then served it on a bed of rice, with yoghurt and coriander on top. Delicious!

Another easy curry we all love Saag Paneer, but recently we purchased some free range lamb and so I used that to make a fabulous aromatic Lamb Saag. Firstly, I finely chopped an onion and a red chilli. In a pan with some olive oil, I gently sauteed the onion and chilli with some mustard and cumin seeds, then added the meat and quickly browned it all over before adding a can of tomatoes and a spoonful of turmeric. I let that simmer as I put 6 green chillies, 2 cloves of garlic and as much spinach as I could fit in the food processor and whizzed until smooth.

Once the meat has simmered for 40 minutes or so I added the spinach mix.

The colours are glorious!

The green soon overpowered the red.

I let the curry simmer for a further ten minutes or so and then served on a mix of rice and quinoa, with the obligatory blob of yoghurt.

Other meals we have had recently using our spinach and rainbow chard have come from my “go to” recipe source: Taste. I am adding their photographs below with links to the recipes.

We had a fantastic Herb and Spinach Penne using the spinach, chard and herbs from the garden.

Smashed Chickpeas with Spinach is a favourite, not the least because it is so quick and easy to make.

These Spinach and Ricotta Triangles take time but are so worth the effort.

And finally, pizza! Our favourite is this Green Pizza but I deviate from the recipe by using a spinach and garlic pesto rather than the suggested basil.

The same pesto is also great on a pizza with sliced potatoes, mozzarella and a handful of rocket.

If you choose to make any of these recipes make sure you let me know how they turned out. You can also find more of my favourite recipes on my Pinterest.

Who Gives a Crap?

Here at A Kailyard in Adelaide we are on a never-ending quest to avoid the big chain supermarkets, be sustainable, and give back to the community. Therefore we were thrilled to discover Who Gives a Crap last year, a company that ticks all three boxes for us. Who Gives a Crap delivers their toilet paper, tissues and paper towels right to your door – so no more supermarkets! (At least for loo paper.)

The toilet paper is made from 100% recycled post-consumer waste and is totally biodegradable; it is also soft and thick, the rolls last for ages. Their products are chlorine, ink, dye, and perfume free. This means they have saved thousands of trees and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Who Gives a Crap is based in Victoria with warehouses in most capital cities in Australia and while the product itself is made in China, they ship directly to their warehouses so the transport emissions are about the same as they would be if they trucked it all over our huge country – so sustainable!

Best of all 50% of their profits go to Wateraid  to fund sanitation projects in developing countries. Poor sanitation and the water crisis is the second biggest killer of children under 5 worldwide, so giving to Wateraid ensures people who need it have access to safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. Basically, toilets are totally awesome as they save so many lives – so giving back!

 

This graphic from their website shows exactly how great their impact is – I hope they don’t mind me “borrowing” their image but it is so powerful I had to use it!

We received our first box of 48 in September last year, got a 24 box in January and have just bought another box of 48. As our household has three adults plus sundry visiting friends and family that is pretty impressive; I guarantee the toilet paper we used to buy never lasted that long! We have also purchased their bamboo tissues and plan to get some paper towels in the near future. Delivery is free if you spend over $30 and quick, our last box arrived the day after I ordered it. In fact we are so impressed with the product we gave a number of boxes away as Christmas gifts, the opening of which created much hilarity.

So, if like us, you are striving to avoid giving your money to conglomerates, want to be sustainable, and want to help others then Who Gives a Crap is the company for you!

This post has been written as a way to share some of the ways we lead a more sustainable life. While we regularly shop at Who Gives a Crap we are in no way affiliated with it, nor were we paid in anyway for writing this post.

 

 

Guerilla Gardening in Shanghai

I have been rather neglectful of the blog this year as both Jamie and myself have had an increased workload, this has meant some things have had to slide a little to make room. One of the things that has taken up a lot of my time was my recent trip to China as part of an educational fellowship I undertook with two colleagues.

On our first full day in China we took a wrong turn while walking to the Subway and ended up seeing some of Shanghai’s residential areas.

The people of Shanghai are fighting the increase in pollution by greening up every available space.

This includes lining major arterial roads with planter boxes.

And filling indoor spaces with air-purifying plants.

Given that space is a premium I was amazed to discover evidence of guerilla gardening. For the uninitiated, guerilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal right to use. The land is usually abandoned or neglected and is used  by guerilla gardeners to raise plants, either for food or to beautify the area.

After crossing one of Shanghai’s many waterways I happened to look down over the bridge and discovered a tiny urban farm next to the river and in front of a construction area.

As the days went on I saw many more people growing food underneath two or three tiered roadways, along the highway to the airport, in between high rise buildings and along waterways – most of which I could not photograph as I was in a moving car.

I will share more gardening stories from China soon.