Harvest Monday – 20 May, 2013

Just a few things picked from the garden this week, but lots of cooking done with the produce either in the fridge or frozen from earlier in the year.

  

I’ve been picking the capsicums when they’re most red, but a little bit green because they’re taking so long to ripen and I don’t know how much longer they’ll keep coming.  This week I got three of various sizes.

I picked almost all of the remaining basil, this was in a pot that I move to a very protected spot when I was getting the garden ready for the auction and it really came on well.  It won’t last much longer either I would guess (it certainly won’t like Ballarat in July!)

A large bowl of mostly long eggplants.  I’ve still got quite a lot on some of the plants so will probably pick more next week.  I’m going to make a rough version of an eggplant parmigiana with this lot (it’s better with the larger variety, but I’ll give it a try with these ones and see how it goes).  That’s also what the basil is going into.

Thyme for some pumpkin soup made with my own pumpkin, potato and garlic as well as the thyme.  I thought it was one of the nicest pumpkins soups I’ve made, the pumpkin was a great colour and really sweet.  Mr Good ate it listening to two screaming tantrum-ing children who both turned their noses up at the dish.  We were pretending we were eating at a very cool, noisy restaurant…. we have very good imaginations!

On another matter, I’m still waging war against the big, cheap clothing stores in Australia who all manufacture clothes in Bangladesh.  I’ve emailed or left messages for all of them three times each now and I was so pleased to see change.org had started a petition urging them to sign up to the Bangladesh Fire and Safety agreement.  If you’d like to participate here’s the link to the petition http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/woolworths-and-big-w-sign-on-to-the-bangladesh-fire-and-building-safety-agreement.  But better yet, email or write to any of the major Australian players (KMart, Target, Big W and Cotton On) to express your dissatisfaction and boycott them until they sign up.  There’s more information on the Oxfam Australia site here, https://www.oxfam.org.au/2013/05/k-mart-target-tell-us-where-your-bangladeshi-factories-are/.

A Good move…..

That’s right, it’s official, the Goods are on the move (well it’s almost official, but I’m confident enough to post about it).  Having expanded our house hunting mission to include some bigger towns and some places further from the city, Mr Good and I found a house that satisfied all our requirements.  That is an old house ‘with character’, a little bit more space inside and out, a lovely neighbourhood, close to good schools and somewhere we can put our stamp on for a good many years.  Oh and one that would dramatically reduce our mortgage so we could drop down to one income until the kids are at school at least.  That’s not too much to ask is it.

Well, at first it seemed like it was.  Our original plan was to move to one of the satellite towns close to Melbourne and on the train line so that Mr Good could commute to work.  We could tick just about everything off our list except for the ‘old house with character’ part.  All we could afford in these towns were new houses in new estates, not our style at all.  So we expanded the search to include Ballarat and Geelong.  In the end Ballarat won out and this is what we bought….

Isn’t it cute!  Having said that, it’s not perfect, the garden is a little smaller than I would have liked (but still bigger than what I currently have) and some of the rooms need a fair bit of work, though we’re actually looking forward to that.  The other down side is that we’re moving to Ballarat in mid July, it’s going to be COLD!!!  Despite these flaws, the pluses far outweigh the minuses.  The whole street is cute and the wider area is GREAT.  We can walk to lovely parks and shops, we have a sitting room, a lounge room and a family room plus the cupboard space is amazing.  We’ve picked out a little spot for some chickens and one side of the garden will be solely devoted to my vegetables.

I’m so excited about the move.  I already know a couple of people in Ballarat, both with kids.  I’m looking forward to not having to bring work home and to have more time with the girls.  Not doing three crazy mornings a week as we all try to get out of the house by 7.15am will be wonderful.  I’m hoping to get in more time for crocheting and sewing as well as getting back to my cooking from scratch aims and of course plenty of time in the garden.

I will however, really miss teaching and being in the classroom.  I’ll miss the students and especially the amazing fellow teachers I work with.  Mr Good will have a long commute at least four times a week which will be hard I think, but we’re hoping in the long run he will be able to get work in Ballarat.  Otherwise we will swap roles for a while and he can do the stay at home dad thing.

So in all that there’s a lot to look forward to and a little bit to be daunted about but I think it will be good for all of us.

A question impossible to answer…

Just a fortnight or so ago I wrote this blog post, the first of any substance for quite some time.  I was grappling with the ethics of consuming in Australia, who to buy from and what that purchase is really supporting, especially when it comes to clothing.  I abhor the incessant advertising of cheap, disposable fashion items, what does a $5 t-shirt represent and worse still what does it mean when you throw that away six months or twelve months later only to be replaced with more $5 t-shirts.

Instead of lamenting these issues on here and to my friends and family, I thought it time to express my views to those in the industry who might actually be able to change the situation.  It was after reading this article and discussing it with several friends that got me going and I targeted the chains mentioned in it.

I then got on my soap box and emailed or Facebooked Target, KMart and Big W.  They all responded quickly to their credit and I have since written again.  Here is my message and their responses.

• Dear Target,
  I wanted to let you know that I will no longer be supporting your company due to your lack of transparency on worker conditions and safety in Bangladeshi garment factories contracted to make clothes for your stores. You have recently been asked by both Oxfam and the ABC’s 7.30 Report to provide specific information about these factories and to allow independent auditors in to assess the factories. By refusing these requests I can only assume you have something to hide.

   Hi Barbara, thanks so much for your message. Target extends its deepest condolences to all of those affected by the recent tragedy in Bangladesh.

  Target is committed to operating in a manner that reflects our high ethical and moral values and we require our suppliers to do the same, which is why we have a Target Ethical Sourcing Code that sets out strong, minimum standards for our suppliers. Under the Code, we require compliance to proper working conditions, fair pay and labour standards, health and safety, business integrity and legal requirements. We also proactively conduct regular, unannounced factory audits and, where zero tolerance breaches are detected, factories are deregistered as suppliers immediately.
  We have attached a link to our ethical sourcing code for you. http://www.target.com.au/html/aboutus/ethicalsourcing.htm

• Thank you so much for your response. I’ve had a good read of your Ethical Sourcing Guide and appreciate the work you have done in this area to date. I would, however, still urge you of the importance of allowing independent auditors into all factories connected to Target in an attempt at openness and transparency. Unfortunately we, the consuming public, cannot rely on industry or company self-regulation. As we have seen recently this has failed time and again.

  I am also concerned that much of your code of practice relies on factories following local laws and regulations, however in many key parts of the world local laws or regulations are flimsy or ill-enforced. Though I understand you have a series of supplemental Target-specific requirements I still thought there were areas lacking in appropriate codes of practice to protect workers rights, health and safety especially when it comes to working hours and rates of pay.

  I look forward to hearing how Target is improving practices globally in the areas discussed above and how your company is embracing transparency so that customers can feel reassured when making purchases in your stores.

  I sent the same message to Big W, they’re response,

  Hi Barbara,

  We understand your concern and want to reiterate that we have no connection to the recent tragedy.While we generally don’t discuss the details of our suppliers publicly we would nevertheless be willing to meet with the appropriate authorities to share to our ethical sourcing standards as part of the process of continuously improving how we work with suppliers.Thanks for writing to us. Your feedback has been passed onto the team internally.
  Regards,Suz

   Dear Suz,
  I’m so pleased to hear that you are open to sharing that information with appropriate authorities. Being open and transparent about the ethics of your sourcing procedures is as important as anything. It sends a message to the industry and consumers that all the people involved in getting the clothes on your shelves are valued and their rights protected.

  As much as it would be nice to think that individual companies could be self-regulating this is unrealistic and has been proven ineffective time and time again. Reliable and independent auditing processes are vital to the protection of these rights for vulnerable workers in countries where corruption is rife. I look forward to hearing further about Big W’s efforts in these matters.

  And to KMart…

  Dear Joanne,

   This is a tragic event and our thoughts are with those involved.  At Kmart, we work closely with our suppliers and their factory team members to ensure they understand the importance of safety.  More importantly, we made a decision some months back not to engage with any new suppliers who have factories above marketplaces, such as the garment factory reported in Bangladesh, or in shared premises due to the possibility of accidents occurring and safety concerns.

  Kmart enforces a robust Ethical Sourcing Program to ensure compliance with all local legal requirements applicable to issues inclusive of child labour, bribery, wages and benefits, working hours and health and safety. Our Ethical Sourcing Code sets out our minimum requirements and requirements that our suppliers must comply with as a condition of maintaining our business relationship.

   Kind Regards,

   Kimbley Brown

  2IC | Kmart Customer Service Department
  

  My response to them was similar to those above.

  I was then listening to 774 Melbourne with Raf Epstein last Friday and this issue came up again.  It was driven by this incredibly haunting and confronting image taken by a Bangladeshi photographer at the site of the building collapse.  It was of two workers who had lost their lives in the tragedy but had found each other and embraced in their final minutes.  What she had to say was so poignant.

  Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.

  Raf was also at a loss about what to do.  Do you stop buying the clothes and have the factories shut down, with thousands losing their jobs, or support the industry even with these incidents occurring?  One text suggested we need a ‘Fair Trade’ system for clothes like we have for chocolate, coffee and tea.  I thought what a great idea, I would happily support that.  In the meantime I think we need to pressure the big players to take responsibility, tell them what we want from them and then vote with our dollars, spend it at the places doing the right thing and doing it openingly (where you can find them) and avoid those doing nothing or too little.

  I’d love to know your thoughts?

Harvest Monday – 13 May, 2013

After another insanely busy weekend, I have spent today at home with a sick Miss Four.  It was good for both of us, she just needed to rest and did so for most of the day and I needed a chance to catch up on the house work and have time to take a breath.  It also gave me the chance to duck out into the garden between rain showers to pick a few things that were ready to go.

These included:

1 large zucchini

1 small red capsicum

1 handful of beans, the last on the plants.

1 eggplant – still plenty of these on the plants.

It would be fair to say that my current garden is being thoroughly neglected as my thoughts are with the prospects of starting a new garden.

We looked at 12 houses this last weekend (all with Miss Two in tow, quite a challenge) and number one priority was what we could do with the garden.  Mostly the size has been about the same as we have here, but better organised and less fragmented.  How we divide the space between areas for the girls and veggies is a high priority.  And it seems I have Mr Good well and truly won over as he was constantly talking about the direction of the sun over parts of the gardens, where we could potentially keep the chickens and how many beds and fruit trees we could put in.  There are one or two promising looking properties which we’re going to have another look at and hopefully one of these will be home in the not too distant future.  If not, it will another weekend of mad dashes from house to house as we try and squeeze in as many as we can.  More to come soon I hope.

Sunday, Mother’s Day apparently, but yet again we had organised Miss Two’s birthday party – just a small family affair thankfully.  An afternoon gathering at the park, which was, disappointingly, rained out after about an hour and a half.  Miss Four had been off colour all morning and things were just a bit hectic all day (except for the blissful hour when Mr Good took both girls to the pool) so it didn’t feel much like a restful day of appreciation.  However, Mr Good really did step up and did breakfast and dinner plus all the cleaning up after cake decorating etc.  Hope everyone else enjoyed a nice peaceful Mother’s Day and had had great harvests this week.

And speaking of cake decorating, this is what Mr Good and I created for our giraffe crazy Miss Two….

 

 

Funny things four year olds say….

It’s been an age since I wrote one if these posts, but I couldn’t resist this one.

Miss four asked me a couple of weeks ago what the section of her head between her hairline and her eyebrows was called. I said “that’s your forehead” (I pronounced it as 4 head)

A few days later she comes to me and said “look Mum, I’ve got play dough on my ‘two head’”. It took me a while to work out why she called it that, when I figured it out I couldn’t help but laugh. I’ve since heard her call it her seven head as well.

They do just say the funniest things. Miss two, whose birthday was yesterday, has started down this path too. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to share from her soon enough.

Harvest Monday – 6 May, 2013

Given that I no longer really own my own garden anymore, there doesn’t seem a lot of point putting in too much work in the patch anymore, but luckily I still have a few crops coming in.

This week, as with last week, it was all zucchinis, three of them in fact.  There looks like another one or two more on the plant before it will give up for the season.  Then I’ll be down to a collection of Asian greens, lettuces, silverbeet (always silverbeet!) and herbs.  I’ve also got some rogue potatoes that I’ll pull up just before we move out and the eggplants are still going really well.

In lieu of a big harvest this week, I thought I would share with you my version of Stephanie Alexander’s slow cooked zucchini recipe (from the Cook’s Companion).  It is currently my favourite way to do zukes.

Slow Cooked Zucchini
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over a moderate heat.  Add 4 zucchinis, chopped into 2cm chunks, 1 clove of garlic, chopped finely, 1 teaspoon of ground corriander seeds and a nob of butter (optional).  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Lower the heat, cover and cook for 20-30 minutes, until very soft.  Remove from the heat and mash roughly.  Squeeze over a little lemon juice and season again if necessary.  You can also drizzle a little more olive oil if needed.  I serve this with simple baked fish, grilled schnitzel or even with a roast.

It seems wrong to cook zucchini for this long, but boy it is delicious.  It’s even a winner with the girls and Mr Good.

Of course I’ve had so many zucchini that this just uses up the tip of the iceberg.  I’ve also been making endless zucchini slices, putting grated zucchini into everything and freezing grated zucchini for later use.

Now I also need to start thinking about how to take some the my garden with me to our new abode (wherever that may be) in the form of cuttings (rosemary, sage, thyme) and seeds (sunflowers).  Excitingly I’ll also get to start a new garden, I’m hoping for a blank slate to work with.  My head is full of wonderful ideas, I’m so looking forward to starting.

While most of the veggie gardening world seems to be in something of a hunger gap being between seasons everywhere, I’m sure there will be some interesting pickings somewhere on Daphne’s list.  Time to go check it out.

 

 

When thoughts collide….

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog post over the last couple of days, inspired by a newly discovered blog and worried by the tragic events in both Bangladesh and the earlier incident in Pakistan. 

I’m referring, of course, to the building collapse in Bangladesh, killing hundreds of (mostly female) factory workers, labouring in a clearly unsafe building to feed the fashion addiction of the west.  And if you think back about eight months you might also recall a similar incident, this time a fire in a textiles factory in Karachi where over 250 women died being unable to escape through the locked doors.

If I look through my wardrobe and or the girls’ cupboards I will find many labels with Made in Bangladesh, most costing very little and coming from one cheap department store or another.  Even those clothes I or others have bought from smaller manufacturers and at greater expense carry a tag declaring it was made in some less developed part of the world where worker safety and salary are questionable to say the least. The quest for ever cheaper, constantly changing fashion of the major labels seems to have been at the expense of other women.  A feminist issue if I ever heard one.

The other side of this story is the Zero Waste Home, a blog written by Bea.  It’s an unbelievable journey that Bea, her husband and two teenage sons (or tween perhaps, I can’t remember) have embarked on, to live a life of zero waste….. I mean ZERO (she takes her own large plate to the pizza shop when they get take away, she’s used the same single hair tie for over a year, you get the idea).  I’ve taken lots of ideas away from my reading so far, but it was her take on fashion that has got me thinking the most.  Bea has a small wardrobe, everything inter-changable and adaptable (13 ways to wear a LBD anyone?) and everything bought second hand (unless it was purchased before the journey began).  Every 6 months she goes through her wardrobe, takes out the items (that have been well cared for and still in good condition) that she has grown tired of, returns them to the op-shop and replaces them with an equal number of new op-shop items.  More substantial items, like her gorgeous white blazer, she pays to be tailored so they fit well and will make up the permanent fixtures of her collection.  Shoes are taken to the cobbler for repairs to increase their useable life, socks are darned and clothes are patched.  Everything about this approach makes sense to me.

All this contemplation is quite timely for me as I contemplate my own wardrobe.  It’s really not working for me, after two years of weight loss nothing fits quite right (or at all) and I’m especially struggling with finding clothes for the cooler weather.  So instead of going out to buy more new clothes (that, let’s face it, may not fit in another year, the weight will come back eventually I assume) I am going to attempt to revamp some of the items I already have and seek out a few op shop finds to fill the remaining holes.  As for the girls wardrobe, quite a lot of that is out of my control… to be honest I buy very few of their clothes, most are either presents from grandparents or hand-me-downs from friends (the latter fits nicely with this philosophy).  But when I do need to stock up on some basics perhaps I will try to do so in a more ethical way.

I will write again on the Zero Waste theme as I get my head around some of the other concepts.  I’ll also share my fashion finds, successes and probably failures.  In the meantime, I think I might have my blogging hat back on…. we’ll see how long it lasts.

Monday Harvest – 29 April, 2013

Well the sum total of my harvest this week was two small zucchinis, a few chives, some parsley and thyme.  None of which I managed to photograph.  Instead I thought I would share a few other major events that occurred over the last week.

Firstly…..

We sold our house!  It was a nerve-wracking experience, both the month of opens and the actual auction, but in the end we got a great result and have much more flexibility in terms of deciding what to do next now.  For me I’d be pleased NEVER to have to get a house ready for inspection again…. at least not with small children.  The BIG question now is where do we go?  That’s still up for debate, but now with a 90 day timeline (…. we do have a backup plan though).

Secondly….

Fairies invading the house to help Miss Four celebrate her birthday.  She was especially pleased that Pa and her Uncles manned up and wore their wings with pride and good humour. Note the dog even got in on the festivities. Of course on the menu we had fairy bread, butterfly cakes, cheesy wands and a fairy house cake.  It was just family and all done quickly given the busy, busy month we’ve had, but she had a lovely time and was suitable spoiled. 

This hasn’t really been a harvest Monday post, I hope you don’t mind my digression and if you’re keen to see some proper harvest click here.

 

Harvest Monday – 22 April, 2013

If you haven’t already noticed I seem to have lost my blogging mojo and as much as I keep saying I’ll get back into it, I’m still struggling and I really don’t know when that will change.  I also have very little in the garden, veggie wise, at the moment as we’re about to go to auction and I haven’t planted out much of a winter crop.  Anyway, here is what I have picked this week…

A line up of little eggplants… now what to do with them all.

A good handful of purple beans, the only ones still going.

1 Red capsicum, still a few green ones on the plant and I’ll leave it in the ground and hope who ever buys this place might get a few next year.

Three odd shaped zucchini, lots more coming on as well.

I also picked some herbs and spring onions.  I really should start picking my silverbeet which is looking quite magnificent and should see us kept in greens for the rest of our time here.

On a really wonderful note, today is Miss Three’s fourth birthday… so I guess she is now Miss Four (argh, already!).    I thought I’d finish with some photos that I think really show who she is today, as a four year old.

Miss Playdough Head (her first play on words perhaps)

Two cheeky sisters (taken by Miss Three)

Self portrait – the ‘Surprise Face’

Happy Birthday my girl!

 

 

 

 

 

Harvest Monday – 8 April, 2013

I’ve been MIA for a while so it’s nice to be back into the Harvest Monday theme.

In general I’m feeling a little flat and uninspired and the garden is looking like I’m feeling.   A very good friend of mine tragically lost a child the same age as Miss Three and who was probably her closest playmate.  We’re all sad.  Miss Three and I are having lots of quiet cuddles.  I can’t imagine how it would feel as a mother to go through this.

The result has been a break from blogging and not much happening in the garden.  When I did finally venture out this is what I found.

Over a kilo of cherry tomatoes

A motley crew of cucumbers

Four long eggplants

One MEGA zucchini (the cucumber next to it is a normal sized Lebanese variety)

Another collection of more normal sized zucchinis.

Two red capsicums

A handful of green and purple beans

Another three long eggplants

 

Four pumpkins (see the difference between them?  Well they were all grown from seeds from the same packet, not sure what happened there.  I wonder what they will be like inside?)

The last bowl of roma tomatoes (plus a couple of cherry toms as well)

There were also some herbs, parsley, basil, thyme.

In all of this we’re also in the midst of house opens and a constant state of cleaning and tidying so strangers can walk through and hopefully think what a great home it is and maybe buy it from us soon.  I’m finding it quite stressful, of course that could also be because we still don’t know where we’re going to move to.

That’s it from me.  I’ll try blogging a bit more consistently from now, I do enjoy it and I especially love hearing from you and reading others’ blogs and I’m sure there will be plenty of inspiration at Daphne’s this week.