The Edible Garden Adventure Begins at Woolworths with Jamie Oliver's Garden Collectibles

As a passionate horticulturalist, real food cooking presenter and mum I was thrilled when I was contacted about the new Woolworths Jamie's Garden Collectibles.
Already a long time fan of the inspirational Jamie Oliver I was just so delighted about these new collectibles and stickers from Woolworths inspiring kids with the incredible world of food. Growing food, cooking food and seeing food as the amazing and beautiful part of our lives that it can be.

"The Jamie's Garden Collectibles range includes 128 stickers featuring fresh produce and garden animals with special effects such as 3d, thermal ink and scratch and sniff technology.
Children can keep track of their stickers in a special scrapbook-style album with interesting facts, puzzles and kid friendly recipes that teach children about healthy nutrition, fresh ingredients and the origin of food.

There are also eight of Jamie's super power fruit and vegetables plush toys to collect as well as gardening tools and a nifty tin to keep stickers safe.
What did my kids think of it all?
Well lets just say that there was serious sibling rivalry going on over who got the Super Broccoli Man and who got the sticker album!! Yes, absolute hit with my two, even with their 5 year age difference (and yes, looks like I will be getting a second album and plush toy and more stickers ASAP!)
So I can say these will no doubt be an even bigger hit than the previous  hero's Woolworths cards and how exciting for us parents this time too, not only seeing our kids excited about something and collecting things and interested in things outside electronics but they are excited and its all about real food and growing food!!!

I am so excited about these because I believe, every time a child wants to grow something edible at home, even a single tomato plant, a whole new door to an exciting healthy life begins for that whole family!

And kids just really do love to eat vegetables that they themselves helped to grow, they just do!

"

Grow Your Own Smoothie Greens and Super Charge Your Health

Beautiful days are perfect inspiration to get outdoors, go for big walks, swim, run, hit the gym.
but when the cooler weather starts to hit, the rainy days and the chilly mornings can lend to us swapping sneakers for sleep ins, gym visits for snuggles on the couch with dvd's and letting some of those exercise routines slip a little, sometimes even a lot! And then throw a few Winter bugs into the mix like the odd cold, cough and flu and you can really lose your fitness mojo..
But Winter is the best time to actually ramp up your fitness and health levels and best of all being fit, strong and healthy is your best defense against all the bugs that get around that time of year, and if your a busy mum like me - you know, you just don't have time to get sick!

So how is my family SuperCharging our health and fitness?
Well Australian Fitness Week is 7th to 13th April and there is inspiration all around you like Fitness First's pay as you go flexible gym plans, free twighlight bootcamps in the city (fun!) and a 1 day guest pass so you can try before you buy, which is such a fantastic idea.

We will eat well and exercise every day. For me using weights will be much more of a priority. We are making our health important. We have also pledged as a family to do something energetic and fun every weekend on top of daily exercise, yes, even if it raining!
Think climb a mountain, long waterfall trek's, canoeing, surfing, dancing, yoga, maybe an outdoor bootcamp!

AND thanks to the ever inspiring Fitness First we are inspiring ourselves to have a green smoothie or green juice EVERY DAY by growing our own organic smoothie greens!

So much easier than you think, and so rewarding!
As a horticulturalist I can tell you growing your own beautiful, organic produce is one of the most exciting things in life. I firmly believe the reason both my kids with very different personalities both love all their veggies and are not fussy eaters is because they have grown up with lovely fresh produce all around them and gardens they can pick and eat from.

This school holidays thanks to Fitness First's inspiration we set about creating a very special garden.
A smoothie greens garden!So there will always be plenty of green, organic goodies to supercharge our life.
WHY are greens so good?
They are alkalizing, they are full of iron and vitamins for our bodies and minds.
They supercharge your health and boost your fitness energy!!

We wanted to make it a garden that any family, anywhere in Australia could do also.
So we chose a self watering, leak proof affordable planting tub from Bunnings.
One that is neat and tidy to look at, user friendly, size friendly so even if you only have a small balcony in the city you can fit one in and practical and of course doesn't cost a fortune!

(You can also find these at hardware stores and nurseries. Look for one that has a removable water tray underneath so you can clean the tray if need be and also so it wont make a mess on your veranda or balcony with water stains.

TIP Pick just the right spot, most vegetables and a lot of herbs require at least 6 hours of strong, full sunlight to grow well. Not enough sun and they will be weak, grow strangely and be prone to pests and diseases.
Then just like a good cake mix load yourself up with gorgeous goodies for your garden.
TIP a successful garden relies hugely on the soil/potting mix, never scrimp on this part of gardening. Underrating soil will mean weaker plants, plants prone to pests and diseases, soil that dries out too quickly and a huge array of problems. A good mix is worth every cent!

So what kinds of things did we add into our garden?
The garden was 120 L, we used

• Brunnings All Natural Garden soil (60 litre)
• Richgro organic compost (25 litre)
• Dynamic Lifter (as directed on packet)
• Coir Peat  x 2 bricks (you buy this in a compressed block for under $3, add water and it swells up, lots of fun for the kids this part - we use this peat and not actual peat moss as peat is an limited resource so we try not to use it)

We mix these together like a big giant cake mix making a beautiful custom blend.
This is one of the mist fun arts for the kids and is also a very grounding exercise for us busy mums too, studies show too that toiling in fresh dirt actually has anti depressant effects.

After filling the tub with a beautiful, rich mixture we get the seedlings ready by gently soaking them in a weak solution of seasol (my favourite fertilizer) for around 10 minutes. This will help give them strength, nutrients and a real boost to take to their new surroundings.

Then you get to give the little health packed plants a home. Remember to always space them well, you don't want overcrowd them or have taller growing plants shadowing out the littler ones.
TIP I always recommend planting some companion planting herbs and flowers amongst your vegetables, they help deter pests and make plantings smell great and look attractive too. Trust me if your little veggie pot has pretty flowers around the edge, smells amazing as water hits the herbs amongst them you truly will find yourself more likely to spend time looking after it and watering it regularly and therefore getting so much more success out of it.
In our little smoothie greens patch we have included marigiolds which are fantastic for repelling nematodes and also chives and garlic chives to deter all the green leaf munching pests!

Give the whole lot a nice slow, deep drink.

And then tuck all the plants in with a good mulch, I recommend an organic sugar cane mulch.
Sugar cane mulch is excellent at retaining moisture, breaks down quite rapidly adding organic matter and nitrogen to the soil and increases microbial activity. All helping give you strong, healthy plants.

Finish with another drink make sure all the plants are upright and stable in their little spots, or tucking them in as my youngest called it!
Maintenance keep them healthy with regularly watering and once a week seasol treatments to start off with, dropping down to every 2 weeks once the seedlings have established. Keep your garden growing organic and strong, remove bugs by hand, use organic natural sprays if and only when necessary.
*Remember just because it's natural doesn't always mean it is safe or non toxic as well and you will often kill off all your good bugs as well.
TIP  get the kids involved with the whole process and especially harvesting for and then making green smoothies and they will fall in love with the whole process and you will have the added pleasure of knowing you are giving them amazing healthy life-skills and an incredible learning experience.

How will you #superchargeyourhealth ?

If you make your own smoothie greens garden I'd love to see it! Share your pics on my Facebook page

Be well, be happy, eat beautiful and be active.
Love Bek XX

A Horticulturalist That Cooks

There are chef's that garden - I am a horticulturalist that cooks

From as early on as I can remember I was in the garden with my mum, my dad, even my grandfather.

My mum tells me I used to say I was a 'plant doctor' and carry a basket on my arm filled with scissors, sticky tape and homemade healing spray (water with lemon juice apparently) and trot around the garden like a doctor on their rounds (whether the plant was sick or not!)
At 16 I enrolled in my first year of study in Horticulture and fell in love with this field of study immediately.
Well actually maybe not the whole field as I never warmed to Horticultural machinery subjects, spark plugs and lawnmowers are not my friends but to be able to study and learn about plants was pure joy to me.
I knew then what it meant when people would say, "Find what you love to do and work becomes pleasure."

I also grew up with my mum working as a professional cook and came from family of chefs and cooks and all these incredible women making amazing food all the time, so right from an early age I had a love and wonder around food and cooking.

I love that in my life now these two elements are a big part of me and of what I do and what I share with my own two girls. 

I believe that growing food is one of the most exciting things we can bring into our lives.

I often think that if you are going to be watering a garden you should have at least one thing edible or medicinal within it. People usually only grow veggies and herbs in backyard plot but these plants can be so striking and beautiful, they really can be grown on full display and landscaped with to make dazzling displays and patterns in even the showiest of gardens.

To me it is the whole journey that excites me so much about real food and back to basic's, the journey that starts with food growing and ends with a delicious meal.

Want some of my edible gardening tips?

Check out my gardening tips in the post by Natural New Age Mum on her fantastic blog,
Gardening with Kids

You can also read about my latest adventure - cooking at the Real Food Festival, in the feature on me in the Hinterland Times here:
HERE "Back to basic's - that's all it takes"

Happy cooking AND gardening

Bek XX

Growing Tomatoes and A Tasty Spelt Tomato Tart

I love tomatoes. I love cooking with them, eating them, and especially growing them. This is a great recipe to really showcase their taste and beauty.

Tasty Spelt Home Grown Tomato Tart

This recipe was featured in Holistic Bliss Magazine

Ingredients
• 1 & ½ cups mixed fresh home grown tomatoes ( I have used heirloom varieties here)
• ½ medium sized leek
• 3 free range egg yolks
• 1 & ½ cups spelt flour
• ¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese, finely grated
• ¼ cup cheddar cheese, finely grated
• 85 g goats cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, stalks removed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, stalks removed
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 125g butter, chilled and cut up into small cubes

Method
• Pre heat oven to approximately 180’c.
• Grease a tin or dish for your tomato tart.
• Wash and then dry the tomatoes.
• Sift flour into a bowl.
• Add in the chilled butter, rub into the flour using your fingers, working your way through the mixture until it looks a little bit like breadcrumbs.
• Add in the rosemary, mix through.
• Add in the egg yolks and the water, kneading it into a smooth looking dough.
• Wrap and chill in the fridge for around 20 minutes.
• Remove from fridge and roll it out between 2 sheets of baking paper to make a reasonably thin large shape.
• Cut to shape to fit your prepared tin, pressing edges into place around the pan.
• Layer the pastry with the leek, followed by the grated cheeses.
• Break up the goat’s cheese and place in segments around the tart.
• Slice all the tomatoes to a similar thickness and arrange on the tart. Trying not to have it too thick in any one place and a nice even coverage, sprinkle the thyme over the top.
• Bake in a medium hot oven for approximately 30 minutes or until pastry is cooked. Pastry should be golden and cooked and tomatoes should be visibly cooked on top.
• Serve with a fresh green salad.

Notes
• This is a great recipe for home grown tomatoes, especially organic, interesting heirloom varieties. If you don’t grow your own you can use bought tomatoes like cherry, roma or other varieties. If you don't have your own tomatoes look out for a packet of heirloom tomatoes when you are shopping.
• Tomatoes are an easy and rewarding crop to grow and one I recommend highly for kids.

Tomatoes

Solanum lycopersicum, Tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and they have so much reward, and because of this they are great for getting kids interested in real foods and gardening. Kids love being able to pick tomatoes and eat them fresh straight from the garden, especially cherry tomatoes.

Belonging to the nightshade family and originating from Mexico and eaten widely around the world there are estimated to be more than 7 and 1/2 thousand cultivars and several wild varieties and some of these are truly incredible but for me it is the older, heirloom varieties that interest me the most along with some of the trusty favourites.

My top tomato growing tips:

• Tomatoes love and need lots of SUN. Make sure where you plan to grow them gets lots of lovely full sun.
• Get the soil right. I say this all the time in gardening workshops, one thing you should never scrimp on in gardening is getting your soil the best it can be. This means compost, manure, lots of organic matter, and for tomatoes some lime and a little potash too all prepared into a beautiful, rich soil mix before planting. The more effort and time you spend here in the beginning, the better, healthier and stronger plants you will get. 
• Water right. Try really hard not to be a sposmadic waterer. Get yourself into a routine. Don't give them heaps one day and then forget them for a week only to drown them again. Try and water them well (not drowned) on a regular basis, and water at the roots rather than spraying water on their leaves. 
• Keep them healthy. Strong tomatoes are pretty hardy, but tomatoes are of course susceptible to a few pests and diseases. Prevention is always better than cure. Tomatoes can get a disease from calcium deficiency, hence why it is good to add lime to to soil when you prepare it, before planting, another tip > back in my nursery days the best tomato grower I knew, an elderly Italian man with his prize winning tomatoes gave his epsom salts, how do they work? They give the plants magnesium, when plants are deficient in magnesium it makes it hard for them to absorb other nutrients they need and they can be weak and even get sick. A good rich soil should provide them with this but you could also try just a little, every so often watered in around the roots at a weak ratio.
• Seasol. Seaweed emulsions and fish emulsions are my favourite fertiliser. Seasol can be added to your watering can and poured right over the entire plant, it is one of the safest of all fertilisers, even safe with orchids, and protects and strengthens plants making them better able to cope with stress, frost, drought, winds even salt spray and plants fertilised with it are much less likely to suffer insect attack.
• Companion plant. I plant carrots, basil, mint, parsley, marigolds and chives around my tomatoes.
• If you see just a few insects, don't panic straight away! It is important in an organic garden to encourage natural predators and many of these will be insects too, killing all bugs kills them as well so this means letting a good balance develop in your garden and only treating insects in large numbers or hand removal if possible. If your plants are healthy and strong, well nourished and watered, they are far less likely to be attacked so focus on keeping them healthy, right from the start.
• Support them, remember to stake and trellis where needed.
• As much as you can, try and grow them organically. Avoid the synthetic fertilisers and if you do have to spray try natural remedies. 
• Grow to your climate. Tomatoes are pretty versatile and in a lot of Australia will grow pretty much all year round but if you live in a specific area like a cold climate or really tropical spot - check with your local nursery for varieties that grow really well where you live as some will be more suited than others and you may also need to grow only in a set season or with some added tools.
• Be adventurous. Tomatoes vary from tiny pea sized to giant beefsteak varieties, so don't be frightened to try a few different ones, look out for heirloom, organic and unusual varieties. I would recommend getting seed from seed saver clubs as well as seeing what your local nurseries have to offer.
• Growing in pots. Yes tomatoes can be grown in pots, if needed, some varieties are much better suited than others and go for a nice, really large pot and a really good potting mix with plenty of added compost.
• Get the kids involved, right from the start. Let them help choose seed or seedlings, prepare the soil, I always tell my kids it is like a giant cake mix and you need all the ingredients just right. Let them help water and why not make it an experiment and let them keep a journal, writing down each step and taking measurements at how they are growing right through to their first harvest. They can then look up recipes and you can do some fun cooking together with your own home grown tomatoes!
  Why not check out a gorgeous PLANET ECO kids gardening gift pack!
• Stay interested. One of the biggest thing I have seen is people starting out really well but losing interest after a few weeks and then plants get neglected and neglect usually leads to weak plants which leads to sick plants or insect attack and so on.
  I recommend planting some very pretty annuals along the edges of your garden bed, seems such a little thing, but it truly can help you interested and enjoy being out their more watering etc it makes the whole area inviting and beautiful. I often grow vegetables in amongst flowers, to me vegetables are gorgeous plants well worth showing off and make stunning centre pieces too.

Happy Cooking & Gardening!

Bek XX

recipe, text and photography (c)RebeccaMugridge2013

Edible Organic Gardening and Composting Talk - North Shore Community Centre

Edible Gardens & Composting Demo

November 24th 11am
North Shore Community Centre
Come and learn about getting started growing organic edibles at your home and why the soil is so important, with tips for turning your household scraps into usable, beautiful compost!