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

Healthy Food IS Beautiful

BEAUTIFUL FOOD Healthy, natural food is gorgeous.

Appreciate the wonder of nature and its bounty or edibles.

Take the time to have a clean fridge and display your vegetables with care and thought so when you open the door a beautiful collection awaits you - filling you with inspiration for a loving family meal or a great quick bite to eat.
Select your produce with interest, smell the fruit, think of exciting ways to cook the vegetables, new recipes to try.
Look for interesting types you have never tried, heirloom varieties, organics grown with passion. Appreciate all the nutrients these wonderful foods will provide you and your family.

Find local suppliers, farmers markets.
Swap produce with neighbours.

Have fruit out on show in a bowl. Edible art.

Grow vegetables in your flower gardens - they are beautiful plants.

Plant a fruit tree.

Help your local kindergarten grow cherry tomatoes for the kids.

When we start to see healthy food as the delicous world of flavours, nutrients and ingredients it is, when we take the time to discover how interesting it all is we do fall in love with healthy eating and healthy food.

Rebecca x







STAY TUNED for information on my exciting new cookbook
Healthy Mumas loving Healthy Food

PS Hope you like the pictures of some of our families home grown edibles :)

Organic Foods and Kids

Organic Foods and Kids.

Organic food is something I am very passioante about. It is why I started growing food at home after my daughter Lily was born and adapted many creative techniques to growing vegies at home even if you are renting-like me.
There are so many ways to get growing some fresh organic ingredients at home and it's so worth it!

While there are varying opinions as to the nutritious benefits of organic versus not organic fruits and vegetables one thing is usually strong in parents hearts, we want the best for our children.
That includes for many parents now, reducing the exposure to chemicals in our children’s lives.
Why organic though?
Research has shown that overexposure of chemical’s can have side effects in people and children in particular, effect health and even according to some experts mood.
Some also argue that organic is far more flavoursome and even cooks better making it more likely that kids will eat it. Something all parents want
The trouble is organic is not in everyone’s budget. With crops being more labour intensive and produce usually coming from smaller producers the prices are usually higher than there non organic alternatives.
So what’s a parent to do?
Grow some organics. One of the best things you can do is start a small backyard patch as a family and grow some organic vegies at home or in something like an EzyGrow container system if you live in a unit or flat. You know exactly what has gone onto and into those veggies, plus children love to eat vegies they themselves helped to grow and pick.
Buy from farmers markets and roadside stalls.Here on the Sunshine Coast we have fantastic fresh produce markets, many with beautiful organic produce well worth exploring on weekends.
Buy the organic versions that matter most. When at the supermarket pick and choose which organics to buy as your budget allows. Some vegetables are more prone to high chemical residue than others so when we can’t afford to buy all organic we can at least try and buy the organic versions of the vegies most likely to carry strong levels of chemicals and buy the non organic versions of varieties that fair a lot better.
For example Apples, Spinach and Celery all had high traces where as Corn, Pineapples and Avocado’s didn’t.
Visit http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ for the 2011 EWG Shoppers Guide to pesticides in produce.

ALSO BY ME
Growing veggies with kids article-'How to'

AND
How do you get children to eat spinach?