Written during Covid
We would all like our backyards to be a source of food, medicines, staples etc – but how achievable is it that your backyard could become ”Your Supermarket”?
With decreased block sizes and hectic lifestyles all across Perth, cost of daily living rising quicker every day, Global instability, food/supply shortages/empty shelves, seed shortages, water shortages etc These things don’t usually lend themselves to an easy, non reliant life. But rather the opposite. Stress and constant supermarket advertising, sales gimmicks and the allure of convenience/time saving, quickly find us feeling hopeless and reliant, dependant even.
However, what if I could tell you that there are easy ways to supply yourself with continual amounts of produce that WILL make a difference to not your weekly shopping list, but you, your family and commUNITY’s happiness, health and Spiritual strengthening.
In this 4 PART BLOG we will be discussing how to collect/forage and prepare Basic Food Staples. Then onto how we can grow our foods (Pt 2), how we can conserve and collect energies (Pt 3), and lastly build commUNITY’s and Collective Security (Pt 4).
To start you off cool and calm, here are a couple of easy peasy ideas that anyone can do.
Spring Onion’s and Chives
Save any Spring Onions white stem roots (leaving the white part and roots) and plant them into your garden. Allow them to grow and allow some to go to seed and harvest the seeds, keeping some to fall and establish plenty more Spring Onion. Spring Onion is very easy to grow, it can be planted in containers and many plants can be planted in a relatively small space. It is tough, tolerate of hot and cold conditions and requires very little fertiliser.
Once growing, instead of pulling the whole plant up at harvest, only cut the section needed, leaving the root system intact and in ground ready to reshoot.
Whilst most don’t have the space to grow big amounts of Bulb Onions at the same time also having the room to store them, using this method I have been able to go almost 3 years without having to buy any onions unless I want a specific type of bulb onion. Garlic Chives and Society Garlic can replace Garlic flavourings.
You can harvest the Spring Onions and hang them out to dehydrate as a whole onion, or you can chop smaller and dehydrate on a rack. Use them in soups or make your own stock powders. Dehydrating them is best.
Basil and Soft Herbs Inc Native Herbs
Every suburb has an Elderly gardener and garden. Offer some friendship and perhaps some chores in exchange for some cuttings? Maybe your grandparents or neighbours might have some herbs, do LOVEwise and collect as many different herbs as you can. Then take those cuttings, place in a cup of water half way and allow to root. Change the water every week until roots forward. Once well rooted, carefully plant them out and grow them up.
This will give you a good source of herbs all year round that can be gifted forward as was to you, as cuttings, divisions and seeds.
Take the large amount of freshly harvested basil or any herb you have, remove any large woody stems and chop finely or put in a blender. Pack the chopped basil/herb into an ice cube tray and add a touch of water. Freeze the tray and pop the frozen basil/herb cubes into a freezer bag. Repeat until you have cube frozen all the basil/herb picked. Freezing in a large chunk is not a good idea. Only pick what you need and can/will use.
Dehydrate your Basil/herb by hanging up branches in the shade with air flow or on a herb drying rack. Do not chop or make too smaller pieces. It will speed up the drying time yes, but it will not balance the moisture and evenly dry it, leaving a flavourless, crispy, over dried basil/herb.
Using this method, you can extend your home-grown basil/herb usage well past its natural expiration. Basil/herbs that can be added to soups and stock powders, pasta, and stews throughout the year. All fleshy herbs can be used in this way. Great for Native Herbs too! Dried herbs can be used for infusing teas, soaps, shampoo’s, body washes, candles, and herb oils.
Chillies/Capsicums
Who doesn’t love Preserve’s, Chutneys and Pickles?
How many of us throw away jars from pasta sauces, coffee etc? Don’t throw away Glass Jars and Lids – if they are in good condition and able to seal correctly and fully, they have a use!
If you find a dried variety of Chilli or Capsicum you fancy, grow them. If you can only find fresh, keep the seeds and dry, label and store for 3 months before sowing them. Label’s!! Harvest the seeds from TRUE TO TYPE/OPEN POLLINATED varieties so you know what you’re getting. Expensive to buy, but very cheap to grow. Why wouldn’t you? Plant a few plants of each. This way you won’t have to pick a little bit at a time and have staggered harvest/cure/preserving times. This allows you to harvest a substantial amount needed without affecting the upcoming harvest and fluidity of flower/fruit production.
Once fully grown or ready to harvest, simply pick them off the plant and get your jars ready.
Wash out your jars and lids, place them in the oven at 100 degrees Celsius (unless using Screw Band where you don’t exceed 90 degrees Celsius), turn off the oven and let them sterilize.
Take the chillies/capsicums and cut them into slices about half to 1cm thick rings or chunks. Seeds in or out is your choice.
Place a pot of water on the stove, heat up to a rolling boil and add vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix ratio is usually 3 (water), 2 (vinegar), and 1 (salt) parts. Carefully add chillies/capsicums and take off the boil. Let it cool for a few minutes and then strain the liquid. Using oven gloves or a tea towel, very carefully remove the jars and lids from the oven. Carefully fill the jars to the neck with your chillies/capsicums and then slowly add back the liquid. Both the liquid and the jars should still be quite hot so again go slowly. Place the lids on the jars and seal up. Allow to cool, create vacuum and seal up tight and then store them in a dark place. Try using different spices in the brine mix. Also good for other soft veg.
Another way to get flavour forward is to grill them. Same prep work for the jars, clean and sterilize in hot oven both jars and lids. Pick off the chillies/capsicum’s and put them straight under the grill. Burn the skins until they are blackened and blistered. Put them carefully into a container and seal up. Allow them to cool and this will assist you in peeling the skins off. Once cooled a bit to work with, peel the skins off. It’s perfectly ok to leave a little bit on. DO NOT WASH them under water as this will wash off all the roasted flavours we’ve worked hard to produce. Once they have been peeled, drizzle olive oil over them, black pepper and fresh herbs from your garden, experiment with native herbs too, and toss all together. Place into jars and top with more olive oil. Seal and store.
Legumes and Grain’s We all use varying amounts of Legumes and grains. Either there is too much or not enough, meaning shop cans. This is ok if it’s all you have available but what if you could have plenty on tap and in the garden? To do this you need to sow and grow loads of Beans, Pea’s/Split peas and Lentils and Ancient Grains. It is easier than you think!!
Someone, somewhere has some died soup beans. Ask for some and scatter them in your garden. They will grow, but beware that some shop bought ones might not. Try anyways. Once grown and ready to pick, start picking pods for fresh beans for salads, or leave them to mature and dry on the plant. Either separate beans from pods now slowly by yourself or spend the day with friends and family as a collective. Spread out the harvest and allow to further dehydrate for another few weeks, then store in airtight jars and containers. Now you can have, Kidney Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Broad Beans, Black Beans, Mung Beans, Black Eyed Pea’s, Pigeon Pea’s, Gungo Pea’s or whatever takes your fancy, as you need, when you need.
Blend up and powderize blonde beans and even Chickpeas to make Gluten Free flours! Also try growing, harvesting, storing and making flour with QUINOA, CHIA, BARLEY, SORGHUM, BUCKWHEAT and fresh uncooked raw SESAME seed even. Label seedlings and harvests.
Tomatoes and Tomato Powder
What no fresh tomatoes? Or less common, what do we do with all these tomatoes? One way to mitigate this is to grow your own tomatoes. Tomatoes are quite easy to grow, don’t require too much and are often one of those plantings that give back more than they get. Find yourself a good quality, locally grown, organic heirloom or open pollinated tomato and save it’s glorious seeds (you don’t need much, a teaspoon of seed pulp or 20-30 seeds is great as you will eat some, plant some and save some*).
Ferment a quarter of the seeds collected in a jar with some of the tomatoes own juice for a week.
Fing a suitable spot in your garden to grow your tomatoes and with the fermented seeds, gently pour them out and cover lightly with some soil. Leave to germinate, thin them out. So let SUBURBAN FARMER show you how to grow your own backyard garden veg for everyone. REFER TO SUBURBAN FARMER’S LIVING SOIL AND VEGETABLE GROWING GUIDES
*To save the remainder, simply clean them with a cotton towel and remove the gel coat gently, spread them out on a flat surface and allow to dry for 3 weeks for saving and storing them in a dark spot.
Now that you have tomatoes growing and have set fruit, are now ready to pick, you may find have too much fruit. It is very possible with tomatoes especially cherry tomatoes. If this is the case with you, there is something that you can do with the excess fruit instead of letting it go to waste or salads day and night with fried green tomatoes.
Save as many tomatoes as you can from the end of the season’s last harvest. Grab a large pot and fill halfway with water and allow to reach a slow boil.
Place the tomatoes in batches into the water and blanch for a minute or so. Prepare your Glass Jars and lids as per usual in the oven. After a minute or so when you see the skins starting to come away, place the blanched tomatoes in another pot of cold water. Once all are blanched, fully peel the skins off and keep for later, being careful not to burn yourself, and gently press with a masher once or twice to release some more of the juices and slightly break the tomatoes.
Place a squirt of lemon juice in the bottom of the jar, add a sprig of Basil and herbs, add some rough chopped Garlic or fine chopped for intense Garlic flavour, fill with tomatoes and then top with the liquid stopping just at the shoulder neck from the top of jar.
I always add a pinch of Sea Salt to the tops and then place the lids on.
In a very very large cooking pot with lid fill to a quarter volume and start to slow boil. Carefully add the jars in one layer, making sure they are totally submerged, if not add more water carefully.
Now we slow boil the jars again in a large pot in batches, for 1hr to 1.5hrs. Once done, take care to remove the jars and leave to cool down completely before storing in a cool, dark place.
With the leftover peeled skins, I like to dehydrate them and then put them through my blender to make Tomato Powder. Jar it up and add it to the Spice Rack.
Sweet Potato and Potatoes
Not only do they grow great in our gardens, but they can also be a great addition to your Family/commUNITY pantry.
Scraps of the Sweet Potato and Potatoes can be grown into full plants that have full harvests, how cool is that. So don’t throw away any pieces that have eyes. These are the growth nodes. Potatoes must come from a whole potato but a Sweet Potato needs only a slip (20-30CM piece of vine) to be planted shallow with leaves pointing upwards. Eat both the leaves and the tubers of the Sweet Potato but only the Potato itself not the leaves. Allow to grow as a ground cover or densely plant for food for both crops.
You can not only boil them both but you can also, make chips, flours, hash browns, fries and dehydrate, Save the skins for making stock powders and oven baked snacks.
These are just some of the things that you can do to make life a bit easier and the bills a bit less so you can Enjoy Life More, Live Life More and Love Life More.
Blessed Love, Ras Mark SUBURBAN FARMER