Category Archives: Green

Home Grown Radishes

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Culinary Adventures, Green, Our Growing Edge and tagged with , , , , ,

our-growing-edge-badgeThis post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. I am the host for this month’s event. If you have a blog and have tried something new with food this month, come and join this event.

radish19

Growing vegetables recently has made me feel like a child. I get excited about each new advancement and I’m eager to visit the bottom of the garden every other day to view the changes. I’m proud of every little thing and show off each new thing to The Koala and to Tofu the bunny.

I’ve never tended to a vegetable garden before but I’m sure glad for all the resources available these days. According to numerous websites, radishes take 4 to 6 weeks from seed to harvest. So every other week for the from 5 weeks, I would pull up a finely prickled plant to check if the radishes were ready. They weren’t. They weren’t bulbing and there was nothing I could do about it but wait.

Then suddenly (it seemed), after 10 weeks, our first radishes were ready.

radish09

Purple plum radish looks a bit like a deep sea creature.

I picked off the tender flowers for Tofu the rabbit while we feasted on the peppery bulbs.

The Koala recalled how his Dad fixed himself radish sandwiches so I smeared fresh bread with a little cream cheese and avocado and topped them with slices of radish. A sprinkling of salt and pepper and they were ready to go. The sharp, crisp radishes are lovely with the soft creamy base.

We also tried slices of radish in a salad. We’re growing a a few lettuces which we started eating a couple of weeks ago and I plucked a few varieties of these, a handful of basil and assembled a yummy salad topped with shredded smoked chicken, mayonnaise and soft boiled eggs.

Yum.

radish

Tofu Tuesday: Terraced Pallet Garden

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Green, Tofu Tuesday and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Growing your own food is uniquely satisfying. I don’t know if it’s my age or the times but more and more of our friends are growing their own food. I’ve hinted at our vegetable garden before, but I didn’t want to share it until we started eating from it. That time has come.

terraced-garden-montage

If you follow me on Pinterest, you’ll know I have a slight obsession with up-cycled pallets and vegetable gardens. We live in a rented villa so we didn’t want to spend much money on our garden in case we have to move. Both The Koala and I have day jobs that revolve around paper so we have free access to wood pallets. In hindsight, we should have started this garden when we moved in 5 years ago. I could “what if” at my 5 year old vegetable garden all day, but you gotta start somewhere and late is better than never.

terraced-garden01

The bottom of our garden has a gentle slope so we terraced the space using the pallets. Sloped ground drains water in random ways so terracing flattens sections to work with. We’ve never done anything like this before so it was all a learning curve but we are happy with how it turned out.

Terraced Pallet Garden

You will need:

  • Spade/shovel
  • Measuring tape
  • Enough pallets to border each terrace
  • Strong arms and elbow grease
  • Trellis (optional)
  • Compost (see notes below)
  • Seeds or seedlings

Method:

  1. Lay out pallets end to end to plan the length of the walls.
  2. Dig a trench half a pallet deep and a little wider than you will need, removing any large rocks along the way. Enlist friends to help if they are willing.
  3. Insert pallets as straight as you can (a spirit level would have helped) and fill up front and back of each pallet with soil.
  4. Optional: Cut a trellis into sections to border garden from pets.
    terraced-garden12
  5. Layer compost on top and start planting.

Compost

How much compost will I need?…is one of the trickier things to work out if you’ve never bought compost before. I can only share what we did and hopefully that will give you an idea for your own garden. Our vegetable garden is approximately 3.5 metres wide by 3 metres deep. We used 8 x 40 litre bags (320 litres) of compost to give a nice layer on top of our existing soil. We bought our compost from Zoodoo.co.nz who make compost from hoof animal manure from our local zoos. They offer competitive prices and free home delivery.

terraced-garden17

5 tips for a terraced pallet garden:

  1. Every pallet is slightly different so measure the actual pallets (do not just x5).
  2. Plywood pallets are better than particle board pallets, but both are usable.
  3. Insert pallets leaning back every so slightly. Do not lean them forward as this may encourage them to fall forward.
  4. Plant herbs or strawberries in the pockets made by the pallet walls.
  5. If you want to paint or stain your pallets, do so before putting them in the ground.terraced-garden09

Easy Chalkboard Garden Markers

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Green and tagged with , , , , , , ,

garden-markers3

My sister and I were ages 6 and 8. Eager to witness the magic of food production, we would visit our carrot plot in the garden every day, select a carrot and pull it up to examine it’s size. More times than not, it was still too small and went straight back into the ground.

I don’t remember if our daily checking harmed the carrots but you can’t fault us for our enthusiasm.

Like many foodies and home cooks, starting a vegie garden seems like a logical, noble and wholesome thing to do. After 5 years renting the same property, we’ve finally started digging around the garden. Of course I wish we had started this garden 5 years ago, but it’s better late than never. I have a bunch of seeds sown directly and some in peat.

In the meantime, I’ve been on the look out for pretty garden markers to sort our tidy our new garden. I’ve seen beautiful ones online for up to $20NZ per garden marker. When you consider it costs a few dollars for a packet of 50 seeds, $20NZ for the marker is ridiculous.

I loved the idea of chalkboard markers – they look great and being able to reuse them each season is a bonus.  I spied sturdy chalkboard place cards at a local store and I was sold. Two giant popsicle sticks and three staples to the back and these were ready to chalk up.

garden-markers4

Chalkboard place cards can be bought at Looksharpe Store for $20NZ for a pack of 12. Giant popsicle sticks are $2NZ for a pack of 26. I’m sure you can find these at your local craft store.

Easy Chalkboard Garden Markers

garden-markers1

What you will need

A gun stapler and staples

Chalkboard place cards (the wooden kind, not the card kind)

Giant popsicle sticks

Oil pastel, liquid chalk marker, white grease pencil or weatherproof chalk.

 

garden-markers2

Instructions

  1. Take 2 popsicle sticks and align to back of a place cards. Use 3 staples to secure and write name of plant in on the front.
  2. Repeat with remaining pieces.

garden-markers5

Note: I found oil pastels the best. If you have any sort of art supply collection, you will probably already have a pack of oil pastels and they’re compulsory for school students here. They come in bright colours that look great against black and wash off easily with a cloth when you want to re-use them.

 

An OOOOBY Review

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Culinary Adventures, Green and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The weirdest thing in my CSA box was red russian kale

OOOOBY stands for Out Of Our Own Backyards and is an Auckland-based company that offers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA has been popular in other countries for years and with the trend towards organic and locally grown foods as well as growing in our own backyards, it is a recipe for success.

Last week, we switched from the vege/fruit original OOOOBY Box to the Vegetable Box. The Vegetable Box costs $8 more than the Original Box but has a hefty amount of vegetables. With double the vegetables, it was too much for two people. We’re both back to working 40 hour weeks at the moment so I’m not eating at home as much. Therefore, we are taking a break from our subscription this week so I’ll take a moment to review OOOOBY’s services so far.

Boxes

We’ve had three deliveries and tried two different boxes out of their range of four. We tried the Original Box and also the Vegetable Box. We haven’t tried  the Fruit Box and Family Box which don’t suit our two-person household.

Subscription

OOOOBY works on a subscription based system much like a pre-paid tab. You pre-pay four weeks in advance and your tab will run out faster if you make regular Add Ons to your delivery.

Local

I like eating food that is grown around Auckland. I’ve heard of situations where a carrot is grown in Region A, then sent to Region B for sorting and packaging and then redistributed all over the country, including where it began in Region A. It’s not logical. It also makes me wonder how old that sad carrot you see at the supermarket really is. If there is food being grown in your area, it should be your first choice over similar food imported from around the country or worse, from a distant country.

Seasonal

I enjoy eating seasonally. No one needs to eat strawberries in winter. And to be honest, they really don’t hold a candle to seasonal fruit.

Organic

I hardly ever buy organic produce at the market due to cost and availability. It’s nice to be able to afford organic produce each week.

Changes

Any changes to your Tuesday delivery can be made as long as you get your request in by midnight of the Thursday before. I’ve been emailing changes which I find is most convenient for me (as I can email at crazy out of office hours). I always get an email response in a timely manner to confirm that my request has been noted.

Add Ons

I first thought that Add Ons needed to be made at time of subscription, but you can choose different Add Ons each week. We have only been adding bread at this stage and we’re huge fans of their ciabatta. Its wonderful have a rustic loaf of nice bread delivered every week. Other Add Ons I have my eye on are their fair trade bananas, 100% pure apple juice and fair trade certified organic coffee.  If OOOOBY ever decided to add milk to their Add Ons, it would would certainly make it more attractive.

Breaks

Some weeks you might not need a delivery. Maybe you’re going to be away or you didn’t cook much the week before and have plenty left for the following week. As long as you let OOOOBY know by midnight on Thursday, it’s fine. Putting our subscription on hold for this week was no problem and just took a simple email to organise it.

Amount of food

We found that the Original Box was quite a lot of food for two omnivores but if we ate at home every dinner and a few lunches, we got through it. It took careful planning but I could get used to it. Working out a meal plan has been invaluable. The Original Box would be the perfect amount for 2 adults and 1 or 2 small children. I don’t think it would be enough for a growing family. I would recommend the Family box for a family with hungry kids.

A couple of vegetarians or vegans may find the Original Box more suited to their needs. I think OOOOBY would also be great in a flatting situation where you include the weekly deliveries into your rent and everyone helps themselves or uses the produce for flat meals.

Value for money

The Original Box is great value for money for mostly organic produce and I spend about the same as what I would spend at the grocery shop per week. The Vegetable Box was too many vegetables for us and also didn’t work out to be as good value as the Original Box. It is a new product so perhaps they’ve yet to work out the right balance.

I have allocated rough values for the items in each box to get a better understanding of how much the items cost.

Original Box, Week 1, $27

  • 1 Garlic (Self Certified Organic) $1
  • 1 Red Skinned Turnip (Self Certified Organic) $1
  • 6 Carrots (Conventional Sprays) $2
  • 1 Fennel (Certified Organic) $2
  • 2 Brown Onions (Certified Organic) $1
  • 2 Silverbeet (Certified Organic) $3
  • 6 Agria Potatoes (Certified Organic) $3
  • 1 large bunch Italian Parsley (Certified Organic) $3
  • 6 Newstead Gold Apples (Conventional Sprays) $4
  • 3 Mandarins or Naval Oranges (BioGro Certified) $2
  • 9 Green Kiwifruit (Certified Organic) $5

Original Box, Week 2, $27

  • Half a cauliflower (conventional sprays) $3
  • 1 big red kumara (certified organic) $2
  • 8 carrots (conventional sprays) $3
  • A huge bunch of red russian kale (certified organic) $5
  • 7 baby beets (certified organic) $5
  • 6 pink lady apples (conventional sprays) $4
  • 10 gold kiwifruit (certified organic) $5

Vegetable Box, Week 3, $35

  • 2 bulbs of garlic (self certified organic) $3
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves (self certified organic) $2
  • Half a crown pumpkin (certified organic) $6
  • 1 cabbage (conventional sprays) $5
  • 7 carrots (conventional sprays) $6
  • 2 broccoli (certified organic) $6
  • 2 silverbeet (certified organic) $5
  • 1 stick of rosemary $2

Convenience

The convenience factor is a huge plus for us. I’ve been sick for the last 6 weeks and found that even going to the market was hugely draining. I would recommend CSA for anyone who wants to save time or energy from shopping but are capable of cooking meals from scratch every day. This may not suit everyone. The box is delivered in a nondescript, sturdy cardboard box. It arrives sometime during Tuesday day and it’s always been there when I arrive home from work.

Flexibility

You can put up to 3 items on your “do not want” list. If you are picky or have more than 3 things that you don’t like, CSA is not for you. We have only 1 item on our “do not want list” so far: potatoes. It isn’t that we don’t like potatoes, but because we love them so much we bought a 10kg bag.

Heads up

An email is sent out the previous week, usually on Friday to let you know what to expect on Tuesday’s box. This is great if you plan on doing any shopping in the weekend for your meat and staples.

Recipes

Two or three recipes are included with every OOOOBY box.

Trying new things

Essentially having someone else do your shopping based on what is in season means that you get to try things you might not normally buy. While I’d love for there to be more exotic items for me to puzzle over, I’m sure that others don’t feel the same. Each week there’s been one or two items that I wouldn’t usually buy and the rest are all considered “safe”. Easy enough to handle. The weirdest things I got each week were red russian kale (pictured above), red skinned turnip and kaffir lime leaves.

Summary

We will be continuing with the OOOOBY Original Box for a wee while. Fresh, organic fruit and vegetables, convenience and a good price are all good reasons for us stay on board. Tofu the bunny also approves of OOOOBY Tuesday and he’s really been spoilt with fresh vegetables the last few weeks. He usually eats only the leaves and avoids the stalks. With OOOOBY, Tofu eats both the leaves and the stalks which is equivalent of a two thumbs up.

By the way

I am in no way affiliated with OOOOBY and we paid for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review and not an advertisement. But if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme and we’ll get a free loaf of bread each. Your choice of kumara sourdough, ciabatta, mixed grain or even gluten free. Choice!

You can find more about OOOOBY over at their website www.ooooby.org.

Read my other posts about CSA here.

OOOOBY BOX WEEK 3

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in CSA box, Culinary Adventures, Eats, Green and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

OOOOBY Box Week 3. I was photographing the CSA vegetables on our deck and who should just happen to come by? Tofu the rabbit thought he’d died and gone to heaven.

To get more efficient in our grocery shopping this winter, we are replacing the 2 to 3 trips per week to the market, with a weekly CSA delivery. I plan on topping this up with a fortnightly trip to (or maybe even delivery from) traditional supermarket and a fortnightly trip to Nosh (a local gourmet food store). Local CSA project OOOOBY has a great concept and ethic and we are in week 3 of our subscription.

This week our CSA box included:

Vegetables only

  • 2 bulbs of garlic (self certified organic)
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves (self certified organic)
  • Half a crown pumpkin (certified organic)
  • 1 cabbage (conventional sprays)
  • 7 carrots (conventional sprays)
  • 2 broccoli (certified organic)
  • 2 silverbeet (certified organic)
  • 1 stick of rosemary

Fruit and sweet vegetables

There is no fruit this week as we’re trying out OOOOBY’s vegetable only box. We still have kiwifruit left over from last week so we aren’t entirely fruitless. I got an Add On of kumara sourdough instead of ciabatta this week for a change. For those not in kiwi-land, kumara is the Maori word for sweet potato or yam. We eat it like a vegetable in place of potatoes rather than in desserts. Marshmallows have no business with the kumara. Kumara are quite at home with a roasted joint of meat, scattered with rosemary and garlic or mashed with a little milk and butter. In New Zealand, pumpkin is eaten in much the same way here and while I’ve never been a fan of pumpkin, since it was so kindly delivered with rosemary and garlic this week, I better roast it with rosemary and garlic. It’s the polite thing to do.

The weirdest thing in the box is:

Kaffir lime leaves. I used these a lot in Thailand last month. I guess this is a time to do some Thai-inspired cooking now that I’m back in New Zealand.

Recipes

This week there are 2 recipes included by OOOOBY. They are roast broccoli and cabbage flan. The cabbage flan recipe looks interesting. I love many other vegetables with cheese and dairy so why not cabbage?

CSA Link Party

I’ve also joined a CSA box link party. A link party is a weekly or monthly round up of relevant blog links in one handy place. Anyone can submit their posts and if you are interested in CSA and what see what other people around the world are getting each week in their boxes, have a look at blogger In Her Chuck’s CSA box Link Party here. Last week there were 51 submissions from around the world.

By the way

I am in no way affiliated with OOOOBY and we paid for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review and not an advertisement. But if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme and we’ll get a free loaf of bread each. Your choice of kumara sourdough, ciabatta, mixed grain or even gluten free. Choice!

Read my other posts about CSA here.

Kale chips and a CSA box review for Week 2

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in CSA box, Culinary Adventures, Eats, Green and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Red russian kale and kale chips

The Koala: “What are you making?”

Me: “I’ve already eaten them. They were kale chips.”

The Koala: “Kale?...Chips?!? What were they like?”

Me: “Like dry, crunchy leaves. I ate the whole bowl.”

The Koala was unconvinced and secretly glad there were no kale chips left. Even I’m not convinced, but I did eat all of them before I realised what was happening. A good way to get rid of an abundance of kale I guess.

This recipe is easy and you might as well give it a try if you have kale. Maybe you’ll like it. Or maybe you’ll find that you ate the lot before you could decide if you liked kale chips or not. Just make sure you keep a close eye on these suckers in the oven because they can burn in a heartbeat.

Kale Chips

Makes a bowl enough for 1 or 2 as a snack

Ingredients
1 bunch of kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
A sprinkle of salt, paprika, and/or garlic salt

Preparation

  1. Pre-heat oven to 170°C/340°F.
  2. Pick the leaves from the kale stalks and discard the stalks. Tear the leaves into chip sized pieces.
  3. Wash thoroughly and pat leaves dry with a clean tea towel. I lay down a layer of kale at a time on one half of a tea towel, then fold over the tea towel and rub my hands over the towel until the kale is dry.
  4. Place dry kale in a large bowl, add oil and seasonings. Combine using your hands so that the kale is thoroughly coated in oil and seasoning.
  5. On a baking sheet, lay down a layer of baking paper and then arrange seasoned leaves in 1 layer. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the leaves start to brown. It’s very easy to burn these so keep an eye on them.
  6. Remove chips from tray and place in a bowl. If they aren’t quite crunchy, don’t worry, they seem to crisp up on their own. Repeat until all leaves have been baked.

Last week our CSA box included:

Vegetables

  • Half a cauliflower (conventional sprays)
  • 1 big red kumara (certified organic)
  • 8 carrots (conventional sprays)
  • A huge bunch of red russian kale (certified organic)
  • 7 baby beets (certified organic)

Fruit

  • 6 pink lady apples (conventional sprays)
  • 10 gold kiwifruit (certified organic)

Meals for week 2 included:

  • Beef meatballs with plum glaze, baby beet* and carrot* salad with pineapple egg fried rice
  • Manuka honey roast chicken drumsticks, onion** and red kumara* with balsamic braised red russian kale* and pink lady apple*
  • Spiced carrot* and coconut soup with toasted ciabatta*
  • Pasta salad with smoked chicken and roast vegetables: baby beets*, carrot*, cauliflower*
  • Devilled sausages with onion** and pink lady apple*
  • Kale chips seasoned with olive oil, paprika and garlic salt
  • Fruit and yoghurt Sliced pink lady apples*, gold kiwifruit* and banana. Topped with russian fudge yogurt
  • Stewed pink lady apples* and brown sugar caramel on porridge

CSA box Week 2 *
CSA box Week 1 **

Week 2 of our CSA box was good. I wrote a meal plan for the first time and pretty much kept to it. I think I’ll write a new meal plan tomorrow for Week 3. If anything, it will be a good guide to figure out how to get through Week’s 3 huge bounty of vegetables.

Week 2 was our second week of eating lots of fruit and while I’m sure it’s been good for us, our fruit eating has definitely waned. So for Week 3, I’ve changed our order from the original box of fruit and vegetables to vegetable only. This means double the amount of vegetables and no fruit. Just as well because we still have kiwifruit left over from Week 2 as well as the extra bananas we purchased.

Last week we received kale. As mentioned before, kale seems to be a CSA star. Everyone in the world gets kale in their CSA box at some point and there’s no shortage of recipes on the net. It’s supposed to be crazy good for you and that always impresses me. I really think that we should be eating smarter. The red russian kale we got last week looked cool with it’s purple stems and purple tipped leaves. I sauteed the kale with balsamic and apple and I also baked it into chips. The Koala didn’t love kale, but thankfully, Tofu the rabbit seemed to enjoy the leaves. No one liked the stalks. Not even the rabbit.

CSA Link Party

I’ve  joined a CSA box link party. A link party is a weekly or monthly round up of relevant blog links in one handy place. Anyone can submit their posts and if you are interested in CSA and what see what other people around the world are getting each week in their boxes, have a look at blogger In Her Chuck’s CSA box Link Party here. Last week there were 56 submissions from around the world.

By the way

I am in no way affiliated with OOOOBY and we paid for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review and not an advertisement. But if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme and we’ll both get a free loaf of bread each. Your choice of kumara sourdough, ciabatta, mixed grain or even gluten free. Choice!

Read my other posts about CSA here.

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1 – Review

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in CSA box, Culinary Adventures, Green and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our first week trial run of local CSA company OOOOBY was a success. Every single item from last Tuesday’s CSA box was eaten before the next box was delivered although for a moment it looked like we weren’t going to get through all the fruit. But a solid weekend of fruit eating got us through the lot. I picked up a trick via Youtube on how to prepare kiwifruit and having pieces of ready to eat fruit on a platter made it more enticing. It was so much fun peeling kiwfruit this way, once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Last week our CSA box included:

Vegetables

  • 1 garlic (self certified organic)
  • 1 red skinned turnip (self certified organic)
  • 6 carrots (conventional sprays)
  • 1 fennel (certified organic)
  • 2 brown onions (certified organic)
  • A couple bunches of silverbeet (certified organic)
  • 6 agria potatoes (certified organic)
  • 1 large bunch of Italian parsley (Certified Organic)

Fruit

  • 6 newstead gold apples (conventional sprays)
  • 3 mandarins or naval oranges (BioGro certified)
  • 9 green kiwifruit (certified organic)

 Meals for week 1 included:

  • Baked chicken drumsticks with roast vegetables: red-skinned turnip*, carrots*, garlic*, onion*
  • Steak with garlic* and italian parsley* roast potatoes* served with buttered green beans and carrots*
  • Pan-fried salmon fillet with sautéed silverbeet*, garlic*, chili on white rice
  • Corned beef with fennel*, potato and carrot*.
  • Bangers and mash* with sautéed silverbeet* and carrot*
  • Potato* and leek soup with bacon bones served with butterey garlic* toast.
  • Baked Newstead Gold Apple* pudding
  • Fruit platter* with oranges and green kiwifruit

* From CSA box.

I was worried there would be too much food but we ate all the delivered vegetables plus a few extras that we bought outside of the CSA box: green beans, leeks, chili and extra potatoes.

Last week, we bought a whopping 10kg bag of potatoes for $6 from our local supermarket, so I’ve requested that we no longer receive potatoes in our CSA box. We usually buy 4kg or 5kg bags, but since the 4kg bag was $7, it was actually cheaper outright to buy the 10kg bag for $6. The potatoes are covered in dirt and great quality. I used to buy washed potatoes but I have since found that unwashed potatoes not only stay fresh longer, but they taste more potatoey.

It’s amazing how many potatoes two people can eat in a week and while I didn’t think we were going to eat 10kg before they went bad, I now am confident that we will have no trouble getting through the lot.

OOOOBY emails and Week 2

I don’t mind a complete surpise, but it’s nice having the OOOOBY list emailed the weekend before delivery as it means that I can start formulating a meal plan for the week. I’ve never been much of a weekly planner, but it’s an efficient way to shop and cook. Especially if you don’t want to be visiting the shops every second day. Our next delivery is this afternoon and I’ve already formulated a rough meal plan for this week’s CSA box which I will posting tomorrow morning.

By the way

I am in no way affiliated with OOOOBY and we paid for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review and not an advertisement. But if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme and we’ll get a free loaf of bread each. Your choice of kumara sourdough, ciabatta, mixed grain or even gluten free. Choice!

Read my other posts about CSA here.

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in CSA box, Culinary Adventures, Eats, Green and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

OOOOBY Box Week 1

CSA

CSA is a way for locals to support their local food growers and producers but subscribing to a set price per season (or month) in return for a weekly delivery of produce. I’ve written about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in 2009. Back then I wasn’t in a hurry to sign on because of lack of control over what we received. 3 years on, I appreciate the concept more. CSA is a great way to get variety into your weekly meals with local, seasonal and organic produce. It connects local growers and their communities together in the most efficient way possible. CSA usually involves fruit and vege, but there is also CSA for meat and eggs, and CSF which stands for Community Supported Fishery.

In the summer, I adore my walks two to three times a week to the various local markets to buy fresh food. But now that it’s winter, the days are short and cold and it’s dark by the time I get home from work. No part of me wants to leave home and walk in the the dark to get food. It was time to trial some local CSA. So this month, we are trying out OOOOBY.

OOOOBY?

OOOOBY stands for Out Of Our Own Backyards and is currently running only in Auckland but hopes to extend to other parts of the country as it gains momentum. Conceived on always-sunny Waiheke Island almost 3 years ago, it now connects over 4000 food growers with over 200 Aucklanders. You can join up either as a buyer, a grower or both. OOOOBY is extending to the Gold Coast in Australia so if you’re in that area, keep your eyes peeled.

Their boxes range from $27.90 for the original box up to $42 for the family box. You can even get fruit only or vege only boxes if you prefer. Each week, you receive one or more of their various boxes plus delicious add-ons including bread, honey, relish, juice, coffee or free-range eggs. You can even opt out of up to 3 items so if there are any fruit or vege you do not like, you’ll never see them in your OOOOBY box. Delivery to your door (or nominated address) is just $2 or if you add-on 1 item, delivery is free.

You subscribe for a minimum of 1 month and pre-pay in advance. If you choose to get add-ons each week, this will eat through your tab faster. OOOOBY are also flexible so if you find that you want to change your mind about anything, you can just email them and get it sorted.

This week our CSA box included:

Vegetables

  • Garlic (Self Certified Organic)
  • Red Skinned Turnip (Self Certified Organic)
  • Carrots (Conventional Sprays)
  • Fennel (Certified Organic)
  • Brown Onions (Certified Organic)
  • Silverbeet (Certified Organic)
  • Agria Potatoes (Certified Organic)
  • Italian Parsley (Certified Organic)

Fruit

  • Newstead Gold Apples (Conventional Sprays)
  • Mandarins or Naval Oranges (BioGro Certified)
  • Green Kiwifruit (Certified Organic)

Red-Skinned Turnip

We also added a loaf of ciabatta.

The Koala and I aren’t big on fruit, but we hope we can handle 3 varieties a week.

OOOOBY are all about community and social goodness and you can even volunteer your time in exchange for an OOOOBY box. They need packers and people to deliver boxes, so if that sounds like you or someone you know it could be a great way to get fresh food and meet some stellar people doing good things.

By the way

I am in no way affiliated with OOOOBY and we paid for our box and add-ons with our own hard earned money. This is a review and not an advertisement. But if you would like to join OOOOBY, contact me about their their refer-a-friend scheme and we’ll get a free loaf of bread each. Your choice of kumara sourdough, ciabatta, mixed grain or even gluten free. Choice!

Mini-box for a special bunny

Letter from the Minister for Food Safety

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Green and tagged with , ,

The food bill has been something that has been in the news recently both in the US and in NZ. The biggest concern to your average home gardener and foodie was the policing and regulation of growing, sharing and gifting food and seeds. It was one of those things that sounded too ridiculous to be passed. But when you show apathy because something seems too retarded to happen, it could very well happen right under your nose.

I recently signed an online petition against the food bill and today I got this letter back this afternoon. Sounds very promising.

I’m guessing that those that make a few dollars selling their excess bounty may be concerned, but will anyone bother policing a few bags of tomatoes?

What are your concerns on the food bill?

Click for full view

Monsoon Garden

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Green and tagged with

The weather in Auckland right now reminds me of monsoon season in Borneo around this time last year. Only this is a bit colder. It’s supposed to be summer. This week we’ve had intense bits of rain followed by intense sun. No one seems to be enjoying it except the garden.

I ate my first garden strawberry this week (we planted 2 varieties) and I’m getting excited at the prospect of our tomatoes. They’re a still green at the moment, but you can tell they’re going to be all different.

To get more interest out of the 3-drawer filing cabinet planter, we’ve planted 3 tomato plants.

  • Beefsteak  – a deep red, large (one of the largest kinds), uneven shaped tomato.
  • Sweet 100 – a prolific red cherry tomato.
  • Yellow Plum – a bright yellow egg shaped tomato.

Beefsteak Tomato (one of the biggest kinds)

Sweet 100 Tomatoes (one of the smallest kinds)

 

Forage something and cook with it

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Eats, Green, Recipes and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

There is loads of onion weed in the garden again and a recent post on Alessandra Zecchini’s blog reminded me of the onion weed dumplings I made last year.

I’m loving daylight savings time and it’s nice to be able to cook and photograph in natural light after work.

I made these potato cakes for a pre-dinner snack but I think it will be easy to find another reason to eat these. I used the bottom 10cm of the plant which is the white/green base. It’s crisp rather than stringy. Thoroughly wash the onion weed and don’t use any that may have been sprayed with yucky chemicals. Otherwise, happy foraging!

Onion Weed Potato Cakes

Makes 8

Ingredients
2 large potatoes
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion weed
3/4 cup grated cheese
salt (garlic salt optional) 
black pepper
Oil
8 onion weed flowers for garnish 

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
  2. Peel the potatoes and remove the skin. Continue peeling the potatoes until it gets too hard to grip. Reserve for another use – about a finger’s worth of potato will be left. Roughly chop the potato ribbons into 1-2 inch bits.
  3. In a bowl combine all the ingredients together (except oil).
  4. Spoon into a well greased muffin tin. Top with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
  5. Bake for 30 minutes.
  6. Serve hot or allow to cool and serve as party or picnic food.

A Taste of a Poison Paradise

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Green and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

We had a bit of a scare this week when Tofu ran inside on his own and sat under my desk hunched up, trembling and grinding his teeth. Teeth grinding in rabbits can indicate pain and he refused food and water including bunny favourites like carrots and pellets.

When he gets his cheeks and arms rubbed, Tofu stretches out his arms to say “OOoooOooh yeah, dat’s good”. So he got plenty of that and it was a relief that he was responding to touch. He was hunched up like this for over an hour.

We kept him warm by covering him a folded towel, patted him and tried to entice him with food.

Rabbits graze all day so it’s a concern if they refuse food for any period of time. It’s often bad news.

Suddenly, he was fine again. All the untouched food we had laid before him, was demolished ate with great fervor. He devoured everything.

Heatstroke?

The last time he was sick (last summer), we suspected it was heatstroke. But Auckland is only about 14°C during spring so that couldn’t have been it this time.

Toxic?

Our neighbour had just mentioned that the weeds in our backyard were toxic so we quickly did some investigating to figure out what type of plant it might be.

Heart shaped leaves, white flowers

Black berries like black currants

These plants are black nightshade and while not as toxic as deadly nightshade, they are still bad news. Potato and tomato plants are related and are also toxic. Black nightshade is common in New Zealand and is spread by birds who eat (and poop) the ripe black berries. Not much you can do to protect your garden apart from banning birds.

Black nightshade is found in young or disturbed pastures which makes a lot of sense as our garden was heavily weeded months ago. Lots of plants were torn out and patches of dirt were ready and waiting for something else to take over.

We can’t be sure it was the weed that made Tofu sick, but we didn’t like the idea that it could happen again. Black nightshade can attack the nervous system so trembling and loss of appetite can be indications of black nightshade poisoning. We can’t use chemicals in our backyard with Tofu running free, so we pulled and cut out all the black nightshade. There was a lot of it. There are still dropped berries, but there isn’t a lot we can do about them at this stage…Can you vacuum the backyard?

Our pile of black nightshade.

It seems that the ripe black berries are eaten both raw and cooked (sprinkled on muesli or made into jam) and the green leaves are eaten when cooked (by Vietnamese). But I’m happy to get rid of all instances of black nightshade from our garden without exploring it’s culinary uses. Foraging is only good if it’s a sure thing.

From Landcare Research: “True deadly nightshade is extremely rare in New Zealand. Unfortunately, this name is mistakenly applied to black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), the latter having somewhat poisonous green parts and harmless berries. The two are easily distinguished: deadly nightshade is a large plant over a metre high when mature, and has large, bell-shaped, brownish-purple flowers followed by large, egg-shaped black berries. Black nightshade is a much smaller plant (about half the height of deadly nightshade when mature), and has small white star-shaped flowers followed by little black berries, similar to black currants.”

Another suspect

And then we have this mystery plant that is growing all through our backyard. Does anyone know what this is?

Large leaves 20-30 cm

A lone mystery plant by the shed.

It looks like a bug has given one of the bottom leaves a good munch. Does that mean it’s fairly safe?

A whole tribe of mystery plants.

We haven’t seen Tofu eat any of these plants or the black nightshade, but should we pull up the mystery plant just in case it’s a poisonous plant?

Malthus, Meal A Day

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Culinary Adventures, Green and tagged with , , , , , ,

Meet Malthus. Malthus is an aquaponics* unit that is designed for the next generation’s home kitchen.

This is a conceptual piece and has a planned production of 100 pieces. It grows 1 portion of salad and 1 portion of fish each day.

I love the concept but I wouldn’t enjoy eating the same food every day. You wouldn’t enjoy me blogging about fish and salad every day! Or would you? Maybe I could rename the blog “365 ways with fish and salad”. I could write a cookbook for future generations.

But…if you could grow 1 portion a day of any meal, what would it be?

More info here at Conceptual Devices.

* I’m guessing aquaponics is a portmanteau for aqua+hydroponics.

Georgina Baker’s Family Silver

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Fashion, Green and tagged with , , , , , ,

I had a lovely leisurely lunch with my sister on Sunday. The bacon hash at ThirtyNine is an absolute favourite and it didn’t fail to impress this time. Newspapers, crosswords, coffee. After that, we hit Ponsonby for some serious browsing.

Photo taken by my sister.

Jewels for Foodies

Texan Art Schools stocks Georgina Baker’s work and I was blown away by how something so simple and “every day” could be so beautiful.

My favourite were the ornate teaspoon handle earrings and also the spoon pendants. If I didn’t have stretched lobes, I would have snaffled the earrings up in a heartbeat.

Buy for youself or your foodie friend.

Geogina Baker’s website: www.georginabaker.co.nz

Texan Art Schools: www.texanartschools.co.nz