{"id":2319,"date":"2012-05-28T17:44:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T07:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2012-06-03T15:59:55","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T05:59:55","slug":"rambling-vines-perfect-pulses-in-the-seedsavers-veggie-patch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=2319","title":{"rendered":"Rambling vines & perfect pulses in the Seedsavers veggie patch"},"content":{"rendered":"

On air on Byron Bay\u2019s community radio station, bayfm 99.9, on May 28, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a lovely sunny day in May I visited Jude and Michel Fanton, directors of the wonderful biodiversity foundation, Seedsavers.\u00a0 We had green tea perched on the very second hand cement blocks which edge their garden beds.\u00a0 The tea was a discovery during their recent travels, liasing with seed, permaculture, and other green groups around the world.\u00a0 Summer is too hot to garden around here they say.\u00a0 But right now is the perfect time.\u00a0 Walking around the veggie patch with Jude until the mosquitoes drove us away, I started to feel much better about my “failures”, all those plants that will just not thrive in our humid, and occasionally very hot climate.\u00a0 And about taking the easy way out in the garden.\u00a0 The people who taught lots of us about collecting, drying and saving seeds now even often let the plants sort it out on their own, and somehow manage to have an exciting, varied and mostly vegetarian diet from their not particularly large patch, even though they go away from Byron Bay so often.\u00a0 Jude calls it ‘using the soil as our seed bank’.\u00a0 I also love the expression ‘bandicooting’, which means foraging around the patch getting bits and pieces at various stages of maturation.\u00a0 The best idea of the day though was the solution to all those sad, mouldy zucchini plants that coastal gardeners normally need to bathe in asses milk and prayers to have any hope of picking a few sad little fruits.\u00a0 Just give up on them altogether and grow pumpkins, which are basically weed hardy around here.\u00a0 Pick the flowers, the shoots, and the half grown pumpkins, skin and all, to use as zucchini.\u00a0 I had to ask Jude to repeat that one.\u00a0 Yes half size pumpkins, so of course depending on the variety we are talking a whole lot of sizes, can be cooked as if they were zucchini.\u00a0 I will certainly be going into the belly lab and investigating that one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jude had many more ideas on growing and using vegetables that grow easily in our area. \u00a0 If you would like to follow us around the veggie patch, click on the audio links<\/strong> below.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Horseradish, gingers, leeks, shallots, mustard and more<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cambodian basil, chufa, sweet potato, thymes and more<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pumpkins, chokos and more<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the dark and the mosquitoes drove us away from the veggie patch, we went inside and Jude talked about two of her favourite perennials, pigeon peas and lima beans, which are some of the staples in her diet.\u00a0 They also make very attractive barriers around the vegetable garden.\u00a0 Lima beans are a vine, and pigeon peas a very attractive small tree.\u00a0 Jude grew her lima beans on an old metal bunk bed frame.\u00a0 Possibly and idea if you can’t get your large unwanted items to the tip?\u00a0 Of course make sure they aren’t made of something that will leach nasties into your soil.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Click on the audio links below to hear Jude Fanton talk about two of her favourite pulses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lima beans<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My friend the pigeon pea<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MUSIC – EUROVISION YEEI<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like stuff that’s so bad it’s good you’ve got to love Eurovision – and some of it is actually just good.\u00a0 Not much admittedly.\u00a0 The second place getters this year had to feature on belly – they danced and sang and baked biscuits!\u00a0 And they were totally gorgeous Russian grannies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 
\n