Helping us with real food

Real food by young people for young people

Real lemonade

Kate B. talks about Helpings

Nicki and friend - one of the inspiring young people working for sustainability

A big event of significance in my life recently was the launch of Helpings in Canberra at the Majura Primary Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden. It was a significant event for many reasons. Top of the list would be inspiration from a new generation of young people who are activists in the true sense of the word. Not just talking about change as I did in the 1980s but getting out and changing the world step by step. Acting locally and thinking globally. Running fresh food workshops for school children and serving real food every week at the ANU.  Acknowledging the efforts of locals like the school canteen manager who had the courage to turn around the canteen into a healthy and delicious going concern that no longer sells junk food to children.

It is not surprising that one of the book's authors Charlie Wood was recognised as the ACT's young environmentalist of the year. Charlie helped found Real Food and the connectivity of Real Food's links in the community was evident at the launch. Famous and potentially famous chefs, denizens of local produce and business, scientists, thinkers, writers and musicians. The event was beautiful, eloquent and musical. It was orchestrated to speak to the heart through the stomach. The guest speakers highlighted the crises we face then gave us the hope and optimism to change which is exactly how to inspire human beings to action.

Science writer Julian Cribb pointed out that the population of Canberra (250,000) is born every day but that competition for water gets more fierce and in the end the farmers who need water to feed our planet will be pushed out by the miners and manufacturers. Huge cities were being built with no capacity for independent food production. Without innovation, food and water scarcity are inevitable.

Dietmar Sawyer, of Berowra Waters Inn fame, observed that while on his journey to Canberra he stopped to get petrol where, symbolically, a woman went to the effort to put premium petrol in her car then bought a cheap candy bar and packet of chips to fuel her body.

Charlie reminded us that everything we put in our mouths must be a conscious choice that helps heal our planet and is mindful of the ethics and hidden environmental and social costs of production. We live on a planet where one billion people have too much food and are potentially dying from diet-related diseases while one billion people are starving. Short supply chains are part of the solution.

Growing the growers

Growing the growers and encouraging our young people to go on the land and farm is really important. Check out this amazing project -  I want to support this initiative to grow new farmers, new backyard gardeners and new markets. Alan from Allsun Farms was at the launch and spoke about this project and the City Farms movement. He congratulated Charlie and her  Real Food friends who worked on his organic farm near Canberra as part of their commitment to sustainability.

My children were involved in the production of the cook book from helping test the recipes, singing at the launch and serving the delectable 'real' food made with love by the volunteers associated with the publication of this unique volume. The children were literally over the moon at being part of something big. The book itself has helped shaped their attitudes and response to healthy nourishing food and I find it conceptually so easy for us all to compare 'real food' with the energy-dense denatured rubbish that we sometimes put into our body. We all know the difference and why real food tastes and feels so right. It's a choice that for our family is getting easier to make.

It was a heavenly Monday in a little patch of abundance built by gardeners and growers of children at the Majura School surrounded by crops and produce. Home-made hummus, delectable mince pies, tarts and ginger biscuits washed down with real lemonade showed how real food just doesn't even compare with the horrors of the packaged, preserved and processed food that dominates our supermarket shelves. Real food is fun, bright and beautiful and tastes great. It's good for the planet too. To find out where to buy the cook book visit  http://realfoodcanberra.org/cookbook. The book got some great media coverage and I am still learning from reading it.


Question authority!

Charlie's mum Kate is pretty amazing and one of her personal mantras is Question Authority! All the children are hypnotised by her and will do anything she says including singing beautifully! I don't think I have ever met anyone quite like Kate whose leadership and passion is gentle and inspiring. Kate believes in the potential of everyone and expects great things. A true leader. She makes me feel as if she believes in me and expects great things of me. No-one has ever had that effect on me before except my devoted hubby of course! Kate introduced me to the concept of 'guerrilla gardening' and one Sunday I found myself helping to rescue an ancient tree with a group of willing helpers. We worked to restore the correct amount of mulch protecting the tree. Here is a photo of my daughter taking to guerrilla gardening like a duck to water. She even wore a special outfit! I hope to change the world one step at a time like Kate and her daughter Charlie and I hope to have the same gentle compassion for other human beings on this planet just like Kate and Charlie too!

Fava beans reignite my fervour

The Helpings cook book has a recipe for potato and broad bean salad donated by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall whom many of us worship on the telly as he recreates an Arcadian dream in the English countryside.  I've learned lots of tips from the cook book. I didn't realise, for instance, that you should slip the fava bean out of its skin after you cook it.  Before Helpings I nearly gave up on my vegetable garden but broad beans won me over again. I was despondent as my brassicas had either gone to seed or were being ravaged by white cabbage butterflies. I was so busy doing everything else in my life that I hadn't got out into the garden. I thought to myself that it is a much better value proposition to support the farmer's markets and other local growers.  But then my husband pointed out to me that at least our children got to see a cauliflower peek out of its nest of grey-green leaves and beans crawl quickly up trellises. They know where vegetables come from. Then I made a salad with my freshly picked broad beans and nothing could compare. I also re-read Lolo Houbein who emphasises the benefits of companion planting and how difficult it is to protect against pests and diseases. But it is possible with a few minutes every day and a small plot to grow something. I was comforted that night to talk to a friend (one of my faithful blog followers) who had experienced exactly the same emotions. Disappointment over some poor companion planting (snow peas near onions) then inspiration from that Dutch-Australian genius of a woman Lolo.

I've thrown in zuchinnis, egg plant, chillis and beans and loads of marigold and heartsease (a tip from the Burra Open Gardens). My artichokes look sculpturally beautiful and I've cut up a whole lot of white plastic into cabbage butterfly shapes and hung them near my remaining cauliflowers. This apparently tells the butterflies to stay away because the territory is occupied by white 'pretend' butterflies. The children who come to the garden help harvest our goodies and I was thrilled when my older daughter offered to plant the zucchinis.