Easy Banana Bread

Mash four very ripe bananas. Mix in a bowl.

Add one ingredient at a time with the flour the last added.

85g melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups plain flour.

Preheat oven top 180 degrees C

Mix in ingredients one at a time.

Grease and line your loaf tin, pour in mixture and bake approximately for an hour until cooked.

Our June Meeting

Jodi and Michael gave an interesting presentation about gardens they have visited.

APPLE POLENTA FLAN

Omshree brought along a version of this recipe to our latest gathering. Flavoured with custard, castor sugar and lime zest it was a winner and at the moment we have an abundance of citrus. He tells us the original version below is a real winner


Flan can be made a day ahead; keep covered in refrigerator. Flan unsuitable to freeze or microwave. 

Seedsaving: A link to an interesting resource

An interesting and easy to understand article on seed saving from the Permaculture Research Institute site. Don't be put off by the title because the seed saving tips apply to all climates.

Easy seeds to save. Pic from PRI

Saving Seed on the US/Canadian Border

Three productive vegetable gardens in Bundagen, 22 May 2014

Almost thirty people enjoyed a brilliant afternoon at Bundagen in May.

We gathered at the entrance to Bundagen so that we could drive in convoy to the three gardens that we had been invited to visit.

One of our hosts, Shunyam, made us very welcome to her  beautiful garden

The solar drier well-placed for maximum sun

The young coconut palm aroused a lot of interest 

Methods of protecting our plants are always of great interest to our group
and we were impressed by those we saw at Bundagen

The intriguing Buddha's Hand

Shankari explains her market garden

Warrigal Greens (Tetragonia tetragonioides) grows like a weed in our climate

Warrigal Greens plants are always popping up and spreading around and in my garden beds. It loves our climate. It loves well drained soil, water, heat and humidity but also grows well in dry weather. When you have this growing you will never be short of a useful green vegetable. BUT....you must cook it because of its high Oxalic Acid content.

Link to Milkwood with loads of information on foraging, growing and eating Warrigal Greens.

Fruit and vegetable harvest May 9 in a subtropical/warm temperate area of NSW

Bananas

Blue Browallia with red Irisene behind

Brazilian Spinach

Grapefruit

Coffee

Custard Apple

Mouse Melon

Perennial Capsicum

Basella

Edible Hibiscus

Fig

Jackfruit

Kent pumpkin

Lemon Basil

Lucullus silver beet

Mandarin

Meyer Lemon

Mountain Paw Paw

Naranjila flowers

Almost ripe Naranjila fruit

Bunchosia

Rocket

Single tree dahlia

Small white guava

Katuk/Sweet Leaf

Tamarillo

Tree Chili

Small cream guava

Wing Bean

Choko/Sechium edule

Cherimoya

Just six companies in the world have patented most of the seeds grown in the entire global agricultural market.

 

Bellingen seed saving workshop

Decisions made in high courts in the 1980s that favored the likes of Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Group Limagraine, Land ‘O Lakes/Winfield Solutions, KWS AG, Bayer, Dow and Sakata have given away our food heritage, built around thousands of years of agricultural knowledge, to a few greedy entities in just a few short decades, but seed saving might just halt this corporate greed and degradation of our food. Read more below.

LINK to Nation of Change Story

Visit gardens at Bundagen, 12.30pm May 22. RSVP is a must.

 

A previous garden tour

 

We will have a very interesting afternoon as we will visit three gardens in one of the villages.  We will be meeting at the entrance to Bundagen before moving on to the village and it will be important to arrive on time so that we can travel in convoy.  Parking in Bundagen is restricted to designated car parks.  I will need to know that you are coming.  I will let you have all the necessary details as soon as I hear from you.  

Our numbers will be limited and it is essential that we car pool.

 

Email: bellingenseedsavers@gmail.com

Eat the Weeds; a handbook available in Bellingen shops

Save money and gather your greens. An easy to read handbook of weeds available for gathering in our local area.

"This is a great place to start if you’re new to edible weeds and a great way to learn to see your landscape as a foodscape. Adam and Annie have written an incredible book featured on the video called “The Weed Foragers Handbook”. The Permaculture Research Institute

Recipe Links

Wild Purslane Salad With Olive Oil And Lemon Dressing ...

45 Things To Do With Purslane - Chocolate & Zucchini

10 Ways To Use Dandelion Greens Kitchn Recipe Roundup ...

Sow thistle with onion, goat cheese and pine nuts 

Note: Always make sure you are eating the correct weed and it has not been polluted by spray or animals.

Gathering April 2014 at Jodi & Michael's

Bellingen Seed Savers' Gathering at Jodi, Michael and Quinn's hugely productive property in Dorrigo in April 2014. 

Here's a glimpse of their ever-evolving piece of paradise,  achieved by creativity, innovation and sheer hard work. 

View from the terrace

The chicken tractor fits the terrace beds and is moved frequently 

New swales will gently guide water into the new dam - when it rains!

Like-minded friends share their joy in their surroundings

The large variety of fruit trees are all grown from seed

The blue recycled half-barrels hold strawberries and hard-to-confine herbs such as mint.
Flowers are grown throughout the garden to attract beneficial insects and delight the eye. 

Jodi finds that the most efficient way of raising seedlings is to sow into soil blockers
To look at the equipment used click on soil blockers

Quinn enjoys foraging in the garden for
wonderful nutritious, truly local food.