Sick Wasabi

The hardest part of my project to explore ways of producing home-grown Wasabi has actually been getting hold of plants to grow. One supplier I found wanted $98/plant and another wanted me to sign a contract and set up a full-scale commercial production unit.

At last, I found a source of plants at a reasonable price ($8.80 AUD). The drawback is that I could only order one plant (apparently the last of their stock for the moment) and I made the mistake of doing this just before Christmas. The plant got caught up in the post and was in rather poor condition when it arrived.

The good news is that it appears to be making a slow recovery. However, I will be ordering another as soon as they have more in stock and hopefully this will arrive in better condition.

If you are looking for a good source of plants for a wide variety of herbs and food plants, here is a link to the site I found.

Wild Food Plants for the Garden

On a recent trip to visit my brothers in Queensland, we needed to make a quick stop and found a small park on the banks of the Richmond River at Casino in Northern NSW.

I had been reading about "Australian Wild Rice" for some years and had long been intruigued by the prospect of growing this unutilised food plant. Apparently this species (Potamophila parviflora) is genetically related to American Wild Rice (Zizania spp.), but is restricted to just a few river systems half a World away from its Yankee cousin.

I had thought of looking for this plant, which could easily become threatened by things like climate change and habitat loss, but was quite surprised to find anything even vaguely resembling it on our little rest stop. But that is what happened! I went for a quick stroll down to the river and literally walked straight into a plant seemed to have all the charateristics I had read about. (The photo above is the only reconisable one of this species on the Net - previously I could only find botanical descriptions).

To see if I had really found what I thought I had, I collected a piece and some seed. The available descriptions were not completely helpful, so I have had to spend many hours eliminating every other possiblility to be confident that this is actually Australian Wild Rice. I will have more about this plant on my website as soon as I have finished putting together more information.

When is a Chestnut Not a Chestnut?

On a recent trip to America, I was pleased to see many plants I had known only from gardens, growing in the context of the native environment. However, there were also as many that were completely new to me.

One of these was a small shrub with spiky fruit that looked a bit like a scaled down version of a Chestnut. Inside (ouch!) was a small nut that also looked remarkably Chestnut-like!

I looked everywhere for a local Botanist to help me identify this mysterious critter, but in the end I had to do it myself. It turns out that it really was a kind of Chestnut - at least in the sense that it was a species in the same genus (Castanea sp.).

Although I couldn't work out which exact species it was, it clearly fell within the group known as Chinquapins (or Chinkapins), a few of which are being considered as potential new crops.

As yet, I know of no work in Australia to develop this crop, but there is a page on the Purdue University site that talks about it.

If anyone knows anything more about these interesting plants, or is actually growing them, I would love to hear about it! Please contact me by email with any interesting stories about this or other potential new crops.

A Way to Make Money from Your Garden

Peter Schlumpp (a recent visitor to Food from the Garden) was good enough to share his experience in growing vegetables for sale at Farmers Markets. Here is what he does:

"Over the years I have made some experiments how to grow food faster and better and some of my methods might be very unusual but they worked extraordinary for me and are not known horticultural ways of doing things, but could be beneficial for everyone about the way we grow and eat food.

"Some of my growing methods include simulated rain and solar-steps as well a potting mix that contains up to 10% of crushed red solid clay bricks excellent for potting mixes. (Supplies minerals and trace elements , holds water very well and drain the mix very well and evenly) Crushed brick is a recycled product and available at about $15 a ton and better than water retaining crystals which are very expensive.

"I have also developed a method of growing food in a shorter period of time so saving water and labour also no spraying of chemicals and no problems with weeds."

Organic Compost

There are still a lot of misunderstandings about compost making. While there is nothing wrong with a bin or tumbler out by the shed, if you want to produce a consistent supply of good quality compost for your whole garden, then (like anything else) it just takes a bit of planning and preparation.

Here is a short video that shows how simple it can be. You can also find more details on our Organic Garden Compost page. From there you can also get an excellent e-book describing the ideal biodynamic method of composting.

My Tomatoes are Cracking

To grow properly, tomatoes need a constant supply of moisture. If there is a sudden, heavy shower, the fruit may swell too quickly - causing these cracks. The risk is greatest (as in this case) with small fruit in relatively dry conditions that suddenly change.

Inside, the fruit will be fine, but this weakness in the skin mean they will probably not keep more than a day or two so, if you can, use them quickly. Maybe a nice, hearty Bolognaise Sauce would be a good idea?

A problem with my spuds!

These potato plants look as though they have been blasted by a shotgun or hit by lots of tiny hailstones, but it is actually insect damage.

The damage has been caused by 'Earwigs' and although the holes look rather random here, it is more usual to see them (on plants with very broad leaves) arranged in straight lines across the leaf.

To avoid using chemicals on this problem you have to start early (my mistake - I didn't). Earwigs hide during the day and scrunched up sheets of newspaper can make effective traps. Over time, they can help you keep the population down, but at this stage they are unlikely to do much. This late in the day, you could try rummaging about in the yard, turning stuff over to find them or going out at night armed with tweezers, but just putting up with scrappy looking plants is probably the only practical option. Don't worry though, they won't damage the actual potatoes.

For information on various methods for ecological gardening, Click here.