a milled life for all

I have been reading John Newton's book "The Roots of Civilisation: Plants that changed the world" which is filled with interesting facts about ,well, the plants that not only changed, but shaped our world, our present day societies. I love the mix of history and biology that Newton provides.

In the chapter on cereals I learned that the word 'cereal' is derived from Ceres, the Roman incarnation of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest. Also that Prince Millet (millet being a member of the grass family, of which all cereals are members) was the celestial ancestor of the Chou emperors of China, and the Dogon people of Mali believed that millet was stolen from the gods.

To me, considering that a cereal, a means that sustains life, is so valuable as to be associated with gods, makes much more sense than to associate a cold metals or gems such as gold or diamonds which we incredulously choose these days! In fact a milled life was a term used by the Greeks for an ordered society - this despite the fact that the actual milling was done by women and slaves! In Egypt, a loaf of bread shaped like the eye of Horus was found at Thebes and dated around 1500 BC.

Rice, according to the legend of Wisnu, the lord of the underworld,  in Bali was "born" when Wisnu raped Mother Earth to fertilise her - rice was the result!

Maybe we have come a long way from those first gruels and slurries humankind made from cracked grains, but it is still an important part of our existence. Riots still break out over shortages of rice and other cereals as we have seen in recent years. The planting, sowing and harvesting of grain is still as important to us as it was to the ancients.

So next time we break bread with someone, I for one will remember that the word companaticum, the root of our word companion, means one who breaks bread with another, and be grateful for the not just my daily bread, but the porridge, congee, couscous and pastas that fill our plates as well.

Finally got out to the fruit trees and picked the lemons and limes. It has been our best season yet for lemons. I must have picked about 3 dozen very large lemons and there are more on the tree yet to ripen. The limes are steadily ripening on the tree, but the crop is not as big as last year as we pruned the tree back hard as it was getting too tall for a suburban yard. It is wonderful to know that no chemicals have been used on the fruit, and the only water used was rain water or grey water from the washing machine. We feel a real sense of achievement in our small crop.

So I guess I should turn my mind to …. marmalade

Brassica - perhaps the most important agricultural and horticultural crops, but not without some effort

A few years ago, we were lucky enough to visit the vegetable plot at the Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, made famous by Peter Cundall on the ABC programme, Gardening Australia. Actually, we acted like groupies who had just scaled the walls of the home of their favourite rock star. We took turns posing for photographs beside each of the 6 vegetable beds. I can’t describe the level of our excitement when we located the compost pile! All I can say is that it was just as well we were travelling without our children as had they viewed our giggling behaviour we would have lost all credibility as parents!

The six bed crop rotation system of the vegetable plot is designed to fit into the average backyard. One of the beds is currently a brassica crop. Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It could be well argued that this genus contains more important agricultural and horticultural crops than any other genus.

Brassica is a native of western Europe, the Mediterranean and temperate regions of Asia. Cultivated species are grown worldwide but many of the wild species grow as weeds, especially in North America, South America, and Australia. Why, you ask?

Almost all parts of some species have been developed for food, including the root (rutabaga, turnips), stems (kohlrabi), leaves (cabbage, Brussels sprouts), flowers (cauliflower, broccoli), and seeds (including mustard seed, and oil-producing rapeseed). Versatile little plant isn’t it?

They provide high amounts of vitamin C and soluble fibre and contain multiple nutrients. There have been claims of anti-cancer properties also.

So growing any of the various Brassica plants can lead to the joy of harvesting your own  fresh salad greens, bunching or braising greens, as well as small and large

heads and root crops. Generous servings of pac choi, chinese cabbage, tatsoi, broccoli raab and mustard greens, can feed and amaze your family and friends!

Not all Good News

However, it is not a crop without some issues. It is susceptible to clubroot spore that lurks in our soils. Clubroot is caused by the pathogen Plasmodiophora Brassicae which can potentially persist in soil and water for up to 20 years even in the absence of host plants! Chinese cabbage is very sensitive to the disease. Cauliflower is less susceptible than Chinese cabbage; but more susceptible to the disease than broccoli and head cabbage.

How To Win the Fight

Avoid double cropping brassicas. It is best to rotate brassica crops with non-brassica crops (e.g: potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, pasture) to reduce the clubroot spore load in the soil. Affected plants produce large distorted roots and wilting is often the

first noticeable symptom. The galling or knots on the roots may not be obvious until affected plants are removed from the ground. Plants which are severely infected will be stunted, therefore producing poor quality crops which may not even live to harvest.

If you are watering from a dam near brassica plants or weeds, irrigation water

should be taken from the surface, as clubroot spores will settle to the bottom. Avoid taking the muddy water from near the bottom of a dam.

An acidic soil pH should be limed before planting the crop. The disease is less virulent when the soil pH is at least 7.0 as the germination of the spores is inhibited. Care must be taken not to increase the soil pH too high,  otherwise nutrient deficiencies may occur, or diseases of other crops may become more prominent (e.g: powdery scab on potatoes).

Liming is best done in partnership with the crop rotation, and calcium and boron application as this will maximise the potential to control the clubroot pathogen.

Opening Day

Growing up as a child in a rural Queensland town, I am familiar with the concept of the backyard vegetable garden and farming in general. My parents had both grown up on farms in the district and had in fact share cropped for the first years of their married life. By the time I arrived, in the late 1950s, they had moved into a house in town and so my first experience with growing things was the vegetable gardens they and our neighbours tended, along with the chickens they kept.

To this day I have a school friend who reminisces with a mixture of delight and regret for the deep red tomatoes that my mother would slice into sandwiches for our lunch. They just don’t grow tomatoes like that anymore, we always say with sigh. But that is not true for many people are growing tomatoes just as red and just as sweet in their vegetable gardens every day. Anyone can do it with just a little effort, knowledge and commitment.

This blog is to help you achieve just that. Aided with the knowledge of my husband, an agronomist of some 40 years standing, with a heritage that includes a tea planter from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and dry land wheat farmers of Irish heritage, and my own knowledge gained from 30 years of gardening, I hope to share the joy of the agrarian life, whether you live in a concrete jungle or out amongst the gum trees.

So, let’s get a sense of humus, shall we?