Fast Fashion

There are so many ways that we can do our bit to create a smaller footprint on this earth. I bang on about regenerative farming ALOT as you know, but this is another thing we need to be aware of - Fast Fashion and the damage it can cause.

When I was a kid, Christmas was pretty special, because we would just about always get a new outfit. One outfit a year! In between times we wore hand me downs or second hand clothes. I can remember being so excited when Mum would bring a bag of clothes for us to go through and find what we liked. Then as I got older I learnt to sew and that was amazing. My sister and I would make our own clothes, trying to be a little bit trendy. And then when we went to boarding school, life really opened up and we would borrow clothes off our friends.

So naturally as I got older and got a job, one thing I spent money on was clothes! I do remember though that I often chose expensive labels as I knew they would last longer (not because I could afford it!). Now, I see my daughter and her friends and they are always buying new clothes. Online shopping just makes it so much easier!

There are so many problems with fashion today. There’s a lot in the media about fast fashion and the ethics of fashion. Basically slave labour is used in a lot of cases, even with (or especially with) well know fashion brands. This site, Ethical Clothing Australia lists some brands that you may want to check out. I noticed that Nobody Jeans is on the list and I absolutely love my nobody’s – in fact I don’t know that I would buy any other jeans again!

People buy cheap clothes and because they are cheap they don’t last – they either end up in land fill or second hand shops. This does extend the life of the clothes but more often than not they are only fit for rags, thus eventually ending up in landfill soon after. How were those cheap clothes produced? With cheap labour, slave labour.

Re-use and re-cycle. Don’t just throw things out, fix them. This is a bit tricky because a lot of things are poorly made, and we also don’t really have to skills today that our parents or grandparents may have had to fix clothes. My biggest problem is finding the time to do it! 

This is another reason to choose better quality, it may cost more initially but it will save money in the long term through better longevity. Shop at op shops, by buying second hand, at least you save things from going into land fill, for a while. I’ve heard of people that only choose natural fibres so that they can put their old clothes in the worm farms – you may need to pick out the buttons or zips! There are so many costs when it comes to clothes. The cost of the raw materials, the damage to communities through cheap labour, and of course how to dispose of them when there are so many clothes made each year.  

I’ve been trying to find clothes at op shops, but don’t always have much success. However, I will try to source any new clothes from ethical manufacturers or locally made clothes, and I’ll keep checking out the op shops as I can. This theory of buying better quality to last longer, to fix or re-use can be used for all our consumables. The idea of a throw away society has got to stop.

Real Food

Some people find it hard to eat real food when on holidays and if you aren't staying somewhere where you can cook for yourself, it is a real challenge. It can also be hard to find ethical or organic ingredients. Because our holiday spot is close to where we live and regularly shop, we are lucky this time around. We've brought our own meat, have been able to fruit and vegetable shop at our regular markets and we are also close to That Wholefood Place. I stocked up there on a few things, including spelt flour for bread and the ingredients for some cacao bliss balls and muesli (as we ate all the muesli I brought with me, so had to make more). These bliss balls are super easy to make (if you have a thermomix) and are better than chocolate for a chocolate fix. I couldn't be bothered making them into balls, it is far easier to press the mixture into a square shape and then cut into small squares when cool and set.

Lucky I enjoy cooking as I've been doing a bit while away. I haven't preserved my mackerel yet, but hope to get it done - maybe tomorrow. Can't do too much in a day! I did bring my sour dough starter down, but wasn't quite organised enough today and I wanted some fresh bread to have with our left over fish chowder that we had last night for dinner. I did go to the shops to see if I could buys some sourdough but they didn't have any that looked real. So I have baked a loaf - didn't have quite enough spelt flour for it, and couldn't get more from the local store but could get some organic amaranth flour, so I've put about a third of that in the mix. It gives it a nice nutty flavour.

Eating like this is not necessarily cheaper, because buying organic ingredients to cook can be more expensive than going to the local grocery store and buying "normal" packaged food. I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't eat regular store bought food - I'm allergic to it!

Eating real food is one of the principles that I believe in, both for my own health and the health of the planet. I've been planning a few posts that I'm half way through writing, where I'm going to discuss may views on ways to have a smaller footprint on our planet. The environmental cost to the way we live is huge and there are many ways that we as individuals can have an impact, but it does mean some (maybe major) lifestyle changes. Not everyone is prepared or even aware of the changes necessary and we can't make people change anyway. So we can only do our bit and hopefully lead by example.

Fishing

We had a lovely day yesterday - my brother in law took us fishing. It was bit tough getting up for a 6am start, but well worth it. We headed off from Roslyn Bay, out past the Keppels and pulled up near Man & Wife (twin Islands). We started fishing and immediately caught some!

Man and Wife

This is my first one - a Hussar

Then  I got seasick!!! I was so excited to be going out on the ocean and then so disappointed that I all I wanted to do was die -well maybe just be violently ill! Then the whales came! There were 2 or maybe 3 groups playing. They were amazing.

At one stage, one of them started coming straight for us. We started to get a little scared, I could just see us being tipped into the ocean....

It did come closer, but by that stage I was just fascinated and not interested in taking photos....okay I was trying to work out what to do if it tipped the boat over, but no it was just showing off to us! I really do think they were putting on a show for us. There was a Conversation Hour (Qld, with Richard Fidler) a while ago about the whales at Hervey Bay and the Scientists doing the research had the names of whales that kept coming back each year and they had personalties, so I do think they knew that we were watching and enjoying them and so they were showing off. Animals do have conscious thought! I've been around pigs, dogs, cats, cows and even chooks long enough to know that!

Anyway, I eventually got over my sea sickness - it helped being put onto land for a little while. We stopped on a lovely beach on Great Keppel Island and then on Humpy Island where we ate our lunch.

Our view while we ate lunch. Looking out towards Keppel Island.

So after a great success on the fishing front, we headed home to our Beach Shack where we cleaned and filleted and divided the fish. 

An esky full of fish!

6 coral trout - pretty as well as tasty!

Filleting the fish

Spanish Mackerel - a fish that is a great fish to catch, as well as one that has a good bone out percentage. I'm keeping some of this as large fillets to preserve in oil (aka tuna in oil). I'll do this next week!

Dinner last night was Baked Coral Trout. No lemon or limes here, so I picked some herbs (parsley, coriander and mint) from our Host's garden, added some chopped garlic and spring onion and then added a splash of soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil.

Then wrap in baking paper and baking in the oven.

It was delicious!

I'm looking forward to getting sick of eating fish!!! Although, I'm going to cryovac most of it and freeze and take home - after preserving some of the mackerel. Follow Lucy's Kitchen if you want to see that.

Holiday time at the Beach

Kim and I have just started a two week break away from the Farm. We didn’t go too far – only to Emu Park. We’ve got a great little Airbnb beach shack about 50m from the beach, so it’s perfect for beach walks throughout the day – too cold to go swimming though.

When we take a holiday we prefer to be somewhere that we can cook our own food and preferably do as little as possible. So far that’s what it’s been like. The first thing was to go to the Yeppoon markets to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables and of course we brought our own meat, milk, some feta, eggs and a few vegies from the farm. We will eat out occasionally, but honestly we never enjoy it! We enjoy the going out bit and the not having to clean up bit, but usually the food is so below the standard that we are used to that it literally leaves a bad taste in our mouths. And I do hate to spend money on inferior food, when I can spend the money on the raw ingredients and have the pleasure of cooking it too! (and Kim is quite happy to clean up for me!!)

Our Airbnb Host brought a gift of fresh lettuce, cucumber and zucchini yesterday, so that inspired my lunch. Salad with a zucchini frittata. She's also told me I can use the herbs and silverbeet out of her garden as I want it......that's pretty cool for someone like me! I've already started putting the vegetables scraps in her compost bin.

For me, it’s going to be a time to do some of the things I’ve been wanting to do for a while, which will include catching up on some blog posting and some food posting with Lucy's Kitchen facebook page, so if you haven’t already liked the page, do so now if you enjoy seeing photos of food! It’s also going to be some time spent on me! For a while now I’ve had various health problems that pop up every now and again and basically we eat very well, don’t drink too much and get plenty of fresh air and not exactly exercise, but physical activity. My main problem is stress and that is a killer so I’ve been searching for a way to stress less and to find more peace and calm in my life.

I’ve just read a book that my son gave me to read and while it was very interesting, I was wondering what he got out of it, as for a start I wandered what I got out of it. I just worked out that what I got out of it is that finding peace and fulfilment has to start with me. I don’t need to search for some cure or method, its’ already within me. I just have to accept it and practice it! Sounds a bit dumb, and I have read many self-help, positive thinking, you know the type of book….and finally the light bulb went off. I’m sure my son got something different out of it and I think I will get more on reflection. (I haven't really explained that very well, but I know what I mean!)

Anyway, it’s very easy to feel this way on holidays and when you are many miles away from what’s causing the stress! The next two weeks will be spent doing things for me and hopefully this will include writing more posts.

Food and Ethics

I have recently had a few people ask me about my food philosophy. One person asked if most farmers grow their own food and eat like we do. Actually I don't really know for sure, but I don't think too many of the farmers around our area do.

So what exactly is my philosophy?

I have very strong views on the farming of animals for a start! I believe that animals should only be farmed free range - ethical farming I call it. It is wrong and I believe unnecessary to lock animals in small, crowded cages/pens, where they don't have access to display their natural behaviours. We don't need feedlots (CAFO's) to feed the world. If we returned the farmland that is currently used to grow grain for cattle feedlots, to pasture, if we managed our pasture lands using regenerative farming techniques, if we de-centralised our food systems, we can feed the world.

Re-hydrating our land is one of the regenerative farming techniques we are doing.

(People starving in the world is not due to animal or land management, it's due to politics and I'm not going into that now!)

We grow our own meat, so I very rarely buy meat. If I eat out and there isn't a free range option on the menu, I will often have vegetarian. I actually don't go out very often, so it's not a huge issue for me. I've had to buy eggs lately, and I just cannot buy anything but true free range. If I can't get them, we go without!

Turkeys for food.

Vegetables and fruit I try and buy local where I can and when I can't grow them myself. I often go to the markets so will buy there mostly. Even though most of the time the local stuff is not organic, I choose local over organic and not local. Unfortunately potatoes, onions and carrots are essential vegetables for me and aren't grown locally terribly often. I usually buy spuds and carrots from my organic delivery person and when I do that, I'll often buy a few other veg that I don't normally get, just for  a change. Onions are often really expensive organically so I tend to buy commercial onions (and we eat a lot of onions). Spuds and carrots are only worth buying organically because they have so much more flavour.

Most of my dry goods I get from our local whole foods supplier. These are also organic. My preference with all food choices would be organic, but as I said before, local comes first for me. One of my concerns with non-organic farming (think wheat and other grains) is the amount of chemicals used. Glysophate is such a commonly used herbicide and I know for a fact that the withholding period is not long enough and crops are harvested too soon. I don't buy non-organic grains.

So in a nutshell:
Free range and/or organic where possible.
Local food comes first in vegetables and fruit (over organic).
Meat - I wouldn't buy intensively farmed meat even if it was local.
I try not to support Coles or Woolworths, because they DO NOT support farmers. If I can't buy dry goods from a local business, I will buy online (e.g. Who gives a crap toilet paper)
I support local food systems and small business.
I would prefer to buy things without single use plastic, but realise that this is not always possible for small producers going to the markets (it certainly isn't possible for our business)

And to be completely honest, I would stick to this at least 90% of the time. Sometimes, especially if I'm travelling, it's hard, but I'll support a local business if I can't get local food. One final comment I'd like to make, is I know it's expensive to buy organic, but I choose to go without other things so that I can afford to. I don't believe that we can afford to muck about with out health buying choosing less nutrient dense food. I also prioritise my time to grow and prepare food. It's all about choice!

End of January already!!!!

It has been really hot for the last month (okay, for the last couple of months) and even though we've had some rain, we could do with a lot more - we've had just enough to get the grass growing and then the hot dry days come and the grass turns blue! I'm sure the wet will come in soon and we'll be waiting for it to dry out, but at the moment, we are just putting up with the oppressive heat!! I'm hoping to post soon about some farming things, but I thought I might just put up some photos of some of our food experiences while over in the West for our Christmas break.....

Whenever we travel, we like to look for local food and tend to stay in places where we can cook for ourselves. I like the concept of eating out, but it is so hard to find places where the food reaches my expectations! I have certain dietary requirements that aren't easily met. For example, I like food that is freshly prepared, in season and local. Preferably as organic as possible. I don't have dairy, grain or other intolerances, I just have intolerance to inferior quality. So I find it more satisfying to spend my money on good quality produce and then prepare it myself. A lot of the time, this costs as much as what I might spend in a restaurant, but I get to have the pleasure of cooking with quality ingredients and eating within my dietary requirements. And by buying local produce, we are supporting farmers like ourselves - people that care about providing quality food to the local market!

Rosemary grows so well in Western Australia, this plant is huge, and was one of the only things growing happily in my daughters yard - I did make her some rosemary salt as I couldn't help myself after seeing it!

I did a lot of shopping at local farmers markets, however WA is very good at supporting local food and most produce us labelled as grown in WA if it is.

Tomato bruschetta for lunch.

We have friends in the Margaret River area with a farm - they do market their own beef - Leeuwin Grass-fed Beef, however this was some of their lamb. Wiltsure Lamb - eaten on their farm.

Grass fed and finished beef from the Claremont markets. These were huge and very delicious!

Locally made chorizo in a salad for lunch.

Local Fish with veg.

Great seafood in WA, but the crayfish are the best seafood anywhere!!!

One of the main reasons we went to WA was to catch up with Kim's family, and especially his mother who turned 90 this year. We held a party for her, and Kim's cousin in-law finished the evening by cooking paella - it was great to watch the whole process.

I think I need one of these pans!