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Permaculture is the New Organic

Permaculture is a term introduced in the 1970’s, but is being talked about more and more. I think we are going to hear even more about it in the coming months and years.

I recently posted about the term ‘organic’ being rendered irrelevant by large scale agriculture and food companies, and permaculture may soon replace this term.

Permaculture is not so much a set of rules as it is a philosophy. It’s about doing things in a way that are low impact to the environment as well as minimizing inputs and outputs. Inputs and outputs are minimized by reusing waste as much as possible and designing systems that are self-sustaining and don’t require inputs of energy, chemicals or natural resources.

For many of us this is nothing new. It’s how we have been gardening and living our lives for a long time now. It is however useful to have a term and a way to formalize and discuss it. In this way we can all improve the way we do things, and help each other at the same time.

Expect to hear this word a lot more on this blog! If you’re interested in a longer and more detailed discussion of these principles, Wikipedia has an article on it here.

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Interesting Scape

Scape from Korean Garlic

These are scapes that came from two kinds of Korean garlic, Korean Red and Pyong Vang (I think this is just an alternative spelling of Pyongyang, the capitol of North Korea). Sorry they are a bit crumpled, I stuffed them in a bag with other scapes, and wasn’t very careful with them. Notice they are mostly topset pod and not much stem, unlike normal scapes that are mostly stem.

I was at the garden yesterday, and I was very surprised to find even more scapes had formed, almost as many as the previous visit!

My garlic is finally showing some signs of rust, with about half the plants having a few small specks on them. It’s not too serious I hope, and I’m still expecting to have a mostly normal harvest this year.

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Increasing Irrelevance of Organic Certification

In the US changes are underway to allow 38 non-organic ingredients in food certified as organic. Increasingly food companies want to sell certified organic food containing non-organic ingredients when organic ingredients are not available.

This comes amid the realization that for some time now beer sold in the US as certified organic has in fact contained non-organic hops. This is due to an interesting loophole in the organic certification rules that allows food in the US to be certified organic when up to 5% of it’s ingredients are non-organic.

There are similar moves in Europe to centralize organic certification on a EU level, allow 5% non-organic ingredients and allow 0.9% GM ingredients. Many people may find it difficult to find anything wrong with this last point, 0.9% GM ingredients, because they think some contamination is inevitable. In fact by being this lax simply guarantees our food supply will become contaminated to this level. It’s not inevitable and if we buy food expecting it to be GM free, it should simply be GM free.

Also while food in Europe containing genetically modified organisms are considered GM, food that is made with the assistance of GM organisms is not. For example the artificial sweetener aspartame, ‘vegetarian’ rennet in hard cheeses as well as many food supplements fall into this category and are allowed in certified organic foods.

A similar thing happened with Fair Trade certification. We all want to believe we can help people in the developing world by spending more money on Fair Trade products. Increasingly there are stories of very lax enforcement of Fair Trade standards and of farmers who aren’t paid at all for their products. Even when the rules are followed, and farmers are paid, the extra they receive under Fair Trade schemes is very small compared to the extra we as consumers pay for the products.

If you want organic food, the only meaningful way to get it is growing it yourself or buying it from a local source you trust.  You also simply have to avoid processed foods. The same thing is true with Fair Trade. We all live near farmers or other local businesses who are having a hard time in the current economy, and it’s better to spend your money on these people than on goods imported half way across the world with a meaningless certification attached to them.

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Garlic Scape and Pesto

Garlic Scape and Pesto

I was at the garden on Friday and harvested about 2 Kg of garlic scapes! Because I’m so far north, I always end up harvesting my scapes weeks after everyone else has posted about them. By now scapes are old news to most of you!

After giving away scapes to everyone we could think of, we made pesto out of the rest.

No formal recipe for the pesto, just pureed the scapes in the food processor with enough olive oil to make it liquefy well, then stirred in grated Parmesan cheese. I was amazed at how much olive oil it took to make a good consistency, it’s like the pesto scapes just absorb the oil as you add it. In the end, I added something in excess of a half a liter of oil. When eating it, we found it needed a further drizzle of oil, and we roasted some pine nuts to put on top, as well as a bit of salt.

I’ve never made garlic scape pesto before, and it was nice. The raw taste gets to be a bit much after awhile, and wow — that garlicky aftertaste in your mouth is something else! Honestly I prefer scapes in a stirfry, but this was a nice change too. The problem with scapes is always how to keep them. They are only good for a week or so after harvest and don’t freeze or dehydrate well, even if they are blanched first. I’ve read that as pesto it stores better in the freezer. I hope so, because we’ve probably got enough pesto to last years!

So far my garlic plants look really good! Both John and Rebsie have reported garlic rust in the UK, but I haven’t seen any on my plants yet. It’s late enough in the season that if my plants do get infected, it probably won’t impact the harvest much.

One of the more exciting garlics for me this year is called Gazebo Grande. I received it from a member of the Seed Savers Exchange who lives in Wisconsin, in the USA. She developed it in her own garden, and I am one of the first people she has shared it with. True to the name, the plants are huge! I’m looking forward to seeing it after harvest.

Last year I sent planting samples of my garlic out to several people, and I had enough for everyone who wanted some. I expect to do the same this year, so watch out for announcements the end of August or so. I can’t send it to the US, because US customs doesn’t allow it. I can send it most other places. I don’t know yet what the costs will be, but you should expect to at least pay for shipping.  I also always accept trades!  If you have something to offer in exchange, please let me know.

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What the World Eats

I came across this photo essay earlier this week with pictures of what the world eats and found it fascinating. Things that stood out for me/questions brought to mind/stuff I discovered:

  • Look at how colorful the American’s processed foods are
  • The Germans have some tasty beer
  • The Mexicans drink a lot of Coke
  • The Breidjing Camp in Chad looks spacious and clean. My salad in the canteen at work at lunch costs more than their week’s worth of food.
  • Everyone is eating lots of bananas/plantains. Especially the Ecuadorians.
  • I like the Namgay’s living room better than their toilet. And that is one monster bag of grain.

More Hungry Planet photos here.