Acerola Cherry - hardy perrennial superfood

I'm so very pleased with our small harvest of 6 acerola cherries this season.

It didn't fruit previously because I'd neglected everything, but it did survive! What a champion. It is still in a planter bag!

I noticed that fruit eaten earlier had a very strong flavour of Vitamin C, similar to (but nicer than) goji aka wolf berries. As they matured, the flavour became nicer but they are still good younger and if you were unwell, I'd treat this as a supplement :)


They are beautiful, hardy and delicious. Relatively easy to propagate... these are a winner.

Read more online -
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/featured-news/West-Indian-cherry-203857331.html

Sweet potato can survive not being watered in Western Australia

I just completed a job that has been left waiting for at least a month: repairing the retic for the sweet potato out the front.

I'm feeling very pleased with myself :) Sweat dripping down my face as I was working  lol... put a tap on the end of the dripperline for easy flushing next time (even a pregnant or new mother could do it ;))

The amazing thing is that the sweet potato has done so well - clearly the best source of carbohydrate for Western Australians. Hands down.

Winter 2012 sweet potato - only part of the harvest!

It does really need water to produce a good yield, but tubers will stay in the ground with no water for at least 6 weeks and leaves will not wilt. The ultimate test of resilience in my book since the last few weeks in Perth have seen some extreme heat - around 40 degree Celsius some days. And no rain.

The link between depression and unsustainable agriculture

It's been a wonderful break over Christmas and I spent most of my lovely free time reading My Beautiful Genome by Lone Frank and Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin. I can highly recommend both: However, the spotlight deserves to be on My Beautiful Genome.

Wonderfully easy to read. Share Lone's exploration of her genetic history and gain a deeper understanding of how genetic variations help to shape your personality, relationships, emotions and more. Her reflections on neo-eugenics, emotional resilience, genetic plasticity and how coffee can affect breast size... if you have the right genes.

I know what you're thinking! Very different topics - genetics and agriculture - but for me, I have been thinking of how our modern lifestyle places people under extraordinary pressures that they may not be biologically equipped to handle.
This is concerning not only in terms of our health, but also in terms of reducing our capacity to adapt to a changing world - considering climate, land use and culture.


How can we, as a society, hope to forge a new path, if we can't be bothered to get out of bed in the morning?


If you're depressed and struggling, you're not going to be thinking behaviour change, advocacy or anything at all other than 'what's for breakfast' ... which will probably include cheap wheat and sugar from your local industrial food outlet. Possibly with a bit of some heavy metal or a bit of carbon that can be traced back to it's pre-historic origins.

The rate of depression in first world countries - not to mention allergies, auto-immune diseases, decreasing fertility and cancer - is way too high. I've heard many people suggest that people in third world countries are too busy surviving to have time to get depressed. That is part of the story. Certainly I've met some people who manage to survive on meat and potatoes... not everyone would be OK on that diet! These people seem to be made of pretty sturdy stock.

Many people who are actually in the midst of a deep despair (I've known a few)  feel that they have no choice but to medicate themselves for either short periods of time, or their entire life. I suggest that these people are the canaries in the coal mine for our society - considering stress from perceptions of crime in densely populated cities splashed all over the media, lack of community, low quality food and toxins.

We understand that health challenges like depression do have a genetic component and Frank's exploration of this puzzle is worth reading, just to understand that scientists are still piecing together the pieces of the puzzle. We medicate as a stop gap before the 'perfect' treatment that might be developed in a number of years. Maybe this perfect treatment will be a little protein that flicks the epigenetic 'switch' back to 'normal' (whatever that means).

After I thought about these connections between sustainabilty and mental health... I went looked up the ingredients that the body needs to make a batch of serotonin. This information is not that well known even by those interested in nutrition.

• Tryptophan
• Iron
• Vitamin B3
• Calcium
• Folic Acid
• Magnesium
• Zinc
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin B6

(Tabrizian, I. 2003)

Wonderful... the ingredient list for mental health. Perhaps I should add 'act, belong, commit', which is a great public health campaign in Australia at the moment.

Consider that the following anti-nutrients can be present in high doses in either our environment or our food supply.

• Mercury (blocks iron and zinc, which sit near it on the periodic table)
• Copper (blocks iron, folic acid, zinc and magnesium)
• Cadmium (blocks zinc, magnesium) 

(Tabrizian, I. 2003) 

I'm aware that cadmium is present in industrial fertilisers. It becomes more available to the plants in unhealthy or degraded acidic soils which occur in marginal farming country - where farmers may be pushed financially.

Here in Western Australia we don't have a lot of natural minerals in our ancient soils - zinc is one example. We can try to get it from seafood and eggs and so on, but realistically, chances are that we're on the low side. Supermarkets can't get the high levels of Vitamin C - the older the fresh food; the lower the levels. This is because Vitamin C is nature's anti-oxidant (preservative).

I don't know about you, but I find this biochemical reality very very interesting. For me, it is a nail in the coffin for industrial agriculture using chemical fertilisers. It is also a glimmer of hope for those who are prone to depression - the canaries in the coal mine... a warning sign that our society is getting it wrong!

It highlights for me the many many reasons we should be growing some of our own food on real compost... aside from deliciousness!

If you're feeling excited: have a read of Peter Dingle and get into local, organic produce!