Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Spring has sprung and the garden is taking on a life of its own.

Most of the winter vegies have either been eaten (by us) or are going to flower. I can't bring myself to remove the little flowers off the broccoli as the honey bees just love it.

With all the talk about decline in bee numbers how could I take away anything they like? So the flowers stay.

A couple of the chooks have gone broody with the warm weather, which is annoying and they need to be chucked out of the house morning and night to make sure they move around, eat something and drink something.

This is a the time of the year when our garden really takes off. Here in Queensland we have our wet season in summer and the combination of high rainfall and warm humid weather = plants going mad!

Time to turn our attention to planting out our food for summer. The corn's in, we have the last of the potatoes just coming on (lots of potato salad - see recipe below), lots of eggs of course, the last of the lettuce is going to seed and its time to get the next lot in. Tomatoes are touch and go this year, seems to be a bad year all around - they are scarce and expensive in the shops which is a good indicator that we're not the only ones having tomatoe problems this year.

I want to focus on understanding and aligning with our climate more. The weather gets so warm and humid growing the usual summer salad things is tough. Last year I did a Permacook workshop and we cooked with cassava, tahitian spinach, sweet potatoes, bananas and a load of other things that grow well here in summer.

I had a bit of a food epiphany at the course - we just need to change our food attitude in summer. Instead of working against nature and trying to grow the 'usual' European type foods not suited to our climate, we need to turn our diet to more of a Fijian type one and celebrate all the foods that love the tropics.

European diet in winter - tropical diet in summer.

I'll let you know how it goes - I only have to change decades of food conditioning!

POTATO SALAD RECIPE*
Cut up potatoes and boil until tender
combine; a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, a teaspoon or two of both dijon and seeded mustards and some red wines vinegar. Mix all these together and pour over the potatoes when they are cooled a little.
Top with chopped chives and enjoy served at room temperature.
I also add boiled eggs to the salad as we are still in Peak Egg!
*From Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion.