Volunteering and guerrilla gardening

We all would like to make a difference to our environmentally challenged world, so have you considered volunteering for a green project? Here are some ideas:

Volunteering opportunities abound:

You don’t have to be an expert to volunteer, you can learn on the job. The skills and knowledge you gain make volunteering very rewarding.

Here are some ways you can give support to the developing world’s green projects:

• Make a donation to a green project
• Buy organic fair trade products
• Buy a gift card for an organic garden or tree seedling from Green Gifts http://www.usefulgifts.org/ugshop/id/2618
• Sponsor an Indian farmer to learn biodynamics –contact http://www.basilacademy.in

Every day homegrown food challenge

I’ve set myself a gardening and culinary goal: include at least one thing out of the garden in every lunch and dinner. I’m not including breakfast because I like muesli and yoghurt. Yes, I could make my own yoghurt, but I’m addicted to Mungalli Creek Dairy’s biodynamic yoghurts and I really don’t think mine would be better than theirs. But I can do lunch and dinner.

Sometimes I have loads of things that are ripe for picking, and other times, nothing seems quite ready for harvest. My challenge is to always have things ready to come in. I say this publicly now, at the height of Summer, when I’ve got lots of good things to eat – lettuce, all kinds of herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, beans, cucumber … let’s see how I go mid-winter. Unfortunately, I don’t eat snails.

Bake your own biodynamic bread

Home cooking with your own or local produce is one of the best things you can do to lower your food miles and maintain your own good health. And making your own staple foods, such as bread, is really satisfying.

I’ve always liked baking bread, and have tried many different methods and recipes. I think I’ve found my favourite one so far in Jim Lahey’s no knead bread. Lahey is a New York baker who makes Italian style breads, and is encouraging everyone to bake his bread at home. He has published his basic recipe on his website, sullivanstreetbakery.com. It is also available in his book My Bread, by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste, (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2009), which also includes many other great recipes.

I use Demeter’s biodynamic bakers bread to make Lahey’s no knead rustic Italian loaf, as it is really strong … and biodynamic.

The recipe is very simple, and there’s hardly any faffing about with the dough, but a friendly warning: you need to plan ahead, as the first rise takes 18 hours. If I want to put bread on the table at 1 pm Sunday, I have to mix my dough by 2 pm Saturday.

You will also need a large heavy ovenproof pot with a lid, like a Dutch oven (or a French oven if you prefer … is there a difference?).

This is good food. You can tear it apart with your teeth like a medieval peasant, or be posh and dip it in organic extra virgin olive oil.