The Greening of Gavin

4 Years Old!

2012-02-13T20:38:00.005+11:00

In the beginning, Gavin created this blog. "The Greening of Gavin" was empty and formless, so he began to write. He enjoyed telling all who cared to listen, watch, and read all about his family's journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle and kept writing. He documented his green actions, his concerns and thoughts, his sadness, his joy, and shared them with the good people of the Earth, and they were happy.

Then Gavin said, "Let there be cheese", and there was a cheese blog. Many flocked to the cheesy goodness that was the "Little Green Cheese", and there was much rejoicing and eating of the cheese!

On the fourth year, he looked upon his creation and saw that it was good.

Seriously dear reader, and all biblical references aside, it is indeed this blog's 4th anniversary. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing every single time that I post. Through good times and bad, I have shared with you over one thousand and twenty thoughts, and you in return have left over 5620 comments. The blog has received over 672900 page views and they just keep being read. It has even prompted me to spawn a spinoff cheese blog (well that and my love of cheese-making), where I write about my cheese hobby. So blessed are the cheese-makers, or so Monty Python suggest in the Life of Brian!

I continue to believe that this blog is a collaboration of minds, because without you the reader, and your thought provoking comments, it would not be as half as enjoyable or informative as it is. Hats off to you all and the many comments and emails that you have left here, on the facebook page, and on my YouTube channel!

So where to from here? Well, as I said in my 1000th post, there is no sign of letting up, and when I do take the occasional short break, I begin to feel anxious and need to start writing again. Even when my mojo is waning, something happens deep inside that tells me to write, and write I do. There is always lots of stuff happening down on the urban farm!

Everywhere I look, there is subject matter to write about as I discover new facts about sustainable living, albeit sometimes depressing and overwhelming (to me anyway). However, I hope that all of the good things that we do, and actions that we take help to give hope and comfort, with the realisation that we can make this planet a good place to live for our grandchildren and the future generations to come.

Thanks again for the continued patronage and wonderful comments.

Warmly and yours in greening,

Gav x

End of The Line - Possible Solutions

2012-02-12T14:09:00.002+11:00

Researching possible solutions to avoid the collapse of the marine ecosystems has taken me all over the web. Most solutions that I have come across are common sense, however during my research one theme kept popping into my head is this;

More People = Less Fish

Less Fish = Less People

Less People = More Fish

ad infinitum......

Bit of a cycle isn't it?. Let me make it clear, I don't propose less people, but this looks like the logical conclusion if we keep overfishing the oceans and destroying habitat. Just stating the bleeding obvious I suppose so lets move on to something that is a little more in our control.

In yesterday's post, there were quite a few comments about eating locally caught seafood. I do tend to agree that this is a possible solution. I would probably take it so far as to say that if you caught it yourself then it is even better. I remember that when I was growing up near the mighty Murray River, the only fish we ate were the ones we caught ourselves. This included fish like redfin, perch, and even the odd Murray Cod. Also occasionally we caught and ate yabbies (freshwater crayfish). Back then the European Carp problem was not half as bad as it is now, but when we did catch carp, we minced them up to make fish patties and they were edible. Whilst living in Darwin in '86, when I was still in the navy, we often went fishing for Barramundi, and ate the catch within a few days. All very local fare, and knowing the trouble it takes to catch fish with a hand line, probably very sustainable.

Another possible solution is sanctuaries that cordon off areas of ocean to allow the fish species to rejuvenate and thrive. Then once re-established, limit the catch to allow regeneration year after year. It has been found that this works in many parts of the world today. The problem is that you have to do this before the breeding stock is overfished, unlike the Newfoundland cod issue, where they never recovered (see video below)

If implemented quickly enough then populations do recover. Darren Collins mentioned yesterday that scallops suffered a similar fate in Jervis Bay, NSW.

"I grew up in a fishing town, and saw the scallop dredges destroy whole populations of marine life in Jervis Bay. As I diver, I saw the damage first hand - the bottom of the bay became a desert. Initially we could hand-pick enough scallops for a few meals in one dive, but by the end we couldn't even find a single scallop. The 'boom' industry suddenly went into bust, all the fishing boats disappeared and I'm sure many family fishermen lost lots of money (and their livelihood), but they only had themselves to blame. Plenty of people had been warning them about what was to come. Thankfully now, 20-30 years on, the bay has largely recovered and is now a renowned tourist diving destination."

This is a very good real life example of the typical boom/bust scenario that we see with overfishing, but one that has a happy ending.

Another solution was the effect the movie "End Of the Line" had on the cat food industry, specifically Mars (yes the confectioners) who make these iconic petcare brands; PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, KITEKAT®, BANFIELD®, CESAR®, NUTRO®, SHEBA®, CHAPPI®, GREENIES® and CATSAN®. I am not saying that Mars are saints, but at least it is a start that they are acting upon this issue. (see video below)

"In March 2010, Mars Petcare announced an industry first — a commitment to using only sustainably sourced fish by 2020. At the beginning of 2011, we started on this journey by introducing Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fish varieties for its WHISKAS® brand in Europe."

Many other companies could follow suit and raise their credibility.

Yet another solution is to only buy sustainable harvested fish. As a few readers pointed out, in Australia the Australian Marine Conservation Society has published a Sustainable Seafood Guide and an iPhone/iPod app for those on the move. The guide is good, but only highlights seafood in the Australian fishing zone (see video below).

For a global resources the Marine Stewardship Council's website www.msc.org is a good place to visit. They have a certified 'Fish to Eat" guide, with lots of articles about fisheries that have been awarded the MSC certification. They also have an international guide to Dining out, which lists all of the MSC certified restaurants. This is what the MSC logo looks like, so look for it at fishmongers and supermarkets.

Have a look at the video below to get a better idea of what the MSC are all about and why it is now required to help people make better seafood choices.

So in summary, eating sustainably harvested seafood is probably the only way we will be able to make a difference, other than petitioning governments to assign realistic fishing quotas and ensure they enforce them.

Over the last few days, I have learnt so much. I did know a little about the issue before hand, but certainly not enough. I am so glad that I wrote this series, as it has helped me to understand this issue so much better and let me share my research with you, the reader.

If anyone has any other solutions that they know of that I may have missed, please leave a comment (besides giving up eating fish altogether). Kim and I intend on continuing to only buy MSC certified fish when we do partake in the odd fishy morsel. It is the only thing I can think of that will make a difference on a personal level.

End of The Line - Understanding

2012-02-11T17:24:00.001+11:00

You would have learned about my dread when I came to learn about the Global overfishing issue that faces it in my last post, and thanks for the many comments.

This post is about trying to understand this issue so that we can make some educated decisions when it comes down to how we source our fish, or even if we eat it at all for that matter.

So in a nutshell here are the main issues;

Unsustainable fishing or Overfishing: In every ocean around the world, fish stocks are in decline. Every year, many fishing fleets catch fish faster than young fish can mature and breed, so there are fewer fish left in the ocean to form the next generation. If this continues, the fish will become commercially extinct. A great example of this is Cod Overfishing in Newfoundland. Even after a 10 year moratorium on Cod fishing, the Cod have still not returned.

Furthermore, a study by Marine biologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia found that;

"In 1994, seafood may have peaked. According to an analysis of 64 large marine ecosystems, which provide 83 percent of the world's seafood catch, global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons since that year. And if that trend is not reversed, total collapse of all world fisheries should hit around 2048."

Bycatch. Often when fishermen are fishing for one species they inevitably catch other creatures that live near them. These may be other fish species, but may also be marine mammals, turtles or even birds that are diving to catch their fish dinner. If they become entangled in the nets or caught on fish hooks they usually drown. Over 300,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises die each year as a result of becoming entangled in fishing gear, as well as many other fish species that are thrown back into the ocean, dead.

Competition for food. Because fish are caught in complex ecosystems, when too many fish are being caught it disrupts the balance of the food supply for other species. For example, if seals mostly eat one type of fish, and humans catch a lot too, then the seals might struggle to find enough food to survive. Same goes for penguins in Antarctica, who have to swim further away from the coast to find food to feed their young during breading season due to fishing fleet now invading the Antarctic Ocean in the search for more fish stock.

Habitat destruction. Some fishing methods like bottom trawling destroy sensitive habitats like coral reefs, sea mounts. Others like aquaculture destroy mangroves and estuaries, which are essential breeding and feeding grounds for many different animals and birds. When these sensitive habitats are destroyed it can make it more difficult for the fish to find their food, hide from predators and reproduce therefore escalating the collapse of these species.

These main issues are brought further to light in this video featuring Dr Daniel Pauly, a biologist of fishings. He is regarded as specialist of his discipline and is the Director of the Center of fishings from the university British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada). I believe he knows what he is talking about. Note: the sound quality is not the best.

So in summary, we need to stop raping the oceans, and start fishing sustainably, setting aside major areas of ocean as sanctuary so that they can recover, but more on that in the next post.

Further reading:
National Geographic, Global Fish Crisis: Still Water
Overfishing.org - Why is overfishing a problem?
End of the Line movie
Australian Marine Conservation Society - Sustainable Seafood Guide

End Of The Line - Dread

2012-02-09T20:37:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, Ben and I visited the Melbourne Aquarium as his first excursion for home schooling. I hadn't been the big fish bowl for a long time, and was excited about going. Here are a few snaps of our visit.

There were King and Gentoo Penguins enjoying the ice.

A very scary King penguin

A silver fish (can't remember the name)

A cuttlefish who was asleep.

Coral

A Murray Cod which was massive.

A Long Necked Tortoise eating a piece of fish.

A Sawtooth Shark.

Many hundreds of Jelly Fish!

And some big groper and sharks.

We had a great time and learnt a lot of new things, but at the end of the day, I had a funny feeling that I couldn't quite shake. Going through my mind over and over was what effect is overfishing of the oceans by man having on the penguins, their food chain, and what is happening to the other big predator fish that we saw? I had this feeling of dread.

I told Kim about this feeling when I got home, and we had a quick chat about it and agreed that I should learn more. I knew that some species were overfished, which is the main reason we buy only Marine Stewardship Council certified fish, however I didn't know the full extent of the issue. So I found a documentary in my collection that I had not taken the time to watch called "End of The Line", which tells a story about the way humans are overfishing the oceans. Here is a clip.

It was about three quarters of the way through, when I had a fishy epiphany! Not another epiphany I hear you say! Yes, another bloody epiphany. I discovered that we are raping and pillaging the oceans without any thought of its future, and it is predicted that all of the 600 species of fish that we rely upon for food will be commercially extinct by 2048. That is only 35 years away, and over 1 billion people rely on fish as their main source of protein.

This documentary and these facts hit me like a tonne of bricks, and I have been feeling overwhelmed all day and did more research during my lunch hour. I found so much information, that I have decided to split this post into a series of three. All titled "End of the Line" like the doco. Firstly this one called Dread, then Understanding, then Solutions. I still cannot figure out why this issue has not come to my attention before? It was right there in front of my eyes, and has been in the media occasionally, but it took a visit to the Aquarium to smack me in the head. What I found out scares me.

This is too big an issue just for one post and I am still very much overwhelmed! Until tomorrow friends.

Earth Hour 2012

2012-02-08T19:29:00.001+11:00

I am a big fan of Earth Hour. Some people say that turning your lights off for one hour a year is tokenism, however I disagree. By participating in this event, it makes people think and act by participating in something that is much bigger than their own lives. They become part of a massive movement across the globe that influences others to act as well in their own small way. It gives each person a sense of control, which is often lost when hit daily by news about the effects of climate change, and the gives them a feeling that they can make a difference with their actions (which we can by the way).

Now I may be way off the mark here, but I believe that it also encourages 'peer group pressure' which is a very powerful influencing tool. The majority of humans want feel needed and part of something. So by saying to friends and family that you are participating and so did 1.8 billion others last year, they might just think that it is a good idea or fun to join in.

We usually have a family gathering or party with friends, turn the mains lights off and enjoy each others company in candle light or by solar lighting. I also encourage and push the conversation in the direction of actions that others can do beyond Earth Hour. You know, the kind of things that I do and many of your the reader as part of our own efforts. Most of all, we have fun!

This year I am not quite sure where I will be for Earth Hour. I could be here at home having a party for the event, or I could be in Sydney as part of the Earth Hour awards! You see, earlier on in the year when I asked readers to follow or link or like on facebook, it was to help with the application for the 2012 Eco Blogger Award. Only time will tell if this blog gets listed as a finalist and then judged. I will let you all know the outcome. Fingers and toes crossed.

Either way, I know I will have a great time, and where ever I am I will be promoting action on climate change and the many benefits of living a sustainable lifestyle.

Wish me luck, and have a great Earth Hour yourselves. If you have never joined in before, give it a go, invite friends or neighbours over for a gathering, and make it an annual event. It is great fun.

Wise Words Wednesday

2012-02-08T12:00:00.000+11:00

It is that time of the week again where I hand the blog over to you, the reader.

This weeks question is from Anne who writes;

Hi Gavin

I am very new to the cheese making game and I am wondering if you have any tips for making cottage cheese?

Would like it to be as natural as possible.

Thank you
Anne

I have never made cottage cheese before, so am unable to answer this one myself. Can anyone help out Anne with her question?

Almost Vegetarian?

2012-02-07T22:52:00.001+11:00

Okay, I know there is no such thing as an 'almost vegetarian'. That is a bit like saying just a little bit carnivorous, or half an omnivore!

So this post is an update for the goal I set at the start of the year, "Reduce our meat intake by 80%". Well one thing for sure, eating mostly a vegetarian diet is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Since a week before New Year, we are down to just 2 meals a week with meat on average, with Kim a little more, and me a little less. Even Ben is joining in, sometimes.

Let me give you an example of our daily meals;

Breakfast: Boiled eggs and toast for Kim and Ben, with Porridge and fruit from me
Lunch: Is usually a hearty curried bean soup (one of Kim's specialtys) with either crackers or home baked bread or a green salad with feta and olives, or a big salad sandwich with cheese.
Dinner is varied. Sometimes veggie burgers, sometimes a meat substitute (Fry's Vegetarian and Sanitarium Vegie Delights range both have a great selection that tastes nice) with steamed or roasted veg, sometimes pasta with a homemade sauce, or even one of my favourites, Lentil and Mushroom Bourguignon. Then some fruit or icecream for desert, and some raw mixed nuts for afters. We often substitute red meat with lentils and beans, and find the same meals that we usually make (sans meat) to be very nice. We use lots of herbs and spices to flavour our food, and I have not had a bland meal yet. I am very satisfied with our diet so far, and do not feel lacking in energy or motivation. That said, in the first week or two I felt a little blah, but after all of the crap was flushed out of my system, and I cut down to one coffee a day, I feel great. No stomach or intestinal issues (which I usually get about twice a month), and am now regular as clockwork (I know, too much information).

We have regular snacks which consists mainly of fruit, nuts, cheese and crackers, and raw veg or dips.

So the meat meals that we have had, the proportion of meat has been minuscule compared to what we used to eat. For instance, Kim made an egg and bacon pie last week, but there was only a smidgen of bacon (biodynamic) in it, but the flavour as fine.

She made a fish curry last night which only used two fillets of whiting (MSC certified). It was delicious, but then again so are her veggie meals.

As we still have eggs and dairy we get most of our calcium and vitamin B12 from those, but what about the other essential nutrients. Well for those wondering if we are getting the right amount of nutrients in our diet, here is a list of Non-animal sources of other important ones (highlighted the ones we eat):

Omega 3 fatty acids Linseeds, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, tofu and walnuts.
Vitamin A Green leafy vegetables, yellow/orange vegetables and fruit.
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) Fortified breakfast cereals and soya drinks and almonds.
Vitamin D Exposure to sunglight, fortified breakfast cereals, vegetable margarines. Kim takes a vitamin supplement as she has trouble with vitamin D.
Calcium Fortified soy beverages, sesame seeds, fortified fruit juice, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, tofu, beans and pulses, or even calcium supplements.
Zinc Tofu, legumes, peas, nuts, seeds, wholegrain cereals and wholemeal bread.
Iron Fortified breakfast cereals, wholemeal bread, dried fruit, green leafy vegetables, beans and pulses, molasses, nuts and seeds, tofu.
Selenium Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, molasses, wholemeal bread.
Iodine Iodised salt, seaweed.
Protein Soy products, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds, wholegrains.
Overall we have a really balanced diet, with everything in moderation. I like this particular Michael Pollan quote that he mentions in the documentary Food Inc.:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” ― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

So why are we doing this? Well the obvious one is to drastically lower our carbon footprint by reducing food miles, and eating locally, however the other main reason is one of health. Choice magazine has this to say about the health benefits of a mostly vegetarian diet;

"Vegetarian diets are generally higher in fibre and lower in fat and cholesterol. There is growing evidence that vegetarians are less likely to suffer from cancer, heart disease, strokes and have a longer life expectancy. People who choose a vegetarian diet for health reasons are also likely to have other healthy practices: such as exercising regularly, not smoking, or abusing drugs or alcohol."

In November, I was at the upper limit for my bad cholesterol, so this is the choice I made to lower it and not to have to go on medication. We have also lost a little weight, but not as much as I had expected and I do daily exercise. I have a six monthly check up at the end of the month with a full blood test, so we will see if it is working. Even if it hasn't lowered it, I will persevere, because I feel so good and full all the time.

What is not to like about this diet?

Overwhelmed by Gratitude!

2012-02-07T19:33:00.003+11:00

I would just like to say to all my readers, from the bottom of my heart.....

A BIG GREEN THANK YOU!

I did not expect, except in my wildest dream that this blog would now be #1 Environmental blog in the directory. I thought that maybe a few would click and go up the ladder a notch, but not to the top. And as for those comments, words escape me (blushing heavily).

Thanks friends! You made an old greenie very humble today.

Gav x

Please Boost My Blog

2012-02-07T08:00:00.000+11:00

Guess who is #9 Green Living blog on Environmentalblogs.org? Yes, it is yours truly and this news was one heck of a surprise. However eco trendsetters, I could use your help, if you are willing.

So if you think this blog is worthy of a higher rating on this cool blog directory, then please click the button below and boost the blog once you get to the site. You can also leave a comment if you wish.

I know, I know, it is very un-Australian to blow ones trumpet, but if I don't who blow it who else will (besides you dear reader)?

Thanking you all in advance for your time and your generous and continued support.
Gav x

A Subversive Plot

2012-02-06T17:30:00.000+11:00

Whilst we are on the food gardening theme, I thought it would be a good opportunity to post this TED video. It is presented by Roger Doiron, founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, who gives one of the best presentations arguing the many, many, many benefits of backyard food gardening.

He is a man after my own heart. Roger says, "Gardens grow good food". A great mantra to live by!

You can find out more about Kitchen Gardeners International at their website. This organisation is the one that prompted (more like cajoled) US First Lady, Michelle Obama to plant her very own kitchen garden in the White House grounds.

A true Victory Garden in every sense of the word. Just brilliant!

Komijnekaas Taste Test

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000+11:00

For all you curd nerds, I have posted a appraisal of the Komijnekaas that I made in late October that I cracked open last night.

Pop on over to the Little Green Cheese to see what I thought of it. So click on the button below to transport yourselves to the giddy world of cheese making!

I am so glad that you can still eat cheese whilst eating a vegetarian diet. I don't know what I would do without my cheese!

Gardening Mistakes Happen

2012-02-05T15:14:00.001+11:00

Having been an avid food gardener for quite a while, one is bound to unlearn a few lessons. The consequences of them always tend to bite you on the bottom a little further down the track.

This season, I have made a couple of mistakes that have limited plant growth and are giving me sub-optimal rewards/harvests. The two main relapses in learnt knowledge are lessons that I learnt in my very first year of food growing in 2007. These two lessons are Mulching, and Timing and here is a bit about the consequences so far this year.

Temperatures in January and February have been in the mid 30's C (90's F) and the soil has been drying out rapidly with no rainfall to speak of since Christmas day. When I planted in late November, I failed to mulch heavily on 4 of the 5 main raised beds and have definitely noticed the difference in growth and quality. Each bed has a light layer of mulch of about 1 cm, which is just not enough when things heat up here in our climate. The saving grace that has helped avoid total ruin is that all of these beds are drip irrigated, alternating between harvested and mains water. Because I know that all beds are getting the same amount of water, I can see the effects upon the growth of the vegetables compared to the bed that I did mulch heavily with about 7cm (2 1/2 inches) of straw. The cucumbers and chillies in this bed are cropping heavily and look healthy. However the non-thickly mulched beds are dryer and the veggies within it, even though they are still growing, do not look half as healthy and are cropping lightly. The soils in each bed are identical in structure and are about the same pH.

Straggly looking tomatoes due to lack of mulch.

So to remedy this issue, with the obvious solution of adding more straw to the beds, after I cleaned out the chook house on Monday night, I took their bedding which consisted of sugar cane mulch and chook poo, and added masses of it to each of these lacking beds. In just 6 days the transformation has been amazing. The soil in each bed is staying moist, and there is new growth on the veggies in those beds, which are flowering again. I wish I had have been paying more attention! I am but human and have re-learnt the lesson of mulching.

Healthy and abundant Long Yellow Chillies, well mulched

The other problem/mistake that I made is one of timing. Planting the right plant at the right time. This issue stems from my lack of time management early in September when things around here were chaotic, hence the "More maintenance, Less projects" goal for this year. My spring planting did not actually occur until summer, and by that time it was getting hot and dry. Not ideal conditions for planting veggie seedlings, now is it? I didn't even have time to grow my own seedlings, and admit that I bought them from a nursery or go without a crop.

So the consequences, which at this late stage, I cannot fix, are late crops, low productivity, and I do not have the weather to plant successive crops like I normally could. It also prevents you from planting early winter season crops like cabbage, garlic and onion, which need a long time to develop fully before hot weather hits again. I might just have to bite the bullet and pull summer crops out early before their full potential, and suffer the heartbreak. Saying that, I will probably be well over zucchinis by then!

Late planted Spring onions

It just goes to show that even a seasoned food gardener like myself can make mistakes and learn from them. In fact the beauty of food gardening is that I am still learning new things each and every season.

The longest and straightest Lebanese cucumber I have ever grown!

Mistakes only become an issue if you do not learn from them and keep repeating the same bad techniques over and over. Lets hope it never gets to that!

Saturday Morning Harvest

2012-02-04T15:20:00.000+11:00

Up early this morning at 7am. Well early for a Saturday anyway.

Straight into the garden, turned on the tank to water the veggies, little bit of cleaning up after the dogs, a chat to the chickens then a haircut with my clippers (for me, not the chooks). Then at 8am I turned off the water and started harvesting ripe vegetables from the patch.

Here is my bounty for the day

So many veggies! It makes an 'almost' vegetarian's mouth water. The three large yellowish cucumbers (top left) were for the chickens.

Some bush cucumbers

Lebanese cucumbers

Left to right: Tommy toe, Tigerella, Riesentraube, Self seeded cherry, Broad Ripple Yellow Currant, and Basil at the top.

Orange chillies, Long Yellow chillies.

Tigerella and Mortgage Lifter. These will ripen inside before the birds get them.

Up the top, Black Zucchini and Spring onions.

Finally, a whole large punnet of cherry tomatoes for salads. They are so sweet and tasty. These are all self sown from last years crop of Tommy Toe tomatoes.

I love this time of year. So many ingredients for a summer salad. Delightful and satisfying, knowing that I grew it all myself.

Global Temperature Anomaly

2012-02-01T19:55:00.000+11:00

One thing that gets my goat is when mainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal (US), Daily Mail (UK), The Australian, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), and The Herald Sun (Melbourne) publish false, misleading, and misinformation about climate change, that is readily debunked by scientists that actually study climatology. What is the one thing they all have in common? They are all owned by NewsCorp (which is no surprise to some of us).

Anyway, one good site that does a fine job at debunking the climate denialist myths and this recent attempt at political propaganda is Skeptical Science. They published the debunking of the WSJ article not long after publication, and is an enlightening read that tells the real story about the current trend of climate change. Have a read, it is enlightening stuff, and has all the information you need to shoot down that brainwashed oddball at the next dinner party.

So the basis of the latest round of misinformation is that the planet has not warmed in the last xx years (insert your choice of timeline as this often changes). Well, unfortunately for us as a species, I am afraid it has. Last year was the ninth warmest year on record (according to NASA), and the warmest La Niña, which usually brings cooler weather, yet recorded. The past decade (2000-2009) was the warmest on record. Currently, nine of the ten hottest years have occurred since 2000. Meanwhile the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is a hundred ppm (parts per million) higher than it was in 1880, hitting 390 ppm.

If you are not yet convinced, this NASA video that shows a time lapse video from 1880 to 2011 of the global temperature anomaly during those years.

Note: On the map, blues represent temperatures lower than baseline averages, while reds indicate temperatures higher than the average. As the 131 years pass, the map turns from bluish-white to increasingly yellow and red. Caused by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural practices, and other human impacts, climate change has currently raised temperatures 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the Industrial Revolution average.

Pretty much black and white as far as I am concerned. Emotions, greed, ideologies, and politics should never enter into this debate, especially with the fate of the human race at stake. Time for action is running out fast.

Coffee Addiction

2012-01-31T21:44:00.002+11:00

I will let you in on a little secret that I have been harbouring for the last week or so. I am addicted and obsessed with coffee grounds, or at least my worm farm and garden are!

I discovered this wonderful organic matter about 12 months ago when a friend of mine gave me two large garbage bags of coffee grounds that he picked up from a local cafe. Without thinking too much about it, I added a bag each to two of my three compost bins. About a week later I checked back and to my amazement there were worms in abundance literally swimming though the grounds. They loved the stuff and multiplied quickly, which made me happy.

Anyway, after a while I promptly forgot this valuable lesson until about three weeks ago when I read an article about the benefits of coffee grounds when used in your garden, compost or worm farm and how it has a high nitrogen to carbon ratio (about 22:1) which is comparable to grass clippings. Coffee grounds also help the soil to retain moisture if added directly. For those who compost, it is used as a 'green' and not a 'brown' even though that is its colour. For those who thought it would be high in acid (just like a cup of coffee), think again, because it has relatively balanced pH of between 6.2 to 6.9 (with 7 being neutral). Most of the acid is flushed away during the coffee making process. If you have acid loving plants such as blueberries, you can add it directly around the base and they thrive.

Now I am a one cup a day man, which produces 20 grams (3/4 oz) of grounds. This doesn't sound like much but over the course of a year that amounts to 7.3 kg (16 lbs) of waste. It only takes 50,000 cups of java to make one metric tonne of the stuff, which you can easily imagine many, many times over in a large city of 4 million like Melbourne or Sydney. 1 tonne of coffee waste emits 1.6 tonnes of Greenhouse gasses, primarily being methane (CH4), so that is one hell of a lot of GHG emissions just from coffee waste. Taking it out of the waste stream is doing the climate a favour!

Where do you get a steady supply of this 'brown gold'? Well if you happen to live in Melbourne, which is home of Australia's coffee culture, you certainly do not have to look very far. There are cafes and coffee shops everywhere, just throwing away mountains of coffee grounds every single day. All you have to do is have the courage to ask for them.

So I did ask. I currently have an arrangement with my favourite coffee lady Kate, whereby I take in a little bucket with a lid, and she diverts the coffee grounds from landfill and into my bucket. It fills in a couple of days and I collect it in the mornings and pop it into the boot of my car before I catch the train. A nice arrangement and Kate was more than happy to accommodate me, probably because I started the keep cup craze here at the train station. Anyone who is anyone now has a keep cup (well at least 15 people that catch my train now!). There are many other cafes in town, so it would be easy enough to approach them as well, but we will see how much I get from Kate each week first before I get too greedy. The worms and compost bins can only take so much.

The coffee bucket for the railway station cafe.

Where else can you get some without doing the hard yards? Well I did some research and there is a web site that can help you. groundtoground.org has a great map with details of where you can pick up some coffee grounds from willing cafe proprietors. Have a look as it has some great tips on how to use the coffee grounds and other good ideas.

Additionally, lets not forget our work places. Many now have automatic coffee machines that grind roasted beans and serve up a half decent cup of coffee. I know that at my work, just about every floor in our high-rise has one of these machines that needs to be cleaned out daily. The grounds are usually tipped into the landfill bin by some unconcerning soul. However, the machine on my floor gets cleared by yours truly, whereby I cart the grounds home in my lunch box. The only limitation I have to taking home more is the room and weight of my backpack. I could probably carry about 3kg comfortably and there is certainly much more than that going into the bin each day.

My lunch box (after lunch of course)

So in summary, don't be scared to ask your local cafe for their coffee waste. It may not have any value to them, but it is worth it's weight in gold if you ask me. It is fantastic for your worm farm, compost bin, and veggie patch, not to mention a big reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Lock all that carbon away in the soil is such a simple action that you can take.

Best of all, coffee grounds are free!

Backyard Chickens at the Co-op

2012-01-31T10:30:00.001+11:00

One of today's posts is over at the Simple Green Frugal Co-op. It is a rehash of a post I wrote a while ago titled "Backyard Chickens - Return on Investment". I have updated it with further information from the response I got from comments on the original post.

Please join me over at the co-op.

Gav

Home-made Passata di pomodoro

2012-01-28T21:45:00.002+11:00

As I only grow enough tomatoes each year to eat fresh, I headed down to Bacchus Marsh to my favourite fruit and veg shop (Jeff Jones) and pick up a 10kg box of saucing tomatoes for a very cheap price. Then I make about 3-6 months supply of Passata, which is a basic tomato puree. Here is how I do it.

Firstly I core each tomato, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.

A 10kg box will fill about two 8 litre pots.

Then I simmered until pulpy for about 45 minutes. Give it a stir a few times during the simmer to stop it from burning to the bottom.

Once pulpy, I passed it all through the food mill to extract the pulp and leave the skins behind. Don't forget to pass all the skins through for a second round to get the last drop of juice.

Here is the finished result. A nice and thick puree ready to bottle. I sterilised the bottles in my normal oven manner at 120C for 15 minutes, and boiled the lids separately.

To each bottle I added 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to bring up the acid levels, then I filled the bottles using a funnel, and sealed tightly. Brought the water bath up to 92C and then kept it at that temperature for 45 minutes.

Once they were removed and cooled, I heard the audible pop of the lids. Every one sealed okay. Out of that 10 kg of tomatoes, I ended up with nine 720ml bottles (23 fl oz) of Passata.

We will probably go through this in no time, however with shop bought Passata at about $3 each, I have myself a saving of $15 (the box cost $12). It only took a couple of hours work all up and I had a relaxing time making it.

I have in the past added salt, but I now prefer to season the meal and not the ingredients that I make to put in it. Who else has made Passata, and are there any variations on the mixture? Leave a link if you have blogged about it!

Aluminium Can Recycling

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000+11:00

I thought I would give a Planet Ark campaign a bit of a plug. Being a recycling advocate, I fully support this cause, and you can also win an iPad as well (Australian residents only)! Read for the details below.

Recycle aluminium cans for the chance to win an iPad and surf classic tickets

After cooling off with a soft drink at the beach this summer, consumers have the chance to win an iPad and tickets to Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic by recycling their aluminium cans and taking a photo of the recycling bin.

To enter the competition, people can simply recycle their cans in the public bins provided and send a photo of the recycling bin to Planet Ark.

Australians are good at recycling aluminium cans at home, but Planet Ark and campaign ambassador, eight‐time world surfing champion Layne Beachley, want to see more aluminium cans recycled at beaches, parks, workplaces, schools and other public spaces.

“Over the last few years many councils and local authorities have installed public place recycling bins on the streets and in parks,” says Planet Ark’s Head of Campaigns, Brad Gray. “Also, lots of shopping centres and food courts have set up bins. All of this makes recycling aluminium cans easier.”

Over this party season, anyone who goes to outdoor events like concerts in the park, music festivals, open‐air cinemas and markets are likely to notice a range of different recycling bins.

“It’s great that organisers are embracing public place recycling,” says Gray. “It’s important for everyone to follow the instructions on the bins. The more people that recycle properly the greater the environmental benefits, such as cutting both carbon emissions and waste.”

Making an aluminium can from recycled material uses just 5% of the energy needed to make one from virgin material. Aluminium doesn't degrade during the recycling process so cans are endlessly recyclable ‐ saving precious resources for years to come.

According to RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) by recycling six aluminium cans you can offset a 25‐kilometre train journey, a 17‐kilometre bus ride or a ten‐kilometre trip in an average size car.

“Every year, over $22 million dollars’ worth of aluminium is lost because cans are thrown into landfill, so any chance to reclaim them is important,” says Gray. “If your school or work doesn't already have a system set up, why not make a resolution to organise one in 2012?”

Since Australians first started drinking out of aluminium in the 1970s more than 75 billion cans have been recycled. Recycling these cans has not only contributed to environmental savings but also returned over $1.05 billion to the Australian economy.

“To show Australians there are recycling bins all over the country, Planet Ark is urging people to
take a photo of a recycling bin and send it to us for the chance to win an iPad 2 to the value of
$600 and four VIP tickets to the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic surfing event,” says Gray.

For more information and to enter the competition, visit Cans.PlanetArk.org.

I am always amazed at the lack of recycling bins around the city of Melbourne, especially in food courts and public places. So many wasted resources that could be reused like the cans mentioned above.

I will be printing this off and posting it at work, so that folk who are too lazy to take those extra 5 steps to the recycling bin to dispose of their aluminium cans have a reason to change their behaviours. I am forever fishing out cans from the landfill bin! Here is a FAQ if you want to learn more about Aluminium recycling.

So please get onboard, where ever you may be. This stuff is just common sense.

Home-made Liquid Fertiliser

2012-01-26T19:50:00.001+11:00

This is a little gardening tip that I learnt from watching Vasili's Garden a few months back. Vasili was filming in the garden of an old guy of Italian decent and he asked him how his vegetables grew so vigorously. The old bloke took him behind his shed and showed him this brew in an old 44 gallon drum that stunk to high heaven. So I decided to make some myself!

Back in November 2011, I found a bucket of sheep poo that I had forgotten about. I divided it into two equal amounts into two 20 litre buckets, added about 2kg of chicken manure then topped it with water and stirred it for about 10 minutes so that it was all nice and mushy. Then I popped on the lids and left them in the sun.

Fast forward to January 2012. This is what it looks like now.

It stinks really bad, but I know it is full of goodness for the garden. I usually give it a stir to mix it all up.

I use it like this. I pour about 1 litre (1 qt) into a 9 litre watering can.

Then I top it up with water from one of my rainwater barrels.

I mainly use this for my fruit trees, and over the last month they have a renewed vigour. After I have watered them or it has rained, I make up a few of these and pour on half a watering can for each tree.

Maintenance is easy. You just top up the stinky bucket with more water,

Then give is a good stir and pop the lid back on until you next need it. What could be any simpler? I have been using it since the beginning of the month, and my plants have gone ballistic! Their growth has amazed me.

The other form of home made liquid fertiliser is from my worm farm. Here is a picture of it below.

To gross you out even more, here is a close up of the little bugger having a feed on some avocado. They just love them.

So as a husbandry measure, each month I pour about half a watering can of water through the worm farm to keep it moist. Then I collect the valuable liquid in a 2 litre ice cream container.

I then add 1 litre to the watering can, and then.....

you guessed it, top it up with water.

I use this on vegetables after I have already watered them. As with all liquid fertilisers you have to be careful because if you only give the dry soil fertiliser, then the plant has no choice than to suck up all the nutrients. Plants prefer to take it up at their own rate, not in one big hit. So hence the watering before adding this brew.

Both fertilisers are so easy to make and not only help the plants, but add life back into the soil in the form of microbes. So if you have a particularly poor soil, don't just use this type of liquid gold. Make sure you add lots of organic matter (some dig it in, some don't), and mulch, mulch, mulch. It won't be long before you have healthy soil, and the plants will thank you for it in the form of an abundant crop.

Liquid gold was never so easy to make. I makes me wonder why I ever bought that organic liquid stuff when it is so easy to make your own!

Does anyone have a different method?

Wise Words Wednesday?

2012-01-25T17:03:00.000+11:00

I have been harping on about all things sustainable living for a long time. Over that time I have come to realise that there are many good number of readers out there who have just so much to share in abundance. So I would like to tap into that vast knowledge base.

As one of my goals this year is "More Maintenance, Less Projects", I need to focus on servicing the many needs that my urban farm demands. To do this I also need to blog less, and stop replying to the constant stream of requests for help via email. I don't really want to do this so I have come up with a plan.

My plan is to turn over the blog to all my readers each week for the 'Wise Words Wednesday' post. Sounds exciting doesn't it? Well I think it is. Here is how I see it playing out. I post one of requests for help that I receive during the week (with the senders permission of course), and I will request that you, the reader, have a crack at answering it via a comment. You can leave links to posts of your own if you like as well as long as it is pertinent to the question. I don't mind. Take the time to promote yourselves while you are at it. We could all do with a little self promotion in this lifestyle, that's for sure.

So now you know the plan, here is the first question from L.

Hi Gav,

I'm hoping you will be able to help me - I'm really new to this.

I bought an old Fowlers Vacola electric unit second-hand, similar to the one that you use.

I've been reading very carefully about the latest guidelines for water bath canning tomatoes, and they state that they should be processed for 85 minutes with 1/4 tsp of citric acid added (per pint jar).

Anyway, I had all my jars in the Fowlers unit and started adding the water, only to find that the water spews out the thermometer hole when the water level reaches that point. It seems it is impossible to submerge my #20 size jars completely, and it would be even worse for really large sizes.

Now I know that these Fowlers units were manufactured a long time ago and food safety knowledge wasn't what it is today, but am I missing something? Surely the water should completely submerge the jars?

Is it impossible to water bath preserve tomatoes safely using the unit I have?

I've also posted my question on Rhonda's Down to Earth forum, but I think you are my best bet because you have the same type of unit.

I'd really appreciate your thoughts if you have the time. Thanks so much!

I will pass it over to you. How do you get the most out of your Fowlers Vacola preserving system, and does anyone have the answer to L's specific questions?

Thanks everyone!

The Ultimate Clay Cob Oven Video

2012-01-24T22:21:00.000+11:00

It has been 3 days in production, and with the aid of my new super computer, finally the most magical video that I have ever created is now live for the viewing.

Now if you are not a fan of my videos, please take the time to watch this one. It is something very special. I took over 9 hours of video footage and compressed it into 8 minutes 45 seconds. I look like I am Superman, and Kim said that I have never worked so fast in my life!

As this is the Ultimate Cob Clay Oven video post, I thought it would be a great idea to list all of the posts in chronological order just in case new readers are after the details of how I built it.

Cob Oven Base Part 1

Cob Oven Base Part 2

Clay Cob Oven Top

Clay Cob Oven Flue

Clay Oven First Layer

Clay Cob Oven Progress

The First Pizza!

Clay Cob Oven Progress - Part 2

Clay Cob Oven Mosaics

Clay Cob Oven Mosaics Complete

Learning To Cook In The Cob Oven

I must admit that it has been idle for a couple of months until the heat and the corresponding total fire bans die down here in Victoria. Then in Autumn it will be full steam ahead (pardon the pun). I am looking forward to putting on some front doors for the wood storage area and to firing it up again for some yummy pizza, bread and roasted vegetables!

Bon Appetite!

Chili and Chicken. A Match Made in Heaven

2012-01-22T20:34:00.000+11:00

You may think that this post is going to be a recipe. On the contrary, it is a recipe for disaster!

Now if you or I ate about 25 green jalapeno chillies, we would be sore for a month. Not only would it burn your lips, throat, stomach, and the nether regions, it would burn if you rubbed your eyes, nose, and any other sensitive area of skin. You would think that this would be the same for most animals. But I did not take into account the remarkable consitiution of the humble backyard chicken!

You see, up until about 3 hours ago, I was the proud owner of two heavily laden jalapeno bushes, with chilies just about to go from green to black, then to firey red. This is what they look like now.

As you can see, picked clean. No chilies or leaves for that matter, only a few flowers up high! If it was not Teddy (in the background), then who was it?

Here is one of the culprits.

Esther the chili chomper! Her and her flock were helping me keep the cooch grass at bay, but decided on a more tasty morsel, being my chili bushes.

So how do they get away with eating a plant that would have us swollen and sore? I searched the interwebs and stumbled on this fact from New Scientist.

"Research reported in July 2001 suggests that the chilli's fiery taste deters creatures who are poor at dispersing the plant's seeds. Fortunately for the poultry industry, this does not include birds. Birds appear not to have the receptors to the hot pungent part of the peppers. It appears not to affect them in any way."

Not only does it not hurt them as I had first feared, it also kills some of the notorious food-poisoning bacterium Salmonella in their intestines.

Then I found this from The Straight Dope;

"The reason chilies incorporate capsaicin in their fruits (and red/green peppers of course are fruits in a botanical sense, not vegetables) seems to be to ensure that their seeds are dispersed properly. When small birds consume the fruits of wild peppers the seeds pass through the gut undigested and, due to the birds' flight range, are deposited in distant places where they can grow with less competition. If the fruits were consumed by larger mammals the seeds would either be digested, or deposited much closer to the parent plant. Studies have shown that the seeds of wild peppers are in fact dispersed almost exclusively by birds."

Natures way of ensuring the survival of the chili gene!

So the moral of the story is that if you have any prize winning chilies, then keep your beady eyed little hens away from them at all costs, or end up with a couple of twigs like I did. Talk about being peeved or what. I was going to make another batch of my hot chili chutney with those chilies. Now I can forget it completely.

Naughty chickens. At least they laid me four eggs before they destroyed the bush.

One of sustainable living's humorous moments. I am glad there are so many of them.

The Paradox of Our Age

2012-01-22T15:39:00.002+11:00

We live in the age of abundant energy, and we have a lot to be thankful for, but for how much longer, and what are we doing about it?

Humanity has reached a stage in its development where everything we now have is reliant on a source of cheap energy, in the form of oil. We have transportation that would shock an early 20th century person, as we can get from point A to point B with a minimum of fuss and travel distances in time-frames that would be unheard of only 50 years ago. Way back then, only the rich could afford to fly, and the rest of us were stuck on the ground or traveled vast distances slowly via the oceans. However, whilst on the ground we spent this precious resource building roads and freeways that have cut the travelling time between cities in half (except for the odd traffic jam). We have built magnificent cities from steel, concrete and glass (with the aid of oil) that glow in the night that can be seen from space. These cities house many millions of people throughout the world and consume resources from neighboring countryside. We have a medical procedures that can replace most parts of the body when they get diseased or worn out, except for the human brain, but I am sure we are working on that as well. We live longer than any other time in human history and have the biggest population that increases by 1,000,000,000 people every 25 years. All because of cheap energy in the form of oil and other fossil fuels.

So, on the down side, at this very moment we are on a plateau of energy production. Our demand for energy is now outstripping supply, and this demand grows with every single human born into existence. Prices rise because of supply shortages, and this in turn continues to feed the whoa's of the continuing economic crisis which is build on continuous upward growth. However, with all fossil fuels and natural resources being of finite supply, our economic system is bashing up against natural hard limits. You cannot have a system that is reliant on growth when there is only so much of everything. You cannot change the laws of physics. Not only fossil fuels are depleting, but things like fresh water with depletion in the form of ancient aquifers, phosphates for fertilization, arable land to grow food on, and global fish stocks. We do not seem to be awake to the fact that many of the things we take for granted are depleting rapidly, we have no plan to implement a scalable replacement for our energy needs, which drives all other human activities.

Even with all our cleverness, much of humanity lacks the foresight to plan for a future with less of everything. Our population has grown alongside of energy growth, because we have been able to produce abundant surpluses of food. But only in some parts of the world. Over 5/7th of our species do not have a regular meal on the table, or access to clean drinking water.

Recent events do not fill me with joy or hope. Diplomats from all over the world returned home after a hard-won agreement in Durban, South Africa during the latest round of climate talks. They agreed to do nothing to save our climate from disaster. Our governments will continue to talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. By then, we will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100, than our ancestors knew in 1750 and a climactic system that is totally unpredictable. It will only get hotter after that and maybe, as some scientist predict, this will occur earlier, our own lifetimes, and that of our children. Surely we can do better than this?

Now that we have hit the 7,000,000,000 mark in population in October 2011, and that we are constrained by natures hard limits, and the threat of environmental disaster in the form of a changing climate, what are we to do? I ask myself this question every day, and wonder often 'what happens next?' How are we to cut emissions by 50-80% by 2050, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels if it is predicted that the human population will be at 9 billion? More people means more emissions and more resources. I believe that we will be too worried about feeding ourselves, rather than trying to stabilize the climate!

So many unanswered questions, and with little visible action from world leaders and governments, I am afraid I cannot think of any other outcome except a train-wreck. I may be wrong, but I think our civilization is moving too fast on the rails to slow down in time. But think of this train-wreck happening in slow motion. We are at overshoot, and the only other result is a long slow decline. All because we have delayed action on alternative energy, changing our economic system, mitigating climate change, and population overshoot to feed economic growth and to fatten someones wallet. Whatever happens from now on in, it will not be pretty.

Look, I didn't mean to bring everyone down, but we do live in troubled times. It is just that many of us cannot connect the dots, or even want to talk about these big issues. We only have one habitable planet in this neck of the Universe, so we have to clean up the mess we made. What is needed is a call to arms, and where we start talking about these issues on a daily basis. The more we talk about it, the more thinking we will do, and we may even come up with some real solutions for the climate or an effective way to power-down during energy descent.

However, until such time that we really start talking seriously, we will just keep things as business as usual. The only problem is that business is starting to get bad!

I will leave you with this thought though. It is something I posted a long time ago, but is still relevant today.

The Paradox of Our Age

by The 14th Dalai Lama

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

So lets get busy, and start talking about these things to people who are yet aware of the issues we face. It will be only way we will solve them in the time we have available. I will keep talking about this, will you?

New Layout

2012-01-21T23:50:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, my old PC died. The main hard drive and one of the memory modules gave up the ghost, and unfortunately I could not find spares for my old clunker. It was 5.5 years old, so I thought it had a good run.

There are a few parts that I can harvest for spares, and I will be sending the old one to e-waste, once I find somewhere that accepts it. So thankfully it will not be going into landfill and getting recycled.

My new PC has just about green everything, including a Solid State Drive with no moving parts as the boot drive, and a green 1TB drive that uses only a few watts of electricity. The rest of the PC draws very little energy, and the monitor is LED backlit which only uses about 20 watts as well. It doesn't contain Brominated flame retardant which can be absorbed into the body.

The crux of it is that if I want to continue to write this blog, I need a PC that I could process the video and podcasts on, so an old clunker would not have cut the mustard. At least I made the choice of a custom built machine with as many green parts as I could instead of a thumping games machine. BTW, I am not a fan of laptops so I didn't take that option either.

Anyway, to celebrate my new device, I thought a revamped look for the blog would also go down a treat. I have changed the template for about 3 years, so the look was getting a little stale.

What do you think of the blogs new hair do?

The 1000th Post!

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000+11:00

I am so excited!

Firstly a video message from yours truly. You need to watch this so that the rest of the post makes sense!

So here are the questions:

What documentary am I referring to in the video?
What are the names of my current 8 chickens?
When did I first write about Peak Oil?
Name the very first cheese I ever made?
What is the name of the disease that you have if caught in the consumer culture?
And finally, Who did I interview in Podcast #20?

I realise that it is a big list of questions, but I wanted to make this a bit like a treasure hunt, and a bit of fun. Once again the prize is a book titled "The Armchair Environmentalist - 3 minute-a-day action plan to save the world", by Karen Christensen, which I will post anywhere in the world. Just be the first person to answer all of the questions correctly and post them in a comment! I will give you 2 days in which to guess.

Good luck in the treasure hunt, and as I mentioned, here is to the next 1000 posts!

Warmly and yours in greening,

Gavin