you can grow your own lunch

Well at least part of it. Discovering new suppliers of locally produced food is an exciting part of the 100-mile diet. But what about taking it one-step further and grow the food for yourself. Imagine the excitement and satisfaction of doing this. And with food prices soaring because of rising fuel prices, it makes sense to have a few veges in the backyard that are available when you need them. David Balilla, an agriculturist in the Philippines who heads a model farm for urban communities, says no space is too small and no weather too harsh for planting vegetables in the city. David is in charge of Gulayan at Bulaklakan, a model farm that grows various vegetables using space-friendly techniques such as hanging sacks, tyres, plastic bottles and bamboo containers. He gives weekly seminars on urban farming in poor areas, showing the residents that many vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and celery can grow in any weather conditions. This project is inspiring as well as an excellent display of resourcefulness so often found in third-world nations. So there’s really no excuse not to have a vege patch if we live in suburban Brisbane, in a house, with a back yard? But what about living in a unit or apartment? Then pots and even polystyrene boxes or old soft-drink bottles, will be able to grow herbs and smaller plants such as lettuce. Then part of your lunch could be the fruits of your own work. Growing fresh herbs is a good way to start and are great for adding flavour to homemade dishes and can be easily purchased at nurseries and markets. There is a great little stand at the Kelvin Grove Markets, usually at the Blamey Street entry, selling a selection of herbs in the one pot, which can sit on the kitchen bench and add to homemade dishes. The store owner even said that if my herbs died, I should bring them back to her and she will nurture them back to life. The challenge at the end of week one was making gnocchi (successful) and the challenge for the beginning of week 3 of the 100-mile diet, is finding some sort of composting method for an apartment and buying some vege plants for the deck.

3 Responses to “you can grow your own lunch”


  1. 1 Carl Lindgren

    great post :)

  2. 2 Josh Capelin

    Nice work on the gnocchi Lizzy. We had a gorgonzola version tonight-but I unfortunately have no idea how far our ingredients came from. With the exception of one that is: Rocket - from our roof top garden. We live in a very small apartment and are currently the proud parents of rocket, parsley, cilantro, spinach leaves and newly born basil, onions and mint. In terms of your challenge for week 3, we’ve had success with a composting product called Bokashi. It’s basically a sealable bucket with a false floor which acts like a sieve to allow liquid waste to drip through from the decomposing solid waste above. The system comes with a bag of EMOs (not the unhappy kind) but of the Effective Micro-organisms kind, which aid the breakdown process after just a tiny handful is added for every layer of organic waste. It takes us on average two weeks to fill one bucket, including meat scraps-which is alot of waste we used to just throw away. Now, when it’s full, we simply either take it to a community garden for burial or rotate a bucket of soil and organic matter on the roof-top. And the juice? It makes a potent but effective fertilser for the garden or for washing down sinks to erode bacteria. If only it were drinkable… We got the Bokashi from a shop called Todae.

  3. 3 lizzy hoo

    Thanks for the tip Josh. I can’t believe it takes you about two weeks to fill one bucket! I’ll look into it this weekend!

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