Can we trust others to grow our food
Clive Blazey talks about the destruction of our food quality
In the last century, as our lives have become more and more specialised, we have entrusted the growing of our food to market gardeners and farmers.
This change has destroyed the nutritional quality of our food, as fruit is picked unripe to extend supermarket shelf-life. Almost all the berry fruits, such as strawberries and raspberries, are picked before sugars, vitamins and antioxidants develop.
Fruit is now sprayed with anti-ripening chemicals and a survey found that what supermarkets euphemistically call ‘fresh food’, such as apples, could be nine months old!
Orchardists make much more profit by pumping apples, grapes and tomatoes so full of water to boost weight that flavour, nutrition and antioxidant levels are almost negligible. The quality of food diminishes proportionally to the time and distance from harvest.
Ninety percent of fruit and vegetable cultivars are lost
Apples have been cultivated for thousands of years and at the turn of the 20th century there used to be 3–4 thousand apple varieties. Almost all these cultivars have been replaced by 4 or 5 supermarket varieties because, as one grower stated, the supermarket buyer is not interested in buying any apples or peaches with less than a four month shelf life. This is the reason why 90% of all fruit and vegetable varieties have disappeared.
At Diggers we have been conducting taste tests on tomatoes and strawberries, comparing pre-globalisation heirloom strains with supermarket-focused hybrids. The results have been astounding. In the case of strawberries there is just one strawberry, ‘Cambridge Rival’, that has survived the 100 years. When we compare this heirloom, grown in our garden, with the variety purchased at our local supermarket, we recorded a taste rating of 90% compared with 25%.
The tastiest fruits never reach the market
Without exception, the best-tasting and most nutritious fruits and vegetables never reach our food markets.
Our food is so altered that the supermarket hybrid tomato has become both the box and its contents! When we grew our own food we knew what we were eating. We can no longer trust multinational seed merchants to grow tasty and nutritious food. We can’t trust our governments to regulate a globalised food supply and we can no longer trust our farmers or supermarkets to grow quality food unless it carries an organic label.
For the last 15 years we have been rescuing the best-tasting heirloom vegetables and, with the writing of this magazine, we are extending our search and commitment to the best of the pre-globalised fruit varieties. If you value flavour and health, you have to grow your own food at home.
Growing your own food saves the planet
Fossil fuels are used to plough the ground, sow the seeds, spray the plants, harvest the crops and then ship them, often thousands of miles, to market.
The garden where every plant is edible
As a result of climate change it is almost certain that average temperatures will rise by at least 2°C in the next 40 years. This increase will mean that Melbourne gardeners will have a climate like Sydney, and Sydney gardeners a climate like Brisbane.
Avocados and subtropical fruits will become as popular as the lemon tree. Australia’s most popular garden guide lists avocados as a tropical fruit, even though there are orchards south of Melbourne. A single avocado tree can produce 50–200kg of fruit, which is probably four times as much as the average family would ever eat. We found that by choosing the most productive fruit and vegetables, we can be self-sufficient in food in an area no larger than the suburban front garden!
The ‘Hass’ variety of avocado can easily be grown and fruited in every Australian capital city except Canberra and Hobart. Every camellia or ornamental shrub you replace with an avocado cuts our greenhouse emissions.
Whilst self-sufficiency is a vital reason to garden, for many, growing a diverse range of plants is as important for our ecology as it is for our health. The average backyard has enough space to grow up to 200 edible, fruiting plants. Growing new fruit is fun, even if the strains are still quite primitive and don’t give commercial yields.
Planting fruit instead of flowers
Aspiring gardeners want to create a garden that is as beautiful as it is bountiful. For too long the growing of food has been thought of as functional only, when the food garden should be as decorative as the most inspiring flower gardens.
Isn’t a persimmon in autumn as exquisite as any magnolia in spring? Camellias and citrus both grow in similar climates and provide dense screens of evergreen foliage, but who can say that the camellia’s winter blooms are more appealing than the orange blossom and fruit that hangs for months?
Blueberries will grow wherever azaleas thrive but wouldn’t the quality of our gardens (not to mention our health) improve if we replaced one with the other?
Now that our garden spaces are reducing and rainfall is diminishing we need to replace the water-thirsty shade trees from temperate climates with drought-tolerant mini trees. The best candidates are mostly fruiting trees such as mulberries, loquats, figs, jujubes, medlars and persimmons.
Quality of life begins at the table
In this magazine we describe all the varieties that provide superior flavour and nutrition. We can help you become totally self-sufficient and you can help us rescue those precious heirloom fruits and vegetables that are vital to preserving our gardening civilisation.
A recent survey found that only 10% of the Australian population gets enough exercise to maintain basic fitness for heart and lungs. As we have abrogated the growing of food to others, not only has the quality of food declined, our health has suffered as well. Our globalised diet has caused us to be overfed, under-exercised and under-nourished.
2,300 years ago Hypocrites wrote “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”. Today’s dieticians are unanimous in recommending that we need to be eating seven servings of fruit and vegetables each day. Growing your own food is the key – food is for friendship, food is for family, and food is your medicine for a long and healthy life.