Interrogate your purchases : ask where they come from

BUY, BUY AMERICAN PIE

A long, long time ago
we used to get our food home grown
and toothpaste used to make you smile

It used to be you'd shop with ease
never eating antifreeze
You'd plan to keep on living quite awhile

But now our goods are all delivered
from somewhere on the Yangtze River
No none knows the source there
so you might find some horse hair

But if corporations make a buck
they don't give a flying... Peking duck
And with this system we get stuck
today it makes you sigh

Now when you buy, buy an American pie
your grandma didn't bake it
it was made in Shanghai
where they engineered the apples to be juicy not dry

But the crust is made of cardboard and lye
don't feed it to your dog
he might die

Now did you eat a Tasty Cake
and did it make your stomach ache?
I could have said "I told you so"

And the reason you are looking wan
is some guy took bribes in Sichuan
so you just bit into little Debbie's toe

And now the toys you bought from Fisher Price
have toxins deemed unsafe for mice
and Elmo tends to wheeze
cus he's laced with PCBs

But of all my problems seen so far
when I see my cheap new DVR
I'll even brush my teeth with tar

And you will see that I'll
buy, buy from some young guy
I drive a Chevy and it's heavy
but the price is too high

Soon twenty bucks will buy a car from Shanghai
and honey that'll be the day we all die

~ written & performed by the Capitol Steps

From here

~~~~~~~~~

Related reading:

Food Security for the Faint of Heart

Gardening For the Faint of Heart

Further reading:

Permaculture research institute of Austraslia

China considers buying land overseas to secure food supply - report

Melamine in foods from China

Ban Chinese food imports

Chinese food giant to explore NSW

China takes steps to enforce food safety standards

China foods on the rise

 

Chokoes, Chutney and Relish

In the long ago, there was a gripping novel and a suspenseful TV series, called The Day of the Triffids.  Who said vegetables can't take over the world!  Clearly, chokoes know they can and get on about doing it. Pictures above and below show the ever so humble choko vine taking over my courtyard at the rear of Home Beautiful and climbing the garage wall and roof.  The TV antenna (don't need it because we have Foxtel) has collapsed.  Could it be from the combined weight of vine and product?

 

And above is some of the product.

Chokoes (our Australian name for the above ) have many names in many countries.  To begin the growing process is really easy.  Buy a choko from your the local vegetable shop or department and then hide it - in a drawer or cupboard - out of the light.  After a couple of weeks, out of its larger end will come a sprout.  When the sprout is about 3-5cm, take the choko and put it in a pot or in the ground, needless to say the sprout will be above the soil.  

The tropics is sometimes too darn hot and frosts of course are not helpful.  The growing place for my vine is a rear courtyard in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne which is partially covered by a clear corrugated fibreglass roofing product near a brick wall.  Needless to say, please make sure that the soil is rich with compost.  Chokoes have marvellous tendrils to aid their quest for world domination.

Picture from here.

Queenslanders are particularly familiar with this fruit-bearing vine of vines.  It takes over back fencies and, in the era before sanitation came indoors, took over many a dunny.  The choko has even entered the vernacular.

Generally, our carnivore cobbers in Australia will be familiar with chokoes served with white sauce as an accompaniment to corned beef or other meats.  The choko is well travelled and there are lots of recipes on the net: everything from vegetable accompaniments to relishes and chutneys.. 

...and here are some recipes that (yes I have made them) hiding in my old handwritten recipe book.  They come from Mrs Pobar.  When I lived in Toowoomba long ago, I was a member and president of the Darling Downs Housewives and Homemakers Association (we were a consumer organisation with hundreds of members before women were in the workforce en masse and before governments had established Departments of Consumer Affairs!)  

The DDHHA was founded by the talented and indomitable Cherith Weis. I was a young Mum of about 25 when I joined and met Cherith, Founder and President.  I had been in community organisations before and am still a community involved person.  I afterward obtained a university degree which included Community Studies - but I think I had got a university education with Cherith and the Homemakers and all I needed was to formalise it into the language of academe!  So there are many memories of people, events, longings, and futures all tied up in these two choko recipes.

Mrs Pobar's Choko Pickles

Ingredients

1/2 dozen chokoes

1 lb. onions

1 cup salt

1 quart vinegar

3 cups sugar

2 tabs Plain Flour

2 tabs mustard

1 tabs curry powder

1/2 dess tumeric disolved in reserved vinegar.

Method

Prepared vegetables and cover with hot water.  Stand overnight.  Add vinegar.  Boil until tender.  Add sugar.  Thicken with Plain Flour, Mustard, Curry Powder and tumeric dissolved in reserved vinegar.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

Choko Chutney

 8 chokoes

6 apples or tomatoes

3 lb onions

Salt

2 quarts vinegar

1 teas spice

1 teas ginger

1 cup flour

2 dess mustard

2 dess curry powder

Sultanas & raisins (optional)

Prepare vegetables and stand overnight.  Put vinegard on to boil.  Add vegetables, spice, ginger.  Boil until tender. Mix flour, mustard, curry powder and thicken.  Boil for 5 minutes. Add sultanas and raisins if desired.

Related reading

Vegetables for small gardens & containers in Australia

Fruit and Vegetable Gardening in Australia (Royal Horticultural Society)

The A~Z of vegetable gardening in Australia.

Tropical Food Gardens: 

A Guide to Growing Fruit, Herbs and Vegetables in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Climates

 

Tropical Vegetables (Periplus Nature)