A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Sunday 3 January 2010

Gardens For Food.

One of the first things any new settler would have to do is put in a garden. There are wild edible plants in the woods, but they are far and few between. There is no point foraging for wild food plants if the energy you expend is more than the energy you can gain from the plants you find.
Our garden has to feed two of us, but we do have other family that we supply with food if we can. Recently I purchased some rye grass to sow in various areas, especially in Fox Valley and Butterfly Valley. This is to encourage more wildlife and game into the area.
We have had some recent good rains and our garden is doing well. The corn is up and flowering and there are two more corn areas planted. In with the corn we have planted beans as the Indians do, and we have also planted pumpkins. Corn, beans and pumpkins are the staple of the Indians which they call the three sisters. We also keep some chooks for eggs so we need to grow enough food to feed them as well as ourselves.
We have a patch of Jerusalem atichokes which have little taste but grow in plenty and are a crop we can rely on. The sunflowers are pleasant to look at and attract a native bee to our garden but they too are grown as food. Once collected and dried the sunflower seeds keep well.
Today I planted more corn and a marrow patch.

One of our patches of corn and some sunflowers.


Our pumpkin patch.


Runner beans.


Broad beans.


Jerusalem Artichokes.

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