Week 6 - Balancing "The Project" Against Everything Else (or Me Versus The Universe)

Hello all, 


I am proud to announce, in no small measure, with great gusto, and not to soon, my lovely partner Nessie has joined the Showing Rib Campaign! Now the gardens are producing for the two of us and doing it quite easily too I might add. Initially I was a little concerned, but as if to allay my apprehensions mother nature is laying on a real spread. 



The chooks, who seemed to be going off the lay there for a while, have bumped up their production again. We are lucky that the pumpkin vines, who have been in the ground for months now, are finally starting to produce. Also starting to boom is the Ceylon spinach - a hardy climbing perrenial that has thick juicy spinachy leaves - great in a fritatta. The tomato vines are producing plenty, though some are splitting from the wet and the pineapples I spoke of a few weeks ago are goldening and almost ripe on top of the fridge. The climbing beans, Purple Kings, that I planted to grow up the sunflowers are starting to bear fruit and the silks in the corn patch are just starting to brown. That will be a joyous day, when we sink the chompers into those golden cobs, Mmmmm.

Three of our Pineapple crop.

When I was first drafting up this post I was thinking of all the things that I must balance when carrying out this project. There was initially some trepidation from some quarters regarding my ability to sustain myself and whether I would have the energy levels and time to do the things I normally do.


Our family has always had a garden of some sort and so growing food for us all to eat was certainly nothing new. What was new was a certain buffoon getting a monopoly on the crops because of some hair brained, starvation based death wish. A number of times I heard something along the lines of "You are choosing to do this and we shouldn't be penalised. We should be allowed to eat the food too." and of course they're right. In some ways it seems even more unjust to be making the kids eat the rubbish food bought from the shops, filled with all of its delectable pollutants and moorish preservatives. I have overcome their indignant demands by making the most unappetising meals you care to imagine. Mashed green banana and beetroot fritters with tomatoes boiled in balsamic vinegar and Cayenne Pepper. Curried greyish brown slop is another of my favourites. The littluns aren't so keen for that kind of action.


There was a moment during the earlier stages of the project when Rubes asked me if she could have a piece of dried banana. Picture me, anxious about my future,  snatching them behind my back, and snarling, wild eyed and dog like, "Get your own banana from the shop, you're allowed, go on get." She took it well, after she had calmed down and the doctor had given her her shots. She understood my worry, and though I offered her some later she has had the grace to only nibble politely. Sorry Rubes. Ness was adamant that the bananas were for all and after some considered debate and a bit more snarling it was decided no one would go near them while I was watching. Since Ness has joined the fray there have been similar moments where that niggling fear of not having enough to eat has prompted us to question what the kids are eating.


As to the question of whether  I am handicapped by my current diet I can answer emphatically no. Despite the initial first month of withdrawals, cravings and light headedness, I can safely say that I actually have more energy now than when I was stuffing myself with processed goodies and their associated toxins. My mate Ben who has made a few comments now, hi Ben, asked me if I'm feeling weak now that I'm losing weight. I think he thought that my body would be eating away at my muscle to supply sustenance. Rest assured dear reader, I'm still at the very heavy end of a healthy weight range and there is still some fat to burn before I start wasting. I have been doing some weight bearing exercise to keep toned and yes Ben, I did manage a chin up the other day. Check out what appears to be some kind of kinky medieval torture set up that Ben claims could be a Lofty Meadows outdoor gym.

I wouldn't know where to start....

Colleagues at work have asked me how I manage balancing work in the garden with work at work. "Quite easily," I reply casually "excepting the hour and a half most afternoons spent weeding, digging planting and picking." Preparing the meals, with all of its washing and chopping takes time too. It is great to have some wonderful wwoofers weeding willingly  while we work during the day. Wwoofers are great and I recommend them to anyone with a garden and a spare bed. Though the labour involved with growing and preparing our sustenance doesn't get in the way of my employment too much it does conflict with other work around Lofty Meadows, for example: welding up some racks for timber, building a duck enclosure, filling in the ruts on the driveway, doing the washing, cleaning the house, sitting down and scratching myself. Somehow things seem to happen and everything gets done, eventually.


It has been wonderful the interest that the blog and the project in general has created. There have been many conversations about how I am going, perceived problems, my dwindling weight and the "rules" of what I am "allowed" to consume (these come particularly from my students). You can hear the echoes of those conversations in these blog posts.

Every time I post one of these weight photos I get embarrassed by the dirtiness of my feet. I've been working in the garden!

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Thanks for reading,

Showing Rib