So how'd you like THEM apples?

Gosh, I've had an insanely busy few weeks. I picked up a new client who wanted a website for her own business and wants me to build 3 more for her clients. Stupidly I'd quoted a fixed price thinking her site would be about ten hours' worth. It's been about 30. Maybe more. She's wanted change after change. I could get nasty and slug her for more money but firstly I suspect she's like me - a one person company trying to make ends meet - and secondly I need her on side as she can bring a lot more work my way. So I've had her and her over the top website as well as my regular clients this month.

But that's not what this post is about. I saw an ad on TV last night that struck a chord with me. I don't watch much commercial TV. I hate the ads. But this one made me laugh as well as made me think.

You see, we've started to import fruit and vegetables from China. Now this is Australia. We are the lucky country. We have the perfect climate for growing all the fruit and veg we need. However, our government has seen fit to undermine our own farmers and do trade deals to keep China onside. Chinese farming, let me tell you, ain't the greatest. They use chemicals long since banned in the western world to keep bugs and diseases at bay. They use night soil (ie human poo) as a fertiliser. Chinese-grown garlic, for instance, is grown in night soil then chemically bleached and treated with heaven knows what else before it hits our shores.

Of course, Chinese fruit and veg is cheap for the consumer to buy, despite an horrendous carbon footprint as it travels here, because labour costs are so much cheaper in China. Australian farmers are having trouble competing - see this article for more. There has been a lot about this in the news over the last year or so, and consumers are becoming more savvy about buying local products, even if they do cost a little more.

The latest offering from China is apples. Farmers in Batlow, one of this country's premium apple growing districts, are despairing. Already they have a glut of apples despite selling country wide to supermarkets and other vendors. The whole town is an apple economy. It relies on apple sales to survive. Now the Chinese are going to bring in apples and the future of Batlow looks as bleak as the situation in Mildura, once the country's orange and citrus capital, now suffering as a result of imported oranges and orange pulp/juice. Last year farmers in Mildura ploughed hundreds of healthy trees into the ground because they couldn't sell the fruit. It was heartbreaking. We can import fruit in but we're not savvy enough to export it, it seems.

I do get cross at this government. I know we have to have trade deals with other nations. However, by importing fresh food which we are perfectly capable of growing here we are undermining our own rural industries. The Chinese textile industry (again, another industry which loves chemicals; formaldehyde to keep those shirts looking starched, anyone?) has seen the words "Made in Australia" just about disappear from our clothing shops. We can't compete. I'm damned if I want to see the same thing happen with the food I put in my mouth.

Anyway, back to the Apple ad. I hope it hits the hearts of the viewers. I hope people don't eventually become complacent and buy the imported fruit because it's $1 a kilo cheaper than locally grown. The economies of the Western world rely too heavily on China as it is. Now we have a new Prime Minister who doesn't speak Mandarin (unlike Krudd) she might listen to the growing dissent of the populace for imported Chinese food.

Nothing like a wet weekend...

... especially when it's a long one. Three days off...and three days of rain. Sigh. Not at all conducive to getting out on the bikes, which was really annoying. We'd planned a ride in the country but instead did indoor DIY, made marmalade (batch 4... a bit thick and sticky but very flavoursome) and read books after a bookstore binge last Thursday when we picked up half a dozen more goodies on the sales table.

Now of course I'm in work mode again and the rain has stopped for the moment - not to worry, the rest of the week is forecast to be gloomy. But I took some time off this morning to take photos of my garden, which thoroughly enjoyed its spring soaking.

The pink roses are out the front, tumbling over lattice and providing amazing scent when you walk past them.

The irises and all the other photos are taken in our back courtyard garden. You'll see sorrel growing next to the irises. It likes lots of water so has gone ballistic this week; I'll have to cut some of it back to give the other herbs and the tomatoes a chance. You can make a wonderful sauce with sorrel that goes well with chicken and fish, or use the younger leaves in salads. You can blanche the leaves with spinach to pad out your veggies on the dinner table as well. The older leaves can be a bit bitter to eat raw.

The red and white flowers are salvias; in this case, Hotlips, with its big pouting lips. I love salvias - I have six different ones in my garden and another three at my mother's. Some are ornamental, like Hotlips, some are edible like sage officinalis, but with the bigger ones there's a lovely trick you can do with the flowers: pull one off carefully and suck it at the base - you'll get a hit of nectar :-). The native honeyeaters love them just as much as I do.

Lots of herbs doing their stuff now too; the borage is in bright blue flower, and apparently planting blue flowers at the ends of your veggie beds attracts the nasties away from your veggies and onto the blue flowers. The blue flowers don't seem to suffer as a result! The blue also attracts bees which apparently then buzz around your veggies and fruit. I have rosemary planted at the other end; that will soon be covered in blue flowers too. Borage flowers are a visual way to dress up your salads or put into a drink like Pimm's. They are edible; they're not a taste sensation but not unpleasant either.

I have young tomato plants in, so the next thing will be to plant some basil in between them - this helps keep fruit flies at bay. There are also some marvellous, but not cheap, products in the EcoNaturalure range which I use to control fruit flies. I use a lot of the Eco products by this manufacturer - they really are fantastic, they're organic, there are no nasty chemicals (I figure we put enough chemicals into our bodies unthinkingly, unwittingly and often without our knowledge or consent unless we are really viligent about reading packaging labels and the manufacturers are truly honest about just what goes into things).

Philips, you're listening!

Hands up who HATES the dim light put out by low-energy lightbulbs? Thought so. It's murder to read by. We've been nice little greenies and installed them over the house over the last few years, putting up with their awful cold, weak light and doing our bit for the environment and the energy bills. Exceptions are the downlights in the kitchen and my office, and as these blow they'll be replaced by LED downlights/spotlights.

Anyway, trolling the supermarket shelves today I noticed Philips has introduced a new range of bulbs which look like the wonderful, trusty incandescent lights we know and love - and which the Australian government has now banned from sale. They use 30% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs so while they're not as energy efficient as the low energy variety, we thought they may well give us a better light to read by.

Oh, and they do! It's dark and grey here today, and the new lightbulbs in the living room make one hell of a difference. No more squinting or having to take my specs off and bring the book close enough to read without them.

Thanks, Philips. Obviously there has been a backlash from readers everywhere demanding a decent light to read by and generally illuminate rooms to a decent level. Philips has come to the party nicely with these bulbs and no doubt other lighting manufacturers will follow suit.

I'm glad someone has listened and there IS an alternative. It's pretty clear the government officials who banned incandescent bulbs and forced the low-energy horrors on us have never tried to read a book on a cloudy day or after dark!