This is the flyer for Jane and my workshop at Piha

This is Lactuca virosa to the left.  Both the wild lettuces get so tall and broad, producing an abundance of seeds.  People have been asking for seed which I now have available.  If you'd like some send me a message julia@juliasedibleweeds.com 

Lactuca Virosa is being used as a pain killer. This following link explains more about it and how to use it. See here. Scroll down the page to see the article.  The simplist way to use the leaves is as a tea.

The Mini Permablitz we held here December 9th rocked full swing!  I was SO grateful for the work people put in on different projects to finish preparing the vegetable beds, instal edging around the whole vegetable bed, put up the green house, clear an area covered in ferns, alstroemeria and stones, and create shade for the worm farms, create and set up a barrel wicking bed and concrete in two posts for a gate to enclose the whole garden.  The concept of Permablitz originated in Melbourne and they are a wonderful way to learn about different permaculture principles and practices and actually put some into practice.  It all starts with a request for a blitz once you've attended a couple. A design team gathers, scopes the section and creates a plan from the desires of the host.  There's always great food and it is fabulous for networking.  Go here and you'll learn all about it and the blitz held in my garden with lots of photos.

During late November and early December I ran two huge workshops in Whanganui at the Heritage Food Crops Research Trust.  I was totally stunned at the amazing work Mark Christensen and his team of volunteers are doing to develop and grow the most nutritious food for people.  The Trust sits on five acres of abundance and there I saw all the Monty Surprise apples growing that Mark developed.  He has donated one to each household in Whangaui that wants one.  He also developed the orange tomato that is so full of lycopene, with its many health benefits accessible on google.  The photo is of Mark's prize tomato green house to the left, full of carefully labelled tomatoes.  He imports seeds and grows them monitoring their performance and nutritional content.  All these plants will produce orange tomatoes.

Exploring and gathering weeds in  the five acre grounds of the Heritage Food Crops Trust.

Also in Whanganui I had a lovely group of homeschooled children who got right into the foraging and being curious about plants, especially the poisonous ones like hemlock.  They also helped prepare the ingredients for thistle lemonade and the green smoothie.

I have an amazing crop of galensoga parviflora or Guascas from Colombia. Also magenta spreen, lambs quarters or tree spinach Chenopodium giganteum with the pink leaves in the photo.  I am making pesto with all these weedlings and smoothies. I also made marrow wraps as my courgettes have grown so fast and become baby marrows before I can catch them.

This is the recipe for the marrow wraps. I usually double the recipe which fits beautifully in a 2 L blender jug. This quantity makes enough for four wraps, which is perfect for my four drawer Excalibre Dehydrator.  If you want the wraps in squares, it is best to score them the sizes you want before you put them in the dehydrator. Otherwise you get one big sheet which is fine, you just have to break it up. Or you can roll  the whole square up with goodies inside.

While down in the Wellington area, a friend Merav and I went to the beach.  I was so surprised to find buckshorn plantain Plantago coronopsis, naturalised growing in stones right on the edge of the beach.   You can see in the photo it looks a whitish on the leaves and I believe it is a salt residue.  I was so happy to find it in the wild and know where it actually chooses to live. It is certainly one hardy plant!

I'm really loving having the bees on the section.  We harvested the first honey in December and it is delicious runny honey.  The bees are very quiet and I never worry about being stung. However, I did get stung for the first time when I went out in the dark and didn't see the clover flower with a bee on it.  I got the sting out, rubbed plantain on it and when it got to the itchy stage I spread my own plantain, kumarahou cream on it.  The cream stopped the terrible itching. I was actually stunned myself how well it worked.  My mum is now raving about how good it is for skin conditions.  It is for sale on the products page of my website.

This is a smoothie I made recently with plums - I loved how the colour made patterns.  What I actually did to get the swirled effect was make a normal green smoothie and then add some blended plum juice.  I blended the plums to freeze in ice cube trays and there was some left over pulp. Where else to put it but in a smoothie.