Getting on the green...

Do you grow your own?

Do you buy the really expensive outdoor stuff?

Do you choke on the additive laden, super charged, hydroponic monsters?

Here in Australia we have always been blessed with the finest quality greenery.

Is it our vibrant multicultural society?

Is it the post war times that forced people to do some pretty crazy things in their backyard, just to turn a dollar?!

I have sampled some amazing home grown produce over the years, so many good times! Good times!

It all started when I was young....

The largest homegrown tomato I ever saw was over 500gm and looked like it should have been in hand cuffs. Million dollar peaches from the side yard that were so sweet and juicy that would put James in rehab, and have Roald Dahl taken in for questioning. My first ever crop of broad beans were twice my own height, I thought this green thumb thing was a cinch!! Avocados from a neighbours Hass tree always brings back memories of the perfect prawn cocktail. My grandfather used to slice fresh green beans with a small knife so sharp you could shave with it, you only had to wave the beans over some hot water to cook. Fresh passion fruit off the vine - oh my golly gosh - ZING!! Feijoa trees with its funky fruit, I'd put a spoon in my school bag so could pinch some from the house down the street on the corner and eat them on the way. Pomegranate from the Scottish couple that lived opposite our neighbour, they smoked inside and I hated their tiny lounge room. Homemade cumquat marmalade. You know your alive when you chomp on some fresh horseradish recently peeled and pulled from under the apple tree - Hello Nose (cross eyed)!!

More recently I have experienced the joys of home grown olives and Italian tomatoes from the lovely Tony and Toni next door in the burbs. Fresh herbs left at the door step - who knows who from. My mother in laws Asian herbs - kaffir, basil, lemongrass - and shes German! My mothers resurgent asparagus patch that never ceases to surprise! Kipfler potatoes - wax is good!

Coriander will always remind me of running through a dense coriander seed crop my father had irrigated with an old rolling irrigator, which could quite easily kill small boys or so I thought.

Some less memorable moments was the coddling moth infestation in the grannies - it was devastation, casualties everywhere! Why our mother thought that choko was a vegetable young children would enjoy perplexed me and my two elder siblings. Under instruction I helped them dig a hole and bury all the produce on the tree, just to make sure there would be no resurrections we crushed them into the dirt as we went. She could not possibly serve us fresh dirt and choko? Could she?! The flavour of choko is not to far from dirt, but at least dirt has texture.

All of these experiences have made me a pain in the ass to go shopping with...

Giles