I beg your garden

Gardening to me is not so much of a hobby, as it is a full blown obsession! I blame Indira Naidoo for writing The Edible Balcony.

I kid you not, there have been times where I can’t get to sleep due to the sheer excitement of reading my gardening book then making a list of all the new herbs I want to plant and new tools I feel are completely necessary to own. “Go to sleep Em” my husband will murmur... Surely wondering what has possessed his once sane wife.

My dad like every little Italian man is the ultimate gardening guru. Many a desperate phone call has been made asking emergency questions such as “Do the tomatoes keep potassium or sodium in their soil?”

I discovered that there is nothing more satisfying than eating out of your own garden. Take today for example. Every morning I make a fresh pot of lemon balm tea. Add a bunch of mint to my coconut water smoothie. Pluck out some rocket leaves for my salad wrap. Then for dinner I make THE BEST basil pesto! Bugger that jarred crap.

Anyway I could ramble on for hours about the way the aroma from each herb wafts up to me as I run the watering can over each pot or the sweetness of that first cherry tomato from the vine. But seriously, no matter what your interests are, make sure that they totally consume you because they are what make you uniquely you xx.

*Wednesday's Website of the Week*

Somebody who truely inspires me is nutritionist LOLA BERRY. She is the Steve Irwin of Nutrition! I love her FRESH and COLOURFUL take on being healthy!

Check out the clip I've attached and you'll instantly love her just as much as I do :)

Her website is www.lolaberry.com

Local, fresh, perfect.

How many times have you gone to buy seafood from the supermarket and the little sign says it’s from Taiwan or Uganda or some other random country thousands and thousands of kilometres away?

One of the things I love about living in the quiet little coastal town of Coffs Harbour is the fishing co-op located down at the marina. This morning I bought some fresh local prawns which were the size of mini lady finger bananas!

So tonight I sautéed the prawns in a tonne of organic extra virgin olive oil, a splash of Braggs liquid aminos and a handful of pay choy.

In another saucepan I boiled up some organic quinoa (pronounced “keen-wah” til soft and fluffy (12-15mins).

While that was all doing its thing, I whizzed up some pesto in my food processor with a couple of handfuls of freshly picked basil from the garden, a few swirls of olive oil, some toasted pine nuts and a wild amount of garlic.

Then finally I threw together a quick salad of mixed leaves, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, grated beetroot (cleansing for the liver), cucumber and a handful of cherry toms.

I popped the quinoa, salad and prawns on my polka dot plate and spooned the pesto all over it with a big squeeze of lemon.

Now for the washing up.... Eek!

Remember, shop local, cook from scratch, keep it fresh and always get your husband to do the dishes xx.

Tree hugger.

I have a deep fetish for biophilia. Sounds creepy right? Well it’s not, you sick puppies.

Biophillia is a term that refers to the healing power we experience from nature. This is due to our innate connection to the outside world. There have been countless studies conducted to reveal the rapid improvement of hospital patients who have a view of a garden or who are able to sit outside in the sun compared to those who did not get the privilege.

My Mr and I went to Bunnings on the weekend and came home with a big bag of organic potting mix as well as coriander, cherry toms, mint and sweet basil seedlings.

After a long day of fluorescent lighting, air-con, a constantly ringing phone and racking my brain with correct products for the appropriate conditions, I felt instantly revitalised and grounded after getting some dirt under my fingernails.

So try to sit in a park on your lunchbreak rather than checking your emails, feel the sand between your toes after work and enjoy a leisurely walk over a headland rather than on the treadmill. You’ll feel better for it.