Dinner from our Garden

Home grown veggies are the best! You can take my word for it.

Our tomato plants just keep on producing, despite our garden care bordering on neglect for he last 2 months. Our initial enthusiasm may have waned but it seems that the efforts we put in at the beginning were enough to establish a lot of the veggies and they have just kept on growing. (Well, when I say the efforts "we" put in, I must admit it was mostly my husband who got things going.)

Here are some pics of our lovely tomatoes and a meal that I prepared from them:

Neapolitan sauce - with tomatoes, onion, basil and parsley from our garden. (Garlic from the fruit and veg shop but we will grow our own next time).

The final result: just added some broccoli from our garden, and some red kidney beans and pasta that I bought at Bin Inn. Delicious!

Our broccoli crop has been fantastic and we have had some lovely meals with it including Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup. Yum! My husband recently planted some more broccoli so we will be having many more delicious soups through winter.

Next from the garden: Pumpkin soup. I will try and remember to take some pics of the process.

Please cover your mouth when you cough!

Swine flu, swine flu, swine flu! On every radio station, in every news paper, all over the net, and apparently all over the TV news (though at least I managed to miss that).

Two things are really bothering me about all this and have me all steamed up for a rant.

1. Why does the ho-hum, mega-profit-making Tamiflu get so much air time. While the amazing, highly effective, population protecting, basic health messages get so little mention, if any, on most reports.
Surely the most important message for our benevolent media to carry is: "Cover your mouth when you cough, wash your hands, and stay home if you are sick". And pity for you if you happen to actually contract the flu, and your only source of information was our media. You would think that Tamiflu is your only hope and would know nothing of the benefits of bed rest, fluids and paracetamol to reduce your fever.

2. The other thing making me cross and raising my skeptical hackles is that while people panic the pharmaceutical companies are making even bigger profits? Interestingly Tamiflu (by Roche, Switzerland) is the only brand name I have heard mentioned in NZ. I have not come across the name Relenza (by Biota, Australia, but under the GSK umbrella) even once in the mainstream media here. Roche's massive advertising/promotional budget is obviously paying off!

But there is still some good sense out there and this site made me chuckle! The well respected medical giant, the Mayo Clinic, advocates chicken soup as a remedy, and says it can really help by breaking up congestion. I love it! Though I don't think GSK and Roche need to worry about this simple advice effecting their profit from the current "crisis" too much. I wonder what the vegetarian equivalent is for chicken soup. My husband makes a to-die-for cream of mushroom soup, but somehow I don't think the cream content will allow it to pass as a health remedy.

Well, at least GSK and Roche are happy.

Oh, and please don't cough into your hand and then touch the door nob to my office, or anything else for that matter! If you are unsure of the correct cough etiquette please check this link.

The Story of Stuff

Have you seen this? If not you can download it here.

It's beauty lies in being a simple, succinct, introductory overview to a wide range of linked topics.

I think it would be a great idea to show it to all school students. Unfortunately one teacher who had this idea was soon having to defend herself to the school board. But hopefully not all school boards would be quite so narrow minded in their response.