And so I feel it’s my duty as an organic gardener to alert you to the truth of the creatures under the sky, and the monsters that every organic gardener learns to circumnavigate without the use of poisonous chemicals.

Garden Monsters #1: Cutworms.

So called because they cut seedlings in half given only the smallest opportunity!

They live just underneath the surface of the soil, and what they do is eat the juicy delicious little 1/4″ piece of the seedling that connects the upper part of the plant to the roots.

AND THAT”S ALL!!!!

They don’t touch the rest of the upper parts or the roots, but leave them there to go to waste.

Unless we thwart their monsterly ways with Toilet Paper Tubes, with cardboard cups, or with those heat-protecting cardboard tube things on the outside of a disposable hot drink cup!

What we organic gardeners do is this…

1. Plant the seedling.
2. Stick the tube over the seedling (cut the bottom off a cup to make a tube)
3. Watch the cutworms bump their heads on the cardboard ha ha!

(because they’re not very bright, so they can’t get around them)

And then, we take the card tube off again as soon as the seedling is big enough to be un-delicious in the 1/4″ part.

Easy peasy!

Here in Malibu, December days are sun-kissed, the warmth on our backs encouraging bulbs to be planted and tender greens to be harvested. There’s still time for brassica seeds to be planted in flats inside the cosy potting shed, and so this week is all about Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, cabbages and kale. Of course, once they’ve germinated they’ll want to taste the sunshine too, but for now, they’ll be very pleased to stay indoors, as the nights dip below 40 degrees.

However, the passionfruit don’t seem to mind. The daytime warmth keeps the fruit on the path to orange succulence, and the night time chill makes them stronger and keeps the insects at bay.

The passionfruit vine growing on the chicken coop is simultaneously bearing fruit and blooming, the flowers closely resembling beautiful and strange creatures from a 1950′s B-movie (but then, this is L.A. after all, so what would you expect!)

Week by week, the fruit grow rounder and riper. I look at them tenderly, and help them along their way with a little mulch here and a little chicken poop there.

I don’t expect to taste their sweetness for many a moon, but then, I wouldn’t really want to eat them as soon as they appear… after all, waiting is part of the fun!

Pound for pound, pumpkins are perhaps the easiest and most rewarding vegetable to grow… (or is it a fruit?!) And when you grow your own, the heirloom pumpkins now available as seeds are as varied as you could wish for.

The only thing that could be tricky is that these vines sprawl, so you need to give them plenty of space, either horizontal or vertical. And they love good fertile soil if given the choice, but will grow in any old dirt if that’s all that is there.

So, which organic heirloom pumpkin varieties did I plant in The Ranch at Live Oak‘s big vegetable garden in Malibu? Here they are:

Lumina

So called for its white shell, but inside is sweet, orange flesh and big seeds that are great roasted.

French Cinderella

Pretty as a fairy princess carriage, and just as delicious. Its true name is Rouge Vif d’Etampes, but Cinderella totally works.

Howden

This is a BIG guy. If you thin the vine down to one fruit per plant, the pumpkins can get to 1 1/2 feet across, and 2 feet down. Although you can eat ANY kind of pumpkin, the Howden is generally grown as an ornamental carving variety. Make a face and light a candle…

Jack Be Little

This is a LITTLE guy. About 3 inches across and 2 inches down. In theory, it should grow well in a container, but in practice, I’ve had most luck with these planted in the ground, as containers have a greater tendency to dry out on hot days. If you’re successful, each vine can grow 4 or 5 little pumpkins that are great for individual dishes, table settings, and as Halloween costume accessories!

Musquée de Provence

With its delicate coating of musk, this pumpkin is perhaps the most magically nostalgic. Truly a beauty to behold, and fabulous for pie-making too.

Big Max

This variety is the classic enormous orange all-American Halloween pumpkin. But don’t be fooled into thinking it will produce huge fruit without being thinned! All pumpkin vines need you to select the one gourd for them to concentrate on, and once that’s done, the plant will put all of its nurturing into making that one chosen squash unfeasibly enormous and prime for baking, roasting, carving or using as a piece of furniture.

Young’s Beauty

These guys are substantial contenders for pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie recipes. They’re big enough to feed a family of any size, and will graciously double up as carvers before they hit the pot.

Currently baking in the oven are corn, beans and squash, that classic combination of native edible plants held sacred by Native American people. The pleasure of cutting the little golden and red corns from their husk, slicing the purple and green beans, and pulling out the squash seeds from the flesh was just lovely.

I’m sauteing greens with garlic, and when I say greens, it’s an understatement. My heavy cast-iron pot contains Swiss and rhubarb chard, black kale, mustard greens, beet greens, turnip tops and celery leaves, all tossed with olive oil and sea salt, the only ingredients that didn’t come from the plot of earth I look after.

And of course, the beets themselves are about to be pickled, the golden and blood red ones, and the chioggia beets with their red and creamy white concentric circles. The radishes I’ll probably just munch as they are this week, but next week there will be a new crop ready to pickle. Likewise the cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers.

The herbs are all doing well in the garden, so I’m starting to think ahead about making a big batch of pesto and freezing little ice cubes of the other herbs, as well as drying stalks of lemon grass and fronds of lemon verbena.

Tomorrow, I’ll make a start on the apples. There’s a huge bag of them waiting to be cored and sliced into discs ready to be dried into apple rings for the months ahead. The oranges will keep pretty well for a while, but if they’re not eaten before they start to soften, I’ll juice them and freeze it. Same goes from the rest of the citrus, except the lemons, which I may preserve Persian-style with salt. And the Buddha’s Hands, those completely bizarre fruit that are basically all peel and no flesh, but what magnificent peel, what incredibly beautiful fruit!

The figs are simply stunning this year, all four varieties. The stripey variegated green and yellow ones are the prettiest, the black mission figs coming close second, but the sweet, tender Kadota figs are the juiciest of the crop this year. They’re so good, they’re highly unlikely to last long enough to be canned. Munching one right now as I type!

The strawberries are so sweet and perfect that they never make it out of the garden. They are best eaten straight off the plant, shared with whoever else is lucky enough to be in the garden. Visitors routinely say they’re the best strawberries they’ve ever had, and if the truth be told, it’s partly because they are really good in my garden, grown in partnership with their best friends, the alyssum flower and carefully tucked into their beds with a layer of straw bedding to keep them warm at night. But the real reason they’re fantastic is because strawberries don’t like leaving their beds. They want to be eaten e x t r e m e l y fresh! And so if you’ve never eaten one straight off the vine, you haven’t really experienced their true glory.

A few peaches are ready, all of them donut peaches, which means they’re a variety that are round and flat, a bit like donuts. Most of the peaches still have a way to go until they’re ready to pick, but a few made it into my tummy straight from the tree, and they are extremely welcome there.

And the melons! Oh wow, they are so big and beautiful! Watermelons, honeydew, canteloupe, all so juicy they run down your chin!

I’m currently in New York, a sweltering hot and humid mass of concrete and steel, glass spikes rising from black top to kiss the turquoise sky heavy with cumulus clouds.

On streets graced with maples, English oaks and city plain trees, there’s an occasional square of brown where the uniform tree pattern is abruptly missing a member. Small patches of curbside earth, dotted between slabs of grey.

Whenever I spot one, a pair of heirloom seeds appear from my pocket and before you can say “What if someone sees?” I am on one knee, two fingers wiggling into the dirt, then the seeds are inserted into the brown and covered up snugly an inch below. Water from my bottle darkens the soil, the dampness activating enzymes in their shells as I pat them fondly from above. And now, they are on their alchemical way to new lives as pumpkins.

It’s a small step, but one that’s deftly taken, greening the streets of Gotham City with fairy-tale beauty and delicious, abundant fruits available for all to admire and for all to enjoy as they grow, and then for a lucky few, to eat freshly cut from curly, twisting vines of Cinderella delight.

Perhaps you’ll be inspired to sow seeds between the cracks in your city?

It’s plum harvest time here in Southern California, a little earlier this year due to the recent heat. Today I’m looking forward to putting up a juicy batch of plums. As OrganicFoodee readers know, I’m not a fan of refined sugar at all, and yet, I do insist on using traditional recipes that contain sugar when I make jam. This is why…

Sugar is a vital ingredient in jams. It’s the combination of sugar, fruit pectin and the natural acid of fruit juice that makes jams gel. And it’s the sugar in jam that stops bacteria growing, keeping it safe to eat for a very long time, and being the original reason that jam was invented – to make summer and autumn fruit last all year round before the invention of the freezer.

Lower-sugar jams can be made using an alternative thickener or gel substitute. These include vegetable gum products, gelatine, liquid pectin, or agar flakes. However, the consistency of the jam will be very soft and runny, and the texture isn’t satisfying. Using a lower-sugar recipe mean the sugar can be reduced by up to 1/3, so although lower-sugar jams are lower in sugar, they are by no means sugar-free, and should still be eaten in moderation.

Not only are lower-sugar jams inferior in consistency, they also do not keep for long and must be refrigerated. It’s the sugar in jams that allows the fruit to keep away bacteria and microorganisms that would otherwise spoil them. Also, gelatin is not stable in the freezer, so lower-sugar jams should always be refrigerated and eaten within 4 weeks, but never frozen.

The best methods for preserving fruit without added sugar avoid the whole jam area. There are many traditional zero-added-sugar recipes. These include dried fruit, fruit leathers, and simply pureeing and freezing fruit.

Drying fruit is easy to do outside if you’re in relatively dry and sunny climate zone, like Southern California. If not, don’t despair, just get a dehydrator.

Fruit leathers are wonderfully versatile and healthy, and can be made with the addition of spices, ground nuts and seeds. They’re made using a dehydrators like my Excalibur. Simply puree the fruit and spread the paste with a spatula onto non-porous silicon sheets, then dry overnight.

When freezing fruit purees, first wash the fruit, and freeze it in small batches with as little air as possible in the containers. Vacuum sealed packages are best, as it’s the air that contains the microorganisms that will eventually make the fruit spoil, but even pureed fruit frozen in regular containers will last for up to a year in the freezer. Also, be aware that it will discolor unless a little lemon juice is added, but the discoloring will not effect the flavor.

Organic flowers are grown without using nasty poisonous agrochemicals, resulting in more naturally beautiful looking flowers that don’t have the harmful impact on the Earth that non-organic flowers usually do. Because non-organic flowers aren’t eaten, they’re routinely grown with way more pesticides and chemical fertilizers than non-organic foods, and with chemicals that are totally banned from food production. So although you personally don’t get affected by the chemicals used to grow non-organic flowers, the impact on the planet and on the growers is way worse and bigger than for food crops.

With the huge growth in imported blooms, a typical flower arrangement bought in the UK travels more than 27,000 miles to reach florist or supermarket. Most roses given on Valentine’s Day will not have been grown in English country gardens but will have come from the Netherlands. In the US, these distances are way further, with so much of the non-organic floral growers being based south of the Border.

Flowers found in more exotic mixed bouquets in the UK could include Protea or Brunia which could have traveled 2,000 miles from Israel. And many of the carnations sold in Britain come all the way from Kenya, Chile, Ecuador or Colombia.

Environment campaigners are now asking the public to think about the cost to the planet before they splash out – and go for home-grown blooms rather than those which have been transported halfway around the globe. Campaigners warn that as well as adding to greenhouse gases through aviation or road transport costs, moving flowers around the world can also put pressure on precious water supplies in developing countries.

Vicki Hind of Friends of the Earth said: “Our concerns are in terms of greenhouse gases and the use of chemicals and water.”

Andrea Caldecourt, of the Flowers and Plants Association, says that most of the red roses given on Valentine’s Day in the UK come from the Netherlands, and travel by ferry and road rather than air. Other popular choices such as tulips are likely to be home-grown, she said, while scented narcissi often are usually grown in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Here are the places that most cut flowers in the UK are actually grown:

Roses – Chile
Tulips – Holland
Leucadendrons – Holland
Cape Greens – South Africa
Brunia – Israel
Lisianthus – Israel
Alstroemeria – Kenya
Protea – South Africa

In the USA, the huge majority of flowers available are grown with intensive use of chemicals, but there are a few independent companies starting to spring up that care about the Earth enough to offer organic flowers and organic bouquets. And as a bonus, because these companies care so much, the quality of their floral arrangements and the blooms are often much higher than regular florists. It’s attention to detail than makes all the difference, and organic florists are for sure looking at every detail when sourcing their supply of beautiful flowers for you.

Breakfast is essential. Many scientific studies have found breakfast eaters achieve higher grades, earn larger salaries, have happier marriages, get into less accidents and stay alive longer. What the studies never figured out is the optimum thing to eat at breakfast.

Well, for my body at this age, I’ve got it figured! And it’s a fresh boiled organic free-range egg served with organic home baked bread, a nice hot cup of tea (I am English, don’t forget!), and importantly, 3/4 teaspoon of powdered reishi mushroom with spores.

This morning, my egg was freshly laid by an organic free-range heirloom hen at a wonderful fitness, health and wellness retreat center named The Ranch at Live Oak / Malibu here in Southern California. Run by Sue and Alex Glasscock, The Ranch is a slice of paradise in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s a retreat center, an exquisitely designed home from home for super busy people looking for a slice of detox away from the stresses and strains of big city living.

My breakfast egg is never better than when it’s freshly laid by a hen that is cared for and handled with love, and that’s exactly how the hens are raised at The Ranch. They’re fed a generous mix of organic laying feed, fresh garden greens, organic kitchen scraps and ground oyster shells. Their coop is one of the prettiest and best designed coops I’ve seen, with great access to fresh air and sunlight, super clean inside quarters, and an insanely spectacular view of the mountains that most of LA would die for!

My breakfast egg is an important part of my health regime, as it sets my brain up for the day with its richly balanced blend of fats and proteins, and its gentle energetics from our feathered friends. So it’s subtle but true that when I start my day with a real egg from loved hens who eat good stuff and are genuinely happy, that happiness is passed on somehow to me.

Speaking of energetics, that’s where the reishi mushrooms come in. When I eat a little spoon of reishi, my whole day is deeper, more profound and angelic. I’ve found that if I ever miss taking reishi spores at breakfast time, my day is subtly less vibrant and connected. I am a complete devotee of all medicinal mushrooms, including shiitake, maitake, lion’s mane, cordyceps, turkey tail, agarikon and blazei. They are an incredible source of immunity boosting, allergy relief and a wonderful support for strength, vitality, calmness and serenity. They are so good for you, it’s spooky.

The tea I have is, of course, organic Earl Grey with organic milk, simply because I am ethnically suited to black tea with milk! I have attempted to cut it out of my diet many times, but to no avail. I drink Earl Grey tea in the morning, that’s just how I roll.

And the toast element of my breakfast… well, it’s not always home made, but it is always dense and nutritious, sometime sourdough, sometimes yeasted, not always whole wheat, but always a good loaf of bread made by hand by me or a baker. Because it’s great to start it with a little hand-made love.

People of Los Angeles! I’m speaking at the Los Angeles Convention Center event Go Green Expo TODAY (Saturday April 16) at 3.30 p.m. as part of a panel dedicated to Living The Green Life. We’ll be discussing little things that make a big difference to your enjoyment of life in a green way.

I will share practical and inspiring organic gardening ideas, as well as top tips for your organic kitchen.

The discussion will be moderated by Sarah Backhouse, from the Discovery Channel, and joining me round the kitchen table will be:

Vic Kalashyan of Tree Home Media
Dr. Anne Marie Fine of Fine Center for Natural Medicine
Ahmed Rahim of Numi Organic Tea
Ray Drysdale of Green1
and Jennie Nigrosh of The Green Garmento

Come early, because Captain Paul Watson, star of Whale Wars, is talking directly before me… his talk starts at 2pm. Captain Watson is an extraordinary and inspirational man. Facts:

1. He founded Greenpeace with his friend in 1972.
2. He was the original 1970′s “Save the Whale” guy… he made that whole international marine awareness campaign happen, one pin at a time.
3. He “left” Greenpeace so he could deal with less red tape and be free to deal with more badass anti-whaling interventions on the high seas.
4. In 2011, Captain Watson’s team, the Sea Shepherds, stopped illegal Japanese whaling. Period.

Also speaking today is Ed Begley Jr. who is on at 12:30pm. I’m sure both these talks will be fabulous, so please come and make a day of it…

Say GGE2011 at the door, and get a pass for the whole weekend for just $10!

OrganicFoodee gardeners know that home-cooked food creates home-made food waste, and this stuff can be turned into fabulous organic compost for your garden.

Composting waste food is easy peasy when you know how. All you need to do is layer your compost pile lasagna-style, with each layer no more than 6 inches deep… one ‘green’ layer, one layer of food waste, one ‘brown’ layer of brown leaves or paper, and one thin layer of soil… one ‘green’ layer, one layer of food waste, one ‘brown’ layer of brown leaves or paper, and one thin layer of soil… again and again, all the way to the top of the pile. The main thing to know is exactly what kinds of food waste is good to include, and what stuff is going to spoil the fun. The brown layer can be dead leaves, torn up cardboard boxes, or old newspapers as long as they’re printed with vegetable inks (the New York Times is, I think also The Independent in the UK). The soil layer is thinner than the green, food and brown layers, and is there to add tiny soil microbes into the layers.

Ultimately, what we’re doing is creating an awesome home for the soil microbes to live so they get busy with eating the vegetable spread you’re providing and in doing so, break it all down into a beautiful, light, nutrient-rich soil.

All of this composting can take place in a fancy structure or simply in a round of chicken wire. It’s up to you how elaborate the compost bin are is, but really, it’s basically an aesthetic design thing. As long as the compost materials are contained enough to get to know each other, and as long as air can circulate around the pile so it doesn’t get moldy, your soil microbes aren’t a fussy bunch. They’re just as happy living in chicken wire as they are in a fancy place. But, if you’d like to see a sharp-looking bin in your garden instead of something potentially more unsightly, there are a ton of ready-made compost bins that can do the job.

Okay, here’s my definitive guide to which kitchen scraps are destined for composting and which aren’t.

COMPOST INGREDIENTS

1. Do not try to compost these things:

Meat
Dairy
Fats
Bones

In theory, there are advanced methods for composting these items, but for now, do not ever add these things to your regular compost pile.

2. Compost loves fruit and vegetables, and is also very happy to have some grains and bread.

3. The main ingredients in compost waste are raw fruit and vegetable waste, but it’s also great to include:

Coffee grounds
Tea bags, with the paper but no staples or string
Citrus peel and pulp from organic fruit
Bread and toast (even if it’s spread with a little butter)
Cooked grains, e.g. rice and pasta
Cooked fruit and vegetable waste
Greens
Cucumber and zucchini (these seeds aren’t mature, so no problem with them sprouting)

4. Don’t include anything hard that would be super difficult to break down, e.g:

avocado stones
mango stones
pineapple tops

5. No fruit or vegetable skins from non-organic produce, as they may be covered in a layer of pesticides that would then be in the compost, e.g:

lemon rind from non-organic lemons
pineapple rind from non-organic pineapples

6. No fruit or vegetable waste containing growable seeds, as they could grow in the compost and make baby plants… I’ve seen it happen many times! Wasted cooked seeds is fine, like sesame seeds baked in a piece of bread crust, but don’t throw any raw seeds into the compost like these:

tomato seeds
pepper cores with seeds
melon seeds
raw peas and beans
lemon pips
etc

7. Cut big chunky waste into small compostable pieces, i.e. nothing thicker than an inch maximum, nothing longer that 3 inches, e.g.

broccoli stems
pineapple cores
thick asparagus ends
whole spoiled fruit
corn cobs

8. Cut roots and tubers into pieces so they also won’t grow in the compost, e.g.

leek roots
onion bulbs
potatoes

9. Remove any metal or plastic from the kitchen waste, e.g.

tag staples and strings from tea bags
metal ties from greens
plastic stickers on fruits and veggies, including certified organic stickers!

10. If you’re in a rush, you can try adding some compost starter to the pile, and also you can try turning the pile occasionally to speed things up. But personally, I’m never in a rush for compost, as there will always be a need for great soil nutrients however fast or slow nature is with each compost pile. I prefer to let the process take place at it’s own pace, and I have a hunch the finished compost may be richer in nutrients if it’s a slower process to make.