Locally global
general :: posted on January 15th, 2010
I must admit it is getting hard to find products that are locally made. From the biscuit I scoop up the dip with to the shirt on my back, there is barely an Australian product amongst it. Yet again, another item is struck off my purchasing list each time I shop.
It isn’t so much about the quality of the product (well not always) but the huge amount of resources that have been used to deliver the product to my local shop that makes me turn a bit wild. Why ship a fresh tomato across vast oceans when we can grow them here? It makes no sense, beyond the constant shove to buy cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. The race to the bottom; the bottom of the purse, the bottom of the well, the bottom of the mine, the bottom of quality food production and so on.
What is there when we reach the bottom? Emptiness, just plain straight empty – the bottom of the barrel.
So when I saw the cool climate seeds stuck to the front of the Burke’s Backyard magazine I just couldn’t resist. Now that to me makes sense. Finding a solution to a problem – growing tomatoes in our ‘off season’ or cooler months – instead of importing them from the Northern Hemisphere.
And so the experiment begins. I have planted my seeds now, which is past the mid point of our summer. I have a small hothouse which I have grown tomatoes in for summer, in large pots. So as they finish the hopefully sprouted and grown to a larger size plants will be ready to go in. The seeds have come from Russia, Siberia and Czechoslovakia where the summers are colder than our winters, so if all goes according to plan then they should grow! Yay – well fingers crossed anyway…
