BOGI Fair and Competition

Today was the grand 2009 BOGI fair. It is a great event which has many varied stalls with a strong sustainability theme, most with a gardening or food focus. There were solar cooking demonstrations, worm farm making demonstrations, Mark Tully and his rare breeds, seeds, plants, food, and the competition.

This was the first year I entered the competition. In fact, this was the first time I have ever entered a gardening competition. The cost was $2 for up to 6 entries and I entered five items:  silverbeet, potatoes, snow peas, onions, and tomatoes. I did have other produce as well, but I did not feel that it was quite up to competition standards. When the judging was complete, I was able to secure second prize for the desiree potatoes, and first prize for the snow peas and onion. I must admit that for the onion category, that there was only my entry. However I do feel that even with multiple entries I still would have achieved the top prize as my onion was a whopper.

Of particular interest, the BOGI competition focuses on the taste and brix reading of the produce. So the look of the entry has nothing to do with one's ability to win a prize. And really this is what food should be about, the taste and nutritional density of the food, not how it looks or whether it is a standard size. Variability in one's produce is normal for an organic gardener, and there is nothing like variety to add that extra flavour to a meal.

BOGI Day Out

Not only are we in the process of building a dam and putting the finishing touches on the chook coop (yes, I need to do another post on this), we also had an open garden for Brisbane Organic Growers Inc (BOGI).

Today turned out to be a nice sunny day. I was not sure if the weather would hold as we had just under 10 mm of rain overnight and early in the morning. However the sun came out well before the event.

The tour started at the rose garden with its pineapple border and edible hibiscus. The edible hibiscus was a hit, with many people requesting a cutting. We continued on to the citrus grove which is located over the sub-surface irrigation for the treated effluent coming from our Aqua Nova system. Just below the irrigated area are bananas, sweet potatoes, raspberries, pumpkins, Jerusalem artichoke, and a persimmon tree.

We continued over to the forest of asparagus, past the passionfruit, and on to the main event, the vegie garden. I showed them how the grass paths broke down over time creating a lovely rich soil and explained how the majority of the garden beds is basically compost. I also touched on some learning experiences relating to a bit too much deco in the garden beds (which seems to cause the beds to dry out faster).

I also explained how the banana pit was made, including the amount of on-the-spot composting it required. The new chook shed was also presented including its inhabitants.

Finally we finished off with an afternoon tea. There is nothing like spending an afternoon chatting about gardening with a great bunch of people and enjoying some tasty treats!