Off the Grid Living – Episode 5 – The Veggie Garden
The Veggie Garden: Lockdown 2020 is in full swing as we approach our second half way mark. Whilst thinking of less fortunate communities and people, we are counting our blessings here in Jukskei Park, in Johannesburg. Where I am hanging out with the van Biljon family. Where Dad Jonny, has been prepping for off the grid living, for ages now.
And man has it worked out during lockdown.
Plus.
We have Baby Jake. Cute yes. But two and a half and we all know what that means. He is so fast too nowadays!
Luckily.
Jake absolutely loves the veggie garden. He could spend all day in there. Copying his Dad’s every action. Sometimes causing havoc in the process! It’s defintely his happy place. All he needs is a garden spade and he is happy as Larry (Lardner?).
Staying healthy in times of viral attack, is vital. And the healthy highlight of the day every day, is the delicious salad Jonny puts together, from the garden. Today was themed crab stick and yes, it was delicious. With a splash of Jonny’s home-made salad dressing, it was filled with colour, and crispy fresh flavours.
Off the Grid Living – Episode 5 – The Veggie Garden
We totally realise that our video series is going up in a hap-hazard way. At least we started with Episode 1! At this stage we have completed and published;
Homebrew: when Cyril last night announced the extension of Lockdown 2020, the entire country went silent.
As everybody pondered how they were going to get through this new double or quits challenge, here at Jonny’s house in Johannesburg, where I am fortunate enough to be, Jonny – flew into action. Our pantry still looked okay since we had an emergency food shop done a few days before. Lots of fruits and all sorts. Healthy stuff.
But Jonny had a different plan. Since he grew up on the beaches of Port Alfred and surrounds, and went to boarding school somewhere there too, he learned some skills that could only have come from there. Jonny learned, in school, how to make pineapple beer!
Ok, but we don’t have pineapples!
But we have apples.
“Next best thing!” – proclaimed Jonny. “We can make cider.”
Who then promptly built a cider still, right in the kitchen here in Jukskei Park! A nice clean 20 or so litre plastic drum. A fish tank thermostat heater. Some irrigation tubing and a 2 litre plastic bottle. Some glue will hold it all together, making sure of a good airtight seal at the lids (something to dow ith gasses Jonny mumbled when I asked).
Chop up the apples into cubes that go into the drum. Along with 3 litres of hot tea made with 20 tea bags. 2 kgs of sugar (there’s the hangover). Some yeast dissolved in hot water – a small sachet is fine.
Chuck it all in mate!
And fill up with water.
Whenever the 2 litre bottle expands too much, open and burp the excess gas out. Do this every now and then for three days. After five days it should be just ready to enjoy with ice and a slice of lemon.
Or you can just watch the video right here…recipe at the end…
There are more Off the Grid Living instalments at the following links…
Ted Talks. Man-oh-man. When Sardine correspondent and friend Chad Leavitt (of Lalaland), showed me the Ted Talks channel, all those years ago, I was mightily blown away.
The people who took the time to present to the world, their own special ways, of saving the plant, or improving life on it, were flabbergastingly impressive. Overachievers every single one of them.
Then, amazingly enough, I just recently saw another one of my friends, doing a Ted Talk?! And simply one of the most relevant and moving Ted Talks I had ever seen! She addressed the very same issues that we at The Sardine News are addressing. Only, she has an audience at the Ted Talks!!! And worldwide it now seems!
And it’s none other..than! Our dearest Tofo periodic marine biologist and marine activist, Ms. Libby Bowles.
Curtains opening…enjoy the wonderful show..!
Her message, after all that…so simple…” anyone can save the world”.
Cliches are actually quite cool. Because they are proven by their nature.
Anyone can save the world.
Are you giving it a go?
Well the kids and organisations that Libby is talking to on her worldwide cycling tour, grows by the day. And if her mission had the same effect on me as it does you, then let’s get recycling, ASAP!
So, to dearest Libby! Thank you ever so much for continuing on the mission at such an incredible pace, and with such tangible impact.
The Growers:cIf you missed the first and introductory episode of our newest series – Off the Grid Living, on YouTube, you can watch it at this link.
Then Episode 2 – The Growers, has just been published and features right here…
The Growers
All you need is a nice old plastic drum. Top removed. A heating gun is important. Something to wedge into the holes in the drum. Something to cut the holes with. A length of sewage pipe with caps at both ends. Some 1 or 2 inch black pipe for the irrigation system. A very strong stand of sorts. Some good soil. Earthworms. Water.
Assemble as per video instructions above – and grow some food!
We hope that the accompanying video, basic instructions and gallery below, equip you with enough to build your own super-cool grower or two. However, if you have any questions, please get in touch. We are also able to build one or two for you. You can order your growers in the Shop or at this link right here.
Lockdown 2020
It’s been of fun being in Lockdown 2020 with the van Biljon family here in Johannesburg. Episode 3 is in the pipeline as Jonny fine-tunes his solar power system that really takes maximum advantage of the available rays of energy out there in any given sunny day.
Baby Jake is in top form as you can see from his performance above – who knows what tomorrow brings with him hanging around? Jake and the dogs are the biggest beneficiaries of lockdown for sure – they can’t believe their luck! All-day fun and games.
In the meantime, please consider Subscribing to our YouTube channel – and sharing the good news far and wide.
If you don’t think you have the tools and resources to build your own grower, our factory in Edenvale is prepared to manufacture them in kit form, including a stout stand…as can be seen below.
Brown water in KZN: the good, the bad and the ugly
Brown water in KZN: the good, the bad and the ugly. Growing up on the Umzimkulu River, as kids, we just couldn’t stand the brown water. It just meant one thing to us – sharks.
Not that it deterred anyone back then, as dumb and foolhardy kids, from going right in. As surfers, we were compelled to surf the sometimes chocolate barrels.
Until.
Until we started getting insanely bad earache from the brown. Ear infections spread between us like a Chinese virus (not contagious – but we were all in the same water together). We blew every speaker in the house when the doctor specialising in our collective plight jammed our ears shut with long strings lambasted in anti-biotic creme. We were even off school since anyone is a walking hazard – when not being able to hear a damn thing.
From about the 90s, things started to get really bad.
There was an upside – the dorado, billfish and other gamefish come and patrol the seam – the distinct line between the brown and the saltier blue, every year, in the wet season. This seam is like serious structure in the ocean and attracts serious attention. Baitfish and all sorts!
Even scientists.
The good – thirty years forward
The brown water is here still. It always was here, and always will be. But we’ve learned a lot more about it, historically -and scientifically – its role in the ecosystem.
Arguably the most important function of the silty runoff is the fact that the sand and soil is highly alkaline. Bringing the ph levels in the ocean back into check. This perennial cycle of water has been interfered with in most rivers worldwide. Causing the ocean to rise in acidity. Trouble for fish and fishers.
More locally, we have the mighty Umzimkulu River,South Africas last free flowing river. Still in a good start (Level B is current grading but it’s not taking into account the fact that the estuary is the last functioning free-flowing one in KZN.
Here is a quick break-down, of the good, the bad and the ugly. Concering brown water in the Umzimkulu.
The brown water in KZN
Starting with a nice story, that has a greedy beginning, but a pleasant result. Involving sugar. And a doubling of quotas acceptable by the sugar mills. Farmers jumped at the chance. New Mercedes motor cars were everywhere. The farmers made a heck of a lot of money. Mid 70s.
Unfortunately…in their rush to make this money, some farmers, not all, did not have the experience, or the wherewithal, to plough and develop their plantations considerately enough. And when the rains came, all their precious pesticide, washed into the rivers of KZN. Was absorbed over the decades, by the mud. Destroyed the rivers. Dead to the world. And silted up completely due to these inconsiderate farmers (most of our pristine rivers and estuaries closed for business indefinitely in this period – and still have not recovered).
Then, fortunately for the bigger rivers – the ones that we not completely silted up by excess topsoil and runoff – the half-life of the chemicals came about. In about 1995 or so. According to the manufacturers, this was at 20 or 25 years (meaning the stuff actually goes for 40 or 50 years) in the environment. And at half-life, the poisons are not that effective anymore.
The prawns came back. Mullet shoaled. We started catching fish.
It’s not like this was an immediate turnaround. But over a few years of trying for fun, soon we were trying for serious. And catching. A lot. We chucked them all back in fear of the chemicals we had learned about – and started tagging some nice kingfish, grunter and perch.
Yes. All sorts of fish started coming out. Word spread, and the Rory Lawlor/Chris Leppan team started catching trophies on lures.
Yip, thats an outsized tiger prawn taken on a lure in the Umzimkulu recentlyMackenzie Nel and her trophy catch and release GT in the UmzimkuluGreg Millward with his Greenspot Kingfish in the UmzimkuluBaby GT in the Umzimkulu EstuaryOx eye tarpon by Chris LeppanEvan Phillips with his Umzimkulu Estuary baby Geet about to be releasedGreenspot Kingfish attack behaviour research in the Umzimkulu Estuary in Port ShepstoneGreenspot Kingfish in the Umzimkulu Estuary fighting over the lure!Kingfish attack behaviour research in the Umzimkulu Estuary in Port Shepstone
Lure fishing in the Umzimkulu had come about. There had always been fly-fishers hanging under the bridge and catching and releasing oxe-eye tarpon. But nobody had been trolling or casting artificials that much at all. Now there were a few boats enjoying the spring tide afternoon push – and having a ball.
Here is a playlist of videos we were lucky enough to shoot and upload, over the years…
So this is just part of the good…there is even more…
As it turns out – the sea is over-acidic these days. Pollution can be the cause but one thing is for sure, it needs balancing out. And it turns out, that the brown water is alkaline. And for millennia has been performing this vital task of balancing the ocean’s PH levels for us.
The Bad
His name is Tripod. A huge green turtle that we found upside down in the river – barely holding on. Turns out one of his back fins was sliced clean off. Too clean to be a shark.
We righted the big guy, this was in January, and soon he hobbled off with a weird but happy gait into the depths of the Umzimkulu.
The next thing – in the newspapers, there was Tripod. He had made it back out to sea, only to have been beaten back to the beach by big waves, down in Margate. A good 20kms south.
Tripod was loaded up and sent up to SeaWorld, where unbelievably, my niece Gracie, was visiting with her school! Talk about coincidence!. Anyhow, Gracie happily reported that Tripod was looking happy about being looked after so well.
So what is bad about this? Well, it must surely have been a propellor that maimed poor od Tripod. And as of late, we have seen speedsters in all manners of craft, legal and illegal, charging through the no-wake zone in the brown water. Where you cannot see anything in the water. Designated a no-wake zone, to protect the beautiful sea creatures that use this lagoon as part of their lives.
Turtle come in to the brown, fresh water, to rid themselves of little creatures that cling on to their shells for a free ride. Slowing the turtle down. It’s called careening.
Zambezi sharks come up the river in flood times to give birth to their pups.
Otters have returned to the river in good numbers.
Huge salmon come into the river to hunt.
And so, a no-wake zone was demarcated by the municipality, and extends from just inland of Spiller’s Wharf, upriver. No-wake means not-on-the-plane. If you would like to tear up and down with your ski, or boat, do it in the part of the river demarcated for morons who understand nothing about delicate river estuary ecosystems.
The Ugly
Shit. Raw sewage. Flowing into the river because UGU cannot possibly do their job. Politics and corruption have destroyed the infrastructure and this is what we are left with.
Now with workers on strike, destroying and sabotaging, it looks like it can only get worse. The ugly. The very ugly.
Don’t swim in the river right now. And don’t eat the fish you catch. Let ’em all go and wash your hands all the time.
The good – a functioning estuary ecosystem teeming with life, and a balancing of the oceans acidity levels with each flood
The bad – inconsiderate and ill-informed users of the river
The ugly – a useless government that has destroyed the infrastructure left to them, and has allowed raw sewage to flow into the rivers with every load-shedding session
NOTE: the Umzimkulu River flushes every day with the tides (unless it’s flooding). Sometimes the clear blue ocean water comes right up to the bridges. So the sewage can’t hang around, it is soon swept out to sea and absorbed. When the municipality get their own shit together around here, maybe we will have a pristine river all the time again.
