Buckwheat nutritional information

Much like a seahorse is not a horse, buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is not related to wheat (Triticum aestivum).  Other than their common names, and that they are both edible, buckwheat and wheat don't have much in common.  

While buckwheat and wheat are both angiosperms (vascular flowering plants), that is almost where the similarity ends.  Wheat is a monocot, while buckwheat is a dicot, as far as flowering plants go you can't get much more different than that.

Both plants are edible, both can be eaten in similar ways.  Both are popular breakfast foods, as well as being popular for animal feed, and both feed a tremendous number of humans across the world every day.  Both have edible leaves and stems, but I want to discuss the seed/fruit of buckwheat.  

Wheat contains gluten, buckwheat does not.  Wheat is low in several essential amino acids (eg lysine and threonine) and is not considered to be complete protein.  

Buckwheat contains high quality complete protein with decent quantities of all of the essential amino acids.  Buckwheat is rich in limiting amino acids like lysine and arginine, which are in shortest supply in plant-based diets and is pretty rare among plant foods.  For this reason, buckwheat is considered to be a complete protein. 

Some buckwheat that I grew

Buckwheat nutritional value

It is difficult finding nutritional data on anything that is overly consistent.  Sometimes these differences come down to what exactly is being tested, or different varieties, or seasonal variations, or even how the test was conducted.  For this reason I try to look up several sources of information.  Regardless of the source, you will notice that buckwheat is incredibly nutritious for a plant based food.

I found a website that listed the following nutritional value per 100g of buckwheat:  

Principle	Nutrient Value	Percent of RDA
Energy	343 Kcal	17%
Carbohydrates	71.50 g	55%
Protein	13.25 g	24%
Total Fat	3.40 g	17%
Cholesterol	0 mg	0%
Dietary Fiber	10 g	26%
Vitamins
Folates (B9)	30 µg	7.5%
Niacin (B3)	7.020 mg	44%
Pantothenic acid	12.33 mg	25%
Riboflavin (B2)	0.425 mg	33%
Thiamin (B1)	0.101 mg	8.5%
Vitamin A	0 IU	0%
Electrolytes
Sodium	1 mg	<1%
Potassium	460 mg	10%
Minerals
Calcium	18 mg	2%
Copper	1.100 mg	122%
Iron	2.20 mg	27.5%
Magnesium	231 mg	58%
Manganese	1.300 mg	56.5%
Phosphorus	347 mg	50%
Selenium	8.3 µg	15%
Zinc	2.40 mg	22%
Amino acids
Lysine	672 mg	32%
Methionine	172 mg	24%
Tryptophan	192 mg	69%

Buckwheat nutrition compared to Grains

I also found a comparison of the nutritional value of buckwheat, rice, wheat, and maize.  I have highlighted the highest value in each row to make it easier to read. 

By in large, buckwheat appears to be more nutritious than any of the true grains that were tested in that sample:

Comparison of nutrition: Buckwheat, Rice, Wheat, and Maize

Buckwheat vitamins compared to wheat

To give a little perspective I looked up the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of a few vitamins and minerals that are present in buckwheat and listed the equivalent in wheat.  As you can see, buckwheat is far more nutritious than wheat.

Vitamin E (tocopherol) buckwheat 40mg, wheat <1mg, RDI 15-20mg with safe upper limit 1,000mg
Thiamin (B1) buckwheat 3.3mg, wheat 0.5mg, RDI 1.5mg
Riboflavin (B2) buckwheat 10.8mg, wheat 0.2mg, RDI 1.8mg
Niacin (B3) buckwheat 18, wheat 5.5, RDI 20 

Pantothenic acid (B5) buckwheat 11mg, wheat <1mg, RDI 10mg with safe upper limit of 1,000mg
Magnesium, buckwheat 390mg, wheat 138mg, RDI 400mg

Choline, buckwheat 440mg, wheat 14mg, RDI 550mg

Vitamin K (phylloquinone) buckwheat 7.00 µg, wheat 0.3 µg, RDI 80 µg

Vitamin A (retinol) like all grains, none.

Buckwheat compared to Oats

Oats (Avena sativa) are another popular breakfast food.  Oat is a monocot and is similar to wheat in many ways.  Unlike wheat, oats do not contain gluten.  Oats, much like buckwheat, are meant to naturally lower total cholesterol levels and improve HDL to LDL cholesterol ratio.  

I use buckwheat to make kasha for my breakfast each morning, which is similar to how many people eat steel cut oats.  I tried eating oaten kasha for some time, but found I was getting hungry early in the day.  When I make kasha using buckwheat I feel full for longer, which is nice.

I fount a web page with the following comparison table of buckwheat and oats.  Once again buckwheat comes out as an impressively nutritious food.  These results indicate that buckwheat is more nutritious than oats.  

per 100g	Buckwheat	Oatmeal
Calories	343	68
Carbohydrates	71.5 g	11.67 g
Fat	3.4 g	1.36 g
Dietary fiber	10 g	1.7 g
Protein	13.25 g	2.37 g
Calcium	18 mg	80 mg
Iron	2.2 mg	5.96 mg
Magnesium	231 mg	26 mg
Phosphorus	347 mg	77 mg
Potassium	460 mg	61 mg
Sodium	1 mg	49 mg
Zink	2.4 mg	0.62 mg
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)	0.425 mg	0.215 mg
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)	7.02 mg	3.025 mg
Vitamin B5	1.233 mg	0.317 mg
Vitamin B9 (Folic acid)	30 mg	39 mg

Buckwheat Glycemic index compared to grains

I have a little trouble with blood sugar, so wherever possible I prefer foods that have a low Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL).

I found a peer reviewed paper comparing the GI and GL of buckwheat, barley, millet, spelt, bulgur, and couscous.  GI and GL are often used to assess diet quality in relation to the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer development.

The lowest GI was found for buckwheat (34.7±8.2%) and barley (31.3±13.4%). The GL for these groats was 8.1±1.9 and 8.0±3.4, respectively.  The GI for millet, spelt and bulgur amounted to 56.2±20.6%, 69.8±35.0%, 64.5±36.8%, respectively, while for couscous amounted to 99.0± 36.0%.  The highest GL was observed for couscous (24.7±9.0).

The groats tested in that study classified barley and buckwheat as low GI food, millet and bulgur as medium GI food, spelt and couscous as a high GI food.  The study concluded that buckwheat and barley should be chosen the most often among these products, while the intake of couscous should be limited, especially by people with diabetes.  

Buckwheat is comparable to egg protein

100g of egg (about two eggs) contains about 13 grams of protein, which is similar to the amount of protein in buckwheat.  Both buckwheat and egg are eaten by people who are into fitness, strength training, and body builders.  

The absorbability of egg protein varies depending on how it is cooked, and is cited in literature as being between 50% and 90%.  The absorbability of the protein in buckwheat also varies in literature, possibly also due to cooking methods, and is often cited as being around 93%.  

Both buckwheat and egg contain good levels of all of the essential amino acids and are considered to be complete proteins.  

Conclusion

Buckwheat is incredibly nutritious for a plant based food.  If more people in this country ate buckwheat as an every day staple food they would be healthier and stronger.  

Buckwheat would be a valuable staple food in the diet of anyone who does not eat animal based foods or does not eat may animal based foods.  Buckwheat is simple to store, it tastes good, and can be used in a wide range of ways.  

I used to eat wheatbix each morning for breakfast.  Then the local shops ran out and I could not buy it for a few months, so I switched to oats, and then to buckwheat.  Since switching to buckwheat I have gained strength, I have lost fat, I have gained weight (presumably muscle) and am now staying up in the 'healthy' BMI range, my cholesterol levels have dropped, my HDL to LDL cholesterol ratio is now in the ideal range, my blood sugar levels are more stable, and I am less hungry.  

I wrote other blog posts on growing buckwheat as a cover crop, and (according to research) buckwheat as a nitrogen fixer.  There seems to be little academic research on the topic of buckwheat and nitrogen fixation outside of papers published in Russia and the previous Soviet nations, but what research I have read is absolutely fascinating.  

I find the limited research into buckwheat odd considering the economic value of buckwheat, the amount of people it feeds (the FAO says buckwheat is a major food crop in the world), and how incredibly nutritious buckwheat is.  Given how much more nutritious buckwheat is compared to most other grains, I find it odd how limited its consumption is in Western nations where it remains a specialty food rather than a daily staple.  I assume this is mostly due to political reasons.  

How tall does asparagus grow

Asparagus grows much larger than you probably think.  Unless you grow asparagus yourself, you probably can't imagine how tall it can get.

I remember years ago reading about asparagus and being surprised to see the stated heights it reaches as being much shorter than what I have seen.  

Many places on the internet, including wikipedia, state it can reach 1.5 m (about 5 feet) tall, other places (such as Better Homes and Gardens) say it reaches 12 inches tall.  Asparagus grows far taller than this.  

I found this rather perplexing.  At the time we had orchards, and in them some asparagus grew that was much taller than any of those.  This asparagus had been there since before we moved in, given its location, presumably seed had been deposited by a bird.  We eventually moved from there and left the asparagus behind.  

Since moving to town I have started growing asparagus again.  I grow a few types of asparagus now.  The most delicious also happens to be the largest and most vigorous variety.  It is an heirloom variety called Precoce d'Argenteuil.  From seed it only takes about 6 months to reach 1 meter tall, and it produces the best tasting spears of any asparagus variety I have eaten.  

After harvesting some spears this year, I left a few spears to feather out so they can feed the crown for the following year.  I could not help but notice how tall this asparagus was.  I wanted to measure it and photograph it, but didn't want to take another frond so I let it grow for the remainder of the season.

Now that winter is upon us my asparagus plants have gone dormant.  This year they have gone dormant nice and early.  I was removing the old growth and decided to measure a frond.  There were a number of fronds on my plants that were around this tall.  

Asparagus frond and tape measure

The one in the photo reached around 282cm, or about 9 feet 2 inches.  That is pretty big for asparagus.  Certainly a lot larger than most places say they will grow.  

I don't look after my asparagus anywhere near as much as I should.  My plants are not pampered, they have competition from other plants, and I have not made any attempt to make them larger.  I certainly haven't done any breeding work with them.  

The strange thing is, I don't think this is the tallest asparagus I have seen.  I am pretty sure some of the ones we had at the orchard were much larger than this.     

Asparagus frond reached over 280cm

Not a great photo

It makes me wonder why so many garden books etc say the height of asparagus is so much shorter than they will actually reach.  As a gardener, these wildly inaccurate estimates can cause problems when planning what to grow where.  

Presumably the person writing about it does not have much experience growing asparagus.  Perhaps (as I suspect is the case with Better Homes and Gardens) the author has never grown asparagus themselves, and has probably never even seen asparagus plants growing.  This kind of thing is very common with gardening books and permaculture books, and the misinformation is often repeated by companies who sell plants (that have been grown by a contractor), and I find it rather frustrating.  When gardening books make up nonsense, or re-spout these inaccuracies, what else have they gotten wrong?

Some of my 6 month old asparagus plants

I only sell plants and seeds that I have grown and propagated myself.  While the information I provide is vastly different than you will find in books, it is based on actual experience.  I can tell you what does or does not work for me in my garden.  

Asparagus plants are dioecious, meaning that some plants are male while other plants are females.  Female asparagus plants tend to produce larger yields than male.  Female asparagus plants also tend to produce fatter, longer, higher quality spears.  Commercial asparagus farms only grow male plants (or super male plants) so they don't have to worry about seeds falling and choking the beds with volunteer seedlings.  Commercial asparagus farms usually grow low quality asparagus varieties, they really can't compare to the delicious asparagus varieties you can grow at home.  

New asparagus fronds already over 6 feet tall

I grow a few different varieties of asparagus.  Some are purple, some are green, all can produce tender white asparagus.  At this stage they are all seed grown, from seed purchased from reputable businesses to ensure the correct variety rather than a mystery cross.  

Late winter each year if I have any extra asparagus crowns I will offer them through my for sale page.  I sell a few different perennial vegetable plants, some berry plants, as well as some heirloom vegetable seeds.

Days to maturity Bok Choy

This year, as well as growing the micro dwarf Hedou Bok Choy, I grew a baby bok choy and recorded its days from planting a seed until harvest.  These baby bok choy plants still grew incredibly fast, and they produced a more substantial plant than Hedou.  

I like the look of bok choy, I don't know why but there is something about it that just looks right.  Bok choy is very fast growing, extremely nutritious, simple to grow, incredibly forgiving of harsh conditions or poor soil, yet it is not really grown or eaten very much here.  It is sold in supermarkets, so maybe things are starting to change.  

Bok choy seems to cope well with cold weather when little else will grow.  This bok choy has survived frozen soil and temperatures down to -8C with only minor damage.  Being compact plants you can plant a lot in a small space, and planting new seeds every few weeks guarantees a long harvest.

Bok Choy could be harvested at a tiny plant stage, or larger plant stage so I recorded both dates.  Being in Australia, all dates are written Day/Month/Year.  

Baby Bok Choy (Brassica rapa)

Planted in garden      09/04/2023   Day 0

Germinate                 14/04/2023   Day 5

Tiny plants                17/05/2023   Day 38

Large plants              04/06/2023   Day 56

Baby Bok Choy - larger plants

Baby Bok Choy - tiny plants are edible

To see a full list of vegetable days to maturity recorded in my garden from planting seed until harvest, please click here.  

Tokyo Bekana days to harvest

I grew a few different Asian vegetables this year.  One that was new to me is a leaf vegetable called Tokyo Bekana.   I recorded the number of days from planting a seed until harvest.  

Tokyo Bekana is a small Chinese cabbage that is often used for baby greens and for bunching.  I can't explain its taste.  It is said to have a great mild lettuce flavor with a slight hint of peppery taste.  It can be eaten raw or cooked, and is used in any way that cabbage or lettuce is used.  

I am told Tokyo bekana can be substituted for lettuce, to me they look a lot like lettuce and taste a bit different to lettuce.  Tokyo bekana is also much higher in nutrients than lettuce, it isn't bitter, and in my garden seems to cope with extreme temperatures a lot better than lettuce.  

Tokyo bekana is said to be both cold-tolerant and heat-tolerant.  So far it has not shown any damage from frosts in my garden that were a bit below -8C.  So far it's had no pest damage, but that may be different if grown over summer.  

Days to maturity Tokyo Bekana (Brassica rapa chinensis)  

Planted in garden      09/04/2023   Day 0

Germinate                 15/04/2023   Day 6

Baby leaf                  14/05/2023    Day 35

Large leaf                  04/06/2023   Day 56

Tokyo Bekana is a cabbage that looks like lettuce

Tokyo Bekana on left, Senposai on right

Please see my Guide on Days to Vegetable Harvest a full list of days to harvest in my garden.  To make planning simple, I have recorded days from planting the seed until harvesting.  

Review Maze 245L Compost Tumbler

Some time after moving here we bought a new compost tumbler.   I believe it is a Maze 245 Litre Dual Compost Tumbler.  I have used it for a few years and thought I would write a review of my (less than positive) experiences.  

As you will be able to tell from my experience, this is not a paid review.  I stress that these are my experiences.  While I think this is a dreadful compost tumbler and you should go with a different one, you may have better luck.  

Maze Compost Tumbler rusting

I have used single compost tumblers before, and they worked well.  If you have a single compost tumbler, and add banana peels and tea bags etc every day, then the compost is never finished and ready to use unless you don't put anything in them for a while.  For this reason we decided to try a double compost tumbler.  

In a double compost tumbler you add scraps to one side.  It has a + on it to help you (and the kids) remember which side to add things.  

Then when it is full you swap the little doors so this side now has a clock on it.  This reminds you (and the kids) that you are no longer adding scraps to this side.  While that side is composting, you add scraps to the other side.  

Having the two sides makes composting very simple.  

Dual compost tumbler

First of all, the positives: 

The Maze 245L compost tumbler doesn't take up a lot of room, and it looks good.  It can fit a lot of lawn clippings or whatever inside.  It is efficient and simple to use.  It comes flat packed, and putting it together was pretty intuitive.  

This one has a handle that you use to turn the compost.  This is good, but it can be a little difficult to turn when both sides are full.  

Dual compost tumbler

Now for the negatives.

I think this is a waste of money that I will have trouble getting rid of after it breaks.  

The barrel turns around an axel that is made out of metal that corrodes.  Mine has almost rusted through.

I only use this for the purpose it was built for.  I have not put anything in it that isn't intended to go in it.  I have not used it more that is recommended.  I am not near the ocean and it has no salt spray or anything like that.  Yet it is rusting through.  Have a look at my pictures.  It is dreadful.

Once it starts to rust, the axel gets a hole in it that allows compost liquid and compost to get inside the axel.  This makes it rust from the inside as well as the outside.  This damage isn't from lack of care, or improper use, it is poorly designed.  

Given the price, I had hoped this would last a lot longer than this.

Maze compost tumbler rusting and falling apart

I have seen many pictures of this happening to other people's Maze compost tumblers.  I have also seen photos of the legs rusting through.  I am happy to say the legs on mine are not rusting noticeably (yet).

I don't expect this to last much longer before it falls apart and becomes unusable.  This thing was not cheap, and I have not got my money's worth from it.  I am irritated at how quickly the Maze Compost Dual Tumbler rusted and fell apart considering how expensive they are.  I spent extra because I wanted it to last.

What is even worse, once the shaft rusts through and the thing is useless I don't know how I am going to dispose of it.

This won't fit in my bin.  I dare say I will have to pull it apart as best I can, then try to hacksaw the larger parts to make them small enough to fit into my bin.  I will then have to slowly add pieces to my bin over many weeks/months before I can eventually be rid of it.  I will have a pile of broken compost tumbler for a long time, and I will have to remember to add as much of it as I can to the bin each week.  What a hassle!  

My verdict

My experience with the Maze 245L dual compost tumbler has been negative overall.  Based on my experiences I would not recommend anyone buying this (or anything else) from Maze.  

When I save up some money I will probably try a dual compost tumbler from another brand.  Hopefully whatever I get next works better than this.  

Giant Parsley Breeding

A few years ago I started breeding giant parsley (Petroselinum crispum).  Parsley used to be a common garnish when I was a child.  When I was a little older a sprig of parsley used to be put on steaks or other meals at restaurants, with the intention that it was discarded rather than eaten.  Since then it has fallen even more out of favour.  Some people still grow parsley, and a few eat it, but it is a largely underutilised crop.  

I wanted to develop a new variety of parsley to be big and productive, so it could be primarily used as a leaf vegetable.  Eventually I had a variety (albeit not a completely stable variety) of comically large parsley that dwarfs any of the 'giant' varieties.  The taste of this huge parsley is much like other flat leaf varieties, perhaps a little stronger. 

Then, for a number of reasons, I stopped my breeding project.  I felt my parsley was getting too big.  I stopped selecting for larger plants, and other than picking leaves I mostly ignored my parsley and let it do its own thing.   

Parsley almost as long as my arm

Parsley is great.  It is simple to grow and in my garden it self seeds reliably.  For this reason I still have a lot of parsley around, all of which is descended from my giant parsley breeding project.  As there were a few generations with no selective pressure, there may have been some genetic drift.  Some plants are far larger than others.

Recently I spoke to someone who wanted a giant parsley and complained about how tiny and unimpressive 'Giant of Italy' parsley is.  He convinced me that there is merit in making parsley huge.  

After that conversation I went to my garden and looked to see what size parsley I have to work with if I ever wanted to increase its size again.  

As you can see, I still have some plants with reasonable size.  According to Wikipedia, Parsley leaves grow 10cm to 25cm long in its first year.  My parsley produce leaves that are far larger than that.  The leaf above is almost as long as my arm!  I measured a few leaves from my largest plants, and they were over 60cm long.  Some were about 67cm long.  

Parsley leaf around 66cm (26 inch) long

Parsley leaf about 67cm (26 inch) long

This parsley is still pretty big.  I have a number of plants around this size, and between them they probably have all the genetic potential to get a bit larger if I put in some effort.  I also have some smaller plants, I won't be allowing these to flower so their genes won't be in the mix. 

I once wondered if parsley petioles (leaf stalks) could be large enough to be used instead of celery stalks.  I had put some effort into breeding for fatter petioles and they were getting quite thick.  All of the leaf stalks in the celery at the moment are still a bit thin.  Most are about 1cm to 1.5cm thick.  This is still a lot thicker than the stuff you find in the supermarket, but not thick enough to replace celery.  At this stage I am undecided if I care too much about how thick the stalks are.

The parsley plant itself gets rather large and bushy.  I put a tape measure from the soil to give a bit of perspective.  For most of its growing season they are about two feet tall.  This is too large to grow on a windowsill, but it is a good size to grow in the garden or a large pot.  As you can see, it has a lot of leaves that can be picked.

Over the years I have had a lot of people come to my house to buy plants and seeds.  Some of these people have been gardening since before I was born.  My giant parsley astounds everyone who sees it.  Some people have to pick some and taste it before they can believe that it is even parsley.  

When this parsley flowers it can get very tall.  They tower over me when they are in bloom.  I am not exactly sure how tall they get as I never particularly cared how tall they reach and never measured them.  Flowering height is not something I would put any breeding effort into, but I should measure it one day just out of curiosity.  

Some leaves have a lot of stem and not enough leaf.  Others have a lot of leaf and not too much stem.  I never paid a great deal of attention to this as I believe it may be highly influenced by the growing environment.  

You can eat the stems, or feed them to animals.  As well as being healthy for people to eat, parsley is great for animals.  Parsley leaves and stems are loved by our guinea pigs.  Our chickens also eat the parsley stems, but they much prefer the leaves.  If nothing else, the stems are good in the compost, so there is no waste. 

Over two feet tall

Look at the size of this monster

I find it odd how simple parsley is to grow, how productive and nutritious it is, yet how rarely we use parsley as a leaf vegetable.  Parsley leaves have a lot of vitamins and minerals, according to research it is very high in Calcium, Iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin A.  

Just 5.5 grams of fresh parsley, which is about 1.5 tablespoons, provides the recommended daily intake of Vitamin K.  

Parsley contains 133mg Vitamin C per 100 grams, which is higher than oranges which have about 50mg per 100 grams.  

Parsley has about 138mg calcium per 100 grams, while cows milk has about 120mg calcium per 100 grams.  

Parsley contains around 6.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. To put this in perspective, spinach only has about 2.7mg of iron per 100 grams.  

I find it strange to think that parsley is mostly used as a garnish in this country when it has the potential to be something so much more.  It is so easy to grow and apparently very nutritious.  Each leaf of my parsley is absolutely massive, and with a little more breeding work they would get a bit larger.  

My giant parsley

Parsley this big should be more than a garnish

I used to know someone who bred rabbits for meat.  He used to feed the young rabbits parsley to increase their growth rates.  He said that parsley's high levels of calcium helped their bones grow fast so they could get up to full size quickly.  He would also feed parsley to lactating mothers to increase their milk supply and because he thought the high amounts of iron would help them recover from birthing.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but it makes sense to me.  

I wish I was growing this huge parsley back then and could have given him some seeds.  One of these giant plants has the potential to produce more leaves than a large plot of regular flat leaf parsley.  

Parsley is an underrated herb

I sell seeds of my parsley through my for sale page.  It is not a stable variety, and may produce a few regular size plants.  It will also produce a lot of extra large plants, and a few mammoth plants.  They all taste the same, just prevent the smaller plants from flowering and you will ensure that each year your plants will be large.  If you want to grow a giant parsley that is edible and will impress people, then this is for you.  

Senposai days to harvest

I recorded the number of days from planting a seed until being able to harvest senposai.  I should probably write another post on senposai as its history is fascinating as well as complicated.  For now that will have to wait.  

Senposai is a cross between a European cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and an Asian cabbage called Komatsuna (Brassica rapa).  This means, according to the Triangle of U theory, senposai is considered to be Brassica napus.  See what I mean about Senposai having a complex history?  

I recorded the days to harvest from planting a seed below.  The number of days to harvest listed below are base on how it performed in my garden this year.  I don't give anything perfect conditions, it is just how they perform for me.  It may be a few days more or a few less under different conditions, and it probably grows faster with warmer weather.  Being in Australia, the dates are written day month year.  

Senposai (Brassica napus) days to harvest:  

Seed planted  25/02/2023   Day 0 
Germinated    28/02/2023   Day 3 
Baby leaf       01/04/2023   Day 35 
Harvest          08/04/2023   Day 42 

Senposai

Very few places in Australia sell senposai seeds, and almost nowhere sells leaves for eating.  This is unfortunate because senposai is fast growing, nutritious, easy to grow, and rather productive over a decent amount of time.  

Like virtually all brassicas, bees and other beneficial insects like its flowers.  Senposai is also easy to save seed from, and the senposai I grow is a stable variety that mostly breeds to to type.  

Tokyo Bekana on left, Senposai on right

Senposai can be eaten raw or cooked.  I dare say it could be fermented like most other cabbages, but I am yet to try that.  People also eat senposai flowers and flower stalks, I have not tried them yet.  

Poultry love to eat senposai leaves, as do our guinea pigs.  I probably wouldn't feed too much of this to a guinea pig as they can be a little sensitive to eating large amounts of brassicas.  Chickens on the other hand can eat as much senposai as I can give them.  

Unfortunately I can't find any reliable information on the level of crude protein or iron or anything like that.  Given its parentage, it is safe to assume that like most brassicas it would be highly nutritious.  

Senposai - ignore the holes

I grow everything organically.  You will notice the many holes in the leaves in my photos.  The holes were made by caterpillars that did some damage before I noticed them and fed them to my chickens.  The leaves still taste the same, the holes don't make a great deal of difference.  

Given that senposai only takes a month an a half to reach harvestable size, and it survives rather harsh conditions, and how it crops for a long time, I think I will grow more senposai.  I will probably need to save seed myself because so few places offer it in Australia. 

For a list of days to harvest for many vegetables and herbs, please click here.    

Lucky iron fish year and a half update

I wrote an earlier post after five months of using the lucky iron fish.  At that stage I had used it almost every night for about five months, and it was working great.  The Lucky Iron Fish is meant to last for over five years if used every day, apparently once its smile disappears it is time to get a new one.  Given that these are intended for long terms use, a post saying how it looks after five months is not all that useful.  

I have had my Lucky Iron Fish for just under two years now.  I have used the lucky iron fish almost every night, so I thought it a good idea to do another post saying how the lucky iron fish performs over this longer time frame.  

Each night I use the lucky iron fish to make up some iron enriched water.  We drink this water, and it adds iron to our diet.  Like any other supplement, it can only be useful if your diet is lacking.

Using this is simple.  Each evening when I am clearing up after dinner I put the lucky iron fish in a pot, add 2 liters of boiling water, ass a few drops of lemon juice, then boil for twenty minutes.  You could also put it on one liter for ten minutes, or you could put it in with soups or whatever, but we drink the water the following day so two liters works well.  

My Lucky Iron Fish after more than a year and a half of use

The same Lucky Iron Fish after only five months

Once twenty minutes is up I remove the lucky iron fish, dry it with a tea towel, and put it on the shelf until the next evening.  As the fish is still really hot, any water not dried off by the tea towel evaporates.  I then take the water off the stove and leave it to cool.  Once cooled I pour the water in a bottle.  It is that simple.

The lucky iron fish needs some acidity for the iron to go into the water, so I put some lemon juice in it.  As I put in a squeeze of lemon juice, the water can taste a little like lemon at times if I squeeze in too much.  Most of the time the water tastes like water, but it has iron it in.  

Twenty minutes of boiling this thing while I am cleaning the kitchen after dinner is no inconvenience.  Other people put this in with their cooking, again it takes no real effort.  I have a lemon tree, so adding a few drops of lemon juice (it needs acidity to work) is simple for me.  Other people put this in with their cooking, if they are cooking with tomatoes there is no need to add more acidity.  

The Lucky Iron Fish people also make a cookbook for people who want to use the thing in their cooking.  As I use my Lucky Iron Fish for water I have not looked at the cookbook, but I am told it is good.

Lucky Iron Fish Cookbook

While it makes no difference, I always put my lucky iron fish with the number side down and the leaf side up, that way I will know if wear and tear is due to it being scratched against the pot.  The only reason I do this is because I wanted to see how much wear the ingot gets from use, as the leaf side is always up I know any wear is not from being scratched against the pot.  Most people just pop the ingot in and don't care which way is up.  It really makes no difference other than to satisfy my curiosity.

After using this Lucky Iron Fish for over a year and a half of nightly use (other than a few nights per year if we are away or something) my lucky iron fish has absolutely no rust, and is still looking good.  The side that scrapes against the pot in the photo below does not look very worn yet.  As you can see in the photos, mine had a little seam around the nose that is no longer there, other than that it almost looks new.

I have heard of people buying a special oil that they use to clean their lucky iron fish, I have never used anything and mine looks fine.  All I ever do is dry the thing after use.  I dry it straight away while it is sill hot.  I don't wash it or clean it or anything, and mine looks great after more than a year and a half of continuous use.  

Lucky Iron Fish - still looking good

If your diet is low in iron you could buy iron supplements, or try to eat more red meat, or you could use a lucky iron fish.  This is much like any supplement, it only works if you diet is lacking.  

The difference with the Lucky Iron Fish is that this is much cheaper than supplements, lasts a long time (more than five years), takes up little room on the shelf, and is much easier on the stomach than most iron pills.  Given the materials it is made from, it poses no moral problems for vegetarians, or vegans, and no religious issues for Orthodox or Muslims or Jewish people or any other faith.  

Much like myself, my son generally has low iron.  He eats a varied diet, but struggles to get enough iron for some reason.  Getting a six year old to take an iron pill every day for weeks on end is difficult.  Getting him to drink water is easy.  Each night I fill his water bottle with iron fish water, and each day he drinks it when he is thirsty, it doesn't get much easier than that.

Another great thing is that percentage of Lucky Iron Fish profits go to humanitarian work in developing nations.  

Lucky iron fish

There are a few other brands that make similar products, unfortunately I don't know if any of the other types are safe.  Lucky Iron fish has been tested, and retested, by many different laboratories, and all confirm that the Lucky Iron Fish is safe and effective.  

Other brands have not had such rigorous testing, I don't know where their iron comes from, so I would not risk using one.  Not too long ago a shipment of iron was seized at the border.  One of the nuclear facilities in China had been decommissioned or was replacing old parts or something, the metal had been sold, and it was hideously radioactive.  A lot of radioactive iron from there had made it into our country before this shipment was stopped.  While I know that the iron used for Lucky Iron Fish is safe, I can't know about the iron used by other companies.

Lucky Iron Fish comes in two shaped ingots, a fish or a leaf.  I like the look of the smiling fish, so that is the one I got.  The leaf works exactly the same, but is shaped like a leaf instead of a smiling fish.  

Lucky Iron Leaf 

They used to have an affiliate program where you would get money off the price, but they have discontinued that for now.  There is a new affiliate program, if I join it I will post the link here.

Immali corn 2023

Immali Corn is a pink/purple and white sweetcorn.  This is the first purple sweet corn developed in Australia.  For some reason we don't have many coloured sweet corns in Australia.  I bred Immali corn myself, so am biased, but I really like it.  

Immali corn is a short variety, which tillers (ie grows several stalks per plant which increases the number of cobs).  It is very sweet, and higher in antioxidants than yellow corn.  

It needs to be cooked not long after it is picked, otherwise it starts converting sugars to starch.  This means it tastes far better.  It is a great variety for backyards, and entirely unsuitable to mechanical harvest and interstate transport.  

This year I didn't grow many Immali corn plants, and didn't get to eat any.  Instead I saved all the cobs for seed.  This year, due to the weather and the soil, the cobs were smaller than usual and less were produced per plant than usual.  That is ok, they are still large enough and numerous enough.  I will fix up the soil over winter and next year's crops of all my vegetables will hopefully be back to normal.

Some interesting things happened this year in the cobs that I thought I would share.

Immali corn cobs drying

Some cobs were mostly white, with just a few coloured seeds.  When picked at the milk stage (ready to eat as sweet corn) they are white with a few blue or purple kernels.  

This is what I was aiming for when I first started to breed Immali corn.  I then decided that a higher percentage of purple was better (there are vastly more antioxidants in purple corn), so pushed the variety to have more purple.  I don't see many of these mostly white cobs.  They sure are pretty.

Immali corn - small cobs this year

Immali corn - lots of white

Some plants produced entirely purple cobs.  The colour genetics behind this is relatively simple, but I alternate white seeds and purple seeds when planting, so tend to only see cobs with a mix of white and purple.  

Finding some entirely purple cobs like this was fun and unexpected. 

Immali corn - some cobs entirely purple

Most plants produced the regular looking "Immali corn" cobs.  They have mostly purple seeds and some white seeds.  

When picked at the milk stage, the colours are lighter, and they look pink/purple and white.  It really is very pretty for a sweet corn.  When you let the cobs age and dry the colours change to darker purple like in these photos.

Immali corn ready for shucking

Immali corn - dry seeds

I started breeding Immali Corn about a dozen years ago, and it is now a stable and beautiful variety.  I have only ever grown it organically so it has adapted to become relatively resistant to pests and productive under less than ideal conditions.  One thing I love about Immali corn is that you can save seed each year and grow it again and again without ever having to buy seed a second time.

Sweet corn seed only lasts a year or two before germination drops off.  I now have plenty of fresh seeds.  If you would like to buy seeds of organically grown Immali Corn, I sell them through my for sale page.  

Compost worms

Years ago (somewhere around 2009 or 2010) we got a worm farm.  From memory it was either a 'worm cafe' or 'worm factory'.  

We also bought some compost worms locally, put them in, and it worked great.  Eventually we moved house, we moved to acreage somewhere semi arid and far too hot.  I lost all the worms and didn't get any more to replace them.   

I have had this worm farm sitting empty ever since then.  It has moved house with us a few times.  

My worm farm

I have some raised garden beds that I use for my vegetable garden.  The first few years they worked really well.  There is much less digging, less weeds, and they are much better on my back than non-raised garden beds.  Recently we have had a lot of trouble with rabbits, they don't get up into the raised beds, they only eat things growing at ground level.  I like my raised vegetable garden beds.  

The soil level in the raised garden beds started getting a little low, so I bought a 5 cubic meter load of soil to top them up.  This soil is dreadful.  It compacts hard like a rock when dry, when watered it is a gluggy mess, and my vegetables show signs of nutrient deficiency.  This soil needs to be fixed.

I have a compost tumbler, I plan to mix the compost through the soil when it is ready.  We have chickens, I will dig some of their manure through the soil.  This will help.

We also have a lot of leaves up the side of the garage that my daughter kept raking into a large pile.  I considered digging this through the soil, then remembered the worm farm.  The worm farm may be a faster way of breaking down the leaf litter making the nutrients available to my plants.  The worm farm also has a little tap, any liquid that drips out of there tends to be good for the soil.  

I looked around and discovered very few people sell compost worms locally, most of which were selling for really high prices.  Some hardware stores sell them, as do online shops, but their prices are too high and (based on many bad reviews that I read) I may not actually get what I paid for.  I eventually bit the bullet and bought 1,000 compost worms from someone local.  

I put 1,000 worms into my worm farm filled with leaf littler on 05/03/2023.  I took the photo below days after, you have to look pretty close to see any worms.  They should increase in number from here pretty fast.  I looked yesterday and there are noticeably more worms in there - meaning they are growing.

Not many worms early on

I also put a small number of the compost worms in a large plastic pot.  This was also filled with leaf litter as well as muck that I removed from the gutters.  I'm hoping that the worms will also breed up in here quickly.  

If this pot works I can use it a little like a movable worm farm where I feed the pot, the worms move between it and the soil, fertilising as they go.  If it gets too hot or too cold they should be able to survive by sheltering in the soil.  

Not the ideal set up, but it should work

At the moment the worms are living in leaf litter.  There is a small amount of vegetable scraps in there, and some tea bags and things, but it is mostly leaf litter that is already broken down various amounts.  Some leaves are new, others are already so broken down that they look like soil.  I added a small handful of guinea pig manure and some chicken food that had been spilled, this should help the worms grow faster.  I would also like to add the bedding from our guinea pig house when there are enough worms to eat it.  

The leaf litter has become noticeably lower in the pot, so I assume the worms are eating it.  I have added a second tray of leaf litter to the worm farm as the first one has been mostly turned into castings.  This is all very positive.  I don't think I will empty the first tray yet.  Winter is just around the corner and having two trays on the worm farm should help to buffer the temperature swings a little due to increased thermal mass.  

The worms should grow and breed between now and winter, from there I don't expect them to do much until spring.  That's ok.  The worm farm and the pot are both protected from the frosts so I expect the worms to survive winter.  

Over winter they won't eat a lot or breed much, but each worm will grow and the baby ones should mature over this time.  Come spring, the worms should all be large enough to breed and ready for their population to explode with the warmer weather.