FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK FACTSHEET

Failsafe gardening

This factsheet is new and will be seasonally updated

Getting vegetables into children

Preschoolers who work in a vegetable garden may change their attitude to vegetables, a study from Texas suggests. The researchers asked 22 children aged four and five to garden for 30 minutes per week. The children planted four types of vegetables including green beans, then watered, weeded and helped with composting every week. After eight weeks, the children became less likely to refuse the types of vegetables they had grown, and ranked green beans higher in order of preference than they had at the beginning of the study. Lorenz S and others, 85th Annual Meeting of the American Dietetic Association October 25, 2002.

Grow your own vegies, warns vegetable grower

Worsening drought conditions in Australia will mean soaring prices for fresh fruit and vegetables. Tony Maggio, of Country Fresh Fruit & Vegetables in Moonee on the mid north coast warned recently that the average consumer will not be able to afford fresh produce within 12-18 months unless there is a solution to the water crisis. Meanwhile, prime minister John Howard urged ABC radio listeners to ‘pray for rain’. Coffs Coast Advocate, Produce set to skyrocket by Kate Mullard; PM tells nation “Pray for Rain”, April 21, 2007, p8.

Vegetables in cities

You don’t have to have a garden, or even any soil, you can make your own soil and plant in containers on concrete, see http://journeytoforever.org/garden.html

In Howard’s garden

April (temperate to subtropical)	August (just after midwinter)	November (early summer)
Planting cabbages Brussels sprouts leeks shallots green beans green peas carrots (contain salicylates, not suitable for your strict elimination diet)	Planting Potatoes (planted at midwinter from the Diggers Club) have just come up, several white fleshed and brown skinned varieties.	Planting Iceberg lettuces (seeds and seedlings are now available from Bunnings, thanks to Catherine). Carrots. Growing potatoes (Sebago); pumpkin (Butternut seeds available from Bunnings); corn - both the new white sweetcorn and the old yellow variety - we will be interested to see if the white could be any lower in salicylates. Fresh corn on the cob was rated as 0.13 mg of salicylates per 100 gm (tinned was double that), compared to carrots at 0.23 in the Swain et al 1985 analyses.	Planting
Eating chokoes shallots chives parsley green beans (frozen at the end of summer) shallots carrots (contain salicylates, not suitable for your strict elimination diet) tamarillos (beautiful dark red sweet ripe fruit high in Vitamin C, contain salicylates, not suitable for your strict elimination diet) rhubarb (contain salicylates, not suitable for your strict elimination diet)	Eating Green peas (contain small amounts of glutamates, not suitable for your strict elimination diet) Chives Parsley Cabbages	Eating Our cabbage crop did well and we’ve been eating a lot of cabbage stirfries! Our Brussels Sprouts must be the World's Smallest, but they too go well in stirfries. Now harvesting: Rhubarb, peas, beans, carrots, leeks, shallots, chives, garlic and parsley	Eating

Yellow tomato, sweet corn, green beans, rhubarb

Spring onion, cabbages, peas, choko

Tamarillo (tree tomato)

Tamarillo trees are flowering in October-November. They are more like shrubs than trees: they grow quickly, fruit quickly and die off quickly. The others (persimmon, mango, loquat) will probably have some fruit this year but not much. The golden kiwifruit vines are growing strongly after a heavy pruning last year - they only flower on new growth - but our four vines have yet to declare themselves. Are they male or female? If all male or all female, it's back to the drawing board. New Zealanders say golden kiwifruit are lower in salicylates than green kiwifruit but I don't expect we'll be able to eat much of them.

Feedback

Thanks to several failsafers who have written about the grafted 'fruit salad' trees at http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com/resources/FruitSaladTree%20FDL.pdf. A mixture of Golden and Red Delicious apples and Packham and Bartlett pears would be good if you live in a cold climate. Packhams are the main pear variety grown in Australia closely followed by Bartletts (also called WBC or Duchess). Both rated 0.00 mg of salicylates per 100 gm in the Swain et al 1985 analyses.

Further information

Planting calendar and gardening hints from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcsite.nsf/pages/gardening_health?open

Diggers Club beginners workshops, display gardens, hints, preserving old varieties of vegetables http://www.diggers.com.au/

City and container gardens http://journeytoforever.org/garden.html

Ask your nursery about planting for your local conditions.

www.fedup.com.au

The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance. You can find a supportive dietitian through the Dietitians Association of Australia (http://www.daa.asn.au/find_a_dietitian/index.asp?pageID=2145835649) or write for our list of supportive dietitians (confoodnet@ozemail.com.au)

© Sue Dengate update January 2007