My neighbour Marian Sawer told me about a kitchen garden she had seen on the ANU campus not far from her office. In the March newsletter from Julie Armstrong, of ACT for Bees, it was noted that their pollinator friendly garden, a collaboration with ANU Thrive, was attracting blue-banded bees and honeybees, particularly to the pumpkins..
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We met up with Thrive kitchen garden coordinator, Arian McVeigh (who we met back in Kitchen Garden, June 29, 2021) at the plot which is in the middle of campus, part of a new communal park space on the site of a former building created by the ANU landscaping and conservation team. It was first planted in spring 2022 and students stroll through it constantly, pausing to chat or to sit on benches to eat or enjoy nature.
We were joined by two students, Bodan Liu from Beijing, who has been studying for a year towards a Master of Computer Vision and Andrea Yan from Melbourne, who has been a student of medicine for two years. They had a trolley filled with just-harvested pumpkins and were busily sowing seeds of Aquadulce broad beans.
The Thrive kitchen garden program is an ANU Engagement and Success team initiative made possible by a grant from the ACT Government Healthy Canberra grants program with support from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. The focus is on nutritious, seasonal food grown organically in biodiverse gardens.
Each week students participate in a gardening bee, working on different aspects of the garden from sowing and raising seeds to planting seedlings and nurturing plants, harvesting and learning how to eat and prepare the produce. Students are encouraged to experiment and try new herbs and vegetables. They can take home some of the bounty or use it for communal cooking and shared meals at the end of the weekly sessions. A roster of volunteers helps with watering of the garden throughout the week.
The key to success with all the vegetables and herbs flourishing, is jet black, rich compost, produced by the ANU Landscaping and Conservation team from campus green waste. Any kitchen gardener would crave some.
There is a second garden at the well-established Heritage Canberra Environment Garden at Lennox Crossing. It is full of mature fruit trees, herbs and more seasonal vegetables. It is also where the kitchen garden chickens live and, during my visit, corn which had not reached maturity had been stripped and placed in a bucket to go to the chooks. I was allowed to take one baby corn cob to add to my dinner.
Arian McVeigh works with three peer educators who are ANU students and a group of volunteers.
The program is based on a thriving cooperative community. The majority of plants are grown from seed, some from on site and locally grown plants given to the Seed Savers seed bank at the end of each season. They are about to contribute hundreds of seeds from three different types of dwarf tomatoes as part of the Seed Savers Dwarf Tomato Project.
International students have suggested growing less common herbs and vegetables including wombok, tatsoi, tulsi basil, gotu kola, aloe vera, shungiku (edible chrysanthemum) and lemon grass. Our photographer, Sitt, was especially interested in these plants and the herb in his photograph was a mystery which we will disclose net week - if you can identify it, email bodenparsons@bigpond.com
Cooking and preparation of produce including preserving seasonal gluts is done at kitchens on campus. They have had passata and marmalade making sessions and prepared meals to share.
One of the most popular sessions involved a group of exchange students from Indonesia teaching them how to make a great nasi goreng using the garden's produce of silverbeet, carrots, cucumber, chilli and garlic.
A favourite dish is vegetable frittata and this week it will feature the pumpkins and silverbeet.
ANU Thrive vegetable frittata
Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup cheese (feta or cheddar)
chopped pumpkin, lightly steamed
silverbeet, shredded, steamed and patted dry
onion and garlic to taste, finely chopped
oil to cook
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add vegetables and saute lightly. If using leftover pre-cooked vegetables skip this step.
2. Whisk eggs and add milk. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in cheese.
3. Pour egg mixture over vegetables in skillet. Cook on stove top until base is firm.
4. Either cover pan to cook frittata through or place under hot grill or put pan in oven preheated at 200C and cook, grill or bake until set.
