Ooooby Blog

Step 3: How to mulch your garden (and why you should)

I gotta be honest.

This isn’t step three. It’s supposed to be done at the same time as step one.

But you need to have your sh!t together to do that.

My wife and I have young kids, businesses and interests other than gardening.

I do this in separate steps because some weekends I just rather go to the beach with the fam and hit that Taranaki surf.

I suspect if you are reading this that you, like me, don’t have time to spend all weekend every weekend in the garden either.

That’s cool. This method works just fine too.

How to grow your own food, Step 2: De-compact the soil

This is series of guides is to help you grow your own food.

This article is for you as busy parents and professionals who want the benefit and security of having food grow at the place you live and eat.

It’s actually pretty easy if you start with the basics and get nature working for you.

Ooooby and Masterchef Tim Read host intimate dinner to chew over mental health

There is something magical about people sharing good food together.

Interesting and meaningful conversations flow naturally.

An intimate setting inspires conversations that are real, honest and personal.

Over three evenings in July this year Ooooby had the pleasure of collaborating with 2015 MasterChef winner Tim Read to bring people together around a dinner table of wholesome, healthy and finely prepared food.

It’s called Table-Talk.

Its purpose is to create an intimate setting that encourages conversation around nutrition, wellness and mental health.

Total strangers. Personal questions. Zero alcohol.

Here’s what happened…

Growing your own food is easier than you think. Here’s step 1.

We love food Out Of Our Own BackYards.

It’s literally our name and the reason for so many damn O’s!

Lol.

Even better would be to grow food out of YOUR own backyard.

Ooyoby?

Maybe not.

But seriously. With looming food shortages in NZ and the cost of food going up everywhere, it would make sense to grow at least some food yourself.

I am here to tell you that it’s easier than you think.

And how…

Bullshit: UK Media claim that organic farming is “the most dangerous”. Here’s why.

An article in The Guardian claims that organic and pasture-fed beef and lamb are “the most damaging farm products” and “arguably the most destructive industry on Earth”.

We find this notion absurd.

At best it demonstrates a shallow understanding of regenerative and organic farming practices. At worst, it’s a direct attack on organic and regenerative farming and shameless promotion for a billion dollar fake meat industry.

7 scientific studies that prove organic foods keep you healthy

Science is finally catching up with common sense.

In recent years a number of important studies have been published that show how eating organic food:

Keeps you healthier
Makes you less likely to develop diseases such as cancer, parkinson’s and autism.
And that conventional food does the opposite

You’ve probably already known this for years.

Maybe you’ve had to learn this through painful personal experience.

I have.

It was painful, and frustrating.

Build and pack flavour into your meals!

“Oh my word that was delicious!!”

“I could eat that all day, every day!”

At first, many of us probably start with food as a means to simply feed ourselves. With time, however and if you become more involved with what you eat and the process of preparing the food, this can evolve. It becomes about health, it becomes about nourishment and it also becomes about joy and experience as you start to fall more and more in love with food.

A meal that is seemingly the same in principal and by name, can be worlds apart in terms of flavour and enjoyment, when created with more intent or by a more experienced cook.

Free Range vs Pasture Raised vs Organic Eggs in NZ

With so many types of eggs and many of them claiming they are “best” it can be confusing for consumers to decide which eggs to buy. This article will focus on the key differences between free range eggs, pasture raised eggs and organic eggs in New Zealand.

Trading New Year’s Resolutions for New Year’s Intentions

Intentions versus Goal Setting – What’s the Difference?

1. Goals are focused on the future. Intentions are in the present moment.
2. Goals are a destination or specific achievement. Intentions are lived each day, independent of achieving the goal or destination.
3. Goals are external achievements. Intentions are about your relationship with yourself and others.

What is food?

What is food?

Picture it…

You’re in your kitchen or dining room. There are the wafts of mouth watering aromas, the clanging of pots and pans. Someone shouting for the salt, there’s music and laughter. The scene may seem like chaos, but is actually a well choreographed dance. Chopping and sautéing, tufts of flour in the air. The shifting of pans, the ignition of a stove flame.

Big bowls of hearty wholesome food. Beautiful succulent free range meats, fresh green organic salads. Pasta glistening with the generosity of love… and Olive oil. There is always olive oil and lots of it. Fresh artisan bread, broken apart and strewn across the table, crumbs and all. There is a mesh of hands and arms reaching and grabbing, sharing bowls and plates each filled with unique and delicious flavours.

There is the glugging and sloshing of wine, from bottle to glass and glass to mouth, some of which even adds to the tapestry of colours on what was once a pristine white table cloth. Salute and buon appetito.

Intentions versus Goal Setting – What’s the Difference?

Picture it…

So what is food?