Winter is looming in the air

Next Saturday night, we will move our clock one hour backwards. We will soon officially enter winter time. There was a cold front 2 weeks before we officially entered the winter time zone and the temperature kept going down and down to the mid single digits. At higher altitude in some parts of the country are already receiving snow fall. The famous ski resort and the villages around Davos, where head of states and the world known economist meet up during World Economic Forum is already white with snow. Skiing season is already starting in some parts of Switzerland.
My garden is quite high in altitude, about 700metres above sea level. I'm still quite lucky that my surrounding is still very much golden red autumn. Some days, when the fog comes in, I am above the fog-line. Sometimes its nice to walk at the wide open spaces of the corn fields and take in the colours, even when the sky is grey. The warm colours in the nature really cheered me up.

Whenever the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, I took the chance to be outside in the garden and bathe in the golden light of autumn.

Last year, the snow arrived on the last day of October. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to the first snowfall in the garden. I'm really not ready and the garden is still full with buds and blooming despite the drop in temperatures.

The cool temperature really brings out the intensity of the colours from the flowers and leaves. There are still small bugs flying around collecting nectar. They must be very hungry now that there are less wild flowers in the meadows.

Sometimes I just sit there amongst my plants and observe the wildlife busy enjoying the autumn beauties.

They really taught me to make the best of the last moments in autumn and try to enjoy the garden leftovers even when it means I have to go around with thick pullover and a layer of windbreaker.

Nature is an amazing teacher.

Quirky autumn

The weedy hazels are going nuts! They are steadily falling all over the place at the back patio and rolling down the garden staircase. Some will be eaten by the wildlife, collected by the garden mouse and squirrels for their winter food and a few will sprout out by themselves next spring.

There's time to grow and there's time to die, and autumn really is the beginning of the decaying stage to some plants's tissue prior to winter freeze.

The days around here are becoming shorter and shorter and the mornings are very foggy. Very soon, I will be seeing only a few hours of sun after the fog disappeared. At this time of year, the sun has lost its teeth too. The sun maybe shining but not warm enough to go around without a jacket or pullover to comfort the goosebumps. With the temperature steadily cooling down, some plants' leaves are slowly losing their ability to photosynthesize. The first one to change colours in the backyard are the parthenocisus creepers.

The Red Ace seedpods of Euonymus Europeaus or European Spindle tree are also ripening pink, and very soon the seedpods will split open revealing an orange coloured seeds.

This snail is eating the fungi that are growing on dead leaf.

For a long time, I thought the snails are similar to the destructive habits of the slugs Arion lusitanicus Mabille, Stylommatophora, Arionidae etc etc.

I've always thought they ate soft new growth on plants just like the slugs, but recently, I found out that the garden snails feed mainly on fungus that grow on decomposing matter. It is only during spring time that these snails run out of food options because during that time of year, the ground temperature is still too cold and the rate of decomposing matters are zero to none. Poor thing is so hungry after a long winter sleep, that when they stumble on our plant seedling, they are not able to distinguish between food and potential garden beauties. At other time of year, these snails are happy to leave the garden beauties and live on fungi, especially those that grow on leaf surfaces. Sticking themselves underneath the leaves also helped them hide from the snail eating predator birds.

Mould, fungi, fungus and their spores are stirred up by damp conditions, more so during autumn weather. The ground is still warm and the humidity helped the fungi to speed up the rotting and decomposing of vegetation from the falling leaves etc. This is part of the nature's organic recycling. There are many different kinds of spores floating in the air that we breathe and when the condition is right for them to settle down, they will grow and thrive. Without the help of the fungi, our garden soil will be starved of decomposing organic nutrients.

There are good and bad things about the mould, fungi and fungus and can be found anywhere, even in our fridge, any part of the house that is damp with poor air circulation, such as the bathroom, inside our shoes, on our skin, nail bed, garden bed, shady areas which receive minimal sunlight, on the plants and their leaves and the list could go on and on. This is one of the reason why watering roses in the late evening is not encouraged, because night dampness enable the blackspot spores to adhere to the wet leaves.

Where weather is rainy, blackspot infection becomes prevalent like the picture above. This year, a very serious case of fungal infection was seen on Yolanda d'Aragon's leaves. Black spot is apparently more prevalent in areas with clean air and low pollution. It seems that the blackspot fungus cannot grow on leaves that are covered with a layer of pollution grime. Since I garden organically without chemical spraying, half of my roses bushes had already shed their leaves due to the black spot. Christopher Marlowe above is no exception, but as my gardening friend Maribel once said, "what is a little bit of spottiness amongst friends", so I let it be. Afterall, this blackspot fungi is not hazardous to human's health. Given the fact that I only garden for my own pleasure and as long as the blooms brings joy and smiles everytime I step out into the garden, I have learned to ignore, pick up the black spotted leaves and throw them away.

There are other fungi, or otherwise also known as mushroom that popped up in the wild especially during this time of year. Some mushrooms are edible, considered a gourmet delicacy, such as this golden egg yolk chanterelle mushroom and there are also a few which has been identified containing medicinal values.

Mushroom farming has enabled us to enjoy certain type of mushroom all year round, but in autumn, collecting edible mushroom from the wild can be very adventurous and fun thing to do but this must be done only with someone who is a mushroom expert. Some mushrooms are poisonous. Ingesting this pretty looking mushroom (picture below) can cause harm to human's health but interestingly not the slugs!
Here's a cropped part of the slug from the picture above.

This goes to show that there is nothing poisonous which can kill slugs.

Lavender Lassie

This rose is one of my favourite. Even though it has quite big prickly thorns, I've got it planted very close to the entrance of the house. The mauve or purple blend blooms are very double and big, up to 3 inch in diameter. Blooms are big and heavy, causing the canes to arch sideways, adding character to the overall shape of the plant. Sometimes after heavy rain, the cane collapse to the ground under the weight of the blooms.It is very fragrant, wafting in the air, a wonderful welcome as I approach the square of the patio entrance. Repeat cycle is very short and reblooms generously. It can grow to 12 feet, so I will put an arch to support the canes next spring.

Due to generous reblooming, this rose require heavy feeding.

Hermosa

.....a very old rose dated back to 1832, bred by an amateur rose breeder, Marchesseau, in Angers and was introduced by Rousseau nursery in 1834, also in Angers, France.

Its interesting to see beautiful flowers that had survived the journey of the years and had so many names given to it. It has been referred to as Armosa, Mélanie Lemarié and Madame Neumann.

Blooms are pink to lilac pink with thin petals and quite sensitive to rain, a bit like the petals characteristic of Souvenir de la Malmaison. The whole bunch of my spring blooms from this 2 roses was unable to open up during spring and early summer. The petals got saturated after the rain and they end up rotting inside the mumified dried-out outer petal crust.

This is a tricky tender rose for my climate. It has a Bourbon, China/Bengal genes in it. I’ve also read it being described as Indica Bourbonica.

It is hard to believe that Hermosa is the seedling of Old Blush after comparing the size and growth habit of this 2 rose plant. Old Blush seemed more tight, branching wide open, sideways spreading but remains relatively short, while Hermosa is much loose, lanky in its growth habit and taking less space sideways.

I think this rose will perform extremely well when grown in warm and dry climate. This is a healthy, black spot free rose. While others are losing leaves from black spotted leaves, Hermosa remain green throughout the growing season and kept blooming with a very short cycle. I will try and support its growth and let it bloom its heart out in the garden. Maybe it will adapt to the surrounding elements of my garden's micro climate.

Christopher Marlowe

Gardening for flowers has its high and low.

Gardening with roses has it high and low too.


There are rose varieties that bloom riot at one go and then, that's it. The following 11 months are quiet and nothing else but leaves and loud thorns.

There are a lot of varieties that repeat bloom again and again, each time producing riotious colours that are so loud, they sent me reeling to the garden centre looking for annual plants in neutral colours to help tone down the glaring tones.

...but I have been warned about Christopher Marlowe's true colours. I remember Rachel bought this rose plant during her impulsive moments. Once at home, she found the colours of Christopher Marlowe just doesn't quite workout with her existing roses and colour scheme.I remembered spending hours chatting and proposing to her into buying more plants to either tone down the colours, or to create a bridge that can linkup and add the flow of the rainbow along her fence.

....and then, one day I found myself walking in the garden centre and immediately attracted to the unique colours on Christopher Marlowe. One pot of Christopher Marlowe arrived in my garden. O wow. Suddenly the most boring corner of the garden lighted up! The following days, I scouted another garden centre and another and another. I ended up collecting 5 well established Christopher Marlowe. I dug out a round patch and planted them all in the same planting hole.

This is a fragrant rose. At peak blooming period, the fragrant waft in the air like a big tidal wave. On grey cloudy day, the colours of Christopher Marlowe really brighten up my mood.

Thanks to Rachel for introducing her impulsiveness. I wouldn't have notice this David Austin rose due to its compact short growth. Somewhat, in my garden climate, this rose never grow higher than 2 feet tall.


By late summer, this rose lost 70 percent of its leaves due to black spot. I don't bother with the black spot fungi spraying, but even with very little foliage left, they still repeat bloom for the last autumn display.

A blog break that is now "broken"

It felt like it was only last week when I got all excited about outdoor freedom of summer living, flip flop, t-shirts and shorts and was complaining about the very hot days without fan or air conditioning, ....tick tock tick tock, woke up this morning, autumn is staring right at my face.

The weather is bad at the moment. I have now added my local weather station on the top page. As I rumble and ramble about life in the alps, you can see for yourself if I'm shining under the sun or bundled up in layers of wool knits with chattering teeth. There's no sun at all the last couple of days. Some parts of the garden is beginning to look very gloomy as half of the colourful flowering plants are done with their flowers and busy making seeds. Weedy seeds can be seen on cobwebs everywhere. We have cold air coming down from the north pole at the moment and it is raining, foggy and grey sky, but this cooling temperature will create a magical autumn colour display for the next coming weeks. Had to push myself out into the garden, with an umbrella in one hand and took some pictures before the prolonged rain spoils those last bit of garden beauties.
Mevrouw Nathalie Nypels, sounds like a celebrity's baby's name (ha ha) This is a Dutch name and this rose was bred in the Netherlands in 1919. I got this rose as a bare roots last winter and she is less than 2 feet tall but she didn't waste anytime at all this year. Bloom cycle is very short and every few weeks there's a bunch of flowers on the bush. There are no fragrant unfortunately, but for the joy of blooms, and adding some colours in general landscaping, I find this rose is very hard working. I didn't have a "real" holiday this year because I forgotten to make proper plan during 2008 hectic year. It has never happened before that I was so busy to the point that I forgotten about planning annual leave but I am lucky to have such great friends who made my short 10 summer days spent with them unforgettable. I was in a beautiful region in northern Italy, breathtaking landscape, challenging climbing walls with endless treks for mountain biking and walking around. I will update my summer add-ventures blog later. More than 1000 pictures to resize!In between rock climbing and all the outdoor adventures, I also managed to document some roses that grew up on that altitude.

The chrysanthemum are full with buds, and the delphinium are about spent. It is very rare that I get to see the second repeat bloom but this summer was extraordinarily dry. That in a way did cut down on slugs mobility and their chomping activities.
Overall my garden is looking quite tired and very overgrown with weeds at the moment. Its amazing how tough those weedy wild plants could thrive even with very little rain during summer months. While I was away, I did missed some of the peak period of summer bloomers but there are others still busy making buds for autumn repeat.

We usually get our first snow at the end of October. Very soon, I must allocate some time for the endless must do tasks in the garden before the arrival of winter. I didn't do any garden upkeep at all during the peak summer time. It was simply too hot and cannot recall the last time I go around deadheading. Interestingly some roses like Stanwell Perpetual continues making buds without asking much for deadheading.
This year, since mid spring until now, Stanwell Perpetual has been very generous and very floriferous and there are still little buds forming even at this time of year. This is one rose I will take with me to the graveyard. Shall add that the next time I update the will. Ha ha.

How to tell someone their socks stinks?

Last month, I received an email from my friend Linda asking, "How do you let a person aware that their socks or shoes stinks?"

Well Linda, This is a very sensitive issue and many people I know dare not point it out to someone that their socks or shoes is making the air in closed enclosure very sour and smelling bad, worst in a car, a flight cabin or small office. Not many people can take direct hints in a positive constructive way but I have found that subtle and friendly approach always worked wonders.

Never ever use sarcastic remarks as this will embarassed the person unnecessarily. If it is in the airplane, the flight attendant is the best way to pass a small note to the passenger sitting next to you. Write in a polite way, on a small note, asking the person to keep his or her feet in the shoes throughout the flight. If you feel uncomfortable about letting the person next to you aware that you could smell his or her socks odour, you can also asked the flight attendant to spray some air freshner in the cabin. The flight attendants are trained to discreetly walk up and down the aisle with a small air freshner spray hidden in their palm.

A small trick I've used that helped me through sticky times is to have a few sachets of wet freshner which I carry in my bags all the time. This wet tissues comes in many different scents and I like the citrus aroma as it is very refreshing and great way to clean the hands at the same time neutralising bad odour in the air. It is also not overwhelming strong like a perfume we usually dabbed behind our ears. I usually don't put on strong concentrate fragrance when flying because some people are allergic to the fragrance of concentrated perfumes.

Most of my colleagues at my office knew that I am a very happy go lucky person and always making jokes, to lighten up the daily stress. I often use jokes to hint about socks or shoe sales and the importance to change socks daily to avoid foot fungus from breeding in the shoes. After 2 years, sneakers especially are known as a notorious breeding ground for fungus and these fungus can contaminate other shoes as well. When foot fungus got mentioned, most people become concerned about foot and shoe hygiene. This tactic usually worked very well. A while ago, I approached a junior intern and asked him, " do you have a cat at home?"

His answer was, "yes, why?"

"I'm just curious," I said, "thought I could smell something like cat's pee from your shoes even when you're a few feet away, but don't worry, its not a very strong one. I just happen to have a very sensitive nose," and told him a few things about my cats at home and how they like to sleep under the shoe racks. I use to have cats before but not anymore.

After lunch that day, that young intern stopped by my office and thanked me for letting him know about his shoes. Apparently, during lunch hour break, he had bought a new pair of shoes.

I immediately seized the opportunity and complimented him on his choice of style and said, "you know, your shoes will take up better mileage and smell fresh even longer with a daily change of socks. Cats don't really like fresh smelling shoes."

Ever since that day, we established a better working relationship, and more open to each other during project discussions with a level of trust like never before. I think people generally are concerned about this sort of things. It is just that, our own nose is immune to our own bodily smell and without the help of another person's nose, we will never know how much we stink.

Just like in many real life situations, it is not what is being said that matters, but how it is being said that makes the difference.

Comte de Chambord Twit me

I probably am the last person on earth joining the flock of other Twitters, but finally I am twitting.
I can see twitting is great for busy people who is always on the go. I'm not sure if I want to connect it to my mobile phone yet. To twit means; to harass with persistent criticism or carping. Will that be too overwhelming for me? I'm going to take my time and think about it. In the meantime, I still have to find out how to link Twitter to this blog.

OK. Got that done.
follow me on Twitter

Many years ago, when my gardening craze started, I haven't got a proper green house and my "make do nursery corner was then a just big huge planting tubs under the trees in the woodland" just next to the existing garden. The bottom part of the big tubs are filled with proprietary commercial soil to keep my seedlings plants nursery pots moist all the time. One rainy summer, I failed to check the collected rain water resevoir level and the bottom part of the watering system was flooded and the bottom part of the roses pots was standing in still water. After a while, when I was ready to plant the roses into the ground, I found the rootstock of Comte de Chambord had rotted and the plant had produced its own roots. As I gently pulled it out of its nursery pot, the plant separated into 2 plants. What a boon that was! I planted them in 2 different parts of the garden, one under dapple shade of the woodland and another in full sun on the bank of a south facing slope.

The one in the dapple shade is doing much better and the blooms opened up full like the picture above. The blooms from the bush that's on the slope bank are more exposed to strong sun and rain, failed to fully open up to its maximum, usually half opened and then they are finished. Intermitten rain and sudden strong sun is not good for any type of blooms for that matter. There's no way I can change my rainy weather unless I move south and garden in the Mediterranean climate. Every day I learn to make the best of whatever the weather brought forth and count my blessings for all the beauty in life. What good will it do to whine and complain about depressing and disappointing matters? Such is life. Things can only get better with positive mind set.

Comte de Chambord is a very beautiful rose when fully opened like above and smells divine. It is disease free plant, not one dot of black spot and requires no maintenance at all other than a bit of fertilizer after the first flush and dead heading to encourage second repeat bloom in late summer or early autumn.

American Pillar on the Fourth of July

I have a few roses bred by American's rose breeder but American Pillar is one that is doing really well in my alpine cool garden climate.
As you can see, on a cool grey summer day, the colour really stand out!

To my rose gardening friends in the US; Cyndy, Nanine and her yellow truck, Paul from Ashdown Roses: my warm thoughts are with you.

To my dear precious followers of this blog; without you all, this blog is nothing but lonesome rambling.

To the tech. support experts; Chuck, Bonnie, and everyone from there including Collette who lend me their guiding hand, put up with my whining and helped me through difficult times coping with the trial and tribulation of maintaining this blog, for without you all I probably would have quit blogging few months ago.

This blog still exist because of all your persistence in your support and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Happy Fourth of July to all of you my dear friends in the USA and God bless.

Ain't no mountain high enough....

Since I couldn't make up my mind how I would like to spend my 12 days summer break, my friends made the decisions for me and they are going to take me along on their 10 days series of rock climbing in the Dolomites Italy, which they will be doing as part of their fitness training before they climb their next four thousander peaks in late summer. I probably will not be doing all the 10 days series of rock climbing but sitting at the foothill searching for bugs and wild flowers to photograph.

Last Sunday they decided to put me on some kind of fitness training to make sure that I will be ready for the coming so called adventure and able to carry my own gear and equipments. These friends are serious rock climbers, which means they have more than enough gears to carry on their own and I must be prepared to handle my own things because there is no such thing as porters or sherpa over here. Since I don't like doing weight training, I decided that it is best that I get used to my heavy camera equipment and my climbing gears all thrown in together in the back pack.

Even though I am fully equipped as though I am a professional rock climber with all the hard wear gears, I am never really serious about this sport.I use to follow them, male and female in the group but I really am into photography, laid back and often distracted and got lulled behind those wild flowers and insects in the meadows and always too slow for for everyone else's pace. This butterfly is attracted to the orange colour on the backpack.

Another reason why I haven't done much rock climbing was due to the recent trend which made everybody wants to go climbing and that had turned the mountain wall into a circus full with people trying to scale their way up and the treks became congested with trekkers and climbers, their backpacks and their 60 meters ropes. Traffic congestion exist even in the wild back country treks. I'm beginning to believe that there is really no place on earth which is not yet discovered by tourist.

For my friend Maki who was once worried about me doing this sport; I did the advance climbing course ten years ago and all the top rope and rescue techniques skills just incase of emergencies. I also did it to be sure that I know what kind of risk I putting myself into.

To start my fitness training, we decided to warm up by going on a long walks at the nearby rolling hills of Germany's Black Forest. This nature reserve is really a beautiful forest with very tall old trees and vegetative leaves so huge, they reminded me of the tale Brobdingnag or the tropical rainforest. The rain from the last couple of days did made the river treks very muddy and slippery. My very short dog was totally covered with mud and looked more like a giant rat than a silky terrier. I had to let him swim twice in the river to free him from the mud that was caking up and encasing him. Pooch is a good swimmer. I've even let him swim in the sea when we go sailing but this particular river, the current was strong. I don't want to lose my dog so he had to swim with the leash on but both dogs had so much fun splashing in the water to cool down. I haven't seen so much mud on a trek since trekking in Borneo's Mulu National Park many years ago. The humidity was high, maybe because of the warm day, and also the river and the amount of water on the ground after all the rain several days ago. My biggest relieve was the absence of the blood sucking leech that are all over the place in the tropical rainforest.
The long walk turned out to be extremely l-o-n-g, because the signs and directions are not really that clear for first timer in this forest. We ended up walking 24 kilometres, while the dogs doing double that because they were running back and forth all the time. By the time we got out of the forest to the main road, we were still 7 kilometres away from where we had left the car. 2 guys had to walk all the way to the car and came back to fetch me and the rest who decided to "baby sit" me who was already "finished" like a flat tyre. My foot was steaming hot in the trekking shoes. The sportiva trekking boots are perfect, its just my feet that are not.
I was so thirsty with only one litre of water for an unexpected 24 kilometres walk. Parched would be a better word to describe my thirst. I refused to drink the spring water after someone jokingly said there's something wiggling in his drinking bottle! The first thing we all seek out once out of the forest and back into civilization was to find something that can quench thirst. While walking like muddy zombie looking for a restaurant in a small village of Münchingen, I saw this kid sitting in a trolley pulled by his father. He is so cute and didn't even blink an eye while I took his pictures. He probably couldn't tell if I am a human or some kind of mud monster.

Along the treks, I saw this Martagon Lilies growing at some spots. One of the flower in the picture is missing. I suspect the wild deers did try to eat it but they probably don't like the taste of it and left the rest of the flowers to bloom giving people like me and you to enjoy the lilium beauty in the wild.

Back at home, my own garden lilies are also blooming. The first two are very fragrant with perfume that wafts in the air. The lilies stamen can stain light coloured clothings and difficult to remove.
Each plants that exist in this world seemed to have been created to complete a chain that support other kinds of wild life. Lilies and the beetles are probably made for each other. This larvae spend most of its time eating the foliage of the lily plant and covered itself with its own feaces probably as camouflage from the prey birds .

This yellow lilium are not fragrant but they make a striking contrast against the blue campanula Kent Bells and a sea of green foliage


Lilium are also very cold hardy and always come back year after year. They multiply easily with tiny bulblets around the mother bulb as well as along the stems. The bulbs requires light, well drain soil.

Eat local food - help local economy and reduce global warming potentials

Can eating local food really help in reducing the potentials of global warming? In some ways, I personally think we can help reduce the potential of global warming by consuming local products. Food stuff that flew half way across the globe, not to mention the costly jet fuel, and the cargo ships that criss cross the seven seas contribute to the pollution to an already polluted sea. The long distance heavy weight logistics transportation choked the motorway causing long traffic jam. I dare not speculate on air pollution readings as the only statistics can only come from the environmental air survey and control department for the exact reading of air pollution and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. One thing for sure, eating local food can definitely help our own local farmers.

Agriculture is still thriving here, with a high percentage of the farmers committed to the practice of organic farming. I am a big supporter for organic produce. Even though I am not a vegetarian, I can survive on eating a big bowl of fresh salad twice a day, every day of my entire life.
I don't eat much red meat other than beef. Being in central mountainous europe and landlocked, we are a country of natural lakes. Seafood is very very far away from my dining table, is also available in the market with a question "do you really want to pay that much for a few pieces of scallops? I love our fresh sweet water trouts from our local lakes and they are a lot of trouts being farmed here. My nearby local supermarket chain engage and support the local farmers and distributing the local organic products through a special programm locally known as "Aus der Region, Für die Region". Translated into english that means, "From the region, for the region". That practically means these tomatoes and other produce under this program came from nearby farmers not far from where I live.Only products that are grown organically will be distributed under the bio labels. Organic produce cost a little bit more compared to mass produce non organic way or those imported from nearby countries. Organic products that are imported from nearby countries cost even more but I believe the more people buying and supporting local organically grown produce foodstuff, the faster our local organic farmers will establish themselves in the market and will automatically lowers and stabilise the prices within the competitive market.

Our mountain climate could not support some basic important food sources, such as fruits from citrus family or the good lipids oil from olives. Whatever we cannot self produce had to be brought in from other warmer European countries. We produce our own canola oil however,
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft%3Ade-ch&um=1&newwindow=1&sa=1&q=raps+feld+schweiz&btnG=Search+images
but at the same time facing stiff competition with importers of similar goods. It is my duty to support the local goods first before looking into other imported options.

For the second week, I've decided to take up Small Footprint's challenge last Wednesday;
Change The World Wednesdays

For one full day this week, eat only local foods. No tropical fruits from across the world ... no veggies that traveled hundreds of miles to get to your table ... only locally grown foods (this includes meats, dairy products, etc., if you eat them).

I must say, Small Footprint has came up with quite a challenge. I've never really considered how I took for granted a lot of the foodstuff in my kitchen are products imported from other countries. Didn't realise how dependent I am on coffee until I took up this challenge. What a sluggish Saturday it was for me to start the day. No coffee to wake me up as it is not local product. We're too cold to grow coffee here, and its so hard to wake up in the morning with only fresh pasturised milk from the local cows. Ever wonder why babies went to sleep after drinking their milk? Can't have tea or orange juice either. All these are imported. I've always read somewhere "drink 1 or is it 2 litres of water everyday, which I did not. I've always been the person who like to drink something with a flavour, even if that means natural water with a squeeze of lemon or a few crushed leaves of fresh mints. This challenge really changed all that. I did siphoned in more water into my body to replace my normal tea intake. Water suddenly taste very refreshingly good.

Simple spices like pepper is not grown here. Fruits, especially orange and lemon, most of them comes from warmer southern european countries. I think we are all spoilt for choices living in the era of convenient stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialist exotic foodstore which sprout like mushrooms all around us. One don't have to fly 13 hours or more to Asia to enjoy mango, tandoor chicken, satay or even sushi.

Bircher Muesli was created by Dr. Bircher Benner for his patients in his Zürich clinic during the 1890’s. This is a nutritious meal in itself made of rolled oats, fruits, crush nuts, yoghurt and honey. Bircher muesli is one of the most popular breakfast item besides bread, butter etc which can be found all over Switzerland.

Taking the challenge of Small Footprint’s about eating local food, I’ve prepared mine with ingredients locally produced with seasonal fruits which I plucked from my own garden.

Breakfast:- Swiss Bircher Muesli
2 cups of natural yoghurt (choose yoghurt that contain live bifidus cultures which is good for stomach flora)




















2 cups of rolled oats 1/2 cup of milk
a cup each of fresh seasonal fruits which is available right now ie;
Ribes Rubrum also known as red currant
Black and red cherries (pitted and halved)
strawberries cut into quarter
2 table spoons of sun flower seeds
a tablespoon of local honey
(I usually add some crushed walnuts, pecans, and hazels but all these are imported, so I have to exclude them for this challenge)

How to do it;
Mix the roll oats with milk to soften them. I usually do this the night before I go to sleep and leave the oat and milk in the fridge, but sometimes I just prepare them on the spot and chew on the oats bits a little al-dente. It kind of add some texture to the mass.

Add in the yoghurt, honey and mix in the fruits. You can crush some of the fruits to release their natural juice to add some colour to the roll oats mix.

Portion them into pretty serving bowls, decorate with the extra fruits and a spoonfull of yoghurt on top. Sprinkle with shelled sunflower seeds and serve 2.

These are just the basic recipe. You can change the fruits to any of your local fruits. I would love to have chopped mango, pineapple and banana for an exotic breakfast but that would defy the purpose of this "eat your local food challenge"










Lunch - White sausage salad
2 white sausage - boiled and thinly sliced
leafy salad
carrot - thinly sliced
eared corn kernels
a handful of sunflower seeds and pumkin seeds (I love them for a bit of nutty taste)
a small tiny piece of local cheese, slice or diced
Tomatoes, dice or wedges

Salad Dressing
2 table spoon of honey
2 table spoons of canola oil
2 table spoon of apple cider

a pinch of salt (according to taste)
(had to go without pepper because this one is imported)
Mix them all together until smooth.

Mix all the salad and the dressing in a salad bowl, serve with a slice of bread made by the local bakery with flour from the local mill and a glass of local wine from the vinyard behind the house.
(you can have it with beer if you like)

Tea time.
Mint tea
Boil water until tepid warm. Dont let it go to boiling point. Pick a few leaves of mint from the garden, rinse in water, dry it and steep the mint leaves in the tepid warm water for 3 minutes. Very refreshing taste and good for digestion after heavy meals.

Rhubarb Pie recipe;
5 rhubarb stalks from the garden - peel off the skin and cut them into half inch size. Boil water on pot until boiling. Remove pot from heat and blanche the prepared rhubarb in boiling water for one minute.
Use a sieve and remove the hot water.

A chrispy thin quick pie crust;
One cup of flour
50gms butter melted in a pot with 3 table spoons of water.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and knead into a dough. Use rolling pin to evenly thin the dough and line the dough in the baking dish, arrange the half softened rhubarb on the dough. Beat 1 egg and half cup of double milk cream together until smooth.
pour the egg mixture on top and put in the oven at 200° degrees, in the middle for 25 minutes. serves 2

Dinner (serves 2 person)
2 rainbow trouts (from local Swiss lake) - gutted, and cleaned. Fillet the fish with a sharp knife for a clean cut and rolled it on a bed of bread crumbs. 2 table spoons of canola oil in the pan(that's the only oil we produce here) Control the heat of the pan. Medium heat is perfect and pan grill the trout fillet until crispy looking on both sides.

4 brown mushrooms - halved, cut into quarter, quick 2 minutes pan fried also with local cooking butter
1 Fennel - sliced and boiled

Half kilo newly harvested local potatoes - skinned, boiled and drained
Parsley and chives - home grown - finely chopped
2 table spoon of canola oil (usually I use olive oil but not in this challenge)
1 table spoon of walnut oil
Add the copped parsley and chives, salt to taste, and dress up the potatoes.

Put everything on a plate, dress up with fresh sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves (plucked from the garden)

Voila. Bon Apetite!