Since my cookery book Katata Rasata Hanikata Uyamu contains a section on home gardening I decided to gift a pack of vegetable and fruit seeds to those who bought the book during this avurudu season. All the seeds are from my own garden and include those of a delicious variety of papaya, the large type of spinach I have written about previously and thora. For those of you readers who do not know, thora leaves make a delicious mallun and is very effective in relieving constipation. |
Although I initially thought of simply sealing the seeds in up-cycled bits of polythene, my daughter convinced me to enclose them within a pack. Drawing inspiration from book match covers, she took on the task of making packs out of milk powder and cereal cartons. Fortunately we always have several of these boxes stacked away in the store room, to be used for various purposes. So the boxboard was not a problem and actually helped to clear up the clutter a bit! Covering the boards with paper was a slightly more challenging matter though, as we wanted to use 100% recycled or up-cycled materials. Finally we decided to make use of the many multi-coloured flyers and brochures which we receive regularly as junk mail. I used to put them away in a drawer to give my niece’s kids to make paper boats and other handwork items. Since they had not visited us for some time I had quite a stack of papers. These were cut and pasted to cover the boxboard used for the packs. |
So there you are! Thanks to the many pizza parlours and other establishments stuffing our letter box with unsolicited mail, readers of my books will be receiving a colourful pack of seeds this month. As readers have been so happy to receive these seeds I have requested that even those who buy only my latest book, Our Childhood In Ceylon:1950 be gifted a pack, provided they are keen on gardening. So happy gardening to all my readers! |