THE ABC’s Bush Telegraph reports in Food on Friday section about the National Australian Marmalade Ashes competition. The eleven winners in Australia will face the eleven British Marmalade Competition winners later this year. Read last years report on the inaugural event in the Guardian.
Further information can be found here about the World’s original marmalade award.
THIS year 2012 is The Australian Year of the Farmer and a dedicated web site has been set up so one can learn more about this not for profit, non political organisation. The Australian Year of the Farmer aims to reach out to every Australian to involve and bring together rural and urban communities, schools, farming organisation, suppliers and the producers. There will be year-long program of events across the nation.
Australia’s farmers should be recognised and celebrated: for feeding the nation and for leading the world in farming techniques and innovation. Read more.
Save Australian Farming organisation’s web site suggests we break the habit of doing our weekly shop at one of the two big supermarkets. Grow our own vegetables and schedule a weekend visit to one of the many Farmers Markets that are springing up around Perth.
CAROLYN Steel, architect and author of Hungry City used to think about the city through its built environments, now she thinks about it through food. She wants us to to see cities that have food at their centre. For Steel this is one of the most urgent tasks facing the potential 5 billion or 61 percent of people that will be living in cities by 2030.
‘Because we don’t see food’s influence, we leave it up to Coles and Woolworths and Tesco,’ says Steel. ‘We no longer value food.’. “Steel believes that this invisibility leads to unrealistic expectations of cheap food – and allows us to ignore the land and water degradation that result.
“80 percent of global trade in food now is controlled by just five multinational corporations. And if we look to the future, it’s an unsustainable diet.
Further information from Carolyn Steel’s “Hungry City” web site
Journalist Alan Saunders from ABC’s “By Design” poses the question “How can we change things? “Small changes make a difference, ‘sharing food, knowing where your food comes from and cooking it seasonally and locally. Listen to interview
FOR well over a decade the adventures of Livio and Isabella Dalla Ragione have been recorded by the Italian Press and in 2005 the New Yorker recorded their story of ‘fruit exploring’. The Dalla Ragiones were spurred on by knowledge that in Italy as in USA there is no Government repository with encyclopedic collections of apple and other fruit varieties of the countryside.
For decades after WW11 Livio had been searching out the forgotten fruits. To help preserve these varieties he bought a property on the border of Umbria & Tuscany and started growing them, and so an arboreal archaeologist was born.
Read article in Gastronomica of 2010.
The New Yorker article by John Seabrook “Renaissance Pears”, saving the favourite fruits of the Medici is also a fascinating story of the Dalla Ragione’s search and reintroduction of many of these fruits. Isabella believes that to help preserve these fruits it is necessary to create a market for them.
The Earth report gives a compelling argument explaining why these ancients fruits should be nurtured and reestablished.
Anyone interested in visiting their property can find the directions on their web site.
In fruit palettes there is an interview in the series Eating Art with Isabella.
BARBARA Massaad founding member of Slow Food Beirut, author of several books has just produced her third book in her journey of preserving memory. “Mouneh” is the winner of the Gourmand Cookbook 2010. She is also an international delegate of the Terra Madre Community. In her words, ‘the very best memories connect us to time and place and are often stimulated by the tastes and smells of childhood, but the reality for many of us is that we no longer enjoy such a strong connection to our culinary roots’.
Read further.
ABC Bush Telegraph interview with founder Tony Coote of the biodynamic Mulloon Creek Natural Farm and founder of the Mulloon Institute is an amazing positive story of regenerative agriculture in Australia. The institute serves as a research centre for regenerative agriculture. Listen to interview.
The Mulloon Institute is a not for profit organisation that develops knowledge through its research and education programs, that is then used by the farm managers to improve the farming methods being applied, showing that they can be proven to work at a farm scale. Read more and listen to Tony Coote explain his story.
INDUSTRIAL sized roof top garden planned for Berlin, this massive 7000 square metre former factory roof is earmarked for a sustainable garden producing both fish and vegetables for local residents. This could be a model for future city farms. Read further
SHIMA Wasabi was created in 2007 after four Tasmanian wasabi growers saw the need to work together and now still with one of the original growers have won “From the Earth Category” of the Delicious Awards this year. Wasabi, originally from Japan, (Eutrema japonica) is better used fresh and the green wasabi paste is made not from the roots but from the stems, read more about this exciting product
THE “Farmers Paddock” is a new venture in Perth. The “Farmers Paddock” realises that the farmers have to be producers, drivers, public relations managers cashiers, stock managers and salespersons so the “Farmers Paddock was founded in 2011 to help local producers. They will pay producers upfront and assume the risk of selling their goods. Buying locally means eating with the seasons, so you will not necessarily get spring lamb all year round. We will not have unlimited supply of scotch or eye fillet so try something different. Read further about this new venture
ABC’s Hungry Beast presents an informative perspective on the power of the big two supermarkets. Watch video
Further information can be read on the Ethical Consumers guide
