Here’s a recipe that makes a heavy and hearty moist cake that is perfect with a cup of tea on a cold winters morning.
Jude Fanton from The Seed Savers’ Network whipped it up with what she had in the cupboard, and seeds she had soaked that were going to be used in a meal but weren’t. It goes to show what can be made without following a recipe and utilising what you already have. Read More & Comment →
It is one thing knowing how to design and plant a food garden. Knowing how to prepare the harvested food for eating is something equally important and completes the whole process of organic gardening. All your efforts in the garden are rewarded when you taste the delicious nutritious food that you have produced yourself – and it always tastes better when you have grown it yourself! Read More & Comment →
The Seed Saver’s Network has been fighting a David and Goliath battle since 1986 when Jude and Michel Fanton created the non-profit organisation whose main aim is to conserve and share locally adapted varieties of food plants.
More than ever, as climate change and unpredictable weather patterns loom, we need to preserve a genetically diverse genepool of food plants to be able to adapt to these conditions. Commercial agriculture and the modern food system favour a small range of food plants that require high inputs of fertilisers and chemical pesticides and that are selected mainly for productivity, shelf life and appearance.
‘Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi’ is a 57 min documentary which looks at the issue of the need to preserve the diverse food heritage from Melanesian and other countries as they become increasingly reliant on imports of hybrid seeds and white rice, biscuits and noodles. The film also looks into the solutions such as setting up local seed networks and education of the importance of preserving diversity.
Watch the film trailer…
For Greenies joined ‘Culture Club’ for a stroll around the streets of West End’s urban foodscape. What we found was a diverse array of sub-tropical fruit trees overhanging footpaths, edible vines spanning fences, and sprawling root crops replacing nature strip grass. This is a testament to the culturally diverse community and the favourable climate of sub-tropical Brisbane.
The tour involved plant identification as well as discussing the ethics of harvesting, share maps, what to do with surplus and how to contribute to the urban edible foodscape.
A starving and unwell Grey-headed flying-fox stays in a fruiting Cocos Palm through the day. Photo: Andrew Smith.
20 May 2010
Bat Conservation & Rescue Qld., President, Louise Saunders is alarmed by the large number of reports about hungry flying-foxes staying by food trees through the day and not returning to their camps.
“This is of huge concern as bats will stay by food trees until the food runs out. They will then be too weak to fly further afield and will die in people’s gardens like we saw in the winter of 2007. This is starvation” Louise said. Read More & Comment →
We live in a throw away consumerist society. Once something that was made for a certain purpose comes to the end of it’s (usually short) life span as ’something useful’, more often then not it is thrown away. It joins the forgotten others in the forever growing pile of waste that will exist in disregard.
The waste hierarchy refers to the 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability, and are meant to be a hierarchy in order of importance.
A new term I have stumbled across, that isn’t even in my Oxford American Dictionary is ‘Upcycling’ which Wikipedia defines as
Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. The goal of upcycling is to prevent wasting potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones. Read More & Comment →
HOMEGROWN follows the Dervaes family who run a small organic farm in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. While “living off the grid”, they harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day. The film is an intimate human portrait of what it’s like to live like “Little House on the Prairie” in the 21st century… Join us for the Gold Coast Premiere of HOMEGROWN.
Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.
Read More & Comment →
“There is no doubt that reducing consumption of meat, especially red meat, is one of the most effective things the individual can do to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution. Producing meat turns vegetable protein very inefficiently into animal protein, using large amounts of energy and water in the process. Secondly, meat production takes place a long way from the main population centres, so large amounts of fuel energy are needed to transport meat to urban consumers. Thirdly, meat products need to be cooked to be safe to eat, generating more greenhouse gas pollution. Ruminant animals also produce large amounts of methane a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, in the process of digesting grass. So overall, meat production in general and beef production in particular is a serious contribution to greenhouse gas pollution and hence global warming.” ~ Professor Ian Lowe, 2005. President of the Australian Conservation Foundation and Author of ‘Living in the Hothouse’ Scribe Publications 2005.
A 24 min. documentary by New Zealand Filmmakers Kat Gawlik & Sonya Walker
Global Warming and Climate Change have become, literally, the hot topics of the 21st Century. New Zealand sells itself with its “100% Pure” image: we are supposedly clean and green. However, one of the most significant contributors to global warming is methane gas – and with millions of sheep and cows, New Zealand is a veritable methane gas factory. As this film shows in its Monty Pythonesque way: we may not have obvious great smoke stacks spewing out pollutants, but we have bovine digestive tracts that are equally insidious. “Silent but violent” takes on a whole new meaning in this film that is as much fun as it is serious.
Download Burping Bovidae in mp4 format
Life Changing Docos are informing inspiring and empowering audiences once again on the 14th April when they host 2 screenings of the documentary Fresh at the Gold Coast Arts Centre.
Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people who are reinventing our food system. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision of our food system and our planet’s future. Fresh addresses an ethos that has been sweeping the world and is the call to action we have all been waiting for.
The Beneficial Lady Bug
In the big picture that is Planet Earth, all insects undoubtedly have a role. But to the farmer, horticulturist and home gardener, those insects which damage or destroy plants are obviously most unwelcome. Such ‘pest’ species include chewers like certain moth larvae (caterpillars) and suckers such as aphids and mites.
Read More & Comment →
Monstera Deliciosa is a large-leafed hardy creeper native to Central America that can tolerate a variety of conditions preferring to begin life as a shaded understorey plant and thriving outdoors in temperatures from 20-30°C.
For Greenies has created a worldwide Google map that locates organic and bio-dynamic farms, organic food markets, organic retailers and even the backyard organic gardener who wants to sell their surpluses.
Anyone can add to the map, so if you are an organic and and/or bio-dynamic farmer, organic gardener, organic retailer, or if you know of the location of organic markets, farms and cafes feel free to share your location with the world. Read More & Comment →
On my birthday last month my partner and I spent the day in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. It was past lunch time and our stomachs were starting to get that empty feeling but we were far from any good nutritious food. Walking down the main path back to the entrance we came across a tree we had never seen before with spikes between the leaves and small yellow fruit about the size of a plum. The tree was loaded with fruit and the ground below covered in fallen fruit. “What is this tree?” we asked each other, “is it edible?” at this stage we were very hungry. A covered rat trap had been laid under the tree and the fact that the name plaque had the word ‘apple’ in it was enough for us to decide that it COULD be edible and that it must be safe if the rats were eating it!
Is it edible? taste it and see...
We have come across something that ticks every box (with a bold marker pen!) in the quest for the ultimate sustainable, chemical free, affordable and effective laundry and multi-purpose cleaner. People in Asia, India and Indonesia have already been using it for centuries in Ayurveda and as an effective clothing and multipurpose cleaner.
