Glass campaign half full / A feast in time

Schulz Organic Dairy milk in glass

Glass campaign half-full When I was a little kid one of my jobs after school was to put four empty milk bottles in the wire carrier and take them out to the letterbox for the milkman to swap over for full ones. Around dinner time the teenage milkboys in their Dunlop volleys and leather aprons […]

Joe’s Market Garden FarmRaiser / Green Drought

CERES Joe's garden - thinning seeds

Joe’s Market Garden FarmRaiser Yesterday a group of visitors from ORI Co-op came down to visit Joe’s Market Garden and take in the Saturday Farmgate.  It was a beautiful scene; a group of regular veggie shoppers were gathered around the fire bin chatting, sipping coffee, breathing in wood smoke mixed with the smell of soil […]

When fungi calls your name / Joe’s Farm Raiser / Vote 1 CERES

King oyster mushrooms

When fungi calls your name What kind of mushrooms do marine biologists like best?  Oyster mushrooms of course! (Ouch! I’m so sorry) John Ford (that’s him in the pic) holds a PhD in Marine Biology and has spent his career reducing the environmental impact of fishing. Lately however John’s lifelong passion for fungi has been taking him […]

Reconnecting with asparagus / Joe’s Farm-Raiser Party

Cafresco asparagus

Reconnecting with asparagus   This week if you take some time to quiet your mind and find a place where the edges of human & universal consciousness overlap,  you may just be able to feel the subterranean vibration of asparagus crowns awakening in the swamps of Koo Wee Rup. And it’s about this time of year I feel […]

Sweet victory for local honey hero / Bee aware at CERES

Bee and flower

Sweet victory for local honey hero   Three years ago Victorian beekeeper, Simon Mulvany (that’s him above), began blowing the whistle on commercial honey giant Capilano Honey for blending cheap Chinese honey with Australian honey in its budget Allowrie brand. Chinese honey according to Simon contains high levels of antibiotics, chemical residues and diseases like foul brood which can […]

The produce and the people / Urban farming kids

Tomatoes_windowsill_ChrisEnnis

The produce and the people Today I was taking pleasure in a wheelbarrow full of a dark, moist chocolatey compost; a  miracle of microbiological transmogrification. I’m no musician or gifted cook, but I can make a pretty good compost (it’s possibly genetic; my dad is well known for his heaps). Anyway, I was admiring the compost because Alan, our neighbour’s, […]