30 July 2010
This scary stuff folks http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967430.htm it has the makings of a science fiction disaster film. The 'knock-on' effects of a collapse of the phytoplankton populations is hard to imagine. And for those that don't want to believe climate change is happening, and our globe is warming, read this http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967433.htm?site=news
We are not witnessing climate variability, we are in deep do-do. My eclectic gathering of the latest research is indicating that we have passed the point of no return. Whilst our politicians play games during the election, I can't seem to get bushfires, Nero and fiddle music out of my head.
28 July 2010
Forgot to say that the farm is great condition at the moment as we have had 660mm of rain for the year so far. The ground is wet everywhere and I had trouble getting the stock trailer up to the yards to load the steers. I even managed to bog our 4WD tractor when taking a load of hay up to the pigs, which gave Sarina Locke from ABC Radio National a good laugh. Sarina was interviewing me about our free range pigs when we walked past the bogged tractor - she took photos to prove it, as it's been nearly ten years since this sort of thing happened.
28 July 2010
OK, 4 more Belted Galloway steers have joined the food chain and it's the first time I have used the Picton abattoir for our cattle. Transport issues have been resolved for the time being and feel the self interested need to support the small service abattoir closest to me. Yes it adds another 180 kilometres to the round trip, so food miles suffer, but the alternative is to depend on the Woolworth's contracted Cootamundra abattoir for our "private kills". Since Coota has stopped doing private kills for sheep, no doubt cattle will soon follow.
The up side of my investigations is that the abattoir at Young will be reopening (date unknown) and will be accepting private kills for pigs, sheep and cattle. If we decide to use the abattoir at Young, it will reduce our food miles by 180 km. However we will wait and see how things pan out.
So back to Fiji. No we didn't do the resort 'thing'. We rented a small house and car for two weeks on the Coral Coast near the major resorts. We were 200 metres from the beach and elevated with panoramic views of the coast and surf breaking on the reef. Some of the best coral on the coast was within walking distance. Temperatures ranged from 18-20 at night to 24-28 during the day. It is the dry season so it only rained lightly on a few days.
The dry season - Ha! High rainfall, high humidity, tropical temperatures and volcanic soils means when they cut timber fence posts and put them in the ground, the fence posts grow! The fertility of the place astounded me. Over 90% of the population still grow most of their food.
Having a car at our disposal made all the difference. We were able to visit Suva and see my old home and school, revisit a few childhood memories - which were surprisingly accurate as the last time I visited Fiji was 40 years ago as a 12 year old, so much so that I didn't need a map to find anything. We also spent time at various farmers markets in the towns and went up the Sigatoka valley which is known as the salad bowl of Fiji. Lautoka reminded me of Suva 40 years ago and was the town I enjoyed the most.
The politics? Well let's just say I disagree with our Government's possibly well meaning but ignorant and patronising position. The Fiji government is not a democracy, at this stage it is probably best described as a benevolent dictatorship, but our version of democracy (the one true God) is not the panacea for Fiji.
Fiji is trying to rectify the legacy of a colonial past (one I lived through) and they have a long way to go to clean up the mess the British left them with. CSR's indentured labourers did not go home come independence and now 4 Indian families own 80% of the businesses. It seems racist to us, but in fact is a clash of cultures. One is tribal and communal, the other mercantile and individualistic. Superimposing our version of democracy on this situation is not helpful and in fact is counter productive. The only people who are suffering from our actions are the ordinary people. The Chinese are becoming major players in Fiji and they don't care about a country's internal politics, just it's resources.
In short I don't know who in Foreign Affairs is advising our politicians on Fiji, but they should be taken out and publicly flogged for incompetence. We have been throwing our weight around in the Pacific as if we know best. It may even be well intended, but our arrogance is all that shines through and leaves a bad after-taste.
22 July 2010
Back on deck after a short break in Fiji where I grew up - more on this later. We returned home to 87mm in the guage and all the dams overflowing and our creeks running. The ground is at field capacity and has been for weeks, so any more rain becomes run off. The soil moisture is such that I bogged our 4WD tractor as I was taking a big bail of hay up to the pigs. And it was on the track that I considered bog proof. Seems I need more experience of the farm in this wet state :-)
All the animals were well looked after in our absence by our lovely neighbours which enable us to get away.
To all our patient lamb customers, the wait is nearly over. Since I haven't been able to get a refrigerated transport company to go from Picton to Yass, I'll be doing it myself! I'm waiting for Darren and Megan (our butchers) to give me the nod, and then there will be lamb and mutton back on the menu.
We are running very low on beef too. We will endeavour to supply our existing orders and then we will be out until mid August. No supply issues with our Belties, only a timing issue. We weren't able to get our steers to the abattoir before we left for our break, and this means they go on Sunday. So after a 3 weeks of dry ageing, more beef will be available mid August and we should have a reasonably stead supply until New Year.
Pork? If I could supply the demand for our pork, I'd be a happy man. Unfortunately our Wessex Saddleback pork will remain in limited supply for the rest of the year.
24 June 2010
Well an eventful 24 hours with our first female prime minister taking the mantle, but I thought this quote might bring us back to earth - literally.
Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932)
This is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent on the leaves. By leaves we live. Some people have strange ideas that they live by money. They think energy is generated by the circulation of coins. Whereas the world is mainly a vast leaf colony, growing on and forming a leafy soil, not a mere mineral mass: and we live not by the jingling of our coins, but by the fullness of our harvests.
31 May 2010
Fantastic rain over the last few days, 70mm of the gentle soaking variety. It's also been warm enough for pasture growth and this should see us through until spring.
We took delivery of 500 trout on Saturday. They are in a hybrid recirculating/flow through system that uses our large dam as a biological filter. In essence the water is pumped out of the dam into a 2500 litre fingerling tank and back into the dam at a different point. The water is also oxygenated and the whole set up uses less than 120 watts to run. So in 6 months time there will be trout on the menu.
The Slow Food Australia AGM and congress was on over the weekend which has revealed the middle management is in crisis. The local convivia are strong, the international association is strong and growing, and middle management is floundering. Whilst the local and International have no doubts about their respective roles in the scheme of things, the national association has lost it's way. As much as I dislike 'the great man theory of history' and prefer the collective decision making model, in this case there is a desperate need for leadership of the national organisation. The many battles for good clean and fair food in Australia can only be won by having some form of national association due to our federal system of government. We need local, state and federal representation. Unfortunately I was unable to be at the national congress, but will see what can be done to help as the dust settles, but hopefully good people will have stepped into the breach in the meantime.
25 May 2010
Our beef supplies are in great shape. Three steers are being cut up after extended dry ageing, and the butcher is impressed. Darren is hard to impress and doesn't give compliments, the best we can usually manage is "It's all right", so when he says "it's good", you know it's special. I'll be picking up the meat on Friday so it will be available at the markets this coming Sunday.
The mutton and lamb are ready to go! It's now just a case of coordinating he abattoir, refrigerated transport and the butcher. All being well we will have delicious mutton and lamb on the menu. A word of caution about our lamb. The ram lambs are entire (have testes) and this produces a strong flavour. Those of you that are used to insipid whitish lamb meat with no flavour, I suggest you buy someone else's product. Ram lamb is more akin to full bodied goat - but different.
This weekend is the Slow Food national congress and Australian AGM. As usual I need to be in three placers at once. I have a friend arriving from Tasmania on Friday evening to help with the house renovations for a week, on Saturday night we celebrate my brothers birthday, and the congress runs all weekend. It never rains, but pours. Speaking of which we are receiving mizzle as I write, with 6mm in the gauge. Mizzle is what I heard Jackie French term that state between mist and drizzle - basically a mist that falls.
22 May 2010
Our 10 kilowatt grid interactive solar power generation system is under-way. The site has been levelled and two 6 metre shipping containers arrive in two days time. The shipping containers will have the solar panels mounted on top, and the inverters inside. Steel beams will link the two containers to provide the extra space required for the panels. The reasons for using shipping containers to house the system are; it's temporary and relocatable, our existing roofs face the wrong way, we can place the installation near the meter box and power pole, it gets the panels off the ground and offers protection from amorous or itching cows, houses the inverters and keeps them dry and secure, and offers the farm secure and dry storage as a bonus. Anyway over the next month the system will take shape and when commissioned will mean we are generating surplus green energy.
7 May 2010
Well the three steers that joined the food chain look magnificent on the hooks, with perfect fat cover for extended ageing. My butcher received all the offal this time (some times the abattoir 'forgets' to send us our offal). So sliced liver, heart kidneys and ox tails will be back on the menu soon.
I was invited to talk to the management/ steering group of the New and Emerging Industries Division of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC). As you can imagine I thought this was akin to entering the lions den or enemy territory, after all this is the organisation that is supportive of GM crops and part funded by industrial agriculture. Interesting that they are located next door to the office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
Anyway I was pleasantly surprised at the gathering of small businesses and farmers, all experiencing similar bureaucratic hurdles designed for mega corporations. Native/indigenous food growers sat beside crocodile meat farmers and olive oil producers, an eclectic mix to say the least. So where do we fit into this group? Well we do and we don't. We are not a new industry as we represent traditional small scale mixed farms of yesteryear. We aren't even an emerging industry, but a re-emerging industry which is why, with tongue in cheek, I call myself 'a born again farmer'. It will be also be interesting to see if the Slow Food movement take up the bat for traditional farms with RIRDC, and I suspect I've already stuck my hand up for the job - whatever it is. However to paraphrase Einstein, the problems face by the group will not be solved by the same level of thinking that created them, and given that the group is operating from within 'the system', I have my doubts. And so much for me keeping a low profile.
Speaking of not maintain a low profile, why is it that I can't say no to intelligent women? I'm sure there's a Darwinian explanation, but we won't go there. Rosslyn Beeby, the science and environment writer for the Canberra Times, is coming out to the farm today. Something to do with the imminent federal budget and consequent analysis/ post mortem. I'm interested in the process, but have told Rosslyn that my crystal ball tells me that there will be nothing in the budget for the small environmental responsible farmer. However being an ex farm girl I suspect that Rosslyn just wants to visit the farm to talk to the pigs :-)
4 May 2010
Three more magnificent steers joined the food chain yesterday and they will ensure our supply of beef remains uninterrupted for another few weeks.
On Sunday after the markets we went to a magnificent long table lunch hosted by friends that lasted 5 or 6 hours. Some of the regions best cooks (and a French chef ot two) did their thing with our pork and beef - there were other foods as well including; crème caramel, home made apple cider, mead which we received on our recent trip to Tassie, many magnificent wines, prawns from the south coast, a rabbit terrine, outstanding salads, and so much more. There was only 12 of us and we were all extremely well fed by the end. I ate and drank way too much and felt it the next day ................
But the thing that I liked the most was the transformation of our beef heart. It had been cubed and marinated in an Asian marinade for 12 hours (will get recipe and post here), then put on skewers and bbq'd with some chopped coriander leaves sprinkled on top - fantastic!!! So for those of you that turn your noses up at offal, you really have no idea what you're missing. We also ate the last of our bull Yogi. It was his porterhouse that had been sitting in the freezer for waaay too long and I thought it would be mediocre at best. But no, Yogi's porterhouse was sensational and made several dishes which melted in the mouth. Yogi was much honoured in the eating and his genetics live on.
More restrictions on where we can get our animals killed have happened. The Cootamundra abattoir no longer takes private kills for lambs and sheep. This means I will have to go to Picton with the lambs and mutton which adds another 2.5 hours to the round trip - not good for the animals or me. If Picton ever shuts down we are stuffed and will have to break the law and start killing on farm. Frankly this would be a better result for the animals, and because of the very small numbers involved, there will be no environmental issues and food safety/hygiene would improve!
There are butchers with mobile coolrooms that will kill and butcher on farm, but is illegal to sell this meat. Just another way the agroindustrial complex is forcing out the little guys, and platitudes notwithstanding, the mentality is still "get big or get out" as far as governments and bureaucracy is concerned too. Not to mention three layers of government all wanting their pound of flesh (pun intended) if we were to kill pigs, sheep and cattle on farm.
Speaking of killing on farm, our aquaponics and aquaculture venture is under way. The first system will be a flow through system on the house dam. Basically we will pump water from deep in the dam into tanks containing trout, and back into the dam. This simple system should raise about a thousand trout a year. Now we can't sell you the trout as fillets, but we can sell you the trout live, then because I am a nice guy I will kill and gut it for you. This way we circumvent all the regulations designed for industrial fish farms because if you buy a live fish, what you do with it after that is not any government instrumentalities business! However the down side is that you will have to visit the farm to buy very fresh fish. I plan to do the same with meat birds too, and call it an act of civil disobedience in defence of good clean and fair food if you will, but it is absolutely outrageous that a small farm wanting to process and sell 100 pasture raised free range birds a month is subject to the same regulations and fees as a factory farm that processes 100,000 a week!
19 April 2010
In spite of being determined not to do markets on long weekends, I will be going to the markets next Sunday. Elizabeth will have a much needed day off and I will be on my Pat Malone. Consequently I will bring in a limited amount of beef packs, so those we rang, please confirm you will be coming or I won't bring in your orders. Mince and sausages will be available but in lesser quantities too.
Traditionally the ANZAC day long weekend is when the region lights the fires and turns on the heaters, but it won't be happening this year I suspect due to predictions of balmy days and nights for the next week - we shall see.
Sheep work today. We'll be sorting out those we keep and those that go into the weight gain mutton program. These girls will be fed high quality hay and my "secret supplement" of seaweed, dolomite, lime, sulphur, copper sulphate and Fermaphos (basically a phosphorus/salt and molasses powder). The addition of a small amount of Fermaphos is a slight variation on Pat Colby's dry lick mix with the salt and molasses being an attractant. I don't like adding molasses to lick mixes, but this is such a small amount <0.1% of their diet and is really for the smell.
Have made a start on the aquaponics systems and took delivery of 24 IBCs on Saturday. The IBCs (1000 litre intermediate bulk containers) will become the grow beds and fish tanks for the trial system. Still fine tuning the system itself, but will start putting system number one together soon.
Still no piglets!!
14 April 2010
Yesterday an uplifting story, today a cautionary tale http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/14/2872311.htm And well may you wonder why we don't use herbicides!?!
13 April 2010
An uplifting story about an eccentric http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/04/12/2870334.htm
Yes his example is extreme, but Mark is making a point and we agree the system is broken.
The pork has come and almost gone with only a few packs left. I have no idea when there will be more either as some sows seem to be having phantom pregnancies. Beyonce was meant to have her litter by now and hasn't. The other girls are all in various stages of 'being in pig' and I await with interest the results.
Beef will be back on the menu this weekend, and we will be calling those with orders to confirm. Due to our freezer malfunction we have been on a beef free diet for over a month and I look forward to the great taste of good clean and fair beef again. With winter approaching we'll be dusting off those osso bucco recipes and other slow cooked wondrous offerings. A change of diet to flavoursome casseroles is one of the things I love about winter, the aromas fill the house all day and it is a joy to come in from the paddocks to salivation inducing aromas.
2 April 2010
According to some I have just committed suicide. I erased my facebook presence! No worse actually, not only have I died in their opinion, but eliminated all trace of my very existence. No, actually I have a life - a real one.
28 March 2010
The first batch of much awaited pork sold out yesterday, but don't panic, there will be more the weekend after Easter. If you missed out yesterday, it was merely product of two factors; where you were on the list, and how much pork we could bring in the freezers in one go. So there will be more the Sunday after Easter.
As for quality and taste of the pork? Well I received a text message late last night - seems some could wait no longer, "Pork cutlets magnificent. Puts the Giaconda Chardonnay to shame........." Showing much wine ignorance here, but I assume Giaconda Chardonnay is good? OK I just did a search and it appears that the wine is very good indeed, so now I'll have to go and buy some to see just how good it is ;-)
I'll see some of you at the markets after Easter. No, I am not having a break! I must do some renovation work around the house before divorce proceedings are instituted.
24 march 2010
We were sent the following video by a friend http://vimeo.com/8239427 and if you were wondering what Holistic Management is all about it is worth watching. About an hour of Allan Savoury showing how using livestock appropriately can reverse environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change. Big claims I know, but doable.
18 March 2010
Just a quick update on our meat supply status.
Pork. The long and much awaited pork will be available for collection on Sunday 28 March.
Beef. More steers have joined the food chain earlier than anticipated due to our freezer malfunction. These will be available on Sunday April 17. Again, my apologies to those who missed out 2 weeks ago, but this lot looks every bit as good as we are having a great autumn.
Lamb. I'm not happy with the size and condition of the lambs so are leaving them a bit longer. Basically they have been scouring due to the extended green flush we are having, so I have added dry hay to their diet to help. When they are ready the sheep ear marked for mutton will go too.
It appears we might be having an intern from McGill University with us for 6 weeks in July/August this year. McGill requires their environmental science students to do an intern-ship over their summer break, and Hannah asked if we would oblige. She is particularly interested in ecological agriculture and needs a project to report on, so we have decided to finalise planning and commission our Aquaponics trial for the farm. Hanna can help, monitor and record progress, eventually writing it all up in a report. Should be a fun learning experience for all, and my daughter Katina who is studying environmental science at Canberra Uni can contribute during her winter break.
We should be commissioning our 10 kilowatt solar grid interactive system at the same time, so Hannah will have lots to observe and take in.
BTW I commend to you the following lecture if you are in the region. Lord Martin Rees will be addressing "Challenges for the next 50 years" a public lecture at the Shine dome (Aust Academy of Science dome) Thursday 25 March 5:30pm. You will need to book by ringing Savita on 02 6201 9462 or emailing savita.khiani@science.org.au Hope to see you there.
11 March 2010
Elizabeth and I had a short 4 day break in Tasmania last weekend. We left our daughters minding the farm, used our card points to fly and car hire (complete with carbon offsets) and stayed with a good friend at Kingston Beach near Hobart. We saw much of the south travelling down to South Port and took in the Taste of the Huon. The food was great, the weather kind, the people friendly, the farming land exceptional, scenery magnificent.
We came home to 100mm in the rain gauges, the waterfall falling and the creeks running. I have to say that our farm is as green as the greenest parts of Tassie right now. The morning after our return our whippet Millie decided to take on a big rabbit (an eastern grey roo) in the house paddock and required 20 stitches to her flank. She's a lovely dog, but stupid! Roos can out run most animals but not a whippet so it stood to fight, the roo managed to grab Millie and tried to give her a disembowelling kick, which is their final defence against dogs (the other is to drown them in a dam), the roo missed the gut but caught Millie's flank. So after a trip to the vet, and $250 later, she is fine. Has she learnt anything from the misadventure? She's a whippet! I'll just have to keep her on a lead until I am sure there are no roos around.
Disaster struck just before we went away and one of the commercial freezers died and much prime Belted Galloway beef has become dog food! Just the thought of my dogs eating 6 week dry aged, grass finished, Belted Galloway eye fillet, scotch and porterhouse is probably enough to make some of our foodie friends weep! The bad news is that some of you who had orders with us will now need to wait another 6 weeks for the meat - humblest of apologies, I can assure you this was not part of the plan!
1 March 2010
The cupboards are bare! We have sold out of beef and only have a few sausages left, all the pork that is due week after next is sold, and the lamb and mutton won't be ready for at least 6 weeks. We will have nothing to sell in a few weeks time.
More beef will be joining the food chain Sunday week, but allowing for a 4 week dry ageing, it's 7 weeks away. I seriously misjudged the demand for our beef this cycle and will do better in the next few months. Sincere apologies to those of you who prefer to buy our meats. It's some consolation to know that the cattle are looking fantastic and enjoying the grass that followed the rains.
More pork will be on the menu too, but this is 6 to 8 weeks away too, and will be limited.
All in all I can safely say that demand exceeds supply and we are very close to our very own 'limits to growth'. I'll will have to explore options of supplying more people with good clean and fair food. We can't expand, so it may be a co-op model of like minded producers. Perhaps something along these lines www.foodconnect.com.au ? I'll be meeting with Robert Pekin the founder of food connect this week to explore the possibilities.
16 February 2010
This is Nirvana! All our dams are full and overflowing - I have never seen this. The water falls are still running, no erosion evident anywhere (except the driveway), the ground springs underfoot, it's "all good". A week of warm weather coming up and the pastures will grow very fast and take us through winter. In the last 2 weeks we have received 231mm of rain, most of it the gentle soaking variety. Life is beautiful again :-)
14 February 2010
It's 5:30am and it's been raining all night, beautiful soaking rains and it's still going. Another 50mm overnight and for the first time since the January 2003 bushfires (7 years) our top dams are really filling! Of course we have been drought affected for most of that time, but I suspect it was the fast growing regenerating bush that was sucking any and all ground moisture out of the system. The lack of ground moisture meant the our land has rarely reached field capacity (saturation point) in 7 years, but now it has and run off has started. The big house dams water fall has been running continuously for 36 hours and she's nearly full. Haven't seen the big dam full since 2001 - here's hoping.
Off to the farmers' markets now to see our wonderful co-producers :-)
13 February 2010
January was a very dry month for us and we ended up with 3mm in the rain gauge. My eyes involuntarily chased those storms around the horizon but they seemed to fall anywhere and everywhere but here! In comparison February is being oh-so kind. We received over 50mm of good rain last night with more promised over the weekend. This last rain has arrived on the back of an earlier storm/rain event so we have now had over 120mm so far this month :-) The storms that delivered much of the rain earlier this week also took out the power long enough for me to consider getting out the generators, but the power came back on before they were needed.
Here's an observation to confirm the importance of ground cover on soils. With the arrival of heavy rain a few days ago (30mm in 25 minutes) when our pastures are traditionally sparse, there might have been an erosion issue or two. Well there was, but not in the paddocks: parts of our driveway now resemble the Grand Canyon! Reminds me of a joke I heard years ago. Some Australian farmers are doing an agricultural tour of the US and took time out to fly over the Grand Canyon. The Aussies are amazed by the scale of things when the pilot says, "Bet you boys ain't got nothing like this back in Australia!" One of the farmers replies with genuine sympathy, "Nah mate, nowhere is our erosion this bad."
The point being our driveway which lost lots of soil and gravel has no ground cover, is not as steep as the paddocks which lost no topsoil because they had good ground cover. The drive also has culverts, wash ways and pipes under the road to divert water and minimise erosion, but still it lost a great amount of gravel. A pity there isn't a plant I know of that would grow on the drive and hold it all together. I'd much rather grow plants than spend $1,000 on a bobcat for the repairs!
12 February 2010
It's been over a month since I updated this blog, and feeling somewhat guilty - where to start?
In late January the family had a fantastic 6 day houseboat play on the Hawkesbury and loved every minute of it. We did nothing but potter around exploring, read, swim, canoe, eat drink and sleep. The farm was well cared for again by our wonderful neighbours. This is how it works on farms all over the country, you don't get a break unless someone steps in to do the work. Anyway this was probably one of the last family holidays we'll have, as my eldest has started her Environmental Science degree and youngest is in her final year of school.
We are supplying meats (beef and pork) to the Corinbank Festival Banquet. This was somewhat of an unexpected honour, and I have been asked to address the gathering on good, clean and fair food and issues. They almost weren't going to get the pork as we were thrown into crisis by the closure of yet another abattoir - one we don't use.
The Burrungong Abattoir at Young unexpectedly went into the hands of the receivers two weeks ago. Even though I felt sorry for the hundreds of workers who lost their jobs, I thought, 'no problem for us,we don't use them'. Wrong, big problem as this latest of a great many closures in the last decade and the system is severely stretched. The trouble is the abattoirs users had to be absorbed by the system, so a lot went to the abattoirs I use at Cootamundra and Picton. But abattoir capacity wasn't really an issue, but transport is.
As it stands I am getting special treatment from one of the drivers of the refrigerated vans, who delivers our meats back to my butcher in Yass. A big favour really as Yass is not on 'the run'. Anyway instead of his usual run of 15 butcher shops, he's now doing 25 and initially said he could no longer help. Mad panic set in as I rang every transport company and butchers contact and all said no they don't go to Yass or Canberra. I even tried the coastal abattoirs, but they no longer come to Canberra. I was saved at the eleventh hour by my original driver who had heard around the traps that 'this bloke was trying to get meat back to Yass and it was having a hard time'. He took pity and has offered to resume meat carting for me - I am most grateful.
The seriousness of the situation is that if no refrigerated transport was found it put our entire Wessex Saddleback pig and pork enterprise into question. I even started investigating buying a truck or mobile coolroom to do the transporting myself! It serves to illustrate just how precarious the existence of small enterprises like ours are. We operate in an environment that is 100% geared up for the 'get big or get out' mentality of industrial agriculture. This a direct threat to our (Australians) food sovereignty and right to choose.
The maremma dogs are settling in well, I only have to cure one pup of wanting to carry chickens around in his mouth. No physical harm is done, but a slobbered on traumatised chicken doesn't lay eggs! Otherwise they are delightful dogs.
Probably the best beef we have produced has been ageing for 4 weeks and will be ready next week. We have started selling some beef in Sydney via an upmarket butchery, Hudson Meats. I have always said we don't want to supply Sydney due to the food mile factor, but it turns out that when we use the Picton abattoir, the food miles are less to Sydney than to Canberra. You have to see the prices they must (and can) charge in Sydney to stay in business. However we are receiving excellent feedback about the beef from arguably Sydney's best butchers, and the owner of the stores is a former chef.
The raw milk and cheese campaign is progressing well. Talking on an entrenched bureaucracy complete with old paradigm rusted on is not my idea of fun, but someone has to do it. My submission will not be arguing with their science, even though it is demonstrably flawed, that is being done by others. I will tackle the faulty logic of the paradigm which FSANZ is stuck in - wish me luck :-)
That's probably too much for this post - more soon.
7 January 2010
Happy New Year to all. I have nothing to say really except that way back in 1974 when I was stretching my metaphysical consciousness at the tender age of 16, I really didn't expect to be alive in 2010. So every day above ground is a good day :-)
Well to start the year off with our future in our hands please read this The article perfectly encapsulates what I know to be happening. I vaguely remember reading The Limits to Growth way back in 1977 when I was at the ANU (well I didn't spend all my time trying to impress women and drinking too much), so I have probably plagiarised all Dennis's ideas over the years and not realised it. Anyway if you really want to know what the future holds, read the transcript of his address, and I believe it should be required reading at every secondary school in years 11/12.
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