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ABC Rural / By Kim Honan

As a forager for more than 40 years, wild food researcher Peter Hardwick is no stranger to finding all sorts of uncultivated native foods in the bush.

Discovery Of Australian Native Raspberry

But it was his discovery of a thornless native raspberry seedling next to a car park five years ago, on Bundjalung Country in north-east NSW, that has the potential to be a game changer for the native food industry. 

“I grabbed a couple of suckers and took them home and one or two struck, and from that I’ve managed to propagate it, and I’ve grown it on and seen how it performs and here we are with a very nice specimen," he said.

"It's quite productive; it's juicy and it’s tasty. Having no thorns makes it approachable."

While native raspberries are a popular indigenous fruit, they have thorny stems and producers find them challenging to harvest.

"Usually these plants are very, very thorny ... They're recurved, and you’re lucky to get out of wild harvesting raspberries without a scratch," he said.

"So, to find a thornless one is fantastic because it means we can put this into backyards, schools, council parks and that sort of thing."…

Published on Leave a comment on Is Your Smartphone Making You Feel Sick? Be Careful With Babies And Toddlers Exposure Especially!

All You Need To Know About Smartphone Sickness - Yes, It’s A Thing.

“Q: Do I have a smart phone?
A: No, it has me!”

That pretty much sums up the current scenario, doesn't it?

So it’s no surprise if suddenly scrolling through your cell phone makes you feel sick in the stomach. Don’t blame the rich chocolate cake you just ‘liked’ on your newsfeed, because the technology-generated mayhem can make you feel woozy. Maybe a dull headache, dizziness or creeping nausea - these are just some of the peculiar side-effects of spending too much time on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever the  kids are addicted to these days.

Is Your Smartphone Making You Sick?

Cell phones emit radio frequency energy (radio waves), a form of electromagnetic non-ionizing radiation, which is absorbed by the tissues closest to them. The dose of the absorbed energy is expressed as specific absorption rate (SAR), in watts per kilogram of body weight.

Exposure to ionizing radiation (like in X-rays), increases the risk of cancer. But so far, the only consistently recognized biological effect of radio-frequency energy is heating, which is what we utilize in microwave ovens.

Can Your Smartphone Cause Cancer?

Several studies with conflicting results (depending on who has funded them) notwithstanding, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an organ of the WHO, classified cell phone use as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.…

Published on Leave a comment on A Grass Native To Africa Could Transform The Continent Dairy Yields. Here’s How

The cows kept by small-scale farmers in Africa are notoriously unproductive. The average dairy cow, for example, produces about 540 litres of milk per lactation. By contrast, dairy cows in North America that belong to commercial or intensive farmers can produce up to 10,479 litres of milk per lactation.

Grass-Fed Is Always Better Than Grain-Fed
Brachiaria Is The Best For Dairy Farms

One of the main differences between the two animals lies in the quality of their feeds and forage. Simply put, the more nutritious cows’ diets are, the more and better quality milk they produce. And small-scale farms – of which there are about 33 million in Africa, contributing up to 70% of the continent’s food supply – usually cannot afford more nutritious feed.

Brachiaria – the genus name of Urochloa – consists of about 100 documented species of grass of which seven species used as fodder plants are of African origin. This grass may hold the key to improving milk yields from cows kept by small-scale farmers. Why is this an important goal?

First, it will help to meet rising demand for animal-sourced foods – like cow milk – as the continent becomes more urbanised and its population grows.…

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There's never been a better time to be a Con Artist.

Frank Abagnale, the subject of the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” is a former teenage Con Artist turned respected security consultant. He says “We give away way too much information and then we wonder why people steal our identities.”

Modern technology makes it easier than ever for criminals to create successful scams while hiding their identity from law enforcement. You could be targeted by a fraudster half a world away, sitting in their pajamas, drinking coffee in the kitchen while on their laptop.

The global cost of cybercrime is almost $600 billion a year, according to a 2018 report from McAfee. And that staggering figure does not include the billions lost to scams and rip-offs that are not internet-related.

So, how do the fraudsters do it? How do they manipulate us into giving them huge amounts of money and our most sensitive personal information?

“They’re very good at convincing you that they are who they say they are and convincing you to do things that you probably normally wouldn’t do,” said Frank Abagnale, a former con artist turned respected security consultant.…

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SOMETIMES THERE IS A LITTLE UNCERTAINTY HOW TO KEEP FRUIT WELL SO IT STAYS FRESH ENOUGH DAYS BEFORE WE GO SHOPPING AGAIN. LOTS OF PEOPLE SIMPLY USE A FRUIT BOWL, PLACING ALL THE FRUIT IN THERE, HOWEVER, IT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED THAT ISN’T SUCH A GOOD IDEA. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW WHY? AND ALSO THE BEST WAY TO KEEP ALL YOUR FRUITS – WHAT CONDITIONS THEY PREFER TO BE KEPT IN? THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR THE TASTE FACTOR TOO. LET’S GO!

Why Your Fruit Bowl May Not Be Keeping Your Fruit Fresh

ABC Everyday / By Patrick Wright

If you keep all your fruit in a bowl or on the kitchen table, you're not alone.

What you might not know is the humble fruit bowl is unlikely to be the best way to store a variety of different fruits.

"Keeping all your fruit in one bowl isn't the best way to keep fruit fresh," says Thanh Truong, a fruiterer and cook based in Melbourne.

Different fruits, he says, have "competing interests".

Some fruits, like apples, are best kept cool in the fridge.

Others, like bananas, need warmer temperatures to ripen and are best stored at room temperature.

But when you keep different fruits together there can be problems, and potentially food waste.…

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ABC Everyday / By Zoe Kean

Longer, warmer days are causing plants all over Australia to spring into new growth. But with this welcome growth comes every gardener's nemesis — weeds.

Amanda Sigler, 38, grew their "first ever garden" last summer and has been gaining new skills to keep weeds at bay.

Here are their tips, along with advice from a horticulturalist. 

Prevention is key and cardboard can help

The strongest advice Amanda has for new gardeners is to stop the problem before it starts through weed-wise planning.

"Lay a good foundation," they say.

When Amanda moved into a rental in Moonah, a Hobart suburb, they were faced with an expanse of lawn. After getting the go-ahead from their landlord, they decided to replace the lawn with veggie beds.

They dug up their lawn then lay flattened cardboard over the dirt to stop the grass regrowing. They topped it all off with fresh, premium, weed-free soil.

This strategy gave their new veggies the best chance of growing without competition.

Louise Sales, horticulturalist at the Botanical Institute, a garden run by the Museum of Old and New Art's (MONA) 24 Carrot Garden Program, endorses this method. 

"If you've got lots of weeds [laying cardboard down] is a really good way of suppressing them," she says.…

Published on Leave a comment on Ben Struggled With Lockdown Loneliness. When Two Lorikeets Started Visiting, Their Friendship Went Viral. ABC

Rainbow lorikeets visiting his window have helped Ben Newmarch through a tough and lonely time.

When two lorikeets started visiting, their friendship went viral. The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral. "It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

Ben The Sydneysider Finds Cheer With His Lorikeets

The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral.

"It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

"Then this happened."

In the video, Ben showed an unexpected friendship he made in 2021: two rainbow lorikeets, he called Peter and Jane, who have been rocking up to his window pretty much every day.

It's racked up almost 6 million views, and now Ben's adventures with Peter and Jane - feeding out of his palm, hanging out with him while he's wearing a dressing gown in the kitchen - has a dedicated following of more than 60,000 strangers on the internet.

It all started in summer, Ben told Hack, when he was about to leave the house one day.…

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HAVE YOU SEEN THESE PRODUCTS ON THE INTERNET? THEY'RE SOLD BY SO MANY STORES ON EBAY AND AMAZON. DO THEY WORK? DO THEY LIVE UP TO THEIR PROMISES? SOME PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHILE MANY RUSH IN TO TRY THEM. "NOT SO QUICK" IS MY ADVICE TO YOU. HERE'S WHY:

Ionic Foot Detox Baths - Are The Results Real?

The Ionic Foot Detox: Fact Or Myth?  

By Pacific College Of Health And Science

You may not recognize the name, but you probably have seen the infomercials about foot patches or foot baths that pull all the toxins out of your body through your feet, leaving you with a patch or bath full of brown liquid (aka the toxins). But is it all just a scam? Or is there actual scientific proof to support these claims?

Ionic therapy is loosely linked to the work of Royal Raymond Rife, an American inventor considered to have discovered bioelectric medicine. His theory said that viruses will be destroyed if they are introduced to the right balance of resonating frequency, similar to a glass being destroyed by the high pitch of a soprano. Fast forward to the 21st century, and Dr.…

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By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

DID YOU KNOW THAT 75% OF FOOD WORLDWIDE IS LIMITED TO 12 PLANT CROPS (and 5 animal foods) AND THAT WESTERN COUNTRIES......... MORE INTERESTING FACTS IN THIS POST, PLUS WHICH FRUITS AND VEGGIES THE AFORE MENTIONED ARE AND SOME INSIGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ENCOURAGING BIODIVERSITY HERE IN AUSTRALIA. ON A LIGHTER NOTE, I WILL ALSO MENTION SOME IMPROVEMENTS WE'VE HAD IN OUR FOOD CULTURE IN RECENT DECADES AND RECENT TIMES, TO WHAT WE HAD YEARS AGO. I HOPE YOU READ THIS POST.

According to TheFutureMarket.Com  we only grow a small percentage of Plant Food Crops in Western Countries that does not allow for much Food Diversity in our Diet or our Health. As mentioned, they state that 75% of the World’s Food comes from 12 Plants (and 5 Animals).

In this order, the highest turnover of Plant Foods produced are 1. Sugar, 2. Corn, 3. Rice, 4. Wheat, 5. Potatoes,  6. Soya Beans, 7. Cassava, 8.Tomatoes, 9. Bananas, 10. Onions, 11. Apples and 12. Grapes. We eat only 150 out of 30,000 edible plant species (worldwide). For example, the USA has lost 90% of it’s Fruit and Veg varieties since 1900.…

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By Heather McKern From Diggers Garden Club Magazine Late Spring Edition 2020. Heather encourages us to increase our intake of dietary plant foods.

The old saying "variety is the spice of life" may be truer than ever. Studies into health are showing that eating at least 30 different plant foods a week  is critical to gut health and considered key to a healthy diet.

Eating a  broad variety of different plants not only increases the amount of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants we consume. That supports our immune system and lowers our risk of diseases like certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes and mental health issues.

There are six different categories of plant foods that are counted towards our weekly total, and excluding any specific Dietary restrictions we want to include a variety from each group. They are fruit, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and legumes.

To get the most benefit. We want our plants to be as close to their original state as possible. And to be mindful of what we or others do to prepare them before they are eaten. There is little benefit if you are having a large variety of greens in salads everyday but smothering those greens in oil.…