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Category: Farming And Produce

Published on Leave a comment on The Pumpkin Effect: What It Does To Your Hands If The Dew Dries On Them

I had this happen recently when after cutting half a Pumpkin in segments to store in my Fridge. The moisture from the Pumpkin dried quickly on my hand and my skin went noticeably Very Dry. I went to wash my hands and the water did not make any difference. Then I moisturized my hands and that didn't make much difference either. To my astonishment, the moisture from the Pumpkin - over the 6-10 minutes I was firmly gripping it to cut it, had what I felt was an acid affect. Then I found the following Article on the Net that evening, when I checked the notion I had and found it was true. It gave me enough Validation to say "I think I will place this on Ours Australia, to let my Readers know about it" so here we go!

Why Butternut Squash Hurts Your Hands
By Backyard Gardening Blog

Many a gardener will grow butternut squash, and eagerly watch the fruits develop, counting the days, hoping they’re not ruined by an early frost. Then harvest time, and the gardener can’t wait. They take the squash inside and immediately start cutting it up, about 5 minutes later they’re aghast and trying to figure out why their hands are red and peeling and constricted.…

Published on Leave a comment on Bartering Successfully Brings Ancient Grain Seeds To Riverina Farm Beralla NSW

ABC Rural / By Cara Jeffery and David Claughton 2021

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS ARTICLE FROM THE ABC 2 YRS AGO PRESERVED HERE ON OURS AUSTRALIA BECAUSE I DISCOVERED THIS COUPLE'S STORY ON THEIR WEBSITE A YEAR AGO AND BELIEVE IN WHAT THEY ARE DOING - GROWING THE ANCIENT GRAINS SPELT and KHORASAN, THAT ARE MUCH HEALTHIER THAN MODERN WHEAT, AND TASTY TOO. VERY NUTRITIOUS.

Riverina organic grain-grower Bettina Walker has gone back in time to secure the future of an ancient grain variety.

The southern New South Wales grower bartered her rye grain for some hard-to-come-by Khorasan wheat seed to grow on her farm at Barellan in Southern NSW.

Ancient grains are a rarity on Riverina farms, where modern varieties of wheat, canola and barley dominate paddocks.

This season Mrs Walker and her husband, Robert, were growing two ancient grain varieties — Khorasan wheat and spelt — alongside a mix of traditional rye, oats and modern wheat.

A different-looking grain
But it was the addition of Khorasan wheat that was a standout.

Bettina Walker showing her Flour Mill at Beralla in NSW

"We've always liked heritage grains, and it's very hard to get them," Mrs Walker said.…

Published on Leave a comment on Nature Knows Best: Practicing Agrobiodiversity For More Plant Varieties Which Restores The Ecosytem

Modern Agriculture has done us no favors, with it's unnatural methods of Farming.
And bombardment of Chemicals - from NPK Fertilisers to Weedicides and Pesticides, which only become necessary when the Laws of Nature have been violated. Modern Agriculture works against Nature instead of with it. Big Monocrops are bad for the Soil and disruptive to our Ecosystem. believe it or not

This is not Old School Methods which rely on Crop Rotation, preserving Goodness in the Soil by planting different Crops alternately that complement each-other; allowing Crops to be plowed into the Soil after harvest, which
Enriches the Soil with Vital Nutrients instead of stripping it of it's own Nutrition.

YOU WILL DISCOVER IN THIS POST, IN TIMES GONE BY, THERE WAS A VAST ARRAY OF EDIBLE PLANTS
(much more variety) growing than we have available today. the absence of them has really restricted our food choices and also affected the Ecosystem.

Excerpts from 50 Foods For Healthier People And A Healthier Planet

Globally we rely on a small range of foods. This negatively impacts our health and the health of the planet. Seventy-five percent of the global food supply comes from only 12 plant and five animal species.…

Published on Leave a comment on Australian Lychee Season Extends Further Into Summer Due To Unseasonal Weather

ABC Rural / By Megan Hughes and Katrina Beavan 28 Jan 2023

Consumers can expect to see more lychees on supermarket shelves for longer this year as cooler and wetter conditions result in a later harvest than usual.

And despite a bumper crop being picked, prices have stayed steady, meaning the delay is also good news for growers such as Lush Lychees in central Queensland.

Lychee Berries Growing In Queensland Now!

Owners Krystal and Paul Caton have processed more than 120 tonnes of fruit since December at their 5,000 tree orchard, 30 kilometres north-west of Rockhampton.

"This year we've had the greatest season that we could have asked for in the last seven years of owning our orchard," Ms Caton said.

"This really expands our market having a number of varieties that have all produced really well this year."

About 280km south, near Bundaberg, Australian Lychees Association president Derek Foley's orchard had produced a record crop.

"[The crop is] 40 per cent up on what I've ever done before," he said.

Mr Foley said the volume of fruit was up on last year across the industry but prices had stayed steady despite the increased supply.…

Published on Leave a comment on 8 Health Dangers of Canola Oil: Not the Healthy Oil We’ve Been Led to Believe

By Carly Fraser - Health Advocate and Researcher

Canola oil has practically taken over as the food processing industry’s oil of choice. Whether it’s mayonnaise, chips, or salad dressings, canola oil is usually the first, second, or third ingredient on the list. However, the health dangers of Canola oil are far beyond what we’ve been led to believe.

CANOLA: Update Your Knowledge And See If What You Have Been Told Is True!

So if there aren’t any actual health reasons to use it, why would it be so widely used throughout the food industry? As with most reasons certain ingredients are used over others – the price. Canola oil is extremely inexpensive to grow and harvest. It is also very easy to grow, due to its genetic modifications.

Canola oil was first promoted in the early 1970s as natural oil. And in 1995, Monsanto created a Genetically Modified version of Canola. By 2009, over 90 percent of the Canadian Canola Oil Crop was Genetically Engineered!

What is Canola Oil?

Canola oil comes from a descendant of the rapeseed plant, a member of the Brassica genus, along with some of our favorite vegetables like kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.…

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.…

Published on

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.…

Published on

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.…

Published on

ABC Rural /  By Keely Johnson

No-one was around to pick the hundreds of thousands of strawberries on Anthony Sarks's pick-your-own farm, but instead of wasting the fruit he decided to make 25,000 jars of jam.

Peak Harvest Time Is In August And September

Normally, the operation at Blackmans Point on the Mid North Coast would be filled with tourists picking strawberries by the bucket, but the statewide lockdown meant not even locals could pay a visit.

"The Sydney lockdown started the eve of the school holidays in July, which knocked us," he said.

"Then the regional lockdown started on the eve of our big strawberry flush, which is in August/September.

"That's normally when we get a big bunch of tourists and visitors to pick the strawberries."

'Let's take a punt'

But this year that didn't happen and the 140,000 strawberry plants on Mr Sarks's farm were left bulging with fruit that could not be picked.

"If we didn't do something it'd be down in the back paddock," he said.

"As a farmer who puts a lot of time and effort into growing it, it'd break your heart to have to dump it.

"I know there are other strawberry growers that have had to do that because of lockdown."…

Published on Leave a comment on Returning To REAL FOODS From Our Creator And Nature – They’re Good For Us!

By Janet Vargas - Independent Natural Health Researcher 30+ Years

YES, THEY PROMOTE OUR HEALTH RATHER THAN DEMOTE IT. FOOD MANUFACTURERS HAVE THOUGHT OF ONE CLEVER DEMISE AFTER THE OTHER, PROMOTING SYNTHETIC AND PSUEDO FOODS WE ARE NOT MEANT TO INGEST - INFLUENCING GOVERNMENT HEALTH DEPARTMENTS AND ALL, MAKING THEIR ARGUMENTS SOUND LEGIT, MAKING THE PUBLIC SICK. AND BIG PHARMA WITH THEIR MEDICAL AGENTS HAVE BEEN ONLY TOO HAPPY TO RAKE IN THE PROFITS. BUT AN AWAKENING IS STIRRING THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DISCOVERING THE BENEFITS OF REAL FOODS: YES OLD THINGS BECOME NEW. THIS IS INSTIGATED BY PROFESSIONAL NATURAL HEALTH ADVOCATES AND MANY HEALTH SCIENTISTS ALIKE WHO ARE NOW SIDING WITH NATURE, PROMOTING IT'S MERITS AND IT'S WAYS.

I Will Show You Some Real Health Promoting Foods That Are So Beneficial For Our Health That Have Been Drastically Altered Or Replaced (they now clash with our natural body chemistry) In Western Countries Like Australia, And A Few Really Beneficial Foods that are Very Nutritious for our Families!

Through the years in Australia – and Western Countries – we have been buying foods that are so different to food staples our Great Grandparents had and our Great Greats.…