Musings about our farm, organic farming, regional foods and markets.

Plus, what's in the news about foods, systems and regulations around the world.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A Local Organic Food Framework

Our Western diet is leaving us open to various escalating assaults on our health. To mitigate the effects, a renewed focus on the essential nature and nutrition of food is vital.   

Please feel free to reproduce and distribute widely, referencing the author and providing a link to this page.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Seville Orange Marmalade



This year, Gundi - with some help from me - has been cooking up a fresh batch of four different types of Seville orange marmalade: regular orange and lemon, orange and lemon with organic sugar, whisky orange and lemon, and, new, ginger orange and lemon. All are tangy and thick-cut, just the way we like it!

Kellie at www.kelliesfoodtoglow.com reports that "In common with other oranges, Seville oranges are great sources of Vitamin C and fibre, but also have useful amounts of some B vitamins, beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, lutein (for eyes), potassium and tumour-preventing beta-sitosterol, hersperetin and naringenin. The high amount of pectin found in Seville oranges is not only great for achieving ‘set’ with marmalade (you should never have to add commercial pectin) but it also binds to some carcinogens that are produced in the gut and carries them out of the body." Good news, indeed.

Armed with this marmalade (currently suffusing the house with its citrusy aroma), grass-fed beef and dried herbs, spices and teas, we will be at Evergreen Brickworks farmers market next Saturday, February 15, then weekly from March 8 on. Hard to believe that a month from now, it is traditionally time to turn over the thawing soil in the greenhouses and plant the first of the spring greens. I think we may be still skating on thin ice by then and putting off the growing season for a week or two. We’ll just have to see what Nature has in store for us next…