On air on bayfm 99.9 on May 23, 2011
There’s a cliche at the moment that at home or in restaurants its good to know all about our food “from paddock to plate” – we’re spending a lot of time in the paddock today on belly. I’m playing some talks recorded at the Northern Rivers Sustainable agriculture forum 2 weeks ago. Jane Laverty from N R food links joined me in the studio to talk about how the events were received (very well!). My favourite speaker was gorgeous Stuart Larssen, who looks and sounds like a farmer from central casting, has a dry Aussie wit, but has been a thinker and innovator on his large farm for 20 years. Another very interesting speaker was Greg Reed, from the department of Primary Industries, who is running a project to improve farm planning so local farms are as sustainable as possible with the advent of climate change. And we found out, thanks to POAMA, a predictive tool that Greg highly recommends (and I hope you can understand, because I don’t, but you can find it here), that we will be swinging into a El Nino weather system by springtime, so it will be very dry soon.
For more information on the talks, see http://www.northernriversfoodlinks.com.au/sustainable-agriculture-projects/
For lots of information on local food, go to http://www.sustainfood.com.au/
BELLY BULLETIN
Oh yes, make mine a double espresso.
More is better when it comes to drinking coffee to ward off the risk of deadly prostate cancer, according to a major US study just released by researchers at Harvard. Men who drink six or more cups per day have a 60 percent lower risk of developing the most lethal type of prostate cancer and a 20 percent lower risk of any type of prostate cancer compared to men who don’t drink coffee.
Even just one to three cups per day was linked to a 30 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer. “Our study is the largest to date to examine whether coffee could lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer,” said Harvard associate professor Lorelei Mucci.
The effects were the same whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated, so researchers believe the lower risk could be linked to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of coffee. A study last year also found that drinking coffee may protect against mouth and throat cancers. If you are a tea drinker, sorry, no such link was discovered.
The whole of Casino is in a beefy buzz, it’s Beef Week. The beef queen was elected last Saturday, there’s beefy fun all week, including a farmers market on Thursday, a free bbq breakfast with the butchers, cow pat lotto and milking competition on Friday, a parade, a mr beef week comp, bush poets, the lot. See www.casinobeefweek.com.au
And if you’d like to see this region on one of the most popular TV programs in Australia, tune in to Masterchef this Thursday. The contestants will visit Season restaurant in Kingscliff, where the chef is cooking with some lovely local produce. Hopefully they will show our area for more than a few seconds.
Bangalow pork belly braised in tamarind and rock sugar, crispy skinned Cudgen reef snapper fillet and coconut pannacotta is the meal they will enjoy…mmm
If you’d like to try one of chef Reuben Radonich’s dishes, clicking here will take you to a Bangalow pork recipe. He’s a local boy (actually born in Byron Bay, unbelievable), so he should know how to deal with the most famous local food product.
Also coming up, cooking demonstrations at the Byron Bay farmers market on Thursday June 2.