It’s time to buy ugly food dear bellysisters!\u00a0 Or discover local markets and independent shops.<\/p>\n
We’ve all heard that the Queensland floods\u00a0 will affect food prices.\u00a0 At the height of the floods, when the Brisbane central market was closed because it was underwater, a friend of mine witnessed\u00a0 ‘supermarket rage’ as some shoppers didn’t understand why prices had gone up and were abusing staff.
\nHowever, the Fairfax papers report that\u00a0 “much of the produce from Queensland had already been picked and packed when the floods hit and the season there was drawing to its end. Fruit markets [are] more dependent on produce from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania at this time of year. ..The price rises will be due to wet weather down south rather than what is happening up north…Vegetables such as beans, broccoli, and celery might rise in price because of heavy rains in Victoria”
\nSome Queensland crops such as watermelons and tomatoes have been destroyed, leading to large price rises in produce from other parts of Australia,\u00a0 but\u00a0 ”It’s the long-term story from Queensland that’s the issue. The early autumn crops need to be put in the ground now.”\u00a0 Queensland traditionally supplies most of our autumn and winter fruit and veg.\u00a0 The floods have also removed topsoil in some areas, decreasing productivity.\u00a0 So expect price rises right now and for a while to come.\u00a0 In a front page update today, the smherald reports increases in watermelons,sweet potatoes,broccoli, zucchini,bananas, capsicum, tomatoes, mangoes and lettuces.\u00a0 Forecast shortages include lettuces, potatoes,chillies, corn and cabbage.\u00a0 So if you have a veggy patch, or room for a few pots, it may be a good year to grow a few of those things yourself.\u00a0 Lettuces, chillies, sweet potatoes and tomatoes are all very easy to grow at home in our climate, even if you don’t have much space.\u00a0\u00a0 At times local produce is more expensive than food trucked in from other parts of Australia, and this year the bad weather has caused shortages and price rises here too.\u00a0 But mostly market growers, and shops that stock a lot of local items, keep the prices of local produce pretty steady.\u00a0\u00a0 So it may be a good idea to support them year round.<\/p>\n
If you do shop at supermarkets, buy ugly fruit and veg!\u00a0 Coles has started stocking blemished fruit, and Woolworths is considering it too, but is afraid of customer reactions.\u00a0 So tell them to bring it on!\u00a0 The alternative to ugly Australian fruit and veg this year is perfect looking imported produce, which the big chains are considering in order to keep those overflowing bins full.<\/p>\n
A DELICIOUS LISTENER – BRIGITTE HENDRIX<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Brigitte now lives in Mullumbimby, but grew up in Victoria, the daughter of a Dutch mother and German pastry maker father, who used to let her help out at the factory on weekends and go delivering pastries with him to a network of traditional German and European restaurants.\u00a0 She got bored with Melbourne as a young woman and went off to Asia and Europe.\u00a0 She spent quite a lot of her travelling years eating and cooking, including a stint as the on board cook on a beautiful old wooden tugboat.\u00a0 The owners wandered the shores of the Mediterranean, especially Corsica and the South of France, and she remembers fondly the smells of the boat and discovering many wonderful food markets.\u00a0 She believes most people love having simple food cooked for them, where you can still taste the original ingredients. Brigitte developed this recipe<\/strong> to share on belly, because, as we’ve been saying, there is a lot of fruit around that either doesn’t look great or goes off quickly.<\/p>\n NOT SO FRESH BUT SUPER TASTY FRUIT JELLY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Take any stone fruit, e.g.; cherries, peaches,\u00a0 nectarines, lychees.\u00a0 And\/or other Roughly chunky chop everything (minus seeds) and place in\u00a0 a heavy Add one star anise ,cinnamon quill,anything else you like. *I’ve always had a problem with using gelatine and have now found A FEW FAVOURITE THINGS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n My favourite cookbook is Good Housekeeping (Step by step cookbook). My favourite food is kangaroo meat which is a beautiful lean healthy Brigitte<\/p>\n THE BELLY BULLETIN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Fairfax papers have launched an investigation into rorts and fraud by the buyers for Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, which control 70% of the grocery market. Another pest to watch out for is ‘Myrtle rust’.\u00a0 According to the NSW department of Primary Industries Myrtle Rust\u00a0 is a newly described fungus.\u00a0 It affects a lot of locally grown plants and has recently been spotted in wholesale nurseries in Byron Bay and Alstonville according to the ABC, also from the NSW Central Coast to Queensland.\u00a0 It affects, among others, a lot of lovely native food plants, like lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, native guava, rose apple and riberry, so the public is asked to inspect and report any infestation, as it may also spread into the bush. Still on plants, if your chilli bushes, like mine, are either refusing to fruit, or the chillies are going from ripe to rotten in record time, spare a thought for the chilli addicts of Indonesia.\u00a0 Chili prices have multiplied fivefold in Indonesia over the past year to around Rp 100,000 ($11) a kilogram, making it more expensive than beef.\u00a0 Many people there cannot give up a chilli sambal and are cutting back on other food instead.\u00a0 Chilli production has fallen because of excessive rains and the volcanic eruptions of Mount Merapi.\u00a0 As a short-term solution to the chilli prices, Agriculture Minister Suswono said he was preparing a national campaign to encourage people to plant chilies. He said free seeds would be distributed to 100,000 households.\u00a0 The government is also\u00a0 moving to introduce new regulation making it easier to secure land for agriculture.\u00a0 One comment to the story, from “Mamaku” complained of the large “amount of farm lands changing into real estates, malls or state highways.”\u00a0 Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
\nAt the same time, she loves playing with food a’ la Heston Blumenthal, fun and theatre and lots of kitchen gadgets.\u00a0 We had a little rave about gorgeous local natives, the finger limes, which are a molecular gastronomy experiment by mother nature.\u00a0 She has lots of creative ideas from her travels and would love to get together with others locally to set up a different kind of space or catering company.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/100g_fruit_jelly_cup_assorted.jpg\" "\\"100g_fruit_jelly_cup_assorted\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nfruits you might have such as\u00a0 pineapple, apples, grapes, anything that
\nis wrinkly or not so tasty or just needs to be used\u00a0 rather than thrown out.
\nMore or less a kilo of fruit.<\/p>\n
\npot.<\/p>\n
\nAdd one cup juice {whatever you have} I like cherry.
\nAdd half a cup brown sugar. Stir .
\nBring to boil; spoon out half cup of juice and place in cup with\u00a0 *2
\nsheets of gelatine till syrupy.
\nThen place back in pot and STIR .
\nI also like to add a dessert spoon of ghee this makes it glossy and
\ncreamy. STIR till a lovely glossy rich thick consistency.
\nPour into serving dish, allow to cool, place in fridge.
\nServe when cold and firm.<\/p>\n
\nthe one my mum uses (Rheingold schnell-losliche), so far it works
\nbeautifully for me.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI got this book in 1993 and it has absolutely every recipe known in the
\nWest. It’s so easy and everything works.\u00a0 It has taught me the basic ground
\nrules and from that I’m able to experiment and elaborate.<\/p>\n
\nclean meat; hazelnut ice-cream dreamy.\u00a0 Healthy, top quality chocolate, nothing
\nmore necessary; coffee yoghurt; great cleanser, and Italian cheese cake, decadent\u00a0 and rare to find a good one\u00a0 . My mouth’s watering.\u00a0 And my favourite drink is Coopers vintage stout (no longer available).\u00a0 Real milk (Dutch) and iced fresh mint mineral water with finger limes and Stevia.<\/p>\n
\nBill Harvey, Woolworths’ national buyer for coffee, tea and sugar, was detained by police on Friday.\u00a0 Food wholesalers pay so called ”promotional surcharges” of between 15 and 20 per cent to have their products stocked by Woolworths.
\nA big pot of money, which leads to temptations. It is alleged that Mr Harvey, who has a salary of about $150,000 a year, took a percentage of the promotional fees from coffee and tea suppliers who wanted to get their products on to Woolworths shelves.\u00a0 In cash.\u00a0 Possibly in little brown envelopes.
\nIn similar cases, in October last year Woolworths dismissed three buyers from its fresh produce department after a tip-off that it was paying up to $20 per box too much for parsnips. Of all things.\u00a0 And in 2006 Coles sacked an executive for a secret deal over lamb supplies.\u00a0 The supermarkets and the sacked execs in these 2 cases deny allegations of criminal intent.\u00a0 According to the blog www.insideretailing.com.au<\/a>, Woolworths also had to bring criminal charges over 2 meat buyers a few years ago.
\nMore tipoffs are welcome, to mhawthorne@theage.com.au<\/p>\n
\nMyrtle Rust is distinctive, as it produces masses of powdery bright yellow or orange-yellow spores on infected plant parts. It causes lesions on young actively growing leaves, shoots, flower buds and fruits. Leaves may become buckled or twisted or die.\u00a0 Infection on highly susceptible plants may result in plant death.\u00a0 More info, photos and how to deal with suspect plants, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n