{"id":3132,"date":"2013-02-18T09:23:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T23:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=3132"},"modified":"2013-04-01T21:58:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T11:58:21","slug":"local-tasty-happy-with-helenasharonlilith-asher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=3132","title":{"rendered":"Local, Tasty & Happy with Helena,Sharon,Lilith & Asher"},"content":{"rendered":"

On air on Byron Bay’s Bayfm 99.9 community radio on February 18, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today on belly, we\u00a0 talked with author,filmmaker & activist Helena Norberg-Hodge, who is helping to bring many interesting people to Byron Bay for the Economics of Happiness Conference in March.\u00a0 We\u00a0 focused on what is happening with food around the world to help us all live happier, more bountiful & sustainable lives. And we spoke with Sharon Gibson, a food gardening teacher who is helping us all to do just that as locally as possible, in our own gardens, from her Mullumbimby garden.\u00a0 After 1, news,markets, the fabulous Lilith with astrotipples & astronibbles for Pisces, and Deanna brought us a very young baking bellysister, Asher Lee, who turned 9 yesterday, with his dad Ken.\u00a0 Hopefully your place will be less muddy next weekend Asher, and you will have a great birthday party.\u00a0 Asher would like his school to do more cooking, especially baking, not just bring in the odd banana.\u00a0 Hear hear say the bellysisters.\u00a0 Check out his cakes below.<\/p>\n

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LINKS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


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http:\/\/www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org\/learn-more<\/a><\/p>\n


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http:\/\/www.byroncollege.org.au\/sustainability\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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RECIPE – SHARON GIBSON’S FRESH POLENTA WITH EGGPLANT SAUCE
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This recipe is a good example of adapting a recipe to make it local and sustainable.\u00a0 The polenta available in stores is a dry corn meal. Corn is generally grown in a monoculture with large inputs of fertilisers,water and oil. In fact my small packet of polenta from the store will have travelled thousands of miles to get to my door.\u00a0 So I decided to try making polenta with my own home grown corn.\u00a0 After a bit of trial and error here it is and it tastes great!\u00a0 Replacing a packet of polenta with 6 cobs of fresh corn has cut out food miles, packaging and waste of resources for this meal with very little effort.<\/p>\n

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EGGPLANT SAUCE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2\/3\u2028cup<\/p>\n

local olive oil<\/p>\n

1\u2028medium eggplant, diced<\/p>\n

2\u2028teaspoons<\/p>\n

tomato paste<\/p>\n

1\u2028cup chopped local tomatoes<\/p>\n

1 handful of local olives<\/p>\n

6 tablespoons water<\/p>\n

1\/4\u2028teaspoon Australian salt<\/p>\n

1\u2028tablespoon chopped oregano<\/p>\n

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1. Heat up the oil in a large saucepan and fry the eggplant on medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until nicely brown. Drain off as much oil as you can using a slotted spoon( You can save the oil for cooking tomorrow).<\/p>\n

2. Add the tomato paste to the pan and stir with the eggplant. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, water, salt, and oregano and cook for a further 5 minutes to get a deep flavoured sauce. Set aside.<\/p>\n

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POLENTA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

600gms corn (about 6\u2028 cobs)<\/p>\n

approx. 2 \u2028cups water<\/p>\n

3 \u2028tablespoons butter<\/p>\n

200gm local feta, crumbled<\/p>\n

1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

Black pepper<\/p>\n

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1. Remove the leaves and “silk” from each cob of corn. Use a sharp knife to cut the corn from the cob.<\/p>\n

2. Place the kernels in a medium saucepan and cover them with the water. Cook for 12 minutes on a low simmer. Use a slotted spoon to lift the kernels from the water and into a food processor; reserve the cooking liquid.<\/p>\n

3. Blend the corn well adding a little of the cooking water if needed to keep it processing.<\/p>\n

4. Now return the corn paste to the pan with half the cooking liquid and cook, while stirring continuously, on low heat for 15 to 25 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to mashed potato consistency. Add more cooking water if needed.<\/p>\n

5. Fold in the butter, the feta, salt and some pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed.<\/p>\n

6. Pour onto a plate and spread about 5cm thick.<\/p>\n

Serve hot or cold with eggplant sauce mounded on top of polenta.<\/p>\n

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Sharon Gibson runs courses through Byron College’s sustainability program including:<\/p>\n

* Accredited Permaculture Training,<\/p>\n

* growing and cooking with perennial vegetables,<\/p>\n

* keeping chooks,<\/p>\n

* growing fruit tree in the subtropics,<\/p>\n

* organic gardening and many more…<\/p>\n

For more info or to enrol in Sharon’s Byron College courses visit http:\/\/www.byroncollege.org.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharon also runs 6 week “mums and bubs\u201d permaculture classes, for more info call 0415514826<\/p>\n

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LILITH – ASTROTIPPLES & ASTRONIBBLES FOR PISCES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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When its your birthday you so don\u2019t want to be doing the cooking – you want other people to be putting food in front of you, so this segment\u2019s dedicated to the infamous Byronic directive: Bring a plate\u2026<\/p>\n

Must say I didn\u2019t find this easy when I arrived in Byron because I was – still am – used to cooking meals. I\u2019ve always had some sort of bias that finger food was something my parents served in the fifties. But after being involved with so many gigs that didn\u2019t want to hire plates, knives and forks I\u2019ve had to give in to local custom and produce food you can pick up with your fingers and hold over a napkin.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re talking interesting nibbles and drinkies for Pisces, whose birthdays start Thursday \u2013 and we don\u2019t mean Woolies chips n\u2019 dips, because we want to show our birthday Pisceans some love on a plate, along with liquid libations to delight them.<\/p>\n

Pisces quite like squishy, slippery, slithery sensuous food: oysters, seaweed, soft cheese, juicy perfumed fruits \u2013 and quite honestly I don\u2019t think you can go past a plate of sushi. Make it yourself if you\u2019re that sort of person, or else get the fabulous O Sushi chefs on the job. Or organize some fresh oysters and serve them in shot glasses of tequila \u2013 food and drink all in one go. Or take along a plate of Salvador Dali-watch stage melting king island double brie with halved fresh figs – nothing sexier.<\/p>\n

What liquid refreshments might a Pisces like? Well, more than any other sign Fish need to keep their fluids up and most seem to like a little drinkie to soften the harsh edges of reality \u2013 we\u2019re all familiar with the expression drink like a fish. They like liquid rituals, and may appreciate an exquisite bunch of chilled grapes to dip into dessert wine – a nice sticky bortrytis.<\/p>\n

Or since they\u2019re romantic creatures, why not try something made with the beautiful heart-colored ruby Rosella flower \u2013 Jamaican hibiscus, also known as sorrel. It grows well in Australia and used to be the basis for rosella jam. Use it fresh if you can get it, otherwise buy dried rosellas, or the pub sells them in a jar of sugar syrup ready for throwing into a glass of champagne to make it pink.<\/p>\n

If youre starting from scratch brew up your rosellas in water with sugar added to taste – they\u2019re a little tart; you can add ginger, lemon or a cinnamon stick if you like, but it\u2019s perfectly fine without. For a non-alcoholic drink, cool this and serve with crushed ice and perhaps a dash of rosewater.<\/p>\n

In the Caribbean where this popular drink comes from, for the adult version naturally they add rum. If rum doesn\u2019t float your boat, try Campari, or the raspberry liqueur Chambord, even Curacao. As always, be creative\u2026.<\/p>\n

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ASHER LEE, JUNIOR BAKING BELLYSISTER, AND HIS CAKES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Asher<\/a>

Asher with one of his rainbow cakes, & a guardcat<\/p><\/div>\n

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BELLY BULLETIN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Coal Seam Gas – how will it affect the coastal and urbanised areas of Tweed, Lismore and Byron Shire? Find out at a CSG Byron Bay<\/strong> town meeting this Saturday 23 February at 2pm, in the Byron Sports Complex on Ewingsdale Road. This meeting is organised by local residents to inform you and recruit volunteers to survey Byron Bay. More info on the facebook page – CSGFreeBYRONBAY.<\/p>\n

Also on Saturday February 23, a small animal market<\/strong> in Bangalow. Chooks, goats, ducks, guinea pigs, dogs & cats. Take them along to trade or sell. Hosted by Eden Country Store, more info and to register animals, ring 6687 1452<\/p>\n

Dinner in an art gallery<\/strong>, what a great way to get two of the joys of life at once. Have a look at Art Piece Gallery in Mullumbimby. Their next dinner in the gallery, with food by La Table, is this Thursday 21st, to open the solo show ‘Lacrimosa’ by Kate Maurice.<\/p>\n

On to less tasty news. We have been following the horse meat scandal in Europe<\/strong>, it is like a serial thriller, each week more fraud and dark deeds in the meat trade. Horse meat is not at all harmful to humans unless the horses had been treated with unsuitable medication, but if you buy a beef mince product you do expect the meat to be 100% cow. Now a single French firm has been found to be the source of most of the horsemeat. French authorities say that a Castelnaudary meat processor knowingly sold 750 tonnes of horse mislabelled as beef over a 6 month period. Of this, 500 tonnes was processed by another single French firm, Comigel, into 4.5 million frozen meal products, then sold to 28 companies in 13 European countries. Comigel failed to adequately test the meat or inspect paperwork. Freshly minced meat at your local butcher is looking more attractive all the time.<\/p>\n

The ACCC<\/strong>, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating allegations that Coles and Woolworths have bullied suppliers, requested payments in order to stock products, and improperly favoured their own home brand products.\u00a0 The ACCC’s chairman Rod Sims said that grocery suppliers were initially reluctant to talk about their dealings with Woolworths and Coles. “I then promised confidentiality to suppliers and …we eventually had around 50 come forward, and… it’s fair to say we’ve got some fairly credible and consistent issues that we now believe we need to investigate in some detail.”<\/p>\n

And finally, an idea to consider if you are putting on an event and want to feed the multitudes – crowd farming.<\/strong> The fabulous talk & ideas fest, TEDxSydney, dedicated to “Ideas worth Spreading” is on in May. They have asked the 2200 people attending the conference to bring something they are growing at home, or maybe forage or make preserves if they don’t have even a window box. A team of chefs will then prepare the food, biodegradable waste will be processed on site and the compost offered to the guests. TED have many interesting talks available online.<\/p>\n

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Love and chocolate covered rainbow cake, sister T<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On air on Byron Bay’s Bayfm 99.9 community radio on February 18, 2013 Today on belly, we\u00a0 talked with author,filmmaker & activist Helena Norberg-Hodge, who is helping to bring many interesting people to Byron Bay for the Economics of Happiness Conference in March.\u00a0 We\u00a0 focused on what is happening with food around the world to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[234,122],"class_list":["post-3132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio-show-posts","tag-corn","tag-eggplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3132"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3238,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132\/revisions\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}