bag giveaway

only one more day to go!
Julie at Towards Sustainability has an ethicurean reusable produce bag and tote giveaway!
Go enter!

lecture * with pracie

Gave an interesting one yesterday,
Don't think those there child-dentists liked it much.
Few too many home truths; I tried to be gentle.
But someone's gotta tell it like it is.
Dentistry in this country serves the dentists well... shame about the people.
They don't hear that much in dental school.


amendment: pracie of lecture.
Defined equity.
Defined values.
Defined subjectivity.
Defined distribution.
Defined values of developed nations
Defined health as a human right in this context.
Described distribution of poor oral health in Australia.
Described medical vs dental expenditure in Australia
Defined communism (they always confuse equity with communism)
Defined universal health care
Described dental system as NOT universal
Queried the equity.
Queried dental health profession interest in equity
Queried dental health profession commitment to population health
end of story

gift horses and all...

No way! Not this time around. Do I want 40kgs of very ripe organic, local, heirloom tomatoes, delivered NOW? 

Ummm... YES PLEASE!

Our tomatoes haven't even hit their straps! A few fruits here n there. Weird weather and off season again this year. 

I spent hours last Thursday night making 25 kgs worth of passata and bottling blanched and peeled globes. Somehow in my mania I managed the beans bath time and dinner in between.

The Bloke returned home to a totally steamed kitchen (no Vacola ) with water dripping down the windows and me up to my armpits in tomato skins. The final 10 kgs got solar dried (we knew we had a few days of 40 ahead) .The Bloke fashioned up this tent, mainly to keep the tiny pine needles falling on them than to keep any animals out. A 'never got rid of' old trampoline mat served as the base and these op shop sheer curtains strung over the central rope worked a treat.

Haiku Friday

A festival of cheeses;

friends, wine and provenance told.

Heavenly table.

Thanks for the pic Carole

223 years, if not now when?

In 2006 an Aboriginal elder in residence at Griffith University in Brisbane suffered a stroke at a campus bus stop and lay there for five hours in her own vomit before a group of Japanese students came to her aid. A thousand others had walked right on by without giving it a second thought. These people weren’t members of the Ku Klux Klan, they were university staff, students and State Government bus drivers.You probably wouldn’t discriminate in a professional environment based on someone’s skin colour. Not only would that be illegal, it’s also morally wrong and as a society we’ve come a long way since some Australian swimming pools were segregated in the 1960s. But racism rears its ugly head in subtle ways.

This Australia Day, spare a thought for those affected by the devastating floods. Flip them a coin if you can – they need it. Polish off a few cans of our national beverage if you like too – hell, do it in a park. But if you do nothing else, get off your arse and do something about fixing the gaping, ugly disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It’s been 223 years already. If not now, when?

read the full article here

This is my Australia Day. I'm afraid i cant muster any real 'national' pride as a collective nation, as individual people I can celebrate our flashes of charachter but nationally...nup. Too many racists running around swathed in flags,  old men driving Commodores with flags attached...it all just conjures paternalism and lies for me. A myopic sense of  history and entitlement. Its an unusual nation when so many have an aversion to our flag. I know I'm not the only one. On Australia Day it makes me grimmace.

Sainte Maure Poitou Affiné

its not local.
I digressed.
Im off carbs and wheat and a I needed a treat.
Nothing I DO, nothing I MAKE HAS NO CARBS. I'm a carbaholic, hence the break; need to reset the system. So, I'm looking for treats which can sustain me. I have not found a remotely close local alternative to these lovely wheels of French goat.

This absoloutely stunning log of Sainte Maure Poitou Affiné was our theme around which a simple dinner of green leaves and heirloom tomatoes was made. I sliced the log, crumbed it with fresh thyme and rosemary and gently sauteed top and bottom in a pan to warm their insides and until the milk sugars caramelised. It then was very reverentially placed atop the green nest and sprinkled with some local Joseph  'la casetta' aged vinegar, the likes of which deserve its own post. 

Haiku Friday

A special is on!
Confront your plastic habit,
one bag at a time.