Issue 101

ADAM Jones has been slowly developing his small horticulture farm at Theebine, Queensland, over the five years since he purchased the property. Always a passionate gardener, he previously worked with alternative energy, especially in high-rise and resorts. Adam says that seasonal growing is important. In summer, sweet potato and eggplant are major crops, as well …. more

AT the turn of the nineteenth century, French mathematician and astronomer, Pierre-Simon La Place (1749–1827) proposed that if we only knew the starting point and the mathematical formulae we could predict all things from our present circumstance into a distant future. Combined with Emmanuel Kant’s (1724–1804) belief that we can only know things via the …. more

IN 1920 Percy George Weston, academically inclined son of a pioneering farming family, had no intention of partnering with nature by staying on the land. He was all set to enter medical school in Melbourne. That year cattle duffers put an end to the young man’s dreams by snatching 300 of the family’s steers from …. more

Liebig’s mea culpa By Hugh Lovel VITICULTURE and dairy are two of the best areas of agriculture for revealing the virtues of biodynamics – viticulture because quality is what wine excellence is all about, and dairy because every tank of milk is tested for quality. Biodynamics is about quality and self-sufficiency; the two go together. …. more

By Tim Marshall IN the 1970s, I was a geography student at Flinders University, learning about cycles of global warming and cooling. In the last 650,000 years, there have been seven cycles of advance and retreat of glaciers, and the last ice age ended only around 7,000 years ago. Most people will be surprised to …. more

THERE’S no denying the popularity of farmers’ markets across Australia has increased dramatically but it’s been and remains a tough road, as naysayers, supermarket giants, local governments, regularity bodies and small business owners continue to thwart the entrepreneurial spirit of market creators and organisers. Yet selling directly to the passing public is part of our …. more