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The purpose of dehydration is to take out enough water from the material (and therefore in the case of fruits raise the natural sugar level) so that spoilage organisms are not able to grow and multiply during storage. Although drying, dehydrating and evaporating are often used casually to mean the same thing, dehydrated food is understood to contain only 2.5% - 5% water. "Dried" food still contains roughly 10% - 20% water and in order to keep it, some preservative needs to be...
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Smoking food coats and permeates the flesh with anti-microbial substances which help to preserve many types of food. The smoking process also often involves a slow cooking of the food and possibly salting and the use of sugar, both of which make it hard for undesirable micro-organisms to get enough water from the food to live. Smoked food should not be regarded as a staple but rather as a treat, as smoke has been implicated as a carcinogen.
Equipment
Whilst a camp fire will do a bit of a job, p...
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The fermentation of food by a range of specific micro- organisms (yeasts and moulds, which are both fungi, and bacteria) has been used by humans for millenia to help preserve or transform foods. Cheese, wines, beers of , soy sauce, sauerkraut, yoghurt and other fermented milk products, tea, some sausages, fish pastes and sauces, bread and yeast products are just some of the things for which we can thank fermentation.
In general, fermentation stabilises food by making it so acid (low pH) or alco...
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Hear an ABC Radio interview about the film ('Video killed the radio star') on the website of Sam Collins, director of the movie »
(Watch the movie trailer over on the right).
This inspiring documentary tells the story of a young couple who set out to perfect an abundant, sustainable way of living. Using permaculture design they turned a dusty paddock into an idyllic home, profitable farm and vibrant teaching centre
Annemarie and Graham Brookman's quest for t...
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Carob, Ceratonia siliqua is also called Saint-John's-bread or locust bean.
It grows to about 15 m (50 ft) in height and has dark, evergreen, pinnate leaves. The small, red flowers have no petals. The fruit is a brown, leathery pod about 10 to 30 cm (4 to 12 in) long and contains a syrupy to biscuity flesh of an agreeable sweet taste, in which lie a number of seeds. The pods are edible and are often used for livestock feed. The seeds, which are remarkably uniform in size and weight, are thought t...
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Small scale mechanisation of harvesting and processing
This film shows how a family growing pistachios on a small farm in Australia, found small-scale equipment to enable themselves to harvest, process and sell their crop. Their fascinating journey has helped others to source village-scale machinery from Sicily and Greece and unlock the true value of their produce.
Small to medium scale growers often find themselves far from processing factories and many prefer to add value to their product and...
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A submission to the Australian Government by Graham Brookman, The Food Forest, Aug 2011.
The development of a national food plan is a welcome initiative in a world with exponential population growth and a massive change in climate that threatens food security. The Government issues paper gave an interesting summary of where Australia has been in terms of food production but gave few insights into the way forward.
A food plan for our cities
Most Australians live in our capital cities so that is...
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An email to permaculture designers by Graham Brookman, The Food Forest, May 2006.
We are so bombarded by political spin and energy is so central to permaculture that I thought it worthwhile to share my understanding of where we currently are with respect to energy, greenhouse and a future for humans on earth.
I believe that the path to a liveable future is still very much a permaculture one but what I have always regarded as an energy sideshow, compared to the long-term need for a sustainab...
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On Australia Day, 26 Jan 2009, Annemarie and Graham Brookman were named Corporate Citizens of the Year by their local community in Gawler, South Australia. This report of the award written by Sarah Thomas, appeared in the local newspaper, The Bunyip. The article follows...
'Experiment' pays dividends'
They are Gawler's Corporate Citizens of the Year, but 25 years ago they did not know exactly what they were getting into!
"Our property has been the site of a 25 year experiment to find a sustainab...
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