Search Results
Known as The tree of life by the ancient Egyptians and much enjoyed by Cleopatra and Ulysses, the fig is a wonderful and delicious species.
There are several fact sheets on figs (Ficus carica) available from Departments of Agriculture around Australia and many entries in books on fruit growing. This sheet merely summarises information we have had as personal communication from various sources and is not, to our knowledge, available elsewhere. As much of this informatio...
Read more »
Tony Stevens undertook a project in Association with the SA Rare Fruit Society which seeks to establish a register of varieties true to name and with good descriptions as they grow in Australia. He has a large number of un-named varieties as well as those below. He has some notes below the plant list which talk about the status of the various varieties in his collection.
Preston Prolific5, 1st St. 5th St. Adam 6 04 Archipal Black GenoaBlack IschiaBlack Turkey Blue Province (Provence) Brown...
Read more »
Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) is one of the species which will handle salt and the vagaries of weather in southern Australia... better than olives. Known also as Chinese Date and Tsao, it is related to Indian Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) and is placed in the Rhamnaceae family.
The Jujube originated in China where they have been cultivated for more than 4,000 years and where there are over 400 cultivars. The plants traveled beyond Asia centuries ago and today are grown to some extent in Russi...
Read more »
Please use the links below to jump to specific information:
Growing olives organically
Soil & fertiliser
Weed control
Irrigation
Pest control
Organisations and resources available for olive growers
Publications
Equipment & services
Nurseries
Pickling & packing
Desalting olives
Recipes
Growing olives organically
Organic growing is when your system emulates nature in its interconnectedness. It tends not to rely on massive amounts of plant protection or highly manufactured fer...
Read more »
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...
Read more »
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...
Read more »
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...
Read more »
